ovblogger : SEO News – WordPress – Marketing Blog

I’ve been at this business for almost 6 years now, and have accumulated a ton of useful knowledge. I’m grateful for that, and just absolutely LOVE learning stuff — new stuff all the time. And I’m very lucky because working for Overcome Everything gets me lots of cool info that I couldn’t afford myself. It’s really a super perk of the job.

So, with all this stuff in my brain, I’m asked to do teleseminars often.  I love that! Teleseminars are absolutely the best way to get people interested in who you are and what you know that can help them to move their businesses forward. You gain their respect, trust, and because of those things, you make money. People buy from people they know and trust.

The best of all situations, of course, if having your own teleseminar series. Here’s a link for you: http://easyseotricks.com/13th . I can attest to the fact that this system works, and that it gives you a MUCH bigger list than the one you have now.

The thing is that you can’t be shy. Shy will NOT work in business. So, get over yourself, right now! Anyone can use the strategies that the link above gives you… anyone.

So, last night, I did a teleseminar with someone who started out as a customer of mine and Telman’s and he quickly became a friend. His name is Rick Burdo, and he’s a disabled Veteran. He can’t even type because of his disability, and so does all of his pages with voice recognition software. It’s amazing! He’s really struggled through a LOT to put his whole system together, and now, he’s actually doing it.

What’s your hurdle?

You don’t have to know everything about your topic. All you have to do is assemble a group of experts who do. Then, you interview them. Simple, right? It’s not that tough getting experts in your niche, either, because they want to sell their stuff to your list and get all the cool respect, trust, etc. from new people that they’ve not met before.

Then, when you put all of the interviews together, you have a product, and… it’s a great product because of all the information that the experts have put forth. It has nothing to do with you or your expertise! It’s how Tellman built a multi-million dollar busines and then, he was able to hire me and 14 other folks! So, now, how enticing are teleseminars, huh?

I’m telling you… they’re the BOMB!

Want to know the particulars? Check this out: http://easyseotricks.com/13th Believe me… it’s amazing what one simple teleseminar series can do for your business and your wallet. Amazing.

Thanks for being patient. Sorry I didn’t do my routine 5-day weekly posts this week, but something prevented me… a sh*tload of fun for the past two days, and hey… Tellman only comes to town once in a blue moon. Mea culpa.

But I’m here to talk about Social Business Networks. You know the ones I mean: LinkedIn, Entrepreneur Connect, Partner Up, StartUpNation, etc. All great places to belong to, if you’re a business owner.  You can use these places not just to connect with other business owners in your niche, but to find services that you need to run your business. These networks are not only convenient, but can make a world of difference in your business life.

My question is: How many sites can you join? Well… The answer, of course, is all of them.

You can.

But how many will you actively participate in? How many do you have time to find friends in or write content for, and on and on.

My advice is to find a network that is rich with members of your niche, and then, to work in that one with the limited time you have. Build a killer profile, and make lots of friends. I-n-t-e-r-a-c-t! Don’t just throw a profile up there and expect it to do you any good.

I strongly encourage you to check out some of the social networks. They can be a blessing to new business owners, especially those dedicated to your niche. Not all niches have this option, of course, but SelfGrowth.com, for example is an excellent place for self-help and healthcare providers to meet up and plan joint ventures or whatever. Sometimes, all you need is a little moral support and things start falling into place.

So, I’m always on the lookout for cool new Web 2.0 stuff, right?

Today, I’m over at GotoWeb20 and I found “Twesents,” a whole bunch of cute, funny, rude, and otherwise interesting virtual presents that you can send to your Twitter friends. I just sent my pal Carrie Wilkerson, the Barefoot Executive, a pair of baby seals, just to try the service out. She posted a pic of me on Facebook yesterday, and I wanted to thank her. This was just a fun way to let her know I appreciate her, right?

The downside is that if you have a lot of friends, you have to sift through them all until you find the one(s) you want to send things to. It took me a good 5 minutes just to find her.  Or so I thought. I went back and found the “search” function after the fact… duh. I have a tendency to half read instructions, to just blunder ahead on my own, and I often pay for it. Grr…

Anyway, it’s just a fun site that I thought my Tweeple would like to know about.

