Dot Com Note » marketing

Top Social Media Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

Dotcom Note — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:08:53 +0000

If you’re running a small business, marketing your business using the latest trend social media is the the last thing in your mind. You have lots of daily chores to take care on top of maintaining your web site that you, at last, launched after years of putting it off. Now you hear this latest trend where you can acquire prospects and develop customer relationships. People tell you that this social media marketing is the future of all marketing and unless you start using it, you will be left behind and crushed by your competitors.

But you don’t know where to start and what to do. You have heard about Facebook from your teenage son but you’re not sure how to use it for promoting your business. Everybody is talking about Twitter, a service where you can send your messages using only 140 characters. You wonder what can you say in 140 characters? And how is it going to help you find new prospects and convert them into paying customers.

You’re wondering why people are not visiting your website and you’re not receiving inquires from prospective customers. If all these sound very hard and really daunting, you’re not alone. Millions of small business wish to get more traffic to their websites, more customer inquires, and more prospects. But they don’t know how to develop a social media marketing plan and execute it to get results.

There is no dearth of information on social media marketing but the learning curve is very stiff unless if get some solid, actionable, and easy tips to start your social media marketing journey. The article I publish below is from TopRankBlog. It is an online marketing blog that you should visit whenever you have time because it provides easy and actionable tips that you can use to get more traffic to your websites and, possibly, more prospects and paying customers.

1. Start small

You’ll want to start small and try a couple services out at a time. Oftentimes newbies sign up for every social network under the sun and try to grow each of them. Guess how long they last? Building profiles for multiple social sites is hard work, so it’s best to start by only tackling a couple at first.

Once you find the right ones for you or your brand, then start to narrow your focus on those. Eventually you may want to scale your social media strategy to include more services, but you have to crawl before you can walk.

Start small, and then grow to other social networks as your confidence grows. Success breeds success.

2. Get a widget

Put a widget up on your site for your social networks. The best place to find followers is your own blog or site. Also, it’s much easier to get your readers and friends to vote or retweet your content than strangers. Adding a widget next to your content can help.

Facebook has a widget generator you can use, and the Tweetmeme badge is easy to add to your site as well.

3. Frequently test your buttons and widgets

Start testing which social media profiles have the most impact, then drop the rest. For example, if your site does really well with Facebook shares but hardly ever gets voted on Digg, then drop the Digg vote button.

Oftentimes you’ll see sites littered with tons of widgets and buttons. Having a gazillion widgets at the end of each article only creates noise and annoys the reader. Figure out which buttons are getting clicked, and drop the buttons that don’t convert. Ideally you’ll only have two or three widgets on each page.

You can tell which buttons are effective by using Google Analytics and goals to see who’s clicking what. You can also use A/B to see which types of buttons are getting more clicks.

4. Don’t annoy your followers

Sounds like common sense, right? Unfortunately, lots of companies that are just starting out with social media think the best way to “promote” their brand is to publish coupons, offers, news, and anything else related to their business.

Rule of thumb: if it’s something you personally wouldn’t like to receive, avoid it.

Your social media goal is to be helpful first. People follow and respect brands that are helpful, not self-promoting shills. Give first, then ask.

Try posting useful links to industry articles, answer questions, and engage. The followers, engagement, and ultimately sales will come if you’re helpful first.

5. Don’t fret about follower counts

Don’t believe all the spammy ebooks out there that sell you the notion that you can attract thousands of followers in a matter of days. Sure, you could do that and it’s not hard. But the types of followers who are going to be following you are mostly bots. Or they’re just following you in hopes that you’ll follow them back. Ultimately, they aren’t followers who would engage with you.

You want social media followers that are going to listen and interact with you, and 10 of those followers is worth more than a thousand bots.

It takes a while to organically build up a great social profile. Focus on building great content and being helpful, and the followers will come.

6. See what the pros are doing

Everyone has a different strategy when it comes to social media, and sometimes it’s best to take a look at people who are real social media experts. Lee Odden is a good example of someone using Twitter and Facebook to help people, which in turn grows his social media influence.

There are plenty of fantastic examples of people who truly understand how to interact and build powerful social media profiles the right way. Check out sites like WeFollow to find influential Twitter users within your niche.

