21st Century Affiliate Marketing

I just noticed that Twitter Tools, a plug-in that I’ve come to rely upon, is not tweeting about my new blog posts.

In fact, it appears that it hasn’t been working for the last couple of weeks.

I’ve been using Twitter Tools for some time on several of my blogs and have come to rely upon it. I wonder what’s happened.

One more thing to look into and see if I can fix.

What about you?

Do you use Twitter Tools? Is it working for you?

Act on your dream!

JD

I just read an interesting story in the New York Times…

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest

This is another article that shows how easy it is to start a blog, but how hard it is to continue it over time. Things change. We lose interest. We become too busy with other things.

In many cases, we become disillusioned by the lack of success we had originally imagined.

Although the same can be true for a traditional website, the difference lies in the amount of traffic that continues when we are busy doing something else.

I have static websites that continue to bring in thousands of readers every month, even when I do nothing to them for extended periods.

The same just is not true for my blogs.

If I go any length of time without posting something new to a blog, regular readers notice and new readers may perceive it as just another abandoned blog.

I know I feel that way when I visit a blog that hasn’t been updated recently. Do you?

But, and I think this is important, I just don’t feel that way when I go to a traditional website. While on one of them, I’m looking for information, not necessarily the latest thing written.

As you know, I’ve been debating the issue of blogging or building traditional multi-tier websites for some time…

Site Build It! or WordPress? Which is Best? Why?

I think both have promise and I can argue both in favor and against both of them.

It is much more difficult to design and build a multi-tier website that presents information in a way that is easy to navigate and update. I know, because I’ve been spending much of my time every day for the last few weeks designing a new website.

On the other hand, I can throw up a blog in a couple of hours. All I need is an inspiration, a topic, and a little free time. I know this, because I’ve started several dozen blogs, but now I’m maintaining only three of them on a semi-regular basis, and updating a few others sporadically.

When looking at the traffic stats for all my sites, I see a definite correlation between frequency of posting on a blog that just does not exist on my traditional websites. Just as in academia, with blogs you have to think publish or perish.

Easy to start - easy to abandon

The longer I do all of this, the more I realize that blogs are easy to start. There’s very little barrier to entry. Start one free on Blogger in ten minutes. Host one on your own domain using WordPress in a couple of hours (plus whatever time it takes the domain to propagate, if it’s newly registered). Cost, little to nothing.

On the other hand, when I start a new website, it’s not so easy to start. There’s planning time that nobody but me sees. I may spend months working on the design, researching keywords, researching the competition, deciding on how much information is needed to make the site viable, and designing a three- or four-tier site structure. All of this is done before I do anything else.

I may register the domain in advance, just to make sure it will be available when I want it, or I may decide upon the domain name after I know what’s going to be on the site.

How much does it cost to host one of these websites?

If I go with traditional hosting on a Linux server, my cost is nothing. I’m already paying that cost for my other sites and have both the bandwidth and storage available to host several more domains.

If I go with Site Build It!, the up-front cost will be $300 and that pays for the first year of hosting. More and more, I’m finding that I’m not interested in building a site that isn’t powered by SBI, but I’m going to leave that for another discussion.

Getting back to the main point…

With the new site I’ll be introducing in a few more weeks, I’ve already put months into getting ready for it. I paid $10 to reserve the domain name, and I’ll be paying another $300 to host it. That’s a pretty large barrier to entry from my point of view.

It’s also one thing that will keep me motivated to continue developing the site. After all that time, work, and money, I’m not going to stop working on it until it is profitable and I’m getting income on a regular basis from it.

With a new blog, I find that I’m more of the opinion of easy come, easy go. When I abandon a blog, it’s no great loss.

But, there really is a loss. I’ll lose the time I put into building it, and in the long run that’s more valuable than any money I may have invested or not. I can recover money or earn more. I can never get back the time I lost.

When I first started debating this with myself, I was clearly in favor of blogging with WordPress over building a multi-tier website. I just seemed to make more sense.

Now, however, as I spend more time doing both and look back on the results of what I’ve gotten from each, I’m leaning much farther away from blogging and towards a content-rich, structured website.

I almost hate to admit it, because I disagreed with him when he originally wrote it, but I am more and more coming to agree with Ken Evoy and what he wrote about this subject: Blog or Build?

Finally, I’m going to disagree with some of my good friends, including Mitch Mitchell and Aussie Sire. I respect their opinions and truly enjoy interacting with them on our blogs.

What do I disagree with?

