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  • Gary Lee 10.30 am on 14.01.2009 Permalink  

    10 Tips to Online Marketing You Might Have Forgotten 

    Getting Started

    So you have your website set up and you’re ready to go. Before giving the greenlight to your webmaster to launch the site, make sure that you go over these Top 10 Things to Remember in Web Marketing:

    Ability to Adapt – No matter how great you think your website is, it’s what your customers think about your site that matter the most. So if that great idea you had just doesn’t pan out the way you think it should be or if there’s some new technology that your site can take advantage of, don’t be too stubborn to adapt.

    Make Sure your Overall Business Works – For most businesses, the website is another source of traffic to direct to your business. So make sure that your business is running like clockwork when delivering your service or products to your customers.

    Establish Team Roles – Make sure your team knows their roles, so that if any part of the site is not working, you know exactly who to turn to in order to get things running smoothly as soon as possible.

    Properly SEO the Site – As soon as your site goes live, it will beging to be indexed by all the search engines. You want to make sure that you provide the right title, description and keywords for each page of your site so that when people find your links in the search results, you have made sure to provide the most informative listing possible.

    Be able to Update your Site Quickly – If you’re sold out of something, you better be sure to indicate that on your site or you’re going to be left with a lot of customers leaving with a bad taste in their mouth. The same point applies to any part of your site whether it be the correct email address or the right pricing points.

    Think through your Customers Eyes – Everyone has been a customer at some point and we all know what we like and what we don’t when we arrive at someone’s business or website. Take time to look at your site as a customer and try your best to address what you don’t like!

    Get Ready To Hustle – Traffics not going to come to your door with a box of chocolates and some flowers. You’re going to have to get out there and promote your site like no other. Get your checklist of forums, blogs, web sites and other hot spots ready to start getting traffic on a daily basis.

    Important Metrics are being Measured - There’s no more emptier feeling in marketing than getting all the traffic in the world, but not knowing where it’s coming from and how it’s converting. Spending Wisely is the most overlooked aspect of online marketing!

    Remember your Mission Statement – Use your Mission Statement as your Guiding Light just in case you lose your way.

    Remember to Plan Ahead - Let’s say you’ve followed all my advice and you’re getting loads of traffic to your site, do you have a plan to handle the extra traffic? Are you ready to streamline your product line? Do you know who to contact to upgrade your hosting package bandwidth? Do you have enough products to provide your customers?

     
    • Trey Baird 1.42 am on 21.01.2009 Permalink

      Excellent advice. I especially appreciate the reminder to put yourself in the customer’s point of view, and to be able to update the site quickly. That’s one of the beauties of wordpress. You can update your site from any internet connection.

      Trey Baird’s last blog post..Just Do It!

  • Gary Lee 8.00 am on 06.01.2009 Permalink  

    Focus and Improve Your ROI 

    What should we do?

    What should we do?

    One of the lessons I learned from 2008 was to focus more on projects that will make the most money from my time invested – my ROI. Especially in these turbulent times where money is scarce, families, companies and entrepreneurs alike will have to reassess where their money is going and what brings in the biggest return from their investment. The biggest problem I see is that most people don’t know where to start or what to consider when they try and prioritize their efforts. I know that everyone’s cases are different, but here are some marketing intitatives that you should invest your time into that can bring you a high ROI this 2009:

    PPC Optimization – Hands down, there’s nothing on the internet that has as much control over ROI as Pay Per Click Advertising. If you’re new to this, then check out one of my past articles about Finding your Max CPC so you can make sure you get a positive ROI all the time.

    Smart Banner Purchases – People say that banner ads are dead. I disagree. If tested and measured correctly, banner ads can be a great source of traffic, especially if you do the right research on the type of demographic who sees that banner.

    Social Media Participation – I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. If you want traffic for your blog, one of the best things you can do is get out there and comment, vote,  submit and make your voice heard on the internet. I would recommend focusing on a niche that’s related to your blog or your industry to make sure you get a higher return. If you need help with anything, leave a comment and I’ll come by and help out with a vote or submit.

    Setting Goals – Branding is the one thing that is almost impossible to measure from your marketing initiatives. Metrics that can be measured are page views, uniques, registrations and subscriptions. So, do yourself a favor and figure out what your goal is. If you haven’t done this yet, then you’re ROI is going nowhere else, but up!

     
  • Gary Lee 1.13 pm on 23.06.2008 Permalink  

    Alba vs. Hathaway: Is this really fair? 

    Jessica Alba vs. Anne Hathaway

    So i’m surfing around on a hot as hell day in Southern California and I come across this featured article on LATimes.com – “Anne Hathaway vs. Jessica Alba” – and the first thought that comes to my head is “Damn! Jessica’s looking good!” . . . then my second thought is “Damn! Anne must be pissed cuz this is such an unfair competition!” . . . . then the third thought is “I’d hate to be Anne’s boyfriend right now!” because the dreaded “What do you think?” question is coming FOR SURE!

    This is the Dark Angel vs. the Princess Diary!

    Maxim’s Sexiest Woman Alive vs. World’s Biggest Smile!

    Don’t get me wrong though! I think Anne Hathaway is a total hottie. Starting from Devil Wears Prada (Yes, I saw it . . . so what?) to the 150 “Get Smart” commercials and billboards i see every day, she’s really racing up MrGaryLee’s list of “Hot Girls who I actually think have a brain, too” list.

    You can even look at the picture the Times decided to use. Anne looks like she got off a helicopter and Jessica looks like . . well . . Jessica friggin Alba! I know the Times is trying to increase their page views per visitor count, but damn, at least pick a better match up. Let me offer some suggestions:

    Halle vs. Jada

    Eva vs. J.Lo

    Hu vs. Q

    I could do this all day. Anyone want to help?

     
    • Ed Lau 11.04 am on 03.07.2008 Permalink

      Charlize Theron vs. Katherine Heigl

      Sharapova vs. Kournikova

      Megan Fox vs. Angelina Jolie

      Kristen Bell vs. Elisha Cuthbert

      Gisele vs. Heidi vs. Adrianna vs. Alessandra vs. Karolina vs. Izabel vs. Miranda. vs Marisa vs. Selita

      Longoria vs. Mendes would be a better challenge.

    • Hurdlechamp 7.40 am on 08.09.2008 Permalink

      Wow.. I really like this one! And that comment above is great!

  • Gary Lee 8.21 am on 21.05.2008 Permalink  

    How to Build a Landing Page for an Email Autoresponder 

    For Wendy Piersall’s Crowd Sourcing post, I want to go over how to set up a simple landing page and email autoresponder program. I’m talking about properly setting up a landing page for your site to convert visitors to subscribers and then setting up your newsletter service to convert your subscribers into buyers much like this:

    Landing Page Example

     

    I’m going to show you what it takes to create the most basic of landing pages that have one of the highest conversion rates across the board for all products in this industry. These are the 3 main items you will need to create:

    • Tagline – The Main Header Title that your visitor will read first
    • Description – Additional information that helps support your Header Copy
    • Email Subscription Field – Where your visitor will enter their email address

    The Tagline is the most important part of this landing page as it is usually placed in the middle of the page and is the first thing that visitors see when they arrive at the site. For our Auction Tips site, here are the Header Taglines I’m considering to use:

    • We’ll teach you how to conduct the right type of Research on eBay, instead of just wandering aimlessly around the internet
    • Understand how the eBay Feedback system works and how to take advantage of the feedback system
    • There’s nothing like word of mouth advertising and we’ll show you how Great Customer Service is one of the best Marketing Techniques out there.

    The Description is located underneath the Tagline and should offer more detail on how the potential subscriber will benefit from subscribing to this newsletter.

    As for the autoresponder service you should use for your email newsletter subscription, I recommend the only that I has worked for me:

    • AWeber – Aweber has one of the best click through rates in the business as it protects subscribers from getting spammed. For example, you can’t just dump a list of emails you have into Aweber and then start sending email. They will ask the recipient first to verify that they have subscribed, then allow that person to receive any of your emails.

    Aweber is extremely easy to use and has a wizard to help you generate the proper html code to place onto your landing page.

    Aweber Code

    *To let you know, I am using affiliate links for aweber, but want you to know that I recommend this program because I use them for my work and if I can make a few bucks, then why not, right?*

    There is an ongoing debate on how much content you should post on your landing page to achieve the highest conversion rates. From what I’ve seen, as long as you have a subscription field located in every “fold view,” the conversion rate will not be affected dramatically. What I mean by “fold view,” is that when your user is scrolling down your page, as one subscription field is being scrolled away, another subscription field will appear.

