Cross-channel digital marketing provider ExactTarget has extended its B2B marketing automation service, Pardot, to Facebook. By doing this, marketers will be able to acquire new prospects on Facebook for lead nurturing campaigns.

The update integrates Pardot’s technology into Facebook tabs that are built on ExactTarget’s SocialPages. This enables marketers to obtain new leads by providing prospects the opportunity to register for contests or special offers via Facebook.

“Acquiring and nurturing leads is the lifeblood of b-to-b marketing automation,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget chairman and chief executive officer. “By extending Pardot to Facebook, we are bringing our expertise in B-to-C marketing automation to B-to-B, making it easier for marketers to create a true cross-channel experience that delights customers and prospects and ultimately accelerates sales.”

With this integration, marketers can drag and drop Pardot’s lead capture connector into their Facebook Page and publish it. Then, customers and prospects who register on the Facebook Page can be automatically placed into a lead nurturing program that is designed to not only deliver relevant content throughout the buying lifecycle, but also accelerate the sales process. It is also important to note that Parot’s integration with ExactTarget’s SocialPages works with native Pardot CRM integrations as well, including salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM and Netsuite.

In addition to Pardot’s integration with SocialPages, ExactTarget announced other updates for its social products, including 

Country, Language and Age Targeting – This feature allows brands to manage their global Facebook presence by targeting tab content to specific countries, optimizing for language and segmenting for different age groups.

Device Optimization – This feature recognizes devices, which allows it to properly display content from Facebook Tabs to desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet devices.

Absolute Positioning Editor – This feature provides an expanded drag and drop interface for SocialPages that includes snap-to-grid capabilities.

View full post on ‘Net Features

View full post on Search Engine Roundtable

Above Image: Headcount of social business (circled in orange) slightly decreases before large growth.

Social Business Headcounts Change as Programs Mature
Like the calm before the storm, your social business headcount is likely to decrease 10-20% before it radically expands.  Altimeter found through two independent surveys to enterprise class (Companies with over 1000 employees) survey respondents in different years that they both have a drop off in headcount at year 2-4.  We’ve survey corporations both in 2010, as well as in Q4 2012 to find out how social business programs are structured.  Much of the research was recently published in the report, the Evolution of Social Business.  So why this change?

• After experimentation, unchecked programs get sanitized as a central body takes control.  Many companies I’ve seen inside of have often experimental programs occurring for the first 1-3 years.  Labeled skunkworks, rogue, or sandbox programs, this “wild west” grows out of control, sometimes causing stress or resulting in a social media crises.  Often corporate communications, marketing, blessed by an executive sponsor seeks to wrangle control of these programs, by anointing a working team to build a strategy.  In short, the wild wild west moves from unchecked teams in outposts to a new centralized model.
• A core team consolidates, finds efficiencies in a hub and spoke model.   We often see companies emerge in a hub and spoke model, where a core team is serving the rest of the company in a coordinated fashion.  This leader, the Corporate Social Strategist, leads the charge, often reducing excess headcount deploying social and along with it, rogue efforts.  Interestingly, the data shows this happening in the 2010 early market at year 3-4.  Yet fast forward two years to 2012 and we see the consolidation happen much earlier, in years 2-3, as companies have gotten wiser from their peers.
• Explosive growth occurs as team scales in “dandelion”, multiple hub and spoke model.  After the consolidation occurs in both program strategy and the headcount as illustrated in the above diagram, companies see explosive growth as the company “gets the social religion”.  If the core team has structured their program up for scale, they will have invested in social readiness, as well as have a strategy to avoid massive proliferation.

Social business follows a cycle expansion, contraction, then explosion before maturity. Two data distinct data sets helped to tell this story. Expect to see social business programs hit maturity to consistently spread across the enterprise in a safe manner after 5-6 years with proper care and planning. Watch the patterns in your company, after rapid consolidation and program efficiency occurs, be prepared for radical growth as the rest of the enterprise business groups start to adopt social, including their own social leaders in business lines, departments, geographies and product units.

View full post on Web Strategy by Jeremiah

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

John McCain is certainly not the only iOS user that is frustrated by having to manually update apps all the time, but if it is up to Artisan Mobile, this problem won’t be along for much longer.

This is because the Mobile Experience Management (MEM) platform provider offers an instant publishing feature, which allows brands to make improvements to their native mobile applications in real-time. For example, developers can make changes to the look and feel of their apps without re-writing code or re-submitting their apps to the app store for approval. This eliminates the need for customers to continually update apps on their iPhones and iPads, as any updates made by the developer are instantly published.

"We enable companies to publish changes to their apps in real-time, and we remove the necessity for consumers to continually update applications on their devices,” said Bob Moul, CEO, Artisan. “With Artisan, testing, modifying, and analyzing native apps is now as simple as editing a website. Our instant publishing feature lets brands do their jobs more effectively, removes consumer irritations, and helps provide more compelling app experiences that drive engagement, loyalty, and revenue.”

Not only does this feature satisfy consumers because they no longer need to manually update their app, but it also ensures brands that their customers are all using the most recent version of their app. Previously, developers were required to write new code, re-submit apps and then wait for customers to update the app – even for modifications as simple as changing the app’s background color for a holiday. But Artisan’s patent-pending instant publishing technology eliminates these time-consuming steps, as it renders the user interface of native mobile apps dynamically from the cloud and the company’s MEM platform provides a single environment where mobile experiences can be managed without writing code.

View full post on ‘Net Features

In short…

View full post on Search Engine Roundtable

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

The Home Business Summit is less than three weeks away. Have you got your tickets yet? If not, then you better hurry. There’s only a handful left. Here’s what you’ll be learning at the Home Business Summit.

First off, the Home Business Summit is NOT a pitch-fest. None of the speakers will be selling anything. They will be sharing insider secrets on what is working RIGHT NOW (not 6 months or a year ago) in online marketing.

As you know, the “game” is constantly changing. And those who are NOT on the cutting-edge, doing this business “day in and day out” will soon go the way of the dinosaur. Which is why the Home Business Summit wil be such a game-changer for you.

Make $100,000 in the Next 12 Months

The Home Business Summit is an “international event tour” being held in the U.S., U.K, and Australia (with plans to expand). Every single speaker is an “in the trenches” online marketer – they are DOING what they teach, not just selling “how to make money online” products or putting on seminars.

In addition to myself, you’ll be learning from people like Terry Lamb, Marlon Sanders, Matt Lloyd, and more. We will show you exactly what you need to do to make $100,000 in the next 12 months.

In fact, if you walk away from the event without knowing exactly what you need to do to make $100,000 in the next 12 months, we’ll pay for your ticket and your hotel room! I’ll even go one better.

Come to the Home Business Summit on me!

