Why Is Twitter Important?
Nov 19th
Lately, ive been using twitter quite a bit before class, during boring sections of class and in between classes on my ipod touch or my phone. If you’re not being stalked by me on twitter, I mean followed by me on twitter, then you need to add me so I can follow you too.
At first, I didn’t understand the concept of twitter but I think its really fun and highly useful to a blogger, not only for marketing but also communication/interaction and getting information or insight on several issues.
Marketing - if you have a new interesting post then you can always link to it on twitter to help get more attention at no cost. You can really reach out to people and twitter is a great tool to help you accomplish that. This is even useful for you to promote your ebook, contests, new blogs and products that you may be selling. Its important to know however, that marketing does not mean spamming and you can be banned from twitter and you definitely wouldnt want that.
Communication - the main reason I have started to use twitter, is because I can communicate with my followers and readers. This is a great way to interact with your readers and have one on one communication with your readers which helps improve your appeal in terms of approachability. I enjoy messaging and communicating with other bloggers because it helps me stay in touch with the news in the blogosphere. Its a great way to stay updated and its faster too!
Getting information - sometimes when you need a quick opinion or you want a restaurant suggestion then its very easy to ask your followers on twitter. For example my buddy Joe from imwithjoe.com asked this on twitter:
It makes it very easy for you to conduct short polls, get opinions or suggestions. This does require you to have a fairly large number of followers — atleast 100+ but even having that many followers doesn’t take much time and is simple to accomplish if you Sony take your eyes off the prize.
So basically, I’m starting to understand not only how convenient twitter is but how useful it can be if applied for the right purpose. I hope you liked this post and if you aren’t following me on twitter then you should definitely get on board and follow me by clicking here. Stay tuned for the next post tomorrow! Happy Wednesday!
Basics of An Idea & Leaderboard Update
Nov 17th
Market Leverage Contest Leaderboard Update
First off, let me get to the leaderboard update. This update is as of today of all the contestants that are entered. There are currently 5 contestants with the top 2 contestants running very close to each other. Here is the leaderboard:
1026 – $1,213.70
1024 – $1,017.50
1025 – $25.00
1023 – $13.05
1027 – $12.75
1028 – $0
The contest is running pretty well and if you haven’t entered then please do so by going to the original post or send me an email with your ML Publisher ID and you’ll be added in.
Basics Of An Idea
Today, I wanted to talk about the basics of an idea. I mean think about it, everything that we do as bloggers involves an idea. The idea to start the blog with a current theme, the ideas that we put into developing our posts and even the ideas that we use every day during our work. We’re surrounded by ideas and I wanted to talk about a few key aspects of a good idea, so lets begin.
1) Innovative – As any entrepreneur will tell you, ideas are only successful if they are innovative. This may not really pertain to day-to-day ideas but it certainly can. Innovative ideas are those that not only think outside the box but they also find new and unique ways to accomplish a common task. Example, think about Amazon, they started off as an online book catalog and the reason that it worked was because nobody else had thought about having a bookstore online. Thats innovation. Its creating a new path where one didn’t previously exist.
2) Find A Solution – Good Ideas help find solutions to problems or to situations that may or may not be simple but tend to be a problem. Ex. Think about the clips that you use on bags of potato chips, they’re simple yet without them, the chips could get stale. Good ideas find solutions to problems that you don’t really think are that big of a deal till someone else comes up with the solution. I mean, how many times do you think to yourself, “well, I could have come up with that”. Thats what a good idea is – it finds a solution.
3) Relevant & Feasible – Good ideas for day-to-day use need to be relevant and feasible. They need to be applicable to the job at hand and most importantly they need to be feasible. When I say relevant, I mean that if youre looking for ideas that have to do with cell phones, you cannot come up with ideas that have to do with items similar to cell phones like cordless phones or home phones. Feasible means that the idea you come up with can actually be created. In the sense that, if youre looking at ideas that have to do with traveling, you don’t suggest ideas that involve jetpacks (even though some do exist), its possible but its not necessarily feasible for what youre looking for.
So there you have it. Ideas are part of every day life and it comes in handy with blogging too. I mean everything has an idea behind it. So I hope you liked my list and now you have the leaderboard updated so you guys can have a look at that as well. Sorry for the delay in having it posted. I’m finally back to blogging now that I don’t have school to deal with for the next few weeks. Hope you guys had a great Monday.
Managing Your Time
Nov 15th
As many of you know, I have been busy with school for a long time now and I apologize for keeping you waiting but some things just have to be done. It was a hectic past 3 weeks but it has finally come to a close with only a 120 page report due later this week which is well under way. I have done exceptionally well on all my exams (just so you know, I scored over 90% on all of them) and my GMAT exam which is a required exam for an MBA also went very well. Again, I score over 90% on the GMAT as well which is quite a big achievement, the way I see it. I think it was a good birthday present after all!
