I fully expect this short little post to end up as one of the more popular ones on Extreme Ezine. Today I was reading a friend’s blog, Keith from HotBlogTips.com, and he has a YouTube video on one of his posts, Linking Out For SEO. Cool, another connection. I went to YouTube and subscribed and added Keith as a friend. Yesterday I made a few Twitter friends (followers) and I noticed by visiting their sites that a couple of them have Facebook accounts. I added them as friends there as well. The same with blogs I visit, I try to subscribe.

I always visit blogs and sites from those that comment here and I usually find myself looking for other connections. So I thought, why not just ask. So I am asking, do you have other connections you would like to share? Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs or whatever. Feel free to list them in your comment (not dozens please, a hand full is fine). Hopefully everyone will follow each other and our community can grow even bigger from it.

BTW, connections are not sales pages, squeeze pages, niche sites or anything like that.

Do You Have Over A Million Twitter Followers Yet? What does it take to get a million Twitter followers? (Assuming you’re not cheating with some lame following program) We all know it helps to be very famous like Oprah Winfrey (over 3 million followers) or very popular like Twitter it’s self (2.9 million). You could provide a valuable service like CNN Breaking News (2.8 million) but according to TwitterHolic.com only 219 Twitter accounts currently have over a million followers.

There are probably a million articles about getting a ton of followers and just as many people tripping over themselves trying to get there but the real folks that Tweet work hard to keep the numbers low and the quality high. That’s what I have tried to do with our Twitter account. I’m not a fanatic with it but I am a little selective who I follow and when I have a little free time I start blocking followers that look too spammy.

Ok, with all that said, what does it take to get a million Twitter followers?

My answer is…

Wait for it
.
..
…

Be very interesting! That’s the only explanation I can see on why a 29 year old guy living with Dad, has no website and doesn’t even have a location on his profile has over a million Twitter followers. His name is Justin Halpern but goes by just ‘Justin‘ on Twitter, follows only one person, never re-tweets, never replies and only Tweets things his Father says. You gotta love it! Check it out, http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays Seriously, It’s hard to stop reading his Tweets.

I love extreme advertising and it’s my duty to point out the good ones every now and then so I invite you to watch this short 31 second commercial by Reebok. I actually watched this on TV before I found it on YouTube so I know it’s getting air time.

Before you watch the commercial let me point something out. In the first 24 seconds (the part with the model) you actually only see the product (EasyTone sneakers) for about one second. Reebok knows what product to focus on and it’s not the sneakers. It’s not even the legs.

Having only a man’s perspective, if even just one man’s, I wonder what woman think of the ad. Here’s what my friend Sheryl Loch had to say about it, “I saw that commercial last night & wondered if they could help me. Do you think I could sleep in those shoes & wake with a firm butt?” That just goes to show you, men and woman sometimes think along the same lines lol

I don’t know how effective Reebok’s EasyTone shoe commercials are but I like them. They will no doubt offend a few people but that’s ok as long as the message makes it’s mark. What is the message? That’s easy, “Better legs and a better butt with every step“. Wasn’t you paying attention

As my long time online friends and subscribers know, I don’t recommend very many products. I ONLY recommend products I personally use. With that said I’d like to introduce what is now at the top of my recommended products – The Keyword Academy.

I’ve been a member of The Keyword Academy for a little over two months now and I’ve been able to turn what I’ve learned there into profit. There have been very few products I’ve been able to make that statement about. I HIGHLY recommend this program!

The Keyword Academy is a paid membership site that teaches everything from keyword research to AdSense site building using a step-by-step approach with videos and other tools. Run by Court Tuttle and Mark Butler, TKA is hands down the most important step I have taken to advance my understanding of AdSense, keywords, link building, niche websites and judging the competition. Yes, all the things we think we know as Internet Marketers. There’s always room for learning and this is certainly proof of that.

Mark and Court teach EVERY detail needed using video, transcripts, tutorials, webinars, Q&A sessions, a blog and an awesome forum.

Here’s the deal: The Keyword Academy costs $33 per month and you can try your first month for just $1. If you are still struggling to make a profit online you need this. A dollar isn’t much to risk to try it out but I’m going to make completely risk free for you…

Sign up with my affiliate link and watch the core videos. If you don’t think it was worth the investment, cancel before the first thirty days and I will refund your dollar personally. Enough said, try The Keyword Academy for just $1 dollar today.

Does anyone out there know of a single blog directory worth having their badge on your site? A directory that you actually get traffic from? Of all the blog directories I’ve joined over the years I can only find one back link (that Google knows about) to this blog. That directory is New-List. I joined New-List in September of 2006 and I can’t see any way to edit that outdated URL. I virtually get no traffic from blog directories – ZERO! I have removed every badge and widget from this site with the exception of Blog Engage. Blog Engage isn’t really a blog directory, it’s more of a blog article review site. It’s very cool, check it out.

