Sunday, June 29, 2008

Squidoo: 24 Lenses in 24 Hours


Squidoo: 24 Lenses in 24 Hours

Found myself getting into a rut, and a lazy rut
at that! So I looked around for some kind of
challenge to peak my interest, and what did I
find?

We were just a couple of days away from the
deadline for Giant Squid application!

And what the blazes is a Giant Squid?

Well even if you aren't using it, if you are reading
this you've at least heard of Squidoo. Seth Godin's
brainchild, and hugely useful for generating traffic,
sales and cash. If you are unfamiliar check it out
HERE.

Anyway, a Giant Squid is a lensmaster (the pages
you create on Squidoo are called lenses) that has
at least 50 lenses of good quality and gets selected
by Squidoo's appointed folks for that designation.

Selection only happens once a quarter, and so this
Monday (okay tomorrow!) is the next deadline for
application. This motivated me!

So I set out as a first step to get within shouting
of that benchmark of 50 lenses. Unfortunately
I only had 23 or so good lenses published.

Hmm...

Okay so since I got this urge on Friday AM it looked
like I finally found something to get me of my butt!

So, I challenged myself to produce:

24 Lenses in 24 Hours
(Click Here To See Them)

Now I have to admit that I set out on this without
really doing the math on what it would take to do it.
I started at 1:30 in the afternoon (EST) and set out
to finish by the same time Saturday.

The first 5 seemed to take forever, but were really
done in just over 2 hours, so I was encouraged...

I finally called it quits and went to bed around 2:30AM.
Slept in a bit, but knew I had it licked as I only needed
7 more to accomplish my goal.

Funny thing is, I still need 7 more to get to 50, but I
know I can knock those out tonight, and get my app
in tomorrow AM.

In the past my lenses have done pretty well traffic
and rating wise, but lately they have really taken
off. Mostly because of the info I shared in Lens #8
of my 24, titled Google Gadgets.

Well, better get back at it if I am going to get to 50
tonight. Just thought I'd let you know what had
me pumped again...

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart


This is off topic, but these are some great deals on wine:
Summer Clearance Sale at Wine.com! Save 20% off any 6 or more bottles of clearance sale wines.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

2008 Presidential Campaign - I Was Promised Flying Cars!


2008 Presidential Campaign - I Was Promised Flying Cars!

This is a bit off topic, but my social conscience is
prodding me a bit here. Particularly in light of
the ongoing 2008 Presidential Campaigns.

Not to worry, you won't catch me stumping for
either of these candidates. The recent rash of
interesting posts from blogs that I subscribe to
give ample reason to have absolutely no basis
for faith in any candidate that either party could,
or would put forth.

Stay with me here, as this will take a bit to explain
my point. (And yes I have one...)



I grew up wide eyed and innocent in small town
Illinois buying whole hog into the idea that anything
is possible in this country. Do you remember being
young enough to believe that you could fly?

With that kind of start to life, flying cars seemed the
least of what was possible. The sky was indeed the
limit, if not the Sun and the stars!

Of course, life continues and we grow up. The dream
goes out of life here in the US of A, and our ability
to hold onto vestiges of youthful exhuberance ebbs.

But now and then...

Just occasionally...

We dare to hope, and to dream again that it is possible
to overcome the muck we are mired in and to soar.
Something comes along and nurtures that original
spark that had been just about extinguished forever.

Lately that spark has been the ingenuity with which
the great minds of the day are addressing what is so
obviously a global crisis brought about by an economy
so overly based upon fossil fuels.

One of my favorite sites these days is InHabitat.
This amazing blog constantly amazes me as it shows
what can and is being pursued to make the planet a
cleaner, safer... an infinitely better place for all of us
to live. You owe it to your inner child to go and just
absorb it all. Truly amazing stuff!

But I digress.

Today a Digg friend sent me a shout with a news
item that showed not just ingenuity, but determination
and a resolve to not just brainstorm but to apply what
is so clearly possible. Not in fifty years, or even twenty,
but in seven.

Mercedes Benz has committed to cutting petroleum
fuel sources out of their line of vehicles by 2015.

Reading this report can't help but make your whole
being just radiate with possibilities. And then...

The very next Digg shout I get is THIS.

That's right. The same government that wants to
approve drilling for oil anywhere and everywhere
regardless of the fact that it will take about 10 years
to have a negligible effect on fuel prices, is too worried
about environmental repercussions to allow Solar
Power Plants to be built.

