Empire Avenue – the fun social networking stock market game

September 11, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 4 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Business Networking, Facebook, John Dilbeck, Musings, Social Networking

Now, for something a little different.

I’m a hard working guy and I spend most of my waking time working on my marketing business, writing blog posts, creating new pages on my websites, and interacting on some of the social networking sites, most notably: Facebook.

A couple of weeks ago, two of my friends were talking about a website where we can earn credit for what we’re already doing. Now, let me make it clear that we can’t earn money, but we earn value in our stock in this game, and we can earn eaves, which is what the site calls their virtual currency.

It’s like a social networking stock market and we earn by being active with our blogs and on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and others.

When you join Empire Avenue, you get some money to purchase “stock” in others who are playing the game, and there are a lot of people doing it. I bought stock in folks like Guy Kawasaki and Mari Smith and other well-known social networking “stars.”

(Note: we are not buying ownership in each other. It’s just a game.)

Folks bought shares of my stock, too, and that gave me more money to invest.

I’ve been buying more shares in the people who invested in me, as I earn more “money” with which to purchase their stock. It’s been a lot of fun.

I’m also buying stock in people I’ve never met before, based on recommendations from others who are playing the game.

I used to enjoy investing in the real stock market, and the Empire Avenue game offers a lot of the same fun with no financial risk.

It also provides another way to expose people to our various social networks and blog feeds.

You can add multiple RSS feeds to your Connections tab, but each feed needs to be endorsed by at least five people before you start getting credit for your blogging activities. And, the credit you receive for blogging is limited, because it’s just too easy for people to cheat by adding the RSS feed of a robotic “splog.”

I’m not playing the game to try to win it; I’m playing for fun and to expose my sites to more people.

I generally buy some shares of the people who invest in my stock, but don’t promise a quid pro quo.

I’ve also bought shares in the stock of some of my online friends who are not playing the game, yet. I can say I’m the first to buy their stock, and I get it at the absolute lowest price, should they decide to start playing the game.

If you’re already playing the Empire Avenue game, I’m still a good investment, but I’ll be crossing the $50 per share price shortly. Invest in me now, before the price goes up! (grin)

Seriously, I go there a couple of times per day and spend maybe five or ten minutes investing in more stock. It’s a nice, short break from work, and still does a little to promote my work. Since I enjoy combining work and fun, this is a good match.

It’s a bit confusing at first, but I’m starting to find my way around. That makes it even more enjoyable. I don’t think I’ll ever spend more than 15 or 20 minutes there on any given day, probably less, but it’s a nice break, now and then.

While it’s not for everyone, it makes it a little more fun to think about myself as representing my marketing business and it’s fun when someone at Empire Avenue buys stock in me.

If you’re looking for a site to purchase advertising and want to expose your sites and blogs to others who are active in social networking, there are ways to spend real money buying advertising and credits. I haven’t done any of that, and don’t have any plans to do so, at this time. I don’t know what I’ll do as I learn more about the site and all that’s available there.

Empire Avenue also has communities where you can interact with others who share the same interests. I don’t have time for that, so I haven’t tried it.

Join Empire Avenue and try it for yourself. It’s free, and you can sign in through your Facebook account, or create a separate Empire Avenue account. It’s your choice.

What about you?

Are you playing Empire Avenue? What do you think about it?

Act on your dream!

Tags: Empire Avenue, games, Social Networking, stock market

Sitesell is about to have 20,000 fans on Facebook

June 29, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 23 Comments
Filed under: Business Networking, Facebook, Sitesell and Site Build It

It was only three months ago that I wrote about Sitesell’s Facebook page being liked by 10,000 people. Now, they’re about to reach the 20,000 milestone. I think that’s remarkable.

Sitesell reaches 10,000 fans milestone on Facebook

Later, I wrote about how Facebook had closed their page with no warning, and then, just as mysteriously, had reinstated it just over a day later.

Your Facebook page – what would you do if it suddenly disappeared?

Last week, Sitesell hosted a live question and answer session with Michael Stelzner:

Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner – Live Q and A Session on Facebook

And, now, I’m writing about how they will pass the 20,000 fans milestone in the next day or two on their Facebook page.

How are they attracting so many people to their page? Why are so many people liking it?

