32 Spectacularly Useful Twitter Tools

Like millions of other Twitter users, I use Twitter as a serious business tool, to enhance my business interests. But I also enjoy using Twitter for the fun aspect that is inherent in its DNA.

Let's face it, Twitter is a lot of fun! And it has spawned an entire industry of amazing Twitter tools that are not only fun - but can also help you maximize the power of Twitter, as well as enhance your business interests.

Following are 32 Spectacularly Useful Twitter Tools. Enjoy!

1. BackType Plugins
backtype.com/plugins

Backtype.com is a real-time conversational search engine that helps users find, follow and share comments from blogs, social networks and other social media. Very, very cool.

2. CureCRM
curecrm.com/net

CureCRM is a Twitter CRM (Customer Realationship Management) tool. It works on your desktop and gives you the ability to automatically record email conversations into salesforce cases, contacts, opportunities, and leads entries. It also schedules meetings, manages your calendar, and reminds colleagues to attend meetings.

3. Friend or Follow
friendorfollow.com

This is my favorite Twitter tool. It tells you who you're following who's not following you back. This tool allows you to stay on top of your unfollows, as well as "trim your Twitter fat", so to speak.

4. Featured Users
featuredUsers.com

Featured Users is a Twitter application ad network. It appears to be affiliated with the aforementioned Friend or Follow. Here's how it works: When you purchase impressions, your Twitter profile is displayed on the Twitter applications in the Featured Users network. The more impressions you purchase, the more often your profile is displayed.

It actually looks pretty cool. I haven't tried this one yet, but I'm seriously thinking about it. They also have a user referral program that will allow you to make money when you refer customers to their program.

5. GeoFollow
geofollow.com

Geofollow bills itself as "The Largest Location Based Twitter Directory on The Net." GeoFollow allows you to list yourself geographically, and categorically, simply by sending a twitter reply. Pretty cool.

6. GoTwitr
gotwitr.com

GoTwitr is a Twitter referral service. However, what makes GoTwitr different from other Twitter referal services is the fact GoTwitr gives you the ability to preview in detail everyone you follow or unfollow.

That way, your community will be made up of people who actually share your interests.

7. HootSuite
hootsuite.com

HootSuite is yet another free professional Twitter client. Here are some of the functions that HootSuite performs: Manages multiple Twtitter accounts, tracks how many people click the links you tweet out, pre-schedules your messages, submits your blog feed to Twitter and more.

8. OpenBreak (Formerly TwitterBerry)
orangatame.com/products/openbeak

Billed as "The evolution of TwitterBerry," OpenBeak is mobile client for posting updates to Twitter. It works over the data network, so you don't need to use SMS. OpenBeak is the evolution of TwitterBerry, and the new name allows the app to grow beyond both the Twitter platform and BlackBerry smartphones.

9. PeopleBrowsr
peoplebrowsr.com

PeopleBrowsr is a real time data mine and social search engine. It allows you to monitor your brand, manage feedback, share accounts, run campaigns, track keywords, build widgets and engage across multiple social networks simultaneously.

10.Ping.fm
ping.fm

Ping.fm is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to post to multiple social networks simultaneously. This is a really great tool!

11. Qwitter
useqwitter.com

Qwitter is a Twitter tool that notifies you when you get un-followed. Qwitter checks your followers and notifies you as often as it can, depending on how many people are using it and how many followers they have.

Now here's what's really cool about Qwitter. Not only will it alert you as to who is no longer following you, but it will also show you the tweet you posted that (may or may not) have caused the person to unsubscribe. Very useful.

12. Seesmic Desktop
seesmic.com

Seesmic Desktop is a Twitter client and desktop app which allows you to view multiple accounts in one window. Not only will you be able to view multiple accounts, you will be able to view the window in columns (similar to Tweetdeck).

13. SocialOomph (Formally known as TweetLater)
socialoomph.com

SocialOomph is a free Twitter tool that lets you set your tweets to be sent at specific time intervals, track keywords, automatically send welcome direct messages (DM's)to new followers, purge your direct messages and more.

14. Trendistic
trendistic.com/_help

Ever heard of Google Trends? Well, Trendistic is similar to that. Trendistic is a tool that allows you to track trends on Twitter, similarly to what Google Trends does for Google searches. It gathers tweets as they are posted, filters redundant ones and compiles the rest into one-hour intervals.

15. TwitterMail
twittermail.com

TwitterMail is a service for users of Twitter that allows them to redirect email to their twitter account.

Here's how it works: When you give TwitterMail your Twitter credentials they supply you with a unique TwitterMail email address. For instance, abc123example@twittermail. com. If you send an email to that address it will be posted to Twitter.com (By the way, that's a fake Twittermail address, so don't use it).

16. Twitbin
twitbin.com

If you're a Firefox user, this one's for you. Twitbin is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar. Twitbin allows you to send messages, receive messages, share links, and more. Great Firefox extension!

17. Twibbon
twibbon.com

Supporting a cause? Twibbon allows you to promote your cause through Twitter. Twibbon overlays a small icon onto supporters’ profile images to create a 'Twibbon', making an impactful online statement. The user’s Twitter account automatically tweets to let everyone know about their affiliation.

18. TweetMeMe
tweetmeme.com

If you're an article marketer like I am, you're going to love this tool. TweetMeMe is a retweet button for website and blog publishers who want to encourage viral activity of their content on Twitter.

The button shows a live count of the number of times your content has been tweeted. I love this tool!

19. TweetDeck
tweetdeck.com/beta

TweetDeck is your personal social networking dashboard for staying in touch with what’s happening now on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. In fact, you can do so many things with TweetDeck, you are limited only by your imagination.

20. Twitterfeed
twitterfeed.com

Twitterfeed allows you to publish updates from any RSS feed to your Twitter account. You then have the ability to decide how frequently you want Twitterfeed to check your feed updates and how many updated articles to post to Twitter.

21. Twitpic
twitpic.com

As its name suggests, Twitpic allows you to share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, their API, or through the Twitpic site itself.

22. TwitterCounter
twittercounter.com

If you have a lot of Twitter followers and want to show them off, you'll find this is an interesting tool. TwitterCounter is a statistics tool which allows you to display the number of Twitter followers you have on your blog.

It will also display whether your followers are increasing or decreasing. The service also has a Twitter Remote widget that you can add to your blog sidebar for more interaction with your followers.

