Yahoo Adopts Real-Time Search
Posted by Marty on Feb 23, 2010
It’s all over the news. Yahoo! has finalized a partnership with Twitter to incorporate Twitter’s tweets into Yahoo!’s search database. When someone adds a tweet about a topic and it immediately displays in a search on Yahoo! based on the keywords used in the tweet, that is called real-time search.
Some people believe real-time search will overpower regular search on main search engines, thereby forcing people to be active on Twitter and other social networks if they ever hope to generate traffic from search engines.
But, that doesn’t make sense for two main reasons:
1) It will be too easy for hackers to game the real-time search system so that only their massive quantities of tweets will drive the content generated for search engines to post.
2) Standard search content will always be a necessary component of search engines because tweets can still only be 140 characters in length. And, people expect that when they do a search, that a page will display with enough content for them to be informed.
So, yes, real-time content will be an important factor of search going forward, but that doesn’t mean stop making blog posts, adding pages to your site and optimizing both of those for search engines. Search engines including Yahoo! will still need your content beyond 140 characters.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Profit Again in 2010 Workshop
Posted by Marty on Jan 7, 2010
Using the Internet to grow your business has dramatically changed since the beginning of 2009. If you’ve been misled into thinking all it takes to be successful online today is getting a few hundred followers on Twitter, spending hours a day “Facebooking” or gaining top placement on Google for your book title or business name, we’d like to offer you a reality check…and a path for hope…for the new year!
Throughout 2010 I will be offering a new workshop called, fittingly, “Profit Again in 2010.
If you’re not familiar with me, I’m a 15-year Internet marketing “lifer,” co-authored of “Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies” (Wiley 2009), and I’ll be using this workshop to update you on the radical progression of WordPress websites, blogs, traffic building, social networking, rss, podcasting, Federal Trade Commission restrictions and Google banning since just a year ago.
I don’t just “write and speak” about Internet marketing. I create and promotes my own products, manuals, and membership sites, with more than 100 of my own websites. Myself, along with a team of 7 at HereNextYear, Inc. have serviced more than 300+ clients nationwide.
For just one of those clients this past August, we launched just one website that enjoyed 99 product pages indexed on top of Google within 3 days. By the end of the first week, the site brought in more than $3,826 in sales. By Thanksgiving, the site delivered its first $100,000 in revenue.
Coincidence? No way. It’s the same process for any business, author or speaker…every time. All you have to do is find where you are in the process and plug in.
True success of any financial measure for your book, product or business will be no accident or stroke of luck. And, in today’s economy, you can’t afford to shoot darts at a wall in the dark!
You won’t find overnight riches or make that elusive “money while you sleep” with a casual, ho-hum approach.
And it won’t happen by changing a few meta tags on your home page.
What’s the answer? P.T.A.
1. Plug-in
2. Team-up
3. Accelerate
That’s right, just three simple steps.
First, you must identify where you are in the Internet marketing process and “plug-in” to that process. The success plan online is almost exactly the same for every business, author or speaker and hasn’t changed in almost 15 years! All you have to do is discover the process, find out where you are in that process and plug-in.
Second, team-up with those that can help you implement the process. Hiring a random website designer from Craigslist or someone from a foreign country just because you can get services for 20 cents on the dollar might have helped five years ago, but outsourcing today only helps you if you are an experienced Internet marketing project manager. You need to start now to form a devoted team that will be at your side for years to come to help you with technical challenges and smart and calculated marketing planning.
Third, only after you know the process and have a team to rely on can you expect to accelerate implementation and see the rewards.
Specifically, here’s what I will cover during any Profit Again in 2010 workshop, seminar, full-day training, or 20-minute speech:
-My 3-step process to predict whether your product or book can even be sold online or whether you should just throw it in the trash and move on
-Why Google has banned more than 150,000 websites for life in just the past month…and how to avoid being next!
-The FTC’s crackdown on misuse of testimonials and affiliate marketing and what you need to do to protect yourself from being accused of false claims…The CAN SPAM Act was only the beginning to this!
-Why every business owner, author and speaker should have “5″ websites or more…even if your competition already does!
-What keyword phrases the human population is searching online for and how you can stand in the way and benefit from that traffic
-The “new” evolution of websites and why it doesn’t even make sense to have anything else
-The secrets of social networking automation that only those with 2,000 Twitter followers or more even know about.