I don’t know the answer for everyone, but I can tell you some of the reasons why I like their page and why I like the folks who make up the Sitesell business.

Sitesell UnderPromises and OverDelivers — this is the opposite of so many companies I run into every day
They offer so much, for so little — I won’t even try to list all they provide to help me run my business (here’s a partial list and explanation of the tools they offer), and I’m more than happy to pay them the $300 per year for each of my sites powered by SBI. In my book, that’s a bargain, because I earn back much more than I pay. (It’s like renting a building when opening a brick and mortar store, or buying a truck when you’re in the trucking business. You don’t expect to get that for free in the real world, so why would you expect to build an online business using free tools? I just don’t understand that thinking.)
Their staff constantly keeps up with emerging trends and evaluates them. When something has proven its worth, they help us make better use of it and do most of the tech work for us, in the background, so we can concentrate on our business.
They provide the best training and guidance to help us build our businesses and they have outstanding support and a great members-only forum.
They practice what they preach. Most of the 100+ employees of Sitesell work from their own homes around the world. Only a handful have to be on location at corporate headquarters and in their data center. And, we get to know some of their employees from their interactions on Sitesell’s Facebook page and Sitesell’s Twitter account.
For over 10 years, I’ve read everything I could find that Ken Evoy, the founder of Sitesell, wrote and he has always been open, honest, and on target. For over a decade, he has gotten much more right than wrong, and when he’s wrong, he admits it and learns from it. I’ve never worked with any other company where the founder of the business was so involved with his customers. I don’t know how he finds enough hours in the day to do all he does.

I could go on for several more pages.

And so could other SBI webmasters. See what some have said on SBI version 2 Site For You.

The fact that I get lots of people reading what I write on my SBI powered sites is almost a bonus. The fact that I earn income from them is the whole point. That’s the name of the game when you own an online marketing business.

It’s why I can sit here on the porch on a bright sunny day on top a mountain not too far from the Great Smokies and run my business on my own schedule. My morning commute was walking from my bedroom to my office (where I turned on my computer) to the kitchen to make coffee and then out to the front porch.

Do I miss the morning rush hour commutes I had to deal with when I lived in Atlanta, Georgia and Phoenix, Arizona? Not at all.

I learned how to build websites that sell over a decade ago when I read a book that Ken Evoy wrote. I followed his advice, and now I’m living my dream.

Can you tell that I like Sitesell and the people who work there? (grin)

Get to know them. Maybe you will, too.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Facebook, fans, Ken Evoy, like, Sitesell

Facebook plus Google equals Business

May 18, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 6 Comments
Filed under: Advertising and Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Business Networking, Facebook, Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It

Where are the two best places to promote your business if you want to be found by new customers?

Think a moment. Where do you search for things you want?

That’s right. Facebook and Google.

Sitesell will help your business get found on these two sites.

Sitesell has tens of thousands of customers around the world who use their tools and strategies to build websites that get found. They’ve been doing this for over 10 years — and that’s how long I’ve been one of their very satisfied customers.

I personally recommend Sitesell. I’m a satisfied long-term customer and a happy affiliate.

Their new service is targeted to people who own traditional offline brick and mortar businesses and want to be found in their local area.

I think it could be useful to some online-only businesses, if you want to target a local area, instead of globally.

If you own a business and want to promote your products and services locally…

Sitesell has introduced a new service to help you market your business on Google and Facebook.

Facebook has become the most popular way to promote your business by engaging with your customers and prospects using a Facebook page for your business. There are a few things you need to know in order to use Facebook effectively for this type of marketing, and there is a bit of a learning curve.

Sitesell offers two levels of service. One helps you get started. Or, if you prefer, someone at Sitesell who already knows how to do all this will work with you to target your market and offer and then do the tech work for you.

I think it’s priced very reasonably. If I were doing this type of service, I’d charge more than they do.

The more I know about building an online business, and promoting offline businesses online, the more I value what I’ve learned from the talented folks at Sitesell.

It’s also why I use their tools to promote the businesses that are owned by my clients. For example, Murphy Gold is powered by SBI, one of the services offered by Sitesell.

You already know how important it is for your business to be found on Google when someone is searching for the products and services you offer. Right?

Now that Facebook has exploded onto the scene, it’s time to promote your business where people are flocking.

