Bloggers & Sex Go Dark

A recent Brazilian YouTube sex scandal threatened to close down every WordPress blog around the world.

Did you hear about it? It's already called "YouTube Gate" -- apparently a spicy sex scene was posted on YouTube and someone discussed it on a WordPress-hosted blog.

The problem is the Brazillian courts placed a ban on viewing the IP address of the entire WordPress website...

... And that means potentially thousands of bloggers can't have their content shown in their country.

Even worse, this isn't the first time a violation like this closed down an entire network of blogs.

But the bottom line is this should be a wakeup call for those who rely on hosted blogs (like WordPress) to tweak their strategy and avoid getting their own blogs banned.

The good news is the fix is simple... just host WordPress on your own server (rather than hosting it on the WordPress site).

Getting WordPress installed on your own site is now a snap... just take advantage of John Saya's FREE WordPress autoinstaller.

http://www.cnotes.com/r/wordpress.html

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail.

Mike Corso
Cool Site of the Day
e-mail

P.S. This blog is currently hosted on Google's Blogger, however, I've tweaked it so that the URL shows MY domain (coolsite.com) rather than the common 'blogspot.whatever.com'. Regardless, I'll probably graduate to Wordpress soon and will certainly lean on John and his autoinstaller for help.

P.P.S. Find me on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Myspace

re: phone call tomorrow

What did you think of that headline? Consider it a gift from me and Markus Allen (of Stump Markus fame).

Let me explain: For several years, Markus Allen has been testing EVERYTHING when it comes to marketing. Subject lines are just one of the things that Markus is obsessed with. He tells me 're: phone call tomorrow' is a clear winner when he wants to get his e-mails opened.

Here's a funny story: one of Markus' other 'Subject' line winners is 'Holy crap...' Markus told me about 'Holy crap...' during our phone call last Thursday. Now, as many of you are aware, I thought Markus said 'Totally crap...' instead of 'Holy crap...' so I used 'Totally crap...' in the 'Subject' when I alerted you that last week's post was ready on coolsite.com

Guess what? 'Totally crap...' is a great 'Subject' line also! Checking my stats, I see that the 'open rate' for 'Totally crap...' was 80% higher than my average 'open rate' while the number of clicks skyrocketed by over 400%! (note: another factor for the increased clicks was that you HAD to go to coolsite.com for the message. In prior messages, I included most of the blog post inside the e-mail message. Also, many of you thought I was referring to your web sites--that they were 'totally crap' so you were further compelled to visit. Sorry for that confusion but a good lesson was learned all around).

However you slice it, 'Totally crap...' is an attention getter and worth testing (sparingly, of course).

For a boatload of similarly crafty marketing tips, I highly recommend that you tune in to Markus' live podcast, Stump Markus, this Thursday at 12:00PM EST (details can be found here).

They say there's 'no free lunch'? Listening to Markus Allen deliver a free brain dump for 120 minutes is about as good a deal as you're gonna find anywhere.

BTW, here's a sampling of what Markus and I covered over 58-minutes during last week's podcast (archived on this and Markus' site):

• How to make money recording yourself talking...
• List of affiliate networks that pay on time...
• The benefits of giving away free information to gain loyal readership...
• List of the top social networks...
• How to submit your content to over 40 social networks in just a click...
• The best affiliate programs (that pay on time)...
• Strategies to get your email opened...
• The most important sentence of your email broadcast...
• Advantages of pitch-free emails...
• Is your website URL blacklisted?
• Using heatmap studies for higher response...
• The dangers of emails longer than 65 characters wide...
• Why programmers are terrible marketers...
• How to attract over 1,000 precisely targeted leads to your site in about 50 days...
• The most profitable pay per lead program I've ever tested (revealed)...

Finally, I have a new poll on the site (right panel) that requires 10 seconds of your time (BTW, thanks to all who answered last week's poll about font sizes; I went with the smaller font as you requested)

Until next time,

Mike Corso
Cool Site of the Day

P.S. Be sure to regularly check my 'Resources' and 'Affiliate Opportunities' section in the right panel. I usually update it every week with very useful information.

