Promoting a contest, giveaway, or sweepstakes sponsored on your film website can be made simpler with the use of Twitter. Twitter is a social networking platform that lets you talk to your audience in real time. Hopefully you have joined Twitter already. We spoke about that in this post: Social Networking: Join Twitter and Place a Twitter Icon on your Website. The key is to promote on Twitter effectively and to maximize the penetration of each tweet throughout Twitter.

Tweet Schedule

Tweet about your contest on the first day of your contest, during the mid-point of the contest, and on the last day of the contest. The first tweet brings the existence of the contest to your

Twitter followers. The second tweet lets them know it is still ongoing and advertises it to those unaware of it. The third and final tweet is for the people that were on the fence of entering your contest and also to bring it to the attention of those that were unaware of its existence up to that point.

When to Tweet the Contest

When Twitter is most heavily trafficked during the day is a good time to tweet about your contest. Common sense told me that time was mid-day and some others feel the same way. From Gary McCaffrey

I have charted them below showing how many visitors came  [to my site] at what hour of the day.

As you can see, the spike is between 12 noon and 2 p.m. From WebsiteDesignNewcastle,

The busiest time on Twitter is GMT 1900-2100 (7pm to 9pm). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this is lunchtime in the USA and in most Pacific time zones.

The quietest time on Twitter is GMT 0700-0900 (7am to 9am). That’s the midnight shift in the USA.

Hashtags

Get your tweet exactly in front of of the people that we will take action on them and click through to your contest, giveaway, and sweepstakes. Use Hashtags. I spoke about them in this post: How to Advertise your Movie Review aggressively on Twitter. The Hashtags that will make your tweet show up in the right Tweet searches are: Prize, Win, Free, Competition, Contest, Giveaway, DVD, Blu-ray, Movie, Film, and Sweepstakes. This modus operandi requires you to manually tweet your contests, most automated service will not add Hashtags, they will only tweet the title of the post and a redirect URL. If a service orb plugin does allow the use of Hastags, it will add those Hashtags to all your tweeted posts.

In the beginning

I usually begin my contest, giveaway, or sweepstakes tweet with WIN, in all caps. This signifies that there is something to be gained – a prize – by clicking through the link provided. It’s incentive advertising within your tweet.

In Conclusion

Use every social medium you can to promote your contest, giveaway and sweepstakes, especially Twitter. Billboard your contest instantly on Twitter during high traffic times and maximize the eyes on your contest tweets with the appropriate Hashtags.

Why a YouTube Channel?

Why not? Giving you step-by-step advice in a written format is one thing. Showing you in a video is a far better instructive tool.

Take Part

If you have a profile on YouTube, subscribe to us so that you never miss any of our video updates or if you want to be buddies, friend us. What would you like to see on our YouTube Channel? Do you own a movie website and have your own YouTube Channel? Are you signed up to YouTube? Let us know below.

Just dial any phone number and you’ll be connected…Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name…Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Outbound calls may be placed to domestic and international destinations by dialing the Google Voice number or from a web-based application.

Save your Minutes for Movie Tickets

By using Google Voice, you can save the minutes on your calling plan.

Inbound and outbound calls to US (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada are free of charge in 2010. International calls are billed according to a schedule posted on the Google Voice website

but are currently at a low rate. If you want to get onto certain PR/movie studio mailing list, you are going to have to call them directly, sometimes repeatedly. That uses your minutes. You can right off your phone bill as a cost of doing business on your taxes but why not save your minutes in conjunction with that? It’s a win-win. You can also try transferring the calls.

Assuming you’ve already added your Gmail Chat account as a number that can be reached through Google Voice (which also assumes you’ve signed up for Google Voice), you can transfer calls from your phone to your computer to save cellphone minutes. Here’s how it works:1) If you’re logged into your Google account, go to the Google Voice phone settings page. At the bottom, you should see a new option for Google Chat (like in the image). Make sure it’s checked.

2) Now, when you’re in the midst of a call on your cellphone—let’s say you were talking to someone in the car, and now you’re home—just hit the * (asterisk) on your phone’s number pad to send the call to another Google Voice phone. If your Gmail account is open, your inbox should start ringing. Pick up in Gmail and hangup your cellphone.