    Once you have set up these 3 main items on your web site landing page, one of the most important things I recommend you set up is your Google Analytics and Google Web Optimzer accounts. They both come in the Google Adwords Account which is absolutely free.

    If you do not know already, Google Analytics is a web analysis program that keeps track of key metrics of your website like conversion rates, traffic sources and number of clicks your site receives, just to name a few. Google Web Optimizer is used to test different parts of your website like the tagline and description by displaying each variation equally to avoid the troublesome task of weighing the effects of testing during peak and offpeak hours.

    If you’d like to take a look at the completed product, please take a look at the site Auction 411.

    Don’t worry about the graphics and all that extra stuff. If you’d like to add more things to the landing page, feel free, but just make sure to use the Google Optimizer to make sure that you know what kind of effect the image will have on your conversion rate.

    Hope this helps. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I will reply to them as soon as possible.

     
    • Michael Johnson 9.59 am on 27.06.2008 Permalink

      A very good tutorial for building a simple squeeze page. People try to make things too fancy and spend way too long making them.

      And making sure to track your page changes is more important than how the page looks when you start out. Get it up there and test it before you spend hours making it pretty.

    • Piedro Molinero 10.00 am on 07.09.2008 Permalink

      A very well written article about how to make a squeeze page. Keep it short and simple is also here the best choice. And using aweber as autoresponder service is a good recommendation as it offers the most reliable service and it is worth the money.

  • Gary Lee 10.45 am on 26.02.2008 Permalink  

    First Day at Affiliate Summit West 

    I might have got sidetracked just a little bit about my first day at ASW with my observations on Jason Calacanis’ viewpoints of Shoemoney Photos, so I wanted to make sure that I get the rest of the day caught up with, so that you guys know that more is going on here than name-calling and ego-boosting!

    So after the infamous keynote speech, we headed over to session on “Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing” featuring Melissa Salas from Buy.com, Tim Carter from AsktheBuilder.com, Joel Comm from Infomedia.com, Brian McCarthy from Revver.com, Steve Rosenbaum from Magnify.net and Gary Vaynerchuck, the host of Wine Library TV. The theme of the session was again the quality of content determines the popularity and traffic of your video. There was a little bit of insight on how Google Videos timestamps and transcribes the content in a video to make it more search-friendly. Also, Steve Rosenbaum gave some demographic information by telling us that a majority of videos are viewed at the office, so keep that in mind that the average internet video user might not have an elaborate setup at home to watch video on their home big screen. Other than that, Gary was trying to get attention by using profane words and outlandish claims like going against Yahoo’s advice to make his videos shorter from the original 14 minutes to a more friendly 6.5 minutes and instead making them longer to 25 minutes because his content was that good. To each his own, but I know this session was only scratching the surface of what is to come on the internet.

    Danielle, Greg and I then headed over to the luncheon where we sat down with the crew from Shopzilla.com. A guy named Dave something started asking Danielle and I about Pink Deals and was selling us on his ideas of how we could integrate their feeds onto our site. He didn’t really say anything we didn’t know, so we just smiled and continued to eat. The awkward silence was broken when a quiet Asian guy in a suit comes and sits at our table. At first, I was just happy he sat down at our table because he had with him one of the best giveaways at the conference – a skateboard with a Las Vegas collage on the background. I wanted to ask him where he got it, so I could make sure to get one for myself before I leave. To my surprise and also to Danielle’s (see her reaction here), the quiet Asian guy that was getting his ass kissed by Shopzilla was Ben from BensBargains.net – one of the oldest and most successful deals/coupons site on the internet. To tell you the truth, Ben’s site was the site that truly inspired me to become the online entrepreneur I am today, so having him sit at our table out of the hundreds of tables in the luncheon room was quite amazing.

    We got to ask him a few questions and he was very straight forward with his answers. He began his site while he was at college and populated the site with deals between classes. I remember his posting pattern was about 20 some time during the day and then 20 more at night. While I was at college, Ben’s site was the place to go if you wanted to get any coupon for Dell computers. For a stretch, I remember I was buying an item from his site on a weekly basis. It was sick. He also told us that all his posting was done manually and that there was no way to maintain quality control while having feeds populate your site. Bottom line – it’s going to take a lot of work to get Pink Deals up to par with Ben’s Bargains! No matter though, Ben was very cool and offered his business card to contact him at any time if we had any questions. I really appreciated the offer and we wished him well.

    After lunch, we met up with Greg and John over at another table in the lunch area. We were talking about some kind of new online reality show that John might be a part of and the other sessions we were going to after lunch. All of us went to go check out Wil Reynolds speak on “How to Futureproof your SEO Efforts” which wasn’t extremely informative, but instead, was a very engaging presentation:

    Topics and Points that I jotted down on my notepad (in no particular order):

    Inequalities:

    • Putting a Digg Button on your website does not equal Social Marketing
    • Writing a Blog does not equal Blogging
    • Recording a Video does not equal

    Link Bait Tips:

    • Use Digg
    • Get Social Traffic
    • Be Creative – it takes time, but it’s worth it.
    • Be involved – get out there and comment on other people’s blogs. Integrate yourself.

    Link Tips:

    • Get rid of your reciprocal links
    • Buy good quality Directory Links

    Meta Tips:

    • Write quality descriptive titles and descriptions that get users to click on your link instead of stuffing as many keywords as possible.

    Tools:

    • Digital Point Keyword Rank Checker
    • Touchgraph
    • Google Alerts
    • Copemix Tracker
    • Adcenter Plugin for Excel 2007 – this one he swears by and is something I will be testing out very soon.

    john-chow-rocking.jpg
    Guess who’s the guy with the Flat Top rocking to Blue Man Group!

    After that session, we just headed back to our rooms to get ready for a night of food and partying at Venetian’s new club – Tao. The party was sponsored by Pepperjam, RocketProfit, Webmaster Radio and some other affiliate networks. I’m really not going to talk much about the party because it sucked. It really did. Here’s why:

    • I didn’t need to RSVP for this party. They just wanted my information.
    • The line at the bar wasn’t too long, but the bartenders were horrendous. It looked like they just got out of bartending school since I saw one girl printing out a cocktail recipe and all of them were on edge, making sure they made the perfect drinks. It wasn’t until everyone left the party that I got a bartender to get me drinks quickly.
    • The DJ for this party was THE WORST DJ EVER! I don’t know who it was but it had to be the kid of the club’s owner. It was worse than an iPod DJ. It was worse than just setting up a radio at a house party. The DJ had no clue how to control the ups and downs of the party. He had no idea how to turn down the music to make announcements, but instead, just turned off the music. He didn’t even know how to make annoucements as I’ve heard commencement speeches shorter than his “shout outs!”
    • The Blue Man group that performed were aight. I’ve definitely seen better and I definitely wasn’t too impressed. The crowd wasn’t too enthused so I think they may have just cut the show short because of that.

    After the party, we headed back to our room at the Rio where we got some drinks and I passed out.

    Today, we’re headed over to hear John and Zac speak and then we need to go snag a skateboard.

     
    • Jeff Kee 11.39 am on 26.02.2008 Permalink

      SMURFS!!!

      So you met the shopzilla.com guy eh? I became an expert at doing that Shopzilla XML feed through the TTZ Project.

    • jez 3.21 am on 28.02.2008 Permalink

      Interesting comment regards feeds / quality control.

      You could go halfway and feed a console from where you could post or reject coupons… It really depends on how much time it would save… and how short of time you are!

      Jez

    • Gary Lee 4.43 pm on 28.02.2008 Permalink

      ya . met them, but one of their reps just seemed a lil shady . . . someone told me not to trust them too much

    • Gary Lee 4.44 pm on 28.02.2008 Permalink

      i personally think it makes a lot of sense to include analytic and feed information into SERPs . . . that’s not something you can game too easily

    • Wil Reynolds 5.47 pm on 02.03.2008 Permalink

      Gary,

      Thanks for the shout out…quick question, drop me a line and let me know what more I could have done to make it a more useful presentation? I am always looking for feedback to sharpen the saw so to speak.

      Thanks!
      –Wil

  • Gary Lee 12.00 pm on 30.11.2007 Permalink  

    Welcome John Chow Readers! 

    This is Mr. Gary Lee and I’d like to welcome readers who have found their way from JohnChow.com. I have been blogging since February of this year and have tried my best to share my experiences in internet marketing. I currently work as an Internet Marketing Analyst for a health company in Southern California along with running an internet consulting service with my business partner – Ms. Danielle.

    To give you a better idea of who I am and what I usually share on this blog, here is a list of some of my reader’s favorite posts. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe to my blog here!

