Monday

Social Networking on Squidoo

The Internet is changing and changing along with it are the ways people use it to gather information.

Social Networking has become an online phenomenon in the past year or so. It is revolutionizing the way information is being gathered and will be found in the future. Myspace currently has over 100 million registered users and is growing rapidly. Facebook and Friendster follow closely behind.

But there is a rising site among them, Squidoo.com. The website is gaining fame as a more mature social network with reliable information about almost anything.

The basic premise of Squidoo is you set up a lens or lenses and create information about a specific topic in each lens. A lens can be created on any topic. You can make more lenses on sub-topics of your main lens and even link to your blog or website. Squidoo is a way to organize information in a logical sequence and actually give it meaning.

There are thousands of people using Squidoo to present information or market their site. Martha Stewart even has a lens on making cookies.

Squidoo lensmasters organize themselves into niches or groups so much of the work of finding them is already done for you.

The key to marketing effectively on Squidoo is interacting with others. Not making a few lenses and expecting the money to roll in. You also won't make money spamming groups so don't even think about that.

Now, Squidoo will pay its lensmaster's a percentage of their lenses earnings from Adsense and ebay ads but this is not your main moneymaker from the Squidoo. Your main money maker from social networking on Squidoo is providing meaning and value to the people who view your lens and/or interact with you.

The static, disorganized web is now coming to life and is becoming more personal, users are slowly reorganizing the information in ways which benefit them better than traditional search. Whether you're a bum marketer or a long time marketer those who recognize social networking is the next way to find information online will be the ones who benefit.

Discover a new virtually unknown niche traffic opportunity with better targeted leads than MySpace.

Also discover Bum Marketing Secrets.

Tuesday

Don’t Try to Be Someone Else, Be Yourself

In the past few years many more people have jumped on the Internet marketing bandwagon (that‘s an understatement). As it spreads across the globe many of these people present themselves online as “gurus” due to the anonymity of the Internet and the false sense of comfort that anonymity leads to.

This is where trouble starts and the people who start listening to fakes get further from their goals. I believe everyone is an expert at something but I know everyone is not an expert at Internet marketing.

Let me ask you a question, if you were to have open-heart surgery would you want someone who has absolutely no medical experience operating on you? I hope not. Why then, would you want someone to give you advice of how to make $100,000 if they haven’t even made $1 themselves? Hopefully you wouldn’t want that either.

For anyone trying to make money online before you take the advice of anyone online you need to check them out first, run a Google search of their name or website and browse around warriorforum.com to see what other marketer’s have to say about them. Do a whois search to see if they are who they say they are.

When new Internet marketer’s try to market themselves as successful guru’s who have years of expeirence, this is not only hurting them, but it is also hurting the people who listen to them or buy their products. Here’s how.

When your visitors or customer’s find out you’re not the real deal, they will flee and will not return. Ever. You’ve now lost their trust and have also ruined your long term reputation. People will avoid any future products you offer. It’s not only risky to present yourself as someone your not; it’s also unethical. You are essentially lying to everyone and committing fraud. In the real world people usually don’t impersonate a paramedic or a college professor or city councilman. If they do there's serious legal repercussions in store for them.

Now, there are some people who will lie about their profession at social gatherings and say they’re a lawyer or stockbroker, but that’s stupid too because they don’t know if they're talking to a real lawyer or stockbroker. There are serious consequences for impersonating someone you’re not in the real world and there are also serious repercussions for impersonating a guru online.

They may not happen right away in the online world but they will happen. The ripple of repercussions first starts with the people who buy your products or take your advice.

The sad thing is some people just don't care. The scammers and spammers will just continue under a different alias, depending on the ignorant for a quick buck.

What's more sad is the person who listens to them or buys their product will now be worse off than they would have if that individual didn't pretend to be someone they're not. This doesn't only happen to only one person it happens to hundreds even thousands. Then when word of you or your product reaches someone who is the real deal you'll soon be out of business very soon.

Hype, misinformation and people who just don't care for others are ruining Internet marketing and giving it a very bad taste. Doing any kind of business that way is a surefire way to self destruction.

Why continue the cycle of bad advice, false claims, false hope, false persona and lead to your self demise when you'll have more success being truthful?

If that question doesn't make you think here's a question that hopefully will. What would you do if you found out a marketer was falsifying their income claims or worse photoshoping earnings screenshot's in a desperate attempt to get sales? Would you like learning too late you've been scammed and your most likely never going to get your money back?

Do your research first to see who someone really is before you take advice from them and especially before you buy anything from them. I tend to follow experts who really know what they are talking about; some are the pioneers of marketing online.

There are all kinds of know it all's out there also. You don’t want a know it all telling you what to do; you want an expert to actually show you the way. The fastest way to guarantee your success is by following the ways of the one’s who are already successful at what you want to do because they have done it all and know what works.

I will admit though, when I started out a year ago I fell into the trap of listening to people making ridiculous claims and were self appointed guru's. I wasted months following their advice. Please don’t make this mistake. When in doubt, check them out.

I will also add just because someone is new to IM doesn’t mean they are a copycat or a wannabe with no value to offer. Just because they aren't well known doesn't mean they don't know anything. There are some great up and coming Internet marketer’s out there worth listening to who bring fresh ideas to the table.

So the bottom line is this, be honest online at all times. Everything you do represents you. It should go without saying but a newbie who is honest will go further than someone who is hiding behind a fake identity and because of that false identity will get themselves into all kinds trouble. Not to mention ruin their reputation.

Finally, when you’re starting out no one expects you to be perfect; you have to start somewhere after all. Just be yourself, treat others as you would want to be treated and watch you business grow and succeed.