Look over the offer. If you have questions, call the number listed on that page. They will answer your questions for free. Really.

No obligation. Really.

They WILL NOT stick you on a mailing list and bombard you with offer after offer, never-ending upsells, and breathless hype about new product launches, as we see so many other companies doing.

These folks are the real deal. They specialize in helping people build online businesses and now they’re extending that service to helping you promote your business on two of the most popular sites in the world: Facebook and Google.

Right now, before you forget or get distracted by all the other things you have to do, go and check out their offer.

Is this something that will help you promote your business better?

You’re a responsible business owner. Due diligence is important, and I always recommend researching a company before doing business with them. You can learn more about Sitesell on their Facebook page.

See why thousands of people “Like” Sitesell on Facebook and read what they are saying about the company and the services they provide.

If you have specific questions about Sitesell and their services, their Facebook page is a good place to ask. (It also lets you experience how a company can engage with prospects on a Facebook page.)

If you are an affiliate marketer and want to earn commissions while helping local business owners…

You can earn a commission by becoming a Sitesell affiliate and promoting their services and products to people you know in your local area who want to use Google and Facebook better.

Most small business owners do not have the technical skill and knowledge that’s needed in order to get the most out of Facebook. Some do very well on their own, and others do not.

It’s that second group that you can help the most by letting them know how Sitesell can help them.

I use Sitesell’s tools every day to promote my business and those of my clients, and I’ve been considering helping them do a better job with their Google and Facebook presence. Now, I don’t have to do it. I can just explain how it will help them and then refer them to Sitesell Services.

It’s a win-win-win situation.

Tags: business, Facebook, Google, Sitesell

Brand new 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report

April 7, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 14 Comments
Filed under: Advertising and Marketing, Business Networking, Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, just now released the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

Regardless of whether you are primarily an online marketer or the owner of a brick and mortar business, if you want to effectively present your wares to prospects who are increasingly moving online, you should download and read this report. It’s a free download, and you don’t have to subscribe to a mailing list to get it. (Isn’t that refreshing?)

Here’s his overview of the report…

Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2011 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

I have not had time to study the report yet, but it’s on my schedule for this evening. The information in the video has increased my interest.

I am a firm believer in social media marketing and look forward to doing a better job of it now that I’m feeling better.

You can read more about the report and download it on their blog post: 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, compiled and published by Social Media Examiner.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner, social media marketing

ChirpCity – find others using Twitter in your town

April 1, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 8 Comments
Filed under: Business Networking, Social Networking, Twitter

I am always looking for others in my area who are using Twitter and other social networking tools.

There aren’t many people in Murphy, NC who use the service, but a few more are coming online every month.

Today, I found a new tool at ChirpCity.com that helps find other local Twitterers.

Here’s the ChirpCity page for Murphy, NC. I found a few new people to follow there. I’ve bookmarked this page and will revisit it regularly.

If you see this and you are interested in Murphy, NC, you are invited to join us at our new Murphy, NC online community.

Act on your dream!

Tags: local, Murphy NC, Twitter

Is Twitter a microblog or a party line?

January 1, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 28 Comments
Filed under: Business Networking, Communities, Social Networking, Squidoo Lenses, Telephone, Twitter, Western North Carolina

I have discovered that there are very few people in Murphy, NC who are using Twitter.

As a result, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I can educate my friends and neighbors in this little mountain town to use free Internet services to promote their activities, interests, events, organizations, and businesses.

I’ve experimented with websites, blogs, forums, communities, and more, and none have gained traction, yet. Perhaps I’m just a bit ahead of time on this, but it may also just be a matter of finding an easy-to-understand analogy that will attract people to creating new conversations online.

Part of the problem, I think, is that we’ve been trained for decades that promotion and advertising are mostly one-way announcements and not two-way conversations.

To promote an event, we buy advertising on the radio or newspapers. If our area and event are big enough, we may even promote it on TV.

These are examples of one-way announcements. We tell, and hope someone listens, hears, and does what we want.

With the widespread use of the Internet, however, this is changing.

Now, we can have conversations, inexpensively or free, and these can lead to that most-wanted form of promotion, word-of-mouth recommendations.

Those of us who practically live online don’t really understand that most people don’t spend all their time thinking about websites, blogs, forums, social networking, and all the other things that we devote our time and energy to on a daily basis.

