Image Credit: Smith College WPMU Award Nominated Blogs

For reasons I don’t completely understand, the obvious best Permalink URL format is not a default in WordPress. Many blogs have dates in the URLs or other extraneous words that make your URLs too long and hard to remember.

A clean URL should have only your domain (and possibly /blog or a subdomain) and then a SHORTENED post name which ideally would be your target keyword phrase.

You can easily change a setting in WordPress so that you your future posts will automatically have cleaner URLs.

WARNING: Changing this setting is retroactive and will change the permalinks to all existing posts. We recommend you first install Platinum SEO and then make the change because that plugin will automatically redirect all your existing links. That alone makes it a great plugin to use as the default WordPress behavior that changes your permalink if you change your post title can introduce permanlink changes you may not have intended.

How to change the WordPress Permalink default:

1. Log into your WordPress blog.
2. At the very bottom of the left column find Settings and click on it.
3. Click on Permalinks (under settings).
4. Select the radio button for Custom Structure and paste /%postname%/ into the box.
5. Click save changes.

Look for Permalink (just under your post title) when you write or edit posts or pages. WordPress will now automatically name your post YourDomain/the-name-of-the-post.

IMPORTANT: Click on Edit and shorten that name to your preferred page name, ideally your target keyword phrase and save it. You will end up with a post URL that looks like this: http://YourDomain.com/Your-Keyword-Phrase.

If you decide to change the title of the post WordPress will change your saved permalink and you will have to edit and save it again. Perhaps WordPress will give us an option to disable that behavior in the future (or maybe it already exists and someone will share it with me.

WordPress does make changes all the time. Have you noticed that (starting with version 2.9?) you can now convert posts to pages and pages to posts? That is a great idea I wish was available when I was first learning to use WordPress.

It is also why I am publishing this now. When you do a conversion you may have to know how to make this change if you want to be able to edit the names of your posts when converting them from pages.

OPTIMIZING PAGE URLS:

• NiceBlogger SEO Blog (NiceBlogger) Optimizing URLS: Top 5 Problems and Base Techniques
• EMarketing Matador Local SEO Information (eMatador): Local SEO For Local Niche and Small Businesses

Click the Bird to Tweet This

I am asking my fellow bloggers and Twitter users to do their part to support their favorite small and online businesses through the BizLuv MEME. Read more about why we all need to support each other and small businesses in BizLuv Meme.

Here is how you can participate:

TWITTER USER? Please Tweet This and share it on your other favorite Social Media and Bookmarking sites.

BLOGGER? Please Publish a Blog Post:

To make it easy you can use this template (or be creative and do your own thing).

1. Include a paragraph about what the BizLuv MEME is and why you support the idea. You can write your own or use the one below.
2. Include the business recommendation we share below. You can also include recommendations from other bloggers you read who are participating.
3. Tell us about a small or online business you use. Include why you recommend them and what products or services they offer that you personally buy.
4. If you know how, add anchor text and links for them. IMPORTANT: If you do not know how just copy and paste the URL to their Web site into your recommendation and I will do this for them and get a copy to you.
5. Ask your readers to participate in this MEME by Tweeting, blogging, and reviewing businesses they recommend.
6. Publish your post and leave a link to it in the comments of this post. Akismet may flag it as SPAM but I WILL rescue your comment.
7. If you have a business or blog please do this for your sites too. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. I am NOT opposed to self promotion. Success is challenging enough in good times and there is no time to waste!

HOW DOES THIS BENEFIT BUSINESSES and YOU?
It makes us all easier to find everywhere online!
More readers will learn about you and them.

Here is a sample post you can use. You can reblog it using Zemanta or copy and paste it into your blog:

1. START SAMPLE POST

We are doing our part to save small and online businesses being affected by the economic downturn and hope you will too. First we Tweeted This Post on how Twitter users and bloggers can support their favorite stores and service providers. Now we are sharing a business recommended by a dofollow blog that helps businesses to blog and get free Local Search Directory listings and adding a business we recommend.

2. INCLUDE ALL OR PART OF OUR RECOMMENDATION BELOW -  Feel free to paraphrase or use only the part that interests you most:

Businesses related to real estate and construction are among those hit the hardest. GrowMap recommends Good Millwork, a florida millwork company, as an excellent role model for traditional businesses on how to use the Internet to be of service to more people.

They support building green by manufacturing exterior shutters, deck materials and fire-rated wood siding from the very ecofriendly TimberSIL wood. TimberSIL is an amazing product that is virtually fireproof, insect-proof and rot-proof. It is so green it qualifies for up to 14 LEED credits and is so rot-proof that products made from it have a 40 year transferable no-rot warranty.

The will also mill any of their products using reclaimed lumber including the rare deadhead sinker cypress and lumber from old barns and buildings. They have sources for old growth salvaged lumber and you can even use your own customer supplied lumber.