7. Don’t overlook niche social media sites

When people think of social media, they typically think of Twitter or Facebook. But there are literally hundreds (maybe thousands?) of social media networks and sites that you can use to help promote your brand. Jut because a network isn’t huge doesn’t mean it’s not going to impact your social media strategy. Oftentimes targeted niche social sites can bring more targeted traffic to your site than larger sites.

If you’re smart, you can use smaller social networks to help promote your site on other bigger social networks. For example, I’ve written posts on web development that have made it to the front page of Dzone, a social media site for web development. Once the article made it to the front page of Dzone, the attention brought a lot of saves on Delicious, and subsequently made it to the Delicious front page. The delicious front page brought even more traffic, and those Delicious users voted the story up to the Digg front page. So, by simply submitting my site on a smaller niche news site with a great headline, I managed to make it to the coveted homepages of both Digg and Delicious.

Niche social news sites can be very powerful, and oftentimes much easier to become influential in than the larger sites. Here’s a list of social news sites organized by category.

8. Find people within your niche to follow on Twitter

The ideal follower on Twitter is one that has similar interests within your niche. You can find like-minded people to follow on Twitter through these directories and odds are many will follow you back.

Once you’ve started following these people, start interacting with them. Participate in discussions, and retweet things they say that would be helpful to your community.

Not only will this method help build your follower counts, it also gives you more influence within your niche. You’ll find great friends that will help you promote your content and site too. Always remember to give first and ask later.

9. Stay Humble

Social media beginners often try to quickly establish themselves as “experts” within their field, but they have nothing to back it up. (For example, search for “social media experts” on Twitter. You’ll find many with only a handful of followers. Shouldn’t an “expert” have more?)

Original Source: 9 Essential Social Media Tips For Beginners

The post above has lots of resource link that you can check out at your leisure to speed up your learning curve. The best way to use social media marketing is to plunge into it and do something as discussed in the above post. Social media marketing takes time but the reward lasts long. Follow the steps discussed in the post and it will work wonder.

Image Credit: tibchris

Get More Momentum Marketing System Review – Don’t Quit Your Job Yet

Dotcom Note — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:27:12 +0000

I took a long hiatus from reviewing online money making schemes because almost every week I saw a couple of launches that promised you the secret underneath the shell. You only have to pick the right shell to make money. But we all know how this game is played.

Plenty of financially challenged people will pick shells after shells and give their hard earned money to these people to buy luxury cars. In return, these marketers will use these same cars to show you how their system is making them plenty of money. It is vicious cycle. This post is a review of get more momentum marketing system.

I got this email from a marketer who I thought was at least some what genuine. But now, I find him sending promotional emails almost every day. Once I received one of his email about a four step system that could make me more than 7K a month, I got curious. I thought I needed to check it out. Who wouldn’t? We are talking about 7K monthly income in this economy and job market.

So, I headed to the site. As usual, there is an email capture box to watch his pre-sell shit. It is every where. Before, I could watch these long, boring, f#$*ly mid numbing pre-sell videos without giving away my email. But now a days, more and more marketers have started to capture emails before they even show your their pre-sell shit. I think the Jedi Master may have come up with this idea and he has taught the Padawan Jedi Marketers, aka, money making coaches about his new inventions. And the Padawans are following master’s instructions.

I did not want to give my email address, so I proceeded to close the browser tab. Lo and behold, a window pops up and the video starts playing. This is a new trick I learned. Don’t give your email address. Try to close the browser tab and they may show you the video. After all, they don’t want to lose any financially challenged people.

So, what is this momentum marketing that will make you more than seven thousands dollars per month? Sitting any where in the world, you create digital products using a laptop and an internet connection, just like the one he has created. He does not like what gurus and experts do. He is the opposite guy (just like George in Seinfeld). Bottom line, don’t spend your money with other gurus, open your credit card to him. The competition is tough, they have to give new twist to the old saga.

He tells me he is the lucky guy who hangs in the bars while his momentum marketing machine makes sales after sales after sales to financially challenged people.

This fucking video does not have a fast forward button. From now on, if an online marketer puts a video without a fast forward button, I will call him a joker.

This joker is now causing headache by showing his incomes. May be, financially challenged people love to see this stuff.

He also teaches his magic formula to people who pay thousands in live seminars. But, for now, he is generous enough to get hold of your credit card through a web site.

He promises to tell me his step-by-step system in four minutes (note on this four minutes at this point in the video.

So, I though there was no harm watching his mind numbing dribbles for another four minutes.

