Twitter Helped Me Get Published…Sort Of

Ok, I didn’t get Published exactly, but an interview I did for Stephanie Chandler @bizauthor did get published in her new book – Own Your Niche

To me it’s the next best thing and very cool to be first Interviewed along-side some BIG Entrepreneurs and second to have that interview be published.

So I had to share this with you. 

Before I jump to the book, let’s chat about how I as chosen in the first place.

It is all Twitter’s fault

Stephanie has been following me on Twitter for a long time, and seeing how I use Twitter and what I share on my blog and basically everything I have done around Twitter is what caught her eye enough to invite me to be interviewed for the book.

Time and time again I see the benefits of using Twitter for myself and my clients and this isn’t about ROI or any type of stats tracking and calculating.

If you’re using Twitter or any Social Media site, you will know if it is working for you.

Trust me.. YOU WILL KNOW!

Here is a secret I want to share between you and me… Ready?

Twitter and all social media sites will not build your business.

I know, painful to hear… but take a deep breathe and keep reading.

But what social media will do is help you get seen and heard helping you build your brand and authority. Which will then help you get better results from your OTHER MARKETING!

• blogging + social media = better results
• affiliate marketing + social media = better results
• article marketing + social media = better results

Now without the marketing you are left with…

• social media + chit chat = more chit chat

Social media is a great tool.. but alone it’s not going to build your business.

It’s like having a Mc Donalds Big Mac without the fries… it’s good, but ohhhhhhhhh so much better with the fries lol

Ok, enough about all that.. let’s talk about the book.

I just got my copy a few days ago and I have read about 5 chapters so far and I am very happy with it. Stephanie shares some great information that will help Internet Marketers and Bloggers.

Since I didn’t read the whole book, I can’t do a full review – But here is some info off  Stephanie’s site.

Own Your Niche brings authenticity back to internet marketing, teaching you how to showcase your business with practical, easy-to-use strategies that you can implement yourself.

You will learn how to:
•    Identify and connect with your target audience
•    Turn up the traffic generation on your website
•    Build an effective blog
•    Get results with social media—in less than an hour per day
•    Distribute content that demonstrates your authority in your field
•    Create email marketing campaigns that build loyalty
•    Handle your own PR and get media to come to you
•    Add online revenue streams to your business
•    Generate exposure with proven offline methods including professional speaking, direct mail campaigns, and publishing

Also included are interviews with successful service-based business owners who share how they have built their audiences and created successful enterprises.

Sneak peek at my Interview inside.

Full list of Entrepreneur Interviews Inside.

Anita Campbell, Small Biz Trends
Karl Palachuk, Small Biz Thoughts
Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady
Kathleen Reale, Be Free for Me
John Paul Aguiar, Money Dummy Blog  pg.74 Yep Yep
Shasta Nelson, Girlfriend Circles
Neal Schaffer, Windmills Marketing
Denise O’Berry, The Small Business Edge
Roger C. Parker, Published and Profitable
Deborah Shames, Eloqui
Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., Academy for Coaching Excellence
Al Lautenslager, Market for Profits

This book is perfect for consultants, coaches, freelancers, health services professionals, financial advisers, attorneys, doctors, professional speakers, authors, and other service-based businesses.

Pretty much anyone trying to sell anything online.

Grab your copy at Amazon just click here – Get Own Your Niche Book (affiliate link)

#FollowFriday Top 10

Can you believe we are half way thru Jan?  2012 is rolling in fast.

How you doing on your 2012 goals/changes?

For me, sticking to goals/resolutions is like me trying to diet.  I’m good for 5, 10 even 20 days, then that one day BK shows me a yummy burger on TV and I’m at the drive thru in 10 min lol 

Then the next couple days I’m half-assing (probably not a word,, but it works) the diet because I cheated one day.

If this is your routine for your 2012 goals, then that’s cool. No one is perfect. Just get up and get back on point.

As long as you are moving closer to your goals each week or month then the small hiccups along the way are fine.

At least one thing is constant, me connecting with some great people on Twitter.

You know what to do with these Top 10 Peeps   and Have A Great Week.

One Quick Update:

Following my goal for 2012 and getting more focused, I have been working on a new blog design here at Money Dummy.. thing are going to be looking a littttttle bit different

Once I launch the new look I will do a  full post reviewing the changes and mindset behind the new look. The all New Money Dummy should be up before end of the month.

For now, check out this sneak peek snip.. hope you like it.

.