23. Twitterholic
twitterholic.com

Want to know who has the most followers on Twitter? Then Twitterholic is the tool for you. But Twitterholic goes one step further, not only does it allow you to see who has the most followers, it also allows you to check your own ranking in the Twitter universe. Great tool!

24. Twellow
twellow.com

Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts. It features hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people in specific niches.

Here's how it works: Twellow grabs publicly available messages from Twitter. Twellow then analyzes and categorizes each of the users responsible for those messages into the various categories found on its website.

25. Twaitter
twaitter.com

Twaitter is a tool that allows team accounts, scheduled tweets, RSS integration, tweet calendar and more.

26. Twibes
twibes.com

Twibes is an interesting Twitter tool that allows you to find groups of people who share your common interests.

27. TwitterLocal
twitterlocal.net

TwitterLocal is an Adobe AIR based application that allows you to filter Tweets by location. You can generate an RSS or XML feed, which allows you to receive Tweets from a specified area, including city, state, postal code and mile radius.

28. TweetBrain
tweetbrain.com

TweetBrain is a crowdsourcing service powered by the Twitter community. It enables you to get quality answers to your Twitter questions quickly - sort of like Yahoo Answers for Twitter users. Very cool.

29. Tweetvisor
tweetvisor.com

Tweetvisor is a web-based, multi-column Twitter interface that enables users to better manage multiple Twitter accounts. Tweetvisor returns real-time updates about favorite topics, news and tweets - plus, much, much more. Nice!

30. TwitterFox
twitterfox.net

TwitterFox is Firefox web browser plugin that TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends' tweets on Twitter. This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets.

It also has a small text input field to update your tweets. In addition, TwitterFox allows you to view Tweets within your own web browser, in a popup menu. This is extremely convenient and eliminates the need to constantly go to the Twitter website.


31. Wickett Twitter Widget
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wickett-twitter-widget

This is a popular WordPress plugin that display tweets from a Twitter account in the sidebar of your blog. It is without question the easiest way to add Tweets to Wordpress.

32. Yahoo Sideline
yahoo.sideline.com

Sideline is an Adobe AIR desktop application that allows users to create and group custom queries by topics of interest.

The Truth About Link Exchanges

All links are not created equal, and while exchanging links may seem like a good idea, you need to think it through, carefully. For example, if you own a hosting website, how does it possibly benefit you to exchange links with a butcher, baker or candlestick maker? Answer: It doesn't.

The link has to be relevant to your website's overall theme, otherwise, it will do you no good. Here's something else to consider: If the website you're exchanging links with has a bad reputation with the search engines, your website could also develop a bad reputation by association. That could hurt your website's ranking.

Remember, there are a lot of spam websites out there that look completely legit - but they're not. Be careful.

In his article, Why I Don't Participate in Link Exchanges, James Huggins writes:

"Do not ask me to link to you because it will help your ranking. I don't care diddly poo about your ranking. Ask me to link to you because I will be able to say, with all my honor and integrity, to my visitors, that they will benefit from the link.

The right way to get people to link to you is to offer content that is useful to their visitors. They will gladly link to you then. And, if you offer value and get honest links, then when someone searches, the engine will deliver your page because it truly is the best page for the surfer."

Google has made it clear that it frowns on the practice of mass link exchanges. So unless you want to incur the wrath of Google, be very discriminating with your link exchanges.

So am I saying don't exchange links?

No, I'm not. I'm simply saying, exchange links prudently!

The Seduction of Internet Marketing Newbies

If you got behind the wheel of a car without knowing how to drive, chances are, you'd crash. Yet, every single day on the Internet, thousands of newbies are performing the equivalent of the aforementioned driving analogy, by putting up a website without having the slightest idea how to promote it. And guess what happens - they crash!

In my opinion, starting a business - any business without having even basic marketing skills is not only putting the proverbial cart before the horse - it's downright foolish!

Now some might argue that a business plan is more important than marketing ability. And others might argue that knowing how to manage a business is more important than having a marketing acumen.

Well, I agree with the former argument. A good business plan is like a GPS system. It will keep you on course, and headed in the right direction. A business plan is an absolute must, and you should definitely develop one before you start any business.

However, I reject the latter argument. Why? Because you can be the greatest manager in the world, but if you don't know how to market your wares, your business will fail - I don't care what you're selling.

That's why I consider competency in marketing the most important business skill that you can have. If you become proficient in the art of marketing, it will allow you to become profitable that much quicker. Then you can afford to either hire a manager, or take a business management course.

A Simple Classified Ad

How important is it to acquire marketing proficiency? Believe it or not, writing a simple classified ad is considered both an art and a science, seriously! Publisher and mail order legend, Melvin Powers actually wrote an entire 240 page book about classified advertising titled, Making Money with Classified Ads. In an advertisement for the book Powers writes:

"I've run thousands upon thousands of ads, month after month, year after year and have made millions doing it. I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. I found that, as with most things, making money with classified ads is easy when you know how."

Author and master copywriter, Robert Boduch also wrote a book about classified advertising titled Classified Magic ...How To Make Your Small Ads Pay Off BIG! In an advertisement for his book, Boduch wrote:

"After years of running ads -- trying out various approaches -- I began to collect the key ideas that worked. I wanted to figure out what made some classified ads so successful. And I kept testing new approaches until ...I finally figured out ...what works and what doesn’t."

By the way, while we're on the subject of writing ads, do yourself a favor and start reading Brian Clark's outstanding copywriting blog, CopyBlogger. You won't get a better ad writing education anywhere on the Internet - and it's free! You can thank me later.

How Do I Get Free Traffic to My Website?

I'm a member of several small business forums, and without fail, whenever newbies visit the forums, the two questions they ask most often are: "How do I promote my website?" or, "How do I get free traffic to my website?" Those two basic questions get asked by newbies every single day.

Newbies, are you starting to see my point about the importance of acquiring marketing skills? You need to know the answer to those questions, before you build a website. As I demonstrated a moment ago, even writing something as simple as a classified ad requires a certain degree of competency.

The Seduction of Internet Marketing Newbies

In his book Seduction, author and social theorist Jean Baudrillard writes:

"Many social behavior theorists classify seduction as a specialized form of persuasion. Seduction can also be viewed as a form of power that relies on psychological mastery rather than the use of coercive power, money, or intellectual appeals."