Instead of going straight to the point, he starts with the familiar story of how he was losing money and going round in circles before he stumbled across this powerful secret formula. I think if I wait long enough, I may also stumble across another powerful formula that I can sell to others.

Have you ever wondered why only the gurus stumble across secret formulas that they are selling?

He continues with his crazy stuff that he calls momentum marketing system. The steps are:

Find a hungry group of people with a desperate problem. My translation: find enough financially challenged people to get hold of their credit cards.
You create an eBook. My translation: Collect free stuff from the Internet and call them a secret formula. He says you create some thing in 24 hours.
Create a simple sales page website. My translation: Elaborate on the secret formula using techniques Jedi Master has taught you.
Tell people about your website. My translation: Collect emails and fill people’s inboxes day and night.

You won’t find his secret anywhere else. His secrets are:

Give first and sell second. Wow, what a concept!
Go deeper rather than wider. Rather than creating bunch of sites, create one site and make all your money from that site

If you follow his instructions, you can quit your day job just like so many financially challenged people have done before. My advice: please don’t quit your day job and deprive your family the financial security they have.

When you join his momentum marketing coaching, you will get four of his popular products for absolutely free. He was peddling these products before he stumbled across the secret formula. I don’t really know why I need the other products if momentum marketing is all what I need to quit my job.

Remember earlier in the video he said he would talk for four minutes to lay out his secret?

But he had been rambling for more than ten minutes now. Now this joker is reading testimonials. What a waste of time. Oh God, please stop reading testimonials. I get it, I get it. People are quitting their jobs.

He is now attacking other gurus and switched to talking about the gifts worth some imaginary $787 .

For $1, you can become a member. But be aware. He will have your credit card. That is what Jedi Masters have taught online marketers. The Jedi Master training in a nut shell: get the credit card, people often forget to cancel these stuff for a few months, in the mean while money will keep pouring in and you can show that income in your next coaching course. A beautiful system!

Things you will receive in the membership program:

DVD of the Month: Powerful and profitable marketing info
Rapid business growth MP3 training. Advanced strategies and techniques to quickly grow your business
Six Figure Journal Tools and services to run 6-figure business.
Backstage marketing videos Sneak peek of his business
What is working today Profitable tips and techniques

I recalled he said the secret was only a 4-step formula. But now he wants me to waste hours every month watching some mind numbing videos.

I hope this get more momentum marketing review helps you understand what you’re getting into. If you want to play the shell game, bet $1. You will be billed $97 after 14 days. Don’t forget the 14 day deadline. Put a note on your monitor or refrigerator as a reminder.

The Affiliate Code Review: Internet Marketer Invents A Magic Formula

Dotcom Note — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:08:37 +0000

I get this email from a guy who does not send tons of emails every week. So, I thought he must have some good offerings. I opened it. Like any other internet marketers he is promoting his partners’ program, The Affiliate Code, for a commission. Nothing is wrong there. We all do that to make a buck. He also wants me to watch a video. OMG, when is it going to end? From long copy boring sales letters to long and headache causing videos. We have come a long way, baby.

I go to The Affiliate Code website. A flashy page with a video. At least this guy has common human decency to put a video player with a fast forward button. I am happy. He also has an email capture form just like his Jedi Master has told him to do so. In case you don’t buy anything, he will have your email to send endless offerings not only for his own products but for all his partners’ products also. It is a win win situation for him and his buddies.

He starts his sales pitch using one of most headache causing video pitch. He shows all kinds of income proof. I still don’t know why people fall for this trap. I buy stuff where these is a money back guarantee so that I can return it within one week because most of them don’t work. If there is income proofs, I’m very skeptical.

Anyway, I watched the video for a minute or so and entered my email to check out what is inside. Inside, there is a long sales copy and another video.

I also noticed an AS SEEN ON banner on the top with Google, Yahoo, etc. logos. What is this fucking As Seen On? The Jedi Master never stops coming up with ridiculous ideas to extract money from financially challenged people. But you know what, it works.

If you’re buying something based on AS SEEN ON, I am sure you’re not going to make any money from the program.

The course is about a Killer Business System that will make you more than 65K a month without spending a dime. The video is 44 minutes long. The sales copy has lots of income proof.

He talks about his life story. Nothing new here. He was in a tiny apartment but did not like it. Every night he will scour the internet to find a magic formula to make money instantly. He also raked up large credit card bills No wonder!