The opposite works, as well—i.e., transferring calls out from Gmail to your cellphone. Oh, and remember: If you’ve got a decent Bluetooth headset, you should also be able to stay relatively mobile, even if you’re talking from your computer.

Film Site Team Meetings

Are the writers for your film website in different locations? Don’t feel like using Skype or teleconferencing software? Have them all call your Google Phone Number and add them to ongoing call. It’s simple.

If you are at a film festival, press screening, etc. and your phone dies

If you have a laptop or an iPad, this will be no problem since Google Voice can redirect your phone calls from your cell phone to your Gmail account. Your laptop simply needs a microphone so that you can talk and the area where you are calling or being called must have Wifi if you are not directly connected to the net.

Other Features and Benefits to a Movie Website Owner

• A single Google forwarding number to all of the user’s phones
• Unlimited free calls and SMS in the US and Canada, up to three hours in individual length.
• Calling international phone numbers for as low as US$0.02 per minute
• Call screening. Announcement of callers based on their number or by an automated identification request for blocked numbers
• Listening in on someone’s recording of a voice message before taking a call (press 2 while answering, * to “pick up”)
• Blocking calls from specified numbers
• Send, receive, and store SMS online
• Answering incoming calls on any configured phone
• Call routing. Selection of phones that should ring based on calling number
• Voicemail transcripts. Reading of voicemail messages online
• Listening to voicemail online or from a phone
• Notification of voicemail messages via email or SMS
• Personalized greetings based on calling number
• Forward or downloading of voicemails
• Conference calling (press 5 when answering call)
• Call recording and online archiving (press 4 while on a call)
• Switching of phones during a call
• Viewing the web inbox from a mobile device/phone
• Customize preferences for contacts by group
• Ability to change your number for a fee
• Specifying an existing phone number instead of the Google Voice number on initial setup for use with limited functionality, such as some voicemail functions and using the voice mail system for the user’s phone number (mobile devices only).

Personal observation (outside the scope of this post)

The ball was dropped here, in a big. Google could have hamstrung every phone company in the world.

• Google could have released their own cellphone through their own phone company.
• They could have offered the same service on that phone that they are offering through Google Voice, free phone calls viz their infrastructure on the Internet.
• The phone would be internet based through Google. No more contracts. No more $30 data plans with SmartPhones. Goodbye AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and all the rest.

It would have been a revolution. Millions of people would have flocked to this new virtually free phone service on premium phones like the Droid. Too bad Google has a business relationship with Verizon.

Source: Lifehacker, Techcrunch

1.) A Retainer to watch your Back

Hire someone to scan Amazon for their Gold Box Deals / Lightning Deals and write Deal posts on them for your movie website. Create a user profile for the employee on your website and pay them a percentage of your average income per month from Amazon or whatever you see fit.

2.) PhpZon Pro

This method I have not personally used yet but have heard great things about. It completely automates the process of posting pictures, star ratings, prices, a link back to Amazon, etc. from a product on Amazon into your post. A screenshot of what PhpZon Pro can produce (you can tweak it any way you want) for Iron Man on blu-ray below.

Everything is clickable that is inserted by PhpZon Pro into your post and leads back to the product in question. The plugin

interfaces with Amazon.com’s database of millions of products to display product information

I have been doing it the manual way and it is tedious. If you are doing a larger post with multiple titles/products, it can take you hours, time you could be spending writing other posts. You have to get the photos yourself, rename them, size them, import them and that is just the photo part of the post. Check out this Deal Post: Cinephile Deal: Total Recall, Le Femme Nikita, Man on Fire, Robocop, Universal Soldier on Blu-ray for $10. This took me some time to put together and this plugin would have made it much simpler.

The Price is $79 $63.20: See more info about phpZon pro here

Saving you Money: Use coupon code E907DB07EB for 20% off. You must click through the link above first then apply the coupon code when prompted to.

3.) Schedule Posts in Advance

Write the Deal Post in advance then set it to post later on. Use the dates on which a new DVD/Blu-ray or piece of play back hardware is going to be released to your advantage and schedule your posts appropriately. WordPress has a feature built in that allows you to do so entitled: Publish immediately Edit on the New Post page. You can write Amazon posts three months in advance if you wish (or even longer though the release price will likely change), set them to post when you want and not think about them until post time.

