Today twitter announced that they are launching Twitter Tales (Quoted directly from the announcement)

Today we’re launching Twitter Tales – a growing set of articles that highlights creative individuals and businesses from all corners of the world that help make Twitter awesome. The examples of great Twitter use will also likely inspire others to use the service in innovative and interesting ways.

For the next several weeks, we’ll add a new story to the Twitter Tales homepage that you can access by clicking on the Twitter Tales icon on the sidebar of the Twitter Blog. Today, we’re sharing three entries about:

- Life: @natashabadhwar is a mother/filmmaker/photographer/writer from New Delhi who sees Twitter as a form of self therapy
- Community: @caltrain is a crowd-sourced Twitter account where people can help others avoid pitfalls on their daily commute
- Humor: @thebloggess provides a witty and honest behind the scenes look into her blog writing

If you have a story to tell about how twitter influenced your life, than you can share your story by emailing  to tales@twitter.com.

Twitter, a micro-blogging platform created by Jack Dorsey in 2006 has gained tremendous popularity. Twitter is now an important social networking tool used by many individual users and businesses to keep their friends, customers, colleagues updated. With a micro-post of 140 characters or less, one can say anything to a list of his followers. Now imagine, if you have a high number of followers you have an opportunity to make money here!

Below are a few methods to make money using Twitter:

SponsoredTweets:  SponsoredTweets.com is an online marketplace that allows you to connect directly with advertisers to engage in sponsored conversations through Twitter. Advertisers compensate you with cash in exchange for a sponsored tweet. You need to sign-up at sponsoredTweets, set your tweet price and wait for offers from advertisers. More number of followers you have, higher the price you can charge.

Affiliate Tweets: When you post on twitter, you could actually recommend related products and services to your followers. You can post your affiliate link at the end and you could see a dramatic rise in your affiliate commissions. For example, if you are twitting about a recent movie you have seen, you could add a affiliate link to that movie DVD site.

Twitter Marketing: If you have a large number of followers, you could offer twitter marketing services. You can charge certain fix amount and promote the advertiser site to your followers. Social media marketing is growing and huge money can be made by offering twitter marketing services.

Twitter Reviews: You could offer twitter review services. You can charge prices for each review tweet you post. This is a kind of direct advertisement. More the number of twitter followers you have, more money you can charge for each review.

The above are a few ways to make money online using twitter. If you know any other creative methods to make money from twitter, do share in comments section below.

One of the most important reasons for failure in affiliate marketing in my list of ‘ 5 reasons for failure in affiliate marketing‘ is not getting enough traffic. Traffic is the life and blood of your affiliate business, in fact, any online business. So why some of the sites are always jammed with traffic and some sites are like abandoned roads with no visitors?

In this post I am going to share the techniques that will help you drive traffic to your sites.

1. When you are unknown, socialize
Social networking sites are now hot places to network with like minded people. In the virtual world of World Wide Web, you meet a lot of people from different corners of the world. This social networking sites has the potential to open a lot of subways to your website and drive traffic to your site. This is one of the most effective and economical ways to get visitors. Some of the networking sites you should definitely consider to promote your sites on are:

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Orkut
• hi5
• Stumbleupon
• Ning

2. The long tail Keyword and search engine traffic
There is a lot of targeted traffic waiting for you to be taken free of cost, if you can learn the technique of long tail keyword. Whenever you write an article, ask yourself 3 questions.

• What kind of audience will be interested in the information you are providing in this article?
• What are the possible phrases they may use to search this information in search engines?
• Where these phrases used in the past on major search engines?

The answers to the above will help you find a list of keywords for that particular post/page. Now make sure you have those phrases sprinkled in the article. Make them bold.

Try to have one of your main keyword in the title of the post. If you do this for every article you write, you will soon see your site rank high in the search results for those keywords. And you will see a surge in your traffic from search engines.

3. Stumbling your way to unlimited traffic
Stumbleupon has proved to be a great traffic sender. It helps you connect with friends and share your posts, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering. The more people stumble your site (vote thumbs up), the more traffic you get. Creating a big network of friends can bring a lot of rewarding traffic that can be beyond your expectations.

Stumbleupon users channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon recommends the sites based on user interests and display them those sites which have received more reviews and thumbs up. So the more positive stumbles your web pages receive, the more it will be recommended to StumbleUpon users.

