2/27/09

Joel Comm's Twitter Power - Follow the Leader?

Once again one of the gurus of internet money making, Joel Comm, has released a book about you guessed it, making money on the internet. This time however, Joel has intelligently tapped into the Twitter craze with a book appropriately titled "Twitter Power". While I've yet to read the book cover to cover, from scanning the Amazon.com free preview "Surprise Me" sections and Table of Contents, it looks like a valuable asset. For some of us that is...

One thing I always recommend here at The Monetizer Blog is reading, but doing it as cheaply as possible. It's the best way to learn or research a subject you're interested. Others might tell you "no buy this special report or 100 page e-book, it's better". Many of the special reports and e-books that cost money are made up of information that's already floating around for free. You can find blogs about every subject, and while they aren't always expert opinion, you can gain all sorts of ideas. Libraries are free, unless you're late in returning books. It's good to be able to access just about any info you want these days for little money. Plenty of people have written about Twitter and Darren Rowse of Problogger has even created a site offering tips from himself and other Twitterers, called www.twitip.com.

Chapters of Twitter Power Include:

* An Introduction to the Social Media Landscape
* Getting Started the Right Way on Twitter
* Building a Following on Twitter
* The Art of the Tweet
* Leveraging Twitter for Team Communication
* Using Twitter to Drive Behavior


When it comes to Twitter, Joel covers the things that many bloggers are already talking about, such as making a professional looking background for your Twitter profile, linking to your blog or site on the profile, how to make your About Me memorable or descriptive in few words, and more about how to make Tweets that help you in marketing. Chapter 10 just by looking at the Table of Contents, may be a valuable resource but it lists out each of the various Third Party Twitter Tools you can use. Joel may offer insight into their uses or helpfulness, but you can also gain this through visiting the respective sites. Again, Joel is smart to capitalize off these topics by putting all the "ideas floating around" into book form and you've got to respect his business sense in profiting from the popular internet topic. It's always possible there are some "golden nuggets of info" in his book that make the book worth its current cover price, but I believe this book will be more valuable to those who are new to Twitter or businesses looking to gain an edge there. The rest of us have read these ideas on multiple blogs from John Chow to Problogger. So for the average Twitterer, we may already have the Power Joel is describing, without reading his book.

Follow the Monetizer at Twitter

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time is currently available at Amazon.com

2/22/09

Make Money Online - Up Your Twitter Status!

monetizer twitter stats
(Become a Twitter celeb!)

Months ago The Monetizer was a member of Twitter but didn't quite see its value or have much reason to use it. However, the more I read about those who are successfully using Twitter to their advantage, the more it makes sense to "go with the Twitter flow". Let me give you some new ways to look at Twitter and some things to do to increase your Twitter followers, which in turn will help you attract new blog readers, contacts, networking opportunities, site visitors and money spenders!



1) Pimp your profile - Like many say, branding yourself is the way to make the big bucks with a blog. If you've already got an Entrecard logo, great! Use that as your small Twitter icon, or use a really, really good picture of yourself. Try to make it professional or catchy.

Also consider getting yourself a free Twitter theme background, or modifying one/creating your own. If you see someone else's Twitter background you like, do a right click on it and "View image". You can always save theirs and use it as a reference (don't steal!) To upload your new background, simply go to the "Settings" tab on your upper menu for Twitter, then go to "Design", if you scroll down on that page you'll see a button that says "". Click that and you can upload your new background, then click "Save".

Also make sure you have a link to follow you at Twitter somewhere on your site(s) and blog(s).

guy kawasaki twitter follower
(Monetizer follows Guy & some of his followers)

2) Follow the followers of top gurus - I picked up this tip at NickMarks.com's blog post, but it has worked well for me so far. Within a day I've been able to move from around 200 followers up towards 500. My goal by month's end is 1,000. Consider following the followers of John Chow, Problogger, Guy Kawasaki and John Reese, just to name a few with a lot of followers who are in similar niches as Moneymakers. Even if you're not in the IM or Moneymaker niche, they can still potentially bring you people so don't discount the followers!

Check out this recent post about 20 Celebs on Twitter. Use them to get followers as they might relate to your niche, or even if they don't!

tweetlater

3) Use these Twitter tools - Twitterfeed, Twittercounter.com, Twitter Karma, TweetDeck, and TweetLater. Twitterfeed allows you to plug in your RSS from your blog so anytime you post a new blog, it will be Tweeted to Twitter for you, with a link to your blog post and a line of intro from your post. TweetLater is a great automator tool where you can set up your Twitter account so that you automatically follow and direct message anyone who follows you. You can also set it so if someone unfollows you, you unfollow them! The Your Twitter Karma site is helpful in that it allows you to import your list of Following and Followers, and then unfollow any of those your following who don't follow you back. Great for management purposes. Tweetdeck will allow you to see what's being said about anything, including you, your blog, product, etc!

4) Check out this insightful blog post by Guy Kawasaki. He details exactly what you need to do with Twitter and why. Great stuff.

5) Follow The Monetizer on Twitter, I follow back :)

Twitter is becoming the "It" tool of the times, so if you're not on "Twit", get on it, and start Tweeting!