Interview with Marcus Allen

Just a quick post to let you know about an interview I did with Markus Allen yesterday (4/10/08). To listen, click the the triangle below:

Facebook, Search Engine Traffic & More...

All sorts of things going on today...

First off, I finally started editing my Facebook page. I'll have a lot to say about 'Web 2.0/Social Marketing' stuff in the near future but for now I suggest you put up a Facebook page. It's a good way to connect with friends and business contacts.

I also added Twitter to my Facebook page (you'll see that gadget located halfway down the right side of my Facebook page). Twitter is simply a way for people to see what you're up to and for you to see what other people are up to (by doing so, you may see an opportunity to contact someone to discuss a project you're working on).

Bottom line regarding the above: just start playing with these tools (if you aren't already). Their usefulness will become apparent.


Cool Site of the Day VIP Program

I'm still working on launching the Cool Site of the Day VIP program. I've got most of the details ironed out but am considering hiring a copywriter to optimize the intro page. BTW, if you think this is something I should open up to the group (over 7,000 of you!), by all means, post your opinion as a 'comment' below (if you're reading this on the blog). This might actually be a great way for us to learn A LOT from each other.


Copywriting (very important topic)

Speaking of copywriters, here are some very useful TAGS from my Del.icio.us account:

• The Gary Halbert Newsletter - Gary was considered by many to be one of the best copywriters out there. He passed away at a way too early age. Another copywriter who is legendary is John Carlton (be sure to sign up for John's '7 Marketing Strategy Lessons')
  
  
• GoCopyWriting
  
  
• Visuwords - tell me this won't help with your vocabulary.
  
  
• GetMeContent - haven't used them yet but it seems like a good place to outsource writing projects (I'll be writing about the importance of outsourcing in a future post)
  
  
• Copywriter Catalog - recently started by a nice guy, Jason Leister. Wish I could remember how we connected.

Shoemoney

I recently told you about WebmasterRadio.fm. Well, lately I've been tuning in every day; there are two shows worth checking out: Affiliate Thing (hosted by Lisa Picarille of Revenue Magazine and Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit) and The Shoemoney Show hosted by Super Affiliate Jeremy Shoemaker. I listen during breakfast and lunch.


Affiliate Opportunity

I was listening to one of my favorite marketing geeks, Markus Allen, the other day (this guy lives and breathes marketing - offline and online). He's rather cynical about a handful of things related to affiliate marketing but one product he's absolutely behind is CGI Connection. Now, before I get into why you should be marketing CGI Connection, I want to point out that I stand behind all the Affiliate Opportunities listed on the right panel of the coolsite.com blog.

With that said, here's why I love CGI Connection: I'm not only an affiliate marketer for this great product but a customer as well. Here's what the guy behind CGI Connection, John Saya, offers: royalty-free web software scripts. Use any of his hundreds of scripts to simply make a better web site. If don't know how to program (like me) but need an easy way to get cool software onto your web site then CGI Connection is like a dream come true. So, become a customer AND an affiliate. You can't go wrong (especially if you take advantage of WMC to drive traffic to your affiliate link. See how it all ties together?)


Web Marketing Concepts

Speaking of which, if you're using Web Marketing Concepts to generate search engine traffic to your web site, here's an update I just got from the developer, Jim MacKinlay: when you set up your domain and 10 subdomains, only insert 200-300 keywords initially and then return to add the remaining keywords (to get to 500) about a month later. Any questions, feel free to contact me. And, oh yeah, that 'process map' for WMC is coming!

Finally, please answer my super short poll about font size preferences (left panel).

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Is it Friday?

Same old story: I aim to post something on Thursday and I'm either scrambling late Thursday night or, as in this case, by the end of the day on Friday. Good thing I have nothing to sell--you've heard it before: send your 'pitch' e-mails on Tuesday or Wednesday when people are more likely to read them.


