Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated!

Today Twitter announced more integration of services into the core functionality of the microblogging platform. Twitter has added rich media to web interface, added related content, added mini profiles that will pop-up on the mouse click and introduced a cleaner design to enhance the timeline. All these things have possible through third party apps and browser helper objects, Twitter just brought them into the standard feature set of the service.

Lately it seems that any service that becomes a success as an add-on to Twitter has been assimilated by Twitter. Link shorteners, Retweet buttons, mobile apps and advertising have all been assimilated by Twitter.

If you take a step back and gaze at the bigger picture you can see that Twitter is taking every step to add as much value to the Twitter experience as possible. This might be an indication that Twitter is moving into a Freemium business model to start making money from the millions of users who flock to thee service and are willing to pay for the latest features.

Normally a company would have pumped tons of cash into research and development. Twitter has found a better way to research and develop extensions to service – open the API, then when they discover a service that enhances it’s service it will replicate it in-house. You have got to admit that letting others do all the R&D is a faster way to become profitable.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Twitter: You Will Be Assimilated

PayMeTweets is now in Beta release will pay for Twitter users to RT sponsored messages.

From the people that brought Krumblr comes a new monetizing model for Twitter users. In short, advertisers will pay per RT for each message that a PayMeTweets user will RT for them. The rate of payment will based on the influence the Twiiter user has in the Twitter community. Users are able to decide if the message is something they want to pass on Tweet by Tweet, so there would be no worries of forwarding a thousand “Male Enhancement” products or refinance you home Tweets.

If this sounds something you are interested in, you can read PayMeTweets announcement:

PayMeTweets

It pays to RT

Just launced now in beta.

PayMeTweets is the first “Micro-Promotional” tool made for Twitterers.

With PayMeTweets, Twitterers can sell their influence on Twitter by selecting and RTing tweets submitted by others to PayMeTweets. To do this you simply follow PayMeTweets on Twitter and then RT what you like.

Benefits to influence sellers:
It’s easy to do, just follow PayMeTweets and RT for pay;
It’s safe, sellers do not give up control of their tweet stream;
It’s easy to manage, sellers decide what to RT and when;
No guessing, sellers know exactly how much they are being paid for their RT;
No waiting, sellers are paid when they make the tweet;
It creates real value, PayMeTweets automatically calculates the value of an RT based on a seller’s influence and pays accordingly;
It’s fair, 90% of the payment goes to the sellers, not ad agencies or search engines;

You are protected, PayMeTweets uses OAuth;
It has built in anti-spamming technology to help keep the experience spam-free;
It’s a tweet exchange, sellers can use the money earned from their RTs to promote their own Twitter content;

Benefits to influence buyers:
It’s easy to use, buyers just add funds and submit their tweets on PayMeTweets;
It’s affordable, buyers can start with as little as $23;
Buyers don’t pay if their tweets are not RTd;
Buyers get detailed feedback on each of their listings including who RTd it, how much each RT cost, as well as the CPM rate;
Buyers promotional tweets are placed in the tweet streams of influential twitterers for high visability;
It has built-in, anti-spamming technology to keep the value of paid-for RTs high;
It’s fair, RTs are paid out according to each seller’s influence;

Check it out at http://paymetweets.com.

Thanks,

The PayMeTweets Squad

Map for PayMeTweets.com

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Retweet 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.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Are You Overlooking Profitable Trees Trying to Find a Forest of Riches?

The Acer Aspire One is just one the must have tools to take your Social Networking to next level and increase your revenue.

Recently I was asked what tools can a blogger use to help create this best possible experience for the reader.  Naturally I began to think of wild exotic laptops, high end video production equipement and the like, but the question was asked by an old friend wanting to start out blogging and they didn’t want to spend a lot of money. After looking at the list I knew that this short list of equipment could be used be anyone wanting to expand their Social Media experience. After we finish going over the list I’ll share how some of these items helped a friend of mine make a big sale in a cold market.

