Wanna hear my two cents? Below you’ll find a 20-minute audio where I was interviewed by Pam Zimmer. Feel free to download, SHARE, or listen straight from this post.

What questions did I answer?

• Why would someone want to sign up as an affiliate and what are the benefits?
• What is a “mask URL” and when/why would you want to use one?
• How can you leverage being an affiliate to market and grow your business?
• If someone is new to social media and wanted to create the most opportunity for a book release, what are the top things they should do?
• What other tips can I offer to have more success with affiliate marketing and social media?

Click to Download

I’d love to hear your comments and takeaways. Please ask a question or send a comment through Facebook comments below, and/or share this article with others to spread awareness and help educate.

Thank you!

The best way to reach a large number of people and get your message across on the internet today is through video but not just any video. It must be a video that captures and keeps your audienceʼs attention.

Video is considered by Google as a higher form of engagement than a simple blog or article and ranks higher in the ratings. Therefore you have a better shot at reaching more people if you do a video rather than a simple article. And the more people that watch your video, the higher you will rank on Google and the more likelihood people who are searching in your niche market will see a link to your video and watch it.

'Evolution of Dance' Example Viral Video

6 Key Elements of a Viral Video

So how do you make your video go viral so you rank as high as possible on Google?

1. Keep your video short and to the point.
2. Keep it simple and entertaining.
3. State the problem in your niche market you are going to help them solve right up front in the beginning of the video.
4. Give them useful information so that you move them from a place of no or little knowledge to a place of educated knowledge that puts them ahead in their industry.
5. Choose a title with key words – ones that captures your niche marketʼs attention and offers a solution to their problem.
6. Create a coordinated attack with link bait so that you rank on the first page of Google within 24 hours of posting your video.

Youʼre probably wondering what a coordinated attack is. Itʼs when you post your video on as many social networking sites as possible and get large numbers of people to link back to your video and share it all on the same day. The way to do that is to create link bait, something that causes people to click on your link to watch and share your video.

7 Steps to Create a Coordinated Attack

1. Post your Video on YouTube and other social networking videos sites such as Vimeo.
2. Post it on Blog sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.
3. Put a Call to Action in it asking people if they liked the video or found it useful to please share it with others.
4. Email it to your mailing list and ask them to share it with others.
5. Do online press releases with a link to your video.
6. Contact as many people as possible, especially people who have large email mailing lists and social networking audiences to post, email and blog about your video as well.
7. Offer link bait, such as an ethical bribe offering more knowledge, a free gift, or a chance to win a contest in order to get them to link back to your website and share your video.

When Google sees a large number of people linking to a video within a 24 hour period, it views that as a high form of engagement and moves the video quickly up in rankings.

Did you find this post helpful? Lend us a hand in getting the
word out by sharing this on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Let’s show Beth some love.

Beth Rosen is a film producer, #1 best selling author and business entrepreneur who offers various products, services, courses and private coaching designed to accelerate your path to success and happiness. She is currently offering a unique online movie-making course called The Back Door to Hollywood which teaches you how to make a professional movie/video, how to stand out from the crowd and how to create your own lucky break. For more information, please visit www.BethRosen.com.

I have listed 3 ways below to help push you outside of the no-touch zone with your audience:

1. What I do the very most is write in a conversational style. I write how I talk and act. I do not try to sound perfect, or corporate or stuffy. I want my authenticity to shine through and for my reader to feel I’m right there with them – because I am! I get feedback often that website visitors feel comfortable on my site and they get engaged with my writing. I would WAY rather have that feedback than a perfect design or 0.001% better conversion rate. If your visitors can connect with you, the sales will naturally follow. I want to make my writing 100% about YOU. I want it to breathe life into your business and spur your creativity so you go out and produce something new to spread your message. When your are conversational, your message will be remembered.
2. Since I brought it up in the first tip, I make sure that everything I create is about YOU, not me. I have no interest in being one of those service providers that just pushes my agenda or pushes product in your face all the time. If I write blog posts, or send an email to my followers, or create a Facebook post, it truly comes from my heart as something that I think will help you. (Isn’t this the way it SHOULD be??) People can smell a salesman a mile away and that is a huge turnoff to most. One of the biggest trends I’ve noticed that will carry into 2012 is that people crave to work with genuine, real, authentic, trustworthy people. That’s it. We are tired of scams or salespeople saying their product does one thing when it does another. I know I would keep following a leader that genuinely wanted ME to have success in life. If you ever wonder what your audience wants, it’s generally the same qualities you want in a leader or service provider or friend.
3. Another key way to connect with your audience is through the use of video. This is also why so many people are afraid of video – they feel so exposed once the recording starts. But isn’t that the best part of video? We are totally in the spotlight. Learn to love it everyone – get excited to show your true self to others. You are here because deep down in your gut you discovered that you have a message to share with the world. It’s time to get that message out and video is a great way to help accomplish that. Stay tuned for a great post I have scheduled for January by Guest Blogger Beth Rosen, “6 Ways to Make Your Video Go Viral.”