Cool Site of the Day VIP

Anyway, I'm deep into creating a 'Cool Site of the Day VIP' program so I've only got time to share just a few nuggets with you today.

By the way, the 'Cool Site of the Day VIP' program will enable online business folk like yourself to not only submit a website for review but also opt-in for a pretty impressive monthly consulting/coaching package offered by yours truly. It won't be for everyone but for those who sign-up (and I'll only be able to offer it to less than 50 people), it promises to over-deliver (in other words, I'm going to bust my rear to make sure that NO ONE takes me up on my "100% money back" guarantee).


Search Engine Traffic

I take my hat off to all of you who have wisely chosen to open an account with Web Marketing Concepts. I've fielded a bunch of calls from you over the past several days and I look forward to helping as many of you as possible get the most out of this exceptional search engine marketing tool. And, oh yeah, I'll get to that WMC mindmap soon!

Speaking of mindmaps, if you read the The Internet Business Manifesto, you learned the importance of 'process mapping' all the important routine things that you do in your web business and even personal life. I'll be sharing many process maps with you in the future. The software that I use for mapping is MindJet. Play around with it--you'll be amazed at how well a good map can focus your thinking and ACTIONS.


Pretty Cool Tool

So I get an e-mail from Bill at the Web Marketing Association announcing their upcoming Awards. I see they're talking up a design firm that created the UPS Whiteboard. Can't be that cool or can it? I clicked around and discovered a very cool way to send a message to someone when you want that someone to REMEMBER YOU.

Here's what you do, go to UPS Whiteboard and select the little navigator thingy on the bottom right. Then select 'Break Room'. On the next screen, select 'Create Your Own Whiteboard'. Tell me that delivery system won't capture your intended recipient's attention. I sent a message to my wife but could easily see using it to communicate a simple 'thank you' or 'reminder' to a current or prospective client.


From My Del.icio.us 'tool' TAGS:

1. Web Page Speed Report
2. Formspring (great for adding surveys and polls)
3. Touchgraph (dangerously addictive)
4. Adimpact (GREAT way to get people to do things on your site)

Have a great weekend!

Mike

---

Teleseminar - Make Time for This!

I just got this e-mail from Jim at Web Marketing Concepts.

I'm working on a big post for you (unrelated to WMC) but felt I had to get this information to you ASAP.

Here's Jim's message:

"We are pleased to announce that Web Marketing Concepts will be holding a Members Only Telesemiar on Wednesday April 2, 2008 at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. During this 90-minute event, we will be welcoming the new members that have joined during the last month and discussing how you can best use the Web Marketing Concepts system.

We will also be talking about how the Affiliate Content Generator and the Link Expander programs work together to improve your search engine rankings. We will conclude with a Question and Answer session to deal with any questions you may have about Web Marketing Concepts."

Listen, I'm not kidding around, if you haven't signed up for WMC yet you're only hurting yourself. At some point Jim is going to have to shut off all new memberships (or raise the price of entry way beyond what the average webmaster can afford).

As I've said before, with WMC, you will start generating ridiculous amounts of traffic within 45-60 days; if you don't, simply cancel your account. Trust me, it's worth the VERY SMALL risk.

Anyway, I gotta get back to some web page editing. Join WMC today and don't miss the free teleseminar tomorrow night (Wednesday 4/2/08 at 8PM EST).

Back at you on Thursday.

Mike

P.S. I know, you're probably skeptical. Right? How could something cost so little and deliver so much as WMC? Well, it gets even better: if you order WMC before tomorrow night's free teleseminar, I will personally walk you through the steps that I take (shortcuts, tricks, and all) when I setup my WMC campaigns (did I tell you that I currently have 10 separate WMC memberships/accounts!). All you have to do is e-mail me your phone number and your order confirmation number. Let me know a good time to call you and I will make an appointment for us to speak for 15 minutes before the weekend. My obsession with your success is real. Use me.

P.P.S. Here's a video tour Jim recently put together showing some of the nuts and bolts of his system. Worth a look.