The All Too Important Card

The first item that I believe is a necessity is a Business Card. You can put just enough information on the card to point people to your Twitter profile, website, blog or Facebook profile. The Facebook URL is fairly long and it’s not as important compared to the other profiles. Definitely but your Twitter user name on the card (i.e. @tweetforbucks). The cards won’t set you back too much and Bizcard.com Offers 250 FREE Business Cards To Help You Get Started! After spending a few minute preparing your copy and using their website you can mark that on off your list.

Smile You On Your The Net

Number two on the list would be a decent digital camera, like the Nikon Coolpix S60. This camera is small and easy to carry in your pocket everywhere and is ready to snap a photo at the drop of a hat. The results are great and easy to share on Flickr or Twitpic. If you are writing a post about attending an outdoor concert, like Sundown in the City, a few photos to accompany will help tell the better and build your reader base. If you’re a salesperson you should really consider keeping a camera in your pocket constantly, I’ll explain this in the end.

Have Netbook, Will Travel

The third item is something you can get by without, but it makes blogging, Twittering or surfing the Internet possible virtually anywhere. A netbook, like the Acer Aspire One is small, lightweight and easy to take anywhere yet it’s still powerful enough to get more Internet and office task down in short order. It has a built in webcam, so you can start a webcast or chat from anywhere with a WiFi signal or just add a cellular 3G card to ditch the hotspot.

Roll Video

The fourth and last on my short list of equipment for blogging and social media kit is  The Flip video camera. This little wonder is small, can record up to an hour of video in standard or HD quality video depending of the model and it is easy to upload and share.

The software is built into the camera, so you are not limited as where you have to upload from. If you were to make a video from a social event you could post it to your blog or social network profile and send out a tweet to let others know what is happening there almost live as it happens. It’s a great way to help bring more people to attend an event or show to support a cause. A person in the sales profession could record a video showing and demonstrating the latest arrival in the showroom and post to Youtube, Facebook and other social networks.

Mixing It All Together

Now let’s put all this together on how a salesperson can use all these tools, mix it up with social media and land the big sale. If you were working as a car salesperson for dealership and business is slow, the economy and gas prices aren’t helping things. Then you have a person come on the lot wanting to test drive a Corvette. You put your business card ith your Twitter profile in his hand right off the bat before you head on the test drive. After the drive as they get out of the car you ask to take their picture sitting behind the wheel or beside the car. After you take the photo give them your business card again and tell them if they want to see the photo you’ll post on Flickr, Twitpic or some other social network. Tell them to just check your Twitter page to find the link to the photo. You can have the photo online in under five minutes and you have one more way to contact the buyer.

But Wait Didn’t Forget the Cellphone?

One thing I did leave off is a cellphone, smartphone, iPhone or other type device. The reason being that you are probably already using one to post to Twitter already. I like to use the iPhone or iPod Touch myself, but that is just my choice. I’m considering an Android in the future because of the applications.

Does This Work?

In the case of my nieghbor and friend who I have been coaching on using social media and networks yes. He had been resistant to try it, but the car market had him trying everything to make any sales. When he finally did the photograph of the prespective client with a car they were interested in and posted the photo online. The morning following the photo going on his Facebook page and linking to on Twitter the test driver sent him a Tweet back wanting to buy the Vette at a lower price. The dealership accepted the offer, my friend made the sale and there was one more Corvette owner in the world. I don’t believe that this social interaction will make every car on the lot roll of the lot, but I don’t feel this will help close the sale for those customers that are on the fence.

One thing to consider is about purchasing any equipment for blogging and social networking. If you are making a living, full or part time, you may be able to deduct some or all you purchases on your income taxes. You should check with a tax professional to get their expert guidance in this matter and not rely solely on this post.