I was reminded of this a few days ago when I asked someone for his email address and he wasn’t really sure. Now, I don’t know about you, but my email address is so important to me that it has been indelibly imprinted onto my brain.

I’ve spent years making it easy for people to email me. In fact, I get hundreds of emails every day and usually send a dozen or two. How could I not know my email address? It seems almost impossible.

Yet, many people don’t depend upon the Internet for carrying on conversations and talking about what is important to them.

I can spend a half-hour or so writing a blog entry or a new web page about something that is important to me, and I can make it available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. It’s practically free.

Even when I consider how much I pay annually for domain names, webhosting, email autoresponders, page rotators, banner rotators, and other similar services, it all adds up to less than a couple of thousand dollars per year. How much newspaper or radio advertising can I buy for that?

A blog post or web page has an indefinite life-span. I know that I’m making sales from information I put on the web years ago, not just from what I wrote yesterday or today.

Currently, a search on Google for “John Dilbeck” returns over 8,000 results and “johndilbeck” returns over 35,000 results, so there is a lot of information out there created by me or talking about me. This is just a small sample of all that I’ve put online over the last several years.

A radio ad has a life span of seconds. A newspaper ad has a life span of days. Even most promotional products have life spans of weeks or months.

What is the life span of a tweet on Twitter?

That’s hard to say.

If we’re online and watching our Twitter stream, it seems as if most tweets have a life span of seconds, almost like a radio spot.

But, that’s only part of the story.

Think of a major event or thing and search for it on Google. You’ll find hundreds or thousands of links to what you searched for, but you already expect that, don’t you?

Now search for it on Twitter.

Did you know that all those tweets are still available? Did you know that all the hyperlinks are preserved and are still active? Did you know that the search engines follow those links?

Want to know what I’ve been saying on Twitter, or what people have been saying to, or about, me?

Does that give you a different idea about the life span of a tweet?

Now, what happens if we take this knowledge and use it to try to build a conversation.

That’s one of the things I’m going to be doing in 2009.

This year, I’m going to concentrate on two things:

1. affiliate marketing

2. promoting the people, events, and organizations in Murphy, NC.

I am dramatically narrowing my focus and hope I can build higher revenue from affiliate marketing and gain better traction in promoting what’s going on in Murphy.

I’m not going to become a news organization. I’ll leave that to the newspapers and radio stations in town. After all, I’m interested in marketing, not news.

While testing it, I’ve done it for free for several years. This year, I’ll charge reasonable rates for what I will do, and those rates will be much less than what it would cost for using traditional advertising.

Still, I like doing things for free on the Internet and I’ll help people in my community learn how to do that, too.

I think Twitter can play an important part in doing all this.

Earlier, I said that it takes a good analogy or model so that people can easily understand how to join in online conversations. Things that are simple for some of us can be confusing to others.

For example, take the idea of Twitter being a microblog. Those of us who blog every day can understand that, but if you don’t know about blogging, is it a good model to use?

You may not be an old geezer like me, but I remember when several people used the same phone line. This was called a party line. At any given time, someone may have been talking on the phone, but you never knew who was listening.

Later there were private lines and now cell phones, but in the very early days, we had party lines.

Here in Murphy, this is a good analogy to use for Twitter. Why? Because it’s an ingrained part of the local culture. There is a popular program on WKRK radio called PartyLine, and it is hosted by Bill Yonce on weekdays and Tim Radford on Saturdays.

Listeners can join the conversation by calling the program and talking to the hosts. They can chat about what’s happening, offer what they want to sell or ask for what they want to buy, or just pass the time for a few minutes. A few years ago, when Mom was healthier and still able to get around well, she would always have PartyLine playing on the radio as she worked in the kitchen.

So, for the people who are much more comfortable with offline communications, perhaps a party line is a better analogy for Twitter than is a microblog.

You can listen to whomever you chose on Twitter, so it’s not like some giant chat room. You can fine tune the group of people you listen to so that you get specifically what you want. Anyone can choose to listen to you, or not, too.

Substitute the word “follow” for “listen” and you have a good understanding of Twitter.

