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How You Should Be Using Twitter to Build Your Business

Jason Katzenback — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:40:04 +0000

We all know that Twitter has morphed into far more than just answering the question “What are you doing?” and become a valuable tool for business. And although I’ve stated for the record that I’ve have used Facebook more than Twitter for my business purposes, there is still a lot that you can do to use Twitter to help promote your business. And one of the most important things you could be doing is something that you probably haven’t thought of.

The most obvious way to use Twitter is to use it to promote your site, whether that be your latest blog post, or news about a new product that’s just been added to your lineup. That’s not news, and everybody should be doing that by now (right?) But the thing that most people aren’t using Twitter for that they should be is…

…are you ready for this???

They should be using it to LISTEN to your customers.

Yes, I know that goes against what you think about Twitter; it’s a platform to help you talk about yourself and your business, another way to get your message out to the masses. We’ve become so me-centric and used to talking about ourselves that we rarely think about listening. Which is crazy, really, because we all know that they key to success in business is to listen to your customers and then make sure that you’re giving them what they want.

Maybe that’s just because we’re not used to thinking of Twitter that way – as a way listen to people as well as a way to talk. But you can. Identify search terms and phrases that are targeted towards your business. Then, when someone tweets about something to do with your business or niche, you can retweet and offer them a solution to their problem, whether by promoting your products, or maybe just by pointing them to your blog where they can learn valuable information. This is especially useful if you are in a service industry – people tweet a lot of the time with recommendations for restaurants, hairdressers, accountants of all sorts of other things.

Now, it may take a little trial and error to figure out what search phrases will work for your business, and how to ensure you’re finding people who are looking for information, and not people who are trying to promote their own products and businesses (although that can be a great way to meet some like-minded colleagues in your niche).

By looking at it in a different way, you can get even more out of Twitter; you just need to remember that they key a successful business is not only promoting it, and also in listening to what people want.

A True Viral Success Story – Small Idea, Big Result

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:58:19 +0000

I’ve said it before, but it really is hard to get a true viral campaign going. In fact, it’s something that is pretty much impossible to artificially create (and believe me, many companies have tried). But the one thing that all successful viral phenomena seem to have in common is that they are compelling. Whether it’s because it’s humorous, awe-inspiring, rage-inducing, or just plain interesting, they evoke an emotional response, something in them that compels people to pass it along to other people.

A recent, fantastic example of something that started out small and went viral is the Twitter account of a guy named Justin. You see, Justin was 29 years old and had recently moved back in with his parents in the summer of 2009 (some of you will know who I’m talking about already.) His dad is 74 years old, and quite blunt and loud in his opinions. And more often than not, he was also funny. So Justin decided to start a Twitter feed, and he titled it as bluntly as his dad talked. He named is “Shit My Dad Says” and proceeded to tweet about, well, shit his dad said. And it’s funny – you can go check it out here.

So, less than a year later, where is Justin at?

Well, in the fall it was announced that he had signed a book deal with Harper Collins, and not long after that, CBS announced that they were basing a sitcom after the tweets that now has over 1.2 million people following it. That, my friends, is a true viral success. It has gone beyond the online world and into mainstream media – a rare occurrence even with a good viral trend. It succeeded because it was interesting, and funny. And, most importantly, it was genuine.

So while the main base of this post was only to share a great success story (and some really funny tweets – seriously, go check it out if you haven’t already). The point, if there is one to be made, is that the key to real viral success is to not try to have something go viral. A forced viral campaign will be inauthentic and be sussed out fairly quickly by people online. Instead, strive to create interesting content, no matter what your niche is. Quality content that engages your readers is your best bet – you want people to like it enough to pass it along to other people – that’s how viral works.

So, concentrate on doing what you do best, and making it the best that you can. Promote it to the best of your ability/desire, but there’s no replacement for sparking interest/desire in the minds of your readers – that is what will make them tell other people about you, and what will drive valuable traffic to your site.

Why I Like FaceBook Better Than Twitter

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:25:06 +0000

FUN

Yup… that is the plain and simple answer.

Do not get me wrong… Twitter is a great tool but what does it offer other then micro blogging?

Well obviously nothing… since that is what it is… a micro blog.

OK so now you’re probably asking… whats the point?

Well are you providing FUN for your customers?

Now this is not some major revelation that I suddenly had by myself but rather something that Mike Hill in the CPA Tsunami course (not for sale anymore) reminded me of in his training material.

Basically what he talked about is ensuring you are looking at the total “life” value of your customers and be willing to invest in making them happy… not just proving what you initially promised them.

The cool thing is this is not always as difficult as you may think… take for example the punch cards you get at your favorite coffee shop… after a certain amount of purchases you get a free coffee. Yes it ends up costing money but it encourages return customers and loyalty and MAKES YOU MONEY!

Think about “Fun” things that cause you to get involved in things. Monopoly at McDonald’s, Roll up the Rim at Tim Horton’s (Canadian thing) and I am sure you can think of lots to add to this list.

OK, so why do i like FaceBook better… well they give me a lot more reasons to come back to them. Twitter on the other hand… well they are a little limited.

So what can you do to create “fun things” that will encourage your visitors to come back?

PS – Fun does not mean make them laugh… it is about engaging them and giving them something extra that gives them more reasons to come back then your standard offer.

Really Cool Script to Get LOADS of New Twitter Followers!

Jason Katzenback — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:40:19 +0000

I was asked a couple weeks ago to do a paid review of a brand new script (that I really do like) that you can find at http://www.xaviermedia.cc/twitter/

The script asks the question…

Would you like to get 1000′s of legitimate Twitter followers on autopilot?

The answer of course is… like duh, who wouldn’t!

The script is extremely simple to install, the strategy is extremely easy to implement and you don’t have to spam or do that much work at all.

Basically all you do is take 60 seconds to install a simple php script… the result is when people come to your site they will see an easy opportunity to get more twitter followers (and since it is on your site you know they will be targeted). All your visitors have to do is simply enter their twitter ID in a little form and click enter…. then the chain reaction begins… oh and do not worry, no personal data is stored.

If you for example can get just five people to use it (that is pretty much guaranteed to happen), you’ll get great results because if they also get five people each to sign up you will get 30 followers (your first 5 and all their 5 followers).

When these people refer others via their own referral pages you will get new followers too, and the best part is that you’ve only referred five people but are getting fresh followers all the time:

Level	Number of followers
You	5
Level 1	25
Level 2	125
Level 3	625
Level 4	3,125
Level 5	15,625
Grand total:	19,530

All you did in the above example was referring 5 people!