Well there you go, another idea on possible way to make money using social media and you didn’t have to spend $99 on another get rich quick program or sit through a long PowerPoint presentation. If you are a car salemans you should give this a try to thaw out a frozen sales season. Please visit this website’s sponsors and see what they have to offer. Without them this blog would have dried up by now. So until next time, keep Tweeting and seeing opportunities.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Tools To Help Seal The Deal With Social Media

Now Playing: You™

Have you been on the bubble about buying one of those super cool video cameras The Flip? Here’s something you might not have thought of yet, The Flip and it’s cousins could actually help you with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. Go ahead and order one and I’ll tell you how. You can order it from the links in this post or the Sponsors area of the sidebar, I could use the commission to help keep to keep this site going.

Social Videos

Once you become acclimated to social media, you’re going to find yourself watching a lot of videos. YouTube is the most popular of video websites and everyone has been there or seen a video from YouTube embedded on another website. There are a lot of websites that attempt to emulate YouTube, but none reach it’s audience share. Not to be left in the cold, social networks like Facebook, Myspace and others have added a video section that allows users to upload their own videos. For the sake of demonstration I’m going to stay mainly YouTube.

Adding Movement to Your Social Media Marketing

If you are using social networks and media to promote your business or have started practicing some The Lunch Money Challenge exercises, then you already had a few photographs to your profile. Those photos may have used to show what you sell or what your service does, but wouldn’t moving pictures and sound go a long ways towards making you look like a three dimensional living being and not a flat object on a computer screen.

You have a website and social media profile on the Internet in hopes that you can draw customers in to hear your best sales pitch. Nothing is stopping you from giving it to them before they even darken your doors or visit your website. In fact you can refine and deliver your sales pitch without interruptions or other distractions thanks to video editing software that come with The Flip. Your potential customers are also able to view and listen on their own time – rewinding if needed – to understand everything in your video and becoming an educated customer in the process.

The Great Video Search Factor

Once you’ve have recorded and edited your video, it’s time to uploaded to YouTube. There are some factors to help you get your video discovered and improve your in position in SEPR (Search Engine Page Results).

The algorithm for YouTube is based mainly on five elements:

1. Title
2. Description
3. Tags
4. Number of views
5. Rating

These factors also become mixed in to Google’s algorithm and SERPs because YouTube is a part of the Google universe. Knowing this you should take the extra time to make sure your entries in the first three factors are on point to help the second factors.  Let’s take a look at each the five factors.

Title

When you title your video use the keywords you want to associate your video and your website with. Be selective and don’t cram keywords, stuffing will stick out like a sore thumb and will only hurt you in the long run. Pick one keyword and sculpt an easy to remember sentence with it.

Description

The is self explanatory, but you do need keep to things in mind while filling it out. Again include keywords that you want your video and website associated with when someone is searching for it. Be honest in your description don’t try to get listed with something that isn’t closely related to the video. Try to stay with the one keyword your picked for the title.

Try to include the main keyword in the first 27 letters of the description as this will be returned with the search results. If you can include your website address in the first 27 characters (i.e. Beggars.us This car rocks.). Then use the rest of the description for when they come to the video.

Remember the viewers will be rating the video, so if you’re were less than truthful with your description you are going to taking a beating. They can also write in the comments that description was a lie to warn others not to bother watching it.

Tags

You now need to tag your your video, which is simply assigning keywords that fit the video and your website. Be fair and honest. Don’t stuff the tags with something that is far reach for the subject matter. Five tags at best should serve you well.

Number of Views

You may think you have little control over the number views on the YouTube, but that is not necessarily true. YouTube is a social network and you can add friends. You can build them by taking the time to view other videos on the site, leaving comments and adding the submitter and other commentators as friends. Then when you submit a video they will get a notification about it. You might every so often send messages to a few friends asking to check the new video, just don’t do it constantly.

Consider promoting the video on social bookmark sites like Digg and Reddit. Remember that the narrative you use to link to the video is going to be an extension of what you want your website to be associated with. Don’t cram to many keywords or mislead people about the subject matter of the video.

