Tweet For Bucks

Sir Tweet O' Lot is perching on some profitable trees. Also if you would like to have a skills competition, click on the bird and let us know.

It has taken me longer to get to post here since last. That was on April 15th, Tax Day. First I’ve to thank everyone that has stopped by here over the last year. I’m not getting wildly rich from this blog, but the support here does help make ends make. I really appreciate each and every one of you.

There has been a lot going on online and off. I’ve had a lot of contact in e-mails, social networks and phone conversations with a few readers. It’s been a great experience and I hope that folks were about to walk away with some new ideas from  the exchange.

The Overlooked Tree

Everyone goes looking for the richest forest. The biggest misconception is that you have to reach all the over the map to achieve that. We tend to overlook how valuable the wood is from trees in our own backyard. I was looking over a budget for friend during this past weekend when I noticed something that caught my eye. Take a quick look at these keywords and bids:

california auto insurance quotes $57.34
auto insurance quotes california $57.01
arizona divorce attorneys $53.56
dui attorney los angeles $52.75
personal injury attorneys chicago $51.59
houston criminal lawyer $49.59
criminal houston lawyer $49.59
san diego criminal lawyer $48.30
chicago personal injury lawyers $46.81
dui attorney san diego $46.04
chicago injury lawyers $45.22
maine white water rafting $45.18

Have you noticed the common denominator in this list? There is a city or geo-location in each keyword. This list knocked home a point I try to make when someone is looking for a market that can help them be profitable online – THINK LOCAL, REACH GLOBAL.

Plant an Acorn and Grow a Strong Oak

OK so you don’t live in one of those cities and you are thinking this list won’t help you. You are missing the big picture. More professionals with a local service area is using Google Adword to market on the Internet today. They could care less about landing a client on the other end of the country, it would cost them more than they would take in. They want clients in their backyard. They are competitive with the advertising budgets because have get the customers in their area before their competitor does. They are targeting their local market and you should be too.

A hyper-local blog or website, augmented with Twitter and Social Networks as traffic feeder can become profitable faster than a blog about blogging, Work at Home, car buying or dieting. People are more interested about restaurants, movies, festivals, public service, professionals and etc close to home. They going to be looking online until they find a good local information source.

Hyper-local is a hot market and chances are you aren’t going to have too many others swimming in the same pond. If you do find interest that they aren’t devoting as much coverage on.

Using The Lunch Money Challenge In Your Neighborhood

This week we will start looking at ways to use social media to make lunch money. To participate in this exercise doesn’t require any investment at all, it will be sticking to the No Start-Up Cost theme that everyone enjoys.

There is one low cost purchase I would suggest that would help you – an Internet domain name. This usually less than $10 at most registers. Don’t purchase one just yet until

Here is a list of the things you will want to gather:

• Google Adsense account – The user name will be used to access other Google services
• Pepperjam account – This affiliate network has some great advertisers and tools to help you monetize your website
• Facebook membership. Myspace is also OK, but it doesn’t have the reach of Facebook
• Memberships to social bookmarking sites like – Reddt, Propeller, del.icio.us, Digg and Mixx
• Yahoo account – for Flickr and Site Explorer
• Free classified, weekly and alternative newspapers from YOUR city

All the Internet services are free, so there is no excuse not give this exercise a try.

A Contest

If there is enough interest in participating in the Hyper-Local exercise I might be able to find a few sponsors that would step up for some prizes. Are you up for the challenge? If so then click on Sir Tweet O’ Lot (or just his name) at the top of this article to send a tweet my way or leave a comment below saying you are interested.