Twitter for Social Networking

I just did a search for the word "Twitter" in the Conquer Your Niche forum. The first post in the search results was a question asking "What is the best social networking site for generating traffic?"

I was a little surprised to find that nearly every response suggested Twitter to be one of the best. In fact, it blows me away how BIG Twitter has become.

After beginning to research the marketing benefits of using Twitter, I realized that the research has already been done, so "screw it". Why should I use my 2 hours per day to redo what's already available.

Instead of putting up a list of references for Twitter tips, here, I'll just direct you to BuzzBlogger. They've put up a great list to follow to get the most out of Twitter.

Here's a video by Ed Dale on ways that Twitter is so valuable for any business.



The best advice I can give for using Twitter in your marketing is this:

Don't jump on and start advertising to everyone. Build relationships first.

Finally, be sure to follow me on Twitter. I use the screen name, ohohdon.

Posting in Forums

ConquerYourNiche Forum is one that I post in frequently. It's not the most heavily used forum available, but I've seen pretty good traffic from it.

It's important to provide good content when posting in forums. Advertisements will be deleted. Affiliate links will be removed from your posts. If you want to advertise, set up your signature file with links to websites that you want to send traffic to. If you are perceived as an expert, people will check your links.

Please write original content in your posts. If you get material from another source, be sure to cite that source.

A couple days ago, while responding to some posts, I came across one that sounded a little too much like an article. When I took a part of the post and ran it through a Google search....sure enough....It pulled up an article submission site. Strangely enough, the author of the article was not the same name as the person posting on the forum.

When confronting the plagiarist, he denied copying the article. I'll never know how he could write 200 words in the exact order that someone else wrote....without copying the original. Ha ha ha!

Unless you are beginning a new thread, try to find threads that haven't been commented on, or at most one or two comments. That way, when anyone else opens that thread, your post will show up as one of the first few comments and will be more likely to be read. Most people will read the first couple comments, then leave or skip to the very end and make their comment

Occasionally, it's a good idea to check the threads that you've started. If others have commented after you, respond to their comments. That will put your thread back at the top of the list of threads and will get your post read more.

Please comment on this blog post if you have other helpful hints for making your time spent in the forums more effective.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... C: wait... SD: wait...

Using Direct Matches

I spent a half hour or so this morning on DirectMatches, a social networking site targeted to people who are working in internet mareketing businesses.

My steps for using DirectMatches are as follows:

• I accept any new friend requests that are pending.
• I go to the Search link, uncheck the two boxes and click search, then begin requesting each member as a friend. I request 50 to 60 or so each time I visit.
• Next, I go to MyMail and respond, personally to each message that I received. This doesn't have to take much time. Many of the letters I receive are very similar to others and I have "personal" responses saved in Word that I can copy over. I avoid advertising in my messages other than in the Signature File.
• I send out a brief message to up to 60 members in a group mail letter. I change my group mail to a different group of members each time I do this.

That's about it. It's pretty quick and painless.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... C: wait... SD: wait...

It All Starts Today

I've played around with internet marketing for some time now. It's time to get serious. I'm going to chronicle my venture in a public blog format, right here. That's laying it all out on the line, isn't it? There will be no hype and B.S. here - just what I'm doing and the results of my activities.

I've allotted 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day - in the morning before I go to my JOB - for my internet related activities. There may be more time, in between, but the time in the morning is fixed and will be consistent.

Here's the plan:

This blog is the center of all my traffic generation efforts. In it will be pure content - news and information with no blatant, spammy advertising. The theme will be "Maximum Profit with Minimal Expense." The focus will be in driving traffic using free or inexpensive methods and tools.

I've gone to Blogger for this venture, just because it's free. I've got a Wordpress blog on my own hosting account, but that just adds more expense. Anything I can do in an effective manner without paying for it, I'll do it.

I'll use the following tools to drive traffic to my blog:

• Comments on others' blogs
• Forum posts
• Writing and submitting articles
• Social networking
• Social directories

All of these tools are free to use. They are all about building relationships and establishing "authority". They all will build a strong search engine presence which in turn will create "organic" traffic from Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the others.

I've turned off the Pay Per Click and other paid traffic sources. I'm using the free method. Go to Google and search for "ohohdon" or "Pure Profit Online" and watch the resusts grow.

Now, how will I turn the traffic into money? Well, there will soon be a link to a list building service. This service is similar to Mammoth List or List Twister, but completely blows the others away! It operates on the "funded proposal" principle, which really rocks! I'll talk about that more, later.

It also generates an email list. The email list members will receive notice of blog updates, tips and tricks, and anything else that I deem to be important for the readers to know.

So, that's it. I'm starting from scratch. I don't claim to be a guru. This is all grassroots marketing from the ground up.

One...
Two...
Three...
Ready...
Set...

GO!

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... C: wait... SD: wait...