Michael Campbell has released the latest issue of ‘Internet Marketing Secrets’. The featured article is titled “The One Thousand Dollar Twitter Post.” [Newsletter]


Michael Campbell has released the latest issue of:

Internet Marketing Secrets

The One Thousand Dollar Twitter Post

What would you do for a thousand dollars? Would you write 127 words? Say, maybe, three short paragraphs and post them on a blog?

That’s exactly what I did, and because of it, I’ll put more than 1K dollars in my pocket over the next year because of it. Here’s how it happened…

Bloggers love to tell you when they’ve made a new post. But instead of relying on a blog, RSS feed, or a newsletter, they turn to Twitter to get the word out.

I saw a post from one of the people I follow on Twitter. I was busy and couldn’t read the full blog post right away, but new that it was going to be a popular story. I just didn’t know HOW popular.

By the time I read to post 45 minutes later, it already had 50 Diggs. (That’s votes on the digg.com web site, which is the 176th most popular site on the web.)

Luckily I put down what I was doing to make quick comment on the post. Anything that gets 50 Diggs in under an hour is going to go viral. And if you have a chance to comment while the post is fresh, go for it!

Within 24 hours the post had 365 Diggs and 34 comments. Last I checked it had over 800 Diggs and 53 comments.

At the time of writing, my comment has brought over 100 visitors to my site. And because my comment is one of the first on the blog, the link to my site will continue to get clicks for weeks, and even months into the future.

Now, because of my stats, I know that 57% of all unique visitors to my site, subscribe to my newsletter. I also know that the average reader will spend 4 dollars per year on products they see advertised in my newsletter.

If I do some quick math, and suppose my link gets clicked an average of twice per day, that’s 730 clicks. (Remember the web is open 24/7 365, so there’s none of this 200 work day a year nonsense.)

So following the stats, that’s 416 new subscribers, spending an average of 4 dollars per year each. That’s 1,664 bucks, based on very conservative numbers, over the next year from a single blog comment. That’s 13 dollars per word.

(You can get a list of the major Twitter Clients from the ReadWriteWeb.com blog post entitled, “How We Tweet: The Definitive List of the Top Twitter Clients.”)

But I never would have seen the original post if it wasn’t for the little tweet on Twitter. (A tweet is a micro blog post on Twitter.)

The moral of the story? If you follow prominent “A List” bloggers and thought leaders on Twitter, you’ll find out about blog posts, tech news and live video coverage of events, before anyone else.

And if you make “intelligent” comments on the blog posts they make, your words can be very profitable, so long as you’re one of the first people to jump into the conversation.

So what would you do for 1,000 dollars? Would you install a Twitter client – like the one from Twhirl.org – and follow the thought leaders in your industry? Sounds like a profitable idea if you ask me. 😉

Make Your Podcast Sound Like a Pro

There have been dozens of questions about podcasting equipment. Most of you want to know how I get such good sound, and want your audio to sound as good as mine.

To upgrade your sound, I suggest getting a USB headset from Audio Technica, Altec Lansing, Plantronics or a company that has their brand name associated with audio equipment. I’d suggest staying away from brands that are associated with gaming and computer hardware periphery.

The only thing wrong with headsets, is that they sound like headsets. Usually the mic is too close to the mouth, the sound is thin, and the plosives like P B and T are quite pronounced. Then there’s the “noise canceling” technology, which – in USB headsets – can be quite noticeable as it chops off the beginning bits of words.

A step above a USB headset would be a USB mic that plugs into the computer. Add in a nylon pop screen, a mic stand of sorts, a set of headphones, or high quality earbuds, and you are all set. The only trouble is, the preamps in the USB mics can be quite noisy and introduce a lot of high end hiss into the audio.

Next up would be a pro or semi-pro microphone. It will have a three pin plug on it called an XLR plug, and will need an XLR cable that plugs into a preamp or mixer.

An affordable and portable mixer is the M-Audio Mobile Pre USB. It has XLR, 1/4 inch and mini plug inputs. Line level, 1/4 inch and headphone outputs. It plugs directly into the computer through USB, so it doesn’t need its own power supply, but it will provide 48 volt phantom power – from the computer – should your mic require it.

Then there’s the mic. There’s all sorts of mics available at MusiciansFriend.com. Look for an inexpensive, yet highly rated condenser mic. Dynamic mics are great for getting bumped about on the road or on stage, but for studio vocals and human speech, get a condenser mic for best results.

If you don’t want – or can’t afford – the higher end gear, at least pick up a moderately priced USB headset. Get one from a brand name audio company. It’s sure to be much better audio quality than a gaming headset, or the pin hole mic in a typical telephone headset.

And finally… for those who asked… here’s my setup. I use a Rode NT2-A condenser mic, which plugs via XLR cable into the M-Audio MobilePre USB, which plugs into the computer via USB cable. I just click on the phantom power button on the front of the MobilePre and start recording into my favorite audio app.