I couldn't agree more. Seduction is indeed a "specialized form of persuasion that relies on psychological mastery." That's one of the reasons why so many newbies come online believing that they can succeed without any type of training - without any marketing knowledge whatsoever. They've been psychologically seduced - mentally manipulated into believing that they can - much like gamblers are seduced by the dream of striking it rich in Las Vegas casinos.

Allow me to elaborate: Naive and highly impressionable newbies see stories on tv about ordinary people getting rich on ebay. They see the slickly produced "get rich quick on the Internet" infomercials. They read the newspaper and magazine articles about people starting an online business with little or no money, and seemingly striking it rich overnight.

In addition, brilliantly composed and ultra persuasive get-rich-quick ads literally saturate the Internet. They're everywhere! At virtually every turn, newbies are bombarded and seduced with stories, and images of ordinary people making extraordinary amounts of money on the Internet. And as is human nature, they want to get in on the action too. In essence, newbies are being seduced with unrealistic visions of the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

And because the seduction methods being perpetrated are so powerful and effective, they almost have a brainwashing effect. Most newbies are incapable of determining for themselves what's true and what isn't. They can't comprehend that the "flavor of the month" success stories they see in the media and on the Internet are the exception, rather than the rule.

Now many of you reading this may erroneously come to the conclusion that I'm against capitalism, and free enterprise. I can assure you, I'm not. I'm all for everyone making as much money as they possibly can. After all, that's the American way. That being said, I also think it's important that newbies coming online be told the "truth" about Internet Marketing - that it's not nearly as easy as it's being presented.

The Truth About Internet Marketing

Because of fierce competition and ratings pressure, the tv media especially tends to glamorize certain news items. As a result, newbies are being fed a daily dose of sensationalized poppycock! The truth is, Internet marketing is hard work. No, not ditch-digging hard - but hard work nonetheless. And for every "rainbows and lollipops" success story that gets publicized, there are at least a thousand gut-wrenching failures that get swept under the rug.

The point of this article is to cut through the hype and B.S - to tell newbies the truth about Internet Marketing. It's a business, like any other business. And it requires preparation, effort and dedication. So how can newbies realistically succeed on the Internet? In my opinion, the easiest, safest and best way for newbies to succeed online is with affiliate programs.

What Are Affiliate Programs?

In a nutshell, an affiliate program is where you agree to promote another company's products for a commission, or percentage of the profits. Affiliate programs are perfect for newbies, because for the most part, you don't even need a website to get started making money. You also don't have to worry about billing hassles, stocking inventory or shipping products. That's all handled for you by the merchant. You simply promote the daylights out of the link the merchant provides you. And when you make sales - collect your money.

But what about if you don't know anything about marketing? Glad you asked.

The best and most successful affiliate programs like Dr. Ken Evoy's 5 Pillar Affiliate Program or The Internet Marketing Center (IMC) Affiliate Program take you by the hand, and help guide you through the marketing process. They work with you to help you become successful. They'll do their part - but you have to do your part as well. That means you have to work hard, and faithfully study and apply their proven marketing techniques - and learn how to promote their programs. They'll teach you what you need to know to become successful, and allow you to progress at your own pace.

There are also some excellent books on the market, written especially for newbies. One of the best is Street Smart Internet Marketing by Justin Michie.

So if you're a newbie reading this, do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy of Street Smart Internet Marketing. It's selling on Amazon for as little as $4.99 - a relatively painless investment in your marketing education.

Free Internet Marketing Resources for Newbies

A really great website for newbies is the original newbies site, Joe Robson's The Newbie Club. This site has some incredible free resources, including articles, free tutorials, newbie software, newbie books and e-mail courses.

StartupNation is another fantastic site for newbies. It pretty much has everything a newbie would need, all on one website, including blogs, forums and a marketplace where you can promote your business for free. It's a very impressive site.

Also, check out Lynn Terry's Self Starters Weekly Tips website. Lynn has been working online for over a decade. Her website has plenty of free resources, including a popular forum and blog. And from what I've observed, Lynn goes out of her way to help newbies.

Another good site for newbies is Mike Merz' im4newbies. Mike has been helping newbies for nearly a decade. Our paths have never crossed, but word is, Mike's one of the truly good guys on the Internet - and his site has some excellent free resources for newbies.

In closing, Internet marketing is serious business - so be sure to treat it that way. Because unlike the movie, Field of Dreams, where "if you build it, they will come." On the Internet, if you build a website without knowing how to promote it - nobody's coming!

Yellow Mouse Cars, The Flintstones and Unique Selling Propositions

Twenty years ago, my girlfriend and I vacationed in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We had a wonderful time, and saw some amazing tourist attractions. But believe it or not, it's not the traditional tourist attractions like "Ocean World" or "The Museum of Science and Discovery and Imax Theater" I think about when I recall our trip to Fort Lauderdale.

It's the amazing Unique Selling Propositions (USP's) of some of the businesses we encountered down there.

Yellow Mouse Cars

For example, I remember my girlfriend and I were driving on crowded University Drive in Plantation FL, when I saw the oddest thing. It was a little yellow car with big black mouse ears on the roof, and a big black tail on the back of the vehicle. It even had black whiskers painted on the front of the car. It looked like a big yellow toy mouse on wheels - something you'd see at Disney World. I had never seen anything like that on the road before anywhere. I was staring at that thing like I was a little kid. I simply couldn't take my eyes off that car.

Anyway, it turns out that little yellow mouse car belonged to one of the most successful pest control companies in the state of Florida - a company called Truly Nolen. I found out later, they had a whole fleet of those yellow mouse cars.

The Flintstones

I thought about that yellow mouse car all day long - at least until it was time for my girlfriend and I to eat dinner. Another tourist we met along the way had recommended a restaurant in Sunrise, FL called "The Caves". It was supposed to have pretty decent steaks and seafood. I thought it had a pretty cool name too. Anyway, when we got there, I was surprised, once again. All the servers were dressed up like cave men and women, in leopard-print outfits like the Flintstones. They were even carrying those big over-sized clubs. I was half- expecting someone to yell, "Yabba-Dabba Do!"

But wait, it gets even better. When our waitress seated us, it wasn't at a table in a public area of the restaurant. No, we were seated at a table in our own private, candlelit little cave - I kid you not! And on the menu, they had fried pterodactyl. How Flintstones is that? Now that's what I call a unique dining experience. Oh, and the food wasn't bad either. For the record, we decided to pass on the fried pterodactyl. We both ordered the steak.