-How to get 300 minutes of social networking benefit for every 30 minutes you spend
-The Article Marketing Underground Triangle: How to write an article once and use what you’ve written for explosive reach to more than 30,000 websites, video directories and bookmarking sites for obscene traffic flooding whenever you want it.
-Plus, I will reveal my most closely held secret to managing what should be 10 hours a day of promotion productivity that gets accomplished in less than 60 minutes…every day.
As we roll out this essential program, look for specific dates and locations to be accessible through our main website at HereNextYear.com on our Workshops page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Get Started with Web Video at My New Website VideoCameraUser.com
Posted by Marty on Dec 30, 2009
It’s finally here! My new website at VideoCameraUser.com for those just getting started with web video launched last night. For the entire year of 2010 I’ve challenged myself to conceptalize, create, edit, produce and promote a web video every single day.
Quite a commitment there and I could only even expect myself (as unorganized and crazy busy as I am) to pull this off if I followed a simple, step-by-step process.
That process I will be following is available for free as a free whitepaper I’ve been working on over the past couple of weeks called 51 Essential Essential Getting Started, Do-it-Yourself, Web Video tips for Business Owners, Speakers, and Authors.
Go check it out at VideoCameraUser.com and have a great New Year!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Keep Your WordPress Plugins Current
Posted by Marty on Dec 12, 2009
Want to know what happens when you don’t keep your WordPress plugins current? I discovered what happens just a few minutes ago when I made a blog post and one of my team told me he saw the new post hit Twitter.
Of course, I have it setup so that my blog posts automatically turn into tweets and the first sentence is added as a Twitter post. But, when I didn’t have my Twitter plugin up-to-date, it just spewed a bunch of random HTML error code to my Twitter tweet.
So, this post is a test in one sense to see if I have the problem fixed. But, it’s also to inform you of the importance of keeping your plugins current and that you should go right now to see that they are current.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New FTC Regulations Take Effect December 1 for Affiliate Marketers
Posted by Marty on Nov 8, 2009
I can’t say it better myself than this article about how the
new FTC regulation will impact affiliate marketers everywhere. If you’ve heard about the changes but they just didn’t make sense to you, check it out.
Personally, I believe the FTC will go after the heavyweights making false claims. But, then, the other part of me figures they will go after some small time affiliate marketer and fine them like $50K just to make an example out of them.
Although it sucks, hey, this is America. And, the FTC staff are not marketers. They’re made up of salaried employees who HATE the fact that entrepreneurs make money by referring valuable products to others. Next, they’ll have door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales people giving their prospects a written disclosure of how much commission they will make on the sale before the sale is made.
I don’t know about you, but my dad taught me to never ask someone how much money they made for a living. And, therefore, I don’t talk about it myself. I mean, who cares? Why would it be important for people to know that you’re getting a commission payment for a referral?
And, why would anyone be against that? I mean, I have gone through days and sometimes months of evaluation and use of a product before recommending it to clients for use in their own business. Isn’t that time worth something? Don’t I deserve some sort of compensation if I’m going to save someone a thousand dollars next month?
The FTC doesn’t think so apparently.
My answer to this thing that so many are talking about that “will take down affiliate marketing as we know it” is simple.
1. Go ahead and post your earnings or whatever makes you comfortable that you are meeting FTC requirements.
2. Offer something in addition when someone buys the product through your affiliate link. I’ve been doing this for years. When someone subscribes to 1ShoppingCartFree.com where I get a commission every month or to BestEmailSystem.com for managing your newsletters and eblasts, I give a free document featuring a page full of tactics and strategies to use that not even those companies will tell you about.
3. Use the products yourself so that your referrals are genuine.
I find it interesting too that the FTC is targeting “bloggers.” Anyone that’s anyone online these days know that blogs are websites and websites can certainly be blogs. My main company at HereNextYear.com has produced dozens of new or re-designed websites for clients that look like “websites” but use blog software.
So, are the “blogs” or “websites?”
Will the FTC come after them just because they have blogs attached? According to the regulations, it appears they don’t care about main websites…just blogs. So, fine, disguise your blog as a website and enjoy the CMS benefit of your blog software and you’re safe.
I dunno, I just think the FTC has gone too far with this one. But, fine, I will conform but will beat them at their own game by making MORE affiliate recommendations and offering more bonus tips and getting even more affiliate sales as a result.
