Marketing company Experian says Pinterest, the social network where users “pin” photos to virtual pin boards has become the third most popular social network coming behind Facebook and Twitter.

Pinterest is moving very fast and it is quite addictive, however internet marketers are now taking a very strong interest in this latest phenomenon. If you are wondering what its all about then the following articles should give you a good idea:

Pinterest: An Introductory Guide for Marketers – Search Engine …

searchenginewatch.com4/12/12

Meet Pinterest. The hottest social network offers many benefits to marketers. Understanding how to use Pinterest and leverage its marketing potential requires diving in. Here’s everything you need to know to get started and …

Pinterest Integration | MailChimp Email Marketing Blog

blog.mailchimp.com4/11/12

Pinterest “lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web” with anyone. This popular pioneer in the new trend of visual.

Getting More Out of Pinterest [Infographic]

www.marketingpilgrim.com4/11/12

Pinterest is the social media darling of the moment. Personally, I have been slow on the uptake but it would …

Pinterest’s Unlikely Journey To Top Of The Startup Mountain …

techcrunch.com4/8/12

In February we hosted Pinterest co-founder (and now officially CEO) Ben Silbermann in Palo Alto. He is one of the most humble entrepreneurs I have met in my seven years in Silicon Valley. The story of Pinterest’s founding is …

Top10 branded uses of Pinterest | Marketing magazine

www.marketingmag.com.au4/12/12

After the news last week that Barack Obama joined Pinterest, the burgeoning social network got another shot in the arm and some extra mainstream street cred. The one-year-old social network is now shaping up as a platform …

Why is Pinterest So Addicting? | The Official Power of Pinterest …

www.powerofpinterest.com4/15/12

Pinterest.com is considerably the crack cocaine of social media. Fortunately, it’s not so bad for our health. Check out this infographic with some very interesting information on it! Tell us… Why do you find it so addicting?

Google Plus is still a bit of a mystery to me after using Facebook but a lot of people have joined it and many say that they are getting more hits from Google+. However, the jury is still out for many people so the following is a selection of the most recent articles on the topic:

Google Plus: The problem isn’t design, it’s a lack of demand — Tech …

gigaom.com3/15/12

Some argue that Google+ doesn’t have more users — or more active users — because of its poor design. But the biggest issue is that while there are plenty of reasons for Google to want such a network, there are few …

Measuring Recognition Via Google Plus 1

identitytheftchecker.com3/18/12

If you’re asking “which social network?” you’re not alone. With this feature, Google provides designed a new online community of types — a +1 social network, which is distinct out of your Google Cultural Search network or …

King Arthurs Tech Life: Google Plus is gaining 40 million new users …

amendt.blogspot.com3/18/12

Is it time to dump Facebook and only use Google Plus? Personally, I have twice the followers on Google Plus than Facebook, but changing requires time and energy and are the benefits worth it. 2 months ago Google Plus had …

Google Replaces PPC Ads with Google Plus Content for Selected …

www.searchenginejournal.com3/15/12

Last evening, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land reported that Google is now highlighting Latest Posts from Google+ pages and …

I hope this has thrown some light on the subject! Now I am of to Google?!

I just came across this written by Paretologic and thought it was well worth a look as I am sure we have all been on the receiving end of spammers and other low life

“The quality of computer passwords can vary greatly – but some are just bad! Learn what have been selected as the worst passwords of 2011.
February 2012
by Robin Wark

Getting hacked is as easy as “123456″ when you are using one of the worst passwords possible.

This is a lesson the Syrian government found out. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in early February that Anonymous hacked the office of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The hacker group posted hundreds of emails online, including prep notes for a 2011 ABC News interview with Barbara Walters. Seventy-eight government staffer inboxes were accessed. According to Anonymous, some of the users had passwords such as “iloveyou” and “123456″. Thirty-one had apparently used “12345″.

Both “123456″ and “iloveyou” were rated among the 25 Worst Passwords of 2011, according to SplashData. See the complete list below:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Avoid bad passwords

With some thought and ingenuity you can come up with a password that you can remember but that still is hard to crack. Here are some suggestions to consider:

• Some general rules to follow are:
1. Use a password with at least eight characters.
2. Try to work in at least one number and one symbol.
3. Don’t just place a number after your regular password.
4. Stay away from common phrases and slang terms.
• If you couldn’t tell from the list above, do not use consecutive numbers!
• Try not to use to use personal information, such as your address, birthdate or names of close family members.
• Don’t use your name or email address. Avoid using parts of these as well.
• Avoid using patterns on the keyboard such “qwerty” (start of the top line) or “qazwsx” (the first three lines typed vertically).
• Words spelled backwards are not as secure as you might think.
• Using zeros instead of Os can easily be figured out by password cracking programs.