OK, I know it sounds a little too easy…. well it is… EXTREMELY EASY… just take 30 seconds and try it out for yourself, I just set it up and it took no time at all, try it out here…

http://www.johncow.com/followers/t/

Then do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy at: http://www.xaviermedia.cc/twitter/

Twitter Applications for your Mobile Phone – Twitter Marketing Part 8

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:21:39 +0000

Now that you’re using your Mobile phone to interact with Twitter, you may find that using SMS is not the best system out there for your needs. Either you’re getting constant text messages and it is proving to be intrusive or expensive, or you may be in an area where you an only receive SMS messages to Twitter but not be able to send them (users in Canada who do not have Bell as a carrier have this problem).

So how can you make is easier to interact with Twitter on your mobile phone?

By using an application specifically made for the task. There are about a billion (well, not exactly that many) apps out there to help you use Twitter. But which apps out there are the best and how should you use them when you’re using Twitter to help promote your business?

That’s why you have me.

As you know I’ve been using Twitter just for a little while now, it has already had an amazing effect on my business. It’s been a great promotional tool, and I rely on accessing my Twitter account wherever I am.

There are the most Twitter applications available for the iPhone, but that makes sense as there are more applications in general available for the iPhone than with any other kind of SmartPhone. While there are less choices available for other kinds of phones, you should still be able to find something to suit your needs.

Here are some of the apps available for using Twitter on your mobile phone:

Apple iPhone

Twitterific (http://twitterrific.com/)

This is one of the oldest and most-used applications out there for Twitter. There are two versions – one free ad-supported one, and a paid version for $9.99 that is ad-free. It’s got a clean, simple layout for viewing Twitter, and it also makes it easy to use Twitpic to post a picture of yourself as well as using the iPhone’s GPS to point your followers to your actual location – great if you actually have a bricks-and-mortar store.

Tweetie (http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-iphone/)

Also extremely popular with iPhone users. Tweetie does not have a free version, but the app only costs $2.99 from the Apple App store. Its got a great user-interface, and is extremely responsive, and will do just about anything with Twitter that you might want to, including a great built-in search feature. It also has a mini-browser within the app itself so you can view links in tweets without having to exit the app and load your browser.

BlackBerry

TwitterBerry (http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/)

The default choice for BlackBerry users who are on Twitter (there aren’t that many more to choose from). Its got a simple interface that includes the character countdown, the public timeline, and the ability to post tweets and send Direct Messages, and although it’s not as pretty as some of the other apps for different SmartPhones, it does get the job done.

Windows Mobile

Twinkini (http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini/)

Again, it’s not as polished as the iPhone apps, but it does load quickly and give you all of the basic Twitter features, like sending tweets, marking tweets as favorites, and viewing your timeline. It will also let you add your GPS location to your tweets.

Cross-Platform Apps

These will work on any SmartPhone. There are two different ways these work – either they are web-based, and use your phone’s browser to work, or they are a true application that works outside of your browser.

Web-Based

Twitter Mobile (http://m.twitter.com) – Twitter’s own mobile site. It has everything you expect it to.

Slandr (http://m.slandr.net) – Slandr uses Twitter’s own API, but says that it delivers a better user experience than the Twitter mobile site does. While it seems to be a good interface, it does insert ads between tweets, which would get old fast.

Applications

TinyTwitter (http://www.tinytwitter.com)

TinyTwitter has two different versions available – one that will work on any Java-enabled phone (Nokias, Blackberrys), and one for Windows Mobile. It’s not a very large application, so it will download and install quickly, and it has all the basics you want – tweets, @replys, Direct Messages, following and unfollowing. Is also allows you to set the time interval for checking for new tweets, which saves you from having to constantly refresh.

Using Apps, whether web-based or downloaded, can make using Twitter on your mobile phone easier and faster. You don’t have to deal with sending SMS messages (or any of the charges associated with that), and it will work wherever you are. Find the one that works best for you, and at the right price (free is always good.)

Remember, this is not an exhaustive list, but it should help you to get started.

Like this post… found it useful? Please share it with others on Twitter by Clicking Here!

Do Not Forget Your BackYard When It Comes to Social Media

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:28:30 +0000

Do you interact with your community when it comes to your social media strategies?

It’s funny how so many of us will travel thousands of miles to meet up with people of like interests and yet never think to see what is available locally.

Why is that?

I think it is human nature to always feel the grass is greener on the other side… but I have to wonder how often that is truly the case?

Now, I understand that population has a huge effect on this. After all, if you live in a small community of just a couple thousand people, then you are pretty limited as to what you can accomplish. In comparison to that, if you live in a huge metropolis… there are probably countless opportunities for you.

But no matter where you live… have you even tried to connect with others?

OK, so where is this coming from?

As you know I am a Social Media nut and a Twitter fanatic. I have also been posting a series that walks you through how to market with Twitter.

Today I was searching through Twellow and saw http://twellowhood.com so I entered in my location and low and behold I found some fellow Twitterers. So I contacted a few and within a few moments I was skyping with the owner of http://www.gerrykirk.net/. Now this is not a huge blog or anything but it did have some good info and the interesting part was the desire this guy “Gerry” has for growing the awareness of social media in my community.

Now the question might come up to you… what good is that going to do your business if you do not sell anything local?

Well the idea is that you are networking with like-minded individuals and therefore can form accountability groups, share ideas, and grow. It is not about the direct selling to others locally but instead about being able to talk with others that have similar interests.

Now before I go on… YES I KNOW THIS IS NOT NEW!

The problem is I personally have spent so much focus on reaching out globally that I failed to stop and look locally. You see with my business, I do 90% of the work out of my home office. In fact I am closing my downtown office and moving all the employees to their homes. The reason for doing this is my lease was up and it is something we want to try out… since I do not really want to renew the lease where the office is currently located.

Now working out of your home is great but you need face-to-face interaction with others and what a better way than to be doing it with like-minded people.

The great thing about these types of things is it does not matter if you have nothing to share or loads to share… whether you are a teacher or a student. I learn whether I am teaching or listening and it is all about that.

So as a result, I am heading to my first TweetUp here in my Northern Ontario community. If you live around here (which most of you don’t ), I would love to see you there… but there are only three spots left (it’s just a small get together) at http://twtvite.com/2a3do0

Oh and on a side note, this is using a cool service called http://twtvite.com/ which is a great little tool for managing your own tweetups. So if there is not one available in your community… start one yourself.

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How to Incorporate Twitter With Your Blog – Part 6 of Twitter Marketing Series

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Now, the whole reason why you (and I) signed up for Twitter was to promote your business, right?

Well, one of the most important ways you can do that is by both promoting your blog posts on Twitter and promoting your Twitter account on your blog. In this part of the series, I’ll explain to you how to do both.