These same plants could supply 10% of US homes
with clean, cheap and completely renewable
electricity.

So, let's be clear. There is a loud cry to get quicker
and less stringently regulated Oil and Natural Gas
drilling approvals, but we need to be really careful
about moving ahead with Solar?

At this point, many of you are shaking your heads
and saying one of two things.

1. Hey! John McCain is offering a $300M bounty
for a Car Battery! He is really serious about these
issues!

2. Obama is definitely the way to go so that we can
get away from this administrations ties to Big Oil!

And yes, I am aware that there are many more points
that each camp would like to make on this subject.
Unfortunately, it all amounts to a lot of finger pointing
at the other side, with exclamations of "They're Worse!"

Any impartial observer cannot help but notice that
the important questions are going not just unanswered,
but not even asked.

Eisenhower famously warned about the dangers of the
Industrial Military Complex. Not even he could have
predicted a time when things had gone so far that even
the much touted "Free Press" would have long since
been bought out by them.

It is also painfully obvious that the revolution of ideas,
innovation and design that is so alive in other parts of
the globe, will have to get along without the "Land of
the Free".

We are too busy being fleeced by those that are afraid
that their might still be some advantage left in squeezing
the last depreciating dollar from the middle and lower
classes. Or perhaps they are just making sure they have
completely extinguished once and for all, any glimmer
of that belief that we began with...

So while the politicians on all sides battle over
semantics, and peddle fear as a means to power...

While intelligence, rational thought and any real desire
to make a difference for the better are punished brutally
in this country...

While Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly, Al Franken and
Ann Coulter rip one another's flesh over anything they
can while adding nothing of any value to the debate...

We may one day get our "Flying Cars".

Like the 150 MPG Automobile however, it will evidently
have to come from Hungary.

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Social Marketing Is Marketing Without Seeming To


Social Marketing Is Marketing Without Seeming To

This is a concept that I have struggled with.
Take my last post for example. The product this
post is about is definitely something that my
readers will profit from knowing about, but even
I found it a bit too "salesy" if you get my drift.

Lately my Google Reader has been getting a lot
more filled up as I find increasing numbers of
blogs and sites that have great content as well as
make reference to products and services that solve
problems that I have been struggling with.

And that's the point...

In the course of conversations about relevant issues,
to insert text (and therefore links) referencing those
solutions that you have found useful will result in
your readers finding solutions, you getting sales,
and steadily increasing readership.

Win, win, win!

Maybe you have seen the posts with titles like:

"Content Is Dead: Resource is King!"

While we are all seeing, and finding useful, blog posts
that are basically lists of Social Media services, or other
"Resources" becoming more popular, don't be misled.

Resource lists are useful as one type of content, but
should not be used to totally replace all other types.
With the proliferation of these posts, do readers just
osmotically know how to utilize these services to their
maximum potential?

Of course not!

I know that I have gotten more useful information
out of a post giving a few choice nuggets about how
to get the most out of Digg, than I did out of the last
ten posts giving me lists of "Hundreds of Digg-like
Sites".

The traffic that directed to my sites from a technique
learned in an email that Willie Crawford sent me has
far surpassed anything that I could have gotten from
the product being offered there. Why?

Because Willie understands that for a product, service
or tool to be relevant to a discussion:

First there has to be a discussion!

And it has to be able to stand alone with or without the
offer of sale being made. That is the question that I
will be putting to myself going forward:

Does this post stand on it's own
without any saleslink?


If it doesn't, then there really isn't any point is there?

No my friends, content isn't dead but it sure is rapidly
changing. The 2008 Authority Blackbook points out
the various types of posts that are vital to your blogs
traffic, and I've learned a lot there that is making my
traffic grow steadily even though this is not a WP blog.

Resource list posts are definitely great linkbait posts,
and when you find a good one elsewhere they can
definitely be good fodder for Trackback links. Just
be sure that you are adding something to the dialog
other than just: "Here's a great list for ya!"

Lord knows I've been guilty of that a time or two,
but it really doesn't add anything to the flow. Plus,
it will ultimately slow the flow of Web 2.0 traffic to
your posts.

Is content dead? I don't think so.

Keep on posting it, and you'll reap it's rewards.

