In The Spotlight

Anyone that has spent more than an hour on YouTube knows how cool many of the videos are. They also know how lame most of them are. The great ones go viral and that’s exactly what HornBlasters.com has achieved.

I found a pretty funny YouTube video the other day through a tweet by John Sullivan @jsinkeywest. It’s Train Horns Scare Daytona Florida! [below] by Matt Landon Heller of HornBlasters.com Matt has many YouTube videos, several with around half a million views. The video below alone has over 440,000 views, 860 ratings (4 1/2 stars) and 853 comments. Can it get more viral than that? Driving traffic to their site to sell product – that’s what I’m talking about! I love this stuff. My hat’s off to YouTube Viral Marketing at it’s best and HornBlasters.com. I am now a big fan.

HornBlasters on Facebook
HornBlasters on Twitter

HornBlasters.com Train Horns For Your Ride!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGYcnYLK_50

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 I joined New-List in September of 2006 and I can’t see any way to edit that outdated URL.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?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a website out there that looks at how the top brands are using social media and how effective their campaigns are? Let me introduce you to ENGAGEMENTdb. ENGAGEMENTdb is developing the first database measuring online engagement for the top brands.

It would be irresponsible, as marketers, to ignore what the top brands are up to. Even though we can  barely comprehend their marketing budgets we can learn a lot by watching what works and learning why. Are they on Linkedin or Facebook? Do they have a blog or a discussion forum? Do they have a YouTube or Flickr presence? Hey, do they Twitter? If they do ENGAGEMENTdb has will not only let you know but will actually give you they links to each and rate how well they are doing. Now you can track favorite companies online. You can even add add your company to the this comprehensive social media database!

You can download the free 2009 ENGAGEMENTdb report (.pdf) and get details on social media efforts of the top brands. For example, see how Starbucks obtained the highest engagement score with just a six person social media team. See the best practices that build brand engagement.

ENGAGEMENTdb is just starting out yet their content is very impressive. ENGAGEMENTdb has no Google PageRank and an Alexa rank of 289597 and I’m certain we will witness a top ranked site emerge very soon. I know they make my bookmarks.

It is nice to get details like this without buying expensive white papers. What do you think? Can we learn from a site like this?

Subscriber and long time friend Janice Willingham has left a question on our Just Ask page. There’s a wealth of experience and knowledge in our subscribers and site visitors. I’m hoping you can help Janice by answering her questions or giving a little advice.

Here’s what Janice wrote:

I have a blog about dental care. PersonalDentalCareInfo.com I am a member of a social bookmarking site where the members are responsible for bookmarking each other’s websites. I recently found out from one of the members I should be bookmarking my posts from the blog and not the actual blog. So, I changed that. I also write articles to promote my site. I’ve submitted six. I am going to do four more and I guess just promote the articles and continue with the bookmarking.

My questions:

1. How many articles are enough? I was thinking 10 should suffice.
2. What do you do next to promote your site. At what point do you promote and start on another niche. I feel as though I am missing a step in promoting my site.
3. Although, I’ve done all this I have yet to sell any of the  affiliate products located on my blog. One guy stated I should just focus on one product. However, I have a choice of products all focused on the dental care niche.

Any suggestions?

The World’s Largest Tire was transported by train over 40 years ago where it sill stands in Allen Park, Michigan. Locals know the huge artifact from the 1964 New York World’s Fair as symbol of Detroit’s once booming automotive industry. The tire can be seen when driving to Detroit from Detroit Metro Airport.

Like advertising in disguise, few would consider it an 80-foot advertisement for Uniroyal. If it was decided that every roadside billboard was to be removed for a better image most would agree without any thought. If someone decided to remove the big tire there would no doubt be protesting throughout Michigan and beyond.

This 86-foot giant tire, four times that of a standard billboard, has withstood the test of time and shows with some creativity extreme adverting can be much more than effective and excepted – it can become a landmark.

Below is a quick video tutorial on building quick do-it-yourself niche domains using ClickBank.

Eventually I will add more Affiliate, Ad Sense and Pay Per Action (PPA) sites to my arsenal. Monetizing domains and driving traffic to them is an easy and very common method of making money online. A few hundred sites each generating ten to fifty dollars a week really adds up and it’s not unrealistic at all.

One note of caution, I’m framing these ClickBank splash pages using the free online tool Cloaked HTML Source Code I’m not certain this is wise or the best method so if one of my Internet Marketing friends can help me out on the subject it would be great. I know Garry Conn and Yan are experts on the subject so perhaps we can hear from them. I’m certain it’s not going to draw any search engine traffic by framing the splash pages and there is no room for search engine optimization (SEO) so traffic will need to come from other sources.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCnSODu2Dso

The niche domains set-up today:

• PostBailout.com
• RecessionSafe.com
• USGG.org
• NewCreditHope.com
• SubPrimeRepair101.com
• MustReadEbooks.com
• GreatChocolateBusiness.com
• GasStruggle.com
• BlogDownloads.com
• CreativePhotoGuide.com

Finding popular products and/or keywords for your affiliate and niche sites couldn’t be easier than with eBay Pulse. eBay Pulse will show you the top 10 searched products in any given category. The short video below will show you how to search for your products using eBay Pulse.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKeEaeVcHV0

Last month I asked ‘What Blog Promotion Steps Do You Take?‘. We had some interesting responses and some great ideas. Several of our sites, including this one, seem to have leveled off with very little growth. We loose as many subscribers, customers, or members as we gain. At first glance it seems ok because we’re not losing business, right? I say wrong, without steady growth we are dying.

