Funnels. That’s where we’re headed. I was so excited when ordinary people got access to quick social marketing avenues such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more. It brought the web 2.0 peer-to-peer platform to a whole new level.
Instead of just reading customer comments on Amazon, which was a move from the made up testimonial you saw on a static sales page, we’re now able to tap right into the lives of those we wish to follow on the ‘net.
We get to hear about John Reese washing his Lamborghini baby or Rick Butts being stalked by a pretty young thing (what’s a guy to do?). It’s fun – it makes them real people.
We’re all in this work at home “cubicle” we’ve chosen and without the current web 2.0 environment, we would have no water cooler to head to for gossip, casual small talk, and camaraderie.
It can’t all be about work (boring)! We need to have that element of socialization through WORK. You can turn to your spouse and start saying, “Man, it’s a shame Michel Fortin’s Copywriters Board shut down, isn’t it?” But they won’t understand. You have to use web 2.0 to discuss with like-minded people.
But it’s getting out of control, isn’t it?
There are too many people to follow. I can log into Twitter and spend a good half hour reading and Tweeting and catching up with NicheLady and Dana_Willhoit and NicheProf but then I also have to log into Facebook and see what Seth Godin’s up to, what Kevin Riley’s cooking up, and what madness Jason Moffat’s stirring up.
Then (whew, getting tired), I have to log into YouTube to see what Ed Dale’s posting, and so on. If I really want to keep track of everyone, I’m wasting a lot of my day logging in and out of various places and seeing who’s doing what!
Likewise, I want my followers to be able to check in with my various blog posts, Facebook, Twitter messages, and more without having to visit every one of my sites.
FriendFeed to the rescue. I’m on it. Ed Dale’s on it. Everyone’s doing it. It’s perfect for the social marketing junkie in all of us. Give it a try and subscribe to my feed there.
OMG you know what this means? My friend Lewis Smile will be laughing an evil laugh. He’s been trying to convert me to be an RSS user for months and I’ve always refused. But FF makes it SO easy…I’m heading to the dark side. Join me!
Tiff 
Pssst: Guess what’s on MY horizon? Stay tuned…
Written by tiffadmin on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Social Marketing Junkie.
Okay so in keeping up with my testing, I created the Elmo Live lens to compete with my Elmo Live dot info domain that I created by following Info Product Killer. It took about 24-48 hours for the website to get indexed. I’m getting GREAT traffic for one of the dolls in particular - have top spot for that. I don’t want to tell which one, of course.
I loved how he taught us to create depth pages with other keywords. For example, on his Bumblebee Transformers page, he had a page bolding the keywords “cheap,” “yellow,” “robotic,” etc. I did that and that’s how I’ve captured top spot for another Elmo doll.
My Squidoo lens took FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR to get indexed, which is very unusual! I linked to it from other highly indexed lenses, and from EZA, etc., but it sat stagnant until yesterday! That was very annoying.
Just started seeing search engine traffic to it today. Whew! Just in time for Christmas So we’ll see how it goes. I’m still selling some Elmo dolls via Amazon. I will admit this year is MUCH slower than last year (hello, rotten economy!). Last year from October 1st on I was making great money, and even on established pages, it’s slow. But maybe it’ll pick up close to Christmas. I know I’m shopping late this year myself.
I’ll keep ya updated! You let me know too how YOUR Squidoo versus domain journey is going. I’m gonna put up some other lenses today that compete with my other dot info domains for the IPK strategy.
Tiff
Written by tiffadmin on November 19th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Info Product Killer.
I have a dilemma I’m sure many of you have, too. I got on Facebook for marketing purposes and tons of old friends found me! So now I have a combination friends list of people from as far back as 4th grade paired with marketing followers.
This makes my participation there a bit harder. On one hand, I want to promote my business, giving good tips about web 2.0, writing, and marketing in general. But then when I post an update on Facebook that says, “Here’s a great autoresponder tool for building your list,” my “old time friends” pipe up and say, “Huh?”
Maybe I should have created two accounts. But it’s too late now. I may have to put a disclaimer for all of my marketing messages.
It doesn’t work both ways, either - well, not really. In marketing, it’s good to let your followers get to know you. I can share news about my family activities with my marketing fans. But what about if an old friend posts on my profile about some wild girls’ night out I had my freshman year in college? (Mind you, I’m being hypothetical here - I would NEVER have been wild - hee hee). In that case, you might not want your marketing fans to see your personal business.
How do you separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak?
Post your tips here!
Tiff
Written by tiffadmin on November 16th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Facebook.
Hi everyone!
My son, Shawn, who is 9 years old, is on a mission to donate 2,000 canned goods to the Tarrant Area Food Bank this holiday season. They provide meals to many people - from the homeless to disadvantaged children’s programs, senior citizens, and more.
I need your help to spread the word about his plans so he can meet his goals! I posted some options here: Stop Hunger for the Holidays and I hope you’ll help spread the word with me!
We all know this year will be lean times for so many families, and I fear the food banks will be stretched to capacity. Anything - even a 50 cent can of corn - will mean the world to some family or individual.
Thank you!
Tiff
Written by tiffadmin on November 14th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Personal.
Whenever I recommend anything having to do with a real domain, I always get asked, “Will this work on Squidoo (or insert social networking site name of your choice here)?” People are in love with the idea of getting something for nothing, and that’s exactly what a web 2.0 business offers - a free platform.
There are pros and cons to running your business solely on the back of social networking sites. I’m a big proponent of using them, as you can tell, but I’m also an advocate for buying your own domain. It used to intimidate me - until I found out how easy it is to register a domain (under 10 bucks for a dot com and 99 cents for a dot info at GoDaddy).