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

Easily and cheaply create CDs & DVDs
from your digital products. Video Review

Monday, June 23, 2008

New Tool - PayPal Payment Buttons For Your Videos


New Tool - PayPal Payment Buttons For Your Videos


If you are only using your marketing videos to promote your products and services then you could be losing out on the opportunity to allow your customers to make a purchase.

If you are not using payment buttons on your videos, you should be. This will take your video advertising to a whole new level. Allowing your customers to make a buying decision while they are watching your marketing videos is by far the best solution.

Most people are only using video as a promotional tool, but what if your customers could click on a "buy now" button while watching your video presentation?

Do you think this would help to increase your sales?

The only way to compete in this new video advertising age is to allow your customers to interact with your video presentations. There are a lot of different video branding products on the market today that allow you to place text links on your video screens and that's great, but you can't use these products to place payment buttons on your video.

Video Direct Pay 2.0 is the revolutionary new software that allows you to do just that. With this incredible new software you can place a "more details" button and a "buy now" anywhere on your marketing videos.

Video Direct Pay 2.0 was created by Kevin Burns, the Creative Director of Unselfish Marketer's Co. Ltd.. Kevin is a qualified software developer who has created a new product that will change the way we do business online.

If you are ready to start placing payment buttons on your videos, just click HERE.

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Review And Video On Floating Action Button


Review And Video On Floating Action Button

Being a raging technophobe at heart, I've always
enjoyed finding services that allow you to get cool
features on your website without having to write
a bunch of code yourself.

Floating Action Button is exactly that. This will
allow you to easily add those buttons and subcription
forms that will stay in the frame as your reader scrolls
down your webpage. Take a look at one I set up HERE.

This thing has increased my conversion rate by about
eighty percent, and will increase yours too.

There is very little downside to this, as you can maintain
five of these as a free member. Get more of an overview
by watchi this VIDEO.

More later.

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

Thursday, June 19, 2008

YouTube Annotations Perfect For Social Marketing


YouTube Annotations Perfect For Social Marketing

Was going through my RSS feeds on my Google
reader last night and noticed some folks busting
YouTubes chops about how they do business,
and noticed a few notes about the new things
you can do to the vids you upload.

Now as my readers know, I am as technically
challenged as they come, so this was going to
have to be really simple to be of absolutely any
use to me at all...

Shoooooot! I had no problem at all.

Go to your YouTube account and take a look
at any of your videos own pages. There just
below your info is a frame marked:

"Edit Video Annotations"

Click on that and you are there! Take a look
at the simple interface. Not much to learn,
but the impact of what you can do here should
not be lost on you for marketing purposes.

You can add a "Speech Bubble" (much like
cartoon bubbles) a Note, or a "Spotlight".
And you can place them, size them and pick
the time you want it to show any or all of these.

I put a simple note on this newsclip that a
friend sent me to promote a Squidoo Lens
of mine:



Notice that there is no Annotation showing
here. The only place the Annotation will show
up is at the videos specific YouTube page. Not
in an embedded page, and not on as the main
video on your YouTube profile page.

You can see the Annotation for this video HERE

It is set to show the whole time the video
plays, but I could choose to post a running
commentary on whatever videos I have uploaded.

Or put up "Speech Bubbles" to carry on an
imaginary conversation between people on
a video. The important part is to use your
imagination and make the videos work for
you to direct traffic, create interaction,
or just create more buzz.

Werner Roi created a great vid about using
Annotations. Watch it HERE

Also noticed a useful feature allowing users
to leave a "Video Comment" to another video.
This function will let your video be either
shown below that video as a link letting the
viewer choose to watch the next related video,
or become a part of a chain of related vids.

Think you could get some more views of
your own videos by linking to related vids
this way? I know I could!

Leave some comments with your own
ideas for using these features...

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

Free Floating Buttons, Forms, Squeeze Pages and Ads.
Watch the video NOW!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Social Marketing Still Requires A Purple Cow


Social Marketing Still Requires A Purple Cow

If you have been around marketing for a while,
that title isn't much of a surprise to you. On the
other hand many still aren't all that familiar with
Seth Godin and his Purple Cow principle.

It goes like this.

If you drive by the average farm, cows are so
commonplace that you don't really notice them.

But if you drove by and saw a Purple Cow, then
you would sit up and take notice. No doubt you
would tell everybody you came in contact with
about that Purple Cow that you saw. You wouldn't
be the only one either, and this would create a buzz
that would spread exponentially.