While they might seem like a nuisance, passwords serve an important role of providing a line of defence between hackers and your information. A good password – which you change on a routine basis – is an important part of your computer’s security.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.”

I thought this might be of interest to some people as Jimmy D. Brown is a well known, successful marketer

How to Use Incentives to Get Extra Sales

By Jimmy D. Brown of iBusiness Owner

The vast majority of your prospects aren’t all that passionate about your offer.

Truth is, they’re kind of lukewarm. They’re interested, but they’re not taking their credit card out. Instead of making a buying decision, they decide to “think about it.”

Of course you know what happens: They forget about your offer. They don’t return to your store or sales page. Some of them may even make the conscious decision to NOT buy your product.

So what can you do to get your prospects to get excited and take action NOW?

Simple: Offer them an incentive if they order now. Do it right, and you’re virtually guaranteed to make more sales!

Generally, an incentive can take two forms:

1. You offer a discount. One idea is the straightforward discount, such as offering a percent-off. Another ideas is to offer a discount on the overall package, such as by offering free shipping.

Tip: You can even make it a limited-time discount so that your prospects feel a sense of urgency.

2. You offer one or more bonus products. Again, you can even make the bonus offer limited to increase the sense of urgency.

Offering a discount is a pretty straightforward incentive. So let’s talk about how to offer a bonus as a buying incentive.

Here then are the seven keys to offering bonuses that generate extra sales:

• Make sure the bonus is desirable. Point is, if your prospects don’t care about the bonus product, then it won’t help you generate any sales. So make sure it’s something that your prospects already want. Something that gets them excited!

• Create a valuable bonus. Just because you’re giving the product away for free with a purchase doesn’t mean this bonus should be worth little to no money. Quite the contrary – it should have a high perceived value in the prospect’s mind.

• Choose bonuses that are easy to deliver. This is particularly true if you’re selling downloadable products online, such as software or information. Point is, you want to be able to deliver the bonus instantly – right alongside the main product – without you having to manually deliver the bonus.

• Supply an exclusive bonus, whenever possible. If the prospect can get the bonus somewhere else, he might just do that. So try to offer exclusive bonuses to help make the buying decision easy.

• Offer a bonus that compliments the main product. For example, let’s say you’re selling a book about retirement planning. Offering retirement-planning worksheets and software as a bonus would be a great incentive.

• Sell the bonus. If you’re selling via a sales page, don’t just list the bonus. Instead, sell it just the way you’re selling the main product, meaning you should list the benefits of this bonus product or service.

• Remember that you can offer products OR services. Let’s say you’re selling exterior landscaping supplies and information. As a bonus you can offer a free consultation where you provide specific landscaping ideas for buyers. Or if you’re selling a copywriting product, you can offer a sales letter critique.

Conclusion

Offering an incentive is a simple, yet highly effective way to generate more sales and grow your business. To discover still more ways to grow your business, visit this website   – you may just learn strategies you never even knew existed!”

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketers, bloggers, ebook authors, incentives, infoproduct creators, Internet Marketing, membership site owners

3 Free Resources To Skyrocket Your Profit
By Jimmy D. Brown

I read this by Jimmy D Brown and thought perhaps someone else might be interested.

Sound advice indeed ! I hope Jimmy doesn’t mind but this needs sharing.

“Dear iBusiness Owner,

Everywhere you turn you’ll find people offering some kind of magic potion for starting or growing an Internet business.

Fast results. Easy steps. Big money. These are the claims that are made over and over again. Yet the overwhelming majority of people who buy into these potions never see those claims realized.

There must be a reason for that.

What I want to share with you today isn’t a magic potion. It’s not even a lucky horse shoe or a four leaf clover. They are simple three resources that anyone can tap into to see a big spike in profit.

If you’re looking for a genie in a bottle, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for something real, this is for you…

1. MASTERY. The first “resource” that I highly recommend is the “mastery” of a singular method of generating profit. There is amazing productivity and progress when you strip away all of the distractions and focus on one thing that you can become very good at.

One of the problems that trips up most would-be iBusiness Owners is the attempt to do many different things. They dabble at affiliate marketing. Try a little eBay. Then they work with PLR. Or create their own ebooks. Or…

They spread themselves too thin. No one has the time to learn and implement all of of the different components of running an Internet business. In most cases nothing gets done.

I’m a big believer in becoming a “master” at something. Find ONE way to make money online – just ONE model – and become fluent in it. Don’t try this and that. Just try one thing and stick with it until you are world class at it. Resist the urge to chase after the next shiny thing that comes along.

You can add in other options LATER … after you have been successful in your initial, focused pursuit.

Example: If you choose to make money as an “affiliate marketer” then make that your primary pursuit until you have mastered it and are making a sustainable income from it. Then, once that has been established, start creating your own products. Or buy licensing to other people’s products. Or rewrite PLR materials.