The Home Business Summit happens June 7-9 at Hilton Hotel in Long Beach, California, and I like to invite you to come as my personal guest. I’ve been given 50 tickets to give away to John Chow dot Com readers. Thirty-six tickets has already been claimed. I only have 14 tickets left. Would you like one them?

Watch the video below to find out how you can claim those final tickets and come to the Home Business Summit for free as my guest. I look forward to seeing you in beautiful Long Beach!

View full post on John Chow dot Com

Ever since it was reported in April that Microsoft is planning on launching a smaller 7-inch version of its Surface tablet to compete with the iPad Mini, Web designers have had to refocus their efforts to accommodate the user experience on a variety of touchscreen devices.

Needless to say, this gradual change from desktop/laptops to touchscreens will have numerous ramifications for designers.

“Top navigation elements common to most websites is tricky to duplicate on a touchscreen device,” explains Jeremy Durant, the business principal at the San Diego Web design agency Bop Design, before adding, “Particularly hybrid touchscreen/keyboard combinations like those found on the Surface tablet.”

The gradually increasing use of touchscreen devices has led to a number of common new design techniques meant to appease all visitors, regardless of the tool they’re using to access a site. For instance, many mobile-conscious site designs now put navigation tabs at the right- or left-hand side of a screen, or even at the bottom in some cases, to make them easier to view and use. Another common trope is the inclusion of a button that lets users jump right to the bottom of a page, to allow more space for important content up top.

More sites are also starting to have “triple-tap” features in the upper corners of their homepages that display menu bars or sitemaps, as well as “pinch gesture” functionality that reloads a page, rotating gestures that (obviously) rotate pages and now include instructions like “Drag this icon to continue” or “Tap here for more info” instead of buttons that say things like “Click here to continue.”

Another important consideration that designers have to take, however, is the size of the various elements on their Web pages. According to MIT Touch Lab, the average thumb size is around 72 pixels in width, and the average finger is anywhere between 42 and 57 pixels.

This is something that designers should be weary of, says Durant, to make sure that the key elements of a Web page accommodate these dimensions. Otherwise, users may inadvertently click on too many links or the wrong buttons, which will end up causing them to become frustrated and disengaged. So, for instance, links should be easy to identify and distinct from other graphic elements on touchscreen.

“Touch-navigation and other impending design changes suggest that, in the future, simple wins out over complex or flashy,” said Durant. “The designer’s first priority must be: On a tablet, mobile device and/or desktop, how easy is it for the users to access important links?”

He then added, “Color schemes, typeface and background imagery should take a back-seat to this essential element.” Of course, the main consideration should still be readability, especially since users hold these devices at different distances while they’re browsing, and forcing them to zoom in or out to better read content makes the process even more laborious.

But the fact of the matter is, the best way to truly discover the effectiveness of your design is just to try it out. As Durant said, “The only way to know for sure that your touchscreen designs work is through rigorous user testing.”

View full post on ‘Net Features

View full post on Search Engine Roundtable

But there’s one place that is quite a bit different than the rest, and that place is called StackThatMoney.

StackThatMoney is a private affiliate marketing forum that costs a monthly subscription fee of $99/month. I have written about and even reviewed similar forums in the past, and still highly recommend these places, but if I could only choose one private affiliate marketing forum, it’d be StackThatMoney.

20-Minute Screencast Tour and Walkthrough

In addition to this written post, I went ahead and recorded a 20-minute screencast tour and walkthrough of StackThatMoney as well, for those of you too lazy to read and/or who would like to see how it looks from the inside.

The screencast is available in HD:

(Note: You may need to visit the post directly at TylerCruz.com if you’re reading this via e-mail or RSS in order to see it.)

Why I Love StackThatMoney

If you used to wonder where all the big boys in this industry hang out, now you know. STM is full of true successful, experienced, and proven affiliate marketers – and if I tried to compare myself to them, it’d be like comparing an ant to an 800 pound gorilla.

But just because STM has a lot of ballers isn’t what makes it great. Here are a few reasons why I love StackThatMoney:

Positive Atmosphere:

Even though there are some guys there who will spend more on Facebook in a day than most people make in a year, there is no stupid posturing, put-downs, bragging, etc. Everyone is relatively modest and there to learn and help others.

It’s not a forum to brag about how much you make or make negative comments about others, but rather to share tips, ask questions, and learn how to make more money.

Guys making millions of dollars a year don’t think they’re too good to rub elbows with those newer in the industry, and you’ll regularly see them offering killer tips and advice to those very people.

Killer Tips and Knowledge

With so many truly successful affiliate marketers as members, there is so much killer information available that it easily pays for the subscription.

I personally believe that the "Follow Along" campaigns offer the greatest method for affiliate marketers to learn the game and turn their campaigns profitable. It’s like having a few dozen successful affiliate marketers over your shoulder as you work on your campaigns, telling you what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and what you should be doing.

STM covers so many areas that you are likely to find information that is conducive to whatever it is you’re running, whether it be Facebook, AdWords, CPV, mobile, media buys, adult, etc..

Active Community

Despite being a "private" forum and charging $99 a month, word has spread throughout the affiliate marketing community because it is an extremely active forum.

For example, as of one second ago, there are currently 288 members online on the forum. These are actual paying members – not bots, spiders or guests. Of those 288 members, 5 of them are site staff/moderators/admins.

If you create a thread, you’re going to get responses – quality responses.

Free Campaigns

It may sound crazy, as any sane affiliate marketer will never reveal their campaigns, but there are actual full campaigns revealed on StackThatMoney by some real big affiliates.

And when I say full, I mean pretty much everything you need to know including traffic source, targeting, offer, ads, landing pages, and angles.

Usually most of these campaigns will be campaigns that they used to run, but there are some that are revealed that they’re still actively running. And these are not $5/day campaigns either, but we’re talking about campaigns where they’ve netted anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000 profit from them.

They are a great way to see what works and to get ideas from, or if you want, to straight out copy (although you’d be best to make a few adjustments here and there).

Success Stories

In order to provide motivation and inspiration to its members (as well as good marketing material), StackThatMoney has a sub-forum for Success Stories.

Here is a screenshot I took of this forum. Check out some of the thread titles:

What’s amazing is that the vast majority of these threads are from members who weren’t making anything when they first signed up to StackThatMoney.

I’m telling you, StackThatMoney is breeding super affiliates.

Sample Forum Threads

Here are some forum threads that I copy/pasted from the forums, in order to give you a rough idea as to the type of content available:

• Best Places to Live for Affiliate Marketers and internet marketer communities
• Converting Landing Pages (round 2) PSD + HTML
• One Dirty Leadimpact Trick to Outbid Your Competition
• A Campaign That Made Me Over $80,000 In Profit!
• Here’s 1 of my Campaigns Making $800+/day on Average! (daily deals)
• (Newbie/Intermediate Guide) Complete Guide To Facebook Ads
• Make A POF Dating Campaign Profitable In 24hours
• $500,000 Profit – An Old Ringtone Campaign On Facebook.
• Finally 1k/Day: About Damn Time
• Reaching My Goal of $1,000,000 Revenue
• Is FB Asking For ID For Bumps On All Accounts Now?