Anyway, after dinner we had made plans to go to the nearby drive-in to see the new "Batman" movie. We were about a mile away from the drive-in when traffic began to get backed up. We began to get nervous because it was getting close to the starting time for the movie. But after a few minutes, the traffic started moving again. Anyway, we finally got to the entrance of the drive-in, and I couldn't believe my eyes. There were so many cars, people and security, it looked like a Michael Jackson concert.

And you should have seen the size of the parking lot. It was so unearthly huge, Steven Spielberg could have used it as a movie set for "Jurassic Park" - unbelievable!

By the way, the name of the drive-in was the Thunderbird Drive-In, and as we later discovered, it's billed as the world's largest drive-in movie theater.

The Power of Unique Selling Propositions

So what's the point to all these stories? The point is twenty years later, I still remember those three amazing businesses vividly - like it was yesterday.

And not only do I still remember them, over the last twenty years, I've told countless numbers of people about them. I've sent those companies so many new customers, they should be paying me residuals.

And I'm still telling people about them through articles like this one - all because of their amazingly memorable USP's.

I've written about this topic before, and I'm going to continue to write about it. Because I think that it's vitally important for businesses to develop an effective USP. Developing an effective USP is probably the single most important thing that you can do to create a "buzz" about your business, and ensure long-term success.

Here's what master copywriter, Michel Fortin had to say about a USP in his article How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects:

"Time and time again, I’ve told many aspir­ing copy­writ­ers and mar­keters that a USP is what dis­tin­guishes you from the pack. It increases per­ceived value, exper­tise, and cred­i­bil­ity — with­out need­ing to state it outright.

Just by being 10% dif­fer­ent, unique, orig­i­nal, or spe­cial is enough to make you stand out like a sore thumb in an over­crowded, hyper­com­pet­i­tive marketplace."

You Don't Have to Reinvent the Wheel

I wholeheartedly agree with Michel. Even though the aforementioned USP examples I gave you were at the extreme end of the spectrum, it's really not necessary for you to go to those extremes, or reinvent the wheel to have a memorable and effective USP.

For example, a dentist in the city where I live, realizing that more and more dentists are refusing to accept medicaid insurance, because of slow payments has smartly positioned himself as the dentist who still accepts medicaid. He doesn't worry about Medicaid's slow payment history, because he knows he's going to get paid eventually. He looks at those particular accounts receivable as money in the bank.

A few days ago, I received a menu in the mail from a new chinese restaurant. We have a ton of chinese restaurants in this city. But what stood out about this restaurant is that they positioned themselves as a "Chinese Fish Fry" - offering a fried fish menu that includes porgies, catfish and red snapper. They also have traditional chinese food as well.

I happen to love fried fish, so that menu went right to the top of my menu stack. Yes, Unique Selling Propositions work!

What Can You Do Differently?

Those last two examples that I cited are both local businesses that decided to do things just a little bit differently. They made their businesses stand out, without reinventing the wheel.

What about you? What can you do differently to make your business stand out in the crowd - to beat the competition and bring in more business? Do you have your thinking cap on?

Remember, "Just by being 10% dif­fer­ent, unique, orig­i­nal, or spe­cial is enough to make you stand out like a sore thumb in an over­crowded, hyper­com­pet­i­tive marketplace."

SEO Scams and Newbies Realm of Gullibility

One of my all-time favorite tv shows is The Twilight Zone. I particularly like Rod Serling's memorable opening narration:

"There is a sixth dimension, beyond that which is known to newbies. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, and it lies between the pit of newbies gullibility and the sunlight of their naiveté. This is the dimension of smoke and mirrors. It is a dimension known as SEO Scams and Newbies Realm of Gullibility."

Okay, so I took a little poetic license with Mr. Serling's classic narration. But I did it to make a point, and the point is, everyday thousands of naive and gullible newbies are targeted, and ripped-off by common SEO scams - mostly scams that have been around since the advent of the Internet. You may even have been a victim yourself.

The question is, why do these seemingly obvious scams continue to thrive year after year after year? My guess is, because most of the victims are newbies who have entered the newbies realm of gullibility.

Hopefully, this article will prevent other newbies from entering this undesirable realm, and being unnecessarily victimized. Anyway, following are some of the most common SEO scams:

1. E-Mail Solicitations

First of all, legitimate companies, SEO or otherwise don't send out e-mail solicitations without permission. And unless you signed up to receive e-mail solicitations from a particular company, delete all spam immediately. Don't open it, and don't send these scam artists your hard-earned money!

I always delete all spam - except when I'm doing research for articles like this one. On those occasions, I find opening e-mail spam extremely useful, because I can pass on what I learn to my readers.

Anyway, if you've registered a new domain recently, you've probably been solicited by SEO scam artists, looking to steal your hard-earned money. See if any of these e-mail solicitations look familiar:

"I just looked at your website and we can help you get better search engine placement."

I had to laugh when I received this solicitation, because I had just registered a new domain, and hadn't even built my website yet. The only thing I had up was a generic "This website is coming soon" placeholder. Obviously, there was no way they could have looked at my website.

Here's another e-mail solicitation I received recently:

"We have performed a free analysis of your website, and we can help you get better search engine placement".

Again, how could they have performed an analysis of a website I haven't even built yet? Answer: They couldn't.

Here's another one:

"I was just browsing your website, and realized that despite having a good design, your site was not ranking on any of the search engines for most of the keywords pertaining to your domain."

Despite having a good design? It's a freakin' generic placeholder you scamming idiots!

This next e-mail solicitation I received doesn't even bother wasting time with false pretenses. It goes right for the jugular (i.e. your wallet) immediately:

"Website Listing Service"

Annual Website Search Engine Listing.

From Nov. 1, 2009 thru Nov. 1 2010

Amount Due: $65

At first glance, this solicitation appears to be a bill for some sort of "annual website search engine listing." But if you scroll down like I did and read the fine print at the bottom of the letter, you’ll see this:

"This is not a bill. This is a solicitation. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer."

I can't emphasize this point enough: Legitimate SEO companies don't send out e-mail solicitations without permission. And unless you signed up to receive e-mail solicitations from a particular company, delete all spam immediately. Don't open it, and don't send these scam artists your hard-earned money!

2. "We'll Submit Your Website to 2500 Search Engines "

First of all, there aren't 2500 search engines out there - at least not 2500 that actually matter. There are really only three search engines that matter.