Good Millwork supports the efforts of other businesses. Both of their blogs are 100% dofollow and use CommentLuv and KeywordLuv and they are very active on Social Networks including Twitter and StumbleUpon where they review and share quality content to benefit us all.

They had a search tool built to make it easy for you or your installer to search through 10,000 architectural moldings including crown moldings, baseboards, chair rail and cabinet moldings and offer it for free. Architects can use their free downloadable 3D CAD drawings to more quickly create architectural drawings. Contractors can use those drawings to quickly and easily order all the materials required. That will save them time and money and in turn save the home-owner time and money.

They go out of their way to share how-to information in posts like their popular How to Install Crown Molding Like a Pro. If you have friends who do their own home improvements or home repairs, Good Millwork will answer their questions and find less expensive options so they can find more work and save money on their home improvement projects.

We recommend Good Millwork because they go out of their way to share what they know, assist other businesses, and provide excellent service.

3. ADD YOUR RECOMMENDED BUSINESS:

Tell us about a small or online business you use. Include why you recommend them and what products or services they offer that you personally buy.

This can be as short or long as you wish. Imagine you are telling your best friend about them and share with us what you would say to them in person.

4. Add anchor text and links to their site and directly to the products and services you recommended. If they don’t have a site link to any listing about their business you can find.

[IMPORTANT: If you don't know how to add links or use anchor text just publish what you know how to do and I will add the links for you and share your recommendation in this blog and elsewhere.]

5. CLOSE YOUR POST:

In your own words, ask your readers to participate in this MEME by Tweeting, blogging, and reviewing businesses they recommend.

6. SHARE YOUR POST HERE: Leave a comment in this post and include a link to your post either as the CommentLuv featured post (if you use CommentLuv) or in the body of the comment. If you know how to use anchor text go ahead. If you don’t just paste the link. All links are do follow.

Akismet may flag your comment as SPAM but I WILL rescue it. 

I will personally make sure that your blog and the businesses you recommend receive links with appropriate anchor text in many blogs.

There is no limit to how many businesses you can recommend. It doesn’t matter if you put them all in one post or write multiple posts.

Leave all the links in the comments of this post so I can easily find and republish them & include BizLuv in your Tweets and tags.

Thank you in advance for supporting this very important MEME. Find out who else is participating by using this Twitter Search.

If you don’t clearly understand what I am proposing or don’t know how and need assistance please ask me. Contact @GrowMap on Twitter (send me an @ message if you want to DM me), FriendFeed, StumbleUpon or leave a comment in this post or use my contact form to email me.

Related articles by Zemanta

• MEME: LinkLuv in Support of Small Businesses (growmap.com) Read this post for more on how to support your favorite businesses.

Great Depression Soup Line

Tweet This Post!

Even if the economy is not directly impacting you or your family, it will do so indirectly.

Each person who reduces their spending for any reason will cause the businesses you use regularly to have lower sales.

Declining sales may cause these businesses to lay off employees. As more people are laid off the ripple affect could cause even exceptional businesses you love to fail.

Are you visiting your favorite restaurants, shops and service providers as often and spending as much as you once did? Are they still thriving?

There are simple actions each of us can do to support your favorite businesses. One easy way to thank them and send them new customers is to add a review for them at one or more of these sites:

• Yahoo! Local – If you have a Yahoo ID simply enter a location and the name of a business and click Write a Review
• Google Maps – If you have a Google Account simply enter the name of a business and where they are and click Write a Review
• MyLocalLookup – Simply search for any business and click Rate It. You don’t even need an account. Businesses can get a free MyLocalLookup listing.
• Yelp is a community oriented around specific locations. It is a great way to find out which businesses others in your geographic area prefer. Sign up for a Yelp account to read and leave reviews of local businesses and receive discounts and coupons. Businesses should strongly consider getting a Free Yelp business account and reviewing other businesses they use.
• Merchant Circle is another geo-targeted community where neighbors share their opinions of the businesses they use, see special offers, discounts and coupons. Businesses can get a free MerchantCircle listing and consumers can save time and money using the new MerchantCircle Neighbors and Q&A programs.

Every business should have a listing in each of these sites. The easy way is to use the Universal Business Local Search Listing service.

If you are willing to write a review for any business and can not find them on the above sites share this information and link with them. You may be instrumental in keeping them in business. Encourage them to either use that service or at least manually add their business to the above five sites so you can review them and they can be found online.

If you are a business planning to review other businesses be sure to read How to Write a Review and How NOT to Write a Review. While those posts were specifically about Merchant Circle, the advice they contain applies to any site that accepts reviews. Note that some sites prohibit soliciting or incentivizing reviews so be sure to read their Terms of Service carefully.

Many traditional offline businesses will not understand the importance of being easy to find in digital local directories.

Even people who have no computer are looking for you online and you really need to be easy to locate. Let me share a couple examples of why this is so very important.

