Day Eleven - Squidoo

Have you ever done a Squidoo lens? I'd heard of this before and looked into it once...can't remember when or why, but there. Anyway, today's lesson was about creating a Squidoo lens on our topic and using it to share content as well as direct folks to our blog.

Since Squidoo is a highly popular site, backlinks from there carry more weight with the search engines. So we need to use our key phrase wherever is reasonable. You can do so much with this!

I have an RSS feed from my blog, a link to my Amazon product (here's hoping) and videos from YouTube.

Just another way to highlight our topic and drive traffic to our blogs.

Let's see what tomorrow holds!

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Day Ten - Rest Day and RSS

I'm so glad that Ed, Bob, and Dan gave us a break today. This really helped me get a lot closer to being caught up. They did share one really cool gadget that TDC has developed for our use. It's called the TDC RSS Submitter.

All you do is enter your blog, the blogs feed address, and a brief description. The Submitter then submits your blog to a myriad of RSS Feed sites...and folks will find your blog!

Way cool!

Now to get caught up.....

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Day Nine - Backlinks and Indexing

Now that my site is up, and promoted slightly, it's time to generate more interest! A great way to do this is to create backlinks. Backlinks are links on other sites that point back to yours. When I first boldly entered into the world of Internet (I think my first website was at xoom...does that still exist?) you got backlinks only when someone else linked to your site from theirs. Now, with all the social web sites out there, you can generate some of your own backlinks.

One of the best ways to do this, and the way that Ed goes over in today's lesson, is through forum posting. There are tons of forums and groups out there on all topics from soup to beans. I found two good WoW groups through Google Groups, and a couple forums as well. Including my guild forums! Since my husband and I run the guild, I'm sure I can add a link to my new blog in my signature without causing trouble *grin*

The one thing to remember when doing this, is to make sure that when you post to groups and forums, you are actually contributing something of value. If you join and then spam all the forums with "Hey! Check out my new site!" not only will you get no traffic, you will probably be banned from the forum and give all internet marketers a bad name. So don't do it. Please.

At this point, our sites should have been up for a couple days (since I started late, it hasn't been 24 hours yet) and we might be indexed in Google. I actually found one of my articles in Google this morning that I'd used the Social Bookmarking technique on last night. Just type into the Google search box:

site:yourdomain.org

and Google will return all pages that it has indexed that match that domain. Pretty cool! Now for all my pages to be indexed....and ranked....and generate lots of traffic....and money....whew!

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Day Eight - Social Bookmarking

Those former 30DCers are so smart! Today, we learned about another new tool that wasn't even thought of last year. This one, Social Marker, was developed by someone who participated in the Thirty Day Challenge last year. This way cool tool will submit sites to a myriad of social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, etc. and save you hours of time.

Here's how you do it:

With the Social Marker on your toolbar, find the site you want to bookmark. Click on the Social Marker link and a page will appear, partially filled out with the important things from that site. Finish adding description and tags, then choose which sites you want to use. I wouldn't choose all of them - might be frowned upon by the spam police - and click submit. Social Marker then walks you through each of the sites you've chosen. SM has a header and footer in your browser so you can navigate easily to each of the sites and all your submission information is in the footer where you can copy and paste easily to the submission pages.

How cool is that? I submitted my second and third articles to Propeller, Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, and Twitter in less time than it took to write this post!

I love this...and will use it for other things in the future, I know!

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Day Seven - Tracking and Analytics

Okay, have to admit. After seeing all the tools so far, it's easy to become jaded. Especially since this is the first time I've even attempted some of these tasks. But I am continually amazed at what Google can produce.

Case in point. Google Analytics. You can insert a small piece of code on your website and Google will track your visitors. How they found you. How many were unique. Even what part of the country they came from. How cool is that? And with WordPress Direct, you don't even have to insert code. Just extract your tracking ID from the code that Google gives you, enter it in a certain spot on your site information form and boom! WordPress Direct enters it on your site. Easy as falling off a log. (But doesn't hurt as much!)