The three search engines are:

Google

Yahoo

Bing (Formerly MSN Live)

And the reason they're the only three that matter is because they're the only ones that can send you any significant traffic. And that's not my opinion, that's a fact!

According to The Nielson Company, 66.1% of searchers in this country use Google. 16.6% use Yahoo! and 8.8% use Bing (formerly Microsoft Live).

The point is, since there are really only three search engines that can send you any significant traffic, paying anyone to submit your website to 2500 search engines is really a waste of time and money. The three aforementioned search engines will eventually find your website on their own.

However, if you want to submit to them you can easily do so yourself. There's no need to pay anyone to do it for you.

3. "Achieve Top 10 Search Engine Rankings Guaranteed!"

No legitimate SEO company will guarantee you a top 10 search engine ranking. Why? Because they can't. A website's ranking is determined by a variety of factors within a search engine's algorithms. SEO companies have zero control over the constantly evolving algorithms of search engines.

And since SEO companies don't have any control over those algorithms, it only stands to reason that they can't legitimately guarantee you a top 10 ranking, right?

Now it is possible for you to get a top 10 ranking for certain long-tail keyword phrases that are less popular - keywords that aren't heavily searched? Yes, that's very possible. But again, no one can guarantee you a top 10 ranking for those types of keywords either.

And even if you do manage to get into the top 10 for certain keywords, there's no guarantee you'll be able to stay there. Because the search engines are constantly changing their algorithms to thwart cheaters.

For example, you can be on page one today and just as easily be on page one hundred tomorrow. It can happen just that quickly. Don't believe me? Do some research on Google's infamous Florida Update.

4. "Generate 10,000 to 1,000,000 Visitors to your Website Guaranteed!"

This SEO scam is called a Guaranteed Traffic Program. And yes, you'll receive plenty of traffic, but they won't hang around on your website for any length of time, and they won't buy anything.

Why? Because the traffic is poor quality. It's garbage. It isn't targeted. In fact, in many cases, it's not even humans that actually visit your site through these programs.

I discovered first-hand that when you purchase guaranteed traffic credits, it's actually bots clicking through to your site, and then immediately clicking out. While doing research for this article, I actually tested a guaranteed traffic program.

And the numbers don't lie. When I checked my raw data logs, I discovered that all of those thousands of visitors I received only stayed on my site for about five seconds. Don't waste your money with guaranteed traffic programs.

5. Avoid SEO Contracts That Hold You Hostage

This particular SEO scam struck close to home recently, when my sister became a victim. Here's how it works: Unethical SEO companies coerce you into signing a contract that commits you to using their service for 12 months or more. My sister got reeled in, because they told her that they needed to optimize her website's coding every month to keep up with the search engines algorithm changes.

Can you believe that? What a load of bull crap! Anyway, she didn't know any better, so she entered the newbies realm of gullibility, and signed a 12 month contract.

Unfortunately, when she finally got around to telling me about it, since she had already signed the contract, there really wasn't anything that I could do to extricate her from the situation. And since her SEO contract is also tied into her hosting, they're holding a huge hammer over her head.

In addition to that, they have all kinds of penalty clauses built in, in the event she tries to terminate her contract early. The good news is, next time, she'll check with her big brother first, before she signs anything.

In fairness to legitimate SEO companies, I want to make something perfectly clear. Not every SEO company that has you sign a contract is unethical. And there are legitimate reasons for contracts.

For example, if you are implementing a link-building program, that obviously has to be monitored over time. Or perhaps your SEO company is managing your pay-per-click program. Again, this is something that has to be monitored over time.

That being said, caveat emptor! Personally, I have a problem with even legitimate SEO companies holding people hostage with long-term contracts.

Seriously, what do they need to hold you hostage for anyway? Now I don't have a problem with a month-to-month contract. That way, if you're not happy with the results you're getting after a month or two, you can simply walk away without penalty.

So there you have it. The most common SEO scams rampant on the Internet today. Hopefully, you'll heed the advice in this article, and walk away from these schemes, whenever they rear their ugly heads.

But should you choose to ignore the advice in this article, you can't say that you weren't warned!

7 Free Traffic Methods That Rock

You've probably heard the proverb, If you want to catch fish, fish where the fish are. Well, that exact same principle applies to Internet Marketing as well - especially when it comes to generating free traffic to your website.

So where should you fish for free traffic? And how do you know what works and what doesn't? Believe it or not, I once had the exact same questions. To discover the answers, I read articles like this one and started experimenting with a variety of free traffic methods.

This article is the result of those experiments. Following are seven free traffic methods that I've used successfully over the past year, and continue to use today. What you are about to read is not speculation, it's fact.

1. Search Engine Optimization

I don't consider myself an SEO expert by any means. But I've taught myself enough basic SEO, so that I can at least optimize my own website well enough to generate a decent amount of free traffic. Optimizing your website should be one of the first things you do. Focus your attention on basic SEO techniques. For example, make sure your title tags contain your primary keywords.

Also, make sure your description and keyword tags are all properly optimized. And don't repeat your keywords more than twice. Any more than that could be interpreted as spamming by the search engines, and your website could be penalized as a result. Using different variations of your keywords is the best approach.

Believe it or not, these simple but basic steps really do make a difference. One of my favorite resources for learning basic search engine optimization techniques is Jill Whalen's, HighRankings.com.

2. Press Releases

If you've never used a press release to promote your business, you're missing out on a proven and powerful free traffic method. A properly constructed press release brings a news slant to your promotion, as opposed to a hyped-up, blatantly obvious advertisement. The purpose of a press release is not to make the sale, but rather to inform the reader. The whole idea is to get prospects to visit your website, and attempt to convert them into customers there.

After writing your press release, if it reads like an advertisement, my advice to you is rewrite it. If you want to see samples of properly constructed press releases, visit press release distribution services like PRWeb.com and PR.com. One last thing, in addition to syndicating your press releases online, you should also circulate your releases offline. Send your press releases to local newspapers, and radio and tv stations.

3. Article Marketing

I have to admit, out of all the free traffic methods that I use, article marketing is my absolute favorite. Why? Well, there are a variety of reasons. But the main reason is because article marketing allows you to laser target your traffic to the nth degree. Here's how: When you write an article and submit it to authority sites like PromotionWorld, people go searching for those articles based on the subject matter they're interested in.

For example, photographers seek out and read articles about photography. Techies read articles about technology, and people interested in search engine optimization read articles about SEO, and so on and so forth. The point is, people read about things that interest them. That means if you write articles about specific topics, the people reading your articles are already targeted.