• Your loyal customer with a GPS (standard in many cars today and popular as a handheld device) decides to call to see how late you are open or whether you take a particular credit card. They can’t find you so they don’t know if you will be closed – but they DO find a coupon for a competitor they never knew about before. You may have just lost a customer.
• Most of your customers have cell phones now. Did you know they can use a cell phone to look for you from anywhere? When is the last time you saw a pay phone booth with a printed copy of the yellow pages anywhere? If they can’t find your phone number they WILL find other special offers from other businesses. How many more customers can you afford to lose and stay in business?

Tamar's StumbleUpon Avatar

If you use Social Networking sites like Twitter, FriendFeed,StumbleUpon, Facebook, Reddit or any others you can recommend your favorite businesses online.

I highly recommend first reading Tamar Weinberg’s Social Media Handbook.

Business Owners should read her book The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.

Facebook is the most challenging to figure out of all the Social Networking sites so I would not even think of using it without first reading Jesse Stay’s and Jason Alba’s I’m on Facebook; Now What? How to Get Business and Professional Value From Facebook.

Wondering how you can Promote Blogs and Businesses Online?

Review their content, Tweet about them, go out of your way to share when others ask for recommendations – each of these actions may seem small but can make all the difference.

Do only share what you believe in and what others will find interesting.

I am a huge proponent for small businesses and in this economy many can really use our help. I am asking that bloggers join me in a new Meme.

I propose that we each blog about our favorite small businesses and give them linkluv with the best possible anchor text to make them easy to find.

We can publish each others’ efforts and even organize them by niche and make more comprehensive posts available as guest posts. Don’t worry about all that for now.

Do your favorite businesses a favor – publish a post about them.

Downturns in the housing industry, residential and commercial construction, and real estate have been particularly severe so remember any friends, family or businesses you work with that operate in those areas.

As spending is reduced, businesses must become more visible and attract leads and sales from a larger geographic area.

Good Millwork Avatar

Good Millwork is an excellent role model for traditional businesses for how to use the Internet and Social Media to expand their market.

They installed two SEO optimized WordPress blogs using the Thesis Theme that are highly interactive blogs with threaded comments.

Both of their blogs are 100% dofollow and have CommentLuv and KeywordLuv installed which allows other businesses and bloggers to benefit from reading and commenting in them.

KeywordLuv allows you to select what keyword phrase is linked to your site. Many consider this the most important factor in getting better search engine positions. Where your site ranks in the search engines determines how much traffic your site receives.

By supporting high quality small businesses like Good Millwork you can benefit your own business and make you both easy to find online. Visit their sites. Blog about them and be sure to link the words that are most beneficial.

Here are some examples so you understand the concept.

• Architects would  want to know that they can use the architectural molding search tool to choose from over 10,000 molding profiles and download approved 3D CAD drawings which can be downloaded absolutely free for architectural drawings.
• Contractors, Real Estate and Home Improvement sites might be interested to know they manufacture architectural moldings including crown molding, baseboards, chair rail and cabinet moldings from over 200 types of wood including real mahogany and deadhead sinker cypress.
• Green builders and those interested in the environment could feature their ecofriendly TimberSIL products including exterior shutters and fire-rated wood siding. TimberSIL qualifies for up to 14 LEED credits. They also custom mill reclaimed lumber and customer supplied lumber.
• If you love do it yourself projects look for their how-to posts such as How to Install Crown Molding Like a Pro.

I included these examples so you could clearly see what proper anchor text usage looks like.

Notice that I did NOT link to the names of their blogs.

If you are searching for the name you already know about their site. We want to help Internet users who don’t know the name of his or your business find them.

Notice that I DID link to the best keyword phrases for each product or the phrase someone seeking specific information would type into a search engine.

I even shortened the link to How to Install Crown Molding Like a Pro to include only the strongest part of that phrase.

I also hope to encourage other bloggers to add some or all of these links to your site to benefit this fine business.

Why would a blogger want to do that for a business they don’t know? I have introduced you so now you do know them. Here are some reasons why I believe collaborating with Good Millwork and Good Moldings will benefit your blog or business:

1. They are providing you a way to leave comments that benefit your blog, or any business that wants to interact with them, or even to allow Search Engine Marketing companies to benefit their client’s businesses. (We recognize that not all business owners have the time to manage their own commenting and Social Networking.)
2. Good Millwork and Good Moldings are very active on Social Networks including Twitter (GoodMillwork, Moldings, CrownMoldings, MoldingDesign, ReclaimedWood), StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, Facebook and Delicious.

I’ve even made it easy by making each paragraph and this entire post easy to reblog using the Zemanta browser plugin. If you don’t use Zemanta contact me or @GrowMap at Twitter and I can email the html for the entire post or any particular section.

I will even work for free one-on-one with anyone who needs assistance with keyword research, using anchor text or reblogging.

Like this blog, Good Millwork and Good Moldings believe in paying it forward. We are all happy to publish guest posts and add links for deserving businesses, blogs and non-profits to posts we write.