BlogCatalog:
BlogCatalog is what set me off on this rant so it’s going to seem like a ‘pick on BlogCatalog post‘. My BlogCatalog concerns started a year ago when I spent $72 on two ads. The results? Total visitors = 7

Then a few months ago I was having problem with my blog freezing up whenever I went to it – and I have broadband internet and my site is cached! I could see the browser message on the bottom showing, “Waiting for BlogCatalog.com“. I had to remove the widget and put their silly code in the footer.

No big deal,  I figured, at least they still have that broadcast feature. That’s a very cool tool, right? You would think, until you ran a couple tests.

August 25th, 2009 I sent a message broadcasting to 381 BlogCatalog users promoting my blog post ‘Get Featured With Our Promotional Buttons‘. I used my tracking site to create a tracking link. The result? Zero clicks!

October 17th, 2009 I sent a message broadcasting to 385 BlogCatalog users with a fantastic subject line, ‘AdSense Site – First Month = One Hundred Dollars‘. Tracking result? One click!

I’ve been a BlogCatalog member since November 2006 and even wrote a blog post on how great blog directories are a while back. Now I think it’s time to part ways, just like Entrecard.

MyBlogLog:
While I’m at it, I’m going to get rid of MyBlogLog too. MyBlogLog has never been that great and even though they are run by Yahoo the site seems very unorganized to say the least. I’ve had thumbnails waiting to be updated for over a year – literally. Check it out.

I’m Not Alone:
I know I’m not the only one becoming discouraged with blog directories lately. See what Sheryl Loch had to say over a week ago: Has BlogCatalog Gone Down Hill? And check out what John Sullivan thinks about Blogcatalog. I love John and his subtle way of expressing himself lol Blogcatalog An open letter to you

Pulling Back To Ease The Pain:
I don’t mean to come off as blog directory basher. There may be some good ones out there. There may be hidden benefits with the ones I listed. Please let me know if I’ve missed something before I burn the bridges. I hold no grudge or ill will to any of these directories, it can’t be an easy task to run a profitable directory while staying on top of everything. Remember BlogRush? (BTW, how does BlogRush still have a Google PR of 4 when it’s been shut down for the last year? Hardly seems fair)

So I’ll ask it again…
Does anyone out their know of a single blog directory worth having their badge on your site? (feel free to leave links) Am I off base here? Are you making blog directories work for you?

In August I posted about using certain recent news stories to guide your AdSense site creations: How The News Can Help Guide Your Niche Sites. Around the time of that post I registered the domain GovernmentApplianceRebates.com from a NPR radio report talking about a new Government appliance rebate program that was going into effect in the late fall.

I sat on my hands until about a month ago when I setup the AdSense site. I actually outsourced the content writing with someone I found on Craigslist. Other than getting the site indexed by Google I did nothing. No article marketing, no back linking, nothing!

I decided to use that same article writer for another niche AdSense site but I wanted to check his work fist. I checked the blog content on Copyscape ^© and was very disappointed to discover every article was stolen word for word from Government sites. The site has absolutely no unique content! Needless to say I won’t be using this author again but things are actually going very well.

One Site – One Month – One Hundred Dollars
I’m pretty impressed after just 30 days with a small blog and no unique content, no marketing effort and zero backlinks. The blog actually generated $110.77 in AdSense revenue. Not bad for a single AdSense site that just started with no time invested.

In the comments section of How The News Can Help Guide Your Niche Sites I said “I fully expect the search traffic to dry up on most breaking news type domains“. I still believe this so it’s important to generate as much revenue as fast as possible from these recent news related niche sites. I think I have four months or more left on GovernmentApplianceRebates.com before traffic begins to drop off with a big surge coming up when the mainstream media starts reporting on the rebate program. By the end of it’s short life span I fully expect to profit between $500 and $1,000 or more for this single site.

Like I said, I have done nothing to promote most of my niche sites. I’m working with an article marketing membership site on the recommendation of my friend Peter Lee on other niche blogs and I’m very impressed so far. I’ll be posting a review on that soon but I think it’s time to start a decent article marketing campaign on GovernmentApplianceRebates.com and my other niche blogs.

A note on keywords. I enrolled myself in The Keyword Academy about six weeks ago. I am learning a lot about keyword research. This may be one of the best investments I’ve made in a while. Again, more on that in a future post but I want to point out that I have not researched keywords for niche sites from breaking news stories. There’s simply no way to research the keywords because no one is searching for the keyword phrases that early in the game and that is when you want your site live with content and indexed by Google – before the news is widespread. Keyword terms are more or less hit or miss at this point. About the best you can do is see how competitive certain keyword phrases already are. If the news is about a niche already dominated by high ranking sites it’s probably one to pass on and find something a little more realistic. An example of this is the United State’s national health care debate. My two sites National Healthcare Facts and Universal Healthcare Facts are doing very poorly. The niche is too competitive for short term niche sites. My only hope for those sites are to find better long-tail keyword phrases to bring in a little traffic or to convert them to long term niche blogs that are updated regularly.