    John Chow’s Top 10 Blogging Mistakes – Part I

    Click Per Pay – Building your Keywords Backwards

    10 Steps to Getting Links for Non-Bloggers

    Top 10 Blogging Topics

    Blog Questions answered by Shoemoney

    Japanese People are funnier than you think

    Becoming a Blogging Hero

    Giving away an iPhone

    The Home of the Infamous Technorati Link Train

    Understanding the new Link Building Strategy

    Internet Marketing for People who care about Internet Marketing - Subscribe Now!

     
  • Gary Lee 8.10 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink  

    Linking Up With The Outside World 

    As the internet continues to move at lightening quick pace, each and everyday that you are not actively promoting your site is a day wasted. These lost days mean lost customers, lost income and potentially the loss of recurring income – the jewel in the crown of any online business. So what can you do to ensure that you are out there, actively being promoted in all of the right places?

    While many people may not have heard of them, Link Brokers are fast becoming the help of choice for many webmasters eager to make a name for their sites and themselves. So what exactly can a Link Broker do for you? Are they worth the price and how do they work?

    As the name suggests a Link Broker will arrange links to your website, but this description does not do the industry justice. There is no point linking to the wrong websites if you are looking to rise up the ranking, fifty PR1 site links means nothing in this game when one PR7 site link could give you that push up the rankings into the big league. Don’t waste your money on weak links, weak anchor text and weak keywords as this will only ensure that slowly but surely your business is bled dry.

    A Link Broker will do all of the hard work for you, checking out the realistic goals for your site, the niche markets and costing this against what you have to offer. There is no point aiming for a market which is dominated by the majors, the companies who spend millions marketing their sites – you won’t have a chance of competing with them. Niche markets, popular keywords and an array of high PR webmaster contacts are the way ahead, the kind of experience and contact base which cannot be created over night.

    As in any industry you need to ensure that you are working with the best, a Link Broker who has been there done it and has the track record to prove it. Talk is cheap in an industry where results speak louder than words, an industry where Google page 2 will see you die, but Google first page position 1 will put you in a different league. Research has shown that unless you are in the top 5 on Google page one for your chosen keyword or phrase you will be fighting for the scraps – but even then, under top spot and you will not see the full potential of the traffic available.

    Ignore all of the hype from the likes of Google as it is obvious that link building is the way forward, it brings you traffic and it can give you a massive boost in the rankings. Why are Google trying to muddy the waters with this market? Simple, they cannot control it and they don’t like it!

    Sam Allcock is a search engine enthusiast from the UK and runs a consulting service called http://www.Leadsbroker.co.uk . I have personally used his services and can highly recommend him as one of the best in his field. Be the first 5 to mention MrGaryLee.com and you’ll get a free blog review from Sam. Everyone else after will receive a 25% discount off consulting fees.

     
    • Matt 3.53 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      If you rely on Google (or any search engine, for that matter) to keep your business running, then there’s something wrong with your business…

    • Jon Lee 6.11 pm on 27.11.2007 Permalink

      I’m loving the new theme Gary!

    • sam 4.07 am on 28.11.2007 Permalink

      Google is one of many ways to do business.

  • Gary Lee 8.09 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink  

    Launching a New Affiliate System during the Holidays 

    It’s not every day that a new Pay Per Click program comes along, so when John Chow announced his new TTZ Media Affiliates program, I was very interested in learning how I can make money from it. Basically, the TTZMedia Affiliates program is a hacked version of Shopping.com’s API courtesy of the brilliant Jeff Kee and compared to other pay per click program, it looks like it offers one of the best Ad Creative Generators I’ve seen.

    From my discussions with John Chow, it looks like the payouts will be $0.15 through $0.30 per click. On top of this, TTZ Media also has a subaffiliate program where you can earn 10% of every thing your subaffiliates earn. It’s a pretty basic affiliate program where John is relying on his knowledge of the ad conversion rates to make his money at the end of the day.

    So, the key to making money on TTZ Media Affiliates is to build a site with a high click through rate to take advantage of the payouts. Once the site is built, all you have to do is find traffic and point them to your site. To take the pain of building a site out of the equation, I have made a basic template which I believe has the highest click through rate possible.

    Take a Look and you can see what I’m talking about – http://www.DaytimeDeals.com

    If you have an extra slot in your hosting package, why not go find a nice domain and upload this site to your hosting package so you can start making money today? Just sign up here – http://www.daytimedeals.com/apply.php and follow the instructions and you’ll have a site running in no time.

    To help with our signups, Ms. Danielle, Greg Morgan of BCM Blog and I are going to give away an additional THREE iPod Shuffles – Red, Silver and Green – on top of John Chow’s 2 22″ LCD Screens. Here are the rules to enter:

    red-ipod.pngsilver-ipod.pnggreen-ipod.png

    1) Sign up through http://www.daytimedeals.com/apply.php – We’ll use the email you signed up for to announce the winner. (You can ONLY apply through this link. DO NOT APPLY anywhere else for TTZ Media)

    That’s it! BUT, if you’d like to have more entries into the contest -

    2) Blog about our contest and John Chow’s contest (this gets you two entries from John).

    3) Refer someone under you and get one entry per qualified referral from John Chow.

    American ExpressTraffic Tip – In order to help you get some free traffic, we have found a great credit card rewards deal through American Express. Basically, if you’re a small business owner or a sole proprietorship, you can sign up for the American Express and receive 40,000 points. I’ve checked out the rewards program and the one you should take advantage of is the 2 $100 Amex Gift Cards you can get for those 40,000 free points. I know there are some rules and regulations to getting the points, but if it was anything like last time, I don’t think it’s anything too crazy. Just make sure to check them out for your own good. Once you get the gift cards, go ahead and buy some traffic from Adwords, Yahoo or Adbrite at like $0.05-$0.10 a click , depending on what your click through rates are.

     
    • Prija 2.21 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      nice.. ill sign up tomorrow..

      you been tagged.

      http://bloggingthemovie.com/nofollow-link-train-contest/

    • bloggernoob 7.05 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      i’ve found pay per click don’t work well on make money blogs. you think ttz will be any different?

    • Stephen 11.59 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      TTZ media does double digit % click through rates for me at Futurelooks. But it only does single digits on my personal blog. It will likely be even lower if your blog is extremely targeted towards making money online. Unless of course, your blog is about making enough money online to buy XZY product (insert TTZ Ad here). If you can make it relevant to your site somehow, you can increase your click through %.

      On that note, I’m really surprised that Gary didn’t insert a TTZ Media ad with the current pricing and stock of iPod Shuffles into this post. That’s leaving money on the table. Bad Gary! :lol: ;)

    • Gary Lee 5.20 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      cool deal prija . . . maybe you can bring back cashforcomments . . . cashforclicks????

    • Gary Lee 5.22 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      CTR is definitely affected by the quality of traffic and the type of layout you have on your site . . . and the reason I didn’t put an ad up is because i wanted people to WIN the ipod shuffle instead of buying one for themselves :) . . . . i’ll try my best to get the most clicks from daytimedeals.com . . .

    • Stephen 6.44 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      Yeah, but you put the ad up to dangle the carrot in front of people. If people know that the prize is worth “X” amount of dollars, then they are more likely to enter. I don’t have a double digit click through rate for nothing ya know ;)

    • sam 5.55 am on 27.11.2007 Permalink

      Hi Gary.. Looks good.

      Will design myself a new site and try it out. Take care.

      Sam

    • knupNET 10.50 am on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Has this contest ended?

  • Gary Lee 2.08 pm on 20.11.2007 Permalink  

    Reasons You Shouldn’t Be a Blogger 

    Since I just wrote a post about taking the leap of faith to start blogging, I wanted to also talk about who shouldn’t be blogging in today’s blogosphere. Just like everything else in life, it’s not cut out for everyone. Here are some points I came up with that I tell my clients when they start off with

    “hey you know that blogging thing . . . I want to do something like that . . . “

    This is how I respond:

    If you don’t have anyone in your office who can consistently update your blog, the you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you aren’t comfortable with your company being totally open due to trade secrets or what not, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you have nothing to say other than the regurgitation of industry news, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you don’t have any important information to tell your customers, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you don’t have the time to read other blogs and know your industry, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    That’s what I got for now. Do you have any other questions I should be asking?

     
    • Jez 2.34 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      Dont blog if you cant keep your mouth shut!

      Think that is my biggest problem… has got me into scrapes a couple of times and probably held me back…

    • Mobile Notary 3.12 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      How are you writing skills? Is an excellent question. If you don’t know how to use proper grammar then take a class or don’t blog.

