Honest Marketing Secrets

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Here’s a curious and possibly useful new tool, if you use it with a grain of salt. Command Shift 3 has created a rating site that lets you peer into the mysterious depths of the collective web psyche. It’s a little like Google Zeitgeist for web site design, but more specific and less useful. Now you can see what the mob thinks of the current state of web site design and even submit your own site for rating.

Is it Useful? Maybe…

In general you can get a feel for what’s popular in site design today. Although this is, admittedly, only a little helpful since raters are encouraged to judge quickly with little to go on.

If you want to understand what people think makes a great looking website, this can definitely give you a certain type of insight. There is something to be said for the first 5 seconds a new visitor sees your site and attempts to place it into their master list of fantastic versus utter crud. In this case the aggregate attitude is interesting to see, but it’s really so very general that it has limited use in terms of learning about optimizing your site’s appearance.

How About Traffic and Backlinks?

I’m curious to see what kind of traffic might be generated by submitting your site and having it become popular. It might be an easy source of traffic. So far it’s nothing to click home about. I submitted my site on April 13 and have gotten a whopping 2 visits since then.

Admittedly, my site is not a design powerhouse. In fact, it leaves a lot to be desired so this is not the best test. For sites that have some truly astonishing design, the results may vary considerably. Here are my stats so far:

Additionally, you will NOT get any backlink joy from this site as all the outgoing links are set to nofollow. 

Bottom Line

It’s a fun idea that may end up generating a little buzz for those sites that make it into the top popularity listings, but otherwise it’s mostly a time sink after about the first 10 minutes.

At the very least, it’s a great way to see some cool and terrible designs that are out there, especially if you’re a designer needing a little inspiration.

They list the best web sites by weekly, monthly, and all-time and you can also see the worst sites of all time.

If you end up submitting your site and seeing decent results, or if you have some additional thoughts about it, please stop by and leave a comment. 

Photo by zappowbang

A couple weeks ago I seriously riled some folks up. It was fun, but now I want to show you why I did it and how perfectly my fiendish blog-traffic-linking plan has unfolded so far. If you haven’t yet, definitely read my recent post about misusing five words. If you’ve already been there, you know there was a little controversy stirred up, but otherwise, a lot of fun talking about the idea. If you hadn’t guessed yet, that post was not really about screwing up the English language at all. In fact, it was an experiment in linkbait. What is linkbait? Oh my, where have you been? Please allow me to refer you to the number one Google result for the term linkbait by Matt Cutts (at least it’s number one as I write this).  

It Sounds a Little Dirty

The word linkbait sounds like it could be a bad thing, or at least, it could have a few negative connotations. In fact, it’s not bad at all if you do it right. Linkbait is essentially nothing more than writing a great headline that attracts a reader to click your link and commit to reading your article. And if the article is good enough, they cannot resist bookmarking it, or linking to it on either social media sites, their own blog, or their website.

When newspaper, or magazine editors select a headline, they’re creating the equivalent of linkbait. They make the headline as compelling as possible and attach it to a phenomenal article. And the best articles are passed around by friends who may eventually subscribe to the publication, if they like the article enough. This is offline linkbait. More like, readbait, or make-you-not-able-to-put-the-magazine-down-and-also-insist-your-friends-read-it bait. You get the picture. If you want your blog, or web site (or printed ad, for that matter) to attract and keep readers, you must learn how to write headlines and posts (articles) that are so compelling that a majority of casual observers click through and commit to spending a little time with you and then even bookmark you for reference and sharing. A curious thing about this:

The headline is useless if you write a terrible article and the article is useless if you write a terrible headline.  

Doing it Wrong Can Hurt You

If you’re just writing a snappy headline and it has a crappy article behind it, you probably just lost yourself a whole mess of readers. You made a great promise with the headline, but failed to deliver with the article. There’s good linkbait and bad linkbait and if your article is weak, or an obvious attempt to linkbait-and-switch, you will get what you deserve: a bad reputation and no catch-of-the-day, AKA link love. I’ve already written a post about how to write great headlines and there are some good references there to get you started. That post, by the way, had a terrible headline and is a perfect example of how to fail epically at writing a linkbait headline. I got almost zero readers for that post, although it did have some good info in it. Word to the wise—seriously consider your headlines.  

So, Does Linkbait Work?

I’ve been practicing and diligently doing the training in the Social Power Linking program and my last, best attempt at a linkbait piece succeeded better than I could have expected in my wildest dreams. I spent probably five hours on that post, whittling away every non-esssential word and making sure it flowed smoothly, etc. I also spent a good 30 minutes on the title alone, to which I grant the most credit for having made that post so popular. My post on five misused words got more traffic than any other post I’ve ever made.  