You can also use Twitter to promote your videos. You can use your RSS feed from your profile to send like we did with RSS to Twitter post.

Rating

You have more control over the rating of the video than you give yourself credit. If you are honest by not misleading people to view your video you should receive high marks. Also there is nothing in the terms of service that says you can’t ask for people to rate it high in the description. You will find it’s easier to get viewers, even if they a marginally interested in your subject matter, as long they know going in to it what the video is going to be about.

Now that we have been over the five biggies of the YouTube search it’s time to turn to other ways to turn your video to attract traffic to your website. I’ll just throw out a few, because I will adding another post about YouTube/SERP at a later date.

YouTube Video Overlay

You see the “Bugs” on television and YouTube videos all the time. The “Bug” is the graphic overlay on the video that list the website. A bug or overly is easy to add with The Flip software or other video editing software. Use a easy to read font with a color that complements the video.If possible fade it a little so that the overlay doesn’t take over the message of the video.

Putting the Best Light on the Subject

When you are shooting the videos keep and eye on the quality of light you are filming under. If the light is dim the colors will be muted and won’t be as sharp. If you stand in noon day sun, you are going to get deep shadows and a contrasty scene that will be hard to see important details.

Family Friendly Video

Expect that some of your viewers are children and they don’t need to see or hear any vulgar language or see sexy shots. While the children aren’t going to the purchasers their parents will and Mom & Dad may have to bring their children with them. If they see or hear something on the video they don’t want their children around they aren’t going to come to you if you’re cussing constantly on video.

Mash and Grab

YouTube videos can be embedded into web pages and other social media networks. Grab the embed code and place the videos on your website and social network page. You can’t have too much exposure for your marketing materials.

Enhance Your Blog

Adding a video of an event you attended or an activity you blog is the perfect way to capture the reader’s attention. Using video is also a chance to build a stronger personal relationship with your reader base and having them stopping by your blog even more.

Now that you have a good understanding on how The Flip can improve your SERP and raise your bottom line you now longer have an excuse not to buy one, plus it’s always handy to have around when the dog is stuck in you golf bag or the kids decide to turn flower pots into a fortress. If you do plan on purchasing one please consider doing so through one the links in the post or the banner on middle sidebar.

If anyone is using The Flip to promote their business on YouTube, I’d love to have you post a link to it in the comments section.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Unintended SEO Consequences of Owning The Flip

Fly out of the Diggbar and other frames with Sir Tweet O' Lot.

Recently Digg introduced the DiggBar to it’s website  (The DiggBar is not the Digg Toolbar). Some people are liking the DiggBar and others are hating it.

Here’s how the DiggBar works, when someone checks out a link that is posted they are taken to a page on Digg’s website where the web site is in an iFrame below the DiggBar. Sounds OK on the surface, but there’s plenty of SEO fanatics are worried this may cause cause damage to a website search ranking. There is no way of knowing for certain until the summer Google Dance, by the way rumor has it that the April 9th will be the latest page rank update.

Back in the 90′s I was working for a newspaper group and the owners wanted us to create a similar contraption as the DiggBar to keep visitors on our websites as much a possible. The company charged per advertisement impressions and they were going to do everything they could to milk every impression possible. I created script in Pearl for the outlink bar to please my bosses, but we found that our readers and the sites we linked to hated the outlink bar. What we noticed was that we started to lose readers over the run of a year. Finally the decision was made to drop the bar and the readers slowly returned.

At the time of the outlink bar I owned website that I that was linked to from a few of the newspapers and I hated the bar because it was a distraction that would prevent first time viewers from bookmarking my site. I decided there was something I could do about the problem and came up with a short script to breakout of the framed page. It was nothing fancy, just functional and there are a thousand variations that can do the same thing. After reading and hearing people cry foul about the DiggBigg I thought I would share the script.

The script in the area below is simple to install and incorporate into your website or blog. Simply highlight and copy the text between the “—Copy Below—” and “—Copy Above—”, paste it into the head of area of your webpage and save the page to your web server. It shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes to do and you can go find the next issue help with your search engine optimization strategy.