Top 10 – Week 29

toolboxforbiz

Bio: The Toolbox for Biz offers more than just products. We find the the right tools to help build your brand.

marccusters

Bio: About internet, social media & online Marketing (websites, portals, seo, ezines, mobile, analytics, strategy)

matt_oit

Bio: I’m a Pro Blogger teaching people how to earn money & develop their own blog? Check out our blog

jonknep

Bio: Dadaholic (Mea). Workaholic. Hungry dude that’s making moves. You in?

itstrue

Bio: Founder/CEO of Damang Media, coaching you to Work Less and Play More by using #personaldevelopment #cloudcomputing and blurring the lines of work and play.

craigdeakin

Bio: Inbound Marketing Consultant. Interests: Startups, Entrepreneurship, Conversion Optimization, Web Analytics, SEO, Cycling & Coffee.

GardenVibe

Bio: I am growing my potential w/ every day I live & love to share in the joy of others who are doing the same.

KevKLau

Bio: Your Network Marketing Business Coach and Social Media Consultant. | I teach people how to to build an online Network Marketing business using Social Media.

HotBlogTips

Bio: Experienced blogger sharing blogging tips. Join me & change your profile picture to protest SOPA:

jkcallas

Bio: Helping small businesses increase sales by turning their expertise into customer DIY products & packaging up their services for extra profit.

Facebook Advertising Insider Tips

Hey everyone! First, let me apologize for the delay in this part of our Facebook Marketing series. I was unfortunately hospitalized with pneumonia over the holidays, and have just recently returned to working order.

Not to worry, though — the ol’ mind is still working just as well as it was before (that is to say, sputtering along at squirrel-power).

My goal for this post is to not talk to you about the same old stuff you can read in a thousand other blog posts about Facebook advertising.

You know, targeting, tracking, writing good content, blah blah blah.

My goal here is to provide you with insider tips and tricks that I and my staff use every day to help take our clients’ Facebook advertising through the roof.

Ready? Let’s get to it!

What Should I Advertise?

Facebook allows you to advertise (they use the word “promote”) a few different things. You can promote your Facebook page, a particular event, a non-Facebook website, or even one specific post.

In general, I find that focusing on advertising your own Facebook page, or advertising a contest that you’re running on your Facebook page, to be the most effective endeavors, because they both directly help grow your page’s fanbase, which (should be) indirectly helping all of your other marketing efforts.

How Should I Advertise?

The most important thing to remember about Facebook is that it is specifically built to distract users from anything else that they might be doing. Think about it… how many times have you said “I’ll just pop on to Facebook for a second, just to read a few stories in my newsfeed”, and then found yourself still sitting there twenty minutes later?

That being said, in order to succeed your Facebook ad is going to have to distract people from a distraction. That can seem very daunting, but realizing that simple fact is actually the hardest part of the game.

Here are a few insider tips and tricks that we use to make our clients’ Facebook ads stand out from the crowd:

- The Photo: This is arguably the most important part of a Facebook ad, since Facebook users tend to be hyper-visually engaged and because the photo takes up such a large portion of the ad to begin with. We have seen excellent results recently using photos of happy, attractive women when advertising to men, and happy, confident men when advertising to women. Want to kick it up even farther? Use a real photo of someone (a quality one, with their permission) instead of a stock photo.

- The Text: Short and sweet is the name of the game here. If you insist on including a wall-o-text in your advertisement, do yourself a favor and just don’t write anything. All Facebook users see when they’re presented with a wall-o-text is “Too Long, Didn’t Read”. Keep it simple and quirky, like “Want a $200 gift card? All you have to do is click!” or “Want free online marketing tips and tricks? Clicky, clicky! What do you have to lose?” (Pro Tip: Avoid kitchy things like using numbers instead of words (4 instead of for), and for the sake of all our sanity, avoid using ALL CAPS).

– The Rotation: You should ideally run 7-10 slightly different ads at once, all targeted at the same demographic and promoting the same thing. This keeps your message fresh in front of your audience and helps you determine which buzz words and photos are hitting home better than others.

– The Duration: Don’t let any advertisement run longer than 24 hours. Studies have shown that past that point, you run into heavy saturation issues such that too many of your target audience have already seen your ad several times and have visually blocked it out.

Managing Expectations

Facebook advertising is a great way to promote yourself online and an essential tool for any Facebook marketing endeavor. However, you also have to be realistic about your expectations. On average, a decent Facebook ad gets a 0.02% conversion rate. That means just 2/10ths of 1% of the people who see your ad (impressions) will actually click on the ad — and that’s if it’s a decent one!

