Archive for category Viral Marketing/Social Media
What URL Shortener is Best?
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Tools, Viral Marketing/Social Media on December 15th, 2009
With the limited release of Google’s new URL shortener yesterday, I began to wonder just how many URL shorteners are out there and which one is the best?
Currently Google’s service is only available through the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner, but I imagine they will expand it to everyone before too long…or they may just use it to get more people to use their services.
But that makes me wonder…what is so special about it that one would download a toolbar to use it? What do you look for in a URL shortener?
So far it seems the most popular services are bit.ly, tinyurl (still around), ow.ly, which is what I use through the HootSuite interface for Twitter, and tr.im. Every now and then I am curious how a particular tweet did…how many people read it or retweeted it, so having the stats from ow.ly helps.
What are your thoughts?
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Bloggers: Seven Questions to Ask to Get People Engaged
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on December 11th, 2009
Darren Rowse has a great post including a video about the 7 Questions to Ask on Your Blog to Get More Reader Engagement that I strongly suggest reading whether you blog or not.
If you are a blogger, you need to get your readers engaged to really take full advantage of your blog. If you don’t these questions and this post might help you to get your site visitors (and prospective buyers) more engaged as well.
The Seven Questions Rowse proposes are: 1. What do you think? 2. How do you feel? 3. What will you do? 4. What is your opinion? 5. What is your story? 6. What is your experience or example? 7. What have you been working on? Read the full post to learn more about these questions and how to use them on your blog or site effectively.
So…what is your opinion about this? And how does it make you feel?
Facebook Advertising for Affiliates from Logan Thompson
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Tips, Viral Marketing/Social Media on October 14th, 2009
| I have made it very clear that I believe in affiliates using Facebook advertising. The targeting is great for affiliates promoting a niche product like ours. The cost is currently very low. The conversions are good. It’s got everything you could ever want in an effective marketing medium.
Here are some previous posts about Facebook Advertising from our blog: Facebook Targeting that Works with our Program |
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Today, I had the fortune of reading a post from Logan Thompson, one of my favorite bloggers in affiliate marketing.
He gives 10 tips for How to Profit on Cost Per Sale Campaigns with Facebook in which he shares some of his successes and errors with Facebook advertising.
I have to disagree with #5, which says: “Don’t Promote Expensive Products.” Based on our own advertising and the feedback from others, if the targeting is right, our products can really fit our niche market. Our niche is typically best targeted towards middle-class, middle-aged people who are actively interested in the product we are offering. So focusing on the right keywords and narrowing it down to our niche will get you some great results.
Currently, the 25-year old and up crowd only makes up about 30% of the users of Facebook, but that group is also growing at about 200% per year. There is a sizable market there!
Overall, I give Logan’s post two big thumbs up though, so check it out.
Anik Singal’s YouTube Strategy
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Tips, Viral Marketing/Social Media on October 10th, 2009
Are you using YouTube or other video sites to market our Learn and Master courses? They are great ways to promote our products. We are a video company after all, so what better way to get your message across? 
Anik Singal of Affiliate Classroom recently shared six simple tips for YouTube and other video sites that might help, especially if you are just getting started.
Here is a link to the full article by Anik. It’s a quick read but has some good points.
New to Twitter? Here are some Tips
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on September 24th, 2009
Are you new to twitter or just wondering how to actually use it to make money? I am pretty sure a lot of people wonder exactly how to utilize the 140-character social media sensation for profit, right?
It’s easy to get started on Twitter. Signing up is simple. It’s easy to post. It’s even pretty easy to get people to SEE your tweets, but actually getting them to read, click, and buy is the hard part.
Affiliate Classroom does a great job of Tweeting and is profitable at it. They recently posted 11 Tips for Twitter Success and I think they have done a great job of putting together a list for Twitter marketing.
There is no overnight path to success on Twitter, just as there is no quick way to success in any method of affiliate marketing, but these tips should help. Their tips summarized are:
- Tweet twice a day with at least a few hours between posts. If you need to schedule Tweets use HootSuite or a similar site. You can use HootSuite to shorten and track the links as well.
- Provide value. One link to your site and one link somewhere else. Be entertaining (this means being funny, compelling, and/or newsworthy). Do your research to find topics of relevance to your niche.
- Link to your own blog.
- Watch others and ReTweet (RT). Share what others are saying.
- Ask questions. Ask other’s opinions. Nothing gets people involved better than asking a question.