However, GotoWeb20.net is a much more fascinating site than you can imagine. I heard about it a couple of years back from Jack Humphrey at a Stomper Net conference and have been a huge fan ever since.

You can find any number of interesting and cool things there that have nothing whatsoever to do with Twitter. I can’t tell you how many of them I use and have accumulated over time. The Web just gets more and more fun all the time.

Check out both of these sites. I know you’ll love ‘em.

Everyone is all about Twitter these days. It’s all anyone was talking about last weekend.

I like Twitter, too, as you know, and what’s totally cool is that since JV Alert, I’ve picked up almost 300 new followers.  Wahoo!

Yesterday, Andrew Devine (@adevine1) posted an awesome tweet about 14 cool Twitter tools from Kenny Hyder. Some of them I’ve not heard about before, and I thought I’d share. Check this out: 14 Tools of Highly Effective Twitter Users

• Ever wonder if you should follow someone or not?
• Check out the plethora of # tags that exist
• Stalk people on Twitter (Follow them incognito.)
• Get some very cool stats about your usage
• Download and Save a copy of your Twitter account
• Get beyond TweetBacks
• Enter yourself in the Twitter Business Directory
• Host your own short URL
• Add your photographs to Twitter easily
• Post to Twitter from your Firefox address bar (I like TwiterFox for that better, really.)
• Post to your Google Calendar by sending direct messages
• Find stats on your Twitter relationships
• Grade yourself as a Tweep
• Schedule and post Tweets

All there!

I started this yesterday, so sorry I’m behind. We started a new program at Overcome Everything — ListBuilding 411, where members can ask one question per day and a member of our crack OE staff will answer in video. It’s pretty cool for the members, but we’re experiencing some growning pains and guess who gets to manage all that?

Moi.

So, I’m behind.

But not for long. Bear with me.

When you make a post to your blog, do you bookmark it in the social sites? Every time?

Do you favorite anything but your own stuff?

Do you know that you might be link spamming?

I mean, you really shouldn’t bookmark every single post you make, unless your posts are chock full of incredible information. If you’re posting about what your cat had for lunch, don’t bookmark it. People won’t be interested in reading that stuff.

Be discerning. When you write a great post, totally bookmark it through OnlyWire, Tell-a-Friend Social Twist, or whatever you like to use. Tell the world!

Then, other folks will find your blog. They’ll visit you and become interested in what you have to say.

Also be sure to bookmark other interesting things you find on the Web. You can make friends on places like Digg and StumbleUpon, who will check out everything you bookmark. That’s what social sites are all about.

My idea is that at some point, people will decide what appears in the search engines, rather than an algorithm. We can vote on what we like and don’t like, and have the people decide what is important to them and what isn’t.

Cool?

So, I’ve tried the Facebook ads. They’re pretty cool in terms of placement and presentation, but they produced no results. So, I abandoned them. I’m wondering if any of you have had success. I’d love to hear about it. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think made that happen.

The prediction from eMarketer Daily is that Web 2.0 advertising will rise from $1.175M in 2008 to $1,295M in 2009. Not a huge jump, but it shows how people are getting more excited about placing ads on Web 2.0, but they’re predicting $1.64M in 2013, so a constant rise in advertising in Web 2.0.

But who’s doing it?

On MySpace.com, it’s the big boys. There’s a huge flash ad for the new blockbuster movieTwilight spread across the entire screen. There’s another smaller banner at the bottom for that movie, too. And we have Ashton Kutcher, Don Cheadle, and the World Poker Tour. Not one Internet marketer from our circles. Not one. Inside, we have ads all over the page. I really think that MySpace is getting just the tad spammy, and because it annoys me so, I rarely go back to visit.

I like Facebook 100 times better. The only ads there are the pay-per-click ads and they’re unobtrusive. They don’t smack you in the eyeballs like the MySpace ads do. I mean, it makes you wonder whether you’re at MySpace to socialize or be in a virtual mall lined with nothing but billboards. But MySpace is kind of for the younger generation. Maybe they’re so inured to all of the ads they see day after day that they just don’t notice.

