What a Difference A Tweet Makes
We all know Twitter is an awesome marketing tool for our blogs. There’s lots of plug-ins that work well with Twitter, and help our readers stay on top of what we’re posting. Although it will never quite take the place of a good ol’ email marketing plan, Twitter is extremely useful.
While I was a good girl and put Tweet Meme tags on Idea Queen (you know, those little green boxes on posts that show how many tweets the post has, and allows you to retweet with on click), I never really thought they’d do all THAT much aside from give a handful of people an easier way to tweet some posts they liked. That was until today.
Since adding the subscription pop up to Idea Queen, I’ve gone from an average of 20 subscribers to the email notification list (if that) to over 100 a month. But then over the weekend, one little bitty post that I didn’t think much of got retweeted by a visitor, and I found myself with over 40 new subscribers in one day. Less than 24 hours in fact since that post was tweeted. Absolutely amazing really.
What has me excited the most is knowing while this won’t happen all the time, it’s bound to happen again. Just adding on little plug in on WordPress (search TweetMeme if you’re looking for it) brought 50 subscribers I wouldn’t have otherwise, and many more in the future I’m sure.
So if you haven’t added it already, be sure to do so!
Topics: Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
Help Send me to NAMS4
HELP! At this point in time I have to put my pride away and ask for help! I only have until 11:59 EST on February 28th to save $400!
For one reason or another over the past few years I was never able to make it to NAMS. I made up my mind during NAMS3 I was going to NAMS4 one way or another.
What I hadn’t expected was NAMS4 tickets were going to go on sale immediately after NAMS3. I had assumed I’d have a bit more time to prepare. Yeah well, you know what they say about assuming.
Since you’ll be helping me save $400 – I’ll pass that savings onto you by saving on your advertising budget! So I’ve come up with a few ideas that will hopefully help you and me both. You can get some great deeply discounted advertising and I get to go to NAMS4.
(Please note before purchasing: Once you’ve submitted your payment. You will be sent to my contact form. Put the name of the advertising special you purchased in the subject line. To receive special pricing, you must use paypal buttons below only.)
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Help Me Go to NAMS4 Special Deals:
Unlimited Available
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BOGOF Classified Ad Specials
- Buy One Month Basic - Get One Month Free (Save $10)
- Buy Six Months Featured – Get Six Months Free (Save $50)
- Buy One Year Premium – Get One Year Free (Save $100 & Get 4 Months Free)
Click here to see my Work at Home Classifieds
(But don’t purchase there!)
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Buy My Ticket to NAMS4 Special:
Only 1 Available
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Buy one year of advertising on two sites for the price of one! With this special you get:
- One year front page featured site advertising at www.MommysHelperOnline.com - (Value $250)
Upper right hand corner 1st listed for one year.
Click here to view featured site ad details
- One year full site advertising. See your advertisement (button or text) on every single page of our blog www.2wahms.com for one year.
(Value $250+ – Not available for sale to public.)
**Value $500+ – Special Price $300 – Save $200!
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Buy My Ticket & Hotel Stay Special:
Only 1 Available
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Buy one year of full site advertising on a busy website & a super-busy message board! With this special you get:
- One year of full site advertising for the price of 3 months! This is for full site advertising at www.MommysHelperOnline.com See your ad in the upper left hand corner of this site on every single page
the price of this is normally $100/month.
Click here to see Full Site Advertising Details
(But don’t purchase there!)
- One year of front and center advertising on super-busy message board www.MommysHelperCommunity.com
See your ad on every single page of message boards front and center – your choice of text ad or graphic. This is where there is currently a button for Website Magazine & Blog Review Game – your ad will replace both current ads.
(Value $500+ – Not available for sale to public.)
**Value $1700+ – Special Price $600 – Save $1100!
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… the whole sha-bang …
Buy My Ticket, Hotel Stay & Flight:
Only 1 Available
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Buy one full year full site & front page advertising on one site + full site advertising on a super-busy message board! … at a price … never seen … never to be beat! This package includes:
- One year full site advertising at www.MommysHelperOnline.com – (Value $1200)
See your ad in the upper left hand corner of this site on every single page!