Installing the Twitter Widget on Your Site

Go to http://www.twitter.com/badges
Pick whichever application suits your needs; if you use something that’s not listed (like WordPress) then choose “Other”.
You’ll be given the option of choosing either an html or flash interface. Unless the rest of your site is in flash and you haven’t gotten any complaints from your users, then choose the html version that everyone will be able to use.
If you select HTML, you can then customize your badge and choose how many posts you want to display at a time. (Anywhere from 1 to 20 but 5 is the default.) You can also choose to customize the title or have no title at all.
Next, take the code that Twitter gives you, copy it and then go to the template file for your site, and paste it in where you want the Twitter widget to appear. If you are using WordPress than add a text widget and enter the code into that for your side bar. You can also add it right into a post if you want.

Posting Blog Updates on Your Twitter Account

Now, of course, the simplest way to do this is manually. But if you automate posting updates to your blog, then it’s one less thing that you have to remember to do. There are different options to do this (plugins or third party services) but the one that I prefer to use is http://www.twitterfeed.com (I mentioned this in other posts). TwitterFeed uses your RSS feed to automatically send an update out on Twitter whenever you update your blog PLUS I am going to show you in another lesson how you can use TwitterFeed to keep your Twitter account active and full of targeted info that your followers will truly like… but more on that later.

Here are the detailed steps to take to set up TwitterFeed, I also crated a short video (see bottom of this post) that walks you through it step by step

First of all, you’re going to need an Open ID. If you’re using WordPress, you’ve already got one. If you don’t have one, click the “get Open ID” link provided by TwitterFeed.
Once you’re logged in, click on “go to my twitter feeds (or create a new one)”.
You’ll need to copy your RSS feed URL; make sure to copy it exactly or the link won’t set up properly. TwitterFeed lets you test the link to make sure you did it right.
Then, you have to pick the frequency at which you want TwitterFeed to check for updates to your blog. If you want every new post from your blog to be added, then I recommend you select every 30 minutes.
You can then choose what is included in the Tweet – just the blog title, or the title and a description. I recommend on the title.
Always choose to include a link – how else do you expect people to get to your site?
TwitterFeed also lets you choose which URL shortening service you want to use; pick the one you use for all of your other links… BUT I highly recommend you use one that allows you to track stats and this is why I HIGHLY recommend http://www.bit.ly (I explain more about this in the video).
You can prefix each tweet, if you choose, with about 20 characters; you can either put something fairly simple, like “New Blog Post” or leave it blank and let the post’s title speak for itself. I personally leave it blank.
Save all of your settings, and you’re done. Once you have, it will show up under ‘My Feeds’; from there, you can edit it (change the settings), make it inactive, or delete it altogether.

Twitter Marketing Tips on YouTube

TwitterFeed is a great way for you to promote your blog using Twitter. It ensures that your followers are updated with new blog posts in a timely manner. It also ensures that you don’t inadvertently spam your followers because you forgot that you already told them about that post, or even worse, forget to promote a blog post at all.

Did you like this post? Then please CLICK HERE to tweet it to your followers

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How to Post Tweets on Twitter – Part 4 of Twitter Marketing

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:08:59 +0000

It’s can be a little hard to get started on Twitter. Not that it is difficult to use but it may seem strange to be making posts when you don’t have any followers yet, but trust me, it won’t take long before you start to build a following.

Let’s cover some basics first: posts, or updates, are known on Twitter as ‘tweets’. On your home page, you will see your tweets as well as the tweets of those people that you are following. However, when you visit someone else’s homepage, you’ll see only the posts they’ve made, not the people that they’re following.

Looking at someone’s posts can give you an idea of whether you want to follow them or not. Remember since there aren’t any language restrictions, people can post whatever they want, which you might not agree with or find offensive. But if you don’t like what someone has to say, then you don’t have to follow them.

Post often (several times a day often, not several times in 5 minutes often.) Try to keep your posts interesting and informative and do not post more then 2 posts in a row if you can help it. People will unfollow you if it they see too many posts (tweets) from you in a row. Now if you are having a conversation with someone that is something you think others will find interesting (say offering advice on your niche that they are asking help with), then that is different… but still try to keep it to a minimum of consecutive posts.

Posting a tweet is the easiest thing to do, ever. You see that box at the top of the page? Write something in it that’s less than 140 characters, and press update. Voila! You’ve posted a tweet. To make it even easier, as you type, the character number counts down, letting you know exactly how many characters you have left.

Of course, what to tweet is another matter entirely.

On the right-hand-side of your homepage, you can see what the popular topics are; if you want to get more exposure, add a post on one of those topics. Similarly, if you want your tweets to be associated with certain products (you know, like yours) then make sure to include the relevant keywords in your tweets.

Using links in your tweets are a great way to promote yourself and your business. Be careful, though; if every single link that you post is blatant self-promotion, you’ll find people un-following you pretty fast. Always remember that Twitter is a social media tool, not an advertising service.

While you can’t edit tweets once you’ve posted them, you are able to delete a tweet whenever you want. Just go to the post within your homepage, and mouse over it. On the bottom right-hand of the tweet, a garbage can should appear. Click on the garbage can, and your tweet will be deleted like it never existed. Except, of course for the potentially thousands of people who saw it before you deleted it; so think before you tweet.

While you absolutely can promote your business, also make sure to keep your tweets interesting and informative. Making a habit of posting useful, informative, or entertaining tweets just for the heck of it doesn’t hurt either.

Now that you know what to link, here’s how to do it:

If the link fits within your tweet, then Twitter will automatically link it and leave it as is. Make sure that you use the full http:// address for the link to work properly but i do NOT recommend you do this (I will explain more in a second)
If the link you want to use is too long to tweet (either the whole address or the address with the rest of what you want to tweet) then you need to make the URL shorter. To do this, you can go to http://www.bit.ly, a free service which will let you shorten any website address into something smaller – usually about 4 characters. Then you use the alternate address they provide you in your tweet.

Shorten All Links With Bit.ly

The reason you want to shorten all your links is for testing and tracking (watch the video below and you will see how bit.ly works). This is a 100% free service (but you need to register so you can track your links and get access to the api as well) and you can use it with twitterfeed, tweetlater (one of my favorite services) and other services as well.

Another great service (but has a monthly fee with it) is http://budurl.com/ (I am no way affiliated with them, just like and use them), it is not crazy expensive (I am just using the 12 month service right now and if need to upgrade to the $40+ one, then it will certainly mean I am making even more money from twitter, so that will be a great thing.