HubPages.com has a couple of banner ads on the front page. Not really annoying because I’m banner blind, I guess. I just don’t see them.  They’re there when you sign in, too, and from companies like AT&T, so I’m guessing that the HubPages owner is making a tidy sum from those banners. I don’t mind. They should be making some money for their service.

Squidoo? No ads at all on the home page. Very classy. We have some advertising on the lenses themselves, but again, not annoying at all. The banners blend in and well… again from big companies. I’d expect nothing less from Seth Godin.

But, what’s the deal with Twitter? I mean, it’s HOT, hot HOT! And they have NO monetization for that service whatsoever. I mean, how many of us could jump right in and give them a pointer or two? Have any of you guru types contacted the people? You’re missing a huge opportunity there!

Anyway, I’m seeing these numbers and they’re looking pretty good, but we’re talking major companies coming in and making money with Web 2.0. I’m really hoping they won’t come in and overwhelm the sites and make a carnival-like atmosphere like they did at MySpace.

Of course, I’m into advertising and all things marketing, but there’s a delicate balance, isn’t there? We all hate email spammers, so there’s a line that we all, marketer and non-marketer alike don’t like crossed.

When the ads come in to pollute the sociability of Web 2.0 — bad news, and the predictions for big ad revenues? Out the window.

I say keep Web 2.0 sociable. Keep too many ads out and people reaching out to people in. That’s the part that makes Web 2.0 special.

Social media is expanding and contracting at quite a rapid rate. And Pownce announced yesterday that it would be closing on 12/15.  I was suprised when I went in to update my account, but also have to admit that I hadn’t been there in weeks.

It’s all about Twitter, after all, isn’t it? I mean, there are apps out the ying-yang for Twitter, Twitter grader, Twitter pix, Twitter this and Twitter that. How could another micro-blogging site co-exist? I know there are others, but am wondering if they won’t suffer the same fate as Pownce.

And what about  all the networking sites? I mean, once MySpace was King, now, it seems it’s Facebook.  But what about Social Marketing Central? Or, Victory Online University, or Sta.rtUp.biz? Or all the gazillion social sites inundating the Internet? Do we have time for all of them… NO!

I mean, social marketing is great, no doubt about it, and it’s a lot of fun. Yet, Powce is one example of how enough is enough. People like Twitter, cool… so do I. People like Facebook, and so do I. And though I really like all these new places, there are just too many. Being the social butterfly is fun, and good for business, but at one crucial tipping point, spending too much time socializing has to give way to real production.

Plus, the more places that spring up, the less and less likely they will be to succeed.

My advice?

Pick the places where you can relate to the people in the group. Hell, build your group in Twitter or Facebook or wherever, and spend time there. You may have time for a few. But when you get right down to the nitty-gritty of it, you’ll get some traffic, but you’ll also lose sight of your prize. Focus on what’s important to you and then, allow social media to fill the gaps.

Wow! There’s a very cool article in the Web Success Diva’s blog today about…

Social marketing.

First she takes you on a tour, and explains the power of Social Networking. Not all of this is obvious. I mean, you and I know that social media is important for getting yourself out there with a target audience. Bang! Big boost for your brand, right?

But did you think about how cool social marketing is for SEO?  If you search for me right now, the first two entries are this blog and My Blog Log. My videos are on that page, including a horrible audition I did last year for Thor Schrock for his Top Affiliate Challenge. That was a kicking and screaming event. It was the end of a long day and it’s just impossible to say no to Thor, but I digress…

Aside from my own sites, there’s LinkedIn, GoodReads, Facebook, and on and on… all social media sites. Anyone who wants to know more about my brand, which is me and blogging, can do that easily.

The Diva also shows you how to use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Plaxo. And tells you how to find even more stuff specific to niche marketing. You really should go over and read her post. It’s a winner!

Read Social Networking Taken to the Next Level Here.  And tell her Pat sent you.