—Copy Below—

<script language=”Javascript”>
<!–
if (top.location != self.location) {
top.location = self.location.href
}
//–>
</script>

—Copy Above—

UPDATE: You can download the script here in a text file. Simply open it up in a text editor, then copy and paste into your the head of you webpage anywhere before the  closing tag </head>. Thanks to Mantis108 for pointing out this out. I’ll double check things on the final post in the future.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Breaking Out of Diggbar

As promised The Lunch Money Challenge has started back up with new ideas.

Sir Tweet O' Lot has the information on how to make money online without spending a cent.

Here is a way to make money without spending a nickle and using only social media.

OK you’re sitting there surfing the Internet and would like to earn extra money from your time online. You don’t want to or can’t afford to spend anything to get things started. Here’s one way to begin and you can get it started in a few minutes.

Social Bookmark websites like Digg allow you bookmark, tag and share websites you find interesting. What you will find is that many of those social media networks create a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed of all the bookmarks you have made. Wouldn’t you like to get something back from all that time you have spent online finding sites that interest you? Well you can and here it is easy steps.

1. Sign up for a Twitter account if you haven’t already.

2. Go to your Social Media Bookmark service and find the RSS for your account. Copy and paste the address for your RSS to a text document in Notepad or other text editor.

Here is an example from Digg to show where you will find your RSS feed for your bookmarks.

3. Now set up a Google Adsense account. If you have one already then just scoot on down to the next step.

4. In Adsense go to the “Adsense Set-up” tab and select “Adsense for Content” and set up an ad unit for a 234 by 60 advertisment. Copy text to Notepad or your favorite text editor and save it until we need it again.

5. Point you web browser to Hootsuite.com and sign up for their service. It’s free.

In Hootsuite go the Account Settings tab

6. Once you have created a Hootsuite account, find the RSS/Atom Feeds tab. Click the Add New Feed button. Then copy and paste your RSS address from the text document you created in Step 2. Then click the Twitter profile you want to send Tweets from. From the pull down menus decide how often you want to send a Tweet with your link and how many. Next click the Save button.

7. Now select the global Settings (Upper right hand corner, second from the far right).

8. Click on the Settings tab and scroll down to the bottom where you see Google Adsense Code section. Copy and paste your document you created in step 4. Select the Twitter profiles you want your ad displayed with and click Save Adsense Code button.

That’s it your done. Get back and start posting some more bookmarks to feed that bad boy.

I’m not going to tell you are going to become a millionaire from this. You can earn some extra cash depending on the amount of time your spend bookmarking and the quality of the links you are sharing. If you try to stay within one or two topics that you bookmark you are going to see a following on Twitter. Those viewers will be waiting to see what new sites you have found when you consistently stay focused on the subject they are interested in, remember the “Virgin Niche“. Remember that Google’s Adsense will be targeting the followers by serving ads in that match their interest and there is a higher conversion rate for niche followers.

As you can see you had nothing to buy to start  out. Anything you make is all profit. I’m not charging for this because I know everyone is either wanting make extra money to get by or they are looking get started in an Internet business and don’t have much cash to invest. The Lunch Money Challenge has been a lot fun to share with everyone.  When I get an e-mail from someone telling me they got their first commission check using only social media and the information they got from this blog it’s a cool thing to hear. I would ask you do check out some of the advertisers on here to help me keep this site running. Just remember the old “It doesn’t cost anything to look”.

Well put this knowledge to work and get ready for the next idea coming up. If you haven’t signed up for Pepperjam Network yet, you might want to as we will be using them in the next demonstration. You can earn $10 Sign On Bonus for All New Pepperjam Network Affiliates with this link.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

The Lunch Money Challenge Returns – Making Money Online While Surfing the Internet

Sir Tweet O' Lot says to click on his sign and tell everyone about Tweetforbucks on Facebook

There is one place on the Internet that has strong numbers these days with a user base of over 175,000,000 users still has no sign of letting up. That would be Facebook. While I have had a group page for Tweet For Bucks on Facebook, the presence did not work to help reader connect, share ideas and have an open dialog. Over the past few weeks I’ve had a little time to spend on moving things to the fan page of Facebook.

