SpeedPPC 40% off – ‘EOFY’ 3 Day Sale

Starts: Midnight, Monday, 22 June 2009 EST
Ends: Midnight, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 EST

Over at SpeedPPC, they're celebrating the end of the Aussie financial year with their greatest discount ever on their greatest package ever!

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Whether you're affiliate marketing or not, you can dominate the market with the SpeedPPC Affiliate Pro suite that includes the incredible SpeedPPC campaign builder, the Affiliate Datafeed Software, and added extras to get you launching high quality PPC campaigns within minutes.

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Get it now before the 40% off sale ends at midnight, Wednesday 24 June EST.

40% off SpeedPPC Affiliate Pro

How I got 12,000 Pageviews for $50

Put $50 towards some ads in an AdSense campaign and maybe you’ll get a few hundred click-throughs. What if that same $50 could get you over 12,000 pageviews, plus a mention in the British newspaper the Guardian. Here’s how I did it.

Photo by vinduhl

50 to 12,000

Some back-story: I’m making a documentary on life hacking (finding shortcuts in everyday life to get the boring stuff done quicker), and with that I have an accompanying blog and podcast.

A few months back I was reading a profile on the author Will Self. He made a comment about how he still enjoys using a typewriter because it forces you to write differently and not edit yourself.

I’m always trying different ways of writing, and being in Gen-Y I’ve always had a word processor to punch out essays and articles, so I’ve never had the experience of writing on a typewriter.

I figured there must be a program out there that mimics the behavior of a typewriter, something basic like WriteRoom that wouldn’t let you delete or insert words.

I did a search and came up with nothing. However, the idea of a very minimal text editor that was so archaic it wouldn’t let you delete stuck with me. I figured it was in the spirit of the film, so it would be something cool to share on the site and see what people make of it. And like the blog posts and podcasts, hopefully it would be something people would spread around and help promote the film.

I have no programing experience, so I turned to Elance, the great freelance site where you can hire anyone from virtual assistants to graphic designers to programmers.

I posted the job for a programmer to make this minimal text editor, waited around for a bid that was in my price range, and finally got the minimum $50 bid. After hiring we went back and forth with tests and notes, and about a week later I had the creatively named program Typewriter.

I posted it to the site. A few days went by and not much activity; a few mentions here and there, but nothing big. Then the hit I was hoping for came.

It was posted on Lifehacker. In one day I got 5000 pageviews, plus mentions on dozens of other blogs (it was sad to see how many would just copy the entire Lifehacker post verbatim).

This traffic boost led to more subscribers and sales, plus a greater awareness of the film and blog. And I’m still only $50 out of pocket.

Blog to Newspaper

That Saturday night I got another surprise. One of my Google alerts showed my name mentioned in an article in the Observer, a weekly paper that’s part of the Guardian. It was about the author’s first experiences with word processors, a story prompted by Typewriter the program, which was mentioned at the end (my name popped up when Will Self’s quote was misattributed to me).

At first I thought this was just some online blog on the Observer’s site, but I soon discovered that this was in the actual printed edition, distributed around the world.

It’s been a little over 2 weeks since the post went live, and the post alone has gotten over 12,000 pageviews, not to mention traffic to the rest of the site. All for just $50.

Ideas for your Ideas

Here are some ways you can use what I did to help your own blog and projects:

• Ideas are cheap to make into a reality. I think the beauty in all of this is that it’s so cheap and easy to implement an idea and see if it sticks. If you have an idea that you have the slightest belief that there might be something there, just do it. Throw it out into the interweb and see what happens.
• Think beyond your traditional content. As I said I have no programming experience. Plus my blog is about a movie, yet a piece of software became a hit. With Elance and other freelance networks, if you can imagine it someone can implement it (and for not that much). Make an iPhone app. Design an eBook or cool poster as a unique interpretation of your content. Read lots of stuff, related and unrelated to your blog, and keep an open mind and eye.
• Offer it for free. If I didn’t offer Typewriter for free I don’t think it would have been nearly as popular. Sure, maybe I could have made a couple bucks, but I’m a filmmaker, not a software developer, and goal number one of the program was to promote the film and blog.

I hope you found something useful in this post, and hopefully it gave you some ideas of your own. Now go make them a reality.

Joey Daoud is a filmmaker and freelance photographer finishing You 2.0, a documentary on life hacking. He also writes about film and photography on his blog Coffee and Celluloid.

Get Your Own Copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog WorkBook

Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Give your Blog a Kick Start with this 31 Day Challenge.

Regular readers of ProBlogger are familiar with the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project that we ran here recently.

The concept was simple: bloggers set aside 31 days to be intentional about improving their blogs.

Each day for 31 days readers were presented with a daily task and teaching to give them concrete ways to take their blogs to the next level - the goal being more readers, higher quality content, deeper reader engagement and higher levels of creativity and energy for the blogger.

Challenges included writing tasks, promotion techniques, methods to deepen reader engagement, creating thinking exercises, ideas for breaking through bloggers block and much more.

Today I’m releasing a Workbook that puts a fully updated version of 31 Day Challenge in your hands

If you already know about it and want a copy now - you can buy it now here.

Why a Workbook?

Over 14,000 bloggers have completed the challenge and the feedback was fantastic.

Bloggers who’ve taken the tasks seriously are reporting increases in traffic, greater reader engagement, fresh inspiration for posts and a greater sense of where their blog is headed.