This is the type of content you can expect to see on a daily basis.

Tools, Landing Pages, and Discounts

I left this section at the end because I personally feel that the community and informational content is what makes StackThatMoney so great.

But in addition to everything I already covered, a subscription to STM also includes free access to a wide selection of tools, landing pages, and discounts.

Tools & Services:

Available to members are a couple dozen affiliate marketing related tools and services (not including whatever is made available from members in the forums!) including (but not limited to):

• Adult Ad Spy – Brand new and something they’re proud of (competing adult ad spy alone charges $200/month)
• Plenty of Fish Ad Uploader
• Plenty of Fish Spy Tool 
• STM Mobile Tracker
• Various Affiliate Related Calculators
• Keyword Tools
• Domains Tools
• PPC/PPV Tools
• etc.

Landing Pages

Spread throughout the forums (search is your friend) are threads where people give away free tested and proven landing pages, some even complete with source PSDs.

Discounts

Also available to STM members are special unique discounts to various 3rd party tools and services such as CPVLab and WhatRunsWhere.

Conclusion

If you’re serious about affiliate marketing, I highly recommend joining StackThatMoney.

Whether you’re a newcomer struggling to find your first profitable campaign, or an experienced affiliate marketer who is making 6-figures a month, StackThatMoney is an incredibly useful resource that is easily worth the monthly subscription price of $99/month.

View full post on TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur’s Journey

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

One of the most important reasons why I love doing business on the internet is that it allows you to connect and meet with people all over the world, even when you may think they are in a league of their own! Just think about the affiliate marketing industry for example… names like myself, John Chow and ShoeMoney are just an email away, and most of us will always reply back to you.

If this were the “real world” of business and we all worked at a high level company, it would likely be very hard to get in touch with us, and may even cost your some money!

The internet is completely different and this is one of the driving reasons why it’s much easier to find success and fame on the internet than in any other industry.

So what does it take to connect with some of the top online marketers, bloggers and sites in the world? Here are a few ideas for you to try out.

Attending Conferences

One of the absolute best ways to get your name out there and start connecting with major players in your niche is to get out there yourself and attend an internet marketing conference. A decade ago there were only a few conferences across the country; now they are all over the place and happening all the time. Whether you are focused on ecommerce, affiliate marketing, blogging or another online business, attending a conference is the best way to physically meet with the people you need to know and get that first introduction.

Commenting on Blogs

If you can’t make it out to a conference, another great way to build a relationship with a well-known person or website is to interact with them and leave comments on their blog. Bloggers always appreciate when people take the time to leave real comments that provide value on their sites. In addition to leaving comments you will also be building out your brand with your avatar, name and link back to your site with each comment.

Sending a Nice Email

Lastly, it’s important not to forget about the value in sending a real email to someone. Sure, the top bloggers and online marketers get thousands of emails and pitches every day, but if you take the time to write something of value and not come off as a leech, there is a good chance you can form a relationship and possibly work with other big names online.

As you can see, you have plenty of options when it comes to expanding your reach online and connecting with some of the biggest names in the industry. I highly recommend that you step out of your comfort zone and attend a networking conference in your area, or at the least send out some emails to your online mentors and just let them know how much of an influence they have been to you. You never know where it might lead to!

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

The post How to Approach Authority Sites and Bloggers to Make Killer Connections appeared first on Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson.

View full post on Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

These meetups are free, and they provide a chance to network with affiliate marketers in your local area, as well as to learn from a speaker.

The format varies a little from place to place, but it’s typically a two hour get together with a mixture of open networking and a speaker for 15-30 minutes.

For instance, at the next one in Austin, TX, I will be talking about how to work more efficiently in my presentation, “Strive for Inbox Zero and Unclutter Your Business Mind“.

There will be meetups this month in a dozen or so cities around the U.S. and Canada.

Check affiliatesummit.com/meetups for upcoming meetups.

If you are interested in getting a group together in your area, please contact Todd Farmer. He will set up your group, spread the word and help you along the way.

The post Affiliate Marketing Meetups in May 2013 appeared first on Affiliate Marketing Blog.

View full post on Affiliate Marketing Blog

Running an affiliate program is a lot like running your website. Simply having one doesn't mean you will suddenly see a huge amount of business from it. Even a program that has been running for a year or two can hit a rut and it can take some serious effort to get it moving again.

But if you are not even sure what the problem is, how can you fix it? Here are a few ideas to make sure your program is running smoothly.

Is the tracking broken?

Sometimes the IT department will make site changes and not notify the marketing department, as it could be a back-office system change and suddenly the tracking has been removed. This might only be on one product of many, but slowly you start to see a drop in sales and it can take a while to pinpoint the cause. Not only could you be losing recorded sales, but affiliates might also start leaving the program, as they lose confidence in your ability to track and allocate sales correctly.

Do your landing pages have detractors? 

Following on from above, sometimes affiliate landing pages get caught up in big changes, so now all of a sudden your landing pages have a large phone number on them which is a big leakage point and can turn off affiliates. Again, if you take your eye off this kind of thing it can lead to a decline in activity.

Are your creatives updated?

Have your affiliate creatives been refreshed or changed in the last 3-4 months? Do you have updated marketing messages, are they being tested in other channels? Do you have all the relevant sizes and options? Remember that mobile is getting bigger and normal desktop display banner sizes might not work. Additionally, if you are only using flash banners, then they won't display on Apple devices.

How's your communication?

Do you communicate with your affiliates, or do you simply sign them up and let them get on with it? You need to make sure you are top-of-mind with your key affiliates and treat them as sales partners. After all, you wouldn't send out a sales force without being up to date on your business and products. Affiliates shouldn't be any different.

Are you still recruiting?

So outside of technical issues and creative ones, are you still actively recruiting new affiliates? Do not simply rely on your network to recruit for you. Search forums, visit sites, reach out to bloggers and search Google for your keywords. There will be new sites popping up all the time that will be a great fit for your affiliate program. Nothing grows affiliate revenues more than new blood.

As you can see, there are a large number of things you can be doing constantly to either keep your program running smoothly. Or, if you have let it lapse and it needs a tune-up, there are plenty of places to start.

About the Author:

Jason Hulott is Director of SpeedieConsulting and helps merchants globally grow their affiliate activities via SpeedieAffiliates.com.

View full post on ‘Net Features

View full post on Search Engine Roundtable

Today, I wanted to share 3 more questions – these are not so much focused upon YOU as a blogger but upon your readers.

Hopefully they’ll also help you achieve a little clarity.

1. Who are your readers?
2. What do they need?
3. How will they change as a result of reading your blog?

Answer these 3 questions and you will actually have a pretty good purpose statement for your blog.