Virally you might say...

This concept has made a lot of people a lot of
fungolas with so called Purple Cow marketing
campaigns. Today however, with everybody
hitting Social Marketing with a sledgehammer
the importance of having a Unique Sales Proposal
(or USP) has slipped a lot of people's minds.

It shouldn't!

Just as the internet is just a tool, Social Marketing
methods are also just tools. They do nothing to
change the fact that your marketing message
needs to have it very own Purple Cow, or USP.

Now think about how quickly a Purple Cow ad
campaign can go viral using Social Marketing tools.

Want an example?

Okay, maybe you have heard of Jason Moffat.
His YouTube videos are hilarious! They get
tons of views and he sells affiliate products like
few crazy. Take a look at this one:



The particular offer that this promoted is over,
but I will guarantee that Jason's sales were in the
top 10% of all affiliates. Note that his "Prostate
Exam" got over 24,000 views. This is definitely
a Purple Cow approach to marketing.

Am I suggesting that you do something this shocking
to promote your campaigns? That is up to you!

Shocking is relative. Sometimes what will stand
out is not as over the top. Another YouTube video
that stands out is something that Seth Godin himself
has pointed to:



Who would think of running an iPhone through a
blender? The guy that did has gotten not 24,000
views, but in excess of 4,000,000 views!

Their site is listed in their YouTube profile as Blendtec
and has an Alexa rank of 117,028. Wanna bet they're
selling some blenders?

YouTube isn't the only Social Media site where it is
possible to start a Purple Cow ad campaign, but it
is a great one. The challenge is to use the unique
qualities of each to greatest advantage.

Take Twitter for instance.

It is the most widely used platform for microblogging
right now. How can you use their 140 characters to
make a marketing statement that will stand out in
a field like a Purple Cow? There are a growing number
of apps out there built just to maximize the Twitter
experience. Maybe they can help...

What about Digg? Can you make your profile, or
your Diggs themselves into a USP?

Hopefully this post will start your own creative
juices flowing. I know it isn't my first post on this
subject, but it is one of the toughest challenges
that we face as marketers. Creating buzz!

That's why I have a ceramic cow on my desk!

Guess what color she is...

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

Review Of ViralURL


Review Of ViralURL

Let's not waste a lot of time here.

Most of the reviews of this tool set go on and on
about how this thing will peal your potatos and
slice your bread and you will be making money
in your sleep (always my favorite) so you'd better
get off of your butt and:

SIGN UP NOW!!!
(there shouts, not mine, lol)

ViralURL is a Link Cloaker, a List Builder
and an Ad Tracker. It does all of these well.

Take a look at Todd Gross' video review HERE.

'Nuff said?!

Try ViralULR today.

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart










Press Play To Double

Your Conversion Rates!






Click Here To Grab Your Copy Today!






Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A HodgePodge Of Social Marketing Apps And Functionality


A HodgePodge Of Social Marketing Apps And Functionality

It is definitely one of the joys of working online
when you come across something that makes a
task easier, or gives you an alternative method
of promotion that is not only easy but just plain
works!

1. Yesterday while doing a bit of Digg-work,
there appeared before me an unassuming Tab
that said "Blog It". Okay so it ain't the Holy Grail
of Social site promotion, but it really makes it
easy to post something from Digg to several
different blogging platforms. I went back and
blogged a Squidoo Lens of mine that I wanted to
say a few things about here anyway. This made
the post almost effortless. Use this, it's quite
useful.

2. Speaking of Squidoo. Each and every time
you update one of your lenses, be sure to use the
"Tweet This" link in the green box that appears
for a few seconds right after you hit the "Publish"
button. This will post a Twitter update letting
your friends know that you have updated your
lens. Microblogging is an important part of you
Social Marketing tasks that this can simplify
dramatically.

3. This one is pretty well known, but for those
that have not run across it, OnlyWire is a great
Social Bookmarking service because it posts your
bookmark to over 20 different Social Bookmarking
sites.

4. RSS becomes more important every day as a
means of both promoting your own site and also
to stay abreast of what your favorite bloggers are
posting, and giving you an opportunity to go and
get those all important Trackback Links. Grab
your 2008 Authority Blackbook at the top of the
sidebar for an explanation of how and why these
are important. Been relying more and more heavily
on my Google Reader for this lately, and find that
a web based RSS Reader just works better for me
than than anything else I have tried.

