Please register for Today’s webinar here:

http://timic.org/SocialMediaPowerUsers/

During the webinar Randy Schrum and Peter King will cover
strategies to help you Find, Engage, and Convert your
prospects using Social Media on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

In fact they share over 7 strategies you can implement right
now along with 5 or more case studies.

Register Here:

http://timic.org/SocialMediaPowerUsers/

Just for joining us on the webinar you will get a free copy of
their new book coming out at the end of the month called “How
To LinkedIn.”

This book has eight chapters loaded with HOW TO’S and video
tutorials!

To get your copy at the end of the month just show up on Today’s
webinar.

The webinar is Free

Willie

P.S. If you miss the webinar, and we manage to record it, you’ll
find that recording at this same url as soon as we can get it
edited and posted:
http://timic.org/SocialMediaPowerUsers/

There is no guarantee that technology will cooperate, so it is
best to be on the live webinar if you can

Show Me How!

Having known Maria for many years, and having learned
MOST of what I currently do in local offline marketing
directly from her, I know that she “walks the walk.”

So, I clicked through and read her post over on The Warrior
Forum…. http://timic.org/SocialMediaConsultant6

“Discover A Ridiculously Simple Step-By-Step Offline Social
Media System That Literally ANYONE Can Do…”

“That Can Earn You At Least 4,000+++/Month EASILY!”

“I’d like to hand you a proven converting offline social
media consulting business complete with scripts (what to
say), who to target, how to get clients, a Facebook page
blueprint you can hand over to your virtual assistant (VA)
to ‘do the work for you’, where you collect $500 checks
and pay your VA less than $25…leaving you multiple streams
of $475 profits!

It’s easy to make money with this warrior special offer –
just sign up and download it instantly. Follow the “cheat
sheets” and 45 minute instructions on how to get started…
Then rake in the checks.”

Learn From Expert Consultants “That Do”

I grabbed Maria’s materials, went through them, then
handed them off to my VA… and I now have a new income
stream.

It really CAN be that simple.

Check it out:
http://timic.org/SocialMediaConsultant6

You’ll be glad that you did.

Willie

I did that for numerous reasons, with the biggest two being
that when you use a third party link tracking service, THEY
control your links. They can shut off your links at any time,
and don’t really have to explain anything to you.

In fact, LOTS of people using the bit.ly service were shocked
when they discovered that censors in Libya disapproved of some
sites using that service, and turned off those links. YES,
they have that power. They control the .ly top level domain,
and can actually shut down ANY domain using that extension.

The second reason that I wanted my own script, installed on
my own server though is that I wanted to use it for branding.
Instead of branding budurl, tinyurl, or any of those other
services, I wanted my links to brand MY websites, and to
pass the search engine “link juice” to MY domains.

Will created my custom script (based upon one he had already
written and thoroughly tested) at: http://YourOwnShortURL.com

I loved that script but wanted better link tracking. I wanted
to see not only how many clicks each link was getting but
exactly where these clicks were coming from.

After three month of tweaking and testing, Will has handed me
a script that surpasses my expectations!

He’s a programming genius

The script is intuitive, powerful, and a snap to set up!

In case you’re wondering why you’d want to shorten links in
the first place…

They allow you to:

1) Change ugly links to something short, sweet and more
professional like http://timic.org/sweet
That link is actually where you can grab a copy of the script.

2) Shorten long links when space is limited, such as at
Twitter where you are limited to just 140 characters.

3) Not use raw affiliate links in your emails when the domain
is VERY likely to get blacklisted. One of the more common
problems experienced during a major product launch is that so
many people send email promotions mentioning the domain name,
that the product owner’s domain name is often blocked on many
email servers.

4) Shorten long links pointing to blog posts, etc. where
the generated URLs are normally insanely long.

Using my script, http://YourOwnShortURL.com also allows you
to log in and change the destination that a given link points
to. For example, you might have http://YourDomain.com/host
and have it pointing to your favorite web hosting company. A
YEAR from now, you might decide that a new company offers better
service to your customers. If you have that URL above posted in
hundreds… even thousands of places, changing where those
links lead is as simple as logging into your control panel and
making one little change

Anyway, take a look at this script. I need to update the
webpage but wanted to tell you about the incredible tracking
functionality just added.

Now it’s easier than ever to shorten your links and to know
exactly which promotions are working for you.

Check out now: http://timic.org/sweet

It will let you finally know which of all your promotional
efforts are working… so that you can focus on those.

Willie

In the first part of this article, we discovered how you can
improve your productivity on Twitter with some simple and basic
options. Now, we will talk about more in-depth and advanced tools
for improving productivity.

