A. Basic Principles - what's your marketing mix?
Before you begin the online marketing process, have you analyzed your organization and its environment using some standard analysis technique, such as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)?

1. Producer

Does your page convey clearly the benefits of your organization for donors and clientele? Should a mission statement or statement of purpose(s) be on your Webpage?

2. Purchasers

Do you need a special page or special features on your site for ethnic or foreign language groups? How about special community groups? How about the elderly? Is your page accessible to the disabled? (See section on accessibility below.)

3. Product

Which of your existing products or services should be featured on your page? Which cannot be delivered in whole or in part via your page?

4. Price

How much can your organization afford for the Web site? Consider site design and maintenance, as well as Web server costs.

5. Place

What new products or services are made possible for the first time by your page? Could any of your clients use your information 24 hours/7 days per week, even when your offices are closed?

6. Promotion

How does your message have to be adapted to the Web environment? Is the Web the best or only place to send this message to this client group? You still need newsletters, press releases, direct-mail pieces, telephone, fax, and personal contacts. Is your Web address on all your promotional pieces, business cards, and stationery?

7. Probing

Is someone in your organization answering, noting, and analyzing email and telephone messages received from Web site contacts? Instant market research! (More under responsiveness, below.)

[Based on: Fine, Seymour H. Marketing the Public Sector: Promoting the Causes of Public and Nonprofit Agencies. Transaction, 1992. (DANA HF 5415.122 .F56)]



For further reading, consult:

* Coyote Communications Technology Tip Sheets from Jayne Cravens, a web designer and consultant to nonprofit organizations [http://www.coyotecom.com/tips.html]
* 12 Web Page Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make [http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/12design.htm]
* How to Attract Visitors to Your Website [http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/attract.htm]



Some useful books are:

* Hofacker, Charles. Internet Marketing. 2nd ed. Digital Springs, 1999. This is a textbook with resources on its own Website. [http://education.smartpros.com/internetmarketing/] *UPDATED*
* Johnston, Michael. Fund Raiser's Guide to the Internet. John Wiley, 1998. Contains ideas that are applicable to all non-profits. (KLMR HV 41.2 .J64)
* Kotler, Philip. Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets. Free Press, 1999. Of particular interest: Chapter 6, "Designing the Marketing Mix;" and Chapter 11, "Adapting to the New Age of Electronic Marketing." (DANA, KLMR HF 5415.13 .K638)
* Kotler, Neil, and Philip Kotler. Museum Strategy and Marketing: Designing Missions, Building Audiences, Generating Revenue and Resources. Jossey-Bass, 1998. Chapter 8, "Distributing the Museum's Offerings and Services," discusses the role of the Internet. (DANA AM 5 .K68)
* Levinson, Jay Conrad, and Charles Rubin. Guerrilla Marketing Online: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Earning Profits on the Internet. Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Includes 100 marketing "weapons." (KLMR HF 5415.125 .L48)
* Ramacitti, David F. Do-it-yourself Marketing. AMACOM, 1994. Very readable, with good guidance for the basics of marketing. (DANA, KLMR HF 5415 .R268)
* Sterne, Jim. World Wide Web Marketing: Integrating the Internet into Your Marketing Strategy. John Wiley, 1995. Lots of useful ideas here; the second edition (1999) replaces the word "Internet" in the sub-title with "Web." (CAMDN, DANA, KLMR HF 5415.1265 .S762)
* Zeff, Robbin. Nonprofit Guide to the Internet. John Wiley, 1996. A little dated but a good summary of the basics can be found in Chapter 7, "Making it Happen-Establishing Your Presence on the World Wide Web." (DANA, KLMR HD 62.6 .Z43)

Many more may be found on Tenagra's listing of Books that focus on Internet Marketing, Advertising, and Business Use. [http://marketing.tenagra.com/bookdesc.html]
B. Extending Your Reach - who's your target?
1. Directory Listing

You can usually be added to a business directory for free. Here are several Web directories of organizations; more may be found on the Company Research Guide. [http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/company.shtml]

* ASAE Gateway to Associations (Trade Associations) [http://info.asaenet.org/gateway/OnlineAssocSlist.html]
* AllBusiness [http://www.allbusiness.com] *UPDATED*
* America's Charities [http://www.charities.org/searchx/index.html]
* Christianity Online Church Locator [http://www.christianityonline.com/churchlocator/]
* GuideStar (clearinghouse of information on nonprofit organizations) [http://www.guidestar.org]
* Idealist (global clearinghouse of nonprofit resources) [http://www.idealist.org/ip/orgSearch?MODULE=ORG] *UPDATED*
* njserves.org (covers the New Jersey civic sector) [http://njserves.org]