However two common requests came from participants repeatedly:

• 1. People wanted to do the challenge at their own pace (some found daily tasks too fast, some too slow).
• 2. People wanted all the content in the one place (so they could keep it somewhere handy and dip into it again and again over time).

As a result I decided to put together a downloadable workbook version of the challenge.

The work book is professionally edited - contains new content, unique to the workbook and it is available to purchase today in two ways.

Two Ways to Get the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

1. Get the Book By Itself For $19.95

Download the 31DBBB workbook as described below for $19.95 USD.

To order it with this option simply hit the following ‘buy now’ button and you’ll be taken to PayPal where you can finalize your payment and download the workbook immediately.

2. Get the Workbook + Online Marketing Inside Out Book For $29.95

SitePoint (who helped me with editing the book) are also releasing a new book (a hard cover book not an e-book) today - it’s called Online Marketing Inside Out.

It is a great resource for those wanting to market products or services on the Web. This book shows you how to reach customers through podcasting, blogs, social networks, video, email, and contextual advertising and much more.

To get this 2-for-1 deal simply head over to SitePoint where you can read more about the book they’re offering and will receive both books when you order. Order Now (via SitePoint).

What You Receive with the Workbook

The 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project is all about giving participants a series of 31 daily tasks to help them make improvements in their blogs. This workbook takes this goal a step further with:

• Refreshed and Edited Versions of the Daily Tasks and Teaching
• New Bonus Material - each day has extra tips, questions and reflections (6000 extra words of content to help you extend the daily tasks and help you to apply them)
• Notes Areas - if you print out the book there is room to take notes, record ideas and make plans to help you implement the content
• 94 pages of content - actually we put two pages on each page in the book so it’s actually 188 pages.

Grab Yourself a Copy Today

Whether you’ve completed each of the 31 Daily tasks already and want to have a copy to dip into again and again as you continue to develop your blog or whether you’re yet to really start 31DBBB - I hope you’ll find this workbook helpful.

Grab your copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook here

PS: How are Bloggers using 31DBBB?

One of the things that I’ve loved about 31DBBB is seeing how it is being used so differently by different participants.

While originally designed for bloggers to work through over a month - the feedback that we’ve been hearing from bloggers indicates that 31DBBB is being used in a variety of ways including:

• Intense Training - bloggers setting aside days, weekends or weeks to go through multiple tasks at once
• 1 Task a Day - the way we designed it - one day at a time
• 1 Task a Week - bloggers taking their time with the challenge and making the tasks week long tasks
• Monthly Cycle - bloggers using the tasks again and again each month as a monthly routine for their blogging.
• Occasional Inspirational Resource - bloggers dipping into 31DBBB on a more occasional basis - using it on days when they have time or lack inspiration.

The great thing about 31DBBB is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way. Daily tasks don’t need to be done daily or in any particular order as all but two are independent tasks that can be repeated time and time again to help you grow a dynamic blog.

Grab your copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook here

PS: A special thanks to the team at SitePoint who helped with cover design and editing as well as to Reese Spykerman with help with layout and design.

Jumping off the Social Media Cliff

Of those that reach out to our agency at TopRank, most of the companies I talk to are intrigued and even excited about social media. The challenge for organizations is that they’re often not exactly sure where to start or what will happen if they do.

For many companies, kicking off a social media effort is like jumping off a cliff. The question to consider, as asked at last week’s OMS event, is whether your company is jumping as a base jumper or a Lemming?

What I mean by that is a question as to whether your organization is following others blindly into the chasm of social web participation or are planning and preperations being made first? Are the right people being educated and given the proper tools? Is there a plan with a specific objective?

Chasing after the competition into Facebook, Twitter and blogging without a plan is the Lemming approach. You can almost visualize swarms of companies jumping off into the abyss following competitors, self serving social media consultants and momentum created by mainstream media hype, each yelling “weeeee, social meeeeeedeeeeahhhh” and then realizing (maybe too late) with wide open eyes that they’re not prepared (no social media policy, no roadmap). There’s no chute, and the ground is coming up fast.

According to Forrester Research, Using Buyer Social Behavior To Boost B2B Social Media Success, “Starting with social tactics spells disaster”. Why? because social media puts buyers, not marketers, in control and “Build it, they will come” seldom works. Launching a company social media program by emphasizing specific tools rather than an understanding of the audience you’re trying to reach, goals or strategy, leads to wasted time, inefficiency of effort and in some cases, embarrasment.

Capturing insight about your audience in a social media context can be accomplished through a variety of tactics ranging from social media monitoring to conducting surveys of existing customers to determine their social media usage.

The base jumper approach is another metaphor that emphasizes having a plan: a goal and the right tools. A good place to start is developing a clear understanding of what social media is and isn’t.

I think it’s safe to say that social media is a set of technology and platforms that facilitate:

• Conversations
• Connections
• Sharing
• Influence - acquisition and exertion
• Customer Relationships
• Muliti-disciplinary: marketing, PR, sales, customer service, HR, research
• The opportunity to listen, engage & be useful

You could also say that social media is not:

• Just like direct marketing
• A replacement for other marketing
• Controllable
• A campaign with a defined start and stop
• Easy to measure (in the same old ways)
• Another place to publish offline Advertising media

The idea of jumping off a cliff is scary as hell to many and exciting to others. The reality is that becoming an active participant on the social web isn’t like jumping off a cliff at all. It’s perfectly fine to test programs at the product or departmental level before committing enterprise wide resources. With the right planning, tools, guidance and education, companies can equip themselves for a journey that focuses on meaningful social media efforts online that provide value both to customers and as well as growing the business.