You could certainly go into some real depth on each question but even doing it at a low-level will be helpful.

For example on dPS I would answer the questions as:

My readers are camera owners (who they are) who are not using their cameras to their potential (their need). Reading dPS will help them to gain creative control over their cameras (the benefit).

I shared these questions on my Google+ account a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I received an email from a blogger who set aside 15 minutes to answer them. She told me that in doing so she realised that she’d created a purpose statement for her blog which she also turned into a tagline for her blog.

Give it a go and let us know how you answer the questions in comments below.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

How to Create a Blog Purpose Statement in 3 Simple Steps

View full post on @ProBlogger

Pay Per View Traffic Sources

Media Traffic – Media Traffic – CPV PPV Contextual Advertising
Trafficvance – Trafficvance :: Advanced Display & Text Link Traffic | Home
DirectCPV – Pay Per View PPV Cost Per View CPV Contextual Online Advertising Network
AdOnNetwork – Pay Per Click Advertising | Pop Under Ads | AdOn Network
Lead Impact – LeadImpact

Pay Per Text Traffic Sources

Infolinks – Pay Per Click Advertising – In Text Ads for Websites by Infolinks
Kontera – Kontera
50onRed – Performance is Paramount | 50 on Red
Vibrant Media – Vibrant – The Leaders of Contextual and In-Text Advertising
Linkworth – LinkWorth | Search Engine Marketing – Text Link Advertising
Inlinks – inLinks – In Content Link Market Place
InText – InTEXT SYSTEMS (wwwserver2)

Media Buy Traffic Sources

Casale Media – Casale Media – Home
Valueclick – http://www.valueclick.comhttp://www….ickformula.com
Tribal Fusion – Home « Tribal Fusion
Traffiq – http://www.trafficq.com
Yahoo AdReady – AdReady – Online Display Advertising Campaign Software for Agencies, Advertisers & Publishers | AdReady
Ask – http://www.ask.com/products/
Illyx – illyx Network | Affiliate platform Pay per install, impression, click
MegaClick – NOTICE
GoTraffic.com – Online traffic marketplace, where website owners and online marketers do business.
Advertising.com – Shopping Search | Ask.com
BuySellAds – Buy Ads | BuySellAds
DoubleClick – DoubleClick: The technology foundation for digital advertising
Burst Media – BURST MEDIA
Dashboard Ad – Dashboard Ad
Adengage – AdEngage – Engaging Internet Advertising
CPX Interactive – Welcome to CPX
Undertone – Undertone
Ad Pepper – ad pepper media: Home

Contextual Pop Ups

Adoori – Adoori – Reinvent Your Advertising.
Infinity ads – Contextual Advertising | Pop Under – Pop Up Ads – Targeted Internet Advertising Services

Retargeting

AdRoll – Retargeting and Display Advertising | AdRoll Retargeting
AdRetargeting – Ad Retargeting – Behavioral Retargeting – Behavioral Marketing – Search Retargeting
Fetchback – FetchBack – The Retargeting Company
Recrue Media – Retargeting Advertising | Retargeting Companies | Recrue Media

Domain Traffic

Elephant Traffic – https://www.elephant-traffic.com

Mobile

Admob – Mobile advertising with AdMob: mobile ads for apps ? Google Ads
Jumptap – Jumptap | The Leader In Targeted Mobile Advertising
inMobi – InMobi | Global Mobile Ad Network
Adfonic – Adfonic
Mojiva – Mobile Advertising with Mojiva’s Mobile Ad Network
Mobclix – Mobile Advertising, App Advertising and Analytics, Mobile Ad Exchange, Mobclix

Credits to Gaugher Chaudhry.

View full post on Make Money Online With GatherSuccess.com

Hey there my name is Mattis Weiler. I’m from Munich, Germany and over the last 2 ½ months I have had the fortunate opportunity to work with Michael Dunlop on a new product of his called Masters Blueprint.

Some Background

To give you a little perspective, I met Michael back in 2010 at a conference in Costa Rice where he was giving a speech.  After that I was a scholar at the Underground Online Seminar, and ever since we’ve kept in touch via Skype. My biggest challenge at the time was to get myself to follow through.  I always had these great ideas, I also had the skills which I’m sure a lot of you can relate to. But at the same time I just couldn’t get myself to follow through and I had a lot of things planned.

Since I wasn’t sure that the product was going to do well I didn’t follow through. I thought of something that the market has already wanted and already was proven to work which was Michael’s system.   I wanted to approach him to share his system and I basically created the product for him.

He would share his system with me and I would basically create the product for him and fill up his system with things that may be necessary for some of the beginners out there that are completely obvious to him already or he doesn’t have to do anymore.

In this video I want to give you the ten lessons that I learned and this picture you can see me and Michael being in his apartment and having a blast. That was back in March and the first lesson that I took away from him was take the first step immediately.

1. Take the first step immediately

Michael is a master at this.  He really taught me how to think straightforward and just act on something. To give you an example, I was pitching him the idea and he asked me, “Yeah man that’ sounds cool.  What would you call it? What would you want to call the product?” I was like, “MastersBlueprint.”  He’s said, “Well that’s a cool name, let me see if that’s available.”  He checked and he immediately registered the domain and set up a blog on it.  It took him 5 minutes and it would have taken me 5 minutes as well but the difference is he just did it and I didn’t.  I would’ve probably gone like, “Yeah man why don’t we think about the name a little bit more and make sure that it’s right for the product.”  He just did it and I loved that about him because it was really easy to take my crazy perfectionist brain out of the game sometimes and it was truly necessary. I learned a lot through that and I aim to take the first step immediately.

2. Focus on your partner’s benefit and how solving your pain point will help you both

The second lesson was especially important when I was pitching Michael because I approached him and said, “Yeah you know Michael you have this great knowledge, you have this proven system that works and you can replicate.  A lot of people would be interested in it yet I know it also takes you a ton of time and it takes you a lot of effort to do it. That’s where I come in. I always wanted to create a product but never got myself to follow through.”  I can create all of this for you and I think because I’m working with you and your reputation I will get myself to follow through. At the end it will help us your both because we will leverage your network but you don’t have to do a whole lot of work.

I think it was truly instrumental that I also put my pain point I there because if I was going to be, “Yeah man that’s so awesome for you. These are all the results you’d get.” Then at the same time he would be suspicious asking himself. “Why would you do that? Why are you offering this to me?”  I also aim for always saying your pain point and how it will help you both because it will give them a reason to say yeah man I see why he’s approaching me.  At the same time he’ll also know it will help people.  Most people are really willing to help especially Michael.