6. There are some helpful applications that will help you filter
through the millions of people tweeting at any given time. If you
don’t siphon through these tweets, you could spend a great deal
of time looking at messages that may be of no help. Make use of
the filtering tools to find the right tweeters so that you can
spend less time looking for them.

7. Keep an ongoing list of the most helpful users. Instead of
following a great number of people and spending a long time
looking through all of the tweets for one particular person, a
short list of the best will help you get right to the point.

8. Use Twitter as a helpful timer. Many people do not know this,
but Twitter can serve as an alarm clock of sorts. You can simply
send a direct message to a timer with an amount of time and a
short message. When that time has passed, you will receive a
tweet telling you your own message. This can be very helpful when
you have busy days.

9. Know how to use the re-tweet. There are millions of people on
Twitter, and they may not be following you. However, if you send
a tweet and then ask for your followers to re-tweet, your message
will reach thousands of people in a mere matter of seconds. The
re-tweet can be powerful if you use it correctly.

10. Use alerts to your best advantage. When you need to know what
people are tweeting about you or some of your customers, you can
use applications to set up alerts that will key off of certain
words. These alerts can provide you with valuable information and
even lead you to new customers.

In the My Twitter Toolbox Gold Membership site, members have
access to more than 235 Twitter applications organized by
functional category. And the number keeps growing as Twitter
does.

Hop over to see a video introduction of the top 20 Twitter tools
at http://timic.org/tools

Happy tweeting,

Willie

What began as a fun and innovative way to achieve social
networking has quickly become an easy and helpful tool for
promoting businesses, both small and large.

If you’re already using Twitter for your business, then you’ll
want to look for ways to improve your productivity. How can you
be more productive with a site that only allows you to type 140
characters? Here are 5 of the top 10 ways to improve your time in
the Twitterverse.

1. Sort out your followers. You can find applications that will
allow you to separate the people you follow and tweet to into
separate groups. This way, you can have a group for your friends,
your family, business connections, and more. With these separate
groups, you can focus your business related tweets on the right
people.

2. Tweet and tweet often. You cannot be very productive with
Twitter if you don’t dedicate time to it. One way to get many
followers is to tweet as often as you possibly can. By doing
this, you will have more of a chance of people noticing you and
following you.

3. Send useful messages. Tweeting often does not mean sending the
same messages over and over. If potential followers see that you
never post anything new, then they may not follow you. While you
want to tweet as quickly as possible, make sure you are tweeting
something worth reading.

4. Include links, but make them short. There are plenty of
applications that will allow you to shorten your links to save a
great deal of room. Make sure that you always use a
link-shortening tool to make the most of every tweet you send.
As an example, I personally use Your Own Short Url which you’ll
find at http://YourOwnShortUrl.com

5. Know when to step away. Of course, you don’t need to spend
all of your time on Twitter. Remember that you do NOT need to
neglect the other parts of your business. Make sure that you
devote enough time to all of your business areas.

If you’d like to see a video introduction of the top 20 Twitter
tools, visit http://timic.org/tools

And be sure to catch the next 5 ways to build a better life using
Twitter in tomorrow’s installment.

Happy tweeting,

Willie

We often discuss our testing and tracking… what is and
isn’t working. We share information on what products are
selling well, and changes that we are noticing in the
marketplace.

This is a good thing to do, and I encourage you to get into
the habit of masterminding or brainstorming with your peers.
If you can’t find a mastermind group, I invite you to join my
online brain-trust, The Internet Marketing Inner Circle at
http://TIMIC.ORG

We DO engage in this type of discussion right on the
member-only discussion forum.

Anyway, I was sharing with my friend that I’m currently
using a piece of software (a WordPress Blog plug-in) called
Contest Burner, and that I’m getting excellent results.

Contest Burner lets you run a contest from your web site
where you award points to people who:
- Post to Twitter
- Post to Facebook
- Make blog comments
- Post YouTube videos
- Comment on videos you’ve posted to YouTube
- Post an assigned tracking link anywhere in cyberspace

Basically, the software detects these links posted on
various sites, and it also detects when someone clicks
on your assigned tracking links.

People are awarded points for sending you (as the contest
operator) traffic. The contest operator has a lot of
flexibility as to how he runs his contest, criteria for
winning prizes, etc.

You can (and should) check out this amazing WordPress
plug-in at http://Contest-Burner.org

You can see how I’m using it to drive sales to a cooking
site that I operate (selling my self-published cookbook)
at: http://Chitterlings.com/blog/contest/

How I’m using the software is significant, because as I
explained how it works to my friend, he wondered out loud
if every internet marketer and his brother wouldn’t soon be
using it. He asked if I didn’t think that it would be a
passing fad that internet marketers would soon grow tired
of.