BudURL gives you a better way of tracking your links by allowing you to see some statistics that are displayed so you can cross compare campaigns a lot easier then bit.ly allows. It also has some prettier graphics

One thing else that BudURL has that I love is you can 301 redirect the links, which is better from a search engine optimization perspective. Now do not get your panties in a bunch here, this is not going to make a gigantic difference in things but it can help. If you cant afford another monthly fee right now then Bit.ly is fantastic… and there are other great services out there to (in fact I know my buddy at JoeTech is soon coming out with something and you really should check out his blog, it is a cool blog with good info for geeks like us).

Overall Bit.ly is fantastic and if you do not want to spend money then use Bit.ly.

What About Automated Twitter Post Tools?

I do use certain tools that help automate some basic tasks, but I do not use them to spam my followers. I will be getting into specifics on these tools in a later post but for now I want you to concentrate on how to do this manually. I will be showing you how to automatically post a few posts a day that are stories your followers will love but do not worry about that at this moment, for now just get used to how twitter works. I promise to reveal all with very clear steps

Two Awesome Ideas for Effective Twitter Posts

Method #1: As much as possible, when you have something you want to share with your followers, try to have it link to your blog. This is not going to be able to be accomplished 100% of the time, but whenever you can, you really want to do it.

Say for example, there is a cool video that you came across that you think your followers will be interested in. Do not link to YouTube (unless it is your video) but instead create a post about it on your blog and embed the video. Write a paragraph of text as to why you like the video (get your post ranked) and you will be able to funnel the traffic through your blog (and hopefully you will have an opt in plus other monetization systems in place to take advantage of the traffic). Believe me, Twitter sends great traffic (I prove that in the short video below).

Method #2: Look at story titles at places like http://www.Digg.com and http://delicious.com. These sites have loads of traffic and what i do is search in Digg.com for the most popular topics with the keyword I am thinking and I make variations on that. So for example say you have a blog on “Dog Training” and you want to promote a post on Twitter. What you can do is enter…

dog training +p

…into the Digg.com search (the +p makes sure it is only stories others liked) and then make sure to sort by most popular. I immediately saw the story “Dog Saves Owner, Dies Trying to Save Cat” and wanted to read the story. Now if I owned a dog training blog, I would write an article related to that and try to work in how dog training can help make a loyal dog (or something like that) and then use that title or a variation close to it as my twitter post with a link. (Yes I know, great idea )

Twitterpaded with Twitter Marketing

Tomorrow I am going to get into more detail about how to respond to other people (retweet) and interact with other users (and get followers) but in the mean time if you like this post, please CLICK HERE to Tweet it with others now. You can also check out the previous posts in this series by clicking –> Twitter Marketing Training

STOP ==> No sir I am not done yet. There is a crazy contest going on and well today I want to give you all a day of rest

So, I am going to announce the winner of the 2nd copy of Viral Signup Generator and give you all an optional task to get completed for tomorrows prize, which is…

30 Day 125X125 Banner Ad here at Johncow

…and to enter to win that all you have to do is to simply follow http://twitter.com/cedricrice on twitter… of course to qualify you have to have completed the original tasks and this counts as another point for you towards the big draw The winner of the banner will be announced tomorrow but the winner of yesterdays giveaway of Viral Signup Generator is Esteban Leon of http://www.HacerFortuna.com

Do not forget to comment below if you completed the step. Add the url to your twitter account in the comment form.. you will get a link to it as well

Social Media Mania & A Chance to Win Viral Sign Up Generator

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:58:01 +0000

OK, we all know that Twitter is exploding thanks to some recent events with Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey… right???

There are also dozens of new Twitter tools popping up all over the place… and I have bought a lot of them. I have also refunded a couple that were just simply crap.

Well today I was approached by someone about a new product they wanted me to review, and to be honest I deny about 90% of them because the are usually just looking for a way to bypass paying for a review. Which is not a bad thing, but I only have so many hours in the day as it is and I need to focus on things that directly affect my bottom line. Its called running a business

Anyway… as you know… well you should know… the pastures here have a pretty cool contest going on with prizes in excess of $3000 and in the previous contest post I mentioned that each day we are going to have a surprise give away. Sooooo…. wait, should I ramble more or get to the point????

GET TO THE POINT COW!

OK, fine, be that way. The email was from the owner of a new product called Viral Sign Up Generator and what it does is combines your email opt in with your twitter follow.

You need to understand, if you think that Twitter is stupid, a fad or some other negative thing… you need to look in the mirror and say to the person looking back.. “What Are You An Idiot!”

Twitter is constantly bringing in 1% to 2% traffic from every message I send within the first 5 minutes. That means if at this moment there are 8000 followers, then as soon as I tweet a message I get anywhere between 80 and 160 visitors. You may think that does not sound like much, but that is consistent and giving me fantastic results. I want to remind you that all the $3000 in prizes was because I twittered 8 times (at different times and in different ways) that I needed sponsors…. hint, hint (did you catch that). In case you missed it, I twittered 8 different times (because some people work, some people sleep and some people live in other time zones) and I used different words every second message. I did not do this manually, but instead used the PRO version of Tweetlater.com which is very cool. It allows you to spin your text so it posts different variations.

Anyway, as for this tool that was brought to my attention… I immediately looked at it because this was on my list of things for my programmer to do. I have a Twitter tool that i use right now, that he is packaging up for me to offer others and after that i was going to have him create this exact tool. There are 2 huge things that are going to help your blog this year… increasing email subscribers and increasing twitter followers (I promise you)… and this tool helps with both.

It combines your auto responder service with twitter and packages it all together in a beautiful little package.

So just so you know, this is not a paid review… or a review for a friends product, this is me telling you that I like this tool!

I only have one complaint, the installation instructions were not as clear as i wished but i got on AIM with them and they totally agreed with everything I had to offer for advice. The installation is very easy, just do what I did not do and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE VIDEO.

So now you know I recommend this tool to you… but I also have some good news. I am giving away (I got permission from them) two FREE copies of this script to two of you. One winner is already selected, the second winner will be selected tomorrow based on who participates today.

So here are the very clear instructions.

IMPORTANT –> If you want to participate in this contest for a chance to win some of the $3000 in prizes, you need to first CLICK HERE and follow the original contest instructions. Once you have completed that, you can come back to this post and be qualified… but if you already have done that then you a good to go

Mandatory Criteria #1… Subscribe to JoeTechs RSS at http://feeds.feedburner.com/JoeTech
Mandatory Criteria #2… Click Here to tweet the following message “Checking out the SEO service SEO by the Hour http://seobythehour.com/“
Mandatory Criteria #3... you must fill out the following form (yes this is the script i was talking about. IMPORTANT, once you fill out the form you will be brought to a page that has the twitter bird (this is showing you that it is posting to your account), this page will then redirect back to here

WAIT There is MORE… What the above steps did, is entered you in a chance to win a copy of this script BUT it also gave you another point towards winning the grand prize… and I have 1 more “Optional thing” for you to do to earn yourself an extra point.