Today is a big day online, and people may not even be aware of the fact.

First, Camtasia 6 was just released, and Wow! The new features are great. You will now be able to separate the video from the audio to make edits, which was impossible with the previous versions. You can do it in Sony Vegas, but Camtasia is just so much easier for new video makers that this improvement really makes sense. Sony Vegas needs a guidebook just to figure it out. Camtasia is so easy that just about anyone can use it right away.

But it has other cool stuff!

• There’s now a YouTube present for production
• They’ve added hot keys for splitting, callouts, zooms, and transitions
• There’s a cool new 3-D effect that lets you twist images
• You can now import .mov files for editing

And a lot more. Love it! See their video on all the great new changes at: http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/whatsnew.asp

The other really important thing going on today has to do with Social Marketing. It’s about your blog. You only have until MIDNIGHT tonight to get your blog entered into 9Rules.com for review. This blog site publishes articles only from accepted blogs, and they’re high quality articles.  I enjoy sifting through the blog entries there and always come away with cool information.

So, get over and get your blog entered, but only if you have a really good blog. You have to have been blogging for at least 6 months, too. Otherwise, it’s not fair to waste their time. But if you provide great information in a clear, easy to read style…

They only accept entries like 4 days out of the year, so if you’re ready for prime time, you’ve only got a few hours. Run!

So, if you go to the bottom of each of my posts, you’ll see a cool new device. It’s called the “Social Twist Tell-a-Friend” button.  If you like a post, you can email, blog, Twitter, or tell your friends about it on Facebook. Pretty Sweet. You can get one for your own blog at http://tellafriend.socialtwist.com/

Cool thing is that it will also give you stats. If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you’ll know that I LOVE stats. So, this very easy to use plugin (all you have to do is upload it to your wp-content/plugins folder and activate it) serves two purposes for me.

The typical chicklets that you see on my blog and everyone else’s don’t allow people to email folks about your incredibly brilliant blog post, either.

Work a peek, even if you aren’t concerned with spreading the social word.

Wait! If you aren’t, you totally should be. Nothing is better than word-of-mouth recommendation.

Oh, and you can use this on websites, too.  It’s worth the time to just check it out. Did I mention that it’s a free app?   The only thing that could make it better is a diamond tiara.

Thanks to @evajmah (Eva J. Mah of Nexus Exchange) on Twitter, I found this awesome resource for blogging and copywriting and social marketing and more. It’s on CopyBlogger’s blog, which is a great one to subscribe to, by the way. Here’s the link: http://www.copyblogger.com/10-cool-links/ Very sweet.

It starts off with a link to John Carlton’s copywriting case studies, moves to ProBlogger’s social marketing outline, and then, there’s SEOmoz’s “The Internet Marketing Handbook.” Very cool. Why haven’t I seen this before? I need more surf time, really. Tons of incredibly cool tools on that page from keyword selection to social marketing resources. Wa-hoo! Really great page.

There’s also an awesome article about the power of color in marketing at the Direct Creative Blog: http://www.directcreative.com/blog/2008/08/26/the-power-of-color-in-direct-marketing/ You probably never thought about these things.

Anyway, just a heads up. You’re going to love it!

Thanks to Jack Humphrey yet again. This time he’s given us a compendium of very valuable lists at Mashable.com. You check out these lists on Jack’s Friday Traffic Report blog at:

http://tinyurl.com/4avo5b

This is awesome!

There are lists for podcasters, lists for WordPress, lists of business tools and on and on. I mean, the resources in this list are great! If you don’t find a tool or two to use in that list, you must be a zombie.

Or something.

Really. I would advise you also to subscribe to Jack’s newsletter, The Friday Traffic Report, too, which you can do right at the top of the blog. He gives tons of interesting and very cool information every single week. Thanks for the compilation, Jack, and all the great content that you provide week, after week!

I put some newsletters aside, but FTR is one I read every time it hits my inbox.

But ultimately, the thanks goes to Mashable.com for providing the lists on the list, right? Sweet! You guys rock.