3. Make an irresistible offer

The next lesson I learned was to make an irresistible offer.  Always think of the things that the people care most about. Michael cares most about his time because he already has enough money to fund his lifestyle. Make an irresistible offer that won’t take them a lot of effort to say yes to. Get rid of the objections. I said I was going to cover the production costs; I was going to fly over to your place and shoot it. You don’t have to come to me I’ll just chill out with you.  All these things make it easy for him to say yes.

4. Be brutally honest and hold yourself to high standards

I’m from Germany as I said and we have a very direct standard of approaching problems, so I really liked that he just said straight out, “I like this, the header is great. This cover sucks it doesn’t look very nice. I know what you can do; you do what you did with the other website that looked brilliant.” He held me to high standards and pushed me to do better, which really allowed me to give my best.

5. Don’t BS yourself! It may not be complex but it’s not always easy

We all know this, yet I went into the project thinking I know web design, I know how to cut videos, I know how to shoot videos. I know all this stuff that we need to do so it’s going to be easy…

 Then again even if you know all these things, it still is hard sometimes because there are days when you just don’t want to anymore.

It’s like “oh my god another error, another video to cut, another thing to do.” Even if it’s nothing spectacularly difficulty or complex and you even know how to do it.  You’re annoyed, sometimes you’re not motivated and I think it’s not always easy but you really need to focus on the right things, push yourself through. I listen to a lot of great entrepreneurial books and listen to a lot of great speakers, motivational stuff and also talk to Michael and my other mentors through it and just did that. It truly helped me but just be aware of it don’t go in with the expectations that it’s going to be very easy because then you’re going to bump into the first road block. I think for the next project I will definitely keep that in mind and go into the expectation knowing that it will suck at times. At the same time I know I have the ability to push through and it’s well worth pushing through.

6. Strategize everything on PAPER

Lesson six I strategize everything on paper.  This was huge for me because while I love technology and I’m quite a tech geek. I love hanging around on all the forums and all of the blogs, and just reading what people say and learn a lot of things from technology- there is a time when it’s better to be off line. I surprisingly found that the longer I spent off line strategizing everything I wanted to get done on the day or in the project or the weeks on paper, the more effective I was.  Way more effective.

What I do now is every day I journal on things and prepare my actions. It may just be some simple things like the layout of the website, or where a button should be, or which colour something should be.  It’s just amazing what paper can do for you if you just get off the computer for a while and go back in with a lot more clarity.

7. Schedule your time wisely and embrace RULES

Even though we all want to have the freedom and lifestyle to be able to do whatever we want, I think what we ultimately want is still have some sort of freedom to choose but set rules ourselves.  We ultimately don’t want to live without rules. They may work for a while, while you’re on vacation or something but ultimately you need rules especially if you want to be productive and get something done.

I always had a pretty tight schedule some weeks it was more planned out than others but in general I set a schedule and I have my rules.  For example the biggest rule for me was no e-mail prior to noon and to that day I still keep that rule and because it just helps tremendously to get things done before you check your e-mail.

8. GET a Mentor! BE a Mentor!

Then number eight, get a mentor and be a mentor. As I said I worked together with Michael and I also worked together with Clive our copywriter. Both of them are tremendous mentors of mine. They helped me a lot on various aspects of the project. Also they keep you not only accountable but they really can give you feedback and perspective on a lot of things.  You can just bounce back ideas from them, but at the same time you need to remember that all of these people, as amazing as they are, they all have their challenges. They all have their imperfections and don’t know everything. They need some advice as well.

This works for everyone because no one is perfect.  Once you understand and accept that then you also know that everyone can need help and that you always know something that will help them because they don’t know it. It could just be a fresh perspective on something, but really make sure that you embrace that and help them out.

9. Set 2 deadlines

Lesson number nine, set two deadlines. This was something that came across more or less by accident. Michael wanted to set a deadline roughly four weeks prior to launch we set a deadline. I was pushing for the quick deadline because I know that I get myself to follow through a lot better when I have a short and really tight deadline.

He came up with the idea of, “Well let’s do an internal launch first without a lot of affiliates or no affiliates at all, and then push out to the official launch.” I pushed for having another deadline way earlier and I think that was great, because now I got myself to follow through a lot better and pushed hard and worked a lot of hours to get this done. Ultimately what ended up happening was that we missed the internal launch deadline, we missed it completely but we were ready for the official launch.  I think if we wouldn’t have had the first deadline in the first place, we would have just missed both deadlines.

It was great having the second deadline where you have to deliver but it’s without a huge risk. It would just have a benefit. It would have been cool if we would have been able to launch earlier but at the same time now there’s no real risk involved. That was tremendously helpful and I aim to use that in other projects like my study papers at the university or other things as well.

10. Do it once and you can do it forever!

Then the last lesson, do it once and you can do it forever.  The project was so worth it for me just as a personal experience, because I’ve grown so much I think throughout the whole project. I’ve proven to myself that I can do it and that is the biggest aspect of it. I’ve learned a lot, I’ve honed my craft in design and it all came together nicely. I’m very proud of the product and I also think I’ve done a great shift in my mindset.  Because now I have a new belief that says that I can freaking do it.

Before it was like you know whenever I wanted to do something my mind would like “yell yeah remember the time when you screwed up this thing? When you procrastinate when you said you would do this and you had this great idea but you didn’t do anything on it?  Now I say, well you know when you did that that was really cool.  Like you finished it and you did a great job on it and I think that was so helpful.  Now with that new belief I can build on this and I can push through much more easily on new projects because I have completed it.

This were some of the biggest lessons that I learned from Michael over the past months, I hope they’ve been helpful to you.  It has definitely been a great experience so far, I am proud and really excited about how the product is going to do in the long run. I have learned a tremendous amount and…

…if you have any question or comments please leave them down below.

Learn more, earn more

If you’re interested in the product check out the Master’s Blueprint at Masters Blueprint Special Offer. It consists of 6 video modules by Michael in which he outlines every aspect of his blogging strategy as well as Reflection videos from me where I expand on his system and cover aspects any beginner to intermediate has to deal with when starting to create his dominating Blog (like how to get initial traffic, promote your content etc.)

If you sign up quickly you’ll have the chance to enter the exclusive mastermind group with me where we get together once a week to discuss anything related to blogging, related to technology or any other questions or challenges you may have.

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day.

The post 10 Lessons I Learned Living With Michael For a Week appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

View full post on How To Make Money Online

Here at Portent, we have many Internet marketing teams: SEO, content, and design, just to name a few. But the best team, objectively speaking*, is the PPC team.

*This is completely subjective as I am a member of the PPC team.  That does not mean what I say is not the truth.

We are a special bunch that takes great pride in our work as individuals and as a team.  We geek out on data, we go beyond paid search management and develop strategies to ensure our clients kick everyone else’s ass, and we can pass the AdWords certification tests in our sleep.  But that’s not all. We also have a hierarchy convention which correlates to one the greatest television series to ever grace our airways: “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

I’d like to take a moment to introduce the members of our illustrious PPC team, which may or may not* be an excuse for me to merge our company photos with our corresponding character photos.