For recording the podcast interviews via Skype I use Call Recorder from ecamm.com. (Sorry Windows dudes, it’s Mac only.) There’s plenty of software capable of recording Skype conversations, but Call Recorder is the only one I’ve found that records the interviewer and guest on their own audio tracks, meaning it’s much easier to edit later on.

So now there’s no excuse not to sound like a pro. Get some pro podcasting equipment and guess what… you’ll sound like a pro. But as for the “quality” of your show… that’s up to you.

Moving from PPC to Dominate SEO

Question: “Hey Michael, we talked at Ken McCarthy’s System Intensive in Vancouver. I understand everyone has ‘the big idea’ but we want to determine if what we’re doing is worth expanding into SEO.”

“We did about 200,000 in revenue last year (just to give you an idea that this works). We were getting 6,000 PPC clicks per day. We are no longer able to PPC this opportunity and want to ‘take over’ all of our keywords organically with SEO. Is is possible to do this?” ~ Chris

Answer: Chris, if you want to stay in the PPC game, you could try SpeedPPC in combination with long tail keywords. The software will make you uber competitive in the PPC space. SpeedPPC 3.0 has just launched, and it looks like they’ve added just about everything from the customer wish lists.

SpeedPPC 3.0: http://www.cdzn.com/pow

If you want to “take over” the keyword category, it is doable, but will take time. The more competitive the keyword and the better SEO’d your competitors are in the search engines, the longer it will take.

Research your competition and get keywords from Nichebot (http://cdzn.com/nbt) or Wordtracker (http://cdzn.com/wtr). Then head over to Google and look at each competitor for the keywords. Find out how many incoming links they have and their PageRank. That data will give you a quick “reading” into the marketplace.

If you find yourself in a very competitive situation, look to Colin McDougall. He can get his sites to the top of the search engines for super competitive phrases like bankcards. If he can get top rankings in that market, I’m sure he could teach you how to dominate your niche, with training from his Fly on the Wall Club.

Colin’s Fly on the Wall Club: http://www.cdzn.com/fly

If you decide to go after the longer tail phrases, then your SEO task is easier. You could set up a WordPress blog and start writing articles that target each long tail keyword phrase. You can also leverage social news sites by posting snippets of the articles on them, which will get backlinks, traffic, and the spiders to crawl your site within hours.

Designing Mininets and Authority Sites

Question: “Hi Michael, I found your website and downloaded your ebooks. I found them very informative and quite amazed you give them away. Is there any catch? Kidding 🙂

“I browsed through them, but cannot find the answer to my question. You recommended developing 200 sites full of affiliate links, that are linked to each other. My question is, do all the 200 websites have to be hosted on their own domain name? Or can all 200 websites be hosted on the same domain.” ~ Mohd”

Answer: Whoa Mohd! It sounds like you accidentally mashed two unrelated works of mine together. I’d never advocate 200 sites as I’m far too lazy – it’s also dangerous and spammy in my opinion – to create something that large.

My ebook “Revenge of the Mininet” suggests using four or five sites on average. The largest example being the Matrix which uses nine interlinked sites.

The other report is the “200 Page Challenge.” It’s where you add one page per day to a single website using PLR articles. After a year, you’d have a 200 page authority site.

In the first example (Revenge) each site is hosted separately on its own domain name. You could use subdomains but I don’t recommend it. In the 200 Page Challenge, the goal is to create an authority site by having everything hosted on one site.

You can download all my marketing ebooks here:

Click: http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com/downloads/

In either method, you’ll want to organize your sites into a pyramid. The home page is the most generic keyword phrase at the top. The next level down contains folders and pages that organize your subjects into categories.

Then comes the base of the pyramid that supports everything else. These are the individual articles or product reviews, based on the long tail keyword phrases.

Deduct the Training and Invest in Yourself

Question: “Michael, I was wondering about getting a homestudy course for PPC. I’m currently an AdWords consultant and manage a number of clients across the world. Are the PPC courses worth every penny? Is the stuff easy to master? I’d be grateful for any advice.”

“To be honest I have struggled with promoting affiliate programs via Google Adwords. I’ve not made a single penny and tried to make it work several times.” ~ Paul

Answer: Paul, a lot of marketers are very successful with the PPC to affiliate program revenue model. Gauher Chaudhry and Dave Tropeano come to mind.

Gauher and Dave’s training courses are not expensive. Good training never is. Think of it as an investment in yourself. An investment that you can deduct as a business expense.

Gauher’s PPC Formula: http://www.cdzn.com/ppc

Dave’s Long Tail Cash: http://www.cdzn.com/ltc

I wouldn’t say that Gauher’s Pay Per Click Formula or any other system is easy to master. No profitable skill set is. Like anything, it takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get at it.

In addition to writing the ads, finding good affiliate programs, creating multiple offers and landing pages, PPC is largely a numbers game. So an aptitude for tracking numbers like expenses and profit margins really helps.

