Are you using SezWho on your blog?

July 31, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 22 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Communities, Social Networking, WordPress 

This morning, while registering this blog with BlogCatalog, I discovered something new called SezWho. It looked interesting, so I did a little more research and decided to implement it on 21st Century Affiliate Marketing.

What is SezWho?

From their FAQs page:


SezWho is a universal profile service that engages your community and enables content discovery. SezWho is all about making the Social Web truly social.

SezWho enables content rating, universal user profiles, and reputation-based content discovery to be added to any social media site. The SezWho service works with blogs, forums, wikis, video/picture sharing sites, discussion boards and anywhere else where people contribute content and engage in conversations.
SezWho is focused on delivering benefits to all participants in social media interactions:

* Readers can easily distinguish credible content and commentary, and they can follow contributors as they participate on social media sites across the web

* Contributors gain web-wide recognition for their insights and expertise, with a universal profile that accumulates a record of all their contributions, across all communities

* Site-Owners and Publishers can spotlight and leverage informative, high-quality content to engage their communities and drive traffic

Since this blog is powered by WordPress 2.6 and uses a widget-enabled theme, installing SezWho was easy and quick.

After downloading the plug-in from a link on BlogCatalog, it was just a matter of uploading it to my server, activating the plugin, adding the key for the API, and setting some preferences. Since I went with the default settings, it took no time at all once the plugin was uploaded.

I experimented with adding the two widgets and finally settled (for now) on showing both the Red Carpet (people who have left comments) and the Badge (information about me) in the left column.

Now, when you visit the 21st Century Affiliate Marketing blog, you are able to rate each post I write. I invite and encourage you to do so. I appreciate the feedback.

Also, whenever anyone leaves a comment, other readers can rank the quality of the comment.

(You are not allowed to rate your own posts or comments, of course.)

I’m hoping this will encourage more high quality comments as I blog more frequently. It has taken some time to get this blog configured as I wanted, so now I get to write more. I hope you’ll feel free to rate any posts and comments, and to leave comments of your own.

Together, we can learn more about affiliate marketing in the 21st century and when you leave a comment, you’ll get a link back to your site and a link to the comments and posts you’ve made elsewhere, based on information SezWho has gathered across the web.

For example, if you look at the comments to a post, each commentor will have their name listed with a link to their site (if they entered it when making the comment). Following that is a link that says “Who am I?” If you hover your mouse pointer over that text, or click it, you’ll learn more about that person’s postings and comments across multiple blogs.

I think that’s going to be useful – at least, to me – because I like to learn from people who are well-informed.

I don’t know for sure, since SezWho has been installed for only a few hours on this blog, but I think I’ll find it interesting and helpful.

If you want to add SezWho to your blog, just log in to BlogCatalog.com and click the Manage Blogs link. If you have multiple blogs listed, click on the Manage link to the right of the Blog’s name.

That opens a new page where you’ll see a link to SezWho just to the right of the Edit Your Blog heading.

Follow the directions in that section to register for SezWho and to get the plugin. I can’t guarantee it will be as easy for you to install as it was for me, because I held my mouth just right, bit the tip of my tongue, and all the stars were aligned just right when I went through the process. (grin)

Will SezWho make a difference with how you interact when you visit this blog? I don’t know. I hope it encourages more interaction.

What do you think? I hope you’ll comment on this and see how it works for you, too.

Act on your dream!

JD

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New SFI Marketing Group Store Update

July 31, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Downline Builders, Malls and Portals, Network Marketing, Private Success Team, SFI Marketing Group 

On July 29, 2008, Lori Robinson, Administrator for the SFI Discussion Board, posted an announcement: New SFI Store Update.

Here’s what Lori had to say:


For our many affiliates anxiously awaiting the unveiling of the new SFI store (and for brand new affiliates who may not have heard about the coming new store), here’s an update of some of the exciting features everyone will be enjoying soon:

• ONE store for everything. The new store will service both SFI affiliates and retail customers alike. Everything from nutritional products to Internet services to SFI promotional materials.

• Thousands (soon tens of thousands) of new products in dozens of new categories, plus closeouts, collectables and hard-to-find items available nowhere else.

• Earn instant SVP on EVERY product in the store…including all SFI promotional materials like X-Cards, postcards, business cards, etc.

• Exclusive, money-saving daily deals (“Deal Of The Day”).

• Special weekly/monthly sales with special discount prices.

• New products added daily.

• You can promote the store as a whole, or any individual product in the store, or any department, or any selection of products of your choosing.

• No longer do high shipping costs need to get in the way of becoming EA or making sales internationally. This is because the new SFI store will be utilizing new partner companies who will be shipping to you directly from outlets around the world. Additionally, through the store’s Private Seller program, you can locate sellers and products located in your same country—even the same city!

• Because of how it’s being built, virtually anything can be added and sold in the store. Goods, services, downloadable software and media, you name it! The sky’s the limit!