If you include any links for Good Millwork on your site or share content for them on Social Networks, please leave a comment in this post or contact us on Twitter, FriendFeed or StumbleUpon or use our contact form to let us know. We WILL go out of our way to return the favor.

GUEST POSTS:

• List your blog and find blogs in your niche using MyBlogGuest created by SEOSmarty SEO Consulting Services Blog – (Twitter)
• Use Unique Article Wizard (UAW) to generate and distribute unique articles to hundreds of article directories and blogs. See the trackbacks on this Crown Molding post to evaluate the quality.
• Automatically generate a unique version of that Crown Molding related article. (Click the link, then copy and paste a unique version of that article.)

We will be writing posts about MyBlogGuest and UAW with more information on these exceptional finds. They are both fairly new and their instructions are not always clear. The UAW system will become easier to use as they continue to improve it, but still complex because it is so powerful. Help spread the word by Tweeting This Post!

Help spread the word – Tweet This Post!

Use This TweepML link to easily follow Twitter accounts mentioned in this post

Want to participate but need something easier? See the BizLuv MEME template.

REAL ESTATE ECONOMIC STATUS:

• StreetWise - (Twitter) – The Real Estate Industry Should Not Get Too Excited About 4Q09 GDP Growth (Jan 31, 2010)
• YourHome.CA (Canada) – Real Estate Marketing Gurus See ‘Cautious Optimism’ for 2010 (Jan 30, 2010)
• REJournals – (Twitter) – U.S. to Follow Asia, Europe in Commercial Real Estate Recovery (Jan 19, 2010)
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Announces $2 Billion in Recovery Act Grants (Jan 14, 2010)
• Real Estate Industry News – (Twitter) – Commerical / Multifamily Real Estate Market Continues to Feel Effects of Economic Downturn (Jan 6, 2010)
• Tampa Florida Real Estate – (Twitter) – Tampa Market Update Jan 2010, Tampa to Receive HUD Economic Recovery Act Grant Money
• Alabama Real Estate – (Twitter) – Alabama Real Estate Sales in October 2009 show first positive year over year results since July 2007
• National Real Estate Investor – (Twitter) – Real Estate Downturn of the Early ’90s Differs From Today’s Crash in Important Ways (Nov 2, 2009)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Hyperlocal Business Directory MerchantCircle Signs Up Millionth Merchant (techcrunch.com)
• Yelp! Changing the Local Game Some More (ducttapemarketing.com)
• MerchantCircle Answers lets small businesses show off their expertise (digital.venturebeat.com)
• MerchantCircle enlists its millionth small business for online marketing help (venturebeat.com)
• Did You See Our Guest Post at Merchant Circle? (growmap.com)
• How to Turn More Visitors Into Buyers (guest post by growmap on MerchantCircle.com blog)

Rank Checker

When I found these two tools, benchmarking where any business ranks in the search engines and how their search engine positions improve over time became really simple.

Once you know what your important keyword phrases are, there are very easy ways to track your progress at attaining first page search positions for them. I explained how to do that in my building-traffic post.

Go to SEOBook Tools and download the free SEOBook Toolbar. Don’t bother trying to figure out which tools to use right now. Just download the toolbar because everything I will be sharing in the future is already in it.

The first thing to start using is the Search Engine Ranking Checker built into it. When you have the toolbar installed look for the the red and blue red icon (shown above in this post) between the word “Competition” and the big red X. That is the Rank Checker.

It is really easy to set up and use. Just click on it, type in your domain (you don’t need the http:// or the www), and type in your keywords. You can add multiple keywords too. When you do you have to enter your domain name again (at least in this current version).

Save what you created with a unique name. I use the domain name or the site or company name and what that list is if I have more than one for that company.  Any time you want to check the positions you can simply click on the icon, open your saved presets and click start.

Maze Core

I also recommend you get the free version of Mazecore and plug your main website and keywords into it. That sends you updates and graphs your progress.I wrote about Mazecore and did some screen captures in my post about backlinks.

The graphs they provide make it easy to see your positions over time and gain insights into how what you are doing affects your search engine positions.

If you have multiple domains you can upgrade to track 5 for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (two months free) or 10 for $14.99 or $149.99 a year.

Those new to Search Engine Optimization often ask what are serps so I am including this definition for them:

Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search.

Now might be a good time for me to share that I believe SEO is good. It is simply making it easier for Internet users to find what they are seeking – and that improves results for searchers and grows business for the owners of the Web sites – whether they be bloggers or small businesses.

