SlyVisions dot Com » Internet Marketing

How to Automatically Send Welcome Messages To New Twitter Followers

Sly — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:34:12 +0000

For those of you using Twitter, here’s a sly tip you might will find useful.

If you have recently followed me on Twitter, you probably noticed that you received a direct welcome message from me where I say thanks for following me.

Thanks for the follow! I look forward to your tweets. If you have time, feel free to visit my blog!

The thing is, it’s actually a pre-made message that gets automatically sent out to my new followers. A few of my new followers who figured out that it was automated are then asking me how I did that very sly trick.

So how do I do it? I use a service called TweetLater.

TweetLater’s main feature is for scheduling future-dated Twitter tweets. But my favorite is the automated thank-you feature where my new followers will automatically receive a direct message as if I had sent it by hand. It requires some setup on your part which takes a few minutes, but its nothing compared to the amount of work you have to do if you send messages out manually. It’s a good feeling to know that it makes the follower feel special for getting a direct message from me.

Well, there you have it folks. There are also other cool features from TweetLater, so don’t forget to check them out. If you liked this Twitter tip, don’t forget to follow me! I follow back everyone that follows me (which is actually also done automatically by TweetLater).

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Newsletter Subscription Bait: The Results

Sly — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:35:13 +0000

About 3 days ago, I wrote a post titled How To Gain New Readers With One Simple Marketing Strategy. The purpose of the post was simple: to gain more newsletter subscribers while at the same time providing my readers with a very effective marketing tip. I had simply written the article to make it look like it was a regular blog post where I would share my tip on how to gain new readers with one simple marketing strategy, but as you can see, you need to be a newsletter subscriber to get the rest of the post.

Now don’t get me wrong. Yes, it was bait, but everything was legit. I stated that after signing up for the newsletter, the rest of the tip would be emailed within 24 hours. And that’s exactly what happened. Everybody is happy. In fact, I’m already getting emails from my new subscribers that after reading the tip, they had a significant increase in their traffic and backlinks overnight. I’m glad that my first official newsletter tip is already a big help.

The Results

Let’s dig deeper within the results. After the subscription bait, my subcriber number shot up from 396 to 431… a 35 subscriber increase that happened overnight. Now remember, this only happened because I am using AWeber as my email newsletter autoresponder. For those who don’t know, AWeber has a feature that lets you enable “Blog Broadcasting”. Basically, your AWeber subscriber numbers are sent over to your FeedBurner account, thus giving you another source of subscribers.

What I Learned (And What You Can Learn)

What did I learn from this little experiment? Well, one thing that I learned is that you need to provide your readers with something worthy in order to get them to do what you want them to do. It’s the same reason why they subscribe to your blog in the first place, right? I also learned that this method of increasing blog subscribers actually works. I’ve seen it happen on other blogs, but this is the first time I actually tried it.

Oh and by the way, I’d like to thank all of the new subscribers! If you’re reading this but haven’t subscribed yet… what are you doing?!?! Go to the sidebar and sign up for the newsletter!

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How To Gain New Readers With One Simple Marketing Strategy

Sly — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:46:09 +0000

Everyone wants to gain new readers for their blog. Readers and subscribers are the backbone of a successful blog, and without them, a blog simply just isn’t a blog.

These readers I am talking about are also bloggers that own their own blog. The reason we want to gain new readers that are also bloggers is simple: they have a higher chance of subscribing to your blog than anybody else who comes to your site from let’s say… search engines.

So let me give you my secret on how I gain multiple new readers everyday…

Oh wait.

Did I mention that you can only see the rest of my this valuable tip if you are a SlyVisions Newsletter subscriber? Ok, well, go ahead. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, do it right now! Remember, it’s free and you don’t have to worry about spam (why would I do that to you?). After you sign up, you will receive my tip within 24 hours on how to gain new readers with one marketing strategy that I use everyday.

For those who are already signed up for the newsletter, there’s no need to sign up again. I have sent out the email to you already and you will receive it within a few hours. Enjoy the post!