That oughta really get ‘em going!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ways to Add Line Breaks to Wordpress Posts and Pages
Posted by Marty on May 25, 2009
Here are 5 ways I’ve found so far for adding line breaks into Wordpress posts and pages. Wordpress is widely known for handling some of the most complex HTML issues and making them easy for even the most novice and non-technical. But, there are a few quirky things about Wordpress that should be simple and are still tough to accomplish. One of those is how to add line breaks to Wordpress posts and pages.
If you’re in Visual view while adding a new post, for example, you could start typing away and just hit enter. Many times that will work. However, when you add an image in your post, and the image isn’t wide enough to force your words to the next line, you might want to add a blank line. Often, the enter key will not help in this situation.
Or, if you use a headline, such as an <h> tag, how can you get a space between the H tag and your text?
So, this post is going to be an ongoing listing as I hear more options about how to add line spacing between one section and the next.
1. style=”margin-bottom: 1em” – This tag can be used inside any tag or such as <p> or <h>.
1em stands for 1 line spacing. So, if you want 5 lines of blank space, just make your code <h3 style=”margin-bottom: 5em”>
2. style=”clear: left;” – When you need to get text below an image, you can always use the image settings to manage how text surrounds images. But, HTML can have a mind of its own. So, if you try the settings in your image manager and still text is wrapping to the right or left of the image, use the text or paragraph here <p style=”clear: left;”>
3. css file – For either of these, you could make the line spacing automatic every time you add an tag or text at the bottom of an image. These statements would need to be included into your css file.
4. Disable WPAUTOP – Using this feature would completely disable any automatic formatting of paragraph breaks or line breaks. Programmers love this idea because it gives them full control over HTML code appearance. The drawback is that you have to manually insert any paragraph or line breaks or your paragraphs will just run together into a big mess or words. Here’s a link for how to disable WPAUTOP
5. Add TinyMCE Advanced plugin – This plugin works for some and not for others. So, it’s just one of those things you have to try if you have Wordpress version 2.7 or higher. Once installed, go into the “settings” area for that plugin and check a box that stops Wordpress from stripping your <p> and <br/> commands. Search your Wordpress plugin directory for a free download of TinyMCE Advanced.
6. Add Blank Image – A rather old-school way of adding your own spacing would be having a transparent image the width of your post page and the height being the desired space you want between your two lines. Use this method if the others don’t work.
Have other methods for adding line breaks to Wordpress posts? Enter your solution in comments.
I will be adding more options as I find more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Net Effect – How Your Blog, Social Networking and Websites Work Together
Posted by Marty on Apr 30, 2009
Web sites used to be designed with the primary intent to push pages of content onto the public through search engines. But, when social networking began, the traditional Web site became more of a second, higher-level form of introduction. First people would meet each other on the social network and then your newly found friend would eventually click on something to get to your main Web site.
But, traditional Web sites still today are too slow to keep up with the traffic and conversations that result from the many forms of social networking available on the Internet. When someone becomes introduced to you on Twitter, Facebook or Linked-in types of sites, and THEN they visit your Web site, they are usually wanting to interact with you more.
If you don’t know how to use Dreamweaver or have given up trying to learn your high-end Joomla or Drupal install, it’s just not that motivating to offer to pay someone to make changes or additions to a Web site every day. This potential for interaction is gone unless they pick up the phone to call you or send an email to you.
I’d like to suggest that the importance of a blog has reached a whole new level. Your blog is now at the heart of your entire social traffic flow as shown in this diagram:
Whatever interaction you have on social sites eventually should flow to your blog where you can encourage further interaction. Then, once someone is ready to really look at the services you offer, they are directed to your main Web site.
Note too that the “Net Effect” of using your blog as the very heart of your social gathering place is your ability to add new content quickly and even automate it to be pushed right back to the very social networks you are already receiving traffic from.
Join me on my new Linked-in Group where discussions are already underway for a variety of subjects related to how blogs interact with social networking. We’re calling it
The Social Blogger Group at Linked-in:
I hope to see you on Linkedin soon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EMDASH HTML Code
Posted by Marty on Apr 20, 2009
The EMDASH is one of the most mis-used, neglected, mysterious marks in the written language. Toss the Internet in there requiring HTML to make the emdash and a whole can of worms opens up for the novice coder. Using a CMS or blog software like Wordpress can empower even the most tech UNsavvy administrator to create their own words on an html page, but what happens when they want to emphasize something in a sentence?
Instead of using a proper emdash, which looks like — the writer comes up with convenient alternatives like italic text (hard to read), improperly used quote marks (just wrong gramatically), underlining (making people think there is a link to click), over use of bolding (a real turn off), improper use of two hyphens — (my favorite!), or just plain USING CAPITAL LETTERS, which we all know and love 
.