I suggest that before you finalize that eBook, before you push that new product, before you publish that new blog post – you ask yourself, “Did I really show up and try to connect with my audience?” If the answer is no, then go back and rework it. The online world is like a giant library where everything you do gets indexed. Make sure only your best is out there for the world to learn from.

If you felt this post was a good reminder, please help me share it through Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. I would also be curious to hear your comments and see what else YOU do to connect with your audience.

Thank you all – have a safe and Happy New Year!

There is a TON of valuable information in this post. All of the links open in a new window and the content will laser in on that topic. I invite you to spend some time here and really take advantage of this FREE platform I’ve developed just for you.

For those of you who are just getting started online, this post would be excellent for you to print out and keep by your computer as you
build your online platform (your website, social networks, leads – it is all-encompassing of your touch-points online). For those of you who think they are on a great track online, this may be a good post to see what has slipped between the cracks or what area you could build up for better results.

So let’s get started. Consider your online platform and online presence. Really think about the blood, sweat and tears you’ve put into building a website (whether you invested $10,000+ or started a free WordPress site), into starting a social networking account and trying to figure it out, into listening to webinars and teleseminars and reading blog posts on “how” to do it all. Next, I invite you read each question *slowly* and really analyze where you’re at with each of these items:

• Do you have a professionally designed logo that can make for good branding?
• Are you staying ‘up to date’ on what’s happening in your industry so you become the go-to authority for news?
• Do you post to your blog regularly (not once a month, but one a week or more?)
• Is your business brand consistent between all touch points online – from your LinkedIn profile to your Facebook cover to your email newsletter look and feel?
• Have you looked at your content in the past three months to see what, if anything was outdated material?
• Do you do what you say you are going to do online (release new products on time, follow through with your ideas, etc.)?
• When is the last time you did keyword research or competitor research?
• Have you reached out to anyone lately to discuss the concept of collaboration, so you can grow your business more quickly in new markets?
• Do you have a growth plan or goals to help grow your business (such as how many email subscribers you’ll get, how many Facebook friends, how many blog posts, how many emails will you send out to your list each month, etc.)?
• Have you stepped back to evaluate if your web team really IS good, or just the inexpensive solution who isn’t really getting you where you need to be?
• Does your website design help you or hurt you, and when is the last time you’ve evaluated areas for improvement?
• Do you have a solid free introductory product you can give away as incentive for people to sign up to your mailing list?
• And is that free introductory product branded and professionally designed and formatted?
• Do you have obvious social networking icons and feeds on your website so web visitors can connect with you?
• Does your tagline make sense and help you stand out from the noise? Is it easy to remember and does it make an impact?
• Do you have a list of keywords you are targeting with every piece of content you write, so you can start dominating search engines?
• Are you regularly adding products to your website that are for sale so people can get ‘the next best thing’ from you?
• How often are you adding a ‘call to action’ in everything you do (at the end of blog posts, in your email newsletters, in every contact point)?
• Are you organized with your business and do you treat it like a real business with scheduling and planning meetings?
• Do you thank your web visitors, email subscribers, social networking friends and clients for sticking with you?
• How often do you implement new ways to drive traffic to your website and blog?

Your impact on the web IS what you make of it. Those are just a few questions you can ask yourself from time to time to make sure you are BUILDING. Starting an online business is not the easiest task in the world. You are competing with billions of web pages out there. But, there is more than enough room in the sea for us all to profit.

The trick is knowing what to do next to continue building your online platform. Stay focused. Don’t lose the momentum. If you need help with your direction or with implementing tasks, feel free to contact me and let’s have a loose conversation about it. The key is to get help from people who know what they are talking about – and that becomes obvious when someone writes about those topics and gives away the farm just to help others. I’m not tooting my own horn here so much as just teaching how to identify the right kind of person to help you with your business.