Then, you have to think about how these groups of followers overlap, intersect, and diverge. For example, John may follow George, but not Jane. Perhaps Jane follows John, but not George. If George tweets about something interesting, John would learn about it – potentially – but Jane probably would not. However, if John then tweets about it, he would be extending the reach of the conversation beyond George’s followers/listeners. In traditional marketing, we call this “word of mouth.”

In reality, George may tweet about it, and John may post the information on a blog, lens, forum, website, or some other presence he maintains on the web. All of this can be done in a remarkably short time, with little effort, and negligible expense.

Who knows how far the information will spread?

So, while Twitter may be thought of as a party line, it potentially has a much wider reach. It brings another meaning to the old saying, “a little birdie told me.”

Unlike a party line, however, you can’t just talk as long as you want. You are limited to short tweets of 140 characters or less. You can tweet all you want, but each one is short and generally focused.

How much does it cost? Nothing.

So how is that going to help me promote Murphy, NC?

Well, there’s the rub.

There are so many tweets every day on Twitter that a few about Murphy would easily get lost in the crowd.

That’s where the #MurphyNC hashtag comes in.

By tagging all tweets that are specifically about something or someone in Murphy with that code, it is easy to search for them. It is also relatively easy to syndicate those search results.

Currently, there are few tweets with that hashtag, but I’ll be working to change that, over time.

This morning, I am testing syndicating these #MurphyNC tweets on my Squidoo lens for Murphy, NC 28906.

It didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped.

I could not get the lens to show the feed, so I ran it through Feedburner.com and created a new feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MurphyNC-TwitterSearch

Squidoo can read and show that feed, with no problem. I wonder if it is because the Twitter search feed is in Atom format rather than RSS.

Another problem to consider if you want to syndicate hashtag searches on your lenses is the fact that Twitter uses relative anchor addresses in the content, instead of absolute URLs. This means that the #MurphyNC link in the content will not link directly to the Twitter search page. This will give you unintended results, depending upon where you syndicate it.

To get around this problem, I’m syndicating headlines only on my Squidoo lenses. If someone clicks the headline, it will take him/her to the status address for that particular tweet. Since this is shown on the Twitter domain, the hashtag link in the content will point to the right place.

It will be impossible to syndicate a real-time conversation on Squidoo, because the minimum update time for an RSS feed is 30 minutes for a Squidoo RSS module. At this point, that’s not a problem, because I’m the only person doing it and all my #MurphyNC tweets have been tests up until now. However, if it ever gets popular, this would not be a workable solution for syndicating the feed.

Although doable, this may not be the best way to syndicate a conversation on Squidoo.

I’m open for suggestions, because this is something I want to do on multiple lenses, as well as several blogs and websites.

Why am I talking about this on a blog that is about affiliate marketing?

This question is easier to answer. It’s because readers of this blog are generally more technically sophisticated and are used to online interactions. It’s also because I earn money from affiliate marketing even on my local pages for Murphy, NC.

And, Twitter is already helping me earn from my affiliate marketing efforts on my Squidoo lenses and blog posts.

This has been a long-winded way of asking your opinion of how to describe using Twitter to talk about a town or city. Is it a microblog or a party line, or something else entirely?

What model or analogy would you suggest to make it easier for offline-oriented people to join in online discussions using Twitter? Do you think Twitter is really effective for this?

Act on your dream!

Tags: microblog, party line

Small towns, social networks, and communicating

December 28, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 14 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Business Networking, Communities, Social Networking

During this time between Christmas and the new year, I’m doing a lot of thinking about what I plan to accomplish in 2009.

I am narrowing my focus and will be concentrating on just two areas: 1. affiliate marketing and 2. promoting businesses in Murphy, NC.

That means I will stop doing many of the things I’ve been doing. I’ll stop blogging on a lot of different topics and I’ll close down blogs and websites in January that are not related to my two primary areas of interest.

It also means that I’m going to be much more active in my community than I’ve been able to be for the last several years – both online and offline. Yes, that means that I’m actually going to leave my cave and talk to real people in the real world, again.

I really love living near Murphy, NC. I love the people, the small town atmosphere, the scenery, and being away from the big cities.

I don’t like how hard it can be to meet new people and to earn a living here. Sometimes, I think the two go hand in hand. In order to earn a living, perhaps new people in our area need a way to tap into the changing social networks and to make friends with people who know where the jobs are and can hire them.