5. RSS Announcer. This is a handy little tool that
you can have on me. Run this every time you post
to your blog, or update any page you publish a feed
for. It will get you subscribers just about every time.

That's all for now.

Hope you enjoy these and use them too...

Eat a peach!


Floyd Bogart
Are You Leveraging Your Promotinal Efforts Or Are Your Wasting Them?

Monday, June 16, 2008

Genepax - Water Powered Fuel Cell Vehicle


Genepax - Water Powered Fuel Cell Vehicle

The Japanese company Genepax has unveiled a vehicle powered by water.Check this out.

read more | digg story

******************************************
This appears to be off topic for this blog,
except for one thing:

This is the Digg for a Squidoo Lens that I
put up on Friday June 13th. Well, I tried
a few new things publishing this Lens and
here are the results:

900 Visitors in the first 24 hours with 1,655
total as of this moment. It is ranked #8 in
the Cars & Trucks category with an overall
rank of 352. It has maintained a clickthru
rate of just over 30%.

It has ranked on the first page of Google for
over 10 keywords. Some are slipping now, so
I will have to do a little poking and prodding
to get them back up.

Some online marketing partners have asked me
to put together an ebook on this to sell to
their list exclusively, which is almost done.

If you want this information gratis, I will
be sharing it with my newsletter which you
can get by subscribing at the top of the
right hand sidebar. Do it now and also grab
a copy of Jack Humphrey's Authority Blackbook.

Eat a peach!


Floyd Bogart

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Quality Of Social Marketing Traffic Streams



The Quality Of Social Marketing Traffic Streams

Been seeing a lot of discussion about the lack of
quality of traffic coming from Social Marketing,
or Web 2.0 sources.

I was talking with Michelle Raybourn of The
Raybourn Effect
yesterday and she reminded
me of something that I had said to her almost
two years ago.

"The longer I live the more often the
answer to my questions is Balance."

Until she brought it up I had forgotten the
conversation when I had said this. And frankly
it had nothing to do with business at the time.

Truth is though, that it applies here, which was
the thrust of our conversation yesterday, and
it applies to any discussion of traffic as well.

There are so many different types of traffic,
and each of them is important to our business.

1. Social Marketing, or Web 2.0 traffic.
2. Organic Search Engine traffic.
3. Newsletter generated traffic.
4. Traffic originated from blog comments
(although this can be argued to be part of #1)
5. Even Purchased Traffic! There, I said it...
(but only for very specific purposes)

Here is where balance comes in. You need
traffic of various types coming from various
sources to succeed in this business regardless
of your niche or business model.

Having said all that:

Yes, in my experience there is some validity to
the claim that Social Marketing traffic is lower
quality than from other sources. If by lower
quality you mean that they don't generate a
sale, a signup or sometimes even a comment.

My experience is that these visitors will convert
at a much lower rate than someone that comes
from an ad, an email or an article promoting your
blog or site. They will also stay on your page far
shorter a time. Mostly they are just staying
long enough to decide if there is any reason
not
to Digg, Buzz, Stumble or Onlywire your page.

So what good are these hits anyway if they don't
buy, subscribe or even stay long enough to see
what you have to say?

Fact is some do stay and do all those things, but
that is not why you are using Social Media as a
promotion tool anyway. You are sending out as
many little tentacles across the internet as you
can so that you become part of the traffic flow
that makes up the WorldWideWeb.

What you get are better Digg rankings, Google
results due to backlinks, and name recognition
from a growing presence in your niche.

What good does that do you?

None, unless you do something with it. By that
I am asking what your interaction with your niche
is made up of. Is it primarily blog, Digg and Stumble
comments that are essentially a "Thumbs Up!" to
whoever published the content you were responding
to?

If so, then don't exect much at all from those visits
coming from your Diggs. Expect your Stumble friends
to take a perfunctory glance at your post and write a
few vague words as a review. Get used to a lack of
any serious attention being paid to your work.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the fact is you are only
going to get out of anything you do, exactly what you
put into it.
(Geez, now I sound like my Dad! lol)

Yesterday I put up a Squidoo Lens putting into practice
some of the things I had learned through the various and
sundry resources from Jack Humphrey. Primarily the
2008 Authority Black Book.
(Get it at the top of my
Right Hand Sidebar)

It didn't take any longer to create than any other Lens
I had ever published, but a lot more thought went into
it along the way. Or maybe just a lot
smarter thought.