4. Forums

If you aren't familiar with online forums, I highly recommend that you get familiar with them. Because topical forums are an excellent way for you to promote your business, and generate free traffic to your website. And the possibilities are endless. Name the topic, and there's probably a forum for it.

For example, if you were a virtual assistant targeting small business owners, you could join small business forums like StartupNation or Small Business Ideas forum.

The key to having success with forums is participation. You have to participate in the various discussions to get free exposure for your business.

So how does participating in forum discussions benefit your business? On most forums you are allowed to promote your business with something called a "signature file." What's a signature file? A signature or "sig" file is basically a little advertisement (similar to a classified ad) about your business that is automatically attached to every forum post you make.

In fact, on many forums your sig file is the only place that you're allowed to promote your business for free.

Anyway, the more you participate in forum discussions, the more members get to know and trust you - especially if you provide solid, useful advice. As a consequence, forum members as well as lurkers (people who visit forums but aren't members) will read your sig file and click on it. I should mention that in order to receive a significant number of click-throughs, your sig file needs to be interesting and well-written. You need to give people a compelling reason to click-through to your site. For example, Click here to get a free interesting, illustrated SEO report! Or Claim your free podcasting teleseminar today!

By the way, you can find forums that you're interested in by going to your favorite search engine and typing in a topic of your choosing followed by the word "forums." For example, "pet forums."

5. Blogging

No matter where you look these days, it seems everybody is blogging. Well, there's a reason for that. When it comes to generating free traffic, blogging works. Millions of people read and make comments on their favorite blogs daily. And when they stumble across a new blog they like, they also tell their friends about it. And here's an added bonus. Search engines love blogs. Why? Well, the short, simple answer is because of their constantly changing, high content value. But it goes much deeper than that. This is what Fredrik Wacka of Corporate Blogging Blog had to say in his article, Why Blogs Rank High In Search Engines:

"If I wanted to pick one single reason I would actually choose this one: In a blog you talk. You engage in conversations. You think out loud, in a way. The things you say are (hopefully) everything but the standard corporate bullxxxx. This means you are filling the engines' databases with relevant keywords - relevant because most of us search for the words or phrases we use daily. The same words you use in the blog because you talk instead of sending messages to the target audience." (Source: WebProNews)

Fredrik makes a lot of sense. Relevant keywords is indeed one of the primary reasons why blogs do so well in the search engines. By the way, if you'd like to give blogging a try, both Blogger and WordPress make it relatively easy to get started.

Okay, once you have a blog, what should you blog about? That's really up to you. I'm knowledgeable about marketing, so that's what I blog about. My advice: Blog about something you're passionate about. Blog about what you know.

6. Social Networking

During the last presidential election, Barack Obama used social networking sites far more effectively than John McCain. Obama's campaign brilliantly used sites like FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube to target young voters, and generate massive free traffic to his website. As a result, Obama won the youth vote by a substantial margin. You could reasonably argue that social networking helped get Obama elected president. Is that possible? Are social networking sites really that influential?

In a word, yes - because there's power in numbers. And social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and a host of other social networking sites have huge a huge number of users - tens of millions, in fact. So, how can you use those numbers to your advantage like Obama did?

Well, if you use social networking sites strictly for business purposes like I do, you can quickly build up a network of serious business contacts, and keep them informed of your business activities. For example, notification of new product launches, special sales, updates, announce seminars and teleconferences, etc.

I'm a Twitter user, and one of the ways I use Twitter to generate free traffic to my website is by posting free marketing tips for others to benefit from. I also post links to my latest articles. Giving away something of value for free is a highly effective marketing technique, and an excellent way to build up your credibility and develop followers - as well as grow your mailing list. In addition, whenever I make a new blog post, I post a link to it on Twitter.

That being said, while social networking sites can generate significant free traffic to your website, it's important to follow certain rules of etiquette. One major rule is "no blatant self-promotion!" Spamming will kill your credibility, and reputation, and sabotage your promotion efforts. Don't spam.

7. Yahoo Answers
About a month ago, I joined Yahoo Answers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with YA, it's a free question and answer website that allows users to submit questions that are then answered by other YA users.

How popular is Yahoo Answers? Well, as of October 2009, YA had over 179 million users - making it the second most popular reference site on the Internet after Wikipedia, according to marketing research specialists Comscore.

So what's the verdict after one month? So far, so good. Analyzing my traffic data, I've noticed that whenever I answer questions on YA, I receive an immediate surge of traffic to my website. In addition, several colleagues of mine who are also subscribers of YA, have told me they also notice a spike in traffic, whenever they answer questions at YA.

In conclusion, while I've listed seven free traffic methods, there are, of course, many other ways that you can generate free traffic to your website. Perhaps, I'll write about those in another article. In the meantime, I hope I've given you some good ideas, and helped get your creative juices flowing. Good luck!

Obama, Giant Lollipops and Unique Selling Propositions

If you've been involved in sales and/or marketing for any length of time, you've probably heard the term "Unique Selling Proposition." But just in case you haven't, let me explain what a USP is.

A Unique Selling Proposition is what makes a business unique and/or different from all other businesses in its category. For example, the USP for a high-end restaurant, might include the exclusive clientele it serves, a specialized menu, white glove service, as well as other exclusive amenities.

Two Classic Unique Selling Propositions

To further illustrate what I'm talking about, following are two examples of the most famous and successful USP's in the history of advertising:

You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less - or it's free!

That USP allowed Domino's Pizza to take over and dominate the pizza delivery market. And it clearly differentiates Domino's from its many competitors.

Here's another classic:

When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight!

When they developed that USP, almost overnight, Federal Express (FedEx) became the dominant force in the overnight delivery industry. How dominant? It's safe to say, the term "fedex" has permanent residence in the American business lexicon.

So, why is having a USP so important? Because with tens of millions of websites on the Internet all vying for attention, and thousands more signing on by the minute, if your business is the same as everyone else's in your field, you might as well be invisible. And if you don't differentiate your business from the rest of the pack, I can almost guarantee, you will be invisible.

Giant Lollipops

Allow me to tell you a true story. When I was a child, I remember my mother taking me to the new doctor in town, Dr. Vosburgh to get some type of childhood vaccine. I was petrified. Like most kids, I hated needles. And each time the doctor tried to vaccinate me I'd pull away. After failed multiple attempts to vaccinate me, the frustrated doctor said, "If you sit still while I vaccinate you, I'll give you a lollipop, afterwards."