Optional Task – Click Here to Follow http://twitter.com/TerriLorah (She is the sponsor of the ($106.00 Value) Free Gourmet Candle products (Melting Pot, 2 Bags of melts, an 8 Oz. Spa Sations candle and 2 16oz. Jar Gourmet Candles. PLUS a Mystic Melon Bella Bar too from http://www.usamade.scent-team.com/videopresentation.php

Last but NOT least – Fill out the comment form below with the details so I can pick you as a winner

Ohhh.. and i almost forgot… I said there were two copies we are giving away and that one winner was already selected. That winner is Kikolani. Congrats, i have sent them an email and you should hear from them soon. The winner of the second copy will be announced tomorrow along with details of another draw I am having

Win over $3000 in Prizes with the JohnCow Social Media Mania 2.0 Contest

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:40:40 +0000

Let The Games Begin!

First of all, welcome to the kick off of the Social Media Mania Contest here at JohnCow!

The purpose of this contest is twofold. The first is to get more exposure for JohnCow (kind of obvious I know) but the second is to teach my readers some cool tips and give them a chance to win some cool prizes.

I need to mention that I LOVE Social Media and it is 100% responsible for providing over $3000 in prizes to this contest. I simply posted a few times on Twitter and Facebook and let the JohnCow RSS feed spread the word a bit too. In other words, what took me about 5 minutes to set up, got me in return over $3000 in cash and prizes to offer all of you… and yes I will be explaining exactly what I did.

But first I want to cover some details of this contest and that needs to start with the rules…

The Rules:

Contest Starts May 5th 2009 and Ends May 12th 2009.
You MUST be 18 years of older to participate. Sorry everyone who is under the age of 18 but there are just too many risks involved otherwise.
JohnCow and its owners are NOT responsible for the shipping of prizes. This has been made clear with the sponsors and I will pass the winners info to them and also will provide the winners the contact info of the sponsors.
Unclaimed prizes will be void after 30 days. We send an email and post it on this here blog and if within 30 days the winners do not claim the prize, sorry.. you snooze you lose.
Winners must still be actively following JohnCow and the other top sponsors in order to qualify for their prize at the time of drawing.
All participants agree to our Privacy, TOU and Disclaimer
Participants acknowledge that it may take 4 to 6 weeks to receive some prizes.

What Can You Win? –> Check out the AWESOME prizes!

So far, here are the SWEET Prizes… valued at over $3000!

($300+ Value) Chinavision Projector Cell Phone from JoeTech.com
($400+ Value) 5 Hours of Link Building Service, $50 cash via Paypal and a permanent blogroll link at SEO Blog from James Harrison
$200 Cash via PayPal from http://wpunlimited.com/
$250 in Free Passion Products of Your Choice from Enjoy Intimate Bliss
($200 Value) SONY PSP 3000 Ratchet & Clank Limited Edition Bundle from Making Money With PPC Coach
($500+ Value) FREE 6 Months Access to…
($280 Value) FREE 2 Year Access to GoStats PRO PLUS $100 Cash Via PayPal from http://gostats.com/
($200+ Value) FREE Custom Made 10K Gold Military Ring (For you or someone you care about), from…
($197 Value) Free 1 year Access to Tweet Riches Pro
($106.00 Value) Free Gourmet Candle products (Melting Pot, 2 Bags of melts, an 8 Oz. Spa Sations candle and 2 16oz. Jar Gourmet Candles. PLUS a Mystic Melon Bella Bar too from http://www.usamade.scent-team.com/videopresentation.php
($120 Value) 3 Months Free 125X125 and 585X80 Banner Advertising on PR4 blog at http://the-dude.co.uk/
($110 Value) One Month Free 125X125 Banner and Product Review Advertising on PR3 Blog with Alexa of 27000 at http://www.thewwwblog.com/
($75 Value) Free Video Review of your site, product or service on one of my favorite blogs IMwithJoe
$35 Cash via PayPal from http://www.mymerchantaccountblog.com
($35 Value) 1 Month Free 125 X 125 Banner PLUS 1 Month Text Link Ad in Sidebar on PR4 Blog with Alexa of 50,000 from Blogging Tips to Make Money Online
Free $25 Plug-In Scentsy Warmer & Accessorie from http://www.scentsy.com/niffer
$30 Cash via PayPal from http://www.maheshkukreja.com
$25 Cash via PayPal from http://blog.therealtruthaboutmlm.com

How Are Prizes Awarded

Each player will get an opportunity to earn “points”, these are done by accomplishing simple tasks. The different tasks will be worth different points. Each point will represent one chance to win, so if you have earned 8 points, that means that you have 8 chances to win. So if you had 8 and I only had one, that means that in the draw, you would have 8 tickets in the bucket and I would only have one.

Winners only win once, so if you are selected as Winner #1, you can no longer be selected.

Prizes are given out in the following order…

Winner #1 – Selects Any 5 of the Top Prizes.
Winner #2 – Selects Any 4 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #3 – Selects Any 3 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #4 – Selects Any 2 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #5 – Selects Any 1 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #6 – Selects Any 1 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #7 – Selects Any 1 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #8 – Gets the 1 remaining prizes.

The winners names will be mentioned here on JohnCow.com on the day specified and the winners will have 30 days to claim their prize. They will also be emailed

Lets Get Started

So here we go…and take notice that the first 4 steps are required to qualify

Part 1 Required Steps:

Completing these steps will register you for one point in the contest.

Step #1 (Required): You must be a follower of JohnCow and Click Here to retweet this message “Check out Amazing Prizes that Are Super Easy to Win at http://bit.ly/16yXzv @johncow you rock!”

Step #2 (Required): Click Here to follow on Twitter our Top Sponsor JoeTech.com

Step #3 (Required): Click Here to follow on Twitter our Top Sponsor SEO by The Hour

Step #4: Leave a comment below of the steps you completed so your points can be calculated (all points will be verified) IMPORTANT – Review below jobs before commenting.

Part 2: Optional but Recommended Steps

Step #5 (1 Extra Point): Become a friend to JohnCow on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=616647906

Step #6 (1 Extra Point): Sign up as a “Google Friend Connect” and Join My Site

Step #7: (1 Extra Point): Click here to give WPUnlimited.com a thumbs up on Stumbleupon

Step #8: (1 Extra Point): Go to http://yourpassionconsultant.com/consultants/intimatebliss/catalog.html and then find the a gift that made you say “WOW” and then add the link to that page below in the comment field made available.

