WEB BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Received some great comments and questions recently from Scott Sheperd who had found me via my profile on BlogCatalog. Scott says:

“I started blogging a couple of years ago and then dropped it basically because I just don’t understand the RSS and the networking system and the affiliate stuff. I started up the blogging again and am determined to figure this out.”

I can understand your frustration Scott. Getting a handle on the technical side of things can be a challenge and there is so much mis-information about social marketing floating around that it’s scary. There is definately a right way and a wrong to do this, and many web marketers/SEOs are not only doing it the wrong way, but teaching people how to do it the wrong way.

How do I know there is a wrong way? Because I’ve been there. I’ve made stupid mistakes, followed some bad advice and had my butt kicked as a result. But, I’ve learnt from those mistakes and I’m now getting some good instruction and guidance from people who really know this stuff, and it’s paying dividends.

Social media sites do not exist for marketers and SEOs to game them for their own advantage. Yes, they are a great way to build links and thus improve your rankings in the search engines. But, as long as you approach social marketing with the right mindset you can use it to raise your profile -  to be seen as the “go-to” guy in your niche. Rather than “marketing” to your audience, who aren’t there to be marketed to, you’ll find potential clients will come to you simply because they trust you. It’s called relationship marketing and it’s been around for years. Simply put, people do business with people they know and trust.

Scott’s enquiry to me is the perfect case in point.

Scott asks:

“Where do I go to get a grip on the technical part of blogging like the RSS stuff and placing ads on my blogs and websites. Is it you? Or is this too basic for you. Do you charge? How do I get a little more personalized service at first to get me going?

Scott approached me because he saw me as an expert in blogging, RSS, affiliate marketing etc. Scott’s an expert in stress management and motivational speaking so his objective is to build his online profile and be seen as the go-to guy in his area of expertise.

OK, where to start? There are two people from whom I’ve learnt a lot about social marketing - Rich Schefren and Jack Humpfrey. So, to get started on the right track:

Download Rich’s Attention Age Doctrine Pt 2. This is one of the best free (unbelievably) books you’ll find anywhere on Web 2.0 marketing. It doesn’t get into nitty-gritty, fine-detail tactics and resources but it’s an excellent overview of where Web 2.0 marketing is heading. It will put you in the right mindset for your social marketing endeavours. Rich has recently followed this up with the Maven Matrix Manifesto, also free. Download them both, print them out, pour your beverage of choice, arm yourself with a pen and paper for notetaking and read these books.

Next, download Jack’s Authority Black Book. This is an excellent resourse on social marketing and covers the basic tactics and strategies. It includes a huge list of Web 2.0 resources. Also free. Keep a copy on your desktop for easy access.

Jack has also created Social Marketing Central where you can network with other social marketers and get advice. You’ll feel at home here. Also free.

OK, that takes care of the best free resources. The next ones aren’t free but will move your social marketing efforts to the next level.

Jack’s Social Power Linking is a membership site which gives you access to training books, videos, webinars, podcasts etc which will teach you everything about social marketing. I’ve written a full review here. Every month new resources are added. The latest is a 107 page report aimed at newcommers to social marketing. It includes:

• The Social Marketing Gold Rush - is it a Flash in the Pan?
• What is Social Marketing?
• The Two-Part Social Marketing Power Strategy
• Your Blog as a Social Marketing Tool

I’m a member of SPL and I intend to stay a member. The quality of the books released each month alone you would easily pay $50 to $100 for. SPL is currently around $30 per month.

The last non-free resource I’m going to mention is another creation of Jack’s called Authority Site Center. It’s basically a Content Management System which uses WordPress as it’s core but adds proprietary software and site building technology to take WP to another level. If the technical aspects of blogging, RSS feeds, site building and marketing with Web 2.0 leave you totally confused then this is the right resource for you, because all that is taken care of while you simply build a great “authority” site.

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A recent post on LED Digest raised the issue of organised voting up of content on social media sites. One subscriber had suggested that LED readers might be able to devise a system where each subscriber could submit and vote on other subscriber’s content. So in response to that, another subscriber designed and put up a page which he named SICoop (The Slightly Inappropriate Co-op for Shilling Social Media Sites.)

This concept of organised voting up of social content isn’t new but you need to be very cautious about how you execute it and participate in it. Most social media sites track your participation. The sites you submit and vote on, comments you make, groups you join and friends you make, are clearly visible to the entire community.

The first site listed to be “shilled” was the SICoop page itself. So, if you were to submit this “Shilling Social Media Sites” page to social media sites, what would that say about you as a member of that community? Once you’re marked as a spammer the damage is done and there’s no turning back. Take the second URL I saw listed on SICoop. What is that? Seems to be nothing more than a copyright notice and legal mumbo-jumbo. Trust me, NO genuine social media user is going to submit that to StumbleUpon, Propeller or any other social site. Submit it to Digg and you’ll likely get banned. Or worse, your domain will be banned and no one else will be able to submit any of your content.

There’s no shortcut to success on social media sites. You have to gain an understanding of how they work and become a trusted member of the community. These guys aren’t stupid. They can spot spammers and attempts to manipulate them a mile off. If you vote up a page which exists for no other reason than to game their system then you’re just asking for trouble. A StumbleUpon “I like it” click is very powerful. It truly is a personal recommendation, unlike a link in the eyes of search engine. When a SU user checks out your recommendation, and they like it, they’ll check out other stuff you’ve voted for. If they like what they see they’ll check out your profile (with links to your site) and become your “fan”. They’ll start to trust you. But submit a site for “shilling social media sites” or a copyright notice, that trust will evaporate. They’ll start clicking the thumbs-down button and before you know it you’ll be shown the door.

It’s quite OK to network with other members of a community such as LED Digest. LED is one of the best old-style email discussion lists out there and I read every issue. But I’m not going to risk my reputation on SU by voting on a page just because it was written by another LEDer, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to do the same for me. However if that member were to post a good article on their blog – whether it be about web hosting, SEO, marketing or any aspect of doing business online (which is what LED is all about) and I’ll gladly vote for it. The concept of LED users helping each other is fine, but you have to be smart about how you go about it. Simply putting up a page where you add your URL to the voting list isn’t the best way to achieve the desired results and could do more harm than good.

I recently joined a membership site called Social Power Linking where I’ve learned an awful lot about social marketing. Part of that membership is a “buzz” group where they are setting out to achieve the same thing as SICoop. I haven’t actually participated in it yet (not sure if I really want to yet), but there are very strict rules on how it operates and ethical standards are maintained for the good of the community. The guys who run it have been doing this for years, successfully, and really understand social marketing. One thing I have learned from SPL is you do NOT want to shill social media sites.

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Blogger is no more. After creating several new blogs with WordPress I realised just how much better a blogging platform it is than Blogger. Easier to manage. Easier to configure. Easier to customise. And most importantly, WP outperforms Blogger in the search engines by a country mile. So it’s out with Blogger and in with WordPress.

Using WP’s “widgets” it was a simple matter to add links to my previous Blogger posts (under Web Development and Marketing Strategies in the right panel) by using an RSS Feed widget. I’ve also added a feed for my Affiliate Sales Programs blog, created with WP as well.

Web Business Solutions - the Blog, is an extension of my Web Business Solutions website. I’ll be blogging about site building, web design software, SEO, web marketing, link building, web 2.0 and social marketing.

Come along for the ride. Should be fun!

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