I'm excited to see what Google will have to say about my site. I kinda feel like I'm standing by a lamppost on the corner in front of my store, wearing a trench coat and fedora. Whipping out my notebook from a deep pocket, taking my pencil from behind my ear, I make a tally mark on the top page right as someone enters the store. Okay, maybe not. You get the idea

The other cool thing today (and I hope I'll have access to after the Challenge is over!) is the TDC Stats Tracker. This is how it works (or how you work it!):

You enter in your Affiliate link, name it and click Add. The system generates a unique link that is a lot shorter than the original Affiliate link (think tinyurl or snipurl). Then, when you use that link on your blog instead of the original, TDC will track how many click's your link has had. Talk about cool! I've had my links up there for less than a day, and I've had almost 20 click throughs. Now if people would only buy!

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Day Six - Bringing it all together

Wow!.....if you have ever worked on a blog, this is truly amazing! There is some new software out there that will setup your WordPress blog and work with you on keeping it all updated and maintained. Now, I've only used Blogger before (hence the location of this blog) and while I like it, understand it, etc. you've got to admit that the template themes are just a little basic. I've tried WordPress in the past but got a bit confused at first and then HTML/Java  wouldn't work for me so I said, "Heck with it!" and went back to Blogger.

However, with WordPress Direct it's super easy! I just filled out some basic information about what I wanted, and searched through 70 pages of templates (that's around 700 templates) - several of them helped inspire some new ideas too...hmm....

Anyway, our tasks for Day Six of the Thirty Day Challenge were to get the blog set up, add one affiliate product, and one article.

Here is the site for my blog: http://www.wowquestguides.brighterplanet.com

I went with having the site hosted by WordPress Direct as it was free. If, at the end of this month, I decide to keep this up and really go wild with this, I'll buy my own domain name and hosting. Until then, let's invest nothing but time and see if there really is a market.

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Day Five - Content Generation

So I have this fabulous idea, SEO key phrase, products to sell....just need content and a place to put it! Today, Ed and GuruBob shared some strategies for tracking down content (ie: articles) for our blogs (to be created).

First, GuruBob unlocked a new feature in Market Samurai. We can now search for our key phrase in several sources looking for articles. MS will retrieve them from major sites (Ezine Articles, Google Blogs, etc) and will also analyze them. We can see when they were written, how many other people have linked to them, and more!

I used my key phrase (also searched some of the runners-up just for fun) and it is amazing! No more going to each site manually, typing in the key phrase, guessing as to stats and such... It's all in one place! This is another great way to test out your key phrase to ensure there is plenty of content out there to play around with.

Ed also shared searching in Google News and exporting feeds to Google Reader. There is a lot of content out there....and it's so easy to find an article that resonates with you and your niche that you can share with them. Write a little introduction and then link to the source of the article. Great way to get content - legally! - without scratching your head and saying, "hmmmm".

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Day Four - Affiliate Programs and Content

Okay - I have my key phrase *cheer* and I've scoped out the competition. Now it's time to find a product to sell -- just to test the key phrase to see if there is any interest whatsoever. Ed was quick to reassure us that the Thirty Day Challenge is not about Affiliate Marketing, we just need "something" to put up there to see what's what. Why spend hours creating a product if no one cares about it? Remember the Symphony from Day One? Product comes last.

So I learned/was reminded about two great sources for affiliate products. I'd used Amazon.com in the past, but in all actuality had forgotten about it. I even had my affiliate link all set up through them, just hadn't used it yet. Amazon is cool because they have a lot of everything and no matter what your niche is, you can find a product to sell through Amazon. It's really easy.

The other source was Clickbank.com. I'd heard of them before, but had never researched them. Good and bad points: They are good 'cause the commission on sold items is way higher than Amazon (some are even 75% of sale price). Takes more thought on choosing an item though as there are a lot of personally created products on Clickbank....you want to be sure that what you are promoting is actually as valuable as the producer claims.

So, I found one item at each place. Looking forward to seeing how all this fits together!

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Day Three - Competition Analysis

Whew! Using Market Samurai, I narrowed down some key phrases that interested me, and were showing good search stats and low website competition. Then, I got to use Market Samurai again to analyze the top ten websites for each key phrase. This was so cool! Market Samurai was able to go in to Google, track down the top ten sites and then share all sorts of information about them and their optimization. I learned their page rank, how many backlinks they sported, whether the page was optimized for that phrase in their title, description, etc. and more.