Part 3: Follow Along Everyday for More Chances to Win… and Special Daily Draws

For the next week, each day I am going to be posting 3 very simple jobs for you to earn more credits. Each job will be for a top sponsor PLUS one of the other sponsors and I will also include a cool “Social Media Tip”… for example, tomorrow I am going to explain how I was able to get so many prizes through Twitter… I also will be giving away some random prize (the value will change from $20 to $477) each day. So be sure to check back tomorrow!

NOTE: Comments will go into moderation, so only post one comment please

Twitter Marketing – How to Get Started

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:43:33 +0000

Selecting Your Twitter Identity

One of the first things you need to know in order to get started on Twitter is what your user name will be. You’ll need to put some thought into this; your user name is what everybody will use to identify with you, and it’s not very wise to change later (in terms of followers) once you get going.

You can use your user name as an opportunity to tie your twitter account into your online brand. If you’ve got an established persona (like, say John Cow) use that. If you’re best known as yourself (and that’s what you want to promote), then go with that.

I’d avoid using the product you’re ultimately going to promote as your user name – it will make everything you say seem like you’re trying to sell something, and that is not the way to be successful with social marketing. Plus, you may decide to promote another product at another time, and you don’t want to have to start all over again. It’s important that, whatever name you choose, real or persona, that you come across as genuine in both your profile and posts.

Although you can change your user name later, once you start using the new one, your old one becomes available for someone else to use it. If you do feel that you have to change your user name once you’re signed up, make sure to do it early on before you build a following. It also is a pain if you are using other services that need to log in to your twitter account, as they will stop working once your user name is changed.

Another thing you could do is simply start another Twitter account with another email address, and keep the first one dormant. It will keep anyone from swooping in and taking your name. You could also do this proactively with several names in order to keep people from starting accounts that relate to your brand name.

If you do not have a brand and do not want to use your name then pick a specific keywords for your Twitter account that represents your market, it will help your account rank high in search for that keyword. The search engines are loving Twitter and for example, my Twitter account shows up 3rd in Google for the term “johncow”… which of course of that brand i am using

When looking for keywords, I recommend that you try to find a solid two-phrase keyword phrase that represents your niche and gets good traffic. You, of course, will want to promote your Twitter page with that keyword too… but we get into that later. You also want it to be something easy to remember.. but be prepared to get frustrated because just like domains, a lot of good names have been registered and next to nothing is on them. A good example is http://twitter.com/holistichealth, that would be a great twitter account to own if you were in that niche and the person who registered this, has not made a post since October 2008. You will want to to create a list of 20 or more keywords and use all variations available. An example is…

holistichealth
healthholistic
holistic-health
health-holistic
holistic_health
health_holistic

Creating Your Twitter Account

Go to https://twitter.com/signup to create your account or click on the “Get Started – Join” button at http://twitter.com/.

The information they ask for to sign up is pretty simple – full name, user name, password, and email address. As you move through the fields, Twitter will let you know if your choices are acceptable (i.e. a user name that’s not taken, an appropriate password, etc.)

Once you’re signed up, you’ll need to fill out your profile area. It is very important to have as complete a profile as possible; people don’t like to follow people with no information in their profile. Upload a photo or image to use as an avatar; this will also help you gain more followers. You can either use a real image of yourself, or a logo, or other image associated with your brand, or even a stock photo that fits the image you’re trying to create. Anything is better than the Twitter default.

When you’re filling out your profile, you’ll see a box that says “Protect my Updates.” If you choose this, all of your posts and messages will not appear in the public timeline, and can only be seen by people you are following or who are following you. Since you’re signing up to Twitter to promote yourself and your business, I do NOT recommend you do this.

Twitter will also ask you if you want to find friends (contacts) that you have through Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, or MSN. Twitter will search through the contacts that you have in the chosen account, and tell you which ones are already signed up for Twitter. You can always return to this later if you won’t want to do this right away.

Twitter will also show you a list of suggested contacts. This usually includes the more popular Twitter accounts, mostly celebrities and large companies. You can follow these if you like, but it’s unlikely that many of them will follow you back. A better idea is to try and find people within your niche, and follow them. You can do that by searching on a keyword relevant to your category at https://twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter or search http://www.twellow.com/

Once you’ve got your profile done and updated your contacts (if you chose to) then you can click on the ‘Devices’ tab to set yourself up for Twitter on your cell phone; you can get text messages of Twitter messages, and also send a broadcast from your phone. This can be very useful if you’re away from your office a lot (like much of us are) but you still want to be sending regular updates.

Another tab you want to go to right away is the ‘Notices’ tab. This is where you can choose how often Twitter contacts you. I would recommend disabling the New Follower Emails. Otherwise, every time someone follows you, you’ll get an email notifying you. Since your goal is to have followers in the thousands, that would be a lot of email cluttering up your inbox.

Personalizing Your Twitter Page

Finally, the ‘Design’ tab is where you can mess around with your color scheme. You can choose from their pre-created theme colors or templates, or upload your own customized Twitter page. If you’ve already got an established website, this is a great opportunity to make sure that your Twitter page reflects the same design sensibilities. With http://twitter.com/johncow I created a custom background that matches the JohnCow blog, but also adds a personal touch to it.

Remember, Twitter is a social platform and you want your followers to feel like they know you, so create something that gives them a little peek inside. As you can see from my background, I added a picture of a trip to Niagara Falls and a Christmas picture from Disney World. I also however, put the urls to the different businesses i run and put a little slogan on the top of the page.

A fantastic resource for creating a free and professional looking background is http://freetwitterdesigner.com/ but there are also paid services out there as well. I do not have any recommendations for paid services, as with a service like Free Twitter Designer I see no reason to pay for one… but if you want to, then just search Google and I am sure you will find a few

Another extremely important thing to keep in mind is that your profile bio needs to be short and to the point but you will want to have keywords in there that people will search for when looking for other people to follow. Do not put long tail terms in there, keep them top level and make your profile flow.

Also remember that in your profile you will want to add the URL of your main site, this is linked to from your Twitter page and will be visited by people checking out your profile… and YES people will look at your profile. I was confused a while ago as to why people were direct messaging me in Twitter and asking me for personal mentoring, then I realized it was because I had mentioned in my profile that I am a “Mentor”… so yes people do read your profile

And there you have it – everything you need to know to get set up on Twitter. They really make it as easy as possible. Next, the harder part (well not really hard but harder ) – how to post Tweets and start to build your following.