4. Share your views with others in your niche
Search for forums and blogs which are in your niche. Make a list of those sites and keep visiting them regularly. Reply to queries of other members and share your views. Networking with others in your niche will help you gain traffic from those sites and you will also become a known person in your target niche. Make sure the content you post on others blog or forums is worth to read. Also don’t spam. Spamming can have a negative effect and make you less credible.

• If you have written some great articles, email other bloggers in your niche and chances are they will link to it.
• Make sure you have your site url linked to your main keyword in the signature of forum posts.
• Write comments on other blogs
• Write guest posts for other blogs in your niches

5. Write articles in article directories
Article directories are one of the best ways to get back links. Write quality articles and submit them to article directories. The more articles you write the more chances of your articles to be grabbed by other webmasters.

Article directories provide a Bio/Resource box where you can put an active link to your website. Many site owners visit these article directories and publish articles with your credits and links. This will not only help you getting direct referral traffic from these sites but also help you getting higher rank in search engines. The list of major article directories can be found below:

• www.goarticles.com
• www.ezinearticles.com
• www.isnare.com
• www.amazines.com
• www.articlecube.com
• www.articlebiz.com
• www.articlealley.com
• www.articlesfactory.com

6. Serve your audience like they are the king
While I will always argue that quality content is essential in drawing readers to your site I am increasingly convinced that one way to build your readership is to create spaces that people will want to belong to. Build an interactive place, where your readers could participate. Treat them with utmost importance. Give them recognition, post their comments, create spaces for them on your site. Spaces that your readers will promote for you. Let your readers take the lead. They will grow your site and will promote for you.

These readers will become your loyal fans and they are the one who will make your site grow beyond your imagination. They will visit your blog again and again and will advocate your blog to other readers. The more of these fans increases, the more your site grows in value. Remember, the online property you own appreciates in value if you have a loyal readership which is increasing day by day.

Follow the above techniques and you will see a surge in traffic. Do post in comments other sources of free traffic you are using for your site.

If you want to be a successful Internet Marketer, you need to learn the secrets of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is far superior to the older ways of doing business on the Internet. In any business model to be successful you need to lead, follow, or get out of the way. Be a leader! Through this article you will lean the four P’s of Web 2.0: Personalization, Participation, Peer-to-Peer, and Predictive Modeling.

Let’s start with Personalization. This is perhaps the most important of the four P’s. Building a personal relationship with your clients is vital. By establishing a relationship and building trust with your client base, you will meet your client’s needs by customizing your products or services using Web 2.0 technology. You accomplish this through your blog, your List, or by Social Networking. Ask your clients and find out what their needs, wants and desires are. Why are they struggling? What are their goals? Surveys are a great way of collecting information. Give it a try and you will be amazed at the results.

Next is Participation. Get out there and get involved! Start to participate in forums and blogs. You can create numerous links to your website by participating in forums similar to the product you are promoting. By posting information of value and having a link to your website or offer in your signature line, you can create a steady stream of highly targeted traffic to your website. Be a guest blogger or comment on a related blog sites. Don’t be shy! This is one method that is highly under-rated. Once I made a commitment to be an active participant in like-minded forums and blogs, the traffic started pouring into my website.

What does Peer-to-Peer mean to you as an Internet Marketer? In the Web 2.0 world, it means your clients are no longer isolated. They interact, they talk to each other, they exchange impressions and they form a collective impression about your product or service – one that you may have influence over. The Peer-to-Peer of the four P’s is most prevalent in Social Book marking sites such as Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com. This means that if one or two visitors find (and love) your site, more than likely, you’ll have 300 visitors by the end of the day. This could quickly turn into thousands, if your site is smart, attractive, innovative, and content rich. What does all of this mean for you as an Internet Marketer? Highly targeted traffic to your website!

Last but not least of the four P’s is Predictive Modeling. Predictive Modeling is how ideas, impressions and trends work in the Web 2.0-enabled world. It is possible to accurately predict how the Web 2.0 market will evolve. This is where the savvy Internet Marketer either leads, follows, or gets out of the way. There are always new trends emerging in Web 2.0. First it was MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter. What’s next? Whatever it is, you need to be ready to capitalize on the opportunity to bring targeted traffic to your website.