If all of your marketing efforts are designed to keep your online business from shrinking then you are loosing ground. We can see examples of this in every size online business in every niche. I’ll offer a couple recent big ones…

Right now there is a lot of debate on why myspace.com was just recently passed by facebook.com in traffic. We can discuss why one site suddenly outperforms the other but I would like to use it as an example. The chart below by compete.com clearly shows myspace.com holding steady and maintaining it’s traffic. That’s not good enough, is it? facebook.com is growing while myspace.com flat lines.

Another example is mybloglog.com and blogcatalog.com. I have accounts with both and everyone has their own opinions but we see the same scenario. blogcatalog.com grew 162.5% while mybloglog.com pretty much stayed level with a negative 3.9% in unique visitors. Within just a couple of months that growth shot blogcatalog.com way past mybloglog.com.

The reasons for the traffic shift of those two examples are really irrelevant for most of us. We don’t face the same challenges or have the resources of any of those four giants. What we can gain from are the results. For whatever reason one site is growing and the other isn’t. We need to find the ‘growth button’ for our niche and our business.

Marketing is much more than advertising and selling goods or services. The Marketing Mix (The four Ps) Product, Price, Place, and Promotion covers all of the basics of general marketing. Our marketing mix incorporates market research, pricing, customer service, promotion, terms, branding, exposure, message, distribution, selling and much more. It is all about influencing new consumers to buy our product while convincing current customers to stay with our brand.

We don’t have to have huge marketing budgets for steady growth. It’s not even necessary to have a traditional product. If you are a blogger your website is your product. Optimizing our specific marketing mix for growth along with retention is imperative.

The Extreme Ezine is going to kick it up a notch. How about you? Is your online business growing? Are you gaining unique visitors to your site each month? Are your profits increasing each month. What are you doing to grow your business?

This post is going to sound like I’m spiteful, jealous or even bitter. I’m not – really. I love internet marketing and I believe in the free market system. I’m impressed when others out do everyone and make a ton of money and I’m happy for them.

I just want to clear something up for our subscribers and site visitors. I also want our Ad Tracking members to understand this too. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the be-all end-all expert on the subject but I’ve been here for years. What I’m about to say will make a few people mad but most will already know the truth. Here it is…

Let me say that again:

I’m not saying don’t buy online products. I’m just saying know what you are buying and buy it for the right reason. When Big Boy Marketer says you will make thousands by reading his secret ebook he may not be the right one to listen to. You already know why. He’s trying to sell it. If it was that great he would keep his mouth shut and do it himself getting rich in the process. No, Big Boy Marketer knows the only way to make money with that product is by selling it so that’s what he’s doing. You didn’t think he was just a really really nice guy did you?

Here’s how it works. You tell me if this sounds familiar at all:

An internet marketer comes along and gets moderate success. He sells a few products for $27 and then $47 while he builds a small base of affiliates and a list. Now he takes that success and his team of affiliates and sells $97 products. Then, as he gets well known and everyone wants to work with him the prices go up. Products go quickly at $197, $497, $1497 and up. They get so high payment plans are created just so people can buy the products.

All that sounds great and I’m all for making money. The products are not what’s selling it’s the marketer. No surprise there, that’s the system we live in. But here’s the problem…

Many of the marketers are selling a lie. They lead others to believe that’s how they got where they are. A newbie sees the successful marketer and hear’s him say, “Do this and your world will be blessed with gold and silver“. Once he squeezes as much out of that product as possible he sets up the next sale. “Buy this“, he says, “and you’ll have to hire a team of accountants to count your money“. The truth is that very often the product is no better than the first one that sold for $27. Oh, it didn’t work for you? You must have done it wrong. Did you follow my steps exactly as outlined? You see, the marketer forgot to mention that he didn’t make his money from the steps outlined in the ebooks, tele-seminars, live conferences, online courses, membership sites, video packages or any other product he’s offering. He made his money by convincing others that he did. Period! That’s it, case closed. No really, I mean the post is finished

Image credit: SXC

Have you checked out Google’s newest creation SearchWiki? SearchWiki is for Google users that are signed into their Google accounts. I don’t know how many users that is but it has to be in the millions at any given time. When SearchWiki was launched a couple of days ago I didn’t give it much thought.

That was until I read a post on John’s Tech Blog Google Turns SEO On It’s Head! John’s post made me go back and pay attention to a Google search that I had just made. I was checking our ad tracking site’s current position by searching ad tracking in Google search – still number two So I went back and noticed the little icon  where I could add a note to my URL.

I didn’t even think that was so special until I noticed that is was public! Wow, a public comment next to your URL in Google’s search results. SearchWiki does not affect the way websites are ranked by Google but adding a public comment about your site is a great way to make it more visible and perhaps even a little more legitimate in the eyes of some.

Related: The Official Google Blog SearchWiki: make search your own