On December 7, 2009, get ready for my new site: ResponderX Marketing Labs. This site will be dedicated as well to the ins and outs of marketing, with a focus on this crazy and quickly moving experiment we call social media. ResponderX has a growing roster of clients we’ll announce then, as well as some pretty cool partnerships and upcoming events we’re involved in. So keep your eyes open for it.

Until then, keep burning the torch. And remember: good social media begins with a handshake.

Out,

Chris

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http://www.theconsumerstandard.com/beautyo.php?sub=oUST1

You hit this site and for a split second you think this is a reputable report about teeth whitening. Hey, we’re all interested in that. And as you dig in and read about the so called housewife who discovered the secret to white ivories, you get the pitch: you have to buy two products in order to achieve the miracle results. One simply will not suffice.

I can’t say for sure, but my bet is both products are developed by the same group of peeps. And they’re making a killing - as reflected in the sheer volume of advertising they’ve been pumping out.In the last 3 months, the domain has shot up from #354,908 in site traffic to #76,156 - not bad. Points to what can happen if you have a good story and marketing angle, a product that has the potential to deliver, and some smart advertising.

Just for fun - remove the extraneous url page info and just go here:

http://www.theconsumerstandard.com/

Same model, this time for a weight loss product. Ca-ching.

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And it’s not because I don’t like what all his ghostwriters and automated twitter management systems have to say. They can be spot on sometimes. But the real problem is sheer volume. I mean, copious doesn’t even begin to describe the avalanche of data this guy and his minions throw at the machine. It’s crazy. It’s irrelevant. It’s not social media. It borders on SPAM. And it most certainly is done to game the system.

Press by the pound just isn’t cool anymore, Guy. You should know better.

So Guy, join the conversation. Stop monologuing us to death. Call off the dogs. Think different.

Are you out there?

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Per the third week in the 30DC, I’ve jumped into some Google Adwords PPC plays (Pay-per-Click) advertising and set up a two separate campaigns - one that is triggered whenever someone searches for ‘fun dog collars’ and ‘dog collars’. I set my daily budget to 25 bucks/day and .65 cents per click. I wrote some decent ads, and I thought I was good to go.

For those who don’t know, Google Adwords are the ads that appear either on the very top of a search results page - or to the right. People like me pay for these positions - but the beauty is we only pay when the the ad is clicked on. So if the ad is relevant, you can get some great traffic.

But Google is smart. They don’t want just any ads running on their network. They want relevancy. They want to serve an ad that will be clicked on so that they maximize the earning power of their media space. So they screen the ads to ensure that if you’re searching for vegetarian recipes, you don’t see a whole slew of ads for pork. Each ad is passed through their mysterious matrix, and a quality score is determined based on this assessed relevancy.

To hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, click here.

Problem is, my Quality Score, for reasons I’m still digging into, stink. As a result, my ads aren’t triggered. And my natural SEO has fallen as well.

So I’ve only managed 102 people to my site in 3 weeks. Not horrible I guess. Of those 102, 15 have clicked through on the affiliate ads. No Purchases.

Irregardless, the sections on Google Ads and further deep diving into Market Samurai have been really strong. Ed Dale and team shine here, and I’ve learned a lot of finer points I didn’t know. Worth while all the way, even if my site is performing like a dog.

As Ed says, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”  Excited to close this thing out.

The really nice value of Google Reader though is something that was recently introduced: the ability to instantly tweet or Facebook content. So if I’m reading the Fake Steve Jobs and he says something especially witty, I can let my network know quickly. Google Reader then becomes not just an aggregator of content, but a distribution engine as well. Hot stuff.

What I do is simple: I pick a feed, like from TechCrunch, and do a quick scan. If I find something interesting, I tweet it. If I find something really interesting, I tweet it and star it. Then I mark all as read and move on to something else. Not only am I keeping current (I hope) but I’m also pushing out great content (I hope again). This proactive approach has kick-started my followers on twitter.

It’s a great tool - and belongs right next to your machete.

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Similarly, I had a reader ask what I thought about pen names. Let’s say you’re in the banking biz but want to start a site/blog that sells stuffed animals. This doesn’t fit in with your shark image - so what to do?

I personally see no reason not to use a pen name if you feel uncomfortable throwing it all out there. It’s done all the time, from professionals to people just testing the waters. You might have to come clean down the line - but so what? As long as you’re not being derogatory towards others and your general intent is good - I say game on.