The important thing is that due to the effort that I put
into research and application, that Lens got almost a
thousand visitors in it's first 24 hours. Those visitors
also stayed long enough that just over a third of them
clicked a link on the page. Those are the best stats I've
ever had on any page I have ever published anywhere!

Why? Because I was engaged in the process to a much
greater degree than I had been before. I was aware
of what I was doing and why.

Then I did my usual Social Marketing checklist of Digging
and various bookmarking services just like always. And
Those visitors will serve their purpose, but they are not
the only traffic that I am after.

I want to create a presence that means something in
the niches that I market to, so that when I say something
new or different, it gets noticed and others want to know
more. I want to become a Center of Influence in that
niche.

That is an old term we used to use when I was in the
offline direct sales world. We used to look for people
that influenced what a group of people did in regard
to their needs for insurance, credit card processing,
or whatever product or service we were selling at
the time.

If you become a Center of Influence within a niche,
don't you think your affiliate sales will increase?

I have no desire to be known as a Guru. Don't really
want to spend my weekends at conferences around
the country either (although I sometimes do).

Becoming a Center of Influence through Social
Marketing and a host of other promotional methods
keeps me plenty prosperous, healthy and intellectually
stimulated to keep me quite happy.

Eat a peach!


Floyd Bogart

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Copywriting and My Story Marketing - A Social Marketing Necessity



Copywriting and My Story Marketing - A Social Marketing Necessity

My own first attempts at writing copy for online
publication were stunted and disjointed efforts
that were difficult for even me to read.

I had friends and family take a look at my work,
and while they were all polite, it was obvious that
they found it barely readable too.

After a while I started noticing that the articles,
posts and emails that I actually finished all came
from the same people. Not exactly an earth shaking
revelation, but it did mark the beginning of my own
copywriting education. I was pretty green about
this particular area so my next lessons were a lot
harder to come by.

Fortunately the next lesson was the single most
important one that any Social Marketing Copywriter
can make. I was "introduced" to the Greatest
Copywriter of all time.

Gary Halbert

Gary was born 70 years ago today, and died just
about a year ago. His career spanned decades, and
his work is legendary in copywriting circles. He is
credited with writing the single most successful
salesletter of all time.

But his career was not all beer and skittles. His
life contained quite a setbacks too, but I am not
going to tell you about those, because Gary already
has. His work is readily available and contains the
highs and the lows that he experienced.

Possibly his most famous series is the Boron Letters
which he wrote to his son, from prison.

Check out all of his work that you can at:
TheGaryHalbertLetter.com

He may not have been the first, but he was the
undisputed master of the single most important
type of copywriting that you will ever engage in.

This is what changed my own writing from just
words on a page, to something that could get a
readers attention and sometimes even motivate
them to action.

What I refer to is of course, My Story Marketing.

My Story Marketing is the moniker given to
copywriting that doesn't just convey the information
that you want your readers to have, but relates
your own personal journey as it pertains to that
topic.

Take a look at the salesletters and emails that have
been the most effective in getting you to take action.
You will find that a high percentage are of this type.

How can I know this? It is simply human nature.
We all like to feel connected to those that we do
business with. Why do you think Social Marketing
is so important? Amidst all of the Diggs, Twitts and
whatnot we get more than a glimpse of what makes
our Social Marketing connections who they are.

As time has passed and I have studied The Gary
Halbert Letters, at least some of what he advocates
(in sometimes colorful language) has rubbed off on
my work. When I recognize it in something I have
written, it makes me stop and smile, knowing that
the work will be more effective for it.

Is it necessary for us to call our readers "Shitweasels"
and punctuate a foolish assumption with "Bullshit!"
the way that Gary does? No, but letting our own
personality shine through consistently will only
benefit the quality of our copywriting.

What better way to do this than to share personal
experiences from our own lives? It makes us real
and therefore infinitely more accessible to our readers
prospects and clients.

I was talking yesterday with a woman from Texas
that I have done business with for over three years
now, and have come to know fairly well. She is in
the online advertizing business and is quite successful
at it.

While we were talking she told me about several very
difficult periods of her life. Now understand that she
is very good at what she does professionally, and some
of her products I cannot get anywhere else that I am
aware of. Still, while we have never met I do feel
connected to her in a way that would make me
uncomfortable taking my business elsewhere.