• The new SFI store also allows you to sell YOUR stuff. Through the new store’s Private Seller program you can quickly, easily, and cheaply convert stuff you no longer want or need…into stuff you do! List your stuff at the new store, and sell for cash….or for any product in the store. You can even earn EA status each month selling unwanted items around your house! Use the new SFI store as your online garage sale to clean out your closets, attics and garages! List and sell dozens or even hundreds of miscellaneous items easily.

• Hot, new marketing program will allow you to easily generate lifetime retail customers by the hundreds! And earning EA status though retail sales will have never been simpler or easier!

• Standing Orders, on thousands of products, will be available both to affiliates AND retail customers. If you place an order containing any Standing Order-Eligible product, you’ll automatically be alerted how to set up a Standing Order for that item in seconds.

These are just SOME of the amazing features the new SFI store will come with. And there are many, many, many more. Not only that, the new store is also going to usher in some powerful new enhancements to the overall SFI program including substantial simplification, bigger bonuses, and more incentives to become and remain an EA.

Stay tuned for further details!

L. Robison

Needless to say, this announcement continues to pique my interest.

Ever since Gery Carson, President of SFI, announced this new, not-yet-opened ecommerce store, I’ve been waiting with bated breath to see if it lives up to my expectations.

Lately, I haven’t been doing much promotion of SFI products, because I don’t want to get things in place and then have to change everything when the new store opens.

So, instead of advertising for retail sales, I’ve been working on building a larger downline of affiliates so we all can promote more when the ecommerce store opens.

If you like, you can subscribe to a short email series about how you can promote SFI Marketing Group using the Private Success Team downline builder.

(Update August 2009: Affiliate link removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

Originally, the store was supposed to open in late spring, 2008, but it has been delayed.

When asked about it, Gery Carson responded:


We’ve added many powerful features since originally announced so there is still a substantial amount of design and programming yet to do. Hence, an estimated arrival date is difficult to predict. It is well worth the wait I can assure you however.

When an affiliate asked if the new store will be open by Thanksgiving so we don’t miss the Christmas shopping season, Gery Carson answered:


Everything is progressing very nicely. So long as that continues, it should arrive well before Thanksgiving.

Now, anyone who has ever been involved in the development and implementation of a major ecommerce site knows that schedules can slip as new features are added and new problems surface.

So, I’m not concerned about a delay of a few months. I would much rather the new SFI store be opened when it’s ready, rather than being rushed to market just to meet an arbitrary goal date.

One of the things I find most intriguing about the new store is the increased availability of products and services that international affiliates can market. Shipping costs have made marketing SFI physical products cost prohibitive, and this includes the Veriuni line of health products, nutritional supplements, weight loss products, and all-natural cleaning products.

Many of these products are popular with customers in the United States, so I’m sure this has been frustrating for affiliates who live in other parts of the world.

I’m hoping there will be lots more products that can be marketed around the world as a result of the new store and the partner companies that will be shipping from many more locations than the current one in the United States.

I don’t mind recruiting new affiliates and building my downline, but that doesn’t increase my income nearly as much as promoting lots more products and services that can be bought by anyone at retail. I love making retail sales!

So, while I’m rather impatient and want to see this store, I’ll do my best to wait patiently until Gery announces the grand opening.

Then, if I like what I see, I’ll have a lot to say about the new SFI store as I explore ways to advertise and promote it and the products in it.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride. This might be a very interesting year for SFI.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Is the Firefox NoScript addon affecting your online marketing?

July 31, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Aweber Autoresponders, Blogs, Soaring4Traffic 

If you’re involved in online marketing, you’ve probably seen dozens of promotions for Sunny Sugg’s AllAboutAddons site.

I didn’t think much about it, because I don’t use but two or three addons with Firefox and one I don’t use is NoScript. So, I didn’t bother looking into it.

Then, I was reading Ray White’s Soaring4Traffic blog and his post about NoScript Revisited caught my attention.

I’m doing a lot of work lately building email series with Aweber for promoting the products and services I represent, and I use Aweber to broadcast new posts to this blog to anyone who subscribes using the form on the top-right of most pages, below my photo.

Aweber makes it easy to publish subscribe forms on your sites and you have the choice of using a javascript form (which is easier) or an HTML form (which doesn’t take any more work, but you can’t update what it says from your Aweber account).

I’ve been doing a lot of work with Aweber this week and I really didn’t want to lose that result because millions of people are using Firefox with the NoScript addon installed.

So, I’ve made sure that I’m using the HTML version of the subscription form in most places.

Do I think this is required? I really don’t know. I’m sure many people are using other browsers and many of the people using Firefox don’t have NoScript installed, like me.

Plus, some portion of the people who like NoScript have trained it to see what they want on a site, but I don’t know if they’d want to see my subscription form or not. I would like for them to see it, however.

So, I’m not trying to be alarming, but if you’re involved in affiliate marketing or building websites, you should probably be aware of the situation.

I am not an AllAboutAddons affliate, but Ray White is. You can visit the site by clicking the link in his NoScript Revisited article.