    • Jez 3.35 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      John Chows grammer isn’t great… I read a lot of blogs by Eastern European’s / Latin American’s, their English is not great either… it really depends on the topic, and how well the author knows it… but I suppose if your talking about promoting a native-English speaking business then your statement is broadly true….

    • Hannes Johnson 4.09 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      I don’t think grammar and spelling is that vital. If the content is good and people can (easily) understand what you’re trying to say then I think it shouldn’t hold you back. Like Jez says, John Chow is a great example ;)

    • Dave Davis 11.05 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      Great points Gary, an excellent checklist/flowchart to scope out the potential for integrating blogging into an online marketing campaign.

      We actually have a question in our needs analysis document that asks if the company would consider blogging. The response is about 99% yes, but the question after asks if they could dedicate someone to post at least once a week and the answer is about 99% no!

      Blogging in my opinion offers some of the highest ROI when it comes to promotion due to the relative minimum investment required (only time). Most people fail to measure the ROI from their blog or even see it as investment.

      I’ll be stealing some of your points…verbatim. ;)

    • Daniel 11.06 am on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      Since I have a journalism background, I think that if you’re going to blog in a given language, you should at least know how to communicate clearly in that language.

      Marketers have some of the best blogs out there, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find simple grammar or syntax errors on them.

    • Gary Lee 5.16 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      I agree with Hannes . . . . I mean, my grammar stinks and I never got anything above a B+ in English Literature in High School . . . as long as you can write in a way where you can convey the message you want to convey, then I think you’ll be all good . . .

    • Gary Lee 5.16 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      remember . . it’s all about the delivery :)

    • Gary Lee 5.18 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      haha . . do I sense an lil bit of journalistic snobbery against bloggers? . . oh wait, is “snobbery” even a word? ;)

    • Daniel 2.13 pm on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Ha. Can’t one be both a journalist and a blogger? A “blogalist,” even?

      And yes, “snobbery” is a word! Durr…

  • Gary Lee 8.08 am on 20.11.2007 Permalink  

    Take the Blog Leap! It feels great in here! 

    I don’t know about you, but one of the only people in my group of friends who keeps a blog. My friends say it’s because I’m more tech-savvy or internet-savvy than they are, some even say it’s because I have a big mouth and I eventually need to find new people to talk to. Maybe they’re right, but most likely they’re not. I started blogging because I wanted to learn. Plain and Simple.

    So, do you want to learn? Do you want to interact with like-minded people who can help you professionally and maybe some times, personally? Then let’s start laying the foundation of what you need to do to get ready for the blogosphere:

    1) Find Blogs of Interest and Subscribe – I’d suggest going to Technorati and doing a search for your interests, whether it be business, sports, politics, relationships, hollywood gossip or commentary on world news. Once you find these blogs, use a RSS Reader (What is RSS?) and subscribe to them so you can get a feel for how they deliver their messages.

    2) Practice Blogging on hosted blog services like Blogspot, Typepad or WordPress - Don’t get too used to it as I’m not a big fan of serious bloggers putting their blogs up on hosted blog services because in the long run, you don’t gain as much as you could in terms of potential market exposure. Get used to writing about your interests and create a schedule that you are comfortable with. Don’t forget to learn how to post links and photos on your blog. The layout of an article is very important and I would suggest looking at high quality magazine’s to see what I’m talking about.

    3) Don’t be afraid to ask for help – Getting started with a blog can some times be very difficult. I never could have got this blog off the ground if it wasn’t the help of some really knowledgeable people who gave me hints on plug-ins, offered post ideas and/or contributed to my blog by writing a thought provoking comment. I’ll be more than happy to help, so go ahead and ask me first if you’d like.

    At the end of the day, the blogosphere is a great place to express your opinions and share your experiences with people from around the world. No one’s going to say anything if it’s not for you. You never know until you try, so get out there and just do it. Then let me know so I can subscribe to your RSS!

    Good Luck!

     
    • Andy 11.21 am on 20.11.2007 Permalink

      I never really understood how in depth this whole “blogging” thing really was. I started out just to see what it was all about in relation to traffic building. Then all of sudden, I was hooked. From the social media to the monetization of your site, it definitely was a HUGE learning curve. Now that I’m in, I am definitely in for the long haul. It’s funny how you find sites too. I believe I nabbed your RSS feed after reading about your site getting hacked on John Cow. Been one of the 378 ever since.

    • The Monetizer 10.18 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Gary, you’ve gained a new subscriber here. Great content on your blog. I agree too..biggest mistake I’ve made in blogging is sticking with blogspot rather than self-hosting, but for money’s sake it seems to work. Keep up the great work here..

    • Gary Lee 10.53 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      thanks for the compliments monetizer . . . i think you could always start another site in the background and switch it when you’re ready . . if you did it once, you can do it again!

  • Gary Lee 10.07 am on 17.11.2007 Permalink  

    To Die and Blog in LA 

    homicideblog.png

    Only in Los Angeles will you find a Homicide Blog in the LA Times.

    I woke up this morning too enjoy the slight overcast that comes with living in West Los Angeles. Perfect weather for a nice cup of coffee and and perfect time to catch up on my weekly RSS feeds and world news.

    Anyways, the Los Angeles Times website has been going through a pretty drastic transition over the past year. Their online publication, more than any other I have seen, has taken huge steps towards incorporating blogs into their website, giving their “journalists” easier ways to publish their opinions and content. It’s a nice tribute to blogs, but personally, I agree with Mark Cuban’s opinion that the mass media should stay the mass media and stop trying to use the “innocence” of blogging to garner more readers. You are who you are, so stop trying to perpetrate. Case in point – the Homicide Report.
    To be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the Homicide Report just yet. Part of me feels the LA Times is exploiting the deaths of these people, but then what media group doesn’t profit off the suffering of others? Drama sells and I guess it applies to the online world as well. I mean, I did click on the report and went through the 18 homicides that happened in a one week period. I did see the ads for high blood pressure and an initiative to give $9 Billion to California kids for education.

    Anyways, I thought I’d just pass along a new discovery for me today. If you’re interested, they also have a Homicide Map (powered by Google) that shows what spots to avoid if you’re ever visiting Los Angeles.

     
    • ジェイソン (Jason) 2.54 pm on 17.11.2007 Permalink

      The LA Times might have stumbled into a very unique blogging niche. I don’t think there are too many people dedicating a site to people who have been murdered :???:
      That said, it’d be a pretty depressing read. I’d be interested to know how many visitors it receives.

    • Gary Lee 7.35 pm on 17.11.2007 Permalink

      I bet a lot of people secretly read it and will never admit it.

  • Gary Lee 11.33 am on 13.11.2007 Permalink
    Tags: Charity, Donate, Make a Difference   

    Enpower our Youth and Get a Free Laptop 

    olpc.jpg

    John Chow just IM’d me and told me about this great promotion for the Laptop per Child project, which if you don’t remember, was a project started by some people in MIT to provide children in developing countries with a way to join the rest of the technological world. Originally, the estimates were about $100 per laptop, but of course there were some costs of production increases and it’s now $200, which still isn’t a bad deal.

    So, this is how it’s going to work – betweeen Nov. 12th and 26th, a donation of $399 will provide a XO Laptop to one child in a developing country and also one XO laptop to a child in your life (the holidays are coming up and this would be a great gift). Half of this donation is tax-deductible ($200 for the mathematically challenged) and to top it off, T-Mobile will throw in a Free Year of Wireless Service at any of their US-based Hotspot Locations (Official Press Release). Even though helping the children should be enough for me to donate, getting that free year of wireless service would be great, especially in West LA where working at a coffee shop definitely has it’s eye candy perks! :)

    I’d like to thank John for passing me this information as I was just thinking of how we should use the power of our network to do something good for the world. This is a great step in the right direction and I hope we’ll all be able to participate in future programs.

    I just ordered mine right now, so what are you waiting for? Go and Give a Laptop Today!

     
  • Gary Lee 11.59 am on 25.07.2007 Permalink  

    Link Trains are making a Comeback 

    A couple of months ago, I started the Technorati Faves Link Train and watched it take off around the world faster than I would have ever imagined. I cracked the Technorati Top 100 in less than a week and now currently reside in the No. 19 spot behind one of the blogs that got me into this whole thing – JohnChow.com.

    John Chow Better Watch Out!