There you have it, the potential is huge when creating news-related AdSense sites when planned right and acted on quickly. I will continue to build these sites and blogs trying different things and report my test results back to you. Be sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss a thing. I’m in this to make money and I’m bringing you with me.

FTC Disclaimer: I may profit from this post (hopefully) if I’m doing things right. I have two affiliate links [The Keyword Academy and The Free Traffic System] embedded in the post above and I recommend you will check them out. Why? Because I actually promote what I use and like. See why you can trust my recommendations.

I’m not going to rehash all the news today about the guidelines released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If you’ve been asleep and missed it see ‘Potential FTC Fines Raise Big Blogging Questions‘.

Most of what I’ve read today is a lot of strong concerns and objections on the matter. When it comes to the Government we tend to immediately distrust the decisions and I’m no exception. But I would like to explain why I feel hopeful when it comes to online marketing.

If the internet’s overall reputation regarding advertising is cleaned up and consumer confidence improves we all win. If old Uncle Ed decides to trust the net enough now to buy a few Christmas presents online this year every online business gets a little boost in credibility.

It’s not only the scammers that have been hurting the net and internet marketing in general. It’s all of the marketers that push products based on the profit margin and/or affiliate commission rather than the actual value it provides the customer. You see these guys blasting emails every single day offering something different with each mailing. It would be great if some of this disappears. All they have to do at this point is disclose the fact they profit from the sale. Wouldn’t it be nice if they had to actually believe in and use every product promoted? Yes, I’m a marketer and it sounds like I’m against marketing but it’s just the opposite. I love this industry and would love to see it cleaned up. I posted a little on the matter about two weeks ago ‘Brian D. Hawkins – A Name You Can Trust‘.

I usually keep opinion based posts for my personal blog but decided to share this one with my marketing and blogging friends. Speaking of friends, stop by ExtremeJohn.com and read his opinion on the subject. He hits the nail right on the head – ‘Bullshit Review Bloggers Time to Get Honest‘.

Last year I purchased these fantastic promotional buttons to help promote the Extreme Ezine and they worked out pretty well. The other day I was on my blogging rounds and I found a site that was giving away their promotional stickers free to anyone that asked via the mail [forgive me, I can't find the link]. Then I ran across another promotional product post by ProBlogineer.com and suddenly a brilliant idea came to mind…

Extreme Ezine Queen

I just ordered another one hundred 2.25″ pin-on promotional buttons. I’m going to use these button to promote ExtremeEzine.com in a unique way and collect some awesome pictures in the process. You can have a featured post written by me right here on ExtremeEzine.com for participating.

Here’s how it works:

1. You send me an address where to mail a button via my HelpDesk.
2. I send a button to you free of charge.
3. You think of a cool public place to wear the button.
4. Have your picture taken there while wearing the button.
5. Send the picture to me along with a few lines explaining the photo and the information with links you want included in the post.
6. I post the photo on my site linked to your site.
7. Then I post about the photo and your site.

Terms:

• I own the rights to the photos sent and can display them publicly on my website and/or promotions.
• You provide the information you would like included in your featured post including links.
• Once a link goes dead we reserve the right to remove it from our site
• We reserve the right to deny anyone with a boring or inappropriate picture or site.
• The button must be worn in the photograph and clearly identifiable.
• Your face must be visible. No cut-off heads a such please. Don’t be shy, we think you look great.
• Pin it on wherever you want – shirt, hat, purse, jacket etc.. Feel free to point at it.

Note: It would be fantastic if you were to take the photograph in an interesting place. The more interesting pictures will go to the top of the page.

That’s it. Send me your address via my HelpDesk with the title ‘Button Address‘. Your address will be used only to send the button and will be deleted after it’s sent. We will not keep, use or abuse the information you send. This is going to be fun. What do you think?

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Guestpost by Michael Baker

When you offer a product or service, success or failure will often be based on the quality of the advertising campaign. This means the ad campaign must be innovative and eye-catching as well as cost-effective. Most people understand the former two points, but it is the latter point that is crucially important. Simply put, you cannot spend more on an advertising campaign than what you reap in sales or your ad campaign will be a self-defeating one. The low associated cost is a major reason why pay per click advertising is so popular. It is inexpensive and generally delivers huge results as most Pay-Per-Click (PPC) tracking programs will show. But, not all PPC marketing campaigns are equal. That is why it is important to point out a few helpful tips regarding the proper way to market a product or service via PPC ads.