Click here to see Full Site Advertising Details
(But don’t purchase there!)
- One year front page featured site advertising at www.MommysHelperOnline.com - (Value $250)
(Upper right hand corner 1st listed for one year.)
Click here to view featured site ad details
(But don’t purchase there!)
- One full year full site advertising at www.MommysHelperCommunity.com – (Value $840)
See your ad on every single page of message boards top right hand corner. This is where there is currently a graphic for Affiliate Theme – your ad will replace this ads.
Click here to view Gold advertising details
(But don’t purchase there!)
- Plus a new friend for life … priceless!
(lol! couldn’t resist!!)
**Value $2290+ – Special Price $900 – Save $1390!
If you have any questions, comments and/or concerns: Please don’t hesitate to contact me here:
http://mommyshelperonline.com/contact.html
Click one of the social buttons below and help spread the word:
Topics: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Let me make you famous!
Okay, maybe famous is pushing it a little … how about … let me show you and your biz off a bit!
I’m in the process of writing an ebook about creating Membership Sites for my upcoming website launch. While working on it the other evening I got to the idea section. This section is basically a list of membership site ideas as well as an explanation of some of the things you could include in that particular membership site. I was also thinking - and if you don’t know this already – one thing you can do to jazz up an ebook is to include pictures. So yeah – gotta get some pics too.
One of the ideas is to create a personal training membership website. Immediately I thought of one of my best friend’s online … @busymommaval Val is a personal training as well as she does a lot of business coaching online. (Hence the nickname I gave her at MommysHelperCommunity.com - Coach Val).
Then I began thinking of a few others I know who are in professional fields such as @LynnTerry & @AureliaW. After a few Twitter DMs they’re all for it! The three of them are gonna hook me up with a picture of them “providing their services”.
So, in keeping with the theme here, I thought I’d try to find a few more people. I’m needing people who are involved in the following fields:
- Freelancer/Telecommuter – Looking for a picture of you working at your computer.
- Frugal Living/Budgeting/Investing Website - Looking for a site logo/ad button.
- Dating/Relationship Website – Looking for a site logo/ad button.
- Travel Website – Looking for a site logo/ad button … or maybe even just a picture of someone boarding a plane or a bus … or any other ideas … just as long as it’s something to do with traveling of course.
- Medical Advice Website – Looking for a site logo/ad button.
- Writer/Author – Looking for someone who has a website about them being an author/writer. I could use a site logo/ad button … or maybe even a picture of you with a pen/pencil in hand.
If you’re involved with any of these fields and have a picture already of something that it’s easy to read into “this is what I do” … I am open to any other suggestions.
The only catch is I need these pictures as soon as possible. Oh and I’m a big stickler to giving credit where credit is due so I will most certainly include your name, business name and website address in the ebook as well. (Actually, it will be in two ebooks.)
So if you’re interested, feel free to post a comment here or send me a DM at twitter. My Twitter ID is @anitadefrank Looking forward to hearing from you soon!
Topics: Business Stuff, Internet Marketing, Resources for Your Business | No Comments »
Twitter is Dying … Google Buzz Born In Place?
Okay before I even go on here, I have to say … NO! I do not need another social network! I especially don’t need another social network that seriously resembles Twitter.
Here’s the deal for me. At times social networking can so get in the way of my biz work. Sometimes I have to force myself to turn off Twitter and force myself to KEEP it off.
I love all my friends and business collegues to death – love ya all! (I also LOVE Twitter!)
But I remember a while back …
You HAVE to get a MySpace account! You just have to! I want to friend request you!
… so, I got a MySpace account …
Luckily with the MySpace account I did not waste too much time. I did waste some but not too much.