Was she manipulating me by sharing these things
with me? Of course not! But by exposing her self
in this way, she has cemented an already strong
relationship as she could have no other way.

Let me be clear, that I am not telling you to just
wholesale dump all of your life's baggage on each
and every one of your clients every time you talk
to them. You should not hesitate to inject your
own humanity into your business life, however.
Particularly when you can make it pertinent to
whatever it is that your are writing about.

My Story Marketing is about exactly that.

Letting your readers know that you are just like
them, and therefore can understand their needs
in a way that can allow you to direct them to just
the solution to a problem that they have.

Gary Halbert did that for me. He shared himself
through his writing in a way that made it possible
for me to do the same with you...

Eat peach!


Floyd Bogart

With eWriterPro anything you write can
become a brand new product in PDF format.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A Social Marketing Dilemma - Do PLR Programs Still Fit Your Business?



A Social Marketing Dilemma - Do PLR Programs Still Fit Your Business?

Many of us have hard drives chock full of
PLR websites, ebooks, software and articles.
At last check there was about 30 gigs of the
stuff on mine.

If you read my last post on Scott Boulch, you
probably can guess that most of my business
is now in niches other than IM, so the question
posed by the title of this post is not just academic.

Are PLR programs of any value to my Social
Marketing business?

The answer is a resounding yes, but not for the
usual reasons. I have definitely cut way back
on my PLR memberships, and keep the last
ones for reasons other than to turn around and
sell them as my own products.

There are four reasons that I keep a few of my
PLR memberships active.

1. The first is for content.

Frequently the PLR terms allow for you to tear
the items apart for your own use, but it is important
to make sure of the specifics as to what rights you
have for each product. Often times a few products
within a program will have entirely different rights
associated with them than the rest of the items in
the portfolio.

One program that I keep for just this purpose is
Gabor Olah's PLR Wholesaler.

The products are outstanding, and most can be
used any way you wish. Gabor has set this up
as a Butterfly Marketing type program. This
makes for easy navigation in the backroom, and
as an added bonus he doesn't fill your inbox up
as badly as some do. He offers both free and
premium plans so it is worth the effort to try
it out at least as a free member.

2. Self Education

Another valid reason for keeping PLR memberships
active is the educational value of the products. If
you are like me, you have dozens of products that
you own full PLR rights to that you haven't read
yet. Perhaps you are even selling some of them
as your own products already...

Tell the truth now. Do you know all you should
about marketing through YouTube, CraigsList
or Social Bookmarking sites?

And yet, many of us will turn around and buy a
product through a forum sig file when we haven't
even read all that we already own on that topic!
Your PLR Memberships are a fantastic Social
Marketing Library.

3. Funding

One of the PLR Memberships that I keep active
is for a combination of the above reasons, but with
one more added in. The pay plan is unique in a way
that allows me to use it as a funnel and a training
mechanism for home business opportunities in
other niches., such as health or travel.

EZ Wealth Solutions' pay plan is a combination
of a "One-Up" and "Two-Up" compensation plan
that allows people to get in for $10 and work up
through five levels to a point where they can earn
$997 per sale.

There are over 700 total products between the
five levels containing a wealth of information.
Many of these products are from niches other
than the IM or Work at Home arenas.

Some of the products that I promote have price
tags upwards of $10k, so a feeder program like
this can be quite useful in assisting prospects that
have a sincere interest in a product but lack funds.

4. Repurposing

You may also want to tear these products apart or
combine them into your own semi-unique products.
Repurposing is an excellent way to utilize these and
thus avoid duplicate content problems.

You may need good PDF creation software like
eWriter Pro that allows you to make ebooks with
clickable links. This is a good low budget solution
that is quite accessible for even the worst technophobe.

Web 2.0 has changed everything about marketing
online. This makes it important to stop and rethink
everything that we doto be sure that we are getting
the most we can from each and every tool at our
disposal.

So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Stop and rethink your PLR memberships to see if
they may be useful to you in one of these four ways.

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart


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Monday, June 09, 2008

Recommended Reading For Social Marketers



Recommended Reading For Social Marketers

The one constant in the world today is change.
Whether you are talking about our offline lives
or the worldwide web, nothing stays the same
very long at all.

In harmony with this, we are all having to find
new approaches to old challenges, and new business
models to replace old ones. Someone to watch
closely is Scott Boulch. I have been reading a
few of his ebooks today, and am totally blown away.