4.) Amazon Banner: Deals Widget

This square widget is not that bad but like I said in this post: How to Set Up a Movie Website Sidebar: For Profit, I dislike using banners. The Deals widget lets you display discount products by category. If you are running a movie website, you can display discounted DVDs and  DVDs on sale through Gold Box or Lightning Deals. The widget also allows you to choose the level of discount you want: low, medium, or high. FYI, this widget is on medium discount. The reason I would not use this widget is because you only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention. They are not going to sit there as that widget ticks off deals. Amazon has thought of this though and the widget allows the viewer to scroll it themselves if they wish but honestly, how many will?

5.) The other Amazon banners and widgets

They take thought out of the process, are quick to install on your website but I would not bother. They do not convert. They are either non-specific or take time to load, slowing the loading of your web page. You can create you own specific banners but you will have to search for and input specific products manually.

6.) WP Robot

This is another plugin but it allows you to place Amazon products in your post but also other products (articles, eBay items, Clickbank products, Flickr, Yahoo Answers, and more).

You can download the plugin and try out the Clickbank module for free. You can then either add the modules you want individually or pay for the full plugin to get them all.

The Price is $169 $139: See more info about WP Robot here

Saving you Money: Use coupon code pmbisawesome for $30 off the full version. You must click through the link above first then apply the coupon code when prompted to.

In Conclusion

These are the six ways I have found or come across to automate the process of making money on a movie website through the Amazon Associates program.

A question for discussion

• Have you found other methods of automating the process of making money through the Amazon Associates program?

Please share below.

1.) I logged into Google AdSense.

2.) Once I was in my Google AdSense Overview page, I clicked AdSense Setup.

3.) Over on the right I clicked Competitive Ad Filter.

4.) Once I was on the Competitive Ad Filter page, I saw AdSense for Content: AdSense for Content filters and a empty box. This is where you plug in all of the URLs for the companies and products you do not want showing on your movie website.

5.) Once I was there, I placed the following URLs into the box:

allstate.com
amu.apus.edu
att.com
bmw.com
caesary.net
capitalone.com
care.com
chooselcdccollege.com
cleanandclear.com
closeoutcctv.com
curves.com
discover.com
dodge.com
dominos.com
fingerhut.com
ford.com
g.caesary.net
geico.com
groupon.com
iwon.com
johnfrieda.com
kayak.com
koncamlnolta.com
livingsocial.com
mybrainssolutions.com
nextag.com
orkin.com
overstock.com
pagerage.com
phoenix.edu
progressive.com
quibids.com
redken.com
shopathome.com
stylelist.com
targetfocustraining.com
thinkstockphotos.com
toyota.com

6.) I clicked Save Changes

After about three weeks, my Google AdSense profits had dropped significantly. Without other data to the contrary, it seems people were clicking those non-movie ads. I thought that by blocking the non-film related ads, I would increase the number of film ads on my website and increase the number of daily clicks I received as a consequence. I was mistaken.

The ads must greatly effected Competitive Ad Filter were the 350×200 ads. If you have read: Google AdSense 300×250 Ads are a Movie Website’s Best Friend, you know how important these ads can be to the revenue of a film website. The 486×60 text ads I use were not effected by the filtering. The filtered companies seemed to advertise more with the bigger ads – e.g. 300×250 ads – than the smaller ones.

Maybe I blocked the ads during a low period in film studio advertising through Google AdSense via 300×250 ads which is why more of them did not show up during my blocking initiative. That is a possibility. The drop may also be attributed to the type of movie coverage on my movie website. That is a possibility as well.

After profits did not increase but decreased, I deleted the blocked URLs from the Competitive Ad Filter. Daily profits have not increased back to where they were because of another factor (content Google AdSense does not advertise on) but they have somewhat improved. I will experiment more with the Competitive Ad Filter in the future and let you know.

That was my most recent Google AdSense adventure. What’s yours? Do you use Google AdSense? What has been your experience with blocking Google AdSense Ads through Google’s Competitive Ad Filter? Share below.