Vinny O'Hare

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Website Traffic

Sponsored Tweets – Not So Much

Just had to delete someone from my Twitterstream as they decided to use sponsored tweets. As much as the next guy I like to monetize what I am doing but sponsored tweets will not be happening in my neck of the woods. Here is why.

By sponsoring tweets I feel that you are using your twitter stream as a way of making yourself look spammy. All you want to do is get my followers to see your sponsored tweet. I will not let that happen, my twitterstream is as important as my opt-in email newsletter list and I will not subject the people that follow me to think that you are someone I would think is follow worthy. (thanks Seinfeld)

Here is the real kicker when it comes to unfollowing you for having sponsored tweets. I will no longer buy any product you are pitching on your website, you have become a spammer in my mind. Not worth my time to see what you are up to since you violated the confidence that I had in you to follow smart people that I could actually learn from or have my twitter stream learn from.

There is also no way I would sign up for any newsletter that you run as how do I know you wouldn't sell that list to someone, heck if you sold out your Twitter odds are you would sell your opt-in list also.

My Time Is Valuable

You are only on this planet for a little bit of time and if I have to look at your twitter sponsored tweets it is time I could be doing something else, like follow someone that will add to the conversation and not be running adds in my face and the people that follow me.

Most of the time I use my cell phone to receive text messages from people I follow. Not only does your tweet become useless as I cannot click on a link from a text message on my phone but you have wasted my time tweeting about some product odds are you don't use in the first place.

So you are making pennies on your sponsored tweet but if you were ever to put out an actual product that I may be interested in telling my twitter follows about it is not going to happen. So is it really worth the peanuts you are going to make when you use a service like that.  I also like to spread the word about good people and their products if someone ask me for a referral odds are your name is not going to come up, odds are it isn't going to come to my mind anyway as I am not following you any longer.

The big picture far outweighs any money you could make by running sponsored tweets. I have stopped following a few people I had respect for in the online world and I am sure some friends will be mad but they chose to make the choice to become an unfollow.

New Look on the Blog

Even though there is never enough hours in the day I found the time to put a new look and feel for this site. Using the Thesis theme from WordPress makes that job so much easier to do. A few clicks and I changed the background and a few of the fonts.

Moved the navigation to the top and the right hand side took a few clicks of the mouse and all of a sudden I had a new site which looks a lot better then the old plain WordPress theme. Updrading the Thesis hooks took a few seconds but well worth it as it makes life a lot easier.

Now that I have a new look I need to make some more post here instead of every few months it needs to be every few days.  I found most of my research on themes using Twitter and seeing what everyone else recomended.

Market Your Website Using Ebooks

Let me tell you a secret which may not necessarily be a secret: on the Internet, anyone can write an eBook. I am not kidding. Each and every one of us has a piece of information nurtured in our minds that, once shared with other people, could net for us countless rewards for marketing and financial purposes. “But I haven’t written anything my entire life,” you might say. Read on, my friend.

Creating Your EBook

The beauty of writing for the Internet is that you don’t have to be a Shakespeare or a Stephen King. In fact, the simpler your style of writing is, the better it would be for your readers. The online audience is much different from those of printed publications. Internet users are less patient, as reading your piece on the monitor is less convenient than having an actual book that you could take to bed.

But even if you’re not blessed with an iota of writing skills, or if you simply don’t have the time to come up with your own work, fret not. You could always hire a ghostwriter. There are a lot of ghostwriters in the World Wide Web, and it’s just a matter of finding the best, and most affordable, one for your particular needs.

Alternative Ways Of Coming Up With An EBook Product

There are many ways by which you could come up with your own eBook even with minimal writing on your part. You could always compile articles that you could freely download from article directories, for example, for as long as you retain their resource boxes. I don't recommend this but you can do it, Or you could conduct an interview with an expert of a particular field and simply transcribe the same for an easy product. Better yet, you could tap into the almost infinite farm of public domain information for your much needed content, something which you could utilize free of charge.

Marketing Through Your EBook

Regardless of the manner by which you decide to create your eBook, one thing is certain. An ebook is a powerful vehicle for promoting your website. Let us take a look at some of the ways by which you could do this.

1. Your eBook can be the heart of a potent viral marketing campaign to promote your website. Viral marketing is the online equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising. With this strategy, you could achieve an increase in website traffic through the exponential spread of your business message, i.e. your website’s link. Simply populate your eBook with links to your website, and distribute the same for free. Encourage your recipients to distribute the same product to their family and friends, if ever they would love what is inside your eBook. This would result in a wildfire-like spread of your eBook to many, many people, and consequently, a wildfire-like spread of your link as well. Sometimes I tell people after they download my ebook not to share it with anyone, this makes them share it with more people because they think it will make them look smart in front of their family and friends.

2. Your eBook can be packaged as a bonus for the products that other people are offering for sale. Not only will your eBook add to the value of the said product and invite the interest of more potential customers, this tactic would also allow you to win some visitors to your website. Better yet, the visitors you stand to gain from this strategy are quality ones, as they have a history of transacting online, hence, a higher likelihood of doing business with you, if ever you’re maintaining a commercial website.

3. Your eBook can be used as a gift in exchange for a subscription to your mailing list. Your mailing list, of course, is a way for you to acquire repeat visitors. Pumping up your mailing list with more subscribers would give you some guaranteed traffic. This can even be set up using an autoresponder service. If you have a blog Feedburner works really well for that.

4. You could use your eBook in bartering for a spot on the pages of popular websites. Let other people give it away for you. This also establishes you as an expert in your field.

5. Last, but most certainly not the least, you could sell your eBook. By doing this, you stand to earn for every sale, and you could promote your website at the same time through the links contained in the product’s pages.