BENCHMARKING SEO

• Path Interactive – (Twitter) – Projecting Results from SEO: Benchmarking SEO Keywords
• Sam Tilston SEO Blog – (Twitter) – The Top 100 SEO and SEM Resources

Related articles by Zemanta

• Instantly Acquire 76 High Quality Incoming Links (growmap.com)
• Success IS a Numbers Game (growmap.com)
• Proving SEO factors as facts or myths… (chriscalitz.com)
• How to Market your Small Business with your Blog (marketersdaily.com)

Download Free Twitter Icons from Pink Moustache

In the comments of my post yesterday, Shyam Kapur, the developer of my favorite Twitter search engine FeelTip Top wrote:

“If there were even 10 more people like you, I would then be even more sure about mankind’s future.”

I replied that I know of many more like me and shared the first twelve that came to mind in my reply.  I decided this would make the perfect post to share for Follow Friday, so for my readers who don’t read the comments I turned that reply into this post.

Here, in no particular order, are the twelve people I immediately thought of who are extremely generous with their time and talents:

1. Louis Gray, whose futurist tech blog I linked to above. Louis excels at analyzing new solutions and trends and sharing his conclusions with his readers. I highly recommend him. Louis was very generous in linking to this blog when it was brand new and recommending my work to others.
2. Adam Singer is simply brilliant. When I visited his Social Media Marketing blog to find the link I used in this post, I realized how much I have missed reading his posts. He, too, is generous in shining a light on new and upcoming bloggers.
3. Barbara Swafford is extremely generous with her time and knowledge and a prominent member of the dofollow community. She created a blog registry section on her site to benefit other bloggers. I highly recommend hers as a great blogging community to join. The only reason she wasn’t already linked in this post is that she didn’t have a recent post about Twitter.
4. Kristi Hines aka Kikolani needs no introduction to most. Besides her blog she is also know for her article writing. Anyone interested in Social Media should check out her best Social Media posts.
5. Without the expertise and generous heart of Derek Semmler, our very own WordPress Ninja, this blog would not have come so far so fast. Our golf store and blog and personalized gifts blog with wedding store would not exist and we wouldn’t be adding two more about horses and healthy living without Derek’s expertise.
6. Although he is extremely busy, Marty Weintraub has shared his genius for expert blogging and especially expert SEO through one of the very best Search Engine Marketing blogs. If you want cutting edge or very advanced SEO information don’t miss it.
7. Although I only recently “met” JR I have already found several indispensible tools through her including a thriving community for submitting and finding guest posts and the Best Content Spinner ever. I am new to using article marketing so her experience really sped up the learning process.
8. Collaborating with Murray Newlands has allowed me to achieve goals faster. Anyone seeking Blog Consulting Services or wanting to learn more about Word of Mouth Marketing should look him up.
9. Connie Foggles has been a joy to work with as co-moderator of Murray’s Blog Club. She has a very active Product Review blog where she writes about products of interest to parents and families.
10. I have learned so much from working with Bill Sutton who owns Good Millwork, a Florida Millwork company manufacturing and architectural moldings and exterior shutters. Both that blog and the one that hosts his molding search tool are dofollow and feature CommentLuv and KeywordLuv.
11. I only recently started working with Eric Blackwell and know we will accomplish much together. He is involved in Louisville Real Estate, offers Search Engine Marketing Services and has a site about Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Eric is based in Kentuckiana (Indiana and Kentucky), is a Web Designer and has a new site and blog specifically for WordPress Web Design.
12. I met Adam Riemer aka Rollerblader through Murray and recommended him to my favorite personalized gifts store owner. Adam is the most passionate, ethical merchant affiliate manager I have ever met. I am thrilled we are now working together on their behalf.

My greatest fear is that I have left out someone who truly deserves to have been mentioned. If I did leave someone out I hope they will forgive me. It is likely I will add them later when I remember!  Use this TweepML icon to easily follow any of those I have mentioned here that you wish:

Twordle Free Twitter Icon

Although Twitter did finally add their own Twitter retweet function, many realize that it has several serious drawbacks. San Antonio Real Estate agent Matt Stigliano wrote about them in Why Twitter’s One-Click Retweet Function is Absolute Garbage.

So many have complained about it that Twitter co-founder Evan Williams wrote Why Twitter Retweet Works the Way it Does.

The major reason I never use Twitter’s retweet function is that you can not see what the Tweet will look like and it often truncates (cuts off) links, Twitter usernames and other important information.

A retweet with a broken link is not much good to anyone.

Virtual Assistant Michelle Mangen (Twitter) recently pointed out 4 Reasons she dislikes the new Twitter retweet function including this important drawback: the RT no longer shows up as a @ mention. Apply Valley Ohio Real Estate agent Sam Miller suggests using Google Alerts to Track Twitter Retweets. While that is an option, I prefer not to use the Twitter Retweet function because I use these much more effective methods:

BETTER TWITTER RETWEETS:

@MrTweet

I usually use the RT function in the MrTweet Firefox addon (MrTweet). Although I have temporarily disabled MrTweet  trying to diagnose the issue with using Twitter that causes FireFox to gray out or hang, I really like their other features.