Today, I was reading an interesting article at SocialMediaToday.com, How Small Towns are Social Networks, and it sparked some ideas I wanted to share with the author.

I agree with her observation that small towns are social networks and the photo of the bulletin board with all the business cards reminds me of several similar boards in Murphy.

I was wondering how one can best combine the offline networks of bulletin boards and newspapers with the online networks of Twitter, Facebook, and local portals and forums.

If the businesses are mostly promoting offline and the potential customers and employees are increasingly going online, how do we combine these networks so that it is easy to connect and to get to know each other?

Maybe I’m a bit uncommon as compared to most of the people here in western North Carolina. Instead of reaching for the yellow pages to find a phone number, I search on Google. Only if I can’t find what I’m looking for online would I consider going offline.

Yet, I believe most of the people in this area approach this type of information gathering first from the offline world, and many of them never go online for local searching.

I don’t have any data to back this up, it’s just a feeling from having talked to people.

With the price of offline advertising going up and online advertising going down, how long will it be before the businesses bring most of their marketing activities online?

How long will it be before the residents of Cherokee County take their local information gathering activities online, primarily?

How can I position myself and my services to help put these two groups together so we can all benefit?

As I said, I had some ideas I wanted to share with the author of the blog I was reading, so I was ready to comment and saw the following: “To Comment on this post, you must first register. Click here”

Sigh…

I really had something I wanted to say, so I registered, something I am doing much less of now than I used to do.

Over an hour later, I’m still waiting for the authentication email so I can post my comment, and you know what? I’ve lost interest. Even if I get the email now, I won’t bother activating my account just to post a comment.

Yes, I was a hot prospect then, but I’ve gone completely cold, now.

I even clicked on the link to the original post, but it, too, requires registration. That link takes me to Reddit, and that’s not what I’m looking for. I want a way to contact her directly.

Wait a second, that’s not accurate. Over an hour ago, I wanted a way to contact her directly and carry on the conversation. Now, not so much.

No more. I’m no longer interested.

I think back to just a few months ago when I changed my primary blog to this one with the main goal of making it easier for my friends and visitors to join in the conversations by commenting. It is working out very well, and I’m making friends with fellow bloggers around the world.

I would have enjoyed exchanging ideas with the author of the article I mentioned, but I can’t even see her profile without registering.

To top it off, there are links to the Twitter profiles of three people in the article who are referenced only indirectly, but there is no link to her Twitter profile that I can see. I did a search on Google, and I think I found her Twitter profile, but the photo is different and I’m not sure it’s her.

So, while she makes some good points about social networking, the way I found her has been time-consuming and frustrating.

It turns out that I followed the URL on her Twitter profile to her website and confirmed that she was the author of the article. To her credit, her own blog has links to her email address, Twitter profile, and Skype accounts. Not only that, but the article makes it easy to comment and she even uses CommentLuv. See it here: How Small Towns are Social Networks

Had I found the article on her actual blog instead of a syndicated version of it on SocialMediaToday.com, I would have been much more likely to have joined in the conversation and I would not have felt so frustrated trying to find a way to communicate with her.

Now, I’ve opened up at least one door by following her on Twitter.

Perhaps I’ll even find the motivation to share my thoughts with her on her blog – if I can remember what they were.

In the long run, what will I remember about this experience? Will it be her insights on local networking or will it be the frustration of trying to communicate?

So, how does this apply to affiliate marketing?

What are you doing to make it easy to establish conversations with your visitors? How well is it working?

Maybe you are doing a good job of conversing on your blog, but what happens when your content is syndicated elsewhere? Are roadblocks thrown up needlessly? Why? What can you do about them?

If you recommend a product or service as an affiliate, do you make it easy for prospects to contact you to gather further information or to clarify any points you’ve made?

Do you respond to those requests in a timely manner? Do you provide additional information? Do you answer the specific questions that are asked?

In my opinion, the main point of having a blog is to start a conversation.

What are you doing to make it easier for your reader to respond to you?

What are you doing to make it more difficult?

Are you even aware of things that may make it more difficult?

Truly, I don’t want to pick on her, because she’s doing the right things on her own blog. Still, I found her article on another site that is syndicating her content, and finding a way to join in the conversation was difficult and time-consuming.