Once you immerse yourself in the training, what you’ll discover that both Dave and Gauher are masters of mainstream products, that large segments of the population search for on a daily basis. They find deals in the form of answers to the queries, and stage multiple offers in the path of the click. They also demonstrate the proper use of followup autoresponders, which any marketer would be wise to emulate.

Both Gauher and Dave do very well for themselves. And so have many others that have adopted their methodologies. So what you really need, is a fundamental shift in your thinking…

Training is not an expense, it’s an investment in yourself and your future. Good luck with it and remember what Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in yourself always pays the highest dividends.”

The Ultimate in Web 2.0 Social Networking Tools

I signed up for a Twitter account over a year ago. At first I didn’t get it. Few people used it and the posts were pretty lame. Why on earth would I care if someone was sitting in a cafe eating a veggie sandwich?

Well, like most mediums, given enough time and critical mass, they mature. Twitter has emerged into one of the most powerful Web 2.0 social networking tools. And it’s one that you can use to your advantage.

So what exactly is microblogging or “tweeting” as it’s known on Twitter? Here’s the deal…

You try and answer the question “What are you doing right now?” in 140 characters or less. One click of the update button and you tell all your friends. That’s all there is to it.

If you make quality posts, balancing insight, provocative thoughts and self promotions, you can get a lot of followers in a hurry. With every pithy post, you’re likely to spark discussions, get traffic and find that more people are subscribing to your thoughts, or “following” your Tweets.

It works the other way too. Many thought leaders post 10 times per day, and you’ll be surprised what you can learn in less than a month, by following a few well-known “A List” bloggers and new media people.

– I found out about an upcoming affiliate program and was able to position myself for the launch with little competition.

– I was told about fantastic widgets and WordPress blog plugins, that I didn’t know about.

– I heard rumors of new SEO software and was able to offer my ideas at the development stage.

– I was informed of a live discussion with a controversial author and was able to participate in the show.

– I was one of the first people to post a comment on a leading marketing blog. It branded my name, positioned me as an expert, and got a lot of clicks to my website. (Which means more subscribers and revenue for me.)

– I’ve been involved in personal conversations with thought leaders. (Not likely they’d open an email from me, even if I knew their addy.) They chat openly, even with strangers, over Twitter.

– I’ve been invited to impromptu hallway and pub interviews with experts streaming live video from their cell phones.

– One prominent personality managed to get over 270 viewers to a live streaming broadcast, within five minutes of posting the invitation on Twitter.

– I witnessed a well written blog post go from 0 to 100 Diggs in less than 10 minutes, because of a single “vote for my post” request on Twitter. (Just imagine the traffic you’d get from being on the Digg home page!)

* Warning: 1960’s Superman cartoon reference…

Look up in the sky… it’s a bird… it’s a plane… faster than speeding RSS, more powerful than a blog post, able to leap tall emails with a single post… it’s Twitter!

Think of it this way… Twitter is the ultimate web 2.0 social networking or “tell-a-friend” tool.

At only 140 characters, it’s a great way to keep in touch with your readers in-between newsletters and blog posts. It’s also a funky way to write and build up a following, if you’re not into writing lengthy ebooks, newsletters or blog posts.

For example, if you want to follow what I’m doing online, you can go to Twitter.com and sign up for an account. (It takes less than 10 seconds.) You’ll – at the very least – want to register your favorite name before it gets taken.

Then – once you’ve joined – go to http://twitter.com/dmcorp and click on the Follow button underneath my photo. That’s all there is to it. If you want my updates to appear on your computer screen in real time, install a Twitter client like the one from Twhirl.org.

Now every time I post to my blog or discover something new, you’ll be kept in the loop. You’ll know exactly what I’m up to during the day, what I’m working on, what’s coming up next, and get inside tips as they happen.

My conclusion on using Twitter for social networking…

If you offer your followers thoughtful posts, topical news, cool ideas, useful urls, and the like – instead of what kind of sandwich you’re eating – who knows… you could build your own following. Then next time you have an event, or important moment of any kind, you can notify hundreds of people the instant it’s happening.

Like it or not, micro blogging has grown and matured as a medium. It has found a comfortable niche in-between emails and blog posts. But the really cool part is that it’s happening in real time, right before your eyes, and you get to choose which gurus, bloggers, movers and shakers, that you want to follow.

Twitter is pure Web 2.0 power in the hands of the people. It’s the essence of social media, the ultimate social networking tool, where we can stay connected to each other, no matter what we’re doing, or where we are in the world, 140 characters at a time.

Send me a Tweet when you get there…

Join Up: http://twitter.com

And Twitter Me Here: http://twitter.com/dmcorp

That’s it for this issue my friend. Thank you for reading. We’ll chat again soon. Until then, here’s wishing you all the best for online success.

Michael Campbell

P.S.

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Legal stuff…

Copyright 2006 Dynamic Media Corporation. All rights reserved world wide. All trademarks and servicemarks are property of their respective owners.

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Michael Campbell

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