I want to take a second and apologize for my lack of attention to this blog. I have been spending all my time on my Christmas promotion. I was going to continue the discussion about keywords and what we are going to do with your top 3, but I want to tell yo uabout something else I've run across.
There is a Web 2.0 site called Twitter. It is a social site where you simply report what you are doing in simple 1 to 3 sentence statements. You are permitted to leave links in these statements. See where I'm going with this? I don't have time to go into detail right now but I want you to go to http://twitter.com and sign up for an account.
Go ahead and browse around and get familiar with the site. Make sure you set up your profile. You can even tell people what you are doing. Use the search feature to find people with similar interests and go ahead and "follow" them. I will make another post later and we will talk details.
I hope that all of you realize the power of video marketing. Videos are naturally viral in nature and can be used to drive tons of free traffic to your website. The only problem, up until now, is that good screen capture software, mainly Camtasia, costs $300. I have a viral system that I give away called Traffic Hits Multiplier. I have been working on a video version using CamStudio Im. The program cost me next to nothing but is very difficult to work with and it has been slow going with a lot of retakes.
Today, I found out that since Techsmith, the makers of Camtasia, have come out with version 5, they are giving away version 3.12 for free. Last time I checked, version 3.12 was $300. Now, you can get version 3.12 for free and then upgrade to version 5 for only $149. Of course, you don't have to upgrade if you don't want to. I downloaded version 3.12 this morning and have been playing with it all day. It is definitley all you will need to make some nice promotional videos. You can use it inconjunction with your webcam and with Microsoft Power Point as well!
To get your free software click here and save it to your desktop. Then go here and get your free key code. You will have to enter your name and email to get the code. Instal the software and make sure you pick "I have a key" and not "30 day free trial". There you have it. Now you don't have an excuse not to use videos in your online promotions.
Filed under General, JT Recommends, Web 2.0 by 
Here is a general definition of Web 2.0 that I pulled off of a Google search.
"Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences."
The general theme here is "user participation". It's all about what the people want and giving them more control of the content that they see. Web 2.0 encompasses sites like MySpace, You Tube, all of the social news and bookmarking sites, blogs, and a slew of other user content based and tag driven internet entities.
One big happy social networking family that can be used by the average internet marketer to drive tons of traffic to your website and sky rocket your search engine rankings to the first page of Google. I am only going to concentrate on Google because they account for the majority of all searches made on the internet.
Before we start on this little journey to Google's front page, here are some tasks to perform:
- sign up for an account at Squidoo
- sign up for an account at Only Wire and all the social bookmarking sites inside
- sign up for an account at Hub Pages
- sign up for an account at You Tube
- decide on what you are going to promote (your own website or blog, affiliate website, etc…)
These are the basic programs that you will need to start driving traffic to your website, blog, or affiliate page. There are many more that we will use but this is enough for now. You will find that only wire requires you to sign up for 22 different social bookmarking sites. That should keep you busy for a while.
I also want to give you fair warning. This is going to require a bit of effort on your part. I recommend that you just pick one website to promote at the beginning and then add more once you get the hang of it. I will introduce you to some tools that can save you a lot of time as we go. It's a lot of work but you will be amazed at the results you get.
Until tomorrow…
Filed under General, Hub Pages, Social Bookmarking, Squidoo, Web 2.0 by