I’m finding that the number of comments or the length of the discussion on a blog post has almost no correlation with income.

Yet, it takes time to monitor the comments and respond to them, so there is a cost involved without a commensurate income to offset the effort.

That doesn’t mean that I’ll discontinue comments or discussions here. I won’t. But, I’m realizing that I’m doing it more for the enjoyment, debate, and socializing, rather than for generating income.

I earn far more from my traditional sites, and after their original design and building, I spend much less time maintaining them.

The choice is becoming more clear all the time.

I’m not trying to change your mind, I’m just passing along what I’m learning on this topic.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

This is a question that I have been asking myself for months.

Today, I created a new TwitterStorm (Twttrstrm.com) asking Which is better for building an online business? Site Build It! or WordPress? Why?

What’s a TwitterStorm? This is a new site powered by Squidoo. Now you can ask a question of your Twitter followers and easily gather all their answers in one spot.

I know that the majority of people who will see this post are probably happy WordPress users. I’m one, too.

Still, after years of building websites and blogging on a lot of platforms, I still keep coming back to thinking Site Build It! is a better choice for building a business website.

Is it better to blog or build?

When Ken Evoy first raised this question, I was leaning towards blogging and disagreed with some of the things he said about it. Now, however, after months of blogging, I’m not as in favor of WordPress as I once was, especially when building multiple blogs.

As part of my goals for 2009, I’ve decided to do more to promote local businesses in Murphy, NC. I already have several blogs and websites related to Murphy and Cherokee County, NC. I’m really not happy with any of them.

I’m considering mothballing all of them except for my Murphy, NC 28906 blog, which needs serious updating. First off, I have to upgrade to WordPress 2.7, change the theme, add plugins, add widgets, and then I’m faced with finding things to write about, in addition to updating the blog software whenever necessary.

I can probably get the blog to where I want it in a couple of days without too much of a problem, because I’ve been doing this a long time and know what I want to do. I’m going to change it and fashion that blog after this one.

One of the problems with blogs is always having to manage the software and that takes away time and energy from actually writing content.

My Act On Your Dream! site is powered by Site Build It! and has been sadly neglected over the last year or more. Now that I can devote full-time to building my business, I can put more effort into building it into the site I have planned. Still, even with little work on my part, it continues to attract visitors and makes a nice profit.

There are lots of things wrong with that site, however. I’ve only built a small fraction of what I have planned for it, and there are a couple of main reasons for that.

For over six years, I was my Mom’s full-time caretaker and the duties associated with that took precedence over everything else. I am happy that I was able to care for her so long when she needed it.

The second reason is that I wasted a lot of time and effort testing a lot of different ways to build websites. I’ve lost track of how many different blogging platforms and content management systems I’ve tested. What do I have to show for it? A lot of neglected or abandoned blogs in my wake. Of all the blogs I’ve started, there are only two or three that I’m going to continue updating.

What do I do with the others? Some of them get traffic and even earn a profit. Do I delete them and redirect the domain to a page on a site I’ll keep? Or, do I just throw them out with the rest of the clutter and delete them and then let the domain expire?

It’s hard enough to build traffic to a site. I really don’t like the idea of just deleting a site that actually gets visitors.

Is it better to keep the domain and put up a static page explaining that the blog has been taken down and link to one of my related sites, or is it best to just let the domain expire and forget about it?

Being a packrat, I tend to want to do the former, but I’m thinking this is a good time to declutter my online life as I unclutter my offline world.

I continue asking myself this question: Why do I have so many blogs?

I think the main answer is that the cost of entry is so low that it’s easy to throw up a blog on the spur of the moment and just as easy to lose interest in it somewhere down the line.

I already have a reseller account on HostGator, so I can add a new domain for basically no cost, except for registering the domain. So, there’s little to stop me from testing an idea.

But, I look at those blogs and consider that I am paying over $500 per year just for domain registrations. For that amount, I can get two subscriptions to Site Build It!

I’ve already decided that I’m going to buy a new subscription to SBI to build a new site promoting businesses in Murphy, NC, because only SBI provides all the tools I need to do it right. That means that I’m going to be deleting several sites that I started over the last few years. I hate to do it, because they’re ranked well in the search engines, but I’m sure I can get page one listings on the keywords I want with a new site powered by Site Build It. I know, because I’ve tested it.

So, all of this boils down to my dithering over deciding what to do this year. When it all boils down to the essentials, the only real sites I have that I should keep and maintain would be this blog, Act On Your Dream!, Murphy, NC 28906, and a new SBI site for Murphy.