So, I’m here sitting at Michael Penland’s JV & Internet Marketing Super Conference listening to Howie Schwartz. I remember him from GDI days when I didn’t know what an upline sponsor was. He’s come a long way.

But what’s making me pleased right now is that he’s talking about what I do. SEO, Web 2.0 and such. Here’s something I already knew… Page Rank means bupkiss.

Here’s something else I already knew… Web 2.0 is where it’s at. He says that someday Google traffic will be Bonus traffic, meaning Web 2.0 will rule, and search is just gravy. Hmm… What I’ve been saying for the past 6 months or so.

Content sites, bookmarking sites, Facebook, Twitter… It’s all good, people.

But here’s something interesting. He says that duplicate content doesn’t matter. That’s new. And I’m guessing he’s right because of something I saw on Social Marketing Central  a few weeks ago. Someone said that he’s been putting dupe content on like 10 blogs and all of them are being ranked.

What’s that say?

Only matters if it’s on your own website. I know that’s true because our position dropped like a stone on one site because someone had posted the same articles I was writing on the blog to the front page. BOOM! Gone in sixty seconds, and as soon as I nuked the dupe stuff, we came back to #3.

Interesting. Very interesting.

So, tell me…

Are you on Twitter? I mean, ON Twitter. Do you get updates continually from your friends? Do you follow the gurus to see what they’re typing? Do you have a secret account under an assumed name, where you can be weird as you want?

There are all kinds on Twitter, after all.

But I really wish that Twitter would employ the Facebook ability to tell you who you might like to be friends with.  I mean, there are so many people in this Internet business industry, it’s hard to remember who might be cool to follow, right? Oh, I’m so lazy. I could look in my Inbox and pull those names out, but who has time?

Facebook is defnitely a timesaver. Some might say total time waster, but it’s not. I’m going to another conference this weekend because I’m a friend of the promoter on Facebook. It’s sweet! Plus, I’ve done some JVs and made money. I’ve done ad swaps and made money. And it’s because of Facebook. Not a time waster at all.

So, you see, social marketing rocks. It’s not just lucrative, it’s fun! Why not have fun working? Otherwise, it’s not something you should do at all. Life’s too short to be stuck in a job or lifestyle you hate. Facebook makes it fun. Twitter really makes it fun.

Follow me: patm7

Hmm…

If Jimmy Buffet fans are “Parrot heads,” what are we? “Tweety heads?” Yikes! When you think about it, that translates to “bird brain.” Scratch that.

So, what’s the very most important part of creating your online business?

Hmm… You know already.

KEYWORD RESEARCH!

Why would you start anything online if nobody is looking for what you want to sell?

Monday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain, and 5 p.m. Pacific, I’m doing my very first slide presentation at Xiosoft and hoping it comes out well.

I’m totally excited! I did this cool Power Point that lays it all out, and I’m rarin’ to go.

So, if keyword research is something you haven’t mastered yet, you absolutely HAVE to come.

But there’s a catch…

Yep.

You have to be a Lifetime Member of Blogging4Boomers.com

If you come on over, you’ll get…

• 40 + Videos to Show you How-to, Step-by-Step
• Nearly 40 Articles About Blogging to Get You Going  in the Right Direction
• Audio Interviews with Some of the Brightest Minds in Internet Marketing
• 10 Mindmaps to Guide You Through Technical Aspects of What You Want to Accomplish
• Pat’s Personal Plugins and Ping List
• A Web 2.0 Directory to Point You to the Hot Sites
• 13 Great Bonuses to Help You Succeed…

And most importantly, you get me. Twice a month I get on the  phone and answer questions about blogging and Internet Marketing for my members. They’re an awesome group that wants to act on things and become successful, and I’m thrilled and honored to be part of their quest.

I think I’m a born teacher, though I never realized it.  My bosses always shoved me into the role from my first job to well… my current job. If you’re a member of Tellman’s ListBuilding Club, you hear me twice a month there answering questions, too. I love it! It’s probably my most favorite part of the job. ‘Course I love it all, but interacting with people is really fun.