I will post links to a few hear in a minute, but
first want you to note something different about
these offerings. The links I post will be my own
affiliate links, but you will be able to download
the ebooks totally free of charge.

True, you will have to opt-in and sign in via a
username and password but neither Scott nor anyone
else will be trying to sell or upsell you when you
read the books...

So why is an affiliate link needed? Well Scott will
pay fifty cents for each ebook downladed. So once
you sign in, get your affiliate link and post it on
your blog, send it out to your list or just put it
into your forum sig files. It is the easiest $.50
you will make today. Lol

Now let's talk about the ebooks:

The Internet Marketing Cure - This is the first one
I read, and should be yours too. This will start you
off well to a different viewpoint toward your IM
business. Scott makes the bulk of his income from
non-IM niches, so what he has to say has much
more value than most of what it out there.

The Death Of Adsense - You've probably read a
dozen or more reports and ebooks that started with
"The Death Of" whatever. This is the ebook that
started it all. It is also an amazing book, that teaches
you more about marketing than any other book I've
read in the past year. In the backroom of this site
you will also get "Life After Adsense" plus a couple
of bonuses. As with The Internet Marketing Cure,
you will not have anything pitched to you...

The Quick And The Dead - Tens of thousands of
marketers paid a lot of good money for just a portion
of the information found in this ebook. Even if you
were not one of them, you will know which products
I am referring to once you read this ebook. And please
note that they don't give you all of what is here. Which
is probably a weak attempt to keep it from being too
obvious that they were essentially plagiarizing Scott
Boulch with their products.

While you are at it, you might as well go and grab
Scott's VIral TellAFriend Script HERE

I'll let you go now, as you've got a
lot of reading to catch up on...

Eat a peach!

Floyd Bogart

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Review Of SocialMarker.com



Review Of SocialMarker.com

My regular readers have probably noticed the
little bookmarking widget after my sig on each
post. This leads to a site called SocialMarker,
and looks like this:



This is a site that allows you to go through and
bookmark whatever you wish on almost fifty
different social bookmarking services. Check
out the list and I am sure you will find most
if not all of your favorite social bookmarking
services.

The utility allows you to fill in various fields
ahead of time and then autofills those fields
on each of the sites that you have checked as
services you want to bookmark with. It does
occasionally miss a field or two and force you to
retype the info you want bookmarked, but that
is the exception.

I like the look of just this one little widget better
than having a whole flag of those little 80x80
badges at the end of each post, or even in my
sidebar. Those of you that have been with me
for a while probably remember when there was
a whole army of social media banners, widgets and
badges everywhere you looked.

Having settled on just the Integrated Digg badge
at the top of each post, and the SocialMarker widget
at the end, I am quite a bit happier with the look it
gives my blog and I also find that my readers use
them far more often. The Digg badge also gives the
current number of diggs for each post, which often
encourages a reader to add their Digg.

By using SocialMarker.com I may be missing a few
Social Bookmarking services that are being used out
there, but not enough to clutter my blog up to the
point of distracting readers.

Hopefully there is still enough for me to say that it
is better to get that info across than to bury it in
a mass of tiny squares.

Eat a peach!


Floyd Bogart

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

How Social Marketing Helps When Both Of Your Notebooks Crash




How Social Marketing Helps When Both Of Your Notebooks Crash


You may wonder how that could possibly be...

How could Social Marketing help when both of
your notebook computers crash?

Well, it helps when you spend a couple of days
rebuilding your files, downloading all of your
software again, and you finally take the time to
look at your blog and find that your Alexa ranking
has improved by almost a hundred thousand sites.

The real beauty of Social Marketing, Networking and
the whole Web 2.0 thing is the way that it builds
your traffic even while you are busy doing other
things. Your sites keep getting traffic, and your
readers are posting comments, and sales are made...

So it helps your peace of mind more than anything
else, but that is sooooo important when you are
dealing with malfunctioning equipment.

So while I sort through fifteen hundred emails and
deal with assorted tasks dealing with my sites with-
out benefit of most of my files, new people found
my blogs, sites and lenses. Regular readers kept
on visiting and posting. And my own little corner
of the internet continued to grow.

There is no shortcut to this, it is all just a matter
of doing the assorted tasks, and interacting with your
community and you become a part of the stream in your
niche.

And it feels great...

Eat a peach!


Floyd Bogart


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