The suggestions @MrTweet sends for Twitter users in your niche are excellent – often really on target (although it does include very popular and prolific Twitter users outside your niche too). I especially like their recommend function.

Do your fellow Twitter users and favorite bloggers a favor  — write a recommendation at MrTweet that includes why you follow them!

CoTweet Web-based Twitter Manager

CoTweet (CoTweet) is my favorite online way to effectively manage multiple Twitter accounts. It makes retweeting simple and is the easiest way to update Twitter accounts without signing into them. I use it to schedule Tweets for later, spreading them out so they don’t flood followers timelines. You can also send Tweets to multiple accounts.

It is a much faster way to manage Direct Messages (DMs). Many of us who have large followings at Twitter pretty much ignore DMs unless you send us an @ message first letting us know to expect something there. The DM spam is overwhelming.

There is no way I could do justice to CoTweet for all you can do with it – that would take a separate post just for them. Check out the CoTweet Blog for details on How Businesses Use Twitter or read these posts about Corporate Twitter and How MailChimp Uses CoTweet to get a better idea why CoTweet could be just what you need.

Social Too

I also recommend using Social Too (SocialToo) as a fast way to unfollow inactive accounts when you hit the Twitter follower limits and get that message that you can not follow any more people.

Unfortunately, Twitter recently pressured them into eliminating auto-unfollow, claiming their unfollow tool “perpetuates the idea that Twitter is about follower counts”.

Their Social Too unfollow function will be available only for those who already upgraded their account and only until February 1. My plan is to clean up all my accounts just before that date. This is the comment I have submitted in the Social Too blog:

I strongly disagree with Twitter on this. The SocialToo unfollow function is a relationship tool. It allows us to focus on Twitter users who desire to interact with us and eliminate those who do not. The ability to automatically unfollow is a huge time saver and I for one will sorely miss it.

We may have to break down and check out the other Twitter unfollow tools reviewed by ExtremeJohn (ExtremeJohn). I wish Twitter and our other favorite Social Networks like StumbleUpon would listen to input from people like us and read Kristi’s 2010 Social Media Wish List in her Kikolani Social Media blog.

TipTop Twitter Search

FeelTipTop (Twitter) is a Twitter Search Engine with a one-click retweet, retip and reply functions. TipTop made the list of the Top 100 search engines within months of launching and is rolling out new features so fast I can’t keep up. Use it to quickly and easily pull and read Amazon product reviews and do real time Gift Guide Searches. They even offer an SMS Twitter search function. I recently shared How to Use TipTop For Real Time Market Research.

TweepML

TweepML is the greatest time saving Twitter app (TweepML) to date. You can:

• Instantly follow any existing Twitter list
• Create a list of Twitter users found on any page
• Share lists that others can quickly follow
• Search for and find lists of Twitter users by subject

Simply uncheck any Twitter users you don’t want to follow on the list you are viewing and then click to follow the rest. You can try it now. See all the Twitter accounts mentioned in this post and follow those that interest you by clicking this icon:

Speaking of lists, have you realized the huge benefits of using the new Twitter lists – especially if you have hundreds or thousands of followers. See the Social Media Guide Mashable (Mashable) for a primer on How to Use Twitter Lists.

Check out my Dofollow Twitter List and my KeywordLuv Twitter list (for dofollow blogs only). I also have a list for blogs whose Top Commentator lists are do follow.

Twitter lists make it faster for me to zero in on and keep in touch with the Tweets of just those bloggers on each list. Those blogs get more of my time and attention and get shared across Social Media sites far more often.

Don’t know what dofollow is? See our post about dofollow blogs.

Anyone can follow my lists and do the same. If you have a dofollow blog and/or a dofollow blog with keywordluv enabled, or use a Top Commentator plugin that is dofollow, send me a Tweet to @GrowMap or leave a comment in this post to be added.

Did you know that an easy way to find anything that includes your Twitter username is to search for it without the @ symbol? I keep a saved search for growmap so I can quickly see who is talking to me.

You can also Find Twitter Lists by Exploring Tags.

IS TWITTER MAINSTREAM?:

• Louis Gray – (LouisGray) – Twitter Maturation Continues As They Embrace Developers – Excellent blog for early adopters
• The Future Buzz – (AdamSinger) – Articles About Marketing and Twitter are Almost Never Gold - Exceptional ideas found here
• Published on AimClear Search Engine Marketing Blog – Written by Lauren Litwinka (beebow) – Why Your 4,243,564 Twitter Followers Don’t Mean Jack
• Social Media Marketing – (Fruchter) – Michael Fruchter on the State of Social Media
• Social Media Rockstar - (Brett Borders) – Why Passive-Aggressive Twitter Following is SPAM
• MyST Blogsite – (Bill French) – Mainstream Adoption of Twitter: Observations and Predictions
• Web Strategy – (Jeremiah Owyang) – What Happens When Twitter Gets Mainstream Attention
• A2SM – (A2SM) – Further Proof that Twitter is Going Mainstream
• ZDNET – (ZDNET) – Twitter Four Years On – I Tweet Therefore I Am
• Product Review Writer Cindy aka Moomettes on Business Use of Twitter: How to Brand Your Twitter Profile and Monetize Your Tweets
• ABAJournal – (ABAJournal) – Twitter Becoming ‘Incredibly Mainstream’ for Blogging Lawyers
• RealtyTimes – Twitter: Ego Gratification or Communication Tool
• Tampa Florida Real Estate – (DannyinTampa) – How People Are Using Twitter in Everyday Life
• Florida Millwork – (GoodMillwork) – Architects Who Twitter