*This is definitely just an excuse to do just that.

I present to you the crew of starship “Enterprise” Portent’s PPC Team:

Elizabeth Marsten

Senior Director of Search Marketing / a.k.a. Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Elizabeth is the guru of everything PPC at Portent and became director of the entire search marketing team in 2009.  She has spoken at SEM conferences such as HeroCon and SMX, and has become a leading authority on product listing ads and merchant feed optimization (with presentations and articles on this blog).  She’s also written more than one of our eBooks available for download in our store regarding paid search, from product listing ads to the essentials of PPC to ad copy strategy.

She is the captain of our crew and has dubbed her office “Ten Forward.”  It would have been “The Ready Room,” but there’s a beer fridge in the corner.  So naming it after the USS Enterprise’s bar felt more appropriate.  In addition to being awesome at PPC, she practices and teaches the martial art of Kendo.

Michael Wiegand

Senior PPC & Analytics Strategist / a.k.a. Commander William Riker

Michael has been a PPC strategist at Portent for six years and has been in marketing his entire professional career.  Since Google Analytics came online, he has spent time learning every facet of it: how it works, how to customize it, how to utilize reporting features, and how to implement to any site you can think of.  Rumor has it that when he’s not awake using Google Analytics, he dreams about Google Analytics in his sleep.

With his expertise, experience, and facial hair, he has earned the rank of First Officer in our PPC crew.  He even has an old school poster of Riker from the 90s hanging on the wall behind his desk.  In addition to his duties in the fields of paid search and analytics, he is an avid fan of soccer and cigars (albeit he highly discourages smoking cigars while playing soccer).

Kiko Correa

PPC Strategist / a.k.a. Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

Kiko came to Portent last year and has worked with paid search accounts for the past five years.  He is our go-to reference for using Excel to analyze click and conversion data.  He specializes in B2B paid search strategy, along with Facebook advertising.  Much like his character counterpart, he digs deep into numbers and formulas to get a full understanding of what’s happening with any account he works on.  He is, without a doubt, one of the best additions Portent has made since the formation of the PPC team years ago.

His Excel wizardry and ability to diagnose any problem in AdWords makes Geordi La Forge a perfect fit in our Star Trek hierarchy, although his glasses do not have the capability to analyze his surroundings in different light and energy spectrums.  In addition to his work at Portent, Kiko is an avid fan of alternative rock music.

Chad Kearns

PPC Essentials Program Manager / a.k.a. Lieutenant Worf

Chad started at Portent as an intern while still attending college.  After graduating, he was hired on full-time and was charged to develop a brand new program to manage small business AdWords accounts.  He quickly put together an ambitious plan to retain and manage large numbers of small business accounts in what is now Portent’s PPC Essentials program.

As you might have guessed, Chad’s specialty is small business PPC: accounts which have limited budgets and desire highly-specific targeting methods to ensure every dollar spent is worth as much as possible.

Chad’s reputation for not taking any nonsense makes Worf a more-than-adequate fit in our hierarchy, although he admittedly has not mastered the use of the bat’leth sword.  In addition to making small businesses very happy, Chad maintains his athletic prowess playing pick-up soccer.

Tim Johnson

PPC Strategist / a.k.a. Ensign Wesley Crusher

Tim was recently hired on full-time at Portent after spending months as a PPC intern.  Even though he’s not the intern anymore, Tim is still “the new guy” – relatively speaking.  His youthful ambition and the fact that we used to make him do a lot of grunt work makes Wil Wheaton’s character of Wesley Crusher a perfect fit for him.  Unlike Wil Wheaton, however, Tim does not wear a horse head mask while rooting for the LA Kings.*

*Seriously, look up Wil Wheaton’s Twitter account – this is a thing.

In addition to being Portent’s newest PPC strategist, Tim enjoys almost anything to do with Seattle sports teams.  And, unlike Michael, he fully endorses smoking cigars while playing soccer.

Ryan Moothart

PPC Strategist / a.k.a. Lieutenant Commander Data

That’s me – I’ve been a PPC strategist at Portent for almost three years and, like Chad and Tim, started as intern out of college.   I have experience in all types of paid search accounts (B2C, B2B, e-commerce, traffic generation, etc.) and am also certified in Google Analytics.  Much like my character counterpart, I’ve been told I have knack for spotting patterns quickly when working with data (no pun intended).  When Elizabeth and Michael are out of the office, I “have the bridge,” thus making Data a near-perfect fit for me in our awesome hierarchy.

In my free time, I’m an avid Seattle Sounders fan (yes – there is a soccer trend on our team as well, as much as Elizabeth makes fun of us for it).  I enjoy studying matters of politics and culture, having spent the past year researching and writing a personal project pertaining to such matters in the Pacific Northwest (or Cascadia, to use the region’s proper name).  And I’m a firm believer that U2 is better than the Beatles.*

*Deal with it.

We, ladies and gentlemen, are the PPC team here at Portent.  We’re nerds, we’re damn good at PPC, and we’re giant fans of Star Trek.  Well, most us are giant fans of Star Trek.*

*Chad is lame. Tim is also lame.

Thanks for taking the time to learn about us. Now, go form your own team hierarchies based on awesome TV shows.

View full post on Conversation Marketing from Portent, Inc: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Emeric Ernoult – Enjoy!

Feeling a bit lost with your Facebook Page insights?  Good.  Facebook Insights terminology (https://www.facebook.com/help/336143376466063/) was not built for humans, and now that we know you are not a killer robot from Mars, we’ll help you measure your Facebook Page’s performance without drowning in all that robotic Martian muck.

What can be measured can be managed (and improved).  These are the first six key metrics non-robots must track to understand Facebook Page performance, why you need them and where to find them.

#1: Fan Reach

Ok, human.  Here’s the scoop-

Organic reach (views) consists only of posts viewed directly in the Newsfeed or on your page.  (fans and non-fans alike)

Viral reach (views) consists of posts viewed as a result of a friend’s actions (sharing, liking, commenting)

Fan Reach simply shows the number of your page’s fans (clicked your page’s ‘like’ button) who have seen any given post.

Got it?  Here’s the fun part-

The fan reach metric is not available in the Facebook statistics interface; that would be way too easy for hard working marketers like us, right?  It’s only available in an Excel file available for download.

To access fan reach data, you first need to export post level data to Excel.

Choose the format, the date range and select “post level data.

You’ll find it under the very robot’ish label titled “Lifetime Post reach by people who like your Page.”

Within the Key Metrics tab, look for the column labeled “Lifetime Post reach by people who like your Page.

Important- Fan Reach is a part of “organic” reach, so it only records the views that occurred directly (newsfeed or on your page), and not through the action of a friend (share, like, comment).