Then he found affiliate marketing. Whoa, what a discovery. If it took him a so long and a mountain of debts to find affiliate marketing, I wonder what he was really searching on the Internet. Wink! Wink!

And then there he was. Making money from affiliate marketing and doing some crazy experiment in his lab. Finally he invented a complete system. When you use this system, you’ll start making money from day one.

Now he said it. You can make money from day one. I don’t have to read or listen to his boring video any longer. I immediately checked the price. It’s only$77.

This is what I will do. Buy the system using a credit card (never use debit card) and use it for one week. If you don’t make any money, get your money back. Don’t wait beyond one week. He has said that you would make money from day one. Give him one week.

He is also collecting your email when you make the purchase to sell you more products. But wait, don’t buy anything and go into debt just like he did.

Use the system for one day and if you make money, you can always buy later. Don’t fall for all kind of temptation. I don’t know what kind of up-sales he has planned for you. Don’t join any expensive coaching program unless you can make coaching fee from his system.

Good luck making $60K a month.

Image credit: kevindooley

Banner Ad Blueprint Review: How To Sell To Financially Challeged People Using Banner Ads

Dotcom Note — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:32:41 +0000

We have come full circle. It all started with banner ads more than a decade ago, then we jumped into pay-per-click. Now the Internet marketer’s delight is banner ads to sell products that people can buy from Walmart for $2. However, don’t worry. Lots of financially challenged people will fall for fake colon cleansing monthly regiment for a mere $40 a month if you use fake news paper style ads as a landing page and flashy banners? You will learn all the techniques for a mere $77 if you buy Banner Ad Blueprint.

: Image by Matt Hamm via Flickr

It comes from a 22 year old high school drop out. After going through some Jedi training, he asked his buddies, who are top affiliate marketers, to send out mass emails to people in their mailing list. I received a dozen or so emails about this banner ad blueprint. They all want me to watch a video first.

You know how sick I get when I watch these videos but they are addictive. They are like when you’re on crack. You know it’s ruining your health but you can’t live without it. I go to watch this Banner Ad Blueprint video. It was yesterday. My memory is not what used it to be. So, if I say something that is not in the video, please excuse me.

As usual the guy starts with showing his affiliate account full of money. He tries hard to convince that the account is not fake. Hmm, I wonder “why he is doing that?” May be he knows a thing or two. May be he knows that lots of internet marketers are showing fake accounts.

So, he thought he would outsmart them by showing some kind web certificate as a valid proof of authenticity of the account. Anyway, I thought it was not necessary. Good for him that he is earning more than $50,000 a month by doing banner advertisement and promoting useless but expensive colon cleansing type products to financially challenged people.

I always wonder, if these internet marketers will buy the same products they are promoting for themselves or their family. Anyway, I am digressing.

After making a couple of grands using banners to sell products, he is on a mission to educate everybody how to do it. Altruism has suddenly struck him. There can be no other reasons to sell a $67 ebook (or a video course?) by someone who is making $50K a month.

First he shows you how to sign up and open an account with one of those cost per view ad network (like AdBrite, DirectCPV). Honestly, if you don’t know how to create an account in any web site, you’re not ready for this Internet marketing thingy. If some one has to tell you how to sign up for an account, you should spend more time surfing the web and creating accounts rather than thinking about how to make money from the web.

Like all internet marketers he tells me that I’ve wasted lots of money trying to make money online. Who knows better than him, an Internet marketer? Now he will give me once in a life time opportunity to make money using banners ads. He will show me where to buy banners, demographic research and how to promote useless products to financially challenged people.

But you know, the price is only $67 and he is giving me 8 weeks no risk guarantee.

If you’re interested, you can buy it and if you cannot make your money back promoting usless products to finacially challeged people using banner ads within one week, just get a refund. Nobody loses, right? May be you’ll learn a thing or two.

Video Boss And Little Boss Are Must Watch For Internet Marketers

Dotcom Note — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:39:30 +0000

As you all know how much I hate watching Internet marketers’ videos though I watch them anyway to get a laugh from their ridiculous efforts. However, when I watched this video from Andy Jenkins’ Video Boss and Little Boss series, I was just blown away. This guy is genius in making videos that you want to watch in its entirety without fast forwarding. Andy has decades of experience in video and sales. He has compressed all his experiences into a system he calls the Video Boss system.