Hosting was not complicated, either. Hostgator makes it very easy to operate your own domain. I use the Legacy File option which is very functional - you choose your folder to upload in, click upload files, and you’re done. You can also use an FTP program if you want to.
But the question remains - “Can you operate a web 2.0 business without taking the domain route?” The answer is simple - Yes!
It is possible and you can even have a great deal of success with it. Let’s look at the pros and cons of this option so you can make an informed decision:
Pros to running a web 2.0 business:
1.) It’s FREE! (And in the case of some sites like Squidoo, Hub Pages, Knol - you get unlimited pages)
2.) It’s easy (Squidoo has point and click modules to choose to build your pages)
3.) It brings an instant audience to your pages (because you’re part of the community)
4.) You ride the coattails of the site’s search engine ranking power
Cons to running a web 2.0 business:
1.) You’re at the mercy of the site owners. (If they close your page, alter its layout, etc., you have no control.)
2.) Marketing may not be accepted as widely (ie: Hub Pages, where your links are limited)
3.) It can appear unprofessional. (while web 2.0 platforms serve as good branding tools, some consumers consider this a pitstop only and want to go on to your “real” site if they’re going to trust you).
I’m sure there are many more you can think of yourself. My advice is to utilize web 2.0 platforms as your funnel to your main domains. From time to time I sell directly from these sites, but I always have links to my authority domains (like this one at TiffanyDow.com) for good measure.
My recommendation is if you have ZERO funds and are a newbie, start with a web 2.0 business. Branch out from there and get your own hosting and domain as soon as possible. Stick a good WordPress theme on your domain if you’re not familiar with web design.
Tiff
Written by tiffadmin on November 12th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Web 2.0 in General.
I’m a firm believer in making your Squidoo lens pretty. You want people to land on it and feel like they’re in the right spot for professional information. Think about if you were handed a plain old flyer someone printed out with nothing more than text on it versus a nice colorful brochure with text wrapped around relevant images.
Which would you consider the authority on the subject matter?
The same goes for all of your web 2.0 pages - Squidoo, Google Knol, Hub Pages. You need formatting and images that make it pop.
Let me show you a comparison right now. Which one would you rather visit and buy from:
This lens: http://www.squidoo.com/glasschristmasornament
or
This one: http://www.squidoo.com/toptoddlertoys
The images alone make a world of difference in the experience your visitor has on your lens (or Knol or Hub).
But there’s also some cool formatting you can do, too! You can bold and italicize words. I bold links and italicize to make words pop. This is done with simple HTML code like this: [b] and [i] (replace the brackets [] with arrows <>).
Here’s how to put a color box around a text module and enlarge your text (again, replace brackets [] with arrows <>):
[b][p style="border: 3px solid #069; padding: 14px; text-align: center"][a href='http://www.plrminimart.com/blog' target='_blank'][b style='color: blue; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold']PLR articles[/b][/a][/p][/b]
Using that code, you can change the color, the font-size, and the border color. I’ve hyperlinked my text, too! Here’s the result you’ll get:
To simply change some text to a different color (and bold it), use this code - again, change brackets [] to arrows <>:
[b style="color: green; font-weight: bold;"]green with envy[/b]
This would make green with envy turn to a bold green color!
To wrap text around an image that you host on your server and hyperlink the image, Which is what I love to do, use this code (arrows, not brackets):
[a href="http://www.URLYouWanttoLinkto.com"][img src="http://www.ImageURL.JPG" alt="relevant keyword" align="right" hspace="5" /][/a]
Now you can change the right to left or center and the spacing makes sure the text isn’t sitting right on the border of the image. It’s nice to have a bit of space separating the image and the text.
Where to get images?
IStockPhoto is my top choice. I buy $60 here and there and use them up as I go, keeping the images for later use. They’re $1 per small image, and small is kind of large for the ‘net.
Also, remember to break up your text modules with some Amazon or polls or something else of your choosing.
Hope this helps!
Tiff
Written by tiffadmin on November 8th, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Squidoo Secrets.
I get asked this question quite often - “would I be a good fit?” People want to know if they’ll be accepted and if their efforts will pay off if they join Squidoo. Since Lewis Smile and I launched Build My Lens to build professional lenses for clients, we’ve seen many niche marketers come through, so I feel qualified to let you know who is on Squidoo - and who should be!
Here’s a sampling of who we see buying a Squidoo lens:
Multi Level Marketers - Men and women who promote such companies as CarbonCopyPro and Business in a Box, The Reverse Funnel System, Shaklee, Magnetic Sponsoring, and many more!
Niche Internet Marketers - People who want to cash in on their niche - from dog training to law of attraction and more.
Authors - Not just eBook authors, but print book authors. Lewis and I have created lenses for some very big names, but we can’t tell you who because the PR firm outsources the work to us. Drat! However, I will tell you that you’ve seen some of them on TV.
Real Estate Professionals - This is becoming a biggie! Real Estate pros are now hiring us to create lenses for them to showcase their business (it’s like a virtual business card!) and also to even showcase houses they’re promoting for sale.
Hobbyists - Not everyone wants a lens for money. Many want a professional lens just for something they’re passionate about. We’ve created lenses on tons of topics, including spirituality, pets, doll house building, and more!
Who is on Squidoo?
Who isn’t - that may be a better question!
Tiff
Written by tiffadmin on November 4th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Branding on Squidoo.
Controversy and Psychology in the Web 2.0 Atmosphere 
