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