In fact, during the two days following my linkbait post, this blog received over 1800 pageviews and is now up to approximately 4870 pageviews at the time of this post. Unique visitors climbed to over 900 during those two days and have continued to flow in ever since. I got more unique visitors and overall traffic from that one post than all my other posts combined to date. 

A Few Resources

If you want to learn more about the fine art of linkbaiting, the following resources will really cover almost everything. I owe a lot to SPL, but I also spent a lot of time reading the posts linked below and I want to thank the authors for taking the time to put that information together. I’d also love to hear about your own experiments in linkbaiting as well as any advice that the resources below may have left out.  Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisited

And if you don’t feel like reading right now, check out Aaron Wall’s video on linkbaiting, How to: Create Linkbait Every Day:

And finally, here are just a few more linkbait resources you might find useful:

• 5 Linkbait Ideas Any Blog Can Use
• Linkbait in difficult industries
• Beyond Linkbait with Media and Blogger Relations - SES NY
• Productivity, How-to and Advice Sites: Making Linkbait Useful Again
• Five Simple Linkbait Metrics (& How To Measure Them Cheaply)

So, grasshopper, you seek the holy grail of site popularity? Indeed, you are not alone. And you must prove your worth. You must wait, on your knees, in the rain, for many years. Maybe then we will teach you what you wish to know. If you beg. And fetch us some green tea from time to time . . .

Or you can grab the free, 2008 version of the Authority Black Book that was just released a few days ago. I’m sure there are a few folks who will insist on the former option, but hey, whatever flings your shuriken. (*I know, I’m mixing styles and cultures all over the place, but you know you love it!)

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the main things we want to do as bloggers and publishers of information is to create a network of links leading back to our sites. The Web 2.0 social thing has certainly created an initially interesting opportunity to do that, but that was a secondary benefit to the social sites’ primary intent.

Now there are new sites popping up all the time that are far more sophisticated versions of the original ideas. Some of these sites incorporate even better incentives to participate by rewarding great content and excellent ideas with backlinks and traffic to your site (blog).

I just discovered one of these yesterday and wanted to let you know about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

If I type your name, or your product name into the Google image search engine, what will I find? Do you know? Have you checked? The results may be critical to your online success.

If you haven’t thought about image search and tagging, start now. I recently read a great post about image optimization by Judith Lewis over at SEO chicks where she details some excellent points about using images to create relevant results and, by extension, relevant visitors. It gave me some curious ideas about putting image search to use for much more than simple image browsing.

Here’s an SEO image exercise suggested by Lisa Ditlefsen (also from SEO Chicks): go to Google image search and type in your full name. If you’re like most of us, there’s likely nothing there.

Wow, an empty space. So you now have the opportunity to fill that space the way you wish. Make sure people looking for you, or your product, find you. If it’s not empty, you now have the opportunity to make sure what you find is what you want others to find. Probably an important thing. Are you monitoring your image online?

But wait, there’s more . . . Read the rest of this entry »

Who I Am and Why I Took the Social Marketing Plunge
[Disclaimer: Using my links supports my blog. And I thank you.]

Approximately two years ago, when I started down my marketing studies path, I began searching for someone who shared my own feelings about marketing. Like many others not involved in the daily hustle of the marketing world, I’d always thought marketing was a dirty word and wanted nothing to do with the spammers I thought all marketers were.

I come from a technical, geekish background and have always been more at home on Digg, or Slashdot. In fact, I got started with the whole social news thing on Slashdot back in the very beginning and I maintain a fairly skeptical outlook on marketing in general to this day.

I’m suspicious of anyone showing up in my social circle and immediately hawking something, even if it’s exactly what I need. I can’t tell you how many times I saw the community cut off its nose to spite its face just to get back at a marketing type guy who was not even spamming and gaming the system, but just trying to let folks know about a resource and get paid for it at the same time. It’s not that there was anything wrong with getting paid, but HOW you did it made all the difference and that lesson was frequently all too subtle for most to pick up.

So why the history lesson? I’m happy to say that as a geek who usually wants nothing to do with marketing in a traditional sense, I’m thrilled to say that Jack Humphrey is a breath of fresh air in a world where almost everything is flimflam with a fresh coat of paint and a desperate glad-handing handshake.

