I too am guilty of using automated programs on Twitter. Recently I began experimenting with some services that enable the automation of your Twitter account. Be warned again. Be sure to give your followers some good tweets, not just automated tweets from feeds.

How to Automate Twitter

Below are some sites that I have used with varying degrees of success. Check them out and let me know what you think.

1. Twitterfeed.com- this enables the posting of feeds to twitter accounts. Free service. Use feeds such as : Blog feeds(yours which will automatically post an update whenever you update your blog, can also use the comments feed) Find other sites that pertain to your keywords and use their feed to update twitter.
2. Twollow.com- allows you to follow other twitter users based upon keywords. Free account follows up to 5 keywords..paid allows up to 20 keywords.
3. Tweetlater.com(affiliate link attached)– allows automated posting of tweets to include an automated welcome message to new followers. Another site I discovered teaches how to use Yahoo Pipes to Retweet. I was actually trying to do this the other day when I was on a roadtrip and wanted to use my Travel Blog Twitter account instead of my primary, but I thought it would be great if I could just feed my travel blog twitter feed to my main.

Twitter does not allow the Retweeting of other Twitter Feeds. However, the video below, which was found on this post about Retweeting Automatically, which goes through the process of making it possible to feed one of your twitter accounts the tweets from another Twitter account.

On the subject of automating Twitter, I came across a Twitter Tutorial site that has some video tutorials on the subject. I have watched most of these videos, and have tried out all of the services.

What I Have Been Twup To.

I did implement the free services on the All-Travel-Sites.com Twitter account ( @AllTravelSites ), and have managed to surpass the number of followers I have on my oldest Twitter profile ( @emperoranton ) in just about a month. If I decide to start using the premium services, the gains will even greater. (Watch out Ashton and Opera).

I alod created a Twitter profile for a Pottstown Commercial Property site, which is a friends website I created to sell his warehouse property which he had housed his printing business prior to selling it several years ago. ( @PottstownProp )

What Do You Think?

Got any other Twitter services I should check out?

What do you think of Twitter Automation?

It’s a straight forward process. You write good articles on your niche and include a bio with a link or two back to your site in the resource box.  Then you submit these articles to article directories.

The quality of your article will determine how much traffic you receive and whether Google and other search engines are impressed. It is recommended that the articles you submit to article directories are newly written. With other words avoid re-using the same articles from your site.

Although it is good to write articles on your particular topic or niche in which you are marketing, it is better to approach the articles you wish to submit using a more broader approach.

As an example, if your blog income is based on marketing a particular diet product your articles could be on the broader topic of living a healthy life. Your aim is to attract a larger readership base than just those who might be interested in the product you are selling.

Article directories have a stream of readers interested in a range of topics. Your articles end up being read a surprising number of times.

But what is even better than the number of readers it that it your articles are read over a long period of time. This is contrary to a blog where mostly the newest articles receive the immediate traffic. Thereafter articles are at the mercy of search engines to receive further air time.

Each time your article is read you have the chance that the reader might be interested enough to click on the link to your site which is shown in the resource box at the end of the article. This allows for a possible constant stream of traffic to your site.

Besides the regular readers who use article directories for information or entertainment, article directories are also used by non-writing website and blog owners to source articles for their sites.

They are allowed to use them on their own sites in exchange for including your bio with live links. As a source of links this can be invaluable. And it requires no further effort on behalf of the internet marketer.

However, probably the most valuable part of this exercise and what makes it really worthwhile for internet marketers to submit articles to directories is the backlink the directory itself provides to your own site.

Most of the well established article directories such as Ezinearticles or Go Articles have a high PageRank. Having a link back from their site to your blog or website has high value for you the internet marketer.

Learning how to write articles for submission to directories is an excellent marketing strategy for the internet marketer. As an article writers who is developing an online business with the aid of good content you will certainly miss out on a golden opportunity if you do not make this part of your marketing strategy. Read more at The Digital Archives.

3 days is a long time.

I was quite irritated with the host, and we have actually already switched the site over to a new host, and will be switching all our other sites over as well.  This level of incompetence is just unacceptable.

Today, I got a text from a friend asking me if his site was down. I checked and low and behold it was redirecting to one of our medical directories.  Well actually it was redirecting to the blog of said directory which is inactive.

I am unsure of what other action will follow, but I am very greatful that all the sites are back and running and nothing was lost.

The previous post, Adding a Business to the Google Map, was written on Wednesday and was suppose to be published then. That is when I found out the site was down.

Maine Vacation

Well now I need to bolt as lobsters are being cooked and I need to devour two. Check out our travel blog at All-Travel-Sites.com for the post on my Maine Getaway.

Most a recent post is Twitter, Travel, Maine and FollowFriday

Have You Submitted Your Business to Google Local?

Submitting your site/business to Google Local is really an easy task.  Start by visiting the previous link.

You will need to have a Google Account,which includes a free gmail account. If you don’t have one, this is really easy to set up as well…you will need a pre-existing email account to sign up for a Google account if you don’t have one already.

How to Add Your Business to The Google Map

So you now have a Google account. The next step in getting your site/business listed on the Google Map is to visit the Google Local Business Center and login with your Google account login info.

Then click the “Add new listings” link. You will then need to fill the form out which includes your location to include country, business name, address, city/town, zip for US, main and alternate phone numbers, mobile, fax, and TTY/TDD. You will then need to put in an email address. If you have a website, I recommend using an email with your domain instead of a free email account. You then have the ability to put in your business website url. Next comes your business description. Be short and concise giving a good non-sales like description. (200 Char max).

Next will come the categories. Prior to doing this, I am going to recommend that you do a bit of keyword research using the Google Adsense Keyword tool to see which of your keyword phrases get the most traffic. So for the Earth-in-Hand Landscape site local profile, I used “Landscaper”, “landscaping”, “landscape contractor”. That way when someone types in “Landscaper Easton, PA” my friend’s website will be on the local listing section.

Important Step in Listing Your Business on the Google Map

For your categories, use the broadest keywords that get the most traffic.

The rest of the process of adding your business is pretty easy and straight forward. Your  Google Local Profile can include up to 10 pictures, and 5 videos…I suggest adding as much as you can.

To move your site up in the local listings, encourage your patrons to give your profile a rating. Reviews on local sites can also help.

Below is a video that Google put out for business owners…check it out.

Do you have your Google Local profile up?

Check out the post I did on the All-Travel-Sites blog about our Chicago Trip.

New Design for BaldyDog.com

We also just had our main business site BaldyDog.com redesigned.  Stop in and check it out and let us know what you think about it.

There will be a ton of changes happening on that site in the upcoming weeks to include the installation of a new SEO Blog. Wordpress is installed on the site, but it has zero activity and just the basic template.

Looking at the newly designed BaldyDog and let us know what you think of the new design.  Do you have a groovy Wordpress template that you would recommend we use?