Even if you’re not interested in Sunny’s site, you should read what Ray has to say about his experiences with trying NoScript.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Twitter Updates for 2008-07-30

July 30, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Twitter 

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Twitter Updates for 2008-07-29

July 29, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Twitter 
  • @MTBby198 I’m a full-time blogger, webmaster, lensmaster, and play around with social networking when I have the time. #

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Private Success Team Update

July 29, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Downline Builders, Private Success Team, SFI Marketing Group, Soaring4Traffic, Traffic Exchanges 

Ray White announced earlier today that he has made major changes to the Private Success Team sign up page, including new graphics and a simpler design.

(Update August 2009: Affiliate link removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

Starting today, new Private Success Team members will only need to sign up for two programs rather than the three that were previously required.

SFI Marketing Group remains our main affiliate program and Soaring4Traffic is the traffic exchange that will be promoted to meet our traffic needs.

Ray just announced a new email series that will provide all Private Success Team members with a better understanding of what our goals are and the process we take to build everyone’s downline in both programs.

If you wish to start building your list and promote the Private Success Team system, the email series will be available for you to copy and modify. It is highly recommended that you sign up for this email series to better understand the direction we are taking.

You are invited to sign up to my customized version of the Private Success Team message series.

You may sign up here:

(Update August 2009: Affiliate link removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

This new email series is a total of eight messages spread over a period of about two weeks. Each member will be allowed and encouraged to copy the original messages and to create a customized series for you to promote the Private Success Team.

This is a great way to promote and build your list at the same time.

Ray added that we are in the process of adding more splash pages to our system in the near future.

This new email series will be encouraging new members to join us in the forum for questions, comments, or concerns. We sincerely hope that you will join us so we can work together to help each other build our teams and grow our businesses.

Please drop by the forum at your earliest convenience. If you are not already a member of the forum, come and join us right away.

Ray has been hinting that activity in the forum can be rewarding as he has plans to reward those who participate.

We hope you join us in the Private Success Team and start promoting it right away. Let’s get back to business and work together to build this team.

By the way, don’t forget to login to your Soaring4Traffic members area, click the Downline Builder link in the left column, and be sure to enter your referral username for the Private Success Team.

We will be sending more members to the downline builder, so don’t miss out on getting a referral.

Similarly, the traffic exchange downline builder in Soaring4Traffic will be promoted for our new Private Success Team members to join other traffic exchanges. Make sure you have your referral IDs entered.

I’ve created a brand new lens on Squidoo.com to help promote the Private Success Team and hope you’ll visit and share your opinions and feedback.

Come join our Private Success Team and we look forward to seeing you in the forum.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Twitter Updates for 2008-07-28

July 28, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Twitter 
  • @KatMccarthy Hi Kat. Mom’s not doing nearly as well as she was even a couple of months ago. It’s getting harder to care for her. #
  • @KatMccarthy Thank you Kat. Your cyber hug is very welcome and does help. Thank you. I hope you have a great day! #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-07-26

July 26, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Twitter 
  • @GoodAdvice I agree. The new Facebook look will take some getting used to, and some tweaking to show what I want. No time this morning. #
  • We’re talking about social networking for businesses on Ryze. Want to join in? http://tinyurl.com/65w6st #
  • @KatMccarthy Welcome to Twitter! #
  • @KatMccarthy Hi Kat. I’m spending most of my time caring for Mom and trying to get in some work (or sleep) when I can. #
  • @michaelslogan Welcome aboard! #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-07-24

July 24, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Twitter 
  • I just updated my Squidoo page: Promote Your CafePress Store / http://tinyurl.com/5wl3yc #
  • @Moonvine Hi Joan, I’m getting regular posts from you. They’re working for me. #
  • I just updated my Squidoo page: Should You Tweet Your Blog? / http://tinyurl.com/68qljq #

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Should you tweet your blog? Part 2

July 24, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Business Networking, Squidoo Lenses, Twitter 

After installing TweetMyBlog a couple of days ago and testing it, I found some things I like and dislike about it.

While I still feel comfortable recommending it as a useful tool that works exactly as advertised, I’m not sure it’s the tool I want to use for notifying my Twitter followers about new posts on this blog.

So, based on a recommendation by thefluffanutta, I’m now testing Twitter Tools to see if it does a better job of what I want.

So far, I’ve tested three widgets to show my Tweets in the blog’s sidebar. I’ve used the code provided by Twitter, the widget from TweetMyBlog, and the Twitter Tools widget. Of these three, I think the Twitter Tools widget is much better.

This post will be the first one that is automatically tweeted by Twitter Tools, so I won’t know what I think of it until I’ve used it more.

I’ve expanded my Squidoo lens, Should You Tweet Your Blog, a great deal today. Now, rather than just focusing upon TweetMyBlog, I’m thinking more about the process of automatically having your blog post to Twitter whenever you post to your blog.

Is this a good idea or not?

So, I’ve added several new polls and another duel where you are free to express your opinion. I’ve also added a Plexo link list so you can link to your blog, in addition to the link list that was already on the lens for linking to your Twitter profile.

If you have a few minutes, I hope you’ll visit Should You Tweet Your Blog and post your opinions and comments.

I’m still not sure which tool I’ll use to tweet my new blog posts, if I use any at all.

I may revert to tweeting manually. I don’t know, yet.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

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