If you thought this post was of value, please SHARE this post with others on your social networks. My goal is simple: Helping Others. As many as I can get my hands on.

Thank you for spreading the light!

www.SocialBookmarkingIcons.com

This website has what sure feels like an unending supply of icons for your website or blog. ANY style you can think of, any color scheme – it’s all here for the taking.

You can simply select the icons you want and then add ‘em into your sidebar. Check out the super cool icons I have on my top right sidebar. 

Just be aware of the ‘terms of use’ for the icons. Some designers ask for a link for credit (and that’s fair).

Here are some example of the designs available:

I invite you to share this post with others so they too can check out the motherload. It’s awesome!!

This post isn’t about Google+ Pages, but I do intend to write one once there’s a little more to share about it. For now you can add your description, photo, same ‘ole — but I still of course suggest you set one up for yourself!

What’s fun (and sometimes frustrating) about playing with online tools is that I feel like I’m living in a pin ball machine. My attention pings from one place to another and shortly my brain hurts and I feel a little overwhelmed – information overload (yes it happens to all of us, even those that do this for a living!)

However, on this delightful cruise of the net I checked in to Google Webmasters (the best free tool ever!). Google Webmasters is amazing for all sorts of reasons, all of which are related to Search Engine Optimization. One section of this site shows me a list of all the websites out in the web world who have been super cool enough to link to my site (pages or posts).

Enter point.

Last night I scanned the list of websites that have linked to me – a few including:  Slate.com, Wikipedia, Ask.com, Answers.com and hundreds upon hundreds more.

Then I clicked over to the list of keyword phrases where I’m ranked on the 1st page of Google. That was a fun list.

Each time I review all these stats (and I do it often – ahem, you should too), I remembered back when I first started this site. I was new, I was a “no one”, I just wanted to share everything I knew with anyone that would listen.

My next thought is of all my clients who trust me and venture off into the blogging world, half fearless, half fearful. I say, “Just trust me. Get to 100 blog posts and you’ll see why blogging is so important. You’ll see how many people are sharing your content, you’ll get more sales and clients – that’s what happens when you put people first.”

If you just hang in there, and KEEP BLOGGING, you will have a day like I had last spring… I had written a tiny little post that took me maybe 10-15 minutes about Google Personalization. One day I login to my blog and see I got 1,000 new visitors to my site within 24 hours. The editor in chief of Slate had linked to my post. Sweet!

If you just hang in there, and KEEP BLOGGING, you will find people sharing your content (most of which you don’t even know about!). You will get more visitors. You will make more sales. You WILL see the BENEFIT.

I just wanted to send those words of encouragement to all you bloggers out there. Providing good content is important. It does matter. We just need you to log on and share what you think we could benefit from! 

“Social Media Examiner presents the web’s largest fully online small business social media conference, Small Biz Success Summit 2012.  Discover how to quickly attract quality customers, build loyal fans and grow your revenue with social media.

Here’s why this summit should interest you:

1. 100% small business focus: No big businesses and no speakers who target big businesses. This is fully for the tiny business.
2. This it totally new content: Broadcast new media, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, video marketing, blogging plus search and much more. Social media is always in flux and this event will cover what you need to know now. If you’re working off what you learned six months ago or longer, you are ages behind.
3. Our biggest conference ever: Study the line up. Twenty-five speakers. If you learn some useful new tactics then it pays for itself.
4. Every presenter is a small biz owner. This is highly customized for you.
5. Fully online: You don’t need to leave your home or office because this event is online!
6. Exciting networking opportunities: You’ll join thousands of your peers in an exclusive LinkedIn networking group.

Click here for details.

Twenty-five of the world’s top small business social media marketing leaders will be summit instructors. All are small business owners.

Presenters include: John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing), Anita Campbell (founder, Small Business Trends), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner–that’s me), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Lewis Howes (co-author, LinkedWorking), Hollis Thomaes (author, Twitter Marketing), David Siteman Garland (author, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), Joe Pulizzi (co-author, Get Content, Get Customers) and Brian Clark (founder, Copyblogger)–just to mention a few.

…just to name a few.”