Using his system, you will not only make videos for your online marketing, you’ll make awesome videos. And the best part is that you don’t need any expensive equipment to do that. He is releasing his video boss techniques almost weekly now and it’s a fresh change from the crap I watch most often. He is giving away great tips without showing any expensive cars and beach vacations.

In the second video that he has released called little boss, he talks about the video making short course – a 5 step process. He shows you powerful tools, graphics and animation resources, soundtracks and a script building blueprint.

If you want to make videos that closes the sale, the little boss is a must watch. His video making process styarts with a script. You can write a sript many ways but he shows you how to do it the fastest way.

His script writing blueprint uses what is called FAB technique. FAB stands for features, advantage, and benefits. He shows you how you take a feature of a product and write the advantage and benefits of that feature. The example he shows is a Kodak camera that has1080p resolutions listed in the product feature page. He turns it into a script using his FAB technique and here it is:

The Kodak Zi8 lets you take full 1080p videos wherever you go.
Full 1080p is the highest resolution of high definition video available.
So your videos will capture every important details…
From your kids cheerful smile
To that triple you hit from softball league
and those funny moments you’ll cherish forever

If you have no clue about where to get the feature of a product, he suggest just use the Wikipedia.

You get 8-15 seconds to grab viewer’s attention and he suggests to start the script with

In this video, I am going to show you why Kodak Zi8 is going to revolutionize the way you make your personal videos and why it might be the only video camera you’ll ever need – saving your money and making it simple for you to create video.

Always start out with the sentence “I am going to show you why“. The second part is what prospective buyers will get and third part is why it will help them. Simple enough?

You have to talk about “feature” which is a quantity and advantages and benefits that have quality and emotional value.

He then take the script and uses Microsfot Power Point to make slides. He suggest to get free templates for your power point slides by doing a Google search. His another advice is to use feature images (compare and contrast, e.g. compact camera to a large camera) and then add emotional images to the slide. Find images by doing a search on Google (”royalty free stock images”, “clip art”). Some of the sites to get images from the web are fotolia, clipart.com, animationfactory, freedigitalphotos.net

I generally don’t put links to any Internet Marketer’s website but I am taking an exception here and here is the link to Little Boss Video.

Image credit: Megan Fox Rules

GMail Mind Tricks Will Make Your Head Spin

Dotcom Note — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:57:57 +0000

I got this email from a guy who sends me useless offers to make millions almost everyday. He is well known in the Internet Marketing circle. Let’s call him Mike. He tells me about his imaginary friend (or may be real) making a killing using GMail Mind Tricks. I must check out this incredible system if I want to put some money in his buddy’s pocket so that he can make his first million.

: Image by Gullig via Flickr

With the advent of the new year, the Internet marketers have stepped up their game by producing even more boring and useless videos, claiming to make millions of dollars and asking you to give your credit card to them so that they can truly make millions. One guy is even claiming to make 100 millions a year. Wow! May be he is on his way to become a billionaire by the year end. But I’m sure he will make at least his first million because lots of people fall for this kind of trap.
Well, enough said about the Jedi mind tricks these marketers play to influence you for parting your money.

As my readers know, I am a great sucker for this kind of offer. I immediately clicked on the cloaked link to land on the Gmail Mind Trick site. My horror started immediately. The video on the page does not have any stop and fast forward button (you can click on the video to stop it).

Let’s call the announcer in the video and also the creator of this super secret Jedi mind trick technique as Jedi padawan R. He is going to divulge his top trade secrets to you. “What is his secret”, I wonder. He is going to have the video for a short time only because he wants to move on to developing other useless products once he has made enough money from you.

This guy is fond of asking you useless questions that start with exactly. For example, “how do you know exactly what your customers are thinking?” and many more exactly bull crap.

Once you know the answer to these “exactly” questions, you can offer them “exactly” useless product through the AdWords ads in GMail to get “exactly” others money. He continues his presentation by telling you that online marketing is hard unless you know the answers to these “exact” question. But don’t worry, he is going to reveal the answers because he is the enlightened one. Of course, you need pull out your credit card for that privilege.

His method solves the three dreaded pitfalls of online marketing, i.e. sending wrong message to the wrong people at the wrong time. He has magically solved that problem. You will be able to tap into the innermost desires of people to sell your products and services that have absolutely no value to users.