This relaunch on Facebook is also in tandum with the new Facebook design change that came this week. It wasn’t planned that way, just one of those cosmic things. Also a fresh template was brought on to this blog. I think this new layout will be easier to read and navigate. There will be a couple more screws to tighten on the layout before I’ll be completely happy, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

This Can Only Mean One Thing…

All of these improvements are to get us ready to go back and add some more money making ideas to The Lunch Money Challenge. If you aren’t fimilar with exercise, The Lunch Money Challenge is a workshop telling how you can make money online with having to spend and money to start-up or to keep it going. There is no sign-up, no fees and no sells pitches – just ideas how you can turn your Social Media collateral into a revenue stream that can supplement your regular income that you can spend on things you have had to cut out of your life with the current recession.

I’m not asking anyone to buy anything for the TLMC, but I would ask that you consider some of the advertisers on this site. They help keep this website alive. The good and services offered that can help you earn more  money, make your life simpler and enjoy your free time.

So get on your social networks of choice, make more friends, build stronger relationships with your friends and always to ready to the next person out.

You can follow me @tweetforbucks and feel free to give me shout.

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Tweet For Bucks Gets A Reboot On Facebook

On Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht of Diggnation were on the show. Part of the segment was where Jimmy Fallon askrd everyone watching the show to follow Bryan Brinkman on Twitter. The goal was to exceed President Barak Obama in the amount of followers. At the time of this writing Brinkman has 18,031 followers. That’s about 402,255 shy of the Obama followers. But let’s face it 18.031 is a pretty good following. The question is “how can Bryan Brinkman keep his followers”.

To address that I’m just going to throw some the best practices help grow and keep followers. I’ve tried to break it down into some easy to digest practice sections.

Building a Following

Everybody’s been talking about Twitter. You can’t get through a newscast these days without someone mentioning Twitter or Tweets. Barack Obama tweets. But what exactly is this new social marketing tool, and how can you use it to grow your business?

Twitter is like a blog on a microscopic scale; instead of writing whole posts and your mailing list being notified when a new post goes up, a tweet (what a Twitter post is called) can only be a maximum of 140 characters, and the people who are following you get your whole tweet at once, instead of having to go to your website.

What started out as — has now become huge. Companies like Apple, Intel, H&R Block and Zappos are all on Twitter. As mentioned above, so is the new President of the United States.

So how to you leverage this zeitgeist? You need to get up and running on Twitter, asap. And you need to build your list of followers. While that may sound like something out of a bad science fiction movie, its actually just building a list of people that want to receive your tweets, much like you built your mailing list for your blog.

Import Your Contacts

When you sign up for Twitter, make sure you import all of your contacts from Gmail, Hotmail, your address book and your mailing list.

Write Your Profile

Make sure that your profile is complete to make is easier for people to find you, and use the same keywords in your profile that you do on your website. Always include a link to your website (including the “http” to ensure that it’s clickable) – you’re trying to build your business, after all. You can also personalize the colors and the sidebar of your profile page.

Understand How Twitter Works

Twitter is not another marketing tool that you can out and out manipulate; it is a social marketing tool that will only be useful to you is you actually become part of the community. It is not a place to spam, and don’t actively promote yourself.

Build a standing in the community by replying to other tweets (retweeting), share cool stuff, and build trust, then direct your followers to a blog post, filled with useful information, and only then use that post to get followers to take action. Trying to take people out of Twitter right away and into a sales pitch will get you labeled as a scammer.

Build Your Audience

To build your audience above and beyond your initial contact list, you’ll need to look both inside and outside Twitter.