The point is to become a master at something before attempting other things. This one shift in your thinking can be extremely impactful upon your business. Oftentimes it is the difference between success and failure.

2. MOMENTUM. Once you have decided a path to pursue, stick to it! I have used the illustration of pushing a car in the past. If a car is parked and you start pushing it, at first it doesn’t budge. Then it moves slightly. Then it ever-so-slowly begins to move. Then it moves a little faster. After a while you are pushing the car at a steady speed. If you quit anytime before it arrives at “steady speed” then things will come to a grinding halt.

The same can be said of your business. There are a lot of “starters” in business, but not a lot of “finishers”. Many people get started pushing but don’t see immediate results, so they stop. They look for another car and push it. Nothing happens, so they stop. They push another car. And they never get MOMENTUM.

Let me assure you of this one thing: if you quit too soon your business will come to a grinding halt. You must commit to continuing on until you have arrived at your successful destination.

The question is … how?

How does one keep pushing when results are not noticeable? How does one keep pushing when another shiny car is set beside them and it looks like it might be easier to push? How does one keep pushing when they aren’t getting results as quickly as they’d like?

Here’s the final resource you need…

3. MOTIVATION. A powerful mechanism for sticking to it is your motivation. Those who successfully lose weight usually do so because they are motivated. Those who stop drinking or smoking usually do so because they are motivated. Those who succeed in business usually do so because they are motivated.

When I say “motivated” I don’t mean that they possess some kind of super powers that mere mortals don’t have. Nothing like that. What they possess is simple: there’s something that drives them to stick with it. There’s something in their lives – or something they want in their lives – that is so strong that it compels them to never give up until they obtain it.

Maybe that’s a desire to be rid of the bondage of debt. It could be a desire to better provide for your family. Perhaps it’s a desire to travel, buy something, free up your time or send your kids to college. It could be anything. As long as it’s a powerful presence in your life.

Ask yourself why you really want to succeed. It might be to benefit others or it might be something completely about you. Whatever it is, let it fuel you to stick to it. Think about how great it will feel to be free of that debt, or what you’l be able to do with your extra time, or what the seats of that new car will smell like or your children getting that college education.

Conclusion

There are a lot of “magic potions” being sold. But there is no magic. Those that succeed in business don’t do so because they have the aid of a genie or elves or a rabbitt’s foot. They succeed because of mastery, momentum and motivation.

If you’ll choose a model for generating profit and stick to it because you are passionate about someone or something, sooner or later you’ll see your profit skyrocket.

God bless,

Jimmy D. Brown”

http://www.imstitute.com/

Technorati Tags: Good Advice, Internet Marketer, make money online, online business

I’m reprinting this post from Associate Programs.com about what  Google wants from publishers. I think that if you are involved in the internet business you need to read this.

“How Affiliate Marketers Can Get Better Results from Google

Last week Google spilled the beans on how you can take advantage of their secret formula to get better rankings. They wrote an important post on their blog that I think all affiliate marketers need to know about.

It discusses what they want from webmasters and content writers and gives you a clear understanding of how they “think”. If you follow the principles behind their questions, you can’t go too wrong when creating a website or content that ranks.

For many years, we have been saying that to get ongoing search engine traffic you need to provide quality original content that is useful to searchers and to your readers. During that time, there have been many Google updates but their goal has never really changed: quality answers to search questions.

In Google’s words, “Our advice for publishers continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites and not to focus too much on what they think are Google’s current ranking algorithms or signals.”

In simple terms, Google is saying that you should write for people, not for them.

If you’re looking at building long term cash flow from your sites, you need to write for people first. People read your content, they make assumptions about you from it and they decide whether you’re a trusted source BEFORE they even consider buying from your links.

Google says to ask yourself:

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?

• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?

• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?

• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?

• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?

• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

• How much quality control is done on content?

• Does the article describe both sides of a story?

• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?

• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?

• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?

• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?

• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?

• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?

• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?

• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Google’s message to affiliate marketers

As you read through that list, you may have noticed one thing that stands out again and again:

“Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users.”

I suggest you print this post out and put that list of questions next to your computer until they are ingrained in your thinking. Every time you go to add content or plan a new affiliate site, read them again and consider them before you put fingers to keys.

After all, if you can’t take Google’s word on what they want to see, whose word can you take?”

Post by Brad Hauck of Associate Programs.com

John Thornhills One Month Mentor Program

Are you spinning your wheels, wondering if you will ever get your online business up and running? Wondering where to start?

It can seem frightening starting your own business, especially online with so many choices. Many newer marketers can fail quite quickly as it can seem so intimidating and confusing, and they eventually give up all together on their hopes of having their own online business up and running.

In fact if you are feeling like this, it isn’t your fault, most of us have been in the same situation. Yes, even the gurus at one time.