He even gives you an example of how to torment people thinking about divorce by shoving useless info products, collected from all over the Internet, on their throat. Nice trick. This guy gets my Kudos.

Okay, enough said. How much do you need to get a hand on his super secret GMail Mind Tricks techniques? He used to charge $10,000 in some imaginary seminar. Or may be some real people who have lots of money to waste have given him that kind of dough. But as an enlightened one, he has become extremely generous and you can have it for a mere $97 now.

But, be aware. You may may be shoved with more offers in your throat when you intend to purchase his trick because I assume he has learned all the marketing techniques from the Jedi master.

Wait, here is the last word. You may not make a dime using his super secrets. That’s what his site says.

Want to know how to advertise in GMail? Here is a free instructional video.

3 Common SEO Myths Busted by Backlink Flood

Dotcom Note — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:14:25 +0000

To rank higher in search engines, you need to do search engine optimization, or SEO. What that really mean is you need to apply some techniques so that your fake affiliate review sites and long copy sales letter sites will displace higher quality, useful information rich site for a better ranking in the search engine result page. Backlink Flood will make sure that it happens.

: Image via Wikipedia

Internet marketers complain that Google is not fair because it is hard, time consuming, and expensive to trick Google algorithm to put Internet Marketers’ fake affiliate review sites, blogs made for promoting affiliate products, and one page long sales copy site on the top of the search engine result page. But now, it is going to change forever.

Every time you use Google to find some useful information, you will see these f*cking, mind numbing, brain freezing affiliate review sites, useless blog sites, and long sales copy sites on the search engine result pages because Backlink Flood is on a mission to render the search engines into useless piece of shit that only Internet Marketers and people looking to buy their stuff will find useful.

How do I know that? This is what I got today in my inbox. Read it and decide for yourself.

1. SEO is a long and slow process, it takes months or even longer to start seeing traffic and results.

2. Article marketing is easy… simply upload a few articles about your niche to high ranking directories, and you’ll get all of the traffic you need.

3. You can’t rank mini sites or sales letters for competitive keywords… you need an authority site, and trying to rank a small site is a waste of time.

Do any of those sound familiar? They’re all common beliefs in the world of SEO, and they’re all just plain WRONG. So, how can you rank your site for your keywords in days instead of months? What are more effective ways of driving traffic and building links than submitting articles?

And how the heck can you rank a minisite for extremely competitive keywords? We’ll tell you in a second, but first we have to let you in on a little secret.

When people like Paul Johnson and Angela Edwards rave about a new SEO product, smart marketers take note. And if you want to stay one step ahead in the SEO game – if you want to get that organic traffic to your site (or keep it coming if you already have it) – then you need to keep up with the latest industry news.

The newest breakthrough is Backlink Flood by Andy Fletcher. Andy isn’t a household name in the SEO world… yet. But he just released a product that’s going to turn the world of SEO upside down forever.

We’re talking about brand new concepts that have never been published before, like Rapid Link Indexing, and ranking for keywords in days that would take months using the old SEO methods you’re probably used to.

If you want to see the answers to the questions we posted above, or you’re just curious to see the product that is taking the SEO world by storm and has the biggest names in the business drooling, head on over to:

Backlink Flood web site and buy their product. Use all the techniques revealed in the ebook and your fake affiliate review sites, affiliate blogs, and long copy sales letter sites will be on the top of the search engine result page and people will flood to your site and buy from you how to make money quick online ebook.

How to Get Free PLR Articles, eBooks, and Videos For Free

Dotcom Note — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:43:49 +0000

Lots of internet marketers are involved in promoting private level right products, also known as PLR products. The beauty of the PLR products is that you don’t have to spend time creating these products. You just buy it and claim authorship.

You insert your web site’s URL and start selling it or giving it for free to collect email addresses of people to spam them with more offers. It is called list building in online marketing.

But, how do you get PLR articles, eBooks, and videos for free? I will discuss a sneaky way to get them because lots of these PLR promoters are also using sneaking ways to get to your credit card.

There are hundreds of sites where you can become a member by paying a monthly, yearly or life time subscription. Sometime, they will throw in the free membership for a month and start auto-billing you after one month or seven days. What a sneaky way!

I always become a member when I come across an PLR site with a trial period. I will download every thing I can within two days of becoming a member and then I will go and cancel my membership. I have downloaded close to 100 gig of materials – text and videos mostly.