Here's to your success!
The Monetizer

PS - Got any cool Twitter tools, tips or stories? Feel free to share em in the comments section below!

2/18/09

20 Celebrities Who Use Twitter

These days if someone asks "What's Twitter?" the other person might ask them what rock they've been living under. Everyone's on Twitter these days from your roommate to your neighbor to Team Obama. The following is a quick list The Monetizer generated over at twittercounter.com. It's a nifty site where you can enter your twitter username and it predicts how many peeps will be following you on Twitter by a certain date. The site also has a top 100 list, which lists Barack Obama at the #1 Spot. There appears to be several celebrities on Twitter who you may be interested in following in addition to our current president. Some of the following include politicians, athletes, internet entrepreneurs, musicians, internet celebs and comedians.

Here's a look at some of the famous people Tweeting:

http://www.twitter.com/kevinrose
http://www.twitter.com/britneyspears
http://www.twitter.com/lancearmstrong
http://www.twitter.com/algore
http://www.twitter.com/The_Real_Shaq
http://www.twitter.com/ijustine
http://www.twitter.com/MCHammer
http://www.twitter.com/jimmyfallon
http://www.twitter.com/JohnCleese
http://www.twitter.com/coldplay
http://www.twitter.com/leolaporte
http://www.twitter.com/rainnwilson
http://www.twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain
http://www.twitter.com/TonyRobbins
http://www.twitter.com/problogger
http://www.twitter.com/DaveJMatthews
http://www.twitter.com/brookeburke
http://www.twitter.com/TinaFey
http://www.twitter.com/StephenColbert
http://www.twitter.com/guykawasaki


Several names might not be of the household variety to everyone so here's some extra info on them... Kevin Rose is the founder of Digg.com, iJustine is a famous video blogging chick who just brought cupcakes to Twitter's office, Leo Laporte hosts technology TV shows, Guy Kawasaki is an entrepreneur and author of enlightening books such as "The Art of the Start". If you don't know someone else on the list, please consult Google.com :)

(Source: TwitterCounter Global top 100)

** UPDATE:

Check out this recent blogger's post about Shaq on Twitter. Yes it's the "Real Shaq"!

2/14/09

Happy Valentine's Day 2009 - Love & Money

heart be mine in 2009
Hello lovestruck readers and Happy Valentine's Day 2009! Today's the day when people profess their love for each other or in some cases their love for money. Whichever your situation may be, The Monetizer wants to spread some love on this sweet, sweet holiday...

You may have already noticed that the big G has a red-inspired Google logo theme today, and clicking that theme will take you to Valentine's Day search results. There you can read about the history of Valentine's Day, which many know is based on Saint Valentine and is mainly a holiday for lovers to express their love for one another...

There's also an interesting article within those search results from San Francisco Chronicle regarding Valentine's day and lovers spending less on each other. One individual in the articles notes that he's changed his 2 day Valentine's day holiday into a 1 day celebration. Basically he can't justify buying $100 worth of roses when his neighbor recently lost his job. According to the article V-day spending will drop about 4.8% this year, going down to $28.6 billion. Some of those who will be feeling the tightening budgets will be hotels, restaurants and flower services. Read the full article here at SFGate.com

But you can still share the love this Valentine's day and weekend. The Monetizer has found some cool deals online you may want to utilize. One is the Free Breakfast that IKEA is serving customers from February 13-16th each morning until 10:30AM. It may be too late to take your sweety to a V-Day breakfast, but Sunday and Monday could be your Valentine's day breakfast celebration. There's also several compelling restaurant deals so you can still take your sweetheart to a great meal. One example is TGI Friday's Buy One Get One Free Entree deal, just print the coupon out here. If you have Texas Roadhouse in your vicinity, they are offering a Valentine's Day deal of 2 entrees for $29.99 complete with 2 made-from-scratch sides! The choices include Baby Blossom, BBQ Chicken & Ribs, 12oz. Ribeye Steak and 12oz. Prime Rib. John Chow eat your heart out! (not literally) But nothing says I love you like a good plate of ribs or a nice hunk of steak. Texas Roadhouse's deal extends through Sunday February 15th with details and pictures here.

Now how about some mood music for today's lovefest? Amazon.com is offering Dean Martin Love Songs MP3 Album for just $2.99 today only! Even better, Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye is FREE!. So you could technically just loop that track all day long if you really want to save money, however The Monetizer doesn't recommend it! You may want to purchase your lover a sweet iPod Nano to go with the music as well...

No matter how you choose to spend Valentine's day whether it be wining and dining your sweetie, watching romantic movies, or counting your money made online, The Monetizer wishes you nothing but love for Valentine's Day 2009!

2/12/09

Domain Purchased & Wordpress Setup

Recently, The Monetizer ran into a bigtime issue (potential scam) with a website called Regfly.com. They supposedly sell domain names with privacy protection included, but after a week and no sign of the domain I purchased in WHOIS, I submitted a dispute to my credit card company. See "Beware of Domain Scams!" for more info on that. That's all pending, but in the meantime I decided to take advantage of the free domain deal offered by BUY.com and GoDaddy, mentioned in my previous post. I bought a cheap DVD and then within 48 hours received my code for a free domain name (free for the first year) from GoDaddy. After some careful consideration, I took the plunge and used my coupon there to get a domain.