I joined the Social Power Linking program the day it launched and have already started to see wonderful results. Jack Humphrey speaks to my geek side as well as my side that wants to do marketing in a different and more transparent, honest way. Social Power Linking has been around for a while, quietly building a loyal following. They don’t have to scream it on the mountaintop and, in fact, I’m glad they don’t; it’s why I’m glad to be a part of it.

If you have wanted to know what’s next in the internet marketing world, if you have wanted to have more traffic for your web site (massive traffic, in fact), if you want to have complete integrity about the way you get your message out to the community and if you want to finally have all your questions answered by a friendly and very helpful group of folks all interested in this social marketing phenomenon, then you owe it to yourself to take advantage of this remarkable program while you can.

Jack says he’s maintaining such a low price purposely because he knows that most people who actually need this information are not part of the very small community of internet marketers and he wants to make it accessible to a much wider audience. I applaud that sentiment and it’s yet another reason I continue to be impressed with Jack and the entire program.

If you are curious about what the Social Power Linking program includes, here’s a taste of the contents:

First off, the whole program is laid out in a series of steps.

STEP 1
An orientation video that explains the program processes and gives a great overview.

STEP 2
Two Comprehensive QuickStart Objective PDFs: The Objectives of a Professional Social Marketing Campaign. Next in step 2 you study the Authority Black Book and Bending the Web in case you haven’t already. They are free, by the way, and you can download them right now and get a feel for why I’m so glad I found this stuff–those links will take you to them. Even if you JUST get the Authority Black Book, you can utterly change the traffic patterns on your site with that alone.

STEP 3
Social Power Linking Intensive Training (SPLIT)
2, 3-hour webinars (6 hours total training) that show and tell all. A great course in itself plus 3 PDF guides to introduce and give extra info including the slides that went with the original presentation.

STEP 4
Includes bonus software which is a copy of Web2Submitter, currently being sold for $47. This includes training and use and is an invaluable time saver as you begin your journey into social power linking and marketing.

STEP 5
A membership in the Buzz group which is certainly worth as much as the Social Power Linking program itself. This alone will produce a ton of traffic.

Additional Training
After the first five steps you then move on to over 14 training videos (and growing), and the Social Power Linking 60-Day Jump Start Plan. This plan and will take everything you’ve learned thus far and help you build a program for your ongoing traffic generation on a long term as well as short term basis. This Jump Start Plan is so packed full of information it will blow your mind. When you see the strategy outlined within, you’ll really understand just how comprehensive and well planned a strategy it is; it all comes together here.

Audio Training
There is also additional audio-based training (MP3s) and they are adding more stuff all the time.

Forum
Lastly, the forum is where you can ask questions of your fellow social marketing mavens and can speak with Jack himself. There are great links to cutting edge videos, PDFs and articles as well as answers to your questions here. Indeed, the word smorgasboard comes to mind and it’s growing fast. Yes, I’m biased, could you tell? You will be too.

Any Negative Points?
If there is a negative point it would only be that the program is SO new (launched on December 17, 2007) that the community is still on the small side, although it’s growing rapidly. Additionally, although there is a lot of initial material, it remains to be seen whether the program sustains it’s initial high level of information quality.

However, like those of us who have already begun the program, you’ll realize that the program’s short time in existence is yet another huge opportunity for you to dive in now before two things happen that are not in your favor:

First, right now you have immediate access to some of the best minds in the Web 2.0, social marketing world and if the program keeps growing at the current rate, that MAY change (although I’m sure Jack will make certain it retains the outstanding level of high quality it has today) but the point is, right now is the best time you can imagine to get in on this and have direct access to Jack and these other experts in the social marketing arena.

Second, the price just may go up. There are programs that purport to offer the same thing as Social Power Linking, but some of them are as much as $1400 and are limited to a relatively small group. If you are on the fence, spend $30 and check it out right now because once you’re in at $30 a month, you’ll be able to stay in at $30, even if it goes up to $100, or more. I’m thrilled I gave it a shot as I am now poised to completely change my entire business in 2008.

Affiliate Program
Finally, if you are interested in having your membership in the program paid for, they also have an affiliate program that pays 50% for each sale for every month that someone you refer remains a member.

Frankly, I still can’t believe Jack is offering Social Power Linking for so little. When I first signed up a little voice was saying, “Wow, that’s gotta be a typo on the price there buddy, don’t get your hopes up!” But nope, it was the real price and I’ve never been so glad to plunk down my $30 a month. It’s still available at that price last time I checked.

I hope lots of self-proclaimed non-marketers as well as business folks wondering where on earth to begin getting their message out will give this a serious look. I did it simply because what Jack is doing is a great a service to all of us who always knew there was a better way to exchange value in our communities. Jack Humphrey’s Social Power Linking proves that there really is a better way, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

I wish you all the best no matter what you choose and hope you’ll let me know what you think as you travel along your marketing and/or geek path.