Related articles by Zemanta

• Getting A Handle On The Size Of The Realtime Web And The Twitter Ecosystem (techcrunch.com)
• Twitter not declining, says chief exec (telegraph.co.uk)
• Twitter Had Biggest Traffic Day Ever Yesterday, Expects Further Increase (appscout.com)

Happy New Year 2010 - image credit TotoWeb

I wanted to let all my regular readers know that although I have not published lately it is all good. The pipes are finally thawing out, the propane is holding out, and a new exciting strategy is almost ready to share with you. I also have some draft posts I hope to publish soon, interruptions allowing.

I have been busy testing a new strategy and sometimes testing and assisting small businesses is more urgent than blogging. In the long run, those activities are beneficial to all who read what I share here. This one is simply awesome so do be sure to watch for it.

Hopefully you already know that with the amount of research I put into my posts and the number of links I include that I will never post as frequently as many others – much less as often as that prolific affiliate marketing expert Murray Newlands who is up for Affiliate Summit Top Blogger.

You have plenty to read anyway, right? And far more to do than you could ever get to – so quality trumps quantity in my book. If I ever get caught up though – look out – as I have tons more strategies that will benefit you, my valuable readers.

See: I can’t even write a quick post without adding links to it and turning it into a teaching lesson! Notice the effective use of anchor text?  Learn just this one thing and you are on the way to more success in 2010 and every link you share will benefit others so much more.

Best to all in 2010. If I can ever be of service just ask - especially if you can not afford to pay for expert advice.

Their target audiences are:

• Merchants interested in generating leads Internationally through cost per view (CPM), cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL) campaigns

• Publishers experienced in lead generation with large traffic volume and readers in the US, UK, Canada (French & English speaking), Germany, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand

INTERNATIONAL REACH:

AdJump – (Twitter) – continues to grow their reach in International markets. Merchants expanding Internationally and publishers and affiliate marketers with readers in these specific countries can view AdJump’s current list size and reach below:

COUNTRY – CURRENT LIST SIZE – REACH ACROSS ALL CHANNELS:

• Australia - 1,140,000 – Over 6 million
• Canada (English) - 1,100,000 -Over 8 million
• Canada (French) - 321,000 – Over 2 million
• Germany – 27,000 – Over 1 million
• Ireland – 65,000 – Over 500,000
• New Zealand – 90,000 – Over 600,000
• United Kingdom (UK) – 1,2 00,000 – Over 12 million
• United States (US) – 220,000 – Over 20 million

BENEFITS TO MERCHANTS:

• Multiple online advertising distribution channels: email marketing, banners, search, social networking, affiliate marketing
• Adjump specializes in providing quality leads based on your target demographics: age, gender, marital status, children, language, other
• They can target multiple verticals at once to get the highest quality leads
• Geographic targeting by location: country, province/state, city, postal code
• Offers cost per view, cost per click, cost per acquisition or cost per lead, or a combination

BENEFITS TO PUBLISHERS:

• Quality offers for experienced lead generation providers with large volumes of traffic in the U.S., U.K., French Canada, English Canada, Germany, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand.
• Ad Jump has extensive experience creating optimized advertising campaigns for maximum conversions

Let adjump create the right cost per view (CPM), cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL) campaign for you!

Read testimonials from their clients.

MORE ABOUT ADJUMP:

• Affiliate Marketing Expert Murray Newlands – (Twitter) – AdJump International Lead Generation
• Affiliate Marketer Logan Thompson – (Twitter) – AdJump Lead Generation
• Izea Insider BenSpark – (Twitter) – AdJump International Lead Generation Specialists

Couples spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year getting married … and that number is about to get bigger.

Regardless of your current business, you may be able to position products or services for the predicted wedding boom.

U.S. Average Wedding Cost By Year 1945 - 2009/Q3 ~ Graph provided by TheWeddingReport.com

At least 3.8 million children have been born each year since 1987 in the U.S. Because the average U.S. woman marries at 25 and these women start turning 23 in 2010, they will start planning their weddings soon.

Graph of U.S. Weddings by Year 1945-2008 in Millions - Attribution TheWeddingReport.com

Weddings mean huge opportunities for wedding clothing, accessories, catering, wedding planners, flower shops, honeymoon planners, travel and gifts. There is also a visible increase in sales related to gay weddings as more states legalize same sex marriages.