But you have to be very careful. Sometime it is not that easy to cancel the membership because you don’t know where to go to cancel your membership. If it is a PayPal subscription, you can go to PayPal and cancel it easily.

The PLR articles are almost useless. The are so bad that if you attempt to read them, it will taste bad in your mouth. They might have been rewritten couple of times before they landed on your hand. So, you can imagine the quality of these articles.

Sometime articles are rewritten using article spinning software where you randomly change words and phrases in an article. Some articles are re-translated – translated from English to an European language (let’s call it EL 1) and then again to another European language (let’s call it EL 2). Finally, the article is converted back to English from EL 2. You can do all these translations using Google’s translation service.

Some PLR books are good but they are mostly old materials. You can add value to it if you update a two or three years old book with new information. Sometime PLR materials will come with eCover (those shinny 3D grapichs that look like real book cover) and sales page.

If you can get hold of these type of materials, it is good. You can post them in your web site and attempt to sale it by spamming forums, blog comments, social book marking sites, etc. Your main goal is to spam as much as you can. The time is running out. Get out and start spamming.

So, go get some free PLR materials and start spamming. Good luck.

Want to Succeed in Online Business? Establish Your Personal Brand

Dotcom Note — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:22:26 +0000

Whether you are a freelancer, internet marketer, offline business owner, or a recent college graduate who is looking for a job, you need to create a strong and professional online presence to succeed in today’s business world. How do you create an online profile that is recognizable and trustworthy? Follow the steps in this article and within a couple of months you will establish a polished online personal brand for yourself.

1. Get a domain. A top level domain, preferably a dot com domain, is a must for your personal brand. It can be a your name, your business name or some other assumed name that you want to associate yourself with. If you already own an offline business you can start with your business name.

Picture credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryzees/3304124238/

Finding a short domain name is almost impossible these days. In most cases, you will be able to find a three words domain name easily. If your own name is somewhat unique, you can be that lucky one whose name is not already taken by domain squatters.

Use DomainBot to do your domain research. When you enter one or more keywords in the DomainBot search box, the website will suggest a large number of available domains that are different variations of your keywords. If you like a domain, you can directly register the domain with one of the domain registrars like godaddy or 1and1.

2. Get a website. After you register a domain, you need to get a web host to host your website. If you are absolutely not going to spend any money for web hosting, sign up for Google’s Blogger platform to start a blog. It is free. Use your own registered domain, instead of the default sub domain that Google offers for Blogger platform.

If you are ready to spend $25 a month, you can sign up for a reseller account at Hostgator. With a reseller account, you can create unlimited websites. Hostgator offers a commercial script library called Fantastico that automates installation of web applications in your sites. Start with installing a Word Press blog.

3. Get your globally recognized avatars. A globally recognized avatars or gravatar is a picture that follows you from site to site appearing next to your name when you do things like commenting in a blog, posting in web forums.

You can use your own picture or a professionally designed graphic image for your gravatar. If you are using a graphic picture, make it unique and get it done professionally. If it is your own picture, take the picture in a lighted area showing your face clearly.

4. Start a blog. Pick a few topics that you are interested in. One of them should be your chosen profession or business niche. Also pick topics related to your hobby or something that you want to learn more about.

Create an about page in your blog, put your avatars and tell your story in short 300-600 words. Make it interesting, intriguing, or humorous.

Go to Technorati, a blog directory, and search your topics to find blogs related to your interests. Subscribe to a dozen high quality, popular blogs using Google reader. Make a habit of reading a few interesting articles in your niche every day.

Now start writing your own articles for your blog regularly. If you like writing, you can write couple of times a week. If you have hard time coming up with topics to write about, start with a few articles a month and slowly work towards one article per week.

5. Visit blogs and forums related to your topic of interest. Leave insight full comments in other blogs and create interesting posts in forums. Create a forum signature with your gravatar in every forum you join.

Use a back link to your blog in your signature. When you create a post in a forum, your signature will be appended to your post. When you post a comment in a blog, use the URL of your blog and your gravatar name. You will be instantly recognized.

6. Create Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin Profiles. Facebook and twitter are two popular social media sites with millions of users. Facebook is mainly used for networking with like minded persons and Twitter is for sharing short timely messages about news, industry trends, interesting articles, and if you are doing any interesting thing. Linkedin is for exchanging information, ideas, and opportunities with professionals in your field.