"I've got lollipops at home," I defiantly replied. "Not like mine," the doctor responded teasingly. He then reached into his desk drawer, and pulled out the biggest lollipop I'd ever seen in my life. I'm not kidding. That lollipop was so big and round, it could have easily covered up my entire face. It was a giant white lollipop, and it had a rainbow of different colors swirling all through the middle. Needless to say, I let the good doctor stick that needle in my arm.

Anyway, that new doctor quickly became the most popular doctor in town. All the kids liked him. And for some strange reason, I didn't mind getting vaccinated anymore after that.

I was too young to realize it at the time, but that doctor had a Unique Selling Proposition - giant rainbow lollipops. And it worked like a charm!

Barack Obama's USP

Here's a more recent example of the importance of a USP. Before he was elected the 44th president of the United States, then candidate Barack Obama wisely positioned himself as the candidate of "change." He captivated the nation with three little words, "Yes, We Can!" Whenever he appeared on the campaign trail, huge crowds repeatedly chanted "Yes, We Can!" Hip-Hop producer and founding member of the popular singing group Black Eyed Peas, Will.i.am even created a viral video around the phrase. Needless to say, it was absolute smash hit online!

That catch phrase not only caught on like wildfire in America, people around the world soon began chanting "Yes We Can!" That catch phrase, along with his message of hope and change was Obama's USP. That's what made him different. Obviously, he had other important qualities as well. I mean, you don't get elected president of the United States simply because of a catch phrase.

That being said, you could reasonably argue that without that simple catch phrase, Obama might not have gotten the attention of millions of Americans. And as a consequence might never have been elected president. And here's an interesting bit of irony: Reportedly, Obama hated the "Yes, We Can" phrase when it was first presented to him by his campaign manager, David Axelrod. Obama thought the phrase was corny.

However, instinctively savvy Michelle Obama told her husband the phrase would work. Obama eventually gave in, and the rest as they say is history. Such is the importance of having a Unique Selling Proposition.

Unique Selling Proposition Defined

This is what brilliant advertising executive, Rosser Reeves wrote in his book, Reality in Advertising:

"Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: "Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.

The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique - either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising."

That's an accurate and profound observation. However, it's not enough to just have a USP. You have to flaunt it. You have to constantly remind people what makes your company unique. You have to tell them over and over again everyday - until they get it. And when they do get it, you have to tell them some more.

You Have to Flaunt Your Uniqueness

Unfortunately, many businesses don't communicate effectively enough how they're different from the competition. They expect consumers to just know that they're different. And as a result, consumers assume that your business is just like every other business in your field. You see, unless you tell them differently, consumers generally perceive one lawyer to just like the next, one mechanic to be like the next, and one plumber to be like the next. And if you haven't told them otherwise, why wouldn't they? Indeed, why shouldn't they?

By demonstrating how you're different on a consistent basis, the value of your business will rise in the eyes of your target audience. And when your business value rises, so too will your profits. The two go hand in hand.

By the way, a Unique Selling Proposition doesn't have to be an material object like a giant lollipop, or a sequence of words like a catch phrase. A USP can be virtually anything that makes your business unique and interesting.

Another Effective USP

For example, a friend of mine, who is a website designer has a very interesting and gutsy USP. Before meeting with prospects for the first time, he builds actual turnkey websites with the prospects company colors, logo and even some basic content. These websites often take up to a week to build.

But here's the kicker... his prospects don't even know that he does this. The completed-in-advance websites are a complete surprise to them, when they actually meet. So, in essence, my friend is taking a huge gamble, using his valuable time building websites without so much as a small deposit.

When I asked him why he invested so much sweat equity into building websites for free, he told me that since he started using this technique, his prospects are so impressed with his designs and initiative, over 70% of them end up purchasing the websites on the spot - over 70%! That's some closing ratio! He said his conversion ratio is twice as high as it was before he started building websites in advance. I guess you can't argue with success.

So there you have it - the importance of having a Unique Selling Proposition. So if you haven't done so already, get to work on developing an effective USP for your business. I'm not promising it will get you elected president of the United States - but, hey, you never know!

The Greatest Advertising Method Ever

There are many ways that you can advertise your website - social media, e-mail marketing, reciprocal links, pay-per-click, contextual ads, banners, ezines, etc. However, in my not-so-humble opinion, for pure longevity and cost effectiveness, one method stands head and shoulders above all others - article marketing.

Let me rephrase that - correctly applied article marketing, because there's a right way, and a wrong way to do article marketing. But I'll get to that later.

So what exactly is article marketing?

In a nutshell, article marketing is a form of advertising in which businesses write articles relevant to the nature of their business, and/or the products they sell. These articles are then distributed and published in the marketplace.

An article generally consists of a byline and/or resource box that includes a brief description about the author's business or offer. If what you've written is interesting, readers will be compelled to click on the link in your resource box, which takes them to your website or a landing page of your choosing.

So what makes article marketing the greatest advertising method ever? Well, there are several things:

1. Credibility

Well-written articles that actually help the reader solve a problem, have the potential to establish you as an expert in your field, and give you an important edge over your competition. This added credibility can have a profound effect on your bottom line. Because as consumers, we tend to buy from companies we know and trust. That is why brand names are so powerful. They've earned our trust over the years, and as a result, we're willing to pay more for brand name products.

However, psychologically, it goes much deeper than that. Over time, prospects have become increasingly suspicious and distrustful of advertisements. So when they see an advertisement, their defensive shield automatically deploys. Getting past that shield can often be difficult, and can have a significant impact on your conversion ratio, as well as your ROI.

On the other hand, when prospects read a well-written, informative article that they themselves sought out, their mindset is entirely different. Their defensive shields are down, because they're not reading an advertisement - so there's no reason to be on alert.

As a result, when prospects arrive at your website, they are more relaxed and less apprehensive because they arrived willingly - without sales pressure, trickery or hype. And because they just read your article, there is a certain degree of familiarity and trust already established - greatly increasing the chances that they will purchase whatever it is that you're selling.

2. Branding

Small Business Expert, John Jantz (Duct Tape Marketing) describes branding as "The art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable." And while that's an extremely simple definition, it's also profoundly accurate. Because while branding has a variety of definitions, they all have the same end game - the same goal. And that goal is to become well known, well-liked, respected and trusted.