    At the beginning of the current iPhone Giveaway Contest, I started to notice a few blips of people trying to start the train again, but then I thought to myself “there’s no way it’s going to start again!” But I was wrong, almost 3 weeks since then and the train is chugging along nicely as it did in the tail end of it’s hey day – about 5-10 backlinks a day! A combination of the revival of the link train and the iPhone Contest has finally got me past the 3k mark on Technorati to 2900. Of course, all these numbers don’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I’m a stats whore, so shoot me!

    picture-22.png

    duel.gifOf course, there have been a number of articles written about the evilness, genius or sheer luck of this link train. Enough so that I originally wanted to distance myself from link trains as a whole because I was starting to become one with the term “Link Train!” and I wanted to become more than that when I started blogging. As more and more people started creating unique link trains and added me onto them, I became more and more content that I was never going to escape it. I felt very much like Dennis Weaver in the Spielberg classic thriller “Duel” where Dennis Weaver’s character is trying to escape this killer 18 wheeler that’s trying to kill him and his car! Okay, maybe it’s not to that extreme, but I know I’m never going to escape, so hopefully you’re smart enough to see the correlation!

    With that being said, David Wilkinson of Techzi.net asked me to join in his new Geek Train where he has given nicknames to pretty much all the bloggers I currently read! I love my nickname in particular since I’m called “The Legendary” for reasons unbeknownst to me, but I’ll take it! So, since I got an awesome nickname plus the fact that I’m sponsoring this link train, I thought I’d embrace my link train association with the Geek Train:

    ———- START COPYING HERE ———-

    Geek Train – All aboard!

    1 – Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and linkback to the blog(s) that put you on the list in the paragraph. You MUST do this. No-one plans on getting slapped for duplicate content any time soon, do they?

    2 – Next, copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your own blog. If you’d like a different keyword for your blog then change it, when you do your post, and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword, provided the train keeps on spreading.

    3 – Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

    4 – Add at least three new favourite blogs of yours to keep the train going, e-mail the blog owners (or comment on one of their posts) and insist that they post.

    My Adds:

    (The Cash) Cash for Comments
    (The Showoff) Jon Lee
    (The PC Fan) Samanathon

    The Originals:

    (The overclocker) Shawn Knight
    (The incredible) Chris Hooley
    (The rhetorical) Michael Kwan
    (The talented) Leo Chiang
    (The root of all evil) John Chow
    (The crazy) John Cow
    (The business dude) Josh Mullineaux
    (The brilliant) Shoemoney
    (The absurdly loud) Ed Lau
    (The mastermind) Jon Waraas
    (The yaketty) Stephen Fung
    (The wickedly cool) Everton Blair
    (The uber blogger) Ms Danielle
    (The enterprising) Matt Coddington
    (The career minded) Jane May
    (The legendary) Gary Lee
    (The nifty) Dosh Dosh
    (The ambitious) Jeff Kee
    (The $256 man) Tyler Cruz
    (The kick-ass) Nate Whitehill
    (The original) 13-Year Old Blogger.
    (The money-making) Affiliate Marketing guide.
    (The crafty two at) TechRave
    (The AdSense ‘dude’) Michael Cheney

    This link train is the brainchild of David Wilkinson, hyper, money-making kid, and kick-ass blog designer Nate Whitehill.

    ———- END COPYING HERE ———-

    What do you think of Link Trains? What do you think of me and Link Trains? What do you think is next after Link Trains?

     
    • Derrich 12.20 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      Sounds fun! I got the best boost from the ViralTags train. I get at least one new link each day. I like this one…with the nicknames.

    • Jon Lee 12.50 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      The Showoff haha I love it!

    • Gary Lee 12.52 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      honestly . . i think if you join all the trains out there, you’re bound to crack Technorati 100k without having to do anything else!

    • Gary Lee 12.53 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      for sure man . . . the creator of the showoff plugin!!!

    • Jack 2.41 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      Link Trains are old school! I didn’t even know people still created them, haven’t been included in one for months!

    • Gary Lee 4.24 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      haha . man . . i can’t believe no one’s said anything about my photoshopped “Duel” poster . . . . you guys must be way too young to remember that movie!

    • Hannes Johnson 5.22 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      I remember Duel (vaguely). Nice photoshop job ;) [isn't it your eyes in the mirror?]

    • Hannes Johnson 5.25 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      I like link trains – they’ve brought me plenty of links and traffic :)

    • Gary Lee 5.55 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      haha . . THANK YOU HANNES . . . someone finally noticed . . sharp eye I say . . sharp eye indeed!

    • Jorge 6.33 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      Link train away! Never done this hah. Thanks Mr. Lee for your wacky experiments!

    • Melody 7.02 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      So link trains are making a comeback! Good to know I got into the whole thing at the right time, thought I was way too late! Then again, mine’s a simple personal blog, not a high-funda techie one like this :)

      PS: Had faved you @ your earlier post. Waiting to be added still!

    • ms danielle 8.02 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink

      i am the uber blogger? LOL now that’s funny :)

    • Jeff Kee 1.28 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      “The Ambitious” for me eh?

      I LIKE IT SO MUCH. PERFECT.

    • Kanute 6.05 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Well comebacks are not always successful, I’m tempted but I don’t really like all the names in the list. They all talk of “making money”. Maybe I’ll try to generate one myself.

    • Jorge 6.55 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      First time train linker. It’s fun but geeky at the same time, but then again blogging is kinda geeky. If I could only get my fiancee to do it.. sigh. Thanks for the train instructions sir!

    • jerkybeef 7.05 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      I can say that i’ve had some success but the only thing is that the people you fave never return the favor, or the list owners never update their list so it kind of beats the purpose.

      I think DoshDosh and Samanathon were the only ones that reciprocated the Technorati love and faved me back so i have yet to really see the benefit of joining a link list.

    • Enkay Blog 9.41 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Its a bummer that I didnt make the list!

    • Hannes Johnson 4.22 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Yup, that’s me; Mr. Attention-To-Detail ;)

    • CASH for COMMENTS 6.35 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      @ derrich – Hey Derrich. I added you to my Jet Train as Well.

      http://www.cashforcomments.com/contest-jet-train

      @ Gary – Hey check out my lastest sneaky invention on the Jet train. You might laugh.. but its going to be nuts. Don’t worry you are on this list as well.

    • ChaLicious 7.30 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Nice, think gonna try this on my web…

    • ChaLicious 7.30 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Nice, think gonna try this on my web… ASAP…

    • Enkay Blog 8.17 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Hey Hannes,
      Ive got a link chain going on at my blog if you want to check it out. You get added to the list for posting it on your blog!

    • Enkay Blog 8.18 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      ofcourse you are! who else? ::looks around::

    • Enkay Blog 8.21 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Just a follow up. I was wondering, how can you get added to a list like this?

    • Saman Sadeghi 8.24 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      Nice! Thanks for adding me to another link train!

    • Saman Sadeghi 8.25 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      For sure – I wouldn’t be rated as high as I am if it weren’t for Gary!

      You could always just put it on your blog and add you site!

    • CASH for COMMENTS 10.21 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      hey. I’ve seeing you around a lot. I’ll stop by your page more often Saman.

    • melo villareal 10.44 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink

      please add me in your list… thanks

    • Gary Lee 1.06 am on 27.07.2007 Permalink

      dude . . saman’s the man . . . you should totally visit his site!

    • Gary Lee 1.07 am on 27.07.2007 Permalink

      it’s all about the network . . my original train included people i met who were starting off blogging or ones that were helping me

    • Chris 3.54 pm on 27.07.2007 Permalink

      Gary,

      Good meme post. There is actually a bigger pagerank meme going on at the moment. I am in the list and have had a huge traffic boost from it.

      Feel free to hop onboard the link train ;-)

      http://deanhunt.com/say-no-to-pagerank-yes-to-life/

    • CASH for COMMENTS 9.28 pm on 27.07.2007 Permalink

      Hey I just added you to my technorati favorites. Can you please add me and if you want to increase your Technorati Fave Count check out my FaveMe UP Trainstation.

      http://www.cashforcomments.com/faveme-up/

    • Allsux 2.33 pm on 28.07.2007 Permalink

      Added you to my train – please add me back! Thanks! See: top post at http://allsux.com

    • Saman Sadeghi 7.46 am on 31.07.2007 Permalink

      Nice of you to say – I always share the link love, just my way of saying “Thank You!”

    • Saman Sadeghi 7.48 am on 31.07.2007 Permalink

      :lol: Thanks Gary

      You could say I get around more then Paris Hilton….

      :razz:

    • cooliojones 1.03 pm on 03.08.2007 Permalink

      Cash for Comments, I’ve seen you around a lot, you stop by my blog yet? And let me get s seat on your train too!

    • cooliojones 1.05 pm on 03.08.2007 Permalink

      That’s how a lot of mine have started off too Gary. And if you notice, a lot of the top bloggers are friends with each other because they remember their humble beginnings. I think we can start a new crop of millionaires just in this bunch if we all stick together.