Facebook Ads for Newbies
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Pay Per Click (PPC), Viral Marketing/Social Media on September 23rd, 2009
I have said it many times (here and here at least) that Facebook is a great place to market our stuff. It’s a great place to market in general.
But there are some nuances to marketing on the networking site.
All Facebook recently posted an article entitled “The 4 Types of Branded Facebook Campaigns” that is a great introduction and primer on Facebook advertising. These are examples of how Facebook is truly more unique any form of PPC out there today.
I definitely recommend read this article to learn a little more and get some good ideas.
Among the types of campaigns addressed are: Engagement Ads (Polls, Videos, Branded Gift Ads, Event Engagement ads, Fan Pages), News Feed Advertisements, Facebook Pages, and Facebook Applications.
YouTube Video Search Ranking Optimization
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Tips, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 27th, 2009
Are you marketing Learn and Master products on YouTube? If not, it is one good way to market. If you are or about to, this post is for you!
The aimClear Marketing Blog did a post today about getting your videos to rank better on YouTube. They give 15 tips for leveraging the video giant to rank better in their searches…and therefore Google’s rankings for these videos. Tips include:
- Rate Other videos - in return they will rate yours. High ratings = better search results.
- Leave comments - others will return. Comments = higher rankings.
- Use YouTube Insights Analytics - you can track a lot with this and the data will really help.
- Use your title in the file name for the raw video.
- Post Video Responses to other videos.
- Use the Annotations - give them your link or point out specials or sales.
- Embed the video in relevant places. Embedded videos are tracked and count in the algorithm YouTube uses to rank videos.
- Link to your YouTube profile and videos - might seem simple but amazingly so many don’t.
- Treat the naming, titling, and keywords used as you would any search engine optimization. Take your time on it.
The full post, with all 15 great tips can be found here. I highly suggest it. You can also check out our post about SEO for YouTube - A Tutorial from June 22.
Amazing Social Media Stats
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Marketing News, Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 6th, 2009
Econsultancy posted an article last week with 20+ statistics on social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.
Here are some of the more interesting ones in my opinion:
- YouTube would be the 3rd largest country in the world, if it were one.
- More than 120 million Facebook users access their accounts daily, with 30 million updating their statuses at least daily.
- MySpace is used by 30% of UK residents agent 15-24, making it as normal as having a dog.
- Twitter is now officially a word in the English Dictionary.
One of the overriding themes to stats like this is that social networks are not a fad or unsustainable trend. They are here to stay, meaning they are here to be monetized!
Facebook Targeting that Works with our Program
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Pay Per Click (PPC), Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 3rd, 2009
| As we have previously discussed, Facebook’s targeting is pretty awesome. In many ways, they are leading the way in optimizing ad targeting. But what targeting options are the most important on our program and how can you use them?
Here are the most important ways you can target your Facebook ads with the Learn and Master Products. |
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- Age Targeting. The average age of Facebook users is rising. Here were the February 2009 numbers:
- Keyword Targeting. This pretty much speaks for itself.
- Language Targeting. Do you speak Mandarin? Neither do I. Target English speakers only.
- Gender Targeting. 55% of Facebook users are women. Target Ballroom Dancing to women and Guitar and Drums to men. Piano can go either way. The Painting course, which is coming out soon can go either way too. This is not always true, but again we are looking for averages and optimization.
- Education Targeting. Our buyers tend to be slightly higher in education level. If you campaigns are struggling and you are not using this, try targeting only College Grads.
- Relationship Targeting. Again to use the Ballroom Dance course as an example…this is a GREAT one to target Engaged people. Engaged men especially. All engaged men fear the dancing. They will want to learn. Married couples are much more likely to take this course too, as are In a Relationship users. This could be a good way to run a special ad for products, such as targeting married women, saying “has your Husband always wanted to learn…” or “Buy something special for your wife,” etc.
And the July 2009 statistics:
The average Learn and Master customer is approximately 40 years old. We don’t have a lot of teenagers who buy our products, although their could be an argument that targeting them could convince their parents to buy something. But would you advertise Ballroom Dancing to a teenager? No. Test out your ads to see what works. Start with what is most likely to work (target the 35-54 age bracket for all products) and then work from there.
Facebook Advertising Adds New Features
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Marketing News, Viral Marketing/Social Media on July 21st, 2009
| Are you advertising with Facebook? If not, it may be worth checking out.