Thanks for reading and be well!

-Zack

Who I Am and Why I Took the Social Marketing Plunge
[Disclaimer: Using my links supports my blog. And I thank you.]

Approximately two years ago, when I started down my marketing studies path, I began searching for someone who shared my own feelings about marketing. Like many others not involved in the daily hustle of the marketing world, I’d always thought marketing was a dirty word and wanted nothing to do with the spammers I thought all marketers were.

I come from a technical, geekish background and have always been more at home on Digg, or Slashdot. In fact, I got started with the whole social news thing on Slashdot back in the very beginning and I maintain a fairly skeptical outlook on marketing in general to this day.

I’m suspicious of anyone showing up in my social circle and immediately hawking something, even if it’s exactly what I need. I can’t tell you how many times I saw the community cut off its nose to spite its face just to get back at a marketing type guy who was not even spamming and gaming the system, but just trying to let folks know about a resource and get paid for it at the same time. It’s not that there was anything wrong with getting paid, but HOW you did it made all the difference and that lesson was frequently all too subtle for most to pick up.

So why the history lesson? I’m happy to say that as a geek who usually wants nothing to do with marketing in a traditional sense, I’m thrilled to say that Jack Humphrey is a breath of fresh air in a world where almost everything is flimflam with a fresh coat of paint and a desperate glad-handing handshake.

I joined the Social Power Linking program the day it launched and have already started to see wonderful results. Jack Humphrey speaks to my geek side as well as my side that wants to do marketing in a different and more transparent, honest way. Social Power Linking has been around for a while, quietly building a loyal following. They don’t have to scream it on the mountaintop and, in fact, I’m glad they don’t; it’s why I’m glad to be a part of it.

If you have wanted to know what’s next in the internet marketing world, if you have wanted to have more traffic for your web site (massive traffic, in fact), if you want to have complete integrity about the way you get your message out to the community and if you want to finally have all your questions answered by a friendly and very helpful group of folks all interested in this social marketing phenomenon, then you owe it to yourself to take advantage of this remarkable program while you can.

Jack says he’s maintaining such a low price purposely because he knows that most people who actually need this information are not part of the very small community of internet marketers and he wants to make it accessible to a much wider audience. I applaud that sentiment and it’s yet another reason I continue to be impressed with Jack and the entire program.

If you are curious about what the Social Power Linking program includes, here’s a taste of the contents:

First off, the whole program is laid out in a series of steps.

STEP 1
An orientation video that explains the program processes and gives a great overview.

STEP 2
Two Comprehensive QuickStart Objective PDFs: The Objectives of a Professional Social Marketing Campaign. Next in step 2 you study the Authority Black Book and Bending the Web in case you haven’t already. They are free, by the way, and you can download them right now and get a feel for why I’m so glad I found this stuff–those links will take you to them. Even if you JUST get the Authority Black Book, you can utterly change the traffic patterns on your site with that alone.

STEP 3
Social Power Linking Intensive Training (SPLIT)
2, 3-hour webinars (6 hours total training) that show and tell all. A great course in itself plus 3 PDF guides to introduce and give extra info including the slides that went with the original presentation.

STEP 4
Includes bonus software which is a copy of Web2Submitter, currently being sold for $47. This includes training and use and is an invaluable time saver as you begin your journey into social power linking and marketing.

STEP 5
A membership in the Buzz group which is certainly worth as much as the Social Power Linking program itself. This alone will produce a ton of traffic.

Additional Training
After the first five steps you then move on to over 14 training videos (and growing), and the Social Power Linking 60-Day Jump Start Plan. This plan and will take everything you’ve learned thus far and help you build a program for your ongoing traffic generation on a long term as well as short term basis. This Jump Start Plan is so packed full of information it will blow your mind. When you see the strategy outlined within, you’ll really understand just how comprehensive and well planned a strategy it is; it all comes together here.

Audio Training
There is also additional audio-based training (MP3s) and they are adding more stuff all the time.

Forum
Lastly, the forum is where you can ask questions of your fellow social marketing mavens and can speak with Jack himself. There are great links to cutting edge videos, PDFs and articles as well as answers to your questions here. Indeed, the word smorgasboard comes to mind and it’s growing fast. Yes, I’m biased, could you tell? You will be too.