    • Etienne Teo 2.38 am on 16.08.2007 Permalink

      I have joined the link train too…its cool to have a viral train at times.

    • MDB 12.38 am on 31.08.2007 Permalink

      I’m at the station but the train has left…. aargh!!

    • Leo 7.36 pm on 28.11.2007 Permalink

      Oooh, this was was dug up out of the archives ;)

  • Gary Lee 5.43 pm on 11.07.2007 Permalink  

    I really do own an Amex Gold Card 

    My Amex Gold Card A lot of people have been emailing me to ask if I really do have the Amex Gold Card that I promoted in my free iphone contest. I just want to post this picture to show people that I’m not lying and that I stand behind the products I promote. So, if you haven’t applied yet to receive your $250 Gift Card Bonus, what are you waiting for? Go to PinkDeals.net to check out the offer!

    Other than that, the contest has been running along really smoothly and I’ve been meeting even more people than ever from around the world. A lot of people from the link train promotion have come back and are more enthusiastic than ever to enter the contest. I think it’s because the iPhone’s only been released in the United States so far, the rest of the world just doesn’t have any other way of getting their hands on them.

    Anyways, my stats have been improving quite a bit. I’ve cracked 3,500 in technorati and hit all time highs in unique visitors on tuesday. Ms. Danielle reports that she’s almost cracked the Top 10 for the term “free online coupon,” but no word on “golf equipment“, yet. Other news would be that I was on Netscape’s front page for a good 10 hours, which gave me a good amount of traffic, but then some guy reported me as spam (I know who you are) and I was quickly removed! It’s ok though! The post I made for netscape got indexed by Google and it’s ranking #43 for the term “free iphone” as of today. I’m still going strong on Technorati’s WTF section having been at the top of the list for a solid 2 days now. One thing I’ve learned from being listed on there for so long is that it seems votes only have a shelf life of about 24 hours. After that, your votes start to diminish, but your rankings don’t get effected too much.

    I know this is a little early for an update since it’s only been a couple of days since I started the contest, but to be honest with you, it’s become way more successful than I could have ever imagined and I wanted to share with you some important factors that made it happen.  The contest is going so well, I might just stop over at the Apple Store and try to find something else to give away! Any suggestions?

     
    • Blogging the movie 5.51 pm on 11.07.2007 Permalink

      a new ipod would be nice

    • Gary Lee 5.57 pm on 11.07.2007 Permalink

      funny thing is I have my old 5th generation 60GB Video iPod just kickin’ it on my desk right now. Maybe we’ll incorporate into the movie? ;) D just told me about it!

    • Blogging the movie 6.23 pm on 11.07.2007 Permalink

      hah. same here i have 2 or 3 old ipods. for some reason I cannot use them now after I used the color screens.

    • Jeff Kee 10.08 pm on 11.07.2007 Permalink

      I should get that card! Have you heard of teh platinum card?

    • Saman Sadeghi 10.30 pm on 11.07.2007 Permalink

      I have a Gold AmEx through work (corporate card) – does that count?

    • ms danielle 1.13 am on 12.07.2007 Permalink

      shot caller, big baller…………!!

    • Natron 7.26 am on 12.07.2007 Permalink

      How many visitors a day does this translate into for you Gary?

    • Gary Lee 8.47 am on 12.07.2007 Permalink

      ya . . I actually have that one too . . . . amex is really great when it comes down to it!

    • Gary Lee 9.12 am on 12.07.2007 Permalink

      I’ve been getting a nice influx of new people coming in. I would safely say over 65% of viewers this week have been new. Now it’s my job to find a way to retain them.

    • Gary Lee 9.14 am on 12.07.2007 Permalink

      sure . . . i personally need this credit card the most to pay for gas these days when I’m traveling . . . it’s especially helpful to keep track of your gas payments for tax purposes as well . . . there’s no way I’m carrying around that much cash with me . . . hahaha

    • Russell Wagner 11.29 am on 12.07.2007 Permalink

      Wow you really get a free $250 giftcard for doing that offer? I am going to try it out. How long did it take to come?

    • digitalnomad 10.44 am on 16.07.2007 Permalink

      That should bring the readers in. Too bad they will have to use AT&T as a carrier.

    • digitalnomad 10.56 am on 16.07.2007 Permalink

      Have you heard of the black card?

    • Bobo 9.43 am on 18.07.2007 Permalink

      actually just wanted to say hi. then I realised that there is SO MUCH to learn from your blog! It’s fantastic. Will drop by often!

    • Vijay Teach Me 8.30 am on 23.07.2007 Permalink

      Free iPhone….. 6 months of ATT bill payments…

      Vijay

  • Gary Lee 10.45 pm on 08.07.2007 Permalink  

    I’m Really Giving Away a Free iPhone 

    mgliphone.gif

    If you weren’t able to win a Zune on Ms. Danielle’s blog site, I thought it would be nice to give my readers a chance to give an iPhone away as a prize, since I was able to grab two of them from the Apple Store last week. I know a lot of you have been reading a lot of reviews about the iPhone, so I won’t go into detail about how great it is. Hopefully, after you win, you can write your own review about how much you love it!

    Prize: Brand New 8GB Apple iPhone + Fancy iPhone Bag that it came in + Free Shipping anywhere in the world (that fedex delivers to). It’s still sealed and in pristine condition!

    All you have to do to enter this contest is post about this contest in your blog or write about it somewhere on your website. Here are the linking rules:

    Write a short blurb on your blog using the following links:

    • Link to MrGaryLee.com using “internet marketing” & this Post using “free iphone
    • Link to BunkersParadise.com (my new project) using the anchor text “Golf Equipment
    • Link to PinkDeals.net using the anchor text “online coupon code” *updated as of July 30th. Participants who used other anchor text before still qualify*
    • No Duplicate Content or Forum Submissions will be counted as an entry.

    Rules for Number of Entries

    • PR 0 – PR 3 Sites – 1 Entry per Post
    • PR 4 and above – 2 Entries per Post
    • Your Page Rank will be based on the PR after the next Update later this month
      Only One Post allowed per Blog – Use ixwebtool.com to check your PR

    Mr. Gary Lee Free iPhoneThe deadline for this contest will be some time in mid to late August! After you have created your post, you can contact me and send me the URL of your post using the subject line “iphone giveaway” so I can make sure it qualifies for the giveaway.

    An example of a post you could write:

    One of the best ways to do internet marketing is to give something away and Mr. Gary Lee knows this so he is giving away a free iphone! All I have to do is write a post about it in my blog and link to his new project site about golf equipment as well as PinkDeals.net which provides a free online coupon for most stores on the internet.

    Amex Card To make sure that no one walks away a loser in this contest and that you can afford at least an Apple iPod, Pink Deals is promoting a free $250 Gift Card for signing up for an American Express Business Gold Reward! I personally have one of these cards and have tied it to my paypal, adwords and other online accounts. It’s a great card that has helped me recover a lot of money from fraudulent advertisers along with building points for free gifts. That sounds so commercial like, but I’m telling you the truth. You can rack up the points, protect yourself and make a free $250 at the same time! I’m closing in on a free Nike SUMO Driver soon! Click Here to Sign Up Now!

    If you’re new to Mr. Gary Lee dot com, here are some posts that have been well received, so please feel free to check them out and let me know what you think:

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS Feed since there might be some additions/changes to the contest in the future! Ms. Danielle and I will be recording the drawing live, so that you can see first hand who will win the iPhone!

     
  • Gary Lee 11.41 am on 02.07.2007 Permalink  

    The Peon is Moving to New York 

    Friday the 29th, I closed my Macbook and rolled up my power adaptor like it was any ordinary day. But, unlike most days, I felt a little lump in my throat rise as a symbol of my sadness as that day was my last at Workplace and working with Cousin Gary and Ms. Danielle.

    In the past 3 months, I have managed climb out of the murky and often joyless valley of the quarter-life crisis, a chapter filled with utter confusion about professional prospects, to a new job in search engine marketing in New York City. Yes, Cousin J is moving on up.

    Before I left, one of my coworkers sent me the most beautiful image I have ever seen. To the undiscerning eye, this image was worthless. But to me, this image represented the culmination of my last 4 months of work and I reveled in the beauty and utter simplicity of this bar graph: the X axis covered the last 30 days while the Y axis measured traffic to our site. The most recent 5 days on the graph shot up from the X axes like a giant, towering skyscrapers shading over the meager traffic of the rest of the month.