In conclusion, you should now understand and be able to apply each of the four P’s of Web 2.0: Personalization, Participation, Peer-to Peer, and Predictive Modeling. Each of the four P’s is an important part of being a successful Internet Marketer. By implementing the four P’s of Web 2.0, you will drive highly targeted traffic to your website in droves.

What are you waiting for? Start applying to the four P’s to your Internet Marketing strategy today.

About the Author: Shawn Barkley is an Internet Marketer who utilizes the power of Web 2.0 to generate highly targeted website traffic. Check out her Free 5-Part Training Series on the Power of Web 2.0. today.

With Google AdWords, you can create and run ads for your business, quickly and simply. No matter what your budget is, you’ll only pay when people click your ads. In this article, I am going to share with you some of the best practices for Google Adwords:1. Choose the right keywords. Before you run any Google Adwords campaign, it is important that you do a thorough keyword research. You need to know the keyword or key phrases that your prospects are using to look for your product or service. One way is to use the free Google Keyword Tool to generate a list of relevant keywords. You can also check on your competitors by visiting their websites and looking at their ads. If you have some budget to invest, you can purchase keyword spying software to get the list of keywords that your competitors are bidding on.

2. Organize your ad groups properly. Ad group organization is one of the most important factors that determine your campaign success. Keywords that are similar should be grouped together. Other than grouping similar keywords together, you should also group them according to keyword search volume. Keywords with more than 10,000 searches a month should go into a high volume ad group, and anything below 10,000 goes into another. Although it takes some time to organize your keywords, it is definitely worth the effort.

3. Write good ad copy. You should state the benefits in your ad copy, followed by the features. Also, place the most important keyword or key phrases in the title of the ad copy to increase its relevancy. Also, do not forget to include call-to-action statements to entice people to click on your ads.

4. Point to ads to the relevant landing page. Landing page is another factor that you must take note if you want to score well with Adwords. Your conversion rate will be higher if you point your ads to the right landing pages. Additionally, you will also be rewarded with a higher quality score, which allows you to pay lesser per click.

5. Split tests your ad copy. Always have 2 ad copies running in one ad group at the same time. Run the ads for a few weeks to determine which ad converts better. Once you have found the winner, delete the loser and create a new ad copy to challenge the winner. Split testing is the key to get more out of your advertising budget, so do not compromise it.

About the Author: Cheow Yu Yuan is the co-founder of OOm, an online marketing agency providing search engine marketing service. Find out more about search engine marketing at OOm Singapore.

The satisfaction and contentment that one gets after writing, proofreading, polishing and then posting an article is unbeatable. The next couple of days are spent basking in the glory as comments and ping backs start to come in. (Oh, I love it when that happens). And just when you feel that you can relax for a few hours, have a cold beer and catch up on the latest installment in the ‘Saw’ franchise (I think part VI is due now), social engagements, moral responsibilities and other professional assignments pour in. No sense being grumpy. Its more work, work and work! And by the time you realize that it’s been a busy week, it’s posting time once again. Now, what was that idea that I was planning to develop an article on?

Oh, darn!

I can’t remember it.

No sweat. Happens to me all the time. I guess it has happened to almost every freelance writer on god’s green earth. The problem with ideas is that they tend to hit you at the worst possible time for them to hit. And then they disappear deep into the folds and wrinkles of our grey matter and refuse to come out no matter how hard you try. In fact, the harder you try, the more difficult it becomes to remember. It’s almost like trying hard not to remember a thing and an image of that thing keeps popping up again and again.

So, the best, tried and tested way is to write it down the moment it hits you. It might be while you are having dinner, while you are playing ball, or while you are busy woolgathering. I have left several chores midway, hunted for a pen (you never find them when you need them the most) and scribbled a word or two in my writing pad as a smokescreen of words appear right out of nowhere in my mind. Yes, I have a scribbling pad right next to my desktop and it has got everything from one liner and scripts to stories and articles. It is almost like an idea bank. But hey, it works. Even a couple of words briefly describing what you want to write about are enough to give you a gist of the idea.