Is that her fault, or is it the fault of the site that syndicated her article?

I don’t see it as her fault, at all. It seems to me to be the unintended consequences of social networking extending our reach to other sites that may not make it so easy to participate as our own sites do.

In the long run, it will probably be worth an hour of frustration, because I found someone who shares some of the same interests I do. Now that I’ve found her blog, and just now subscribed to it, I’ll look forward to reading what she has to say, and it will be easy, then, to join in the conversation, should I want.

I’m going to take a short break and see if I can work up the enthusiasm I originally had to join her conversation, now that I’ve found it.

Act on your dream!

Tags: comments, communicating, Murphy NC, small towns, social networks

What is your opinion of social networking?

November 15, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 13 Comments
Filed under: Attracting Visitors, Business Networking, Poll, Social Networking, Twitter

Over the last couple of years, I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into using a variety of social networking sites to enlarge my circle of friends and associates on the web. I believe that it is working out well for me and I’m enjoying keeping in touch with my online friends.

Until today, I was showing a couple of widgets from MyBlogLog.com that showed the social networking sites I’m active on and some of the latest things I’ve written on a variety of the sites I frequent.

It turns out that those widgets were interfering with the appearance of polls I create using PollDaddy.com, so I moved both of the social networking widgets to a new social networking page, here on this blog.

That solved two problems I’ve been having.

One, it speeds up page loads a bit because it reduces calls to MyBlogLog.com from every page.

Two, it makes it possible to add polls to articles I write. I don’t know how many polls I’ll be creating, but I’m going to try a few to see what we can learn.

There is an art to creating polls that get reliable results. I am not a master of that art, yet. Therefore, I’m afraid that some of my polls will be worded incorrectly and may skew the results. Since nothing really important will be affected by these polls, I’m not going to worry much about it and I’ll just add polls when there is something I’d like to learn more about from the readers of this blog and other places I’ll show the polls.

You never have to participate in the polls, but I welcome your voting and your comments.

In the following poll, I’m asking your opinion of social networking. I realize that your opinion may not match my preconceived notions, so you can select multiple choices and add your own if it isn’t already there.

To add your own answer if it doesn’t match one of the choices next to the checkboxes, just enter it in the gray text bar between the last checkbox and the View Results link. (At least, that’s what I hope it will do.)

When you’ve made your selections or added your “other” opinion, don’t forget to click on the Vote button.

I look forward to your opinions and thoughts about social networking.

Act on your dream!

Tags: opinion, Poll, Social Networking, web 2.0

Wrong and right ways to participate in social networking

September 8, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business Networking, Social Networking

I enjoy reading Lynn Terry’s blog, because I almost always learn something new or find something that makes me think a bit deeper about affiliate marketing, social networking, blogging, running a home business, and other topics she writes about.

I’m thinking about her right now because she just wrote a couple of excellent posts on her blog about the wrong and right ways to engage in social networking.

Social Media Marketing (A Warning)

How to Use Social Media… Successfully

I cringe a bit every time I see someone suggesting creating multiple profiles on social networking sites and using software to automate friend requests and posting links. Please don’t do this.

Lynn addresses these types of issues in her warnings about the wrong way to use social media.

She offers ten tips on the right way to participate in her second article about how to use social media successfully.

If you are interested in business networking, social networking, and using social media correctly, you should take the time to read both of her articles.

She promises that a case study on using social media is forthcoming and I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks, Lynn.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Business Networking, Lynn Terry, social media, Social Networking

Chris Brogan has just released a free ebook on personal branding

September 8, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Books, Business Networking, Promote Yourself, Social Networking

I like to read what Chris Brogan has to say about lots of topics including personal branding and social networking. I’ve learned a lot from him and he’s reminded me of things I already know, but haven’t been thinking about lately.

Today, he released a free ebook on personal branding called Personal Branding for the Business Professional and it is available as a free download. You don’t even have to give your email address to get a copy.

I just finished reading the book – it’s only 15 pages – and it has some good tips about building your personal brand and expressing it on your blog, website, and the social networking sites you prefer.

This book is definitely worth your time to download and read, if you are interested in building your reputation and promoting your personal brand.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Chris Brogan, free ebook, personal branding, reputation