If you want to check out the other lessons in my “Twitter Marketing Training” series, then go here… http://www.johncow.com/twitter-marketing-for-your-business-free-blog-series/

Checklist

Create a list of potential user names, keeping in mind your goal (branding, name recognition or keyword ranking)
Make variations of each potential username
Got to https://twitter.com/signup and create you account
Fill out your profile (image, bio, etc) in full
Create a custom background

If you liked this post, then please Click Here to easily retweet it with your followers

What is Twitter and How Does It Work?

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:00:54 +0000

Here it is, the first in my training series for Twitter. This post will be covering the basics of what Twitter is and how it works, so if you’re already up and running with Twitter, bear with me while I get everybody else up to speed. We’ve got 10 more parts to go, and trust me, we’ll be getting into some more complicated things. But in order to get set up right, you’ve got to start at the beginning. And who knows, even if you’ve been using Twitter for a while, you still might learn something!

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is an extremely fast growing social media network with currently over 1 million members but this is expected to explode! All communications are limited to 140 characters, with no special coding or labeling, although you can use links (but the links are changed into smaller redirect links if they are too long).

Twitter describes themselves as a service for friends, family and coworkers to stay connected through the exchange of quick frequent answers to the same question – what are you doing?

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

How Twitter Works

Twitter offers a simple way for people to connect. Twitter asks one question… “What are you doing?”

Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

Twitter’s core technology is a device agnostic message routing system with rudimentary social networking features. They accept messages from SMS, web, mobile web, instant message, or from third party API projects.

Twitter’s engineering team works with an open-source web application framework called Ruby on Rails. The web site and user interface were designed using Omnigraffle and Photoshop. They like to make frequent changes to the interface, and Rails provides them with a skeleton code frameworks so they don’t have to re-do the whole site every time they add or change something like a sign in form or a picture upload feature. I realize that 90% of you do not care about this but now you know

Twitter has a very simple interface for interacting with other users – simply type your message in to a text box, and click to send it out. It then goes into Twitter’s database, is sent out to all that area following you, will appear on your own homepage, your profile and on any cross-platform third party application you might be using (I will get into much more details on this later).

The other place that it appears is on the public timeline, which has all the tweets that everybody is posting. This moves really fast – most of the posts that you will see have been posted in the last 5 seconds.

Although Twitter asks you what you’re doing, most users use it for something other than that. You can share interesting links (yours or otherwise) with other people. You can set it up for Twitter to send out an update every time you add a new post to your blog PLUS more.

How Twitter Can Work For Your Business

Twitter can put your business’s message in front of thousands of people, instantly. If you can harness this power, and use it effectively, Twitter can help you promote your brand and add depth to your online identity.
Whether or not you’re experienced in social marketing, Twitter gives you a simple, easy-to-use way of interacting with your audience. Even if you’ve already done some social marketing and been successful, Twitter can still help you expand your audience and grow your circle of influence.

One thing to always keep in mind when using Twitter, however is this: this is a social tool, not an advertising outlet. You can’t just put messages out there that are just hard sells and expect people to keep following you. You need to put some time and effort into growing your community, interact with your followers (not selling things) and follow other people, and establish your credibility within Twitter before you start promoting yourself.

If you do it right, you can use your Twitter messages to direct your followers to check out your products, blogs, affiliate programs, or anything else that you want to promote. You can use Twitter to both promote things to your current contacts, as well as attract new business.

The best thing about twitter (in my opinion anyway) is they are much more open to developers creating third party applications (FaceBook recently changed to be more like Twitter)… the great thing about this is there are loads of tools that take 90% of the repetitive daily work out of using Twitter. This does not mean you can set and forget… that does not work with social sites… but you can do a lot of things automatically that are highly effective but time intensive.

A few of my absolute favorite 3rd Party Twitter Tools (I will be talking about these over the next couple weeks) are…

http://untweeps.com/: Unfollow followers who have abandoned their twitter account
http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/: Mass unfollow those who do not follow you
http://www.twellow.com/: Best twitter directory
http://twitterfeed.com/: Free service for auto posting to your twitter account
http://www.tweetlater.com/: Great service for managing automated direct messages, auto following and more
http://budurl.com/ Paid URL shortener that has excellent tracking
http://easytweets.com/ Paid service that replaces twitterfeed, automatically finds loads of people to follow and integrates with Google Analytics

Over the next couple weeks, I will be getting into much more depth of actually setting up and marketing using Twitter but the purpose of this post was to set the ground work of understanding, so you can start off on the right foot.

If you like this post… like the idea of this series… or just like me, PLEASE comment below, Click Here to retweet this messge and share it with others

Twitter Marketing for Your Business FREE Blog Series

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:57:01 +0000

So have you heard of Twitter… ya right… like who hasn’t?

TV, News and every blog on the internet is talking about it and when Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN, it started to really explode… and then Oprah had it on her show and well lets just say the Twitter server had to work overtime!

It seems this once seemingly “stupid” and “useless” (yes, i heard many a person say this) microblogging system is taking off and is leading by example.

I’ve been playing around with it for over a year, and while it’s been fun, there’s also serious business applications to using Twitter as well. I am not talking of the spamming systems that are popping up, where they teach you to add followers and then promote stuff to them left and right. I mean real honest to goodness “solid” business advantages to using Twitter…

BUT (and it is a big one)

…in order to take advantage of it, you need to be on it (as a famous lottery commercial, in Canada anyway, once said, “You can’t win if you don’t play”) and you have to know how to play by the rules.

So I’m here to show you how to get in the game and start playing with Twitter.. the RIGHT way!

This will be the first in a series of posts that will teach you how to use Twitter, from the basics of what Twitter is and what it can do, to the more complicated aspects of it and how you can use it to promote your business.

Here’s some of what I’ll be covering:

By the end of it you should be a verifiable* Twitter expert.

*Well, maybe not really verifiable, since I don’t think that I have the authority to do that, but you know what I mean.

Oh and make sure to follow us at http://www.twitter.com/johncow and add us as a Friend on FaceBook while you are at it too

What Do You Mean I’m Accountable for What I Do Online?

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:10:45 +0000

Recently, there has been quite a kerfuffle over at the Brazen Careerist http://blog.penelopetrunk.com. In response to a Tweet she had written disparagingly about having a frustrating day at home with her kids, someone (that she didn’t know) responded by attacking Penelope Trunk as a mother, and saying that they would take the kids and appreciate them.

Incensed by this personal attack from a stranger, Penelope decided to find out who this person was, and then contacted them. She found out his personal information (quite easily, in fact), and proceeded to call him, both at home and at work. She then blogged about it, and included his full name and hometown in the header (which as we all know, made sure that it made it’s way into the Google index, forever connecting him to that post.)

