What You Need To Know As A Newbie Part 2

Selling Products Through Free Social Sites on the Web – How MySpace, Squidoo, and Other Web 2.0 Spots  Can Funnel Targeted Traffic Through Your URL

Whenever anyone is getting started with an online business, it’s best to keep costs low and begin seeing a steady stream of profits flowing in before you move on to bigger and better things.
One of the biggest ideas to hit the Internet in years is that of social networks. Maybe you’ve heard of how YouTube was sold for an estimated $1.65 billion? That’s because these sites are so popular with the masses that everyone’s scrambling to ride the wave of the next big thing.

Social Networking Means You Have To Spend Time Social…

You might hear a lot of hype surrounding “web 2.0″ and social networks. Basically, it’s how the Internet is moving from a seller-to-buyer platform to something where people buy based on recommendations from their peers.

So let’s say for instance you’re a mom and you need some help because your baby has colic. You go online and start searching for information because it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and your baby has been screaming for the last two hours straight. The pediatrician’s office is closed and so is Barnes and Noble.

You might Google the word “colic,” or the phrase, “calming a colicky baby,” and many sites would pop up. Some of those sites will be commercial, selling books and items promising quick relief.

Others will be peer-to-peer group sites – networks of other moms going through the same thing. These women have been there, done that – and they can easily reply to your cries for help and offer a recommendation about a solution. You’ll likely listen to them over an ad somewhere on the ‘net because it feels more trustworthy.

Web 2.0 puts the power in the hands of the people. But as a product promoter, you can immerse yourself in their culture and cater to their needs. For instance, if you choose to create an eBook on Quick Fixes for Colicky Babies, the best place to “hang out” online would be in a forum with other mothers.

You don’t blatantly Spam the forum advertising your eBook, but instead become a trusted, valued member of the community. You become the “go-to” person for advice. And placed neatly in your signature file is a link to your authority product called Quick Fixes for Colicky Babies.

Social Networking Means That You Have To Spend Time Being Social…

 

 

Too many people go into the social network sites, create a profile, and leave it alone, wondering where all the traffic is that everyone’s raving about. If you want it to work, you have to be seen and heard within the environment as one of them.Notice in the second paragraph there are links. Those are to products on Amazon that are linked through an affiliate ID code, so that if a reader takes my advice, I earn money!

Each social site has a different angle to it. On MySpace, for instance, it’s important to become popular by bulking up your friends’ list and having people leave comments on your MySpace page.

On Squidoo, however, you don’t have friends’ lists, but you get ranked and get to participate in camaraderie by signing each other’s guest books and joining groups with similar interests.

You can tell what’s popular on the social sites by looking at tags or tag clouds. A tag is just a keyword that is relevant to your page, whether it’s a blog at Blogger.com, a lens at Squidoo, or a profile on MySpace.

So, one way to make money would be to create a lens on Squidoo about books, using their money-making affiliate modules like Amazon.com. Whenever someone buys a book you recommend through your link, you make a commission!

Or maybe you have a website about traveling. Your lens could focus on a particular geographical area and inside your lens, you drive traffic back to your site where you sell travel gear, packages, or an eBook about travel safety.

If you notice people are searching for certain keywords on a social site, then bells should be going off in your head as to how you could make money from that topic. And don’t limit yourself to a single social site – reach out to your target audience on all of them, since they’re free!

 Bloging For BIG bucks… 

Almost every mom on the ‘net has already staked claim to a blog where she can rant and rave about whatever crosses her mind. She can blog about her baby taking his first steps, or how she’s wishing she could leave her job for freedom as a self-employed entity.

But most moms aren’t monetizing their blogs, and that’s a shame because there’s a lot of potential in blogs. There are two primary ways you can blog and you just have to find which method works for you – or, as many entrepreneurs do – utilize all of your choices!

The first method is to go to a site like Blogger.com and claim a blog that you want to start profiting from. What topics do you think you’d feel comfortable blogging about on a regular basis?

If gardening isn’t your thing, then it’s not wise to blog about it, because you’ll become bored and your lack of expertise might show through. But if you’re crazy about knitting, then by all means claim a blog about that particular craft!

To create a FREE account at Blogger.com, just visit the site and choose to “create a blogger account.” They’ll ask you for your email address, a password, and a display name.

Next, you’ll name your blog. Since your goal is to make money off of it, you want it high up in the search engines, so you’ll need to use keywords related to your niche.

So if your blog is about curing colic, as our previous example showed, then your title might be something like, “How to Cure Colic and Stop Your Baby from Crying.” They’ll also ask for your URL. It will look like this:

http://[NameYourBlog].blogspot.com

Yours could be: http://CureColic.blogspot.com

Next on your task list is to choose a template for your blog. Then the blog is created and all you have to do is start posting. Using any social networking site, your content needs to be valuable to the community for it to be effective. Here’s a screen shot of a sample blog set up with this idea:

 

While you’re working on creating valuable content, you also want to remember search engine rankings. Try to write your content so that it uses your keywords or phrases often. That way, whenever anyone searches for that topic in Google, there’s a good chance your blog will show up.