Subscribe Now!

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Want To Start a Blog About Making Money Online? Think Again.

Sly — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:44:44 +0000

Here’s a quick reality check. If you want to make money online, the best way to start is by NOT starting a “make money online” blog!

A lot of people make the big mistake of starting a blog about “making money online” thinking that in the process they will make some easy money.

If I start a “make money online” blog, then I can easily make money from the blog! I just need to insert affiliate links everywhere, insert AdSense ads everywhere, sell text links, sell banners, write paid reviews, and all that good stuff I can do with it… right?

Wrong! First of all, yes it is possible to make some money from a MMO blog, but the reality is, there’s just so many out there that readers don’t have time to keep up with new ones. Also, here’s something you need to know when starting a blog about MMO (which I read somewhere but don’t remember where):

Over 75% Of All Your Readers Will Be Bloggers That Have Their Own Blog!

That’s 3 out of 4 people. What this means is that it will be harder for you to get clicks to your AdSense ads or your affiliate text links! Just think about it. When you visit a MMO blog that has AdSense ads, do you actually “fall” for them and click on the ads? I didn’t think so. You know about these things, and therefore, you try to stay away from them because you know exactly what they are for. But now let’s say you have a blog about “cooking” and is monetized by AdSense alone. You can plug in all the AdSense ads you want everywhere, and guess what? You will have a better chance of getting clicks to those ads than with a blog about MMO!

This “making money online” niche is too saturated, and the big boys are having all the fun. But if you still want to start one (or already have a blog about MMO), you will need to do some 500% more work than the big boys. Below are 3 tips and guidelines that will help you get to the top.

Make Sure Your Blog Doesn’t Suck

This is the most important thing when it comes to starting a new blog, whatever niche it might be in. But because you want to start a new MMO blog, you will need to make sure your blog is unique and doesn’t suck. Readers don’t like blogs that suck, you know.

Recommended Reading:
Your Blog Sucks and I Got 20 Reasons To Back It Up

Want To Be a Popular Blogger RIGHT NOW?

If you want to take a short cut, I just want to let you know that it’s possible. It’s not recommended for new blogs because you will need to build up some credentials and trust first. But as soon as you have your momentum started and have at least 50 RSS/Email subscribers, you can do this simple trick to get instant popularity.

Get Instant Traffic

Traffic is key. If you don’t want to take the shortcut as I talked about above, try applying some (or all) of these ways to explode your traffic. They all work and will bring in traffic instantly.

Recommended Reading:
30 Tips For Exploding Your Site Traffic

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Where Have I Been?

Sly — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:20:15 +0000

A lot of you might be wondering where I’ve been. It’s been 3 days since I posted anything new and I also have not been active in terms of commenting on other blogs as I usually do.

Where have I been, you might ask? Well, long story short: I am now doing affiliate marketing through PPC (pay-per-click) and I must tell you… it’s a LOT of work! Just ask any other affiliate marketer out there and they’ll tell you that PPC marketing takes more work than blogging. If anyone disagrees, please prove me wrong! I’d love to see how you do PPC marketing the “easy” way.

So anyway, I’ll talk more about affiliate marketing later. Right now I need some rest as I’ve spent the last 3 days learning about PPC marketing. I’ll also talk more about my #1 resource when it comes to PPC marketing: PPC Coach. I’m sure a lot of you have heard about it, but I’ll try to get a review up soon so you can learn more about it and what I think of it. It truly is a treasure.

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Got 55 Minutes and 33 Seconds To Spare?

Sly — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:42:50 +0000

Darren from ProBlogger recently posted up a video on something he found on the topic of web 2.0 social marketing with YouTube. It’s really interesting and I’m currently watching it now as I’m writing this post. I’d like to share it with you just in case you haven’t seen it. The thing is, it’s 55 minutes and 33 seconds long because it’s a video of a presentation that was held at the Library of Congress this past summer. So if you have that much time to spare, go ahead and watch it below.