    It works!! Backlinking works! I have visual proof that the last 4 months of accosting webmasters and writing thousands of requests for backlinks in exchange for my first born child/monetary compensation is a very,very fruitful SEO method. Granted, Workplace had a fairly generous budget for purchasing links and had more peons hounding people for links but still, given a little time and effort and effective linking, you too can exponentially drive traffic to your site. Its like those sea monkeys you put in water: from shriveled little boogerish entities, they magically transform into full-grown creature-pets that you love and cherish forever!

    Ok, it’s late and I’m off topic. Anyways, this is me saying “over and out!”

     
    • Scot Smith 6.16 pm on 02.07.2007 Permalink

      Congratulations :)

    • Leo 11.29 pm on 02.07.2007 Permalink

      Ooh, have fun in NYC. You know which borough you’ll live in?

    • cousin 12.47 am on 03.07.2007 Permalink

      thanks for reading :) i’m quite excited!

    • cousin 12.50 am on 03.07.2007 Permalink

      thanks! i’ve wanted to live there since i was like 10, so it hasn’t really sunk in yet. not sure where i’ll be living, wherever i can afford?

    • ms danielle 5.31 pm on 03.07.2007 Permalink

      my mom killed my sea monkeys.

      have fun in new york! i’ll miss your little eyeballs staring at digital point all day long

    • Russell Wagner 9.06 pm on 08.07.2007 Permalink

      Wow congrats on moving up to the big city! I’ve visited it numerous of times, I think you will enjoy it.

  • Gary Lee 12.10 pm on 07.06.2007 Permalink  

    How Agloco101.com uses Email Newsletters to grow faster! 

    Continuing my Email Marketing Business series, I would like to use my Agloco101.com site as an example of how I’ve used email marketing to maximize the impression of my agloco 101 visitors. Before we get started, I would like to just give me bi-weekly report that I’ve been trying my best to stick to. Here’s my screenshot for May 31, 2007:

     

    agloco053107.gif

     

    So as you can see, my network has grown pretty nicely and with the email newsletter I’ve been sending to my subscribers, both them and I are enjoying the large network of extended referrals.

    My goal for this Agloco newsletter program was to:

    1) Collect my Network’s Email information so that I can remind them of any important Agloco Information

    2) Provide Tips & Strategy that help them build their network, which in turn builds my network.

    3) Remind them on a weekly basis to continue building their network to increase my potential for growth.

    Now, here is an example of the email I get when I sign up to the Agloco 101 newsletter. I’m going to cut some parts out to save those of you who don’t want to read the whole thing, but are more interested in the format of the newsletter:

    Dear Gary,

    Congratulations on taking the first steps to getting paid to surf online. I’m not going to bore you with more reasons why you should signup on AgLoCo. I’m here just to give you simple tips on how you can increase your network size faster and more efficiently than anyone else.

    First, make sure you’ve signed up in my network – http://www.agloco101.com/ct.php – a lot of people have signed up only to this email and forgot to sign up for AgLoCo yet. Don’t be one of those people. =)

    So, here we go – Tips from the Pros to build you AgLoCo Network:

    1) Send an e-Card to Everyone you know – One of those cutesy ones that everyone likes to get every so often. Remember to include your referral link in there and you’ll be good to go.

    2) YouTube Commercial – With the power of the internet and the power of viral marketing, create a funny video that will get spread around the world. And if you’d like to make even more money with that video, sell some ad space on it using Adbrite’s new Video Feature – http://www.agloco101.com/adbrite.php

    3) Social Networks – Ever hear of MySpace and Friendster? Well, why not use the power of your bulletin boards to tell people about AgLoCo? Here are some more sites in case you don’t know them – LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, Bebo.com – the list goes on and on. Imagine how many you can reach with one message.

    4) Start a Blog – Go to WordPress.com or Blogger.com and start your blog. The easiest way to start generating content is to just write about what you’re currently doing to increase the number of people signing up. It’s relatively easy and it’s a great way to start commenting on other people’s blogs, so that their visitors can also become your visitors too.

    5) Personal Emails – I know it might be hard to come up with a personal email that doesn’t sound too cheesey and all that stuff, which is why I don’t use the template AgLoCo provides in their members section. What i like to do is to take the time and find the real popular people on my address book. You know, the ones that can get anyone to do anything. I start off with them and write them a sincere email to let them know why I joined AgLoCo and why I think they might find it prosperous for themselves too. You won’t believe how far a little sincerity can go these days.

    6) Find a Club or any Organization look to raise money – Arrange a meeting with the leaders of the group and tell them about AgLoCo and show them how by telling their members to signup for AgLoCo, they can raise money almost exponentially.

    7) Add your AgLoCo Referral Link to your Email Signature – This is a no-brainer. You send a lot of email every day, so why not use that as a way to market. Think of it as a bumper sticker for your email.

    I hope those tips have helped and that you try at least 2-3 of them this week, so you can see how easy it’s going to be for you to build your network.

    Next Week, I will discuss how you can use the power of Google and Yahoo to grow your network to the sizes of small towns!

    Take Care,

    AgLoCo 101
    Get.Paid.to.Surf!
    http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBP3506 <=See . . pretty easy, huh?

    OK . . maybe I didn’t cut anything out. After reading it through again, I thought you might get something out of it. So, after reading it, do you see where the main components of the newsletter are? If not, let me break it down for you:

    1) Welcome – The person just signed up to a free newsletter, so most of them are pretty skeptical about what you can offer them. What you want to do is not fluff up the product anymore, but instead, thank them for signing up and then tell them what they’re going to get out of this.

    2) Heart of the Newsletter – Get directly to tips and strategy with Step by Step Guides that are easy to understand. Become a resource for your reader, so they can reference your newsletters if they need to get questions answered.

    3) The Sale – Of all my newsletter campaigns, the best performing ones always have the ads at the end of the newsletter. The reason being is that you’re using the newsletter to warm up the reader up to the sale. The sale for my newsletter is to get them excited about Agloco, enough so that they spread the word to their friends.  Obviously it has worked with my extended referrals dwarfing my direct referrals.

    Newsletter campaigns are relatively easy to do as long as you’re a competent writer and have some sort of passion in the product you are selling, so that your readers will feel it in your writing. The sales process requires patience and I highly recommend controlling yourself and not placing ads throughout the newsletter, but instead at the end of each one. Think of it as waiting patiently for that kiss at the end of a date. You’ve spent the whole night getting to know each other and building up her attraction level, then when the moment’s right, you go in for the kiss! Guys that strike out are the ones that can control themselves and then leave the restaurant with mace on their face. Selling people with newsletter is pretty much the same thing.

    On important thing to remember is that I use only Text-based emails because they have the highest chance of being read and passing spam filters. I know html-based emails look really nice and all, but these are one of those times when function heavily outweighs form. If you truly think that you need html-based emails, then I would suggest you test thoroughly with Google Web Optimizer to analyze click through rates. I’m using my experience with my newsletters, but have to admit that it can some times depend on the product.

    Just FYI – I use Aweber as my Email Newsletter client. They’re pretty reliable with good customer service when you call in, instead of using the lame chat feature. The most important thing is that a high percentage of their emails get past spam filters because they are a trusted server who do their best to cut any sort of spammers from the site. Click Here if you’d like to check it out and hook me up with a referral fee as well ;)

    I’m sure a lot of you might have questions, so please feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer your questions.

    What kind of email campaigns are you thinking of running? What kind of campaigns do you think justify an html based email? Do you see the similarities between blogs and rss feeds?

     
    • dotnetnuke 7.39 am on 08.06.2007 Permalink

      Agloco grow up very fast.

    • Jeff kee 12.59 pm on 08.06.2007 Permalink

      oh man those stats look good Gary.

      I’m not into the Agloco thing really… I’m not skeptic about it but I don’t think it’s as great as some people hype it up, which makes me want to devote my time into other businesses which are more prospective.

    • Ed Kohler 10.51 pm on 08.06.2007 Permalink

      Great tips. Keep growing that network by creating great content that will subscribers subscribed and referring your list.

    • Chee Kui 9.58 am on 10.06.2007 Permalink

      Nice effort.
      p/s: Kumiko is gonna hate this. lol!

    • Joel Badinas 1.55 am on 18.06.2007 Permalink

      You are lucky to have many subscribers. In just a few a days of being a member you beat my network.