Update Facebook status and post twitter messages every day. You can start with sharing interesting articles that you have read, productivity tips, interesting pictures, etc. You will soon find people start following you in Twitter if you are posting interesting things every day. Using Facebook’s friend suggestion tool, you can request friendship with others in the Facebook network.

7. Learn and use search engine optimization (SEO). It is a very valuable instrument at your disposal to propel you websites and social media profile pages for higher search engine rankings. You don’t have to be a professional in search optimization, just learn the basics of SEO and apply them whenever you create contents.

You don’t need to buy any expensive books or sign up for extensive training program. Use free information available online. You can start with SEOBook site and download some free ebooks on search engine optimization.

How to Succeed in Driving Website Traffic Using Social Media Sites

Dotcom Note — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:59:10 +0000

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. have become popular among the internet marketers. Most marketers hawk their websites, blog, affiliate links, list building URLs, etc. all day long to drive traffic to their web sites. Not only it is annoying to the network members, but also the effectiveness of such a strategy is yet to be proven.

However, you cannot ignore this emerging medium. You need to embrace it using a different mindset. If you follow the seven guidelines discussed below, you will be able to increase traffic to your site from these social media sites without exposing yourself as a self-centered marketer who will do anything to cash in on every opportunity.

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/stevengroves/3100731854/

1. Create a profile page at each site and detail your interests, expertise, blogs, and websites in your profile. In Twitter, you are limited by text space and the number of URLs you can use in your bio. Facebook has more flexibility and you can pull your blog RSS into the Facebook notes.

Social network sites are pull medium where the old push marketing fails miserably. Your goal should be to pull people to your profile page by regularly posting valuable and interesting contents from other sites. You can post your blog article in Twitter occasionally but don’t submit every blog post your create.

2. The old school marketing relies on four Ps – price, product, placement, and promotion. The social media adds another dimension and one more P to the marketing philosophy and it is the participation.

You need to participate in the conversion and at the same time encourage others to participate. If you want to build a community that will trust you, you need to participate by providing expert opinions and valuable information. You need to help others when somebody has a question. Even if don’t know the answer, find it out by spending sometime on the Web.

You also need to draw others in the discussions by asking questions, giving controversial opinions, raising interesting issues that affect your niche. Passively posting your URL all over the place will not bring traffic to your site. Only concerted efforts to position yourself as a knowledgeable person in your niche will result in more visitors to your site.

3. To position yourself as an expert in your niche, you need to create contents that are fresh, interesting, and valuable to your readers. You also have to discover high quality contents in your niche for sharing with others. Subscribe to a few dozen blogs and scan them everyday for high quality contents so that you can share it with others in your network.

4. You cannot hide yourself in the social media world. If you are a fake, people will discover it fast and you will lose trust and traffic. So, be authentic, transparent and humble in all your conversations. If you make a mistake, admit it and move on.

5. To establish your credibility and expertise, you should read a wide variety of topics in your niche and explain them to others in the form of blog post, ebooks, white papers, etc. Give it all for free without any strings attached. Encourage others to distribute your materials.

If you are not sharing some valuable information, somebody else will share it. You cannot hide any information. It is better to be the first mover than wondering how did everybody find it out.

6. Be prepared to change your mind set. The old school mindset for driving traffic is posting you site links everywhere. The social media mind set is establishing yourself as an expert and sharing your knowledge. Once people know that you are a good resource for solutions to their problems, they will come to your site and you can monetize your site in different ways.

If you are wondering how you are going to make money if you give every thing for free than you need to understand this new medium before you jump into the bandwagon by posting your URLs every hour. Your goal is to drive traffic to your site. Your site may monetize using a variety of methods like, third party advertisement, selling tutorials, affiliate marketing, selling memberships, etc.

7. Social media is a marketing tool set that you leverage to drive traffic to your web site. For leveraging this new medium, you need to establish yourself as a good community member first. Don’t be farcical like Walmart who paid to Jim and Laura to blog around the country in Walmart parking lots capturing stories of Walmart employees and how they loved to work at Walmart.

You may enjoy a short-lived traffic boost to your site, but it will not last longer. When the truth is exposed, it will be a public relation nightmare for you or your brand. Build your brand by telling the truth. There is nothing wrong if you are sponsored by a corporation, just reveal the truth.