You really can learn a lot with this video though so try to watch it if you can.

Link: An Anthropological Introduction To YouTube

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Taking Link Building To the Next Level With Linkers Blog

Sly — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:00:31 +0000

After being last month’s Comment King, Danny Cooper earned his way to getting this free blog review. It’s been a while since I wrote a review about a blog, so Danny, prepare for an explosion of criticism! (Just kidding).

What Is Linkers Blog?

Just by the name of the blog, it can be easily assumed what Linkers Blog is all about. The new blog was founded and is managed by Danny Cooper, who calls himself a “junior web developer”. But there’s something about Danny that I like. He’s unique. He’s not like everyone else that tries to be like… well, everyone else. Just read his short little blurb in his blog’s profile page:

Incase you are wondering I am not earning as a living as a ‘problogger’ but I am instead acquiring a vocational qualification in the web development field…

Unlike most bloggers I am not looking to escape the 9-5, in all honesty I quite enjoy it, plus I am gaining an education while working as an apprentice. I find the 9-5 gives a structure to my week, plus most people I know are also occupied during the 9-5 period so its easier to organize events around that.

Anyway, back to the blog. Linkers Blog is all about link building. Although it does talk about other topics such as internet marketing and blogging, the main focus of Linkers Blog is to provide readers with tips and tricks on building links to blogs and websites. I know for a fact that this blog isn’t just any other blog about link building. Danny proves himself to be the real deal. He knows that blog commenting is one of the best ways of blog promotion, while at the same time gaining backlinks. And guess what? I see his name on almost every blog I visit that has a Top Commentator list! Truly a “doer” of all the tips he shares on the blog.

Design and Content

Overall, the design of the blog is great. I have never seen anything like it before, so I’d say it’s pretty unique. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the sidebar has almost no content. Yes there’s the subscription box, a link to his ebook, a few links, and a couple banners, but it could use some more things. It seems as if Danny decided to put everything in the footer area. If I were in Danny’s shoes, I would at least move the Top Commentator list to the sidebar to show readers that it even exists.

Another thing that is bothering me is the Sphinn button. Why do you need it for every post? I’m looking around the blog, and it doesn’t seem like every post is getting “Sphunn”. If nothing is getting submitted, you might as well remove the button. And if you can’t handle doing that, then it’s better off under the each post right by the Share This button instead of having it up at the top. The design just needs a few tweaks here and there, but nothing big.

When I first visited Linkers Blog, I was hooked on the great content that was posted. Below are my favorites that you need to check out.

Like I said earlier, Danny is a big advocate of blog commenting. It’s something that I had challenged myself to do this month by commenting on every blog post that comes up on my RSS reader. There may be times when I have to skip a few, but then I would realize that I’m missing the opportunity to gain a few backlinks and exposure on other blogs. This is something I learned from Danny’s promotional techniques.

Wrap-Up

All in all, Linkers Blog is a great new blog that is worth subscribing to. It’s a blog that has reached its way into my RSS feed as I will need to keep up with its new updates. If you haven’t checked it out yet, now is the time. Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there!

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270 Bloggers That Use Facebook

Sly — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:09:50 +0000

Darren from ProBlogger has composed a nice list of 270 bloggers that use Facebook. If you’re a blogger and use Facebook, this is a list that you must check out. From over 270 bloggers, there has to be someone in there you know that you can add. So get to work and add away!

Link: 270 Bloggers That Use Facebook

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Dear Bloggers: Stop Wasting Time and Start Working!

Sly — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:35:41 +0000

Remember my post where I tell you, my readers, to stop lurking and start commenting? Well, here’s a follow-up to it, but for the bloggers out there. I know that many of you are bloggers with your own blog, and I also know for a fact that there are times when you are just lurking around the web and not doing anything. Let me tell you something… you need to get to work! Time is money (seriously) and with 10, 30, or 60 minutes of time that you waste, you could have done a lot of stuff!