So, what do we do about this emdash for the web? It’s simple. The code to use for wherever you want to place emdash html code is — (or — but I usually use the — so I’m assured it will work right in older browser versions too).
Here’s how it works.
1) Open your editor so that you are in HTML view
2) Write your sentence for where you want emdash html code to go
3) Add html code between the two words for where you want your emdash to appear
Here’s a correct example:
[Showing HTML] Then I fell in the water—really cold water!
[Result] Then I fell in the water—really cold water!
Not this:
[Showing HTML] Then I fell in the water — really cold water!
[Result] Then I fell in the water — really cold water!
See how I have a space on either side of the html code? That’s not right. A proper emdash needs to butt up to each word.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Web Marketing All-in-One Reference Guide for Dummies is In-Stock at Amazon
Posted by Marty on Mar 12, 2009
My co-authored Web Marketing All-in-One Reference Guide for Dummies book is officially in-stock at Amazon. And, even though I haven’t seen the live version come in quite yet, it sure is exciting to know that it’s close to being in stores everywhere! Next week I will be interviewing my fellow co-authors about their book chapters and hope to get a few nuggets showcasing the most secret Internet strategy techniques.
Here’s a link to the book on Amazon for you to order right now!
As a SPECIAL LAUNCH BONUS, I’m offering 1 month access to my Level 2 membership program featuring the Internet Marketing Organizer tool. All you have to do is send a receipt to me by email at Marty@HereNextYear.com so that I have proof you’ve actually purchased the book and I will hook you up with a username and password to access Level 2. That’s a value of $141.00 and is my special gift to you for supporting our book project. [UPDATE: We now have more than $700 in bonuses available during our week-long book launch March 23-28, 2009!! Visit WebMarketingBook2009.com for details.]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How a Custom Theme Increased Twitter Follows
Posted by Marty on Feb 4, 2009
Want to increase your Twitter follows? Add a custom theme using these simple steps. Yesterday, we all wanted to get our pages to the top of Google. Today, we just want more “follows” on Twitter. It’s partially a status symbol and part good business sense. The more people who are following you, the more people you have the opportunity to build relationships with.
This past Saturday, I finally had a few hours to create a background for my Twitter profile. This is Tuesday night and I have received 62 new follows since then. The interesting thing is that I did absolutely nothing between then and now other than one thing; I added a custom background.
Twitter allows you to upload a custom background. First login and go to the “Design” link in the top right corner of your profile page. Click “Background Image” to upload from your computer to your Twitter account.
But, let’s talk about what you want in your Twitter background. I’ve outline 7 components of what I added. Not that any of these are absolutely essential, but most of them are:
1) Shell – The main body of Twitter is white, so I made the inside of my body image to be white too.
2) Logo – You’re just a person on Twitter, but your name is still a logo and it’s certainly okay to come up with a slogan for yourself.
3) Photo - Since my main Twitter photo is sort of formal, I added one that is pretty casual and reflects a playful side, but also showcases a part of my business, in this case appearing on a radio talk show.
4) Links - Here’s your money opp! Add some links where you want people to check you out more. Of course Twitter allows you to add a website link in your profile admin area, but this is much more prounounced.
5) Special - List either a special you’re having or special news about YOU. In this case, I have a For Dummies book coming out in a few months. So, it’s natural to want to promote it. But, people respond to book covers online so, if you have a book out, feature it in your Twitter profile.
6) Something playful - I mentioned the book, but the playful line below it is what gets peoples’ attention. Why? because it’s not so corporate and it’s kind of playful too. I love the emails I get like, “ha, loved the caption at the bottom of your book cover.”
7) Right column color - This is a tricky one. The colors are changed in the “change design colors” link within Twitter, but it’s up to you to figure out which color will go well with your profile and your custom background. Choose a color that isn’t so bright that people are blinded that the leave. keep a soft, but dark color to make your text stand out.
Once you’ve saved your background image and upload it, make a Twitter post that you’ve changed your background and you’d like others to critique it.
I’m actually kind of amazed that Twitter actually even offers this level of customization. I mean, you can put anything into an image and upload it. But, in the past week, after seeing months of pretty meaningless amounts of additional follows, I get this spike. And the only thing I’ve done different since Saturday is add a custom background.
Have you seen any difference in follows or traffic since adding a background? Report your findings here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