Many other lists may be found on Philanthropy Links: Meta-Index of Nonprofit Sites [http://pnnonline.org/links_metaindex.cfm]

2. Meta-tags and Search Engines

What are meta tags? Keywords and descriptive terms that identify your Website, used by search engines to index Web pages. Below are the meta tags for this page: <head> <title>Internet Marketing</title> <meta name="description" content="Promoting your organization on the Internet"> <meta name="keywords" content="marketing, promotion, ecommerce"> <meta name="author" content="Ka-Neng Au, Roberta Tipton"> </head>

To get a quick idea of whether your site has been indexed and where it ranks on ten different search engine sites, use PositionAgent, which is free but e-mail registration is required. [http://www.positionagent.com]

Many search engines also offer free registration of your Website. Here are a few sites which will register your Website for free with multiple search engines; many, many more may be found at Go Net-Wide. [http://www.gonetwide.com/gopublic.html]

* BigSubmit (20) [http://bigsubmit.com/freesub/]
* Submit In An Instant (10) [http://www.submit-in-an-instant.com]
* Web Site Garage (12) [http://register-it.netscape.com]

You could also do the registration yourself, with some software from SubmitURL.com. [http://www.submiturl.com/demodownload.htm]

If you want to spend some money, you could download WebPosition Gold, software designed to help you with meta-tags; or read a copy of The UnFair Advantage Book On Winning The Search Engine Wars. [http://www.webposition.com and http://www.searchenginehelp.com/submiturl/]
3. Link Exchanges

You can sign up with other related Websites so that the group as a whole can promote the sites associated with it. Check out:

* LinkExchange Surf Point [http://www.surfpoint.com/Non_Profit_Resource_Org]
* RingSurf [http://www.ringsurf.com]
* The Rail [http://www.therail.com]
* WebRing [http://dir.webring.yahoo.com/rw] *UPDATED*

And then there's Banner Exchanges:
* Banner Network [http://www.bcentral.com/services/bn/default.asp] *UPDATED*
* SmartClicks [http://www.smartage.com/promote/smartclicks/index2.html?]

4. URL Redirection

Should you have a long or less-than-memorable URL, there are a couple of ways to help your users find you. First, you can register a URL that will redirect your visitors to the actual location. For this approach, look at the Institute of Jazz Studies Webpage [http://welcome.to/IJS/] with a short URL from V3 Redirect Services. [http://www.v3.com]

You can also register Keywords which will allow Microsoft Internet Explorer users to reach your Website without knowing your actual URL. This is a fee-based service from RealNames. [http://www.realnames.com]
5. Domain-name Registration

One site that offers "free" registration for one year is NameDemo.com [http://www.namedemo.com]

Also, you can now register a new domain name with more characters than before - 63 characters instead of just 26 - and you might want to consider registering your domain name in other countries or TLD's.

* 000Domains.com (cheapest around) [http://www.000domains.com]
* Long Domain Registration [http://www.longdomainregistration.net]
* Network Solutions (the ultimate registrar, covering over 50 countries) [http://www.networksolutions.com]
* Register.com (23 other countries) [http://www.register.com]

C. Making Your Website Sticky - why should anyone return?
1. Value-added Information

Content is king. If there is no useful information on your site, no one will return, not for all the bells and whistles (or spinning globes and flashing lights). But some basic content is often forgotten in the midst of annual reports and project descriptions.

* Contact info: address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, perhaps even names of individuals.
* Page updates: indicate when the content was first created or when something has changed.
* Privacy statement: assure your visitors that any information collected will be held in strictest confidence. A website privacy policy should include the following elements: [http://www.privacy-policy.com]
1. Notice: Is there a privacy policy posted on the site ?
2. Choice: Can you control how your information is used ?
3. Access: Can you see your own information ?
4. Security: Is there any assurance of security ?

2. Navigation and Layout

Start with an thoughful essay on Website usability from webreview.com. [http://www.webreview.com/2000/03_10/strategists/03_10_00_3.shtml] *UPDATED*Then, consider that an online user has to rely on visual clues to provide context and direction. Websites should incorporate one or more navigation tools such as:

* Menu bar
* Table of contents
* Site index
* Site map
* "Home" button

Design elements to avoid:

* Frames
* Image maps
* Overuse of fonts
* Overuse of color

For more tips, follow the Spotlight on Navigation Design from CNET Builder.com as well as Jakob Nielsen's useit.com Website. [http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/pages/Graphics/NavSpotlight/] *UPDATED* and [http://www.useit.com]