It also needs to be made special note here that in between MySpace & Twitter, there were a TON of requests that I had gotten every single day for every new social network on the face of the Earth. And if you remember correctly, there were new ones popping up literally every single day. I got extremely tired of them to be quite blunt here.
Twitter! You must Tweet! You have to Twitter so I can follow you!
… so, I sign up to Twitter …
And again, I *love* my Twitter! And I love how I’ve finally taught myself that I can leave Twitter and still keep up with the important things I want to.
Facebook! Facebook! I love Facebook! This from the people who were begging me to get on MySpace!
I will more than likely get on Facebook but right now I have a site I have to launch and then I’ll be there if I want to.
Am I going to be bombarded soon with Buzz requests? Or whatever they’re called? I have a sneaking feeling I am.
Listen, I’m all about social networking. I think done properly it definitely has it’s pluses on a business-side. Done properly and used within reason. If you’re focusing all your business efforts on social networking only. Buck up cause you’re gonna wish you hadn’t put all your eggs in one basket some day. Don’t believe me now? That’s fine cause if you don’t … that simply means I’m not going to change your mind and I personally don’t have the time to try.
But … that’s a WHOLE other ballpark all together.
Back to Google Buzz …
Now wait, just a second … BUZZ?
Looks like Twitter, Sounds like Yahoo! … Smells like Google??
(Yahoo! Buzz that is.)
Things that make ya go hmm …
Okay, now we’re really back to Google Buzz Are they murdering Twitter? That’s certainly more than I can ever predict. But some of my (own personal) thoughts are …
- Twitter is just fine as is and I’m happy with it.
- Hmmm … nice updgrades from Twitter. But that comes with a but … one of the the main things I like most about Twitter is that it is so quick and easy. Sure, more functions might be nice for some but for me, that’s just more time.
- I do NOT want to start all over in another “Twitter-like” platform or any new social network for that matter.
- And I’m sorry but … Google, get your own idea! Did you really feel that threatened by Twitter? Were they in that much direct competition that you needed to create something just like it but “so-called better”?
And did you really feel the need to rub it in Twitter’s face by saying: “Go Beyond Status Messages”? Sorry but yeah, me personally, I took offense to that.
I could go on and on and on here … but I won’t. I’m sure the big plus many are going to like is the fact that it’s so compatible with Gmail. Works right with your Gmail account. Guess what? I don’t HAVE a Gmail account. wait – back up – that’s wrong. I do have a Gmail account but I don’t use it.
So, am I going to have my Yahoo email account open and my Gmail account open all the time so I can keep up with Buzz. Uh, probably not.
Researching a bit, I also found out about a big boo boo Google did …
According to BusinessInsider.com:
“In other words, before you change any settings in Google Buzz, someone could go into your profile and see the people you email and chat with most.”
Oops! I’m sorry, a Google spokesperson asked them to rephrase their complaint … er, I mean their claim differently. In response, BusinessInsider.com chose this wording instead:
“In other words, after you create your profile in Buzz, if you don’t edit any of the default settings, someone could visit your profile and see the people you email and chat with most (provided you didn’t edit this list during profile creation).”
Don’t panic too badly just yet though, BusinessInsider.com also provides you with instructions on how to immediately make these lists private and then edit them.
I, like Nicolas Carlson of BusinessInsider.com am shocked that Google sees nothing wrong with this. Simply put, Google wanted to make things easier on us so we can “immediately see content from the people they {we} chat with most”.
Thanks but no thanks Google, when it comes to my privacy, I’m fine with clicking a couple more checkboxes.
The fact that I have to sign a Privacy Act everywhere I go – well, almost everywhere. I’m sure the day will come when I have to sign a Privacy Act at my favorite local drive-thru promising me none of their employees will ever share my favorite drive-thru goody. Exaggerating? Maybe, but what do you think? And Google seems to think this is okay?
Click here to have a looksee at their full response …
(Bottom of post)
And FYI – Twitter offers basically the same thing w/ my Yahoo account but guess what? I get to pick and choose who I want!
