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You get up in the morning and you are cruising through your day without a hitch and suddenly someone does something that just rubs you the wrong way.  Something happens that you feel is an injustice for thousands of folks trying to make an honest living and that changes the playing field.

Have you ever had that kind of day?

In the Internet marketing arena we have marketers that we have fondly labeled “big dogs.”  It is meant as a term of endearment and most certainly has a level of respect from their unprecedented earning performance.  Well, one of the big dogs just launched a product that I am sure will render untold sums of cash in their account today.

The big problem is;  I received an email that said the doors would be opening soon and we should look at the emails in our in boxes to see who has the best bonus package before we buy.

Is it no longer about the product quality or benefits of the product?

Is it now about how big the bonus package is?

There are thousands of folks on the Internet trying to make money that very well may not be able to come up with a stunning bonus package.  They also may be the very list owner  that has been supplying you with helpful content for some time now.

Do you abandon the list owner whose list you have been on for a while and who presented you the product offering for a larger bonus package?

Are we encouraging list jumping and throwing relationship building to the wind?

I like bonuses as much as the next guy.  However, let’s be honest…that type of thought process changes the game and clears the path of new found marketing hopefuls.

If you are a “big dog” hopeful and caught in this trap – here are some suggestions to keep you in the buyers’ eye:

• Offer a needed service to your customers that complements their potential product purchase.
• Be creative in wrapping several services together to make a package offering that has a high perceived value.
• Think outside of the box for ideas of what the customer, who is considering a product, might want or need.  Do not forget that complementary services or items to save time, make money or save additional money for your customer have a price tag of priceless on them in the eyes of the would be buyer.
• Be sure to make use of PLR (Private Label Rights) products to quickly create a bonus offering of your own.

Above all else – the number one key bonus you can offer that has the most value in the long run is a honest, sincere and helpful relationship between you and those on your list.

Keep building relationships with those individuals on your list.

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Selecting your web host can be a bit overwhelming as everyone claims to be the best of the best.  After all my years of dealing with hosting options and making selections here is my laundry list of things that I look for.

• Support – I feel support is so important and often not done well.  Knowing that my web host has a good support desk is critical and a huge benefit for quick questions, as well as major mess ups.  If you give me 24/7 support coverage… I could be in love!
• Terms and Conditions – I am big on reading the terms and conditions of a website, especially that of a web hosting company.  You want to make sure there are no gotchas.  Things that I particularly look for are transfer fees, domain ownership (if the domain went along with the hosting package) and any time constraints of service.
• Features – I can wrap up my concerns here by listing a few key features that can turn me from a prospect to a buyer.
  • Disk Space – I am looking for unlimited disk space
  • Bandwidth – Again, unlimited is the key phrase for me
  • # of Domains that can be hosted – Yeah you guessed it – Unlimited.
  • cPanel access – Yes there is a Santa! With cPanel access the learning curve is a  minor hurdle for newbies.
• Price - Ok, ok – price is a factor with almost everything.

Anything, over and above is icing on the cake and a surefire deal maker. You will find my hosting recommendations on the blog…:-)

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Here are a few translations for prospective tweeters:

• Following: You are a follower when you receive the tweets of others.  You don’t have to reciprocate.
• Hashtag: It’s a # sign at the beginning of a word, which indicates what the tweet is about.  By adding hashtags it helps users find updates on specific subjects.
• RT: It’s short for re-tweet.  You add an “RT” if you are tweeting something from another person’s tweet.
• B4 - Before
• Chk -Check
• U – You
• YVW – Your Very Welcome
• UR – Your
• IC – I See
• DM - Direct Message
• IOW – In Other Words
• PRT - Please Retweet
• GR8 – Great
• TYT - Take Your Time
• Tweet: The basic tweet is an update of 140 characters or less.
• Tweetup: When Twitter users meet in person.
• TwitPic: A third-party application that allows a user to post photos on Twitter.
• Twitterati: A-listers on a Twitter.

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Before I go into in my list building techniques I want you to give thought to why you are own Twitter in the first place.

If it is to socialize and talk to hundreds and thousands of people then have it.  However, if your intent is to create a niche specific list of followers for whatever reason here is 7 tips to get you jump started in the right direction.

1). Go to http://search.twitter.com and perform your niche specific searches to build your list.
A word of advice in performing that search – using quote marks around you search phrase renders even more specific results.
For example – if I were searching on Internet marketer I would enter in the following in the search bar “Internet marketer.”

Once you have identified individuals that are positive match then follow that person.  The overall statistics of being followed back in approximately 1 in every 5 you follow will follow you back.

2). Utilizing a site such as Mr. Tweet – http://www.mrtweet.net will be will be able to find suitable people to follow to match yoru criteria.

3). When you create your Twitter profile be sure that it is completely filled out and details included in the profile match your niche specific interests.  This allow the list building to be a two way effort.  Those looking for the same niche will be able to find you.

4). Be sure that your conversions (tweets) involve in niche specific content.  in other words, talk the talk.

5). Utilizing such software as http://bit.ly/wF2HK will help for you to keep a watchful eye on your competitors and perhaps follow their followers.

6). Try creating a niche group at http://www.hashtags.org

7). Create a focus group at http://twibbon.com/

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Here are four free  resources that you might want to consider using to creating video tutorials.

Camstudio – http://camstudio.org/ – This is an open source screen capturing video that will create AVI files with audio. Camtasia has a 30 free trial.

JingProject - http://www.jingproject.com/ – You can capture your screen, draw and add a message and turn into a video.

Screencast-o-Matic – http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ – You can create video screen recording.

Wink – http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ – This is a powerful open source program that records your voice, capture screenshots and the output is in several different formats including flash.

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This post is shared with you by permission of Aweber and Tom Kulzer, Aweber CEO

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

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The number of blogging resources on the net today is mind boggling, and can truly turn an average blog into a special one in little time.  With all that is available, it is hard to know what resources to tap into and spend your energy on.

Below are a few for your consideration.

Blogger.com is a website owned, and operated by Google that allows users to post blogs for free, and make money with AdSense. While blogger.com lacks the power of a Wordpress, it is easy for those that are interested in implementing their AdSense ads in a simple, little code, manner.  Blogger.com is a great way to get started blogging without any costs as it is FREE.

Wordpress.com is another blog publishing software that is one of the most powerful, and sophisticated blog publishers on the Internet.  Wordpress is also free, and allows users to build blogs that are more advanced than most of the more popular free blogging alternatives on the Internet.  Wordpress.com also is very liberal in allowing users to customize their blog, and even implements plug-ins that are noteworthy.

Blogrankings.com is a site that ranks all the latest and greatest blogs. The value of this site is to utilized it as a resource to review what other top bloggers are doing, and attempt to emulate it with your own blog.  Understanding what makes a certain blog in your niche so popular can revolutionize the way you think about and post to your own blog.

Blogarama.com offers users a virtual telephone book of blogs from all areas of subject matter.  No matter what your interest, or niche, this website can bring out the best and most popular blogs.

Ultimately the best blog resource is the one that caters to your needs, and thus must be sought out by you according to what you are trying to achieve.

What are your favorite blogging resources?

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