Why your fan reach metrics are likely the most important

Per-post fan reach helps you measure the quality of your audience and the appeal of your content to them.  If you bought thousands of fans from a website, or sponsored a contest with an eye-catching prize unrelated to your brand , many of these uninterested ‘fans’ have probably unsubscribed from viewing your posts.  If they haven’t, Facebook’s EdgeRank feature will effectively do this for them, and this can severely disrupt your ability to reach your real fans.

Publishing interesting and valuable content to a genuine audience is the best way to ensure your message is worth the effort.  Start gauging your efforts and your page’s health with Fan Reach.

#2: Organic Reach

Good news humans!  This one is simple!  And, it’s much easier to find! Organic Reach simply adds views from users who have not liked your page to Fan Reach (direct views of a given post on the newsfeed or on your page).

Just go to your Insights, scroll down to your list of posts, click on the Reach number for each post and hover your mouse on the bar chart for “Organic”.

This metric will also appear under each post if you’re logged into your Page.

From the Insights interface, click on the number of people reached for the post in question and hover your mouse over the “Organic” bar chart.

So, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of downloading an Excel file to get your fan reach, you can check your organic reach metrics much more easily. Just keep in mind there’s an important difference between the two.

The example below shows the differences between Fan Reach and Organic Reach on two compared pages.

Fan Reach and Organic Reach can vary significantly from one Page to another. These figures are extracted from the Agorapulse Facebook Page Barometer (http://barometer.agorapulse.com/).

Before relying solely on organic reach, check to see if there’s a big difference between these two metrics on your Page.  If Organic Reach is very close to Fan Reach, it usually means that people cannot be exposed to your content if they are not already fans.  So, try promoting your page on other channels.  Efforts made on your website, blog, or newsletter can significantly increase your organic post views.

#3: Engagement

The killer Martian robots at Facebook say, engagement is “the number of people who clicked anywhere in your post” (https://www.facebook.com/help/336143376466063/)

So, liking, commenting, liking a comment, sharing, viewing a video, clicking on your links and photos, clicking on a commenter’s name, clicking on your page name, hiding, or reporting you as spam, from anywhere, all qualify.

Reach tells you how many people have potentially seen your content; engagement is the number of people who have interacted with your content.

Luckily, this is another one that is pretty easy for us human types to find.  To see number of people who engaged with your content for each post, look for the “Engaged Users” column within your Insights (close to where you found your organic reach).

The Engaged Users metric is easy to see on your Facebook Insights page.

While a lot of views can be great, successful Facebook marketing depends on making sure the content you offer your audience triggers some kind of interest. This is how your engagement metrics will help you sharpen your message.

Raw numbers can be misleading, though.  If you rely solely on the number of engaged users, you’ll never know if good engagement on a specific post is due to the quality of your content, or if it was simply shown to more people. So, always compare the number of users reached with the number of users who engaged for each post.

Now, compare your post engagement metrics with your other posts by creating a percentage.

Use this formula for each post to compare one post’s performance against another.

This formula will give you a percentage that takes the exposure of each post into account while allowing for comparison between posts.

Percentages help benchmark posts against each another. This screenshot is extracted from the content performance heatmap of the Agorapulse Statistics feature (http://www.agorapulse.com/features/facebook-statistics).

#4: People Talking About This (or Storytellers)

This is one of Facebook’s least understood metrics.  Partially due to it’s dual label. “People Talking About This” data in Facebook Insights is also referred to as “Storytellers” in many different places, including the Excel download.

The “people talking about this” metric only measures three types of actions: likes, comments or shares. These actions are already included in the wider array of your Engagement metrics, PTAT (as the robots call it just narrows it down a bit more by highlighting the number of engaged users who showed their engagement with you to their friends.

So, back to your Insights interface where you found your organic reach and engagement stats, and look at the “Talking About This” column. Way too easy.

Click on the “People Talking About This” number for each post to see a breakdown of the action taken on each post.

The “people talking about this” metric is essential for measuring how many people are willing to spread the word about you to their friends. It’s the “viral” metric, touching on one of your primary motivations for creating a Facebook Page-  connecting with the friends of your existing fans for free!

Facebook is evolving, and has been limiting the reach of these stories since mid 2012, so don’t expect too much from this metric. Virality is still a reality on Facebook, but it is not the viral Eldorado it used to be in the early days.

#5: Click-Through Rate

Ok, you know this one. CTR has been measuring the effectiveness of email marketing, banner advertising, landing page quality, and search engine ads such as Adwords campaigns since… yeah.

Nothing’s changed here. Click-through rates tell you the number of people who have clicked on a link in your content, watched your video or viewed a larger version of your photo.  I like to think of CTR as the ‘Really Really Engaged’ metric.

Click on the Engaged Users number within you rPage Insights interface, and you’ll find your CTR.  If the content is a link, it will be named “Link Clicks;” if it is a video, it will be labeled “Video Plays;” if it is a photo, it’ll read “Photo Views.”  Pretty straightforward.  Thank you, killer robots.

Depending on the type of content you are reviewing, you’ll find click-through rates shown as “Photos Views,” “Video Plays” and “Link Clicks.”

The click-through metric is at the bottom of your content quality funnel. Keep a close eye on it.

#6: Negative Feedback

Some people just don’t like your content showing up in their newsfeed.  When they take an action by hiding your post, hiding all of your posts, or reporting you as spam, this is called Negative Feedback.

Click on the Engaged Users number in your Page Insights to see the number of users who gave negative feedback at the bottom of that window.  You’ll have to download the Excel export as mentioned in the fan reach section above to get a breakdown.

Click on the Engaged Users number for each post and you’ll see the “negative feedback” number in small print.

Facebook has given more weight to the negative feedback metric since September, 2012. Posts with a high negative feedback number will have much less exposure through EdgeRank and Pages with an average negative feedback that remains high will see their overall reach decay over time.

Again, the raw digits fed to us by Martians can be tricky.  This is where so many marketers go wrong.  You can’t see the truth behind your page’s negative feedback without taking exposure into account. So, never rely solely on the number you see on your Insights dashboard.  Always compare the number of users reached with the number of users who gave negative feedback before judging the quality of each post.

Then, create a percentage score of this comparison to compare results from different posts.

Looking back at negative feedback in percentages, I’ve found the average negative feedback is 0.1% of the users reached, but some Pages go as high as 0.7%!

Use percentages when analyzing your negative feedback and engagement scores. These averages are extracted from the Agorapulse Facebook Page Barometer (http://barometer.agorapulse.com/).

Use These Six Metrics to Improve Your Facebook Marketing

Most Facebook data can be misleading or gamed to your disadvantage, but it’s very hard to trick individual post metrics.  These means will help you understand the truth of your page’s performance.  And, they’re free! If you consider your time free. 

Once you’re solid in understanding this data and analyzing it in the most productive way, you may want to use third-party tools to save time. There are many.

