Archive for July 6th, 2009

Take Care on the Marketing Forums

While having a membership on the marketing forums can in some ways be beneficial, it’s best to not invest too much time in them.  Many of the true winners in Internet business don’t even subscribe to them.  It can ultimately be a distraction.

Think of it this way:  Marketing forums exist for new people to speak with other marketers.  Bearing this thought in mind, guess what kind of marketer has the highest percentage of memberships?  The newbie, of course.  Guess what?  Many of them think they have the answers.

Some marketing forums have wised up to this idea, so they created different categories for the profiles.  This way, you can more easily pick out the experienced marketers from the green horns.  This has its own problems as well.

The more successful marketers that still hang out on the forums got there for a reason.  They didn’t give away all their secrets.  An experienced marketer knows that when they reveal one of their tricks, the Internet will almost instantly be saturated with marketers using that technique, and it will become useless.

Handling questions boils down to two different approaches, depending on the ethics of the experienced marketer.  The more ethical ones will simply not mention them or respond should you happen upon their secret.  There’s no verification or help there, but at least no serious harm is done.

Then there are the others.  A less ethical marketer will not suffer new competition.  You can expect misleading information from this kind of person.  The problem is, as a new marketer, you’re not going to know immediately who they are.

The best advice that can be given about going to the forums is to sit back and watch before engaging anyone.  Wait a few weeks and observe who is saying what.  Use your common sense.  If an answer sounds fishy, it probably is.

RSS Feeds: What They Are and How You Can Use Them

No doubt by now, you’ve been to at least one blog, and you’ve seen the “RSS” button. The letters stand for “RDF Site Summary,” but we jokingly refer to them as “Really Simple Syndication.” But what are RSS Feeds, really, and how can they work for you?

RSS Feeds allow your readers to read your blog without visiting it every day. Readers don’t always remember to check a site at the appropriate times. Having a feed will ensure that they get your posts in their Feed reader.

Another benefit of having a Feed is that you can be featured on web pages you ordinarily might not be on. Squidoo, for example, has a module for grabbing niche-related RSS feeds. People who want to add content to their Squidoo lenses or other web pages often use these kinds of feeds to keep their content fresh and up to date with minimal effort.

Anyone who reads these pages will know your name and how to reach your blog. So not only do you have the chance of getting more subscribers, but you can also put product links in your posts and make the occasional one-shot sale.

Feedburner is a simple way to set up your feed, and it lets you show category-based advertising to your readers. Yahoo Publisher Networks has a contextual ad program for RSS Feeds (think Google Adsense, but for your readers instead of page visitors). There are plenty of ad networks that can help you monetize your feed–and don’t forget the value of placing product/affiliate links in your blog posts as well!