And what if you can’t find ideas at all? Don’t worry. Not everyone has a mind that meanders in the realms of obscurity like a mendicant. Sometimes, even the best of writers are unable to come up with a decent idea. You can call it the writer’s block. And on such occasions, it is so easy to get carried away by the first idea that comes to your mind and post a stinker instead. (A stinker is a post that gets greeted by tumbleweeds) There are enough resources in the world to get your creative juices flowing. Think about it. Here’s my list of 10 best ways to gather ideas for your next post.

1. Surf your niche: There are thousands of websites on the internet and you can easily find at least one new website or blog everyday that caters to your niche. Every new writer lives with a sense of fake supremacy but there are a gazillion better writers out there. Surf, read and explore. But never copy.

2. Mind Mapping: Ever heard this term? It’s almost similar to brainstorming. Mind mapping is an extremely powerful tool for that has endless number of uses. A mind map is a visual method of brainstorming and hence is far more productive when it comes to breaking a creative block. A pen and a paper are all that you need to get going. Animals, Britney, Cars, Dance, Emotions, Future, Guitar, Horoscope, Internet, Jesus, Kung fu, London, Money, Night, O(b/s)ama, People, Questions, Recipes, SEO, Traffic, UFO, Vacations, Wall street, X-mas, Yahoo, Zoo. It took me around 120 seconds to come up with this alphabetical list of topics to write on. Each one of these words can be further elaborated into several subtopics. You see, there shouldn’t be a dearth of ideas.

3. Rest your mind: Rest is extremely important for creativity and productivity. At times, when faced with a writer’s block, a writer tends to spend too much time trying to break out of it. But it only adds to the woes. A ’5 to 6 hour’ marathon session in front of the monitor is not going to help you. Take some rest. Listen to your Ipod for some time. Take a walk. Anything that refreshes your mind will work.

4. A slice of your life: Most experts will recommend that you write only within your niche. Yes, it is the safest way of generating a loyal readership. But at times, it won’t hurt to waver from the niche and write about a day in your life. A good incident, a bad one or simply an uninteresting day of your life. It helps you to break away from the monotony. Don’t worry. Your readers won’t ditch you for it.

5. Blast from the past: Go back to your archives and check some of the most read articles. Now try and find out a way to rework them from a different angle. If the topic is interesting, then your readers will love it no matter what.

6. Subscribe to Newsletters: This is one of the best ways to stay in sync with topics that interest you. All it takes is a couple of clicks to subscribe.

7. Create a to-do list: What are the ten things that you want to do before the year ends? Let the world know about it as long as it isn’t something very personal. What is your wish list? Create it and display it.

8. Watch People: It might seem strange but ordinary people have been the inspiration for some of the most notable works of fiction that exist today. People can always give you an idea or two to write an article. And you can observe everyone from friends to relatives to a guy walking on the road.

9. The News: There’s always something on the news that’s newsworthy. It may be local news that could be turned into an article for a global audience. Or it might be the reverse. What’s your take on the latest piece of breaking news?

10. Twitter: There’s always someone doing something writeable on Twitter. It’s almost like sitting in a crowded café with your scribbling pad and watching interesting conversations unfold. The more you read the more literature you get to write.

About the Author: Sanjay is a freelance content writer and blogger with over 3 years of experience. He loves to twiddle with words and blogs about freelance writing, copywriting and blogging. His articles are informative and make a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. Visit his blog at Freelance Content Writer now !

People often recommend building awareness and traffic to your blog
through leaving comments on other blogs. This can work well, but will
work far better if you consider the tips below, which greatly build on
the “write great comments on lots of blogs idea.”

1) Write great comments

The typical advice is to leave intelligent and insightful comments that
add value to the reader. This is solid advice, but just a beginning on
blog commenting strategies.

2) Leave controversial comments

Controversy gets noticed, and you can build interest and traffic by
politely offering different points of view in comments. Don’t be
controversial just to stand out, but only where it’s reasonable and
adds value.

Opinions are valued in the blogosphere, and as long as you have a
legitimate differing view and can back it up, don’t shy away from
controversy.

3) Use a consistent commenter name

Always use a consistent name when you leave comments. For example if
your name is Robert James Smith, don’t sometimes use “Bob Smith,”
sometimes “Robert Smith,” and sometimes “Robert James Smith.” Pick one
consistent representation of your name so that people will get to
recognize you.