Simply fabulous! And all in one easy spot. Now I know that's it is still "all greek" to me, but I was definitely able to choose one key phrase (actually, I have two different areas....sue me!) to focus on. Some of the key phrases I'd originally chosen simply screamed at me "NO WAY!" when I checked the competition. There would be no way I could compete with some of them.

So here - for all the world to see - is my key phrase:

WoW Quest Guides

If that means nothing to you, read on! My next posts will tell more as we go, and of course, have links to all the cool content I'll be creating!

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Day Two - Market Samurai

I have spent the afternoon watching tutorials and playing with one of the most fabulous programs on earth. I'm speaking of the new Market Samurai software from NobleSamurai. I've only played around so far with my initial niche area (real estate virtual assistant) and have learned that I must think outside the proverbial box on this one as the competition is greater than I'd imagined. No wonder my initial Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign didn't quite make it.

I must play with this some more. It basically takes the information you can gather from different areas and plugs it all into one table so you can view the data and make comparisons. Sorting, filtering, adding, deleting, all to help you figure out what the best keywords are for you to use. And it's only just begun.

The Keyword Research tool is just part of what Market Samurai has to offer. It is still in development right now, but I'm excited to see what else they have in store for us. This tool as it stands right now save so much time and energy. And I understand what the data is really saying now too. That helps tremendously!

Well, I have nine more areas to research, and hubby is getting hungry. I'll check back tomorrow and let you know what's happening on Day Three!

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Day One - The Beginning

Well, I did it. Day One is done! Yes, Ed took it easy on us, but it was a good start. Two things that he mentioned really stuck out to me during the training today.

1) The whole online business model is a Symphony of Four Parts. And yet, most people start with the last part and hope for the best. The proper order of the Symphony is: Market Research, Traffic, Conversion, Product. Typically, folks develop their product then put it out on the 'net and sit back waiting for the $$ to roll in. Don't quite work that way folks! Now, I've been guilty of that myself, to a point. We'll see how that goes....

2) Did you know that 95% of the mistakes online business owners make are in Market Research? Whether they don't spend enough time in MR or just don't follow through, they aren't getting the information they need to accurately sound out the world to see if they have a chance in their business.

Ed also reviewed the tools that we learned about during the Preseason. Although I found out (too late) that I didn't HAVE to go through the entire preseason beforehand, I'm glad I did. I have a good working knowledge of the tools that I'll need as I tackle the 30DC.

The third video for today was a quick overview of how to generate ideas for a specific market to target. I loved the idea Ed shared with us about using Amazon.com's magazines to get good ideas. He also shared (on the website) a list of several dozen sources to search for ideas. He recommended that we come up with 5-10 ideas to get started. I've got 10, but three of them are ones I'm already working with. So really, 7 new areas I'd not touched in the past...or even thought of, for that matter!

Now to see if any of them will work.....

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Preseason - FriendFeed

Ok, this is the last installment of the Preseason stuff and I'm feeling just a *tad* overwhelmed. I've just been introduced to FriendFeed. I think it will make a lot more sense once I move forward a bit. From what I'm understanding right now, it's a one stop shop for managing all the information people are talking about. It's like huge sponge soaking up all the twittering, blogging, linking, tagging, posting, commenting, etc. and then allowing you to wring out only what you want to see.

I'm sure that in a few days I'll know a lot more about it. I can see a few gems of value through this fog, but I've had a lot of information thrown at me since yesterday. Whew!

I'm just thankful that I already know about email, web browsing, blogging, etc.

Preseason - Google Reader

If you enjoy reading continuously updated web content (such as blogs, etc.) and have ever wondered about or been overwhelmed by RSS feeds, have I got a solution for you!

Last night I was introduced to Google Reader  - a really slick way to stay on top of your RSS feeds without being overwhelmed. If you use Gmail or other Google services, you know what I'm about to say, even if you've never used the Reader.

Google takes all your RSS feeds, and drops them into one place. You can view them all in a "list" view (like your emails on Gmail) and review them at a glance to see which ones you might actually be interested in. Currently, in my Reader, I subscribe to two blogs, a Twitter friend, a Twitter search, and a YouTube channel. See the possibilities?

In the past, I'd used my Microsoft Outlook for RSS feeds. But you have to look at each feed individually to be able to see what was new. Using Google Reader, they are all on one page for easy skimming.