You want to use blogs to become an expert in your niche. You can also do product reviews and post links to products that you can sell. They can be your own products or affiliate items.

Using our example, you might write a blog entry about your baby having a bad bout of colic one night and then link to an eBook that helped you find a solution – or a product on Amazon.com that worked wonders for your little one. Your knowledge and helpfulness is what will earn money for you!

There are other blogging sites, too, and each one has a slightly different set-up. But making money from it is basically the same. You link to items that will produce an income for you and blog about it like a pro!

Squeezing Squidoo For All It’s Worth…

Squidoo

is the brainchild of Seth Godin, a best-selling author and Internet marketer. Another free social networking site, Squidoo lets you set up an endless number of pages called “lenses.”

 

Instead of it being a blog with archived entries, Squidoo is a page you can update and change the content on as you rise in LensRank against others using the site. You ideally want to be listed in the Top 100 list.

When you log onto Squidoo, you can set up an account in 1 easy step. Enter the following information into the sign-up page:

First name

Last name

Email address

Desired username

Password

Then click on the button to Create a Lens. You can choose from lenses that already have modules on them or customize your lens with modules you choose. A module is just an element of your Squidoo page.

Step 1 of creating a lens is choosing a title. Again, use keywords for your topic. This time, let’s use the example of making a Paintball lens so that you can sell paintball equipment and make money from it. The title might be: Paintball for Tweens.

In step 2, you just say whether you want a custom lens or one that already has modules on it for various purposes. For our example, we’ll choose a money-making lens.  

In step 3, you just pick your URL, which will look like this: http://www.squidoo.com/[YourLensName]. You’ll also choose which category your lens fits in best with – so we’ll choose “sports.” You’ll also need to say if it’s family/office safe – meaning it has no adult content.

Step 4 is just entering the best keywords for your lens. Don’t enter irrelevant keywords just to help you rank higher. You’ll do best to stick with the subject matter so that your true target audience can find you. So we’ll enter variations of the word “paintball.”

When you’re done, you’ll get to edit and fill out your lens. Every lens has an introduction module. Write a little keyword-optimized paragraph or two about your topic. The search engine spiders will pick up on your introduction and use it to index your lens in the SERPs. Let’s look at a dummy lens we created:

You can create a different account for each niche you want to profit from – one for your parenting lenses, one for sports, another for marketing, and so on. And each time someone buys from your modules, you earn money as a co-op, which means Squidoo gets part of it for charity and you get part, too! However, if you link to your own site, they don’t get a portion of that money.

Making Your Profits With A Jazzed Up – MySpace Page…

When you use MySpace, it’s best to lure visitors away from your MySpace page before you use a hard-selling tactic on them. For instance, you can create a free report and offer it to your readers, linking them to your domain.

When they land on your domain, they can opt-in to your subscriber list to get the report and then you can contact them later for marketing purposes. Your page and your freebies should be valuable to the community so that word will spread and you’ll get even more traffic from your efforts.

When you set up your MySpace profile, it’s best to have a picture of you. It’s a true social setting and people will want to get to know you. Some marketers use fake personas in their profile, so get an image of a person you’re legally allowed to use for your profile if you’re operating with a pen name.

To set up your account, go to MySpace.com and select Join Now. Enter your email address and your name along with your password. You’ll also enter things like the country, postal code, gender and your birthday. If you enter your birthday, then you’ll be featured on MySpace when your birthday month rolls around.

The next form will let you upload your picture. Then you’ll invite your MySpace friends to join your friends’ list. If you don’t know anyone yet, choose “Skip for Now.” Next you’ll see your profile through your control panel.

You can start blogging, adding photos, friends, videos, and other options. MySpace has too many features to name here. Take a little time and play around with your profile to set it up the way you like it.

To reach out and start driving traffic to your own blog, you want to search for others who have the same interests as the topic you’re choosing to blog about. Invite them to be your friend and once they are, you can add a hyperlinked comment to their blog. 

Connecting The Strands Of Your Social Marketing Strategy…

Social networking is a wonderful way to keep your advertising costs low and your profit potential high. Even large corporations are getting involved in networking with consumers via social sites, so it’s logical that small businesses and entrepreneurs follow suit.

Keeping up with social networking can be time consuming. You may want to start off with one or two sites and add to the list as time goes on. All of the sites can connect to one another because you can easily link your pages together – from your Squidoo lens to your MySpace page to your Blogger blog, and so on.

It’s better to keep up with one or two pages and make them really good than try to spread yourself too thin and leave empty pages floating around on the ‘net. That isn’t the way to profit from them because you’ll never be viewed as the go to person on any of the sites.

Next we’re going to get into article marketing. It’s an element that can easily tie in with your social networking efforts  and it’s a tactic that lets you drive tons of targeted traffic to your website. Oh, and it’s FREE, too!

Watch out for part 3.

To Your Success.

The Info Guru.

Advertisement