4) Append your blogname or other tagline to your comment name

You can append your blogname or other tagline to your name when
commenting. For example, if you’re Bob Smith and your blog is called
“Feline Health,” using the name “Bob Smith, Feline Health” will get you
lots of notice on cat blogs. Make sure, as mentioned above, you use a
consistent name, whether you include a tagline or not.

5) Comment early

Early comments attract more attention than late comments. It’s better
to have the first or second comment on a popular blog than the 5th or
25th. The later comments tend to get buried and not read as often.

6) Comment often on the same blogs

Regular readers will be more likely to notice you if you regularly leave comments and will be more likely to visit your blog.

7) Leave comments on related blogs

It doesn’t matter how great your comments might be, if you are a cat
blogger your comments will work better on other cat blogs than on
political, ,marketing, or other unrelated blogs!

Leaving comments is a great way to build blog traffic. By considering
the tips above, you’ll build more traffic than by simply using the
common “leave great comments”strategy.

About the Author: And for over 100 tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab
your free copy of my ebook “Secrets of Successful Blogging” at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com

By Ted Demopoulos, author of “Blogging for Business” and “What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting”

In a recent series of posts, I have discussed the important reseans of failure in affiliate marketing and how to overcome them. Below are the quick link to those posts:

• How to overcome the 5 reasons for failure in Affiliate Marketing?
• Affiliate Marketing Business Models
• Strategies for making money in Affiliate Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing Tools
• Professionalism in Affiliate Marketing
• Web Traffic – The life & blood of online business

I know, I know. I can hear some of you groaning now! Many of you already have a blog and understand its importance in gaining visibility for your business. But I know many others are still resistant to the idea. You believe it takes too much time and effort, you don’t think you are a great writer, you don’t know how to set one up, you don’t know what to write about….I understand all of the reasons that may be holding you back.

If you already have a traditional, “brochure” style website for your business that’s great. You should keep that as a place for prospective clients and customers to visit to find out more about you and what you offer. I use my blog as my main site, meaning I don’t have a separate, static website. That’s a personal choice. Many people choose to have both, with the blog being linked to from the main site.

If you don’t currently have a blog, there are several important reasons why you should consider it:

Visibility: If you are doing even just some of your business using the web then you obviously need to have an online presence. Having a blog that you post to regularly is a wonderful way to capture and keep the attention of your prospects. When they see that you are posting consistently updated content, they are more likely to return to your site.

Search Engine Optimization: This doesn’t mean you need to study up and implement a ton of SEO techniques yourself. But blogs by their very nature are dynamic, meaning the content is updated often. In Google’s eyes, this is a very good thing-it shows that their users are getting fresh information. A blog is a great way to get your business to rank well in the search engines.

Community Building: By allowing comments on your posts you are promoting conversation and encouraging feedback. It can even help you to perform “market research” and find out what it is your target market needs from you. This feedback can also be helpful for coming up with ideas for future posts.

Positions you as the Expert: Something interesting happens once you begin posting useful content regularly and attracting subscribers. You become seen as a thought leader in your niche. This leads to more opportunities, more relationships and more business. It’s a terrific way to communicate the value of what you have to offer to prospective clients and customers.

Personality Sharing: Blogging gives you a chance to be seen as a real person and not just a business. Be willing to express opinions and let your true self shine through. This will go a long way towards humanizing you in the eyes of your readers.

In my opinion, the best thing about blogging is how simple and quick it is to publish a post at the push of a button. It’s also wonderful to be able to track exactly how many people are coming to your blog and where they are coming from. Just install Google’s free Analytics tool and you can see detailed statistics on your visitors and traffic.

Just begin and get it going. Aim to post once a week. They don’t have to be long posts and they don’t have to be earth-shatteringly brilliant. As with anything, you’ll get better at writing the more you do it. Jot down any ideas that come to you for posts as you go about your day. I keep a file of topic ideas that I think of and I find this helpful to look at if I get stuck for what to write about.

Blogging should be something you carve out time for just as you would any other marketing activity. If you really feel you would have nothing to say to people who may want to hire or buy from you, then perhaps it is just not for you. But I encourage all small business owners who are doing business online to at least give it a try. You never know, there may be people out there just waiting to hear your voice.

About the Author: Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches solopreneurs and small business owners how to use online marketing and social media to communicate effectively and authentically and attract more business. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com