  • Gary Lee 12.56 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink  

    Profiting from my Youth 

    That’s exactly what Hollywood seems to be doing right now. It seems like these days, I’m having flashbacks when I see commercials and people talking about some of my favorite shows from back in the day:

    • Transformers – The newest trailer just got released and it’s ONE WHOLE minute long. Can’t get enough of it!
    • G.I. Joe – Yes, it’s true. Talks are underway to get this movie into production. I’m thinking it has big time potential if the right producer comes along! *hint hint Michael Bay*
    • Others like Starsky & Hutch, Bewitched, Dukes of Hazard, S.W.A.T, etc

    Some new ones I would like to see are:

    • Macross – Bring back Rick Hunter and Skull Leader. Maybe remake it a bit so the graphics are a little better. That show was so many years ahead of it’s time!!! By the way, does anyone else want a motorcycle helmet that looks like the ones the veritech fighter pilots wore?
    • Voltron – If they can make transformers, then they can make Voltron! Imagine how awesome that would be. I think I can actually see Paris Hilton playing the part of the princess! Imagine her Drinking and Flying those Lions! =)
    • Duck Tales – I know this is lame and I’ll get some flak for it, but dammit, I’m a Duck Tales fan and I’m not going to succumb to public scrutiny and/or humiliation! Make it happen Disney!
    • Get Smart – I don’t know who that guy was, but he was hilarious! What was that thing? The Cone of Silence? hahaha!

    I know this post had nothing to do with Internet Marketing . . . wait, actually, I just thought of a spin, so it has EVERYTHING to do with Internet Marketing.

    Just like the moral of the show section they always show after each GI Joe episode – the moral of this most outstanding post is that you need to realize who your market is and then optimize your business/site/yourself to fully take advantage of the time they’ve decided to give. Hollywood has realized that the people around my age are still young and are most likely to have more disposable income to waste on $12 movie tickets, so what they do is they make movies that appeal to my nostalgism (is this a word?) and milk it for all it’s worth.

    Hollywood Marketing 101: Understand your audience, find their weakness and milk their wallets. Simple Supply and Demand.

    Whew . . I’m glad I pulled that out of thin air . . . . and now you know cuz “knowin’s half the battle! . . GO JOE!”

    Do you have any movies you’d like to see made? Can you pull any morals out from this post as well?

     
    • msdanielle 3.46 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      hahaha… looks like we were both feeling nostalgic today!
      today’s moral: when you have nothing to blog about, write about 80s cartoons — everyone can relate to that ;)

    • Wolf Stone 4.03 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      One movie i’d like to see get made is ‘The Justice League’ !!

    • andy 5.19 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      I didn’t know that they were making GI Joe. I can’t wait to see who starts in it.

    • Michael Kwan 7.42 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      Pinky and the Brain.

      There I said it.

    • Saman Sadeghi 8.38 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      Voltron would be sick!!! I would love to see the lions!!

    • sophia 8.39 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      This is mr. gary lee’s sister here … and I can attest to his Duck Tales fanaticism. maybe b/c i was right there next to him watching it too, but nevermind that. boy, did gary love his duck tales. he was definitely not to be bothered during his afternoon cartoons!

    • Gary Lee 9.21 pm on 04.06.2007 Permalink

      thanks for selling me out sister! ;)

    • msdanielle 8.30 pm on 05.06.2007 Permalink

      we’re pinky…pinky and the brain brain brain brain brain………..

    • Tayo 12.50 pm on 06.06.2007 Permalink

      Thank you, now the theme from Ducktales will be in my head all day!

    • Shane 4.04 pm on 06.06.2007 Permalink

      These movies do huge at the box office. They’re already proven sellers. And they bring in the next generation of kids who’ve never seen them before, and all of us “older kids” who grew up watching this stuff.

      You can’t get a wider demographic than you can with nostalgia!

    • Hannes Johnson 5.39 pm on 06.06.2007 Permalink

      I know what you mean – I grew up with Transformers, etc. – and I’m going to see that movie just for the nostalgia :)

      A G.I. Joe movie would be really cool. I liked Duck Tales too – but I’m not sure if there is enough money in that for them to make a movie.

      You’ll be happy to know that Get Smart is actually on the way – it’s in Post-Production according to imdb :) — and no other than Steve Carell will be playing Maxwell Smart. That movie should be hilarious.

      Also, did you hear about the possibilities of making a He-Man movie? They’re talking about Brad Pitt for the part. That could be a cool movie.

    • Saman Sadeghi 5.03 am on 07.06.2007 Permalink

      I think Steve Carell will actually do Maxwell Smart some justice!

    • Ed Kohler 10.53 pm on 08.06.2007 Permalink

      I wonder what shows from today will be turned into movies. 24 seems like an obvious one. But what about Seinfeld or Friends? Less sure of those.

    • ms danielle 12.30 am on 13.06.2007 Permalink

      duck tales was my cousin scotty’s favorite cartoon of all time… i still don’t get it

  • Gary Lee 12.40 pm on 30.05.2007 Permalink  

    Perspective of a Peon 

    I was plucked from Ye Olde World of ignorance by my cousin Mr. Gary Lee and thrown headfirst into the crazy world of internet marketing and SEO. Cousin Gary asked me to guest blog about my new career path, so here I am. Hope you enjoy!

    Prior to this experience, I was pretty much headed down the path of veterinary medicine but after 2 years of doing quite badly and eventually getting sorta kicked out for being a delinquent, I jumped at the chance to hang out more with cousin Gary and learn more about the world he lived in. To be quite honest, my knowledge of the internet was as basic as one could get: my favorite websites were : http://www.people.com, http://www.nytimes.com, my own sad blog at http://www.xanga.com/jnphrly and various other blogs that I would hungrily stalk.

    Things started off pretty rough: page rank? Google spider? Page rank? View source? Html? No follow? Algorithms? The terminology swallowed me whole and for quite a long time, I tentatively paddled through the murky (and often uber geeky) world of internet marketing. I was told to concentrate on backlinking and placed in front of ( one of my new favorite software programs) “Optilink” and slowly but surely, the confusing layers of the SEO-onion began molting off.

    Backlinking is probably one of the best ways to increase natural traffic to your site. Its purpose and intention is to generate a very cushy and supportive web of fellow websites (hopefully high quality/high ranking) that can vouch for your website’s importance and validity. It’s like campaigning for the presidential position except this time, you hold office in the www! After about 3 months, I’m quite proud to say that I can fairly confidently assess the quality of a site based on a few simple rules: content, number of quality backlinks, number of index sites, page rank etc etc. And when people ask me: what the hell is SEO, I can comfortably explain without stuttering and sweating bullets!! ☺ If I can do it, ANYONE can! Promise ☺

    Though I’m still VERY VERY green at this industry, I know enough to realize that I know nothing but the possibility are very endless and that fact gets me uber excited to see what the future holds. So when I learn more, I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

     
    • Derrich 2.20 pm on 30.05.2007 Permalink

      Thanks for sharing, CousinJ. Welcome to the Matrix. :)

    • Wolf Stone 4.07 pm on 30.05.2007 Permalink

      Welcome CousinJ, i totally know what you mean. Being a new blogger…i’m still learning the ropes of SEO, Pagerank etc. I barely know HTML so i find it tough to even modify my blog but i learn something new everyday as i’m sure you’re doing too!

    • Daniel B. Honigman 8.27 am on 31.05.2007 Permalink

      There are also all sorts of viral linking gimmicks that can also do the trick.

    • Gary Lee 10.07 am on 31.05.2007 Permalink

      Thanks for the write-up cousinJ!

    • Ms. Q 2.52 pm on 31.05.2007 Permalink

      Nicely written post and welcome! Are you an ABC like Mr. Gary Lee?

    • Jules 8.33 pm on 31.05.2007 Permalink

      Like the old saying goes…”You’ve come a long way baby.”

    • Jez 2.32 pm on 02.06.2007 Permalink

      Hi Cousin J,

      Cool post, good luck with your new career, I’m sure it will save a lot of animals needless suffering at the hands of a quack haha!

      Jez

    • Saman Sadeghi 7.43 am on 03.06.2007 Permalink

      :lol: Derrich!

      That was a great title for this post!

  • Gary Lee 3.34 pm on 19.04.2007 Permalink  

    Test your Spidey Skills 

    It’s thursday afternoon and I’m completely bored out of my mind at the office. My friend who happens to be the biggest Spiderman Fan on EARTH just sent me a link to a pretty fun Spiderman Flash Game. You basically have to have good timing with your mouse clicks to pass the game. The cool thing is that they animate your whole battle after each phase! I thought you guys might like to take a break from the Fave Train and test out your skills here! Remember, Spiderman 3 comes out on May 4th and I can’t wait considering Spiderman 2 is the best Comicbook adapted movie I’ve ever seen! Yes, I said “EVER!”

    Spiderman 3

     
    • santaram 11.18 pm on 19.04.2007 Permalink

      Hi thanks for adding my blog into technorati favourites

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