I'm just scratching the surface on all these new tools I'm learning about. I can't wait to spend this month learning even more and seeing how they will all work together for Internet Marketing!

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Preseason - StumbleUpon

Periodically throughout my time on the internet, I'd hear folks say, "I stumbled this, or that today" ... I'd heard "StumbleUpon" mentioned before, but never had the time or motivation to figure out what the heck everyone was talking about.

Until yesterday. As part of the 30DC, I created a StumbleUpon account and dived in to the waters. And came up smiling. Have you ever typed a search into Google and pressed the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button? Similar concept. I chose a few categories to start off (Cats, Library Resources, etc.) and found some tremendous sites that I would never have otherwise found.

Curious to see them? Sign up for a StumbleUpon account (completely free) and add me as a friend...you can then "stumble" on the pages that I liked!

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Preseason - YouTube

I'll come right out and admit it. I've never been one to sit down and "waste" hours looking at YouTube videos. Oh, I've been on the site before. Friends would send me links to videos they'd done, and I'd gone on and watched them and even left comments. But the whole YouTube craze really never struck me.

Even now, I can think of a lot more fun ways to "waste" my time on the internet. But I'm beginning to see that YouTube does have a part to play in the whole internet marketing thing.

I signed up with YouTube today. Subscribed to a friend's channel just to figure out how. Explored a bit. Stumbled a hilarious video about cats (see below). I can see how this would be useful to demonstrate a product you are marketing. Since any products that I offer will be more information based, still stewing over ideas to capitalize on the YouTube market...thoughts??

Embedded Video

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Preseason - Twittering and Twhirling

Several months ago, I was spurred to check out Twitter. I'd done some stuff with it, but not too much as yet. The last few weeks, I've been more faithful in twittering and it shows in the fact that my followers have doubled. Now, thanks to 30DC I have even more reason to "tweet". I understand that Twitter is used a lot during the next month, so I also got to learn about Twhirl.

Twhirl is an application you can download for free that helps you stay on top of your Twittering and makes it easier to tweet without having to login to the Twitter homepage. Twhirl also helps with replying to others tweets and searching for certain tweet topics. You can even mark some tweets as favorites (for example: one might have a certain URL you don't want to lose) and you can easily find them again. You can view your friends/followers on Twhirl also.

For those of you who are already following me on Twitter, I apologize for all the updates today. You can tell I'm playing! If you aren't following me already, click here to share the joy!

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Preseason - Flock, Flocking, Flocked

My first step in the 30 Day Challenge (henceforth known as 30DC 'cause I'm lazy) was to download and setup a new web browser. Ever heard of Flock? Funny thing is, someone in my Powerful Entrepreneur group was just talking about this yesterday (or was it Monday?) and said how much they loved it, etc. I thought that maybe I should check it out, but someday when I had time. Come to find out it's the browser of choice for 30DC.

It's a variation of Firefox, many similar concepts and uses the same extensions or add-ons. Yet there are some features specifically for Social Marketing that are way cool. For example, in one pane on the left-hand side, I can see all Facebook and Twitter updates. Very nice. I can use the tabbed browsing that I'm used to with IE7 and Firefox. Another cool thing is this blog post? It's being written from Flock. How cool is that? Flock knows who I am and is connected with all my things...so talk about cool!

I'm still learning things about Flock and will have to explore more later....but for now, time to move forward with the preseason stuff! I'm already 6 days behind.....

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What is the Thirty Day Challenge?

Recently in a Yahoo Group! that I'm in (Powerful Entrepreneurs) several people were talking about the Thirty Day Challenge. So, being the curious soul that I am, I had to find out what the buzz was about. I was amazed! These three guys in Australia (at least Ed has an Aussie accent!) have put together a complete Internet Marketing training program to get you going in creating a business online. By following the steps to the challenge, you can go from nothing to making money in 30 days. And the best part?? It's all free!

So, you can really do the challenge at any time, but the pep talks and emails, etc. all come out during the month of August. I'm a few days late, but hopefully will get caught up fast! Sitck around to see what I'm learning--or, better yet, learn it for yourself! Sign up for the Thirty Day Challenge and let's help each other out!