So how does writing articles pertain to branding? Each time you write an article, and readers click on the link in your resource box and visit your website, you are building your brand. Because through your articles, people are getting to know you, and hopefully getting to like, respect and trust you. And if you consistently write quality articles that actually help people solve their problems, that will go a long way toward gaining their trust.

3. Targeted Traffic

All traffic is not created equal, and the best kind of traffic is quality, targeted traffic - which is exactly the kind of traffic article marketing generates. Let me elaborate on that: People generally gravitate towards information that focuses on the subject matter that they're interested in. For example, people who own tropical fish will read information related to tropical fish. Food lovers will read information about cuisine, and so on and so forth.

So when you write articles on a specific topic, readers of your articles are already targeted. And if your proposal is at all relevant to the subject matter of the article itself (which it should be), you have a better than average chance of converting readers into customers.

4. Search Engine Optimization Benefits

Article marketing has several important SEO benefits. First of all, if your article is well-written and offers real value (which it should), it will be linked to by many quality, relevant websites. These links are known as inbound links, and are important because they're among the principal criterion that search engines use to rank websites. In theory, the more quality, relevant backlinks you have pointing to your website, the higher your site's ranking within the search engines. Again, in theory.

Speaking of ranking, have you noticed that whenever you do a search for information on a particular subject, most of the top search results are usually articles?

That’s because search engines love content, and prefer a page full of relevant content, as opposed to a page full of links, banners, images or Adsense ads. If you would like to rank highly for specific keywords, article marketing can help you achieve that goal.

By including your keywords in your article's title and throughout your article, depending on where your article is published and the popularity of your keywords, it could very well end up on the first page of the search results.

That being said, I want to make something perfectly clear. By no means am I advocating creating content specifically for the search engines - quite the contrary. When writing articles, your number one goal should always be to provide your readers with good, solid information that helps them solve a problem. If you happen to derive SEO benefits as a result of doing that, well, that's just icing on the cake.

5. Article Marketing is Cost-Effective

Article marketing generates quality traffic that is every bit as good or better than advertising you have to pay for... except you don't have to pay for it. Unlike paid advertising, which produces only a temporary boost in sales and traffic and then has to be repeated (which can get expensive), articles will remain in the search engines and on other people's websites for years to come, paying valuable traffic dividends - not unlike how money earns interest in a savings account.

I guess you could say, writing articles is like money in the bank - provided, of course, you continue to write and submit quality articles for publication on a consistent basis, article marketing will produce a constant stream of targeted traffic to your website. I can tell you from personal experience, as long as you continue to churn out quality articles for publication, your traffic well will never run dry.

6. Articles Are Viral

Articles are extremely viral, and if people find value in what you write, they will voluntarily pass along your articles to others. I'm constantly receiving articles in my e-mail box from friends and colleagues of mine. Conversely, when I come across a good article I think someone might be interested in reading, I also pass it along. In fact, many websites that publish articles encourage this type of viral activity, with highly visible "E-mail This Article to a Friend" links.

Whatever you do, don't underestimate the viral impact of article marketing. If your articles are well-written and present valuable information, they could be passed along and read by hundreds of thousands of potential prospects.

Hire a Ghostwriter
Okay, let's suppose you like what you've read so far about article marketing - but you can't write. No problem. You can still participate, because it's possible to hire a ghostwriter for a reasonable fee, who will ghostwrite articles for you, and give you full and complete ownership of those articles. Probably, the best known and most reputable website for article ghostwriting is Bill Platt's ThePhantomWriters.com.

A Word of Warning

I'm sure you've heard the axiom, You get what you pay for. Well, unfortunately, that applies to article marketing as well. Believe it or not, there are article writing services that will write articles for as little as five dollars. That's not a typo. Many of these companies originate in India.

My advice to you is, stay away from those companies. Common sense should tell you that you can't get a quality article written for five measley dollars - at least nothing a respectable publication would want to publish. You just can't. In addition, the people who write those bargain-basement articles usually don't have a firm grasp of the english language, and often write articles that are incoherent.

If you are serious about article marketing, and you don't have the ability to write articles yourself, have enough respect for your readers - and for the image of your business to let a professional write your article.

How to Do Article Marketing the Right Way

As I mentioned in the opening of this article, there's a right way, and a wrong way to do article marketing. I'm going to share with you the right way. The reason I bring this up is because, until recently, I was doing article marketing the wrong way. I don't have a problem admitting that. And while I was getting decent results, I could have been getting even better results.

Anyway, what turned me around was an excellent article I read by Mark Daoust titled, The Misunderstood Marketing Method. In his article, Mark writes:

"Instead of signing up for the latest article distribution program that promises to blast your article to a gazillion publishers that you may not even want publishing your article, choose one or two initial publications that you would like to be featured in, then work on developing a relationship with them."

The last two lines of that quote totally changed my article marketing philosophy:

"Choose one or two initial publications that you would like to be featured in, then work on developing a relationship with them."

And that's exactly the method I use today. I've established a relationship with a couple of select publications, and I submit my articles to them exclusively. If you want to have some control over where your articles are published, I advise you to do the same.

In closing, article marketing requires a commitment of continuous effort. After all, nothing worthwhile comes easily. But I promise, if you make that commitment, the end result will be well worth it!

The Amazing Story Behind Subway's $5 Footlongs Phenomenon

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last year or so, you've no doubt seen Subway's $5 Footlongs commercials.

Anyway, this morning, I was reading an article in BusinessWeek about how a Miami Subway Sandwich franchisee, Stuart Frankel came up with the idea for Subway's $5 footlongs 5 years ago.

After noticing that sales sagged on weekends, he came up with the idea of offering every footlong sandwich on Saturday and Sunday for $5, about a dollar less than the usual price.

Now get this: Frankel says he came up with the $5 price because he likes round numbers. Can you believe that? Apparently, customers liked his round number, too. Because suddenly, Frankel had lines out the door, and store sales exploded by double digits.

Anyway, Frankel's idea eventually caught the attention of Subway's corporate headquarters. They turned it into a national campaign that to this point has generated a mind-boggling $3.8 billion in sales nationwide.

The secret to the success of Frankel's idea was that nobody else was doing it at the time. Sure, now everybody has jumped on the $5 bandwagon. But before, it was a novel approach.

Are your sales sagging? Do something about it! Start thinking creatively like Stuart Frankel did. What can you do that your competitors aren't doing to jumpstart your sales?

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