Be prepared to fail a few times before you really get it right. I’ve run plenty of duds before, and I’m a professional. That’s just the name of the game. It’s like playing battleship — sometimes you have to lob a few duds out there to really hone in on where your target audience is and what they’re going to respond to.
_______________________

This is a Guest Post by Carter Schimpff, the owner of Garraty Group Marketing, an online marketing firm located in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his team are also the wizards behind SmBizBlog.com, a helpful online marketing blog. You can find them on Facebook at facebook.com/GoGarraty.

Top 25 2011 Favorites

Is it me, or did 2011 fly by?

Feels like yesterday when I was sitting here going over my steps to DOMINATE 2011…even though 2011 was a great year for me and Money Dummy blog, it missed a few goals.

I did learn a few things over the past year that will help me mold my plans of DOMINATION in 2012  (insert evil laugh here )

• Focusing more on the “business” side of blogging,
• Focus more on my blog and clients and projects.

• Find a better balance to my business and the time I spend on SM sites.
• Focus on doing things I dislike, but work.. ie: videos.
• Focus on strengthening the blogger relationships I have built and nurture them into business partnerships.
• Stop trying to be everything to everyone. I like to help people, seeing a client or a blogger that takes my advice and kills it, is just F***N AWESOME!  But there are time’s when you have to say no and be ok with that.
• Focus on walking away. There has to be a happy balance for work and play and for me the past 5 years, it’s been a lot of work and not to much play.

Just a few things to work on   Hopefully these are a few things that can help you kill it in 2012!

Ok onto the reason your here, Finding some great people to connect with.

This Follow Friday post I did something different.  I decided to share the 25 People that have been sharing and connecting with me on a weekly basis all of 2011.

If I was a quarterback, this would be the team that I ride to the Super Bowl

If these people were in the Boston area, we would have drinks.

If I bought a 25 pack of muffins at BJ’s, these people would each get one.

Ok I’m sure get my point… Just follow them now if you don’t already.

Top 10 – Week 29

EzyBlogger

Bio: A Blogger and Internet Marketer from Malaysia.

ShaiLaserson

Bio: Passion and Work Equals Success. I have a passion for People, Marketing & Technology.

KeepUpWeb

Bio: I’m a friendly computer geek. I blog common-sense & low-cost tips for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Drop by and say “Hi”.

BlazingMinds

Bio: Owner and Famous Blogger of Blazing Minds, lover of tech, life & people who make her laugh. A Twitter celebrity in the making.

maria_muir

Bio: Maria Muir.com | This That & The Other, Blogging Tips, Social Media, Inspirational, Motivation, Guest Posting, Humour & Alternative News

extremejohn

Bio: Founder of Extreme Tan and Smoothies, Inc., Insane Limos, Inc., and Extreme Spray Tan, Inc. and blogging CEO.

arkarthick

Bio:  Entrepreneur, Blogger, Photography/Designing/Social Media – Enthusiast. Humorous, Creative & Positive Thinker. Love to be a Friend & Seek/Share Awesome Things!

MelissaOnline

Bio: Purveyor of Possibility, Passionista, MavHERick, Entrepreneur & Coffee Addict. Tweeting inspiration & information for entrepreneurs. Who INSPIRES You?

AskKim

Bio: Developing Awesome Relationships, Providing Life Coaching, Mentoring & Online & Social Media Marketing, Networking & Personal Development!

dragonblogger

Bio: Technology blogger who works with WordPress and helps others with blogging tips, monetization, earning and more visit http://www.dragonblogger.com for more!

FamousBloggers

Bio: SEO, Internet Marketing, Traffic, Design, Social Media, Making Money Online Tips and we also teach you How to Blog and Start a Business

lorimcneeartist

Bio: artist/blogger,social media,poetic painter,quote junkie,novice photo,friend to birds/animals,busy mom living a healthy mountain life!

rcvane

Bio: Graphic Designer. WordPress girl. Love Art & Photo. Natural med. & birth, rock climbing, be-kind-to-mother-earth & each-other stuff. Teach me wise tweeters.

Texascopywriter

Bio: Freelance health care journalist and owner of All Media Freelance, LLC.

randyclarktko

Bio: Member of the TKO Graphix marketing team, Under the Radar rock band, beer geek, proud dad, loving husband, living the dream

kirri_white

Bio: Life coach, blogger, rocking mama and HUGE advocate of ? self-care, self-knowledge, and self-love

KorteTravel

Bio: Over 20 yrs travel exp. Cruise Planners/Amex Franch. Owner, #BNI, US #Army #Vet, #SendOutCards Distributor,  Let me be your Go-To Travel Agent.

VanitaCyril

Bio: a blogging, social media addicted WordPress theme designer n marketing entrepreneur #WAHM Helping my fellow bloggers build + promote their blog

techlunatic

Bio: Official Twitter Pro Of TechLunatic #SEO,#SEM #Marketing #MakeMoney and tips, Follow the updates to leverage your online presence .