It’s following the simple steps of:
1. Click Find People
2. Click Find Friends
3. Entering my email and password (over a secure server) and tada!
There’s my email contacts that may or may not be on Twitter that I may or MAY NOT want to connect with and again … I get to pick and choose who I want.
I don’t want everyone knowing everyone I deal with on a regular basis – especially in a business sense.
Do you want everyone to know where you buy all those super-hard-to-find purple polka-dotted widgets – the ones that took you months of research to find at a deeply discounted wholesale price?
Do you want everyone to know you outsource some of your client work? (You know, the work you pay $5 to have done but your client pays you $20.)
Do you want everyone to know you found this great new PLR website that has extremely well-written content about that super hot new niche?
I could go on and on again and of course some of these things in particular don’t apply to me personally but I know a ton of people who these do apply to and in a very big way.
How about the fact that you and your husband are having … uh, shall I say intimacy problems? You ordered a great new “item” online to “spice up your marriage” and you also decided to subscribe to their “52 Weeks of Spectacular Tricks Sure to Make You Feel Like Newlyweds Again” ecourse. Or maybe this ecourse came “free” with your purchase. Not that any company would do something like this to get you on a list – we’d never do this, right? Hello!?!?
What does almost every online newsletter subscription, ezine or ecourse confirmation email request you do? How about something along the lines of …
“To be sure you get your tips every week, please add: business@businessname.com to your contacts list.”
Look familiar? And just what happens when that particular company decides to add social networking to their marketing plans (that is if they don’t already do so – and who doesn’t?)
Maybe your spouse has … uh, shall I say a problem raising the flag to full mast (to be as polite as possible here) …
Maybe you’re losing your hair …
… Or it could go beyond simple embarrassment …
Maybe you suspect your child is abusing drugs …
Maybe you need help with an alcoholic family member, or you’re a victim of domestic violence or abuse??
And with each of these topics, you’re subscribed to online newsletters.
So maybe I’m exaggerating a bit … but really … am I? These are real life scenerios that could easily happen! I’m not completely making things up here!
And what about children? It’s only a matter of time before this COULD BE the next Twitter. How many teen children are using Twitter? MySpace? Facebook?
Remember my complaint above about “You have to join this new social network!” above? Same thing is happening with our children. Do you want your child’s contact list out public like this? Do you want YOUR child listed on someone else’s contact list?
What happens if a child misses the whole “opt-out” process? Most adults will miss it, gosh knows our kids are probably going to miss it more quickly.
I’m no lawyer here but when you’re involving children here, I do believe this goes way above embarrassment, way above public huimiliation … yeah, above and BEYOND …
Here’s a little tip Google … let me OPT-IN … not OPT-OUT
Of course, this is just my two cents. I’ll step off my soapbox now.
Topics: Business Stuff, Internet Marketing, Resources for Your Business, Social Networking | 6 Comments »
You Mean I Need GOOD Content?
SEO isn’t a real complicated game. Aside from your creative use of keyword phrases in the title and content, SEO really boils down to a popularity contest. Not just between you and Google, but your readers as well. And how do you win? Easy – good content, and lots of it.
I can hear the groans just reading that statement. A few of them from myself, even. That thing you’ve been told all along – create unique content- actually has some merit. Even Google says it’s true, so it must be. All those “automated content creators” and “free article directories” really aren’t going to help you out here. If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.
Here’s the two main reasons why it’s an absolute MUST to have unique content if you want to get anywhere with SEO:
1. Expands Ranked Search Terms
Unique content, with keyword phrases weaved NATURALLY into your content, brings in the visitors. Not just a short 100 article, but 500-1,000 words on your page topic. The shorter the content, the less terms your going to pop up in the search engines for. Plus if you have a copy that’s just pure crap and includes lines such as “[keyword phrase] is important. You’ll need a lot of [keyword phrase].” you aren’t going to rank for anything but [keyword phrase]. If your lucky even.