But come on over to Blogging4Boomers.com, and check me out. Sign up, and if you absolutely hate everything, there’s a 100% full money-back guarantee. But you won’t. I think you’ll be happily impressed.

Let’s get busy and crack the Internet marketing code together!

I saw a rumor in Facebook that says Google is dancing.

(For the non-SEO folks, that means they’re brewing up a new algorithm.)

Hmm…

That could be good.

That could be bad.

It may have something to do with the social aspects of the web these days, which I think is pretty smart. I’ve said it here before (and elsewhere) that it will one day become more about what the people think is good and want more of than what the spiders think.

Maybe Google will become like a Nielsen’s rating kind of company. You know, it’s a staid marketing tactic, right?

FIGURE OUT WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT AND THEN, GIVE IT TO THEM.

Interesting to speculate on what will happen, but of course, it’s all just speculation. We’ll have to see what Google’s change will bring.

I’m hoping it’s something that leans toward sites that are legitimately involved with social marketing. That would be cool. I love that end of things, and have been working in that milieu for about three years now.

‘course I was late to the game. Web 2.0 was really coined in 2004 by Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. But I remember having a Del.icio.us account wow… about three years ago, I guess.

Anyway, as I’ve been saying, social marketing is going to play a huge roll in search. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

So, the social milieu is ever morphing, and one of the very old standards is changing in a big way.

Social bookmarking practically started with Del.icio.us, but what a handle! I always thought it was suicidal in terms of marketing, but people found it and use the social bookmarking service all the time. I guess I learned about it in 2005 from Tim Linden, my old friend at StartXchange.

I thought it was kind of cool then, but didn’t have any idea how HUGE this stuff would get.

Anyway, Delicious is now Delicious.com–easier to deal with when typing the URL into the address bar. Easier to find for anyone who didn’t know the old .us domain.

And it looks a bit different. Still that nice four color square logo, but inside, Delicious is totally revamped and looking sweet.

You can check out bookmarks or tags on the front page, which is pretty cool.  But it also lets you subscribe to tags.

To check it out, I subscribed to the tag “internet marketing,” and got a bunch of interesting stuff back.

In fact, I learned that Mozilla just came out with Ubiquity, which will allow you to, and I quote from the Mozilla Labs blog:

“Ubiquity 0.1

• Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more. Ubiquity “command list” to see them all.
  
• Find and install new commands to extend your browser’s vocabulary through a simple subscription mechanism
  
• Read about Ubiquity In Depth, or see a number of the commands in action (with screenshots) in the Ubiquity Tutorial.”

That’s pretty cool, no? I mean, I’m going to check that out. But if it weren’t for Delicious, I may not have found that intersting tidbit of information.

Web 2.0 rocks, and Delicious is a total cornerstone of it.

Wow! Imagine if they’d had this when I was researching stuff all the time. I go way back to pre-Internet days as a writer, and I can assure you that going to the library or running across town to interview the local expert wasn’t cutting it. Now, all the information in the world is right at your finger tips.

I feel blessed.  Going to add Ubiquity now.

Social marketing is getting bigger and more important every single day. The number of bookmarking sites, networking sites, video, content, and blogs is growing like kudzu all over the ‘Net. And it’s a blast!

Jack Humphrey opened Social Marketing Central recently, and it’s tons of great fun and information. You can join for free. There’s a forum, a section for the Friday Traffic Reports, which I love, and lots of other cool stuff. You should check it out at http://socialauthority.ning.com/ .

You can start a group, a discussion, and put your picture up, which goes to the “head of the class,” meaning on top of the site whenever you log in.  Pretty nifty. And lots of fun. Come over and make some friends!

And from there I found another cool place, just for small business. It’s Sta.rtUP.Biz. Check out my page at  http://sta.rtup.biz/profile/PatMarcello . Very cool. It’s like a FaceBook for entrepreneurs. Love it! Finally a place where we can place links and not get booted.

Check out both of those places. I think you’ll totally enjoy them.

Signed up for a cool new site today–Social Marketing Central, which comes from the Friday Traffic Report’s Jack Humphrey, where else? So, yeah… I really enjoy his kind of stuff, and it’s always top notch.