Many newer marketers give up because they get caught up with the constant bombardment of latest and greatest shiny objects, buying numerous products which always promise instant online riches. This means they eventually find themselves suffering from information overload and simply don’t know where to turn next.

One of the most common questions asked in forums, email inboxes, blog comments and so on is ‘How do I get started online and get my business up and running’. Whilst the answer to this question varies for everyone, 99% of the time these newer marketers simply need a mentor – someone to guide them and show them the right way.

A good mentor is someone who has been there, done it all and is successful at internet marketing. This mentor will pass on the benefits of his or her experiences which will save you both time and money.

To use a slightly overworked phrase you need to “stand on the shoulders of giants”.

This short(1.33) video by Tony Robbins today which very briefly sums it up and which is called “Get The Best Tools”.

Having a mentor would allow you to keep focused on one task at a time and once this task is finished move you on to the next task remaining focussed on building your online business.

This mentor will also guide you through the scams, hype-filled products etc.which will prevent you and your online business becoming flooded by the endless flow of information coming at you from the internet.

Further to that, a mentor is someone that you can to make yourself accountable to. By working to a self imposed deadline and being gently kept to that timeline by your mentor means that you will keep moving forward and help you to meet your deadlines.
Meeting deadlines and time keeping is an important skill to learn when first starting out online and also throughout your time on the internet.

However, it is often the case that even some of the better mentors assume that you know the basics already, where the reality is that most people new to this business want a course that starts right at the very beginning and then proceeds to show you, over the shoulder, step by baby step, how it is done!
This needs to be done in such a way that even the computer illiterate person or newbie can understand it.

So, where do I find this mentor that is going to guide me through the maze?

John Thornhill has an enviable reputation as one of the better, honest, straight-up marketers, and I know from personal experience with his Masterclass a few years ago, that he teaches in the step by step, straight forward, over the shoulder way that I mentioned above.

John recently ran a 31 Day Intensive Coaching Program (John Thornhills One Month Mentor Program) which was very successful and as this is finished he is now opening the doors again. This will be limited by the number of people who join as he gives total support and even personal direct contact, both through the duration of the course – and after.

So, if it is what you need to finally get to where you need to go in internet marketing then I thoroughly recommend John Thornhill as a mentor.

You can find out more details about this Coaching Program from here:

John Thornhills One Month Mentor Program

Technorati Tags: john thornhil's one month mentor

Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook fan pages with iframe, facebook pages, fb maxed, FB maxed review, fbmaxed, fbmaxed review, HTML5 framework

Most people are familiar with the term RSS Feeds and what it means. RSS means Really SimpleSyndication and most people will have seen the RSS symbol:

If you are not quite sure what RSS is all about and why you should be interested you can check out my previous posts on the subject:

http://dave-whittle.com/what-is-rss/
http://dave-whittle.com/how-to-activate-rss-on-your-website/

However, this post is about another aspect of using RSS which I think you really need to know about!

Most people, including me, use an RSS reader, to consolidate all the sites that are of interest to us in one place.

Free software such as Google Reader make it easy to keep up with the latest news happening in topics that interest you i.e.other blogs,newspapers etc

But there is another aspect of RSS that I would like to bring to your attention. That is RSS Feed Submission.

This is the process of using RSS technology to get better page ranking in the search engines, and rapidly build links to your website,which brings fast, targeted traffic to your webpages!

There are a number of relatively new sites using RSS software, which are called RSS Aggregators, which are basically sites whose main mission is to receive information about the content on other sites using RSS technology.

They are actively looking for content via RSS feeds, and they allow you to send your RSS Feeds for free.

They then store your feed on their servers and this then provides a quality backlink.

You can look at this example of one of these sites:

www.FeedAgg.com

Google loves these sites, which is why they invested a lot of money in Feedburner and Google Reader, and as the aggregator sites are constantly changing they visit them often.

Can you see where this is going?

Most marketers (98%) do not use RSS!

Adding your feed to these sites does take some time and in the interests of automation there is now software which will automatically generate these feeds for you.

More on this later.

Technorati Tags: Feedburner, howto use rss, rss aggregator, rss feed submission, rss Feeds, rss reader, rss sites, syndication feed, using rss, using rss feeds, what is an rss feed, what is rss

I just came across an excellent wordpress tutorial
that Michelle Macphearson posted on her blog last
week.

I think you’ll find it ‘pretty good’!

Lots of great plugins (with download links) and tips for
maximising your blog’s SEO.

Also it’s an excellent to-do list for the next time you create a wp
blog.

Nothing for sale here, just great info…

http://www.michellemacphearson.com/wordpress-tutorial-for-internet-
marketers/

Until next time.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, on page optimization, plugins, SEO, wordpress, wordpress tutorial, WordPress Tutorial For Internet Marketers