I’ve always like the name ‘Herb Domino’. I think I’ll roll with it.

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The only thing I don’t like? He steals the blankets.

Lauren worked as a taxi dispatcher outside of London with average looks, no money and little else to bank on. She was a single young mother. She was the very last person you’d think would shake up the beauty and fashion world.

But shake it up she did. She began by selling cosmetics on eBay, then over time graduated to creating YouTube videos about how to apply make-up. Her ‘everywoman’ approach soon caught fire, and today she has her own cosmetic line, a store in Times Square, a book deal, and runs the talk-show circuit. Her production values are always minimal (in fact, in one video an episode of ‘The Family Guy’ plays in frame in the background). But she’s authentic. True. And good. With 300,000 subscribers to boot. By any account, that’s beautiful.

Check her out. And take notes. @panacea81 or bylaurenluke.com

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The first two weeks of the 30 Day Challenge is about content and content distribution. Let’s take a look at the ecosystem:

Primary blog: This is the main hub of the wheel, the center around which all else circles. This is the destination of all traffic via improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In my case: fundogcollars.com.

Secondary blogs: This includes setting up secondary blogs on WordPress, Blogger, Weebly and Posterous with engaging and unique content. When I say unique, I mean each article is different, or you get penalized by the infamous Google algorithm (more on that later). These original articles contain your primary blog URL as part of the article. These are called backlinks, and the more backlinks you have, the higher your primary blog ranks with Google.

Article Submissions: While your cranking on the above, you also start creating expert article content for numerous Ezines and other outlets, including eZine Articles, Scribd, Squidoo, and Hubpages. Again, all unique and differing content.

Directory Submissions: Each time you write an article and post it, you’ve created a unique URL. For example, if I write an article and post it on Word Press titled ‘Where in the World is Griffin: The Magic of GPS Dog Collars, the following URL is created: http://fundogcollars.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/where-in-the-world-is-griffin-the-magic-of-gps-dog-collars. The goal is to submit this URL across as many link directories as possible - and this is automated by both Market Samurai’s Rank Tracker and Traffic Bug. This distributes your URLs deeper into the Web, and both these tools are great and can help save time - but don’t get me wrong, it’s still time very intensive.

Whew! You got all that?

So I was only being a little tongue-in-cheek when I said that I was bored with dog collars. Yeah - there’s actually tons of great stories out there that could really drive the niche. The point: it’s easier if it’s something you love. Spend time digging in and choosing the right keywords - or niche - to begin with.

When I follow this model again - and I will - I’d consider taking a week off after Day 5 and just writing and banking tons of content. Then, I’ll have multiple resources to plug and play as the challenge proceeds. Content, truly, is king. And with content by the pound, you can really leverage the distribution model outlined above. But it’s work, plain and simple.

I better get busy.

NOTE: I misunderstood the directions of the 30DC and actually duplicated a lot of content across these various channels I described above. This is a big ‘no-no’ and I got Google slapped. My SEO ranking actually fell from #3 to #5 in a matter of days. Ouch. That will leave a mark.

Which is really why Week #1 and picking your niche is so important. I mean, really, super duper important. If you’re going to be locked into writing copious amounts of copy about something - which is key to getting good Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which in turn is key to the whole 30 DC, then My God make it something you want to sell. I mean, I could have picked something to do with mountain biking. Or tech. Or even barn-raising. But - gulp - dog collars? Gag me with the nearest tennis ball.

“But it is only supposed to be a test,” my inner self-flagellating voice keeps telling me. “Chill.” So that’s what I’ll do, for 13 more days anyway.

All that said - I dig the 30 DC. It really is rock solid to date - especially with the introduction of Posterous as a distribution engine. I love it. I just can never see myself tweeting or Facebooking about the latest in canine neckwear, so I really have’t leveraged that part much yet at all. But the overall theme of building a ‘network of content’ is great advice, though incredibly time consuming.

Here’s the stats:

• 63 visitors to the magnificent www.fundogcollars.com
• 8 clicks through to my Amazon affiliate links
• 12.7% Click Through Rate
• Zero Purchases

Now the whole premise of the 30 DC is to make $1. I think my conversion rate could be jacked up so I’m going to tweak the page a bit and maybe I’ll get there in the end. Lord knows I wish I had some mad design skills - the site is mutt ugly.

Fun dog collars? Shoot me.