So, Social Marketing Central is really a Ning network site, which is pretty cool, but it connects you with other Social Marketing buffs. You can check it out and join at:

http://socialauthority.ning.com/

You’ll get your own page, and you can add videos, and photos, invite friends, and all the other stuff you like to do at social sites around the ‘Net. This group also has a forum and a direct link to Jack’s Blog Talk Radio. If you like Web 2.0, you’ll enjoy this site, no doubt about it.

I’m going to hang out there for a while. I’m hoping to meet other Web 2.0-aphiles and learn some tips and tricks… oh, and maybe give some away while I’m at it. Let you know how it does for social marketing in about a month or so, after I learn whether it has potential for business or it’s just a fun place to be. I figure I can’t lose, right?

Can you tell? I mean, I’m just enthralled with all the cool things you can do, right? You can bookmark, network, Tweet, Tumbl, or blog and if you work them all together, they become a powerful traffic machine!

About three or four months ago, for a hoot, I set up a bunch of sites about cats. I love ‘em. I have two and have always had them around and thought it would be a lot of fun gathering material for them. Well, I was right! It was fun setting the stuff up. And it was like a test. I wanted to see if I could make Web 2.0 work for me in a niche.

I have a hub at HubPages, a Squidoo Lens, a couple of blogs about cats, and even a wiki. All full of fun content and information about the different cat breeds. Check out Captivating Cat Breeds, if you’re curious.

Once in a while I’ll add something, but I really haven’t done much to the sites, as you’ll see. But here’s the cool thing: I just realized that the system is getting traffic! And they’re just sitting there.

I didn’t do much about monetization because that wasn’t really my intent. I just wanted to have fun and so… Duh. I never realized that any of these sites would become popular. I mean, they’re not tearing up the track yet, but if I build them out, I can see that they will.

Next thing on Pat’s agenda: Find cat products that pay. Ha! Are there such things? Yes. I’m thinking a brass kitty bed or an automatic litter box that never smells might do the trick. (Is there such a thing?) LOL I’ll find something.

The point is, don’t rule out Web 2.0 when you’re marketing. If you’re not using it, you’re nuts! You don’t have to do a lot for the content sites like HubPages or Squidoo or any of them. If you don’t want to write articles, get someone to do it for you. I did, and I’m a writer! But who has time for fun like that? Har.

Create a whole new set of domains for what you want to do, and then, set up a systematic circle of sites so that you’ll get traffic and visitors. Like, link your Hubs to your blogs and to the wiki, for example. Here’s the thing… Most of the traffic is coming from organic search! I’m not paying a dime and like I said, I’m not really doing a whole lot about these.

Maybe I should huh? I’m on a new mission to be Cat Woman.

What? Someone already did that? Sheesh.

So, have you seen the new “social” browser yet?

It’s called Flock and it’s pretty cool, if you spend your life in the trenches of Web 2.0 every day.

I like it, but not for work. It has some cool features. Like, you can see who’s Twittering immediately in your sidebar. Or, what’s happening on Facebook. Or even Pownce or Digg. Pretty sweet. You can also see several different feeds in “My World” which comes up as a single page in your browser window.

But one feature I really like is that you can search for videos on You Tube or stuff on Flickr at the top of your browser window. So, you search for something and get like this whole strip of videos on that topic without actually having to go to You Tube. Pretty cool.

Flock also has some of the same add-ons as Firefox, since it’s built on the same framework.

And you can post to a blog from Flock, but it has to be a hosted blog like Blogger, WordPress.com or LiveJournal. These are great if you’re just goofing around, but we all know (right readers) that WordPress on your own server negates the need for this particular feature.

And while we’re on the topic, even if you are blogging for fun, you’re obviously doing it for a readership, right? Well, why give your blog audience to someone else? Get up off your lazy, cheap butt and get a hosting account and install a WordPress blog on your own server. You never know what you might want to do with that audience. You might want to make some money from all your hard work, and WordPress.com is no place to do that.