My answer was an emphatic NO. The reason is that I’ve
been entering prize contest for about 40 years now. I
started when I was a pre-teen, and in many ways I just
see Contest Burner as taking a proven method of generating
interest (and buzz) surrounding a product to the online
arena.

Regardless of how many internet marketers run contests,
it wouldn’t reduce the effectiveness no more than does
another offline merchant running a contest.

However, I had to remind my friend that… even though I
am known as an internet marketer… I am not using Contest
Burner on my internet marketing website yet. I pointed out
that the internet marketing niche is a TINY portion of
cyberspace, and that I was actually using it in a much bigger
market. After all, everyone eats.

I elaborated, and shared with my friend that it’s November
through December when my cookbook market really heats up
as people go online looking for holiday cooking ideas and
for holiday gifts. I explained that I’m stepping in front
of that market, and by using Contest Burner I’m “cooking
up” a virus that I expect to perhaps DOUBLE my normal
holiday sales… without me spending a penny extra on
advertising.

That’s when my friend exclaimed “BONEHEAD!”

He was of course referring to himself, and how limited he
had allowed his thinking to become. He too is in the
internet marketing niche, and he was thinking about selling
Contest Burner as an affiliate marketer… as much as he
was thinking of using it.

He acknowledged that he was only looking at a tiny, tiny
percentage of webmasters, product owners, and online
marketers who could benefit from using Contest Burner.

Any webmaster, in any niche can use Contest Burner, and as
holiday shopping heats up, it’s an easy way to stand out
in your niche.

I reminded him that when the automobile was first mass
produced, large railroad were offered an opportunity to
corner the market. However, they saw themselves in the
“railroad” business rather than the “transportation”
business. That “bone-headed” habit of too narrowly defining
a market really hurt the railroads in the long-term.

Poorly defining who could benefit from using Contest Burner
could have had the same effect on affiliate marketers who
are spreading the word about Contest Burner.

Fortunately my friend had me to brainstorm with and correct
his thinking. Now he’s busily planning a contest as part of
a product re-launch.

He was pretty proud of himself when he observed that he
could use Contest Burner to sell an affiliate product that
he didn’t even own. I agreed, but didn’t tell him that I
had already thought of that

Ok, hopefully I’ve given you some ideas on how to market
your products more creatively. If you can also do it
virally using a tool like Contest Burner, it’s almost
effortless.

Do check out Contest Burner – http://Contest-Burner.org

Willie

==>> http://TIMIC.ORG/Twittenator

Don’t miss it!

Willie

Many people will tell online marketers that
you can’t make sales on Twitter. Twitter
“purist” will tell you that you shouldn’t
even try. They tell you to get followers to
visit your blog or website first.

I understand their message, but I’m here to
tell you that you CAN make direct sales on
Twitter. I do it all the time, and I’m going
to share with you how I do it in this article.

First of all, you do need to understand that
Twitter is NOT a mailing list, and that you
need to understand the culture and habits. That
being said, here are the things that you need to
keep in mind to make direct sales on Twitter:

1) You need the right products. Twitter-related
products have done very well for me.

2) The products that you offer must be on-topic for
your followers. People follow you because they see
that you tweet about a certain topic. Your product
offerings should generally be on that topic.

This rule applies to email marketing too. Give your
audience information on the topic that they’ve already
told you that they are interested in.

3) Inexpensive “impulse” items do well. Your followers
are wondering how much they could lose if the item is
not exactly right for them. A strong guarantee removes
that risk in the first place, but not all of your
followers believe the guarantees. They don’t seem to
understand that with Visa and MC, all they really need
to do is request a refund and they’ll get it!

4) You do generally need to build a relationship with
followers first. They need to know that you are
trustworthy, and do really care about them. This takes
a little time.

Tweet useful information regularly to build that
relationship. Your tweet should also indicate the
benefit they’ll get from clicking through. The title
of the article is a good example!

5) You need to post when your followers are online.
That means that you need to serve a very specific
demographic, and you need to study their surfing
behavior. What country or countries are they from?
What time of the day are they usually online?

You are better off with several Twitter accounts
serving different demographics than one account trying
to communicate with and serve everyone.

If your followers follow a LOT of people their “twitstreams”
will flow very fast, and it does no good to tweet about
something that should interest them if they don’t see
it. If most of your followers have regular jobs,
they probably glance at Twitter early morning, and then
early evening (after getting home from work, and having
dinner).

Those are just a few of the things I subconsciously
consider when posting marketing messages to Twitter. They
do make a huge difference

———-
Willie Crawford has been using Twitter for several years,
and does use it in his marketing mix. To learn how
you can do the same visit Willie at http://timic.org/dc