3. Accessibility

The U.S. Government is requiring that all Federal Agencies developing electronic products abide by Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act Of 1998, which calls for comparable (not equal) access to information and data by all users. Even without this directive, it is recommended that your Webpages be accessible to the visually impaired, and you can start with some Quick Tips from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. [http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips/]

* Universal Design for the Internet (Internet Society) [http://www.isoc.org/briefings/002/] *NEW*
* Web Page Accessibility Checklist (U.S. Justice Department) [http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/web2.htm]
* Bobby (Center for Applied Special Technology) [http://www.cast.org/bobby/]
* lynx (a text-based Web browser) [http://lynx.browser.org]

4. Responsiveness

If you invite your visitors to send you e-mail, be sure to reply promptly. It is very annoying to receive no answer, so assign someone to handle e-mail (just as you would handle phone calls).
To reach a new audience, you could use targeted e-mail lists, which are garnering an average response rate between 20% and 30% (compared to the 1% to 2% rate with the use of banner ads):

* DigitalWork.com [http://www.digitalwork.com/onlinead/directemail/learn/]
* Direct Media [http://www.directmedia.com]
* NetCreations [http://www.netcreations.com]
* PermissionDIRECT.com [http://www.permissiondirect.com]
* United Marketing Group [http://www.united-marketinggroup.com/optin.html]

* Instant Marketing discusses some new services for Internet marketers. [http://www.informationweek.com/746/mkt.htm]

Your organization can develop an online community through the use of forums or discussion groups, from simple e-mail to multimedia interaction.

* CoolBoard [http://www.coolboard.com]
* ListBot [http://www.listbot.com]
* WebCrossing [http://www.webcrossing.com]
* WebEx.com [http://www.webex.com]

5. Affiliate Marketing

A percentage (from 2% to 25%) of purchases made at selected online merchants will go to your non-profit organization or school. Register at one of the following:

* 4charity.com [http://www.4charity.com]
* CharityMall [http://www.charitymall.com]
* iGive [http://www.igive.com] *NEW*
* Non-Profit Shopping Mall [http://www.npsmall.com] *NEW*
* ShopForChange [http://www.shopforchange.com] *NEW*

* Electronic Scrip Incorporated [http://www.escripinc.com]
* SchoolCash.com [http://www.schoolcash.com]
* Schoolpop [http://www.schoolpop.com]

D. Other Resources

* Electronic Commerce Research Guide [http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/ecomm.shtml]
* Market Position (Monthly newsletter with tips on URL submission) [http://www.webposition.com/newsletters.htm]
* Web Marketing Information Center [http://www.webmarketingtoday.com/webmarket/]

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If you’re a Twitter member, these are the kinds of updates you might see when you login to your account.

Ahhh yes, good ole’ Twitter — the official place to spy on people you know (or don’t know) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ;)

So what’s all the hype surrounding this free application and what does it have to do with promoting your Internet business online?
What The… ???

I’ll be honest. When I first heard about Twitter I thought it was the dumbest thing ever. :)

However, I became more intrigued a little later when I saw other Webmasters and Bloggers talking about how they use it to promote their sites and blogs.

So if you are wondering about Twitter and how it can benefit your business, here’s a video demonstrating how it works and how you can use it।

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Dear Friend,

If you are looking for a system, developed by millionaires, and proven to generate at least $354.97 per day from home, this may very well be the most important letter you will ever read!

Today's economic turmoil has caused every man and woman to take a hard look at the security of your income. Thousands are losing their jobs every single day. I personally won't stand for this anymore.

It's time someone stood up and said "No, there is a better way!"

That being said, let me tell you a quick story about this club that I've created for you...

My name is Mack Michaels, and let me tell you, I used to work hard. Really hard... like millions of other Americans... while hardly getting by, living paycheck to paycheck.

I always wanted to live the "American Dream" but no matter what job I had, I could never get anywhere close to making enough money to live the life I have always wanted.

From fast food to a Fortune 500 company, I tried everything to secure my families financial future.

No matter what I did, my bank balance was always close to zero at the end of the month and, my credit card debt kept piling up. I hated my jobs, my bosses, the debt, and most of all...

I hated not being able to provide my family the life I wanted to give them.

Then, when I thought things can't get any worse, they did...

I remember the exact day. It was December 7th (my birthday) and I'd been laid off from the only job I had. Christmas was fast approaching and I planned on buying my wife a very special Christmas gift (the kind that shines in the light and could only be worn on her ears).

But all of a sudden, there was no way I could afford that gift. Forgot presents, I didn't even know how I was going to afford putting a roof over our head and food on the table after my last