There have been over 400 comments on this one post, some applauding her, some saying that she took the comment a little too personally, and overreacted in her blog, which delved deep into the issues and psychology of caring for kids, but there were a whole lot more condemning her for daring to breach this man’s privacy by contacting him offline.

Which begs the question – it is unfair to expect there to be offline consequences for the actions we take online? I think that a lot of us expect there to be anonymity on the web – which, why? While you can certainly use an alias online (shocker – John Cow is not my real name!) for the most part, people are fairly upfront about using their real names (and even mine is easily found on this site), especially when using Facebook or Twitter.

So, was it really the shocking and reprehensible act that Penelope wanted to contact this person in real life for an explanation of the comments he made online? Would he have said the same thing if he was in the same room, or on the phone with her? Why is it that we think we can say things online that we wouldn’t say in real life?

And, really, if you’re using your real name on your Twitter account, and you start making disparaging comments about someone you don’t even know, then what do you expect? Even the most calm and turn-the-other-cheek type of person will come out guns blazing when their abilities as a parent, or even worse, the love they have for their children, is questioned.

So, we’re a bit off topic today, but the question bears asking – Do you think that your online persona should have repercussions on your offline life? Or are the two completely separate? Or, if you think they should be separate, what kind of responsibility should people take for what they say online?

5 Ways to Get Lots of Non Google Traffic

Jason Katzenback — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:13:11 +0000

A lot of “us” focus on Google for traffic… which is smart, but is there a point in which it might be causing more harm then good?

I am not by any means suggesting that you do not focus on Google. There is no doubt that they provide massive amounts of traffic… but what would happen if suddenly Google decided to remove you from their rankings?

Would your site or blog be dead?

Over the past 30 days, the following non Google sources have provided traffic to JohnCow.com:

19% –> eMail – Mailing list & RSS
15% –> Affiliate Links promoting my free ebook
13% –> Stumbleupon – Was a few times but the biggest was to my free “Planning 2009 Guide”
12% –> Twitter – All over but two spikes are CPA Arbitrage post and “Planning 2009″ post.
7% –> Digitalpoint Forum – To the post about CPA Arbitrage
4% –> Digg – “2009 Planning Guide”
3% –> Tumblr – Consistent and mostly to the index page
3% –> Wikipedia – I owe Ranked Hard for this one… this is a link to a guest post they did

That is 76% of my traffic for the month of December!

In fact, Google only provided 14% of the traffic(the other 10% was a bunch of little things like yahoo, msn and so on).

So, whats my point of showing this?

If you want more traffic to your website or blog, do NOT put all your eggs in one basket, DO think outside of Google alone and DO get people talking!

Here are 5 things for you to think about:

Are you building a mailing list (You NEED to do this for long term sustainability)?
Are you building up a solid presense in different social media outlets (I have over 1600 followers on twitter now)?
Do you create controversial content that will cause people to act (share, comment and come back for more)?
Do you give away valuable free content that will cause people to act (share, comment and come back for more)?
Do you offer an affiliate program of some sort to “encourage” people who promote you?

Ok, I know there is nothing earth shattering here… but if anything I hope it makes you think a little about how you are currently doing things and how you may be able to do things better!

The bottom line is it comes down to balance. Do not focus everything on Google… but on the other hand, do NOT ignore them either.

What are your thoughts on this?

7 Apple Apps That Make Life Easier

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:57:16 +0000

During the years we’ve build up a certain amount of ignorance towards the constant stream of new applications. It seem someone is bringing out something new every day, and we just can’t be bothered with checking them all out all the time. So here we are, figured we’d make a list of the apps we do use on a daily basis – apps that made our life easier.

(1) DockDrop – This has to be one of the simplest, yet most useful of the bunch. DockDrop is a little folder icon that nests itself in your OS X toolbar. Once you’ve configured it, you can simply drag any file you’d like into the folder and it will upload itself to any designated FTP folder you’ve set. Once that’s done, the link will automagically get copied to your clipboard. It’s so handy for sharing stuff with your friends, uploading images in one movement etc. We’re sure you can find good use for this little gem.

(2) Things – The name is deceptively simple but it hits the nail on the head. Things is an extensive task management tool. We’ve tried a few of these, only to find limitations or too much hoohaa most of the time. Things is simple, flexible, efficient and above all, a great piece of eyecandy. Adding daily or weekly tasks is a breeze with simple drag and drop functionality. If you receive an email about something you need to do, drag it on the dock icon and Things will store it on your todo list. Its that easy. This app is still free since its in Beta but in Spring this year, you’ll have to pay for it.

(3) Xyle Scope – From the same people that brought us Things, Xyle Scope is a fantastic tool that will save any webmaster hours of work by increasing workflow. All it really does is open whatever website you’re visiting like normal in safari, but on the right side, the whole sourcecode and CSS will be neatly dissected for quick and easy bug tracking. Perhaps this isn’t a tool that will come in handy for everyone, but for those of you with your own websites, we bet there’s a ton of time to be saved with Xyle Scope. There’s a 10 day full feature trial available.

(4) 1Password – The days of re-requesting your passwords via email from sites you haven’t logged into for a while are gone with 1Password. Sure, your browser has a password manager, but how often does it happen that you clear cookies or whatever? Right, back to the hassle of a new password via email, changing it etc. Bah. Not anymore, this password manager does one thing and it does it really well. All you need to remember is your master password. With one click of a button, you’ll log in to any site that you’ve ever visited with 1Password. The trial version lets you use up to 20 sites and that’s more than enough for us at the moment. Excellent time saver and frustration preventer.

(5) DiggUpdate – Yes, Digg can be a huge waste of time when there’s work to be done, but with the DiggUpdate app, you’ll get informed about new stories that have become popular in a none-intrusive little AJAX powered window on the top right of your screen. After all, you don’t want to miss out on anything current eh? Click at your own risk. Completely free and they have a windows version too. Good stuff.

(6) HotSpot Shield – We only use this because it gets us onto U.S sites that are usually blocked for foreign IPs, like HULU.com. Just turn this baby on and HULU.com will think you’re ok, allowing you to watch all their content. Besides that, here’s what the creators of the app have to say about it:

“Sure, public Wi-Fi hotspots are great. After all, what would life be without checking your email each morning at your favorite café? But while you’re enjoying your latte and a bagel, some hacker might be accessing your passwords, credit card numbers, sensitive company data and much more. And standard antivirus software won’t protect you.
That’s why AnchorFree is pleased to offer Hotspot Shield. This free security software keeps your Internet connection secure at public hotspots, home or work.”

[Too bad they didn't have a snazzy logo we could use here.]

(7) Twirl – The picture says it all.