JoeHeilman

Bio: President of Kody Social Media, which specializes in social media consulting and video production. Author of Social Media for Business.

EshaAddy

Bio: My mission is to nurture and cultivate a better class of MLM Entrepreneurs who are empowered to create great change from the inside out.

mercifullaw

Bio: (Future) Best selling author of Merciful Law, java enthusiast, care-giver of multiple creatures & critters, social medial neophyte, word-nerd, future beach bum.

michellecruble

Bio: Self Proclaimed “info junkie”. Famous for two things. A great laugh and tripping. Nickname “Grace”. But my kids still think I’m cool.

debi777

Bio: I am a work at home mom earning online. I enjoy blogging, marketing, paid surveys, social media, affiliate marketing and more.

Beverly_Davis

Bio: CEO,Entrepreneur/Speaker/Finance Organizer/Tweeting Business/Leadership/Women/Empowerment/ Enjoys Coffee, Traveling & A Good Laugh/ Always investing in myself

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas with your family, and relax, Twitter and Facebook will be here when done

The Happy Bloggers Christmas List

There is something about Christmas that just makes you want to share and give freely to the good people around you. Would be nice if it was like that all the time, but reality hits and you get busy and blah blah… right?

But Christmas is when you make that little extra effort, to help out or give back.

It’s that same reason you have watched the Christmas Story 100 times lol, “it’s ok, so have I”…can you say “Pink Bunny PJ’S”?

I’m surrounded by happy bloggers everywhere that are giving back.

ex: My man John at extremejohn.com is having Santa day at his tanning business for all his customers kids. Awesome right?

So since I’m more about giving then receiving on Christmas, I decided to give a few tools away that I use to help manage daily tasks of running my blog and business.

This is my small Thank U for reading my blog and supporting what I’m doing here on Money Dummy

Oh yea before we get to the tools…

Last year I shared a post on 12 Days Of Christmas – Blogger Style I let me creative side free haha

Ok back to the Free tools.  These are tools I have paid right for or have access to that I am sharing with you to download and use freely.

Now these are not $200 tools, but they are tools that I still use that work and if they work then why change them up.

Here are the Happy Bloggers Christmas Tools List:

.

Max Banner Ads

Click To Download: http://bit.ly/maxbanner

What It Does:

Easily add and rotate banners on your WordPress blog anywhere you like without needing any coding skills.

.

MaxBlogPress Stripe Ads

Click To Download: http://bit.ly/maxstripead

What It Does:

It will display a single line across the top of your blog. That you can use to advertise a product or service, show your newsletter opt in or any message you want your readers to see.

.

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer

Click To Download: http://bit.ly/maxping

What It Does:

Every time you launch a new post or update it, WordPress will ping it to directories to let them know to come look at the new content on your blog. Problem is, if you update a post 5 times, WP will ping it 5 times… Not Good.

Ping Optimizer will ping your post ONE time and it will ping it to a larger number of ping services.

.

Social Bot

Click To Download: http://bit.ly/botsocial

Normally $29.95 – Yours Free.

What It Does:

A fast way to bookmark all your blogs pages and posts, video links, articles etc… (Without Doing It Page-By-Page)  Any type of content that you make, you should be bookmarking and this tool helps you do that.

.

GFX Video Writer

Click To Download: http://bit.ly/gfxvideo

Normally $29.95 – Yours Free.

What It Does:

It will take your blog posts and make them videos with images and music. Simple and fast tool to use.

.

RSS2Tweet

Click To Download: http://bit.ly/rsstweet

Normally $19.95 – Yours Free.

What It Does:

RSS2Tweet sends updates from any RSS feed to any Twitter account. It is a content syndication tool that will run automatically in the background once started.

The idea is to automate tweeting throughout the day to keep messages in front of your followers, and to attract new followers, traffic and sales.

Disclaimer: I would NOT use this type of automation on your main account. But if you have a product or niche account then this will work great. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put “real” time into those accounts too.

.

RSS2Facebook

Click To Download:  http://bit.ly/rssfacebook

Normally $19.95 – Yours Free.

What It Does:

RSS2Facebook sends updates from any RSS feed to any Facebook account. It is a content syndication tool that will run automatically in the background once started.

The idea is to automate tweeting throughout the day to keep messages in front of your followers, and to attract new followers, traffic and sales.

Disclaimer: I would NOT use this type of automation on your main account. But if you have a product or niche account then this will work great. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put “real” time into those accounts too.

I hope you enjoy the happy bloggers wish list tools and hope they help you with your blog.

Again Thank U for all the support!