Then I saw this PDF flyer which explains the schedule starting February 1st. I also saw tickets are 1/2 off until Nov 18th so now’s the time to get my ticket.

Again, I heard they’ve already sold 255 seats to the Small Biz Success Summit 2012. I wanted to reach out to you guys to see if you are planning on attending or what your thoughts are. Please send me a comment or share a post with me on Facebook or Google+ about it.

Based on all I’ve read about the Small Biz Success Summit 2012, I’m thinking it’s a slam dunk. You don’t even have to leave home to attend (major plus – no air fare, no hotel). We all know that Social Media is THE place to be in terms of social networking. I read they will cover Facebook, blogging, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube (THE BIG SIX). Maybe I’ll see you there!

Pamela Zimmer quit her career for Motherhood. Being an Architect, and an entrepreneur at heart, Pamela struggled with her decision to have her own Architecture firm. She knew she always wanted to be a stay-at-home Mom, but also knew she wanted to have a successful career. After 13+ years of working in Architecture, 7 of which she ran her own successful business, Pamela finally chose to listen to her heart and realized that being a stay-at-home Mom was her true passion and life purpose. She is now a #1 best-selling author in the book ‘Get Your Woman On!’ and strives to support and inspire other women who are ready to make their life transformation. Pamela is working on her own book, as well as starting a business as a peer-to-peer counselor for Postpartum Depression. Her blog, Stories of a Mom, is where Pamela shares her experiences, from one Mother to another.

I know there are programs and software out there that claim to get you up to 1000 Twitter followers a day. I have to admit, I have been tempted to check them out, but thankfully I never got sucked in. Honestly, how legitimate can those programs be? Yes, maybe they do actually work to get your numbers up, but do you ever really know your followers? I don’t know about you, but it’s hard enough to meet 10, 20, 50 new people a day, let alone up to 1000!

If you’re like me, you are interested in building relationships with people, not just getting them to click “follow” and “like.” After all, what’s the point of having followers if you aren’t interacting with them?

I will also admit that I can’t always develop relationships with every new person I meet every day, but it is ultimately my intention. Long-lasting relationships don’t happen overnight, no matter what kind they are – personal, romantic or business.

I first joined Twitter a couple of years ago, but I was never really “active” at tweeting or following.  I would log on every now and then and browse around, reading what the few people I was actually following were saying, and occasionally tweeting something myself. Basically, my account was there, and I had a profile, but I wasn’t doing anything with it.

As the saying goes, that was then and this is now. My life has changed drastically, in a good way, and my passions are much clearer now. Within the past several months, I have really defined my goals and what I want to be doing.

I realized that surrounding me with like-minded people was the first step in propelling myself towards my new business success. This goes true for social media as well.

It’s not just about the numbers, it’s about who is behind those numbers.

As I mentioned above, what’s the point of having thousands of followers if you aren’t interacting with them, or worse, if you don’t even know anything about them? Perhaps once my followers reach 1000 or more I will have a different perspective, but in the meantime I feel good knowing that the majority of the people I follow, and those that are following me, are like-minded.

So how did I do it? How did I get 100+ Twitter followers in 3 days?

The first thing I did was to set my intention to just be active on Twitter.

My goal wasn’t to gain ‘X’ number of followers – that wasn’t even on my mind. The fact that I got 100+ new followers was a huge surprise and bonus for me. For me, being active meant checking out other people’s links, profiles, tweets, and following those that were like-minded. I tweeted original things that came to mind of inspiration, values; things about family and kids, writing and passion – all things that I am surrounding myself with in my own life. I re-tweeted when I saw something inspirational or valuable that I felt my (few) followers would take interest in.

Next, I carefully selected people to follow who were (magic word) like-minded.

I checked out their profile and read previous tweets to make sure that I had something in common with them and would enjoy following them. Some of these people popped up on the Timeline, but sometimes I did searches to find them. My searches included things that I am passionate about and things that align with my business goals and values (for example: #family, #parenting, #happy, etc.). From those searches, I was able to browse through profiles and follow links to other similar profiles, and it kept going and going.

When I received notice of new followers, I made sure to check out their profiles and follow back when appropriate.

I don’t believe that you should, or have to, follow everyone who follows you. It’s nothing personal, but to keep to my values, I am careful of who I follow.