2. Links back
If your content is pure junk and an obviously your just trying to get a handful of visitors in to click on the Adsense links, no one will want to link back. No links back and you’ve lost the popularity contest with Google. Simple as that, really. Even if we don’t like it, Google puts a lot of emphasis on how many people are linking to your pages and site as a whole. What’s more, you can’t force that, and NEED to rely on others linking to your content or site. The only way to do that is with unique content.
Now of course, there’s more reasons why you need good content, some of them specific to why your writing in the first place (example – gain subscribers, gain credibility, accurately describe products, etc). But since I’m talking from an SEO perspective, those are the two most important. It’s also proof that us little guys working hard behind the scenes are always going to beat out the big boys with the automated systems. 
Topics: SEO - Search Engine Optimization | 10 Comments »
I want to be your guest blogger
I’m looking for blog owners who are accepting guest bloggers. More specifically I’m looking for the following types of blogs:
Internet Marketing:
All forms, article marketing, affiliate marketing, viral marketing, list marketing, etc. etc. etc.
WAHM:
Anything WAHM related – preferably ones that an internet marketing blog post will fit.
I will be able to provide a copy of the blog post ahead of time for your approval. I will also be giving away free reports to your readers 
If you’re interested, please do either of the following:
leave a comment …
email me at mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Guest Blogger in the subject line …
Please also include a link to your blog in your message.
I will be accepting guest bloggers on my blogs in the near future.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, Business Stuff, Internet Marketing, Resources for Your Business | No Comments »
If you could only choose one?
Plugin that is … you’re only allowed one.
If you had to choose one plugin for your WP blog/site … one that you simply could not do without …
What would it be?
Topics: Business Stuff, Internet Marketing, Resources for Your Business | 4 Comments »
Nothing but work!
Alrighty, it’s time to get real serious! Actually, I have been serious for quite some time now but this week … this week I plan on kicking some major butt and slimming down that to do list!
… and yes … I’m talking about slam dunk – nothing but net …
I have a brand new site I am just dying to launch. I am so excited about this new site for so many reasons.
- One, it really hits home what I *love* to do online.
- Two, I’m still going to be doing one of my favorite things to do – which is helping fellow WAHMs rise to the top of the success ladder – and will be doing more of it. (Actually, not just wahms in general but more like anyone who sells online.)
- Three, I’m finally going to be getting all my “business stuff” online linked together. Well, this site is only step one of that happening.
Oh I could go on and on here but if I do then I will be just spinning around the ring of the net …
So what’s in store this week?
- Finally putting the finishing touches on all those reports/ebooks that are so very close to being finished and getting them uploaded.
- Getting them out to my review team for obvious reasons.
- Getting up my squeeze pages (for the giveaway stuff) and my sales pages (for, well I think you know what that’s for, lol!)
- Getting in touch with some blog owners about me doing some guest blogging.
Then if I’m lucky enough to get all that done … it’s time to move onto …
- Getting my affiliate program set up.
- Starting an affiliate center.
I think I better stop there. If I keep going then I’ll be certain to set myself up for failure. I’ll start with that and if I get that done … then I can move on. (And that would be fantastic!!)
So back to work for me … not touching those sides!
Excited yet? Yeah, me too! Can’t wait!
What’s in store for you this week?
Topics: Business Stuff, Internet Marketing | No Comments »
My New SEO Toy
First let me say I’m not a big fan of high ticket programs. Generally I shy away with any program with a price tag on it, but this one came with a free trial. So I figured why not?
I was knee deep in search engine optimization, having finally gotten out of my slump and back on the horse. I’ve never been one to jump on the “latest SEO tricks”, and always stuck to the tried and true forms of SEO. Wouldn’t you know it’s been nearly a year since I’ve done anything but a few posts a month on Idea Queen, and all my rankings have stayed put for the most part. “Slow and steady wins the race” comes to mind here.