Since all this has been going on in my life, I decided to talk about how it is that I manage my time. Theres just so many things to do and sometimes I know that I feel that I hope that there were more hours in the day. Lets see if you agree with how I manage my time:
1) To-Do List - Everyone has a cell phone and if you don’t, then all it takes is a pen and paper to create a to-do list. A To-Do list can help you keep track of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. If you are like me, my cell phone, ipod and my computer are all equipped with a to-do list so that I can make sure to keep track of everything that I need to get done.
2) Calendar – As silly as this sounds, a calendar is really helpful for someone like me who is a student or even a professional who is busy working. I print out blank calendars from the internet, specificially from this website, and then use it as a guide to match what I need to get done by what date. I use it to make sure that my assignments are turned in on time and I know several individuals who use it at work to keep track of project and report deadlines. Its really handy and it sounds really simple but it can really help you out tremendously if you use one.
3) Drive/Motivation – This last point can be controversial if you say that you’ve never been the “driven type” but its actually controllable. I know that I am super motivated to finish whatever I need to do. I dont take no for an answer and try to accomplish all my tasks. This involves being motivated and driven towards accomplishing the goals that you set for yourself. If I have something to do, I set my mind to completing it and I always make it happen.
So hopefully you’ve enjoyed this post. I know that it was short but I wanted to give you guys an update and see what you think about the things that help you manage your time. Keep me posted and Thanks again for all your emails and support. I greatly appreciate it!
Leaderboard & Update
Nov 11th
So guys, I know I have been around very little for the past week or two but I’ve had exams and this friday is my GMAT which is an important exam in order to do your MBA. I have been studying the whole last week and will be studying the entire week ahead in order to be well prepared so wish me luck. I’ll be back on board as soon as the exam is over.
For now however, I wanted to give you an update about the contest. So far there have been 4 entries and if you have considered entering then you might want to enter because your chances of winning are quite high. I will be updating the leaderboard every friday or monday and keeping you updated. Here is the leaderboard and if you haven’t entered yet, please do so by clicking here.
1023 $0.00
1024 $0.00
1025 $0.00
1026 $0.00
Since I have been busy with things going on around me, let me ask you how things are with you? I’ve always had slight down weeks where I’m unable to blog as much but my readers have been supportive enough to be around and wait for me to make a return. I am very thankful for that. Let me know how you guys have been and if I haven’t heard from you, this would be a good time to catch up because I look for small distractions during my study time! Anyway, hope you guys have a great week and I apologize again for the delay but I thank you guys for still being around! Have a good one!
Free Advertising Credits
Nov 8th
I noticed that some of you were a little skeptical in wanting to enter the contest that I have running so I decided to give you a reason to experiment with affiliate marketing. Yesterday, I mentioned that in order to make money, you have to spend money and because I want to help you out, I’ve put together a list of a few ad networks that are offering free advertising credits for you to try them out.
I have tried out Adwords and Facebook but in this list I’ll also be including the MSN AdCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing as well. This post includes a total of $225 worth of Ad credits for all the major publishing networks out there. Here is a list:
Facebook – $100
To get your $100 Facebook credit, you have to follow a few steps and to help you out, I’ve created a small step-by-step list for you since this one will require you to be familiar with facebook a little. First off, you have to have a facebook account before you are able to do this but here are the steps:
1) Add the VISA Business Network application and complete their registration process
2) Once the registration process is complete, wait for an email
3) The email will include a code such as 1111-2222-3333-4444
4) In Facebook, at the bottom of any page it will say “Advertising”
5) Once you’ve set up your ads click on the Billing tab at the top
6) Then click on “Funding Sources” and select “Enter Coupon Code”
7) Your funds will be added to your account
Google Adwords – $50
Google Adwords, MSN Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing as not as complicated as Facebook in order to get your free credit however, Facebook does offer a lot more money to experiment with. Adwords is offering $50 and all you have to do is sign up by clicking on this link. You will be required to pay a $5 activation fee.
MSN AdCenter – $50
MSN AdCenter is also currently offering $50 and all you have to do to receive your free credit is click on this link and complete the sign up process in order to get started. You will be required to pay $5 as an activation charge which is quite common and click here to sign up.
Yahoo Search Marketing – $25
Yahoo offers a much smaller advertising credit compared to the others and I’m not really sure why considering that it does compete with the rest but based on my research, they started off at $200 of free credit and have slowly trickled down to $25. Either way, it is something and can help you get started and all you have to do is click here.
Conclusion
So hopefully this post can help you get started by providing you with quite a bit of free credit so that you don’t have to risk as much money. Be sure to know that some networks will ask you for daily spending limits instead of monthly spending limits so keep monitoring it in order to avoid spending too much of your own money without realizing it. Either way, its not that complicated and if I can do it, then anyone can! Hope you guys have a great weekend!
