Use Social Media to Drive Prospects to Your Blog

This good article on internet marketing talks about not using Facebook and Twitter as your main communication method for prospects. What if they shut down tomorrow? You would then lose the fruits of all your hard work.

Instead, the article stresses using social sites like Facebook and Twitters as outposts. You drive traffic to your blog, and offer free reports, videos, etc. to capture email addresses.

affiliate marketing and traffic building blog carnival

The July 10, 2009 edition of affiliate marketing and traffic building
blog carnival is out and it's large!

It's full of useful articles on internet marketing.

Simple Presentations

The author of the Excellence in Presentations blog believes in simplifying your PowerPoint presentations to only having one idea per slide - with a short phrase and a picture.

Always avoid using bullets.

In this way, the presenter will be forced to converse with his/her audience, rather than recite ideas, point by point.

Good Post on Simplicity and Marketing

This marketing blog has a good post on simplicity applied to marketing.

Carnival of College Admission

The latest edition of the Carnival of College Admission is up with some great articles.

2 Examples of Simple, Minimal Advertising

1. "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Book Cover.

2. Imodium AD Billboard Ad.

Money Hacks Carnival, Staying Cool Edition

The July 7th edition of the Money Hacks Carnival is up with interesting financial posts.

Two New and Interesting Blog Carnivals

Carnival of Debt Reduction: Stale Brat Edition

Carnival of Investing Strategies #15

Students Beware! Colleges, Tuition, Loans, and Debt - Will Education Follow the Housing Bust?

In many ways, today's college/tuition/loan situation parallels the real estate market before the bust.

With real estate, you had the government (through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and Wall Street (by bundling loans into securities) removing risk from the banks and other home loan originators. This caused them to get greedy and make excessive money available to unqualified home owners. The flood of money chasing homes caused prices to go up, thus causing a cycle.

The same thing has been occurring with colleges and universities. The government guarantees loans through programs like Sallie Mae, and Wall Street has recently been bundling college loans into securities. Lenders and for-profit career colleges (i.e. beautician schools) in urban areas have been pushing loans onto unqualified students. The flood of available money has allowed even distinguished colleges to bloat their bureaucracies and raise tuition faster than the inflation rate.

Students and their parents need to protect themselves:

1. Think twice before piling on excess college loans.

2. Aggressively pursue scholarships. Many scholarships go begging, or have only a handful of applicants. Use sites like Campus Scholarship Site to track them down.

2. Expect to be heavily recruited on campus with credit card offers, and resist temptation.

3. Research state colleges and universities. Their in-state tuition is many times cheaper than private schools.

4. Take part-time employment. If your finances are really tight, onsider if full time employment / part-time school might make more sense than going into debt.

new Sears Tower 103rd floor glass balcony

pictures from the new Sears Tower 103rd floor glass balcony http://snipurl.com/skydeck

Bill Gates Says That Warren Buffett Taught Him Simplicity

http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/buffett_gates_investing/2009/06/26/229277.html

Why Multi-tasking Costs An Internet Marketer Money

Let's say that you have three internet marketing projects that you would like to implement - call them A, B, and C.

To keep the example simple, let's say that each one will take 3 full months to set up and, after that, each one will generate $100 per month passively.

What happens if we try to multi-task and set the three projects up simultaneously? Since we can only devote 1/3 of our time to each project, it takes 9 months before A, B, and C are up. At that point, we will make $300 per month. So, in the first year, we will end up making $900 ($0 for the first 9 months and then $900 for the last 3 months).

What happens if we single-task the projects? We get project A up after 3 months. Then, during the next 3 months, we will earn $100/month from project A while we set up project B. In the next 3 months, we make $200/month while we set up project C. Finally, we earn $300/month for the final three months of the year. So, in the first year, we end up making $1800 ($0 for the first 3 months, $300 for the next 3 months, $600 for the next 3 months, then $900 for the last 3 months).