A huge wedding boom will start soon and last for at least 22 years.

The good news is there is much available wedding market research and many strong existing online markets you can use to greatly increase your visibility now to be positioned during this wedding boom.

Estimated Median Age at First Marriage - Click image for full Bridal News Network Wedding Trend Report (PDF)

The bad news – which is actually good for some including destination weddings and wedding DJs – is the economy is changing spending patterns so to maximize your results you will want to stay ahead of these wedding trends.

Wedding planners are consistently reporting an increase in the number of weddings but a decrease in the amount spent and more interest in bargain shopping, requests for discounts, and brides trying to save using do it yourself or having friends take on some responsibilities.

According to The Wedding Report, wedding spending is estimated to be down about 6-8% across the board in 2009, then grow by about 6% by 2014. Number of weddings is estimated to grow by 1.2% in 2009 and 5% by 2014. These numbers will vary by market. [I believe they mean geographic area.]

The fastest way to grow wedding related business is through identifying and using some of the very strong wedding niche sites that already have the lion’s share of the traffic.

Top Wedding Sites by Compete Traffic - TheKnot, WeddingWire, MyWedding and Wedding Bee - click to enlarge

According to traffic numbers from Compete, the top Wedding sites by traffic are TheKnot, WeddingWire, MyWedding, WeddingBee (shown above) and  ProjectWedding, OneWed, WeddingMapper and 1WeddingSource (below).

Compete Traffic Comparison for Wedding Sites ProjectWedding, OneWed, WeddingMapper, 1WeddingSource and WeddingIMC - Click to enlarge

Although the graphs above reveal wedding niche sites with more current traffic, of these wedding sites the one we feel is most promising is OneWed. They have an excellent reputation and are very creative and active in Social Media.

Advertisers will find them very pro-active in following up and collaborating and their knowledge of the wedding industry is exceptional.

Did you know that January is the top month for wedding planning because so many get engaged over the holidays?

OneWed is the force behind Matrimony Monday, Kicking Off the Prime Wedding Planning Season on the Second Annual Matrimony Monday. Their Press release includes this quote according to TheWeddingReport.com:

“Approximately 35-40 percent (550,000-650,000) of engagements in the US take place during the winter holiday season between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day*. Thanks to the romantic nature of the holiday season, the majority of proposals take place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, making the first Monday back at work the peak time to start searching online for planning ideas and inspiration.”

Now is the time to get moving in your wedding related promotions. We will be writing much more about OneWed and why we will be working with them and also about Bridaluxe, an exceptional wedding affiliate program that allows any blogger to add a fully stocked Wedding Store with one line of code.

Read how much easier Bridaluxe is for affiliates in Derek Semmler’s excellent review of the Bridaluxe wedding affiliate program.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH:

[NOTE: *Some demographic predictions data used in this post came from http://www.ideablob.com/posts/366 which is no longer available due to the bankruptcy of their parent company.]

• ClickNewz on Issues with StomperNet
• Inside The Internet Marketing Mind – see comments about StomperNet

Congratulations Murray Newlands - Finalist for Best Blogger - Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award

Congratulations to Affiliate Marketing Expert Murray Newlands on being selected one of  three finalists for the 2010 Best Blogger Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award.

Murray is also one of the affiliate marketing speakers on the 2010 Affiliate Summit West Agenda.

Gold and Platinum Pass Holders can hear what Murray and the other speakers listed below have to share about this topic:

Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO (Session 2a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm) ~ Learn to maximize affiliate commissions using blogging, increasing your community, and utilizing SEO.

MONETIZING BLOGS for AFFILIATE MARKETING & SEO SPEAKERS:

• Kristopher B. Jones, President, Pepperjam Network, A GSI Commerce Company (Twitter @pepperjamceo) (Moderator)
• Drew Bennett, Professional Blogger, BenSpark.com (Twitter @BenSpark)
• John Carcutt, SEO Manager, MediaWhiz (Twitter @JohnCarcutt)
• Tim Jones, Owner, TheRealTimJones.com (Twitter @TheRealTimJones)
• Murray Ross Newlands, Founder, Affiliate Heat (Twitter @murraynewlands)

If you see Murray at Affiliate Summit Say Hello

There are so many excellent sessions occurring simultaneously at Affiliate Summit attendees may find it really challenging to decide between them.

If you want to know more about Murray read this Murray Newlands interview written by Lynn Terry – (Twitter) – at the  ClickNewz Internet Marketing Blog. Be sure to check out Lynn’s Internet Marketing Product Reviews.

Will you be at Affiliate Summit? Even if you can’t attend that session do look Murray up. I’ll include his photo here so you can find him more easily.

Affiliate Blogger Joe Sousa of  What Does Joe Think shared his insights on who the winners of the 2010 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards may be – thanks ReveNews for alerting us.  Who do you think will win?