These free tools are a great place to start: the Agorapulse Barometer (http://barometer.agorapulse.com/), or Simply Measured (http://simplymeasured.com/free-social-media-tools)

You may also decide to invest in paid tools such as Agorapulse (http://www.agorapulse.com/) Quintly (http://www.quintly.com/)  or Wisemetrics (http://wisemetrics.com).

Your turn! What metrics are you paying attention to and why? Do you analyze your data directly on Facebook or do you use a tool? Please leave your comments and questions below.

Emeric Ernoult is the founder of AgoraPulse (www.agorapulse.com), a Facebook Marketing Technology  that has been featured on AllFacebook as the “Low Cost Facebook CRM alternative”. AgoraPulse is currently being used by more than 10,000 brands and agencies across 57 countries. Clients include McDonald’s, Playstation, Microsoft, Fiat, Mini, and dozens of leading Digital & Social Media Agencies).

Emeric is a regular speaker at International  conferences such as the AllFAcebook Marketing Conference,  Social media Examiner Facebook Success Summit and Facebook Marketing Conference (London), iStrategy, Digital Paris and eMarketing Paris.

The 6 Metrics That Determine Your Success On Facebook is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

My latest book, CTRL ALT Delete, came out two days ago. In an attempt to create attention and interest, the team at Twist Image put together a very compelling story about business today. So far, the experience has been getting some rave reviews in places like Twitter and Facebook, but – for the most part – people are still misunderstanding what this all means. When you put things into context, provide the data to back it and present it as a story, you would think that the information would wake people up.

It rarely does.

It turns out that people still – wrongly – think that CTRL ALT Delete is a book about social media (it isn’t). It turns out that people still – wrongly – think that CTRL ALT Delete is a book about marketing (it isn’t). CTRL ALT Delete is a book about business life. We see facts, stats and data points all day long. We ‘re exposed to information, like we live in a world where more people have a mobile subscription than access to safe drinking water. We live in a world where Google‘s advertising revenue is greater than that of the entire print industry. But, beyond trying to catch our jaws as they hit the floor, what are we doing about it? We all struggle – deeply – to highlight companies that are handling this moment of business purgatory (as I call it) well. We can’t simple rattle them off. There are not a lot of great case studies (or simply not enough of them). Worse, each and every one of us struggles to figure our how to evolve professionally and bring the best "you" to work everyday. Will the company accept my new way of thinking? What will my clients and peers think? Is this too radical for our industry to handle?

What choice do we have?

In 2009, I published my first book, Six Pixels of Separation. It was a book that I wrote to demonstrate how technology, media our new inter-connected changes the very fabric of what it means to be a brand, create marketing and the relationship between consumers and these brands. It was a book that exposed the strategies we used at Twist Image to grow our business from a handful of employees and clients, to our current state of one hundred-plus full-time employees in two cities and working with some of the most iconic brands (we are one of the largest independent digital marketing agencies in North America). I don’t write this to brag, but rather as social proof that there was (and still is) alternatives to how to grow and market any business. In CTRL ALT Delete we have entered a world where the very fabric of business has changed forever (I break these out into five major movements in the business book), but brands are still not doing much about it. It didn’t end there. I felt that it would be unfair to write about these five movements without also spending a healthy chunk of time discussing us – the individuals – who are now entrusted to thrive in this new business environment.

Go through the CTRL ALT Delete story.

I encourage you to spend a few minutes going through the CTRL ALT Delete digital experience (you can do it online, on your tablet or smartphone). Keep a notepad nearby, answer the three questions that are a part of the experience and then think about two things:

1. Your business.
2. Your life.

Ready for a reboot?

What’s your take? How well-prepared is your business for this world that is not only constantly changing, but that has changed (dramatically)? How well-prepared are you, personally and professionally, for a world where we’ll no longer change jobs 4-5 times throughout our careers, but one where we will change careers 4-5 times throughout our lifetime? It’s funny, all of the staggering stats about the new reality in our world still triggers fear and anxiety. In reality, the feeling should be excitement and anticipation of a world that offers up a whole new layer of opportunity, wonder and amazement.

Do you still perceive this reboot to be something negative? You should not.  

Tags:

advertising

book publishing

business book

business life

business purgatory

career development

ctrl alt delete

digital experience

digital marketing agency

facebook

google

independent digital marketing agency

marketing

media

mobile subscription

print industry

reboot

six pixels of separation

smartphone

social media

tablet

technology

twist image

twitter

web

View full post on Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Insights – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

Since Chitika has pretty much become the publishing and advertising platfom for Yahoo! (my words not theirs) I have been hitting them up to see if they can do something special for ShoeMoney users.

I know a lot of people are new to the space and need a little push to get started.  Sometimes that push can lead to some magical things .  That was my exact case.  That famous Adsense check for 130k on the left.  That came about because of a phone call I got from Google suggesting I place their ad on my site .

So here is what I got for you:

Free Money:

For each person who signs up in the next couple days to become a publisher they will instantly have $5 deposited into their account.  Go here and sign up now to get your free $5:

http://chitika.com/publishers/apply

ShoeMoney exclusive contest:

Now here is the really cool part that gives everyone a chance to win a cash prize. The user that signs up through the ShoeMoney link below that earns the most as a publisher will get $500!

Each publisher that places a Chitika ad on their site and gets at least 10 clicks will be entered to win one of 5 $100 cash prizes.

Lets recap:

Sign up to Chitika through this link and instantly get $5 deposited into your account AND after you get a couple clicks you are entered to win $100 in bonus money.

Why is Chitika doing this?  

Simple.  They are putting their money where their mouth is.  Keep in mind you can run Google Adsense on the same page as Chitika and they are confident you will see a increase in earnings.   They are closing the gap against Google every day to become the #1 way for website owners to make money. I have made a LOT of money with Chitika over the years and it continues to be my goto network of choice.

Whats’s in it for ShoeMoney?

I have not been compensated in any way shape or form for doing this post.  (other then getting free money and a cool contest for you)  As you can see their is no affiliate link and it’s their normal signup page.

So get after it:

http://chitika.com/publishers/apply

Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

View full post on ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Blog

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

I’ve decided to add a new feature to the blog call Driving with John Chow. The idea is to increase my content productivity by creating new video based content while driving from place to place. On this premier episode, I talk about the car I’m driving and how I got it for free.

For those who don’t know, I recently pick up a new 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550. I was driving it to the dealership to get it wash and figured I’ll stick a GoPro to the windshield and just record myself. You have to admit, this is a pretty easy way to create content, and we know that content drives traffic, and traffic equals money. This is also a very easy way to create content. There’s really no editing. It’s just me talking, with mistakes and all.

Let me know what you think of Driving with John Chow. Would you like to see more episodes? Would you like to see me do it with a passenger? Would you like the camera pointed at something else instead of on me? I welcome your feedback.

View full post on John Chow dot Com