Earlier this month, I was listening to the audio sessions from Affiliate Summit West and one of the best sessions was about Facebook advertising. Recently, Facebook has upped the ante and really improved their targeting features. In fact, in many ways, you can do more with Facebook than any of the big three search engines. |
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Just in the last few weeks, they have turned on time scheduling (AKA dayparting), ad editing, connection targeting, multiple country targeting, HTML reporting, and birthday targeting.
With Facebook now, you can literally choose the exact time, in 5 minute increments, for your ads to start. They have been testing this for a period of time and it seems to have worked. While it is not perfect dayparting just yet (right now you can only choose a date range and time period, so if you want want to run them every day from 9:00AM - 3:00PM, you have to redo it for each day), it is better than the alternative of nothing.
When should we expect real, all out dayparting? According to Facebook, it is in the works and will be available within the next few months.
Ad editing has made it a lot easier within Facebook to create new ads based on your current ones. There are now links available under the ad preview for “Edit Ad” and “Create a Similar Ad.” Nice!
Connection Targeting allows advertisers to target specific connections such as members of your groups, people who attend your events, anyone who uses your applications, and fans of your pages.
Multiple Country Targeting allows advertisers to display their ad to users in multiple countries with a single campaign. The limit is currently at 25 countries.
HTML reports are new as well. Now, when you run a report, you can choose a date range and view the report in pretty HTML
Have you ever want to offer something to someone on their birthday? Facebook has a powerful targeting feature now that allows advertisers to target users on their birthdays. It is literally as easy as checking a box that says ”Target people on their birthdays.”
Twitter Stats - Interesting and Helpful
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on July 11th, 2009
Did you know that over 50% of Tweets are not sent from Twitter.com?
According to a new report from Sysomos, over 50% of all updates are published using tools other than Twitter.com, such as TweetDeck (19.7%). They have some other interesting and very helpful stats in their report. Here are some of them.
Almost 3/4 (72.5%) of users joined during January-May 2009.
21% have never Tweeted
5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity (no kidding!)
Female to Male ratio is 53-47%
The most popular days for Tweeting are Tuesday, then Wednesday and Friday.
Broken Guitar Leads to Social Media Fame
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Fun Stuff, Viral Marketing/Social Media on July 8th, 2009
Until this week, how many of you had ever heard of Dave Carroll or the Sons of Maxwell band? How many of you had not heard of either until just now?
After this video, Mr. Carroll and his band are gaining incredible popularity and proving the power of Social Media.
So far, the story has been featured in the LA Times and various other media outlets (another here) and even has United Tweeting about it. So far, it is another example of a social media phenomenon that is spreading like wildfire. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it in the next few months.
Squidoo Updates TOS to Combat Spam Lenses
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Marketing News, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Viral Marketing/Social Media on July 7th, 2009
Back in mid-June, Squidoo threw down the hammer on bum marketing affiliates who were using Squidoo lenses.
By updating their Terms of Service, Squidoo made clear what is acceptable to them in terms of content and firmly established that they will not allow spam, porn, junk topics, “overly promotional lenses,” or plagairism.
They made it clear that they have a zero tolerance policy for spam, which they define as:
Spam is also commonly defined, and more generically, as the act of tricking people with useless content. It’s is an aggressive act. It means stuffing pages full of keywords or links to trick search engines. It means masking links to surprising places. It means redirecting traffic. It means lying to your readers and taking advantage of them.
Most impactful to affiliates is the crackdown on “overly promotional lenses.” Their main criteria for this is number of outbound links to the same domain. More than nine links to the same domain and you risk being shut down (some domains are exempt). They are whitelisting many domains such as YouTube, Amazon, Twitter, Etsy, WordPress, Facebook, and more, and they are also blacklisting many domains, mostly blacklist SEO sites, reverse phone lookup sites, a lot of dating sites, and more.
Squidoo has a great page that explains more here.
SEO for YouTube - A Tutorial
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Viral Marketing/Social Media on June 22nd, 2009
Are you using video to promote your affiliate links? If not, you should be. Particularly with our products, they are a great way to promote us, rather on your site or in YouTube (searches for guitar instruction, lessons, piano etc. are very common)
Want to optimize your videos to show up higher on searches on YouTube? Then you have to read this tutorial from HubSpot.
SEO for YouTube covers a lot of information about optimizing your videos for YouTube search results. Some is kind of obvious to the seasoned YouTuber but some may very well be helpful news to you!
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