Two Recommended Stocks: ATVI and WOOF

The June 8 issue of Forbes included 2 interesting stock picks:

1. Activision Blizzard (ATVI) - This company was created last July with the merger of Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment and Activision. Vivendi is now the largest shareholder, but Activision's boss, Robert Kotick, is the CEO.

After the merger, the company has three franchises: World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty.

The stock trades at $12.64, has no debt, and has $2.35 per share in cash. The company says it should earn 63 cents per share in 2009. Analysts predict it will earn 79 center per share in 2010, when it releases Guitar Hero Van Halen, DJ Hero, and Wrath of the Lich King in China.

2. VCA Antech (WOOF) - It operates 471 animal hospitals and 44 veterinary diagnostic labs. Unlike human health care, most payments are in cash and they don't have to deal with Medicare. It's bad-debt expense has averaged less than 1% for the last 3 years. Their revenues and profits were up 10% in 2008.

Revenue only gained 3% in the first quarter of 2009, but their managers are "rabid cost-cutters". The stock is up 22% in 2009, but they are still buying veterinary practices, and analysts feel it is a "recession resistant" growth stock.

These stocks should be good for buy/hold, but should work really well with my Stock Trading Riches System, which captures volatility through its re-balancing formulas.

Money Hacks Carnival #70

The 70th edition of the Money Hacks blog carnival is up - with a lot of good financial and passive income posts.

Did The Federal Reserve Force BofA to Buy Merill Lynch?

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=7920583&page=1

First Look at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/popup?id=7903321

Carnival of road to financial independence #8

The Carnival of road to financial independence #8 is up and has a lot of good posts on money, wealth, and finance.

From a Business Perspective, What's So Great About Twitter, Anyway?

Well, I joined Twitter a couple of weeks ago (SimplePraveen), and I would never ask that question anymore. I think that Twitter will become a new cornerstone in the internet, just like Facebook, My Space, Linked In, and blogging - thus Twitter will have just as much of an impact on business, marketing, and brand building.



The main difference between Twitter and these other social media sites is that these other sites are set up to build one-to-one networking links between people, and they encourage their users to post as much content as they want. With Twitter, the networking is more like one-to-many, and users are limited to 140 character messages.

This limitation forces people to be creative. It also fosters more usage, because people are drawn to Twitter's simplicity, and are less likely to get writer's block and procrastinate.

I think a good way to think of Twitter is that it combines the one-to-many aspect of email with the immediacy of instant messaging. You are basically sending 140 character (or less) instant messages to all the people who follow you. The size restriction means that Twitter is ideally suited to building relationships and branding - rather than hard sells.

Here are 2 inexpensive sources of information I am currently using to learn more about Twitter and marketing / brand building:

1. Joel Comm's new book Twitter Power

2. Twitter Traffic Machine course

Puppy Survives Getting Flushed Down Toilet

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_flush_puppy

Philosophy: Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her  life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know  how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was  tired of fighting and struggling.    Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots  with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots  came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second  she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee  beans.. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.    In about twenty minutes she fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled  the  eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the  coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter,  she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'    'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.    Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the  carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother  then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After  pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.    Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee.  The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The  daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'    Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced  the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently.  The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However,  after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and  became weak. The egg had been fragile.. Its thin outer shell  had protected its liquid interior, but after   sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however.  After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the  water.    'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When  adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a  carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?    Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems  strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become  soft and lose my strength?   Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but  changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after  a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other  trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look  the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?    Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the  hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When  the water gets hot, it releases the   fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when  things are at their worst, you get better and change the  situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and  trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another  level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg  or a coffee bean?    May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough  trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human  and enough hope to make you happy.   The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best  of everything; they just make the most of everything that  comes along their way. The brightest future will always be  based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life  until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.    When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you  was smiling.    Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is  smiling and everyone around you is crying.  May we all be COFFEE (beans) !!!!!! !  Love....Peace.....Joy