So let’s say you spend 3-4 hours a day on the computer, doing whatever it is that you do everyday. And let’s say that you have spent 1 hour of that just lurking around instead of doing some work. Here’s what you could have done:

Write posts for later. You could have written at least 2-3 posts that you can publish at a later date. It’s always a good idea to write drafts just in case the time comes when you can’t update on a particular day.
Start a new PPC campaign(s). There are lots of money to be made through PPC marketing, and with 1 hour, you can make at least 10 new campaigns.
Post on forums. Forums are a great way of internet marketing. Not only can you bring your reputation up on a particular forum, but you can also bring in traffic if you link back to your blog with your signature. Each forum post you make increases the chances of your blog being seen by other forum members. Digital Point is a great place to start, but there are others out there too.
Submit posts to social networking sites. Social networking is a big part of internet marketing, and if you can do social networking, you’re already taking a big step ahead to success. You can submit posts from other blogs (as well as yours) to sites such as Sphinn and Mixx, or submit reviews to StumbleUpon. There are many other social networking sites out there, and you can surely do a lot in just a few minutes.
Work on getting traffic. Traffic is important, and you need it. If you need ideas, here are 30.
Make some quick cash. Site-flipping is hot, and you can start creating a site that you can flip later. Or if site-flipping is not for you, try domain-flipping. It’s easy, and you can easily make $50 in one day doing it.
Write guest posts. You’re not John Chow or Darren Rowse who can literally get thousands of traffic doing nothing, so you need to find exposure for your blog as much as you can. Guests posts are a great (but not perfect) way of doing this since you are showing other readers from other blogs who you are all about and what you can do. If you have plenty of time in yours hands, write a few posts that you can submit to other blogs as a guest post. Then just contact a few bloggers and ask if you can submit a guest post on their blog. If they say yes, great. If not, then go ahead and try other bloggers.

There more things you can do, but these things are the things I do when I know I have to do some work to not waste time. Do you have any other tips?

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30 Tips For Exploding Your Site Traffic

Sly — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:29:59 +0000

I’m not going to write a long explanation about this since I think you’re going to look straight to the list anway. This list, a compilation of many different techniques and levels, is meant to be a guideline for marketing for any site, especially blogs. Some of these are things you can easily do. In fact, it’s even possible to execute all of it. So without wasting anymore of your time, here are 30 tips for exploding your blog/website’s traffic.

Email bloggers (once in a while) to let them know about your posts – if they like your message, there’s a good chance they’ll link to you
Leave comments on other people’s blogs - it’s one of the best ways of blog marketing!
Create social networking profiles then add people as friends (i.e. Myspace and Facebook)
Create controversy on a popular topic - people will have something to say about it
Have an RSS-ready blog/site so readers can subscribe
Use social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us
Have your 404 page redirect to your home page
Write a press release and submit it to a PR site like PRWeb
Use PayPerClick traffic
Create viral videos and submit them to video sites like YouTube
Submit your blog to blog directories
Link to other blogs
Purchase blog reviews on other blogs
Make business cards for your site that you can give out to friends and families
Purchase links on other blogs (even if it’s “no-follow”)
Purchase ads on social networking sites like Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc.
Give away a free product (i.e. eBooks, software, etc.)
Create a poll and let people know about the results
Brand your site with a cartoon character – John Cow has a cow, Dean Hunt has killer bunnies, and The University Kid has a, well, student.
Run a contest on your site
Submit your contest to contest sites
If you have other sites, link to your main one (make sure they’re related)
Use forums - here’s how
Create a newsletter list where you can have readers opt-in to be emailed
Write good post titles - better titles get better clicks
Exchange links and banners with other blogs
Answer questions in Yahoo Answers
Do article marketing (i.e. Ezine Articles)
Research keywords to optimize your content for SEO
Last but not least, NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK! Get yourself known while you get to know others. Not many people know this, but it’s the most important part of internet marketing. The more people know you, the more they will work with you. Even having an individual blog or website requires teamwork.

Got any other tips to explode site traffic? Let us know in the comments below.

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