Now as I’m searching for some of the FireFox add-ons I had installed on my computer before the horrid computer crash of ‘09 (I’m starting from scratch here people – I more or less lost EVERYTHING, since I cant even find my back up disks from last April), I stumbled across something new. Well, maybe not new to the internet, but new to me. That program is Advanced Web Rankings.
The first thing I noticed after downloading it was that I’m a HUGE GEEK. I was drooling over all the functions of this sexy beast, and didn’t even know where to start. The main reason I wanted my hands on it was for some -safe- form of checking rankings that didn’t require me typing in all my keyword phrases one by one and searching for them in the listings. Keep in mind Idea Queen has at least 100 optimized pages, some with multiple keyword terms. Talk about a daunting task, and I can’t even keep track of half of them without it consuming an entire day. Granted I only use to check every 3 months or so, but still. Big, big task. Sadly I lost my spreadsheet with all the info though, so this is a HUGE time saver in my researching.
Some of the functions just aren’t available with the standard version, but that’s fine. I’ve always had my own way of keyword research, and honest, it’s worked for years for me. Don’t fix it if is ain’t broke, right? So that part I don’t need. HOWEVER, it’s sparked some suggestions for me as I was adding in my keywords since I had it set on “Google suggest”. Which in turn sparked an idea for more content. WOO!
Now it doesn’t just spit out all your rankings, but give you reports and other functions to see if your really targeting the keywords you should be. It also shows you if your site has moved from specific phrases over time. Very cool, and very good to know.
When my free trial expires, I do plan to buy the full Standard version for $99. And for those of you that know me, spending this much on one business tool is simply unheard of. Even more surprising, I plan to upgrade to the Enterprise version for the keyword research function after I get further into the swing of things again. For now though, I’m extremely happy to have a good handle on where my pages are ranked, and knowing where I can improve.
Topics: Resources for Your Business | No Comments »
Did You Know Aweber Had This?
If you’ve spent any time at all on this blog, you’ll know Anita and I are big fans of of the big players in the business world. GoDaddy for domain names, HostGator for hosting, Wordpress for websites, and Aweber for newsletters. But my “side note” of things I had down to do today ended up in a discovery that made a HUGE difference.
I’ve never been a big fan of popups, popunders, or anything that annoys the crap out of me. Although I’ve been seeing some “less intrusive” means of pop ups that I don’t think are too bad. For some reason being able to click the box off the page itself is less annoying that a new window. Don’t ask me why I really don’t know.
So I went in search of a script or something to use to make one of those nifty subscription box page pop ups. Come to find out Aweber provides this, already built in and highly customizable. *Happy dance* All I needed to do was set it up there and use one itty bitty snippit of code that worked flawlessly on my WordPress template (speaking of, have you SEEN the new redesigned Idea Queen? I’m still working off some static pages but I may be moving it all over to blog-only format eventually).
Now for the Numbers….
I’ve always been pretty darn good about putting my subscription boxes all over the place. Every single page in the MIDDLE or TOP of the content. Not tucked away on the side. The conversion rate of visitors to subscribers was about 1-2%. Absolutely pathetic really. 1-2 subscribers a day, 3 if I was lucky, and sometimes ZERO…. for 700-1000 new visitors every single day. Yuck.
As soon as I changed it so a box would pop up (and yes of course I left the old ones in place, I’d be stupid if I didn’t), I had instant subscribers. It was added sometime this afternoon (still early evening now), and I have 4 confirmed subscribers (5 more still unconfirmed, but won’t add those in the total just yet). Now it may seem small but if you figure there’s probably more to come (and I’m taking into account it’s Thursday – not exactly my best traffic day). Averaging just 8 a day is 250 per month, which is a HUGE leap from the 25 I was averaging.
I’ll be sure to post more results later, but I just wanted to share this awesome feature Aweber has (and probably has for quite some time, I’m just now noticing it HA!). Oh, and it’s under “Web Forms”.
Topics: Business Stuff, Resources for Your Business | No Comments »