Any Negative Points?
If there is a negative point it would only be that the program is SO new (launched on December 17, 2007) that the community is still on the small side, although it’s growing rapidly. Additionally, although there is a lot of initial material, it remains to be seen whether the program sustains it’s initial high level of information quality.

However, like those of us who have already begun the program, you’ll realize that the program’s short time in existence is yet another huge opportunity for you to dive in now before two things happen that are not in your favor:

First, right now you have immediate access to some of the best minds in the Web 2.0, social marketing world and if the program keeps growing at the current rate, that MAY change (although I’m sure Jack will make certain it retains the outstanding level of high quality it has today) but the point is, right now is the best time you can imagine to get in on this and have direct access to Jack and these other experts in the social marketing arena.

Second, the price just may go up. There are programs that purport to offer the same thing as Social Power Linking, but some of them are as much as $1400 and are limited to a relatively small group. If you are on the fence, spend $30 and check it out right now because once you’re in at $30 a month, you’ll be able to stay in at $30, even if it goes up to $100, or more. I’m thrilled I gave it a shot as I am now poised to completely change my entire business in 2008.

Affiliate Program
Finally, if you are interested in having your membership in the program paid for, they also have an affiliate program that pays 50% for each sale for every month that someone you refer remains a member.

Frankly, I still can’t believe Jack is offering Social Power Linking for so little. When I first signed up a little voice was saying, “Wow, that’s gotta be a typo on the price there buddy, don’t get your hopes up!” But nope, it was the real price and I’ve never been so glad to plunk down my $30 a month. It’s still available at that price last time I checked.

I hope lots of self-proclaimed non-marketers as well as business folks wondering where on earth to begin getting their message out will give this a serious look. I did it simply because what Jack is doing is a great a service to all of us who always knew there was a better way to exchange value in our communities. Jack Humphrey’s Social Power Linking proves that there really is a better way, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

I wish you all the best no matter what you choose and hope you’ll let me know what you think as you travel along your marketing and/or geek path.

Thanks for reading and be well!

-Zack

Recently my Mom and I drove 14 hours from home to Madison, Wisconsin for the holidays. We had lots of opportunity to talk and the subject turned to business and whether all the create-an-online-business hype was justified in any way. I had just received my copy of the Nitro Blueprint System in the mail and, since I had barely opened the box and hadn’t had a moment to review it, I brought it along for the trip, just in case.

My Mom started telling me all the reasons why she could never have an online business, why she had no good ideas, nothing she could sell and nothing she knew how to do that anyone else would be interested in, let alone want to spend money on. So I finally said, “Well Mom, shall we listen to the CDs in this new program from Nitro and see if there’s anything in there you could use?” She said “Sure, why not” and off we went with the 12 CDs that outline the entire system. And then, within about 15 minutes, a funny thing started to happen.

I kept stopping the CD. We were having a hell of a time listening to it. My Mom, who has been working in the same job for about 20 years and has expected to retire soon with little more than she started, began to have these sudden entrepreneurial seizures (I heard that term from David Ledoux at didyousmellthat.com). She kept getting more and more ideas for possible amazing products she could really help people with based on her 20 years of experience in her field. This was kind of freaking me out. [Just kidding, Mom, I wasn't really freaked out, well maybe a little, but in a good way! (aw crumbs, did I type that out loud?) ] I had not seen her so excited in years.

Here I had pre-judged the Nitro Blueprint System without having given it a proper review and my Mom was getting some of the best business ideas and entrepreneurial inspiration she’d ever had from it, and within 15 minutes, no less. [ yes, yes, OK, I was getting some great ideas too ]

Long story short, we managed to listen to the first 3 CDs during the trip, with long brainstorming sessions in between, and by the time we got to Wisconsin we had practically built a complete online business, with backend products and continuity systems. And to top it off, she was already planning to retire early based on her expected new income! (Don’t worry, I told her to hold her horses just a bit, but certainly encouraged her to maintain that interest level.)

Now, of course we have a lot of research to do and development as well, but the real point here is, this program really does have so much great information concentrated into one package that, frankly, you can’t go wrong getting it, no matter where you are in your development efforts. I am encouraging my Mom to actually buy her own copy of the Nitro Blueprint System so that she has the commitment to follow through based on making the investment herself. And if things continue the way they have been, I expect she really will be retiring sooner than she ever planned. If she follows the blueprint, she will certainly have a real shot at it and be off to a fantastic start, in my opinion. Click here to check it out.

Be well and have a great new year!

-Zack

PS- Of course I finished reviewing the entire program and am now completely convinced that the Nitro Blueprint System is worthy of your attention and your investment. Click here to check it out, I think you’ll love it!