Outside of Twitter, you can put a link to “Follow me on Twitter” in your email signature, forum signature, website, blog posts, and any other way that you communicate with people (where appropriate, of course – I don’t think the IRS wants to follow you on Twitter.)

Inside of Twitter, it’s all about following people. You can find other users that you admire, and see who is following them; you can also see who is following your friends; use Twitter directories to find members who are likely to follow you; use the search feature to find profiles of people you want to follow – and follow all of them. They will, in turn, follow you.

But Watch How Much You’re Following

While you’re building your following, you still need to maintain a balance between people you follow and people that follow you. Follow too many, and you’ll be seen as a spammer; don’t follow enough, and you look elitist. You can do this by growing slowly; don’t add 500 new friends in one day. Add 50 at a time and give them time to start following you so the balance is maintained.

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You can also use a tool like “Friend or Follow” to balance out your lists; it will tell you who is following you that you’re not following yet, and vice-versa. It will also let you keep track of those who follow you, so you follow them and then they stop following you. They’re most likely spammers; don’t use this tactic or you’ll get the same reputation.

Be Someone Worth Following

Be witty, and post useful information. If you’ve got a niche, make sure that you’re talking to them. If you have news, tweet it. You can also use the tools on Twitter to take your blog posts and automatically tweet them.

You can tell people what you do; always be upfront with people. You just have to avoid the obvious sell, people can see that coming from a mile away. You can promote your business and celebrate your victories (XXX is happy to get the YYY account!), but don’t try to sell anyone anything (Get all of your advertising solutions here!).

Follow Wisely

And, in this sense, ‘follow’ has a broader meaning. Look to the experts in your category who are also on Twitter, and learn from them. Find 10 to 20 users you admire that have more than 300 followers, and try to learn how they did it. Take their ideas and make them your own.

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You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

How @Bryanbrinkman Can Keep His New Followers

Many people are trying to make money off of Google Adwords. Not all of them are succeeding. Many are failing because they’re trying to do it by themselves. And they don’t have to. Not when AdwordsDigger exists. And how does it work? It automatically seeks out high quality sites than run Google Adwords, on the exact topics that you’re looking for. It then tells you the traffic that these sites get and gives you a list that you then enter into your campaign and start advertising on those targeted sites for a fraction of what the search network costs.

This is not a black hat tool. It simply automates what would take you hours and hours and hours – if you could do it at all. Simply input your keywords into the software, and get dozens, if not hundreds, of targeted sites that will help you make money faster.

Now, there are other products and software that claim to be able to do this and, some might actually be able to do it.for a price. That’s right, all of AdwordsDigger competitors expect you to pay for their product when AdwordsDigger is giving it away for free.

What? You want me to repeat that last part? I said FREE. And I do mean free. 100% absolutely, completely free. No purchase required. No mail-in rebates. (Am I obsessing about this point? Perhaps. Buy that’s because it’s FREE!!) And not free*, either. No fine-print asterisk that taketh away. It’s not a demo, or a free trial. When you go to www.adwordsdigger.com and download it, you get the complete full version.

AdwordsDigger is one of a suite of tools from the PPCKahuna membership that they have decided to make public. It only takes about 10 minutes to download, and you’ll get lower CPCs and a higher conversion rate on your Adwords campaigns, no matter what your niche.

What else could you want? Oh, you want to know how it works? Fine. Once you select your keywords, and select how many results to check, AdwordsDigger then gets the results, visits each site, and checks the site’s traffic stats. When that step is complete, it ranks the sites for you, and you just select the URLs that you want to use and save it as a text file. Copy and paste that text file into your Adwords placement targeting list and voila! your Adwords will start running on those targeted sites.

And have I mentioned that it’s free (I may have, at some point.) So really, what do you have to lose?

You can find the original post at Tweet For Bucks, be sure to check and bookmark Tweet For Bucks.

Free Software Gets Higher ROI On Adwords