If someone sent me a direct message, I replied. For those that I really felt connected with, I sent them a direct message, replied to one of their tweets, or even checked out their websites. I began engaging and interacting with people. It didn’t take much, but I began to actually network with these people, and most times, they reciprocated.

I started to branch out beyond Twitter.

I started searching and browsing other like-minded blogs and websites, and checking out people’s Facebook pages as well. I came across a few really great websites that were exactly in alignment with my values, purpose and passion of being a stay-at-home Mom. I joined their communities and once again, because those members were all like-minded, we followed each other. More than just “following” each other however, they have become great resource and inspiration based communities that I enjoy being involved with.

Finally, I became proficient in re-tweeting from websites and blogs, not just from twitter.com.

Most websites have a “tweet this” button or link which makes it really easy. For those few times when I have to manually tweet something, I just copy and paste the website link into the “what’s happening?” box and add a personal comment. I keep it short (as we have to stay concise), and that in itself is great training. I try to comment on other people’s blogs as much as possible, not just to put my “stamp” out there, but actually being authentic in what I write.

This last point is probably the most important tip I can give anyone, no matter what your goal, purpose or business. Be authentic. This means being you. Don’t write things that you think other people want to read. Write things that reflect who you are. Don’t tweet things that don’t touch your heart. Don’t follow people just because they are there. Share things that make you say “yes, exactly!” Connect with people who you genuinely would want to have a lasting relationship with.

Opening yourself up might seem vulnerable, but in the end it will attract you to the people you want and need to create success in your life.

To summarize: be and stay active; follow and engage with people who are like-minded; and be authentic. If you approach social networking in this way, the numbers will come, and you can feel good about how you got there, just like me.

Follow me at PamelaZimmer-Twitter and www.StoriesofaMom.com

This customized URL is called a vanity URL and this same feature can be achieved with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube!

Google+ doesn’t have this option integrated into Google+ just yet, but I’ve discovered a Plan B that achieves the same result. Check it out:

Step 1. Go to your Google+ and click on your name to get to your profile page.

Step 2. In the top URL bar you’ll see the link to your profile page is something that looks like this: https://plus.google.com/u/0/103959927931081174806/posts?hl=en

Step 3. You’ll want to copy the long strong of numbers only (https://plus.google.com/u/0/103959927931081174806/posts?hl=en) — this is your number ID

Step 4. Next go to www.Gplus.to and you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

Step 5. On the left field add in your desired username, then paste in your Google+ number ID (the series of number from Step 3) into the right field. Click Add.

If the username is available still, then you’ll be all set! This will give you a new Google+ vanity URL until Google comes out with a built-in feature into their social network.

Check me out: http://Gplus.to/AmberLudwig

If you thought this post was helpful, please share with others so they may get the same great tip!

Do I think it is a “must” to be on Google+? Yes.

Do I think it is worth your time to learn it and love it? Yes.

I believe this social network will be a major player (and already is for some). I find myself resistant only because I don’t love how you gain friends. It’s just different, not bad. With Facebook, you can click a button and send a “friend request” and the other person accepts – now you are connected. They can see your posts and you can see theirs.

Google+ is setup more like Twitter in that you can follow me, but I won’t automatically follow you or anything. I do get a notification that you’ve added me to your “Circle” (a Circle allows you to separate your friends into different lists such as ‘co-workers, family, friends’). From there, I can choose to add you to my Circle. I guess this seems less official and fun to me. But, no reason to not get on Google+.

This post is my announcement that I’m on a mission to understand the in’s and out’s of Google+ and learn to fall in love with it. Maybe you’ll join me? Look, it’s essential if you want to keep making progress online and keep getting more exposure. Or, another way to think about it (and the better way) is this is another avenue to get your message out to more people – as many people as possible.

Ok, so I’ve started doing more research. I want to see what many different people say about their Google+ experience and how to like it and use it. Below I’ve compiled a few resources for you that I think are worth looking at or listening to.

• Mari Smith, What’s So Exciting About Google+
• Marketing Professor, 40 Google Plus Tips for Newbies
• Google+ Statistics (for fun)

If you have an opinion about Google+ I really am dying to hear it. I’ve got to know many perspectives to know Google+ like the back of my hand.

What do you love?
What do you hate?
What do you wish was different?

Please write a comment below and let me know what you think. THEN go to the right sidebar and you’ll find a Google+ widget with a big blue “Add to Circles” button – click that button and let’s get paired up on Google+.