Right after my domain purchase, I immediately pointed my DNS (Domain Name Servers) to my Hostgator hosting account. With Hostgator's baby package you can host unlimited domains under one account for $10 a month, which is a great deal. Even cooler, you can set up Wordpress very simply through Hostgator's control panel. For a great tutorial check out Courtney Tuttle's Internet Marketing post: "Finalizing Hosting and Installing WordPress".

So within less than an hour I was able to buy a domain name, have it registered and set up hosting with Wordpress. Now all I have to do is choose my Wordpress theme, install plugins and transfer the Blogger blog stuff to Wordpress. Since I've been a longtime user of Blogger and barely scratched the surface with Wordpress, I'll detail my further adventures in an upcoming post. As mentioned above I recommend, consult Courtney Tuttle's Marketing School for a great video tutorial on setting up all of the above for your blog!

2/7/09

Buy.com's Free Domain Name Deal

The online retailer Buy.com
is currently offering customers a free domain name from GoDaddy.com with any purchase made at Buy.com. Once you've made your purchase and checked off the GoDaddy checkbox on their banner, you'll be emailed a redemption code for a free domain name within 48 hours after your order. So if you've wanted to test out or start aging a new domain name for your blog or website over the next year and don't want to spend too much, this is quite the deal. Of course you will have to spend some money, but you can find a few items at Buy.com that are under $10 with free shipping. You may even have been eyeing a certain electronics item that can be found at Buy.com. Now's your chance to buy it and also get a domain name to start aging it for Google and other search engines!

One example of an under $10 product with free shipping is these snazzy looking iFrogz headphones. Pick em' up for yourself, as a gift, or shop them off on eBay if you can!

Or if you're a DVD Sci-Fi/action movie fan, The Matrix 4 Film Favorite collection is $10.95 with free shipping. You'll not only get the movies but a new domain name for yourself. Shop around the site though as they have all sorts of goodies from music to DVD's, computer equipment, books and video games.

The GoDaddy/Buy.com free domain offer will expire April 1, 2009. Makes sure you check off the checkbox on the GoDaddy banner for a free domain when you're confirming your purchase. Follow this link for more instructions on Buy.com & GoDaddy's free domain name deal or visit Buy.com
.

2/4/09

Beware of Domain Scams!

First off, apologies for no recent posts here at The Monetizer blog as its been a busy time! The Monetizer recently "took the plunge" so to speak and purchased a new domain name (for another blog venture) and then the baby hosting package with Hostgator.com. The issue so far hasn't been with Hostgator at all. Their customer service has been exemplary and prompt. Hostgator's been recommended by many fellow bloggers as the host company to use as they allow you to host unlimited domains on the same account. The main issue has come with the domain site, Regfly.com, and their questionability as a valid company.

This past weekend I became inspired to buy a domain name and didn't do my full homework. Lesson 1, investigate any online company as best you can before paying up. I did a search for domain names with privacy, and regfly.com came up in the search. Upon checking out their site, it seemed like a legit business and the deal seemed great. A domain name for just $9.99 with WHOIS privacy included. For anyone who isn't familiar with WHOIS.net, it's a registry database where you can find out the owner (registrar) on any domain name. Basically when you buy your own domain name, www.yourdomainname.com, your name, address and phone number go into the WHOIS database, and is public info. (For anyone with a website who wasn't aware of WHOIS, go check it out and see what info's available on you!) Luckily, you've got the option to protect your privacy, but it's usually costly. For example, I believe GoDaddy charges an additional $7 to $10 a year for this protection, on top of the $10 domain charge. Regfly's deal seemed great as you got the domain and the privacy all for $10. But like they say "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is".

Regfly was quick to process my order, and send me the official confirmation by email. They provided a live account there which I can log into and check out the domain name. The problem is that the domain name isn't in the WHOIS database after 4 days, meaning that anyone can still buy that domain, yet I've been charged for it. The other problem, regfly.com has very poor customer service. Their "customer support ticket system" has been a slow affair where you type out your problem and wait for them to respond. They responded to one question I posted with an answer asking me for more info, then closed the response so I couldn't respond to their inquiry. Very fishy.... Basically, I've opened a second support ticket now stating I expect the domain name to be in WHOIS within 24 hours. If I don't see this, I'll definitely be disputing the charge on my credit card. To further add to this, I did some Google searches on regfly.com today to find some other customers posting on forums with similar issues to mine. Friends, beware when you go looking for a good deal online for hosting, domains or any other product/service. There's some great deals to be fished out, and also some scammers waiting for us to bite!

In another update, ShoppingAds.com has finally payed The Monetizer straight to Paypal! They are a program of their word, so be patient if you've hit the minimum payout level there yet haven't seen a payment. They typically will pay on the 26th of the month, although my payment was postponed and I received it about a month later.

Here's to your success,
The Monetizer

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