Patience is always helpful when taking part in a Pay Per Click marketing campaign. It is best to avoid the novice mistake of assuming that simply placing PPC ads on the internet will lead to huge profits overnight. Often, successful campaigns are achieved over an extended period of time. PPC marketing works but it is not (usually) a quick path to getting rich. Simply follow your ad tracker and look for progress. Even if progress is occurring slowly, as long as it is happening you are on a good path.

You will not want to continue with a particular marketing campaign if it is not delivering noticeable results. If a great deal of time has gone by and the sales figures reflected in ad tracking are not impressive, then you should take steps to modify the campaign. Changing the keywords could be one example or completely re-writing the ads could be another.

If you are experiencing a great deal of click-throughs and no one is making a purchase, altering your website might be wise. Never lose site of the fact PPC ads are designed to draw people to a website. It is on the website that the final decision to make a purchase is made. A great PPC ad that leads to a poorly composed website will not deliver much in terms of benefits. So, never lose sight of maintaining a quality website to support a PPC campaign.

The advertising copy in the PPC ads needs to be compelling and direct. With Pay Per Click ads, you will only have a few short sentences to catch the reader’s eyes and convince them to click through to your site. As such, professional quality copywriting is a must when launching a PPC marketing campaign. Similarly, the right keywords must be selected when composing the PPC ad copy. Without the right keywords, the ability to connect the ad with those exploring the search engines will prove elusive. When you do add quality keywords, you will probably notice an uptick in the conversion stats on your ad tracker. Clearly, this would be good news.

Those that may have difficulties composing such text on their own should consult the professional services of a PPC consulting company. Such professionals can certainly help craft your ads in such a way they deliver results.

Yes, success with PPC marketing is possible provided you understand a few basic components of what is a good PPC marketing campaign. Once you understand these components, the success you achieve will be greater than you originally thought possible.

I’ve been building niche blogs and static sites and I thought I’d share how quick and easy it is to setup a one-page AdSense site.

1. Find a template
Assuming you already have the niche figured out, the domain, keywords and the content ready I recommend searching Google for free CSS templates. There are thousands of great looking free templates out there and most just want a link in the footer.

‘CSS‘ stands for Cascading Style Sheets and if that’s new to you don’t be intimidated. CSS is basically just a way to control the structure and appearance of the site you are designing, in this case I’m referring to simple HTML sites. CSS templates allow easy changes of colors, font and layout. Most are ‘tableless‘ helping them load quickly.

I recommend a nice and simple template. A header, footer and one, two or three columns is about all you need.

2. Edit the images
Change or edit the graphics to fit your niche if necessary. Keep in mind we’re creating a fast and easy niche site so perfection is not needed. Keeping it simple is the best bet. Don’t use too many graphics and keep the file sizes low. Fast loading pages are much more important than impressing people with our images. The goal is to guide visitors interested in the topic to the next step (action) by clicking an ad link for more information.

3. Ad Placement
AdSense allows up to three ads on a single page. Problogger has a three part post on Positioning your Adsense Ads that’s worth reading.

Don’t place AdSense ads next to images to ‘enhance‘ them in any way and don’t try to hide the fact they are advertisements. All of the ad must be readable including the ‘Ads by Google‘ statement.

I will often toss in a ClickBank or Market Leverage ad into the mix to help monetize the page.

4. Adding Content
Content is an important part of an AdSense site. You MUST have content and it needs to be relevant to the niche. Pages with just ads are in violation of the AdSense terms. It’s important to give visitors valuable content yet you don’t want to give away the whole ball of wax. You want to leave them wanting more but give them enough to want it from your links. It takes practice but use the content as a guide or call to action. NEVER EVER ask visitors to click on an ad. This is another big AdSense terms violation.

5. Promoting Your Niche Site
Once you have your site up and optimized with key word rich content it’s time to start promoting it. One of the easiest methods of promoting and gaining backlinks is by commenting on related blogs.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been working with a couple of article marketing tools that I am very impressed with. I’ll be writing a review very soon but I’ll give you a ‘heads up‘ now.

1. The first is Free Traffic System. Free Traffic System is a powerful way to submit articles to many blogs at once and they have a system to help make the content somewhat unique for each blog.
2. The second tool is Magic ArticleRewriter. This as an incredible tool. I just purchased it and it’s very easy to use. Be sure to watch the video, it’s amazing. Magic Article Rewriter works with Free Traffic System and the two together should move your article marketing to the next level.

Do it again, and again…
One AdSense site isn’t going to get you anywhere. I recommend setting an initial goal of 100 sites. If you only earn $3 a month per site you are still doing pretty well. That will cover the ten dollars a year for domain registration, cheap hosting and you will gross $300 a month. You should do much better than three dollars a month but that’s just an example. Once you have those hundred sites running and doing well on Google just double it. You can see how quickly this can add up.