I’ll probably keep JohnDilbeck.com, but it will be trimmed to a much, much smaller size.

Of course, I’ll continue to maintain my brother’s site, Georgia Drag Racing. There’s not as much to do on that site now that he’s unable to continue building it as he wants. Still, it gets a lot of visitors and there are a lot of people interested in the subject.

I’ll also keep a couple of communities I created on ning.com.

I have a couple of forums that I’ve been trying to build for a couple of years, but they aren’t gaining any traction, so now may be a good time to shut them down, too.

So, in looking at all my sites, blogs, forums, and communities, I can probably drop the number from over 60 to just a half-dozen or so and actually accomplish more with less effort. I don’t know this for sure, but that’s the direction I’m leaning.

When I build a site with Site Build It, I make a commitment to my own success by paying the $300 upfront for an annual subscription. I just don’t have that commitment when I create another free site somewhere.

I often wonder how many other people have gone through these same experiences. Have you?

I’ve read many messages on the members-only SiteSell forum where SBI webmasters tell their stories of floundering around until they find Site Build It and finally concentrate on building a successful business website.

On the other hand, I’ve read many posts on blogs and forums from people who feel that WordPress offers them the best set of features for the lowest cost.

All I know for sure is that I have gone through my testing and learning phase, and I’m ready to implement what I’ve learned.

One of the keys to success is to focus on what you want to do and then put all your effort into manifesting what you imagine. I just don’t believe that can be done when we try to do too much.

I’m really having a hard time making this decision. Part of me wants to simplify everything and focus on affiliate marketing and promoting local businesses. Part of me doesn’t want to lose all the other sites I’ve started. I have to make this decision and implement it, soon.

I welcome your comments, advice, and suggestions. I value the opinions of the people who read this blog.

Who knows? I may have a bunch of domains to sell or give away.

What do you think? Join the Site Build It! or WordPress? twitter storm and share your opinion.

Leave any other comments you’d care to share here.

Act on your dream!

JD

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2.9

I have been thinking about adding polls and surveys to some of my sites, but haven’t had the time to research how to do it best.

Serendipity favored my efforts this morning when I read on Matt Mullenwag’s blog that PollDaddy Goes Automattic.

He announced that all the blogs hosted on WordPress.com now have PollDaddy features enabled and a new plug-in for WordPress has been released.

I just installed the plug-in on this site and this is my test post to see how well it works.

It took only a few minutes to sign up for free at PollDaddy.com and set up my profile there.

I have been wanting a way to create polls and surveys and to show them on my websites and blogs. Creating a poll with PollDaddy is very easy and there are several ways to link to your poll and/or embed it in your site, including javascript, a direct link, and a tag to use with the WordPress plug-in.

Here’s my first test of using a PollDaddy poll using the plug-in:

This is just a simple poll asking if you are a Squidoo lensmaster. It allows comments and I chose to moderate the comments before they are published.

I’m sure I’ll come up with better polls in the future, but I really love Squidoo and I like meeting new lensmasters and catching up with all the lensmasters I already know.

One thing I’m seeing that I don’t like is how the format of the poll changes as my blog page loads. At first, the answers are neatly lined up, but after the page loads completely, they change and no longer line up.

Are you seeing that, too?

It looks, to me, like I’m having a CSS conflict between this poll and one of the widgets I have on this blog.

You can compare what the poll looks like on this site with what it looks like on the PollDaddy site: Are you a Squidoo lensmaster?

Have you wanted to add polls and surveys to your sites and blogs? What tools are you using to accomplish this?

Act on your dream!

JD

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2.9

Earlier this morning, I learned about SquidTop.com.

According to the SquidTop lens, Squidtop - Blogs for Squidoo Lensmasters, “Squidtop is a blog platform built on the Wordpress system that allows squidoo lensmasters to create their own blogs to promote themselves, their projects, and their lenses.”

Well, that sounds just like me. I love promoting myself, my projects, and my lenses, so I immediately signed up for a new blog there: Marketing with Squidoo.

Since it is so new, there isn’t much there yet, but there will be as time allows and inspiration motivates.

Marketing with Squidoo will be concerned with marketing with Squidoo lenses, specifically. There may be a little overlap now and then with this blog.

I’ll be promoting my Squidoo lenses and our Squidoo Marketing Community on the new blog.

Act on your dream!

JD

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2.5

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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3.5 (1 person)