Off my soapbox.

Flock also has a photo uploader and a Web clipboard.

But here’s the thing… None of these features will pull me away from Firefox. Just won’t. Flock is too fun and too social for me. If I used Flock as my regular browser, that would be bad.

I’d never get any work done and Tellman would fire me. Har.

But even if that weren’t true, Flock doesn’t have the SEO goodness that Firefox does. No Search Status. No SEOQuake. No S3 add-on and so on. You really can’t do business from Flock.

Now, if there was a meld. A hybrid, Let’s call it FireFlock, then… Well…

Maybe.

I’ve been living under a bushel basket for the past few months due to the ListBuilding.com launch.  And as I do when I”m busy, I’ll see a piece of mail that I have to read, but… I have no time. So, I flag that puppy in Outlook and wait until I have a down day to go through the messages. I had built up more than 100.

Gawd!

But there’s a message that I always read, and that’s the one that comes in on Fridays or Mondays from Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report. You know I’m a huge fan and that I’ve mentioned Jack before here, but whoa. He comes across with some of the coolest and most exciting information that (like I’ve said before)… If you aren’t subscribed, what the hell are you waiting for?

Today, work’s a little light for the first time in a while, so I’m going through my stuff and came across a message from Jack from waaaaayyyy back in January. Oh, sure. Tons of people have already seen it and put this great information to task already, but well, I’ve been painfully slow to get things done for myself. I’m running a membership site and a teleseminar series at Blogging4Boomers.com, too, remember. Right?

OK, no excuse.

Here’s the deal: HubPages. Do you know what they are?

HubPages is a Web 2.0 site where you can build “hubs,” which are sort of like Squidoo lenses. You add text modules, video modules, Amazon modules, etc. And just generally build a hub around a topic. It’s totally fun. I have one over there about cats. In fact, I’m a cat junkie and have several Web 2.0 sites about cats and a couple of blogs and whatever.

So, back to my story.

I find this message in my Inbox from Jack that says “Get More Traffic to Your HubPages.”  I’m all for that! And whoa. Very cool. I find not one but 7 Hubs all about getting traffic to your hub. Pretty neat. I’m certainly going to take some of that advice. Instinctively, I think I already have some of that going from my SEO background, but I don’t care what stage Hub Meister you are, you’ll find some information to turn you on.

The first Hub by Mark Knowles–”How I Got My Hub to Be on Google’s First Page“– is really great.  Mark gives you a virtual recipe of making it happen. We’ll be adding that cool advice to our own Hubs (and Tellman’s).

But all of the Hubs in that blog post are totally cool, and you should definitely check Jack’s post and every single one of those Hubs out…

Do you Twitter?

I don’t mean, do you chirp like a bird or talk inanely until your lips fall off? I mean, do you belong to Twitter?

Well…

Why not? It seems kind of silly to be “following” the activity of people, but I follow some pretty cool people, like Brad Fallon and his “Free Line Report” and Paul Colligan, podcasting journalist. So, when I go to Twitter, I can see just what’s up.

I get a Twitter from Brad daily, and if you’re interested in Web 2.0, the Free Line report is pretty cool. Takes just a minute to watch and keeps you up on the 2.0 news.

Paul Colligan posts to Twitter about a gazillion times a day. I try to stop by the stuff I’m really into, and keep the other stuff for later. There are just so many hours in the day!

I keep one open for education, usually first thing in the morning. It’s a “Tellman” thing. He says, “One hour of education; one hour of implementation.” It really works, and because of that bit of encouragement, I learn something new about our online world of glittery gems at least once per day.

But anyway, Twitter is so cool that some guy named James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. He just had enough time to Twitter “arrested” and his Twitter followers both here and in Egypt contacted the U. S. consulate to help him. How cool is that? James was freed and his one-word “Tweet” of “Free” was the next message he sent along. CNN even reported on it.

So, see? Twitter is useful.

And with folks following you and reading your blog and such, and some signing up for your list, it’s the best of all worlds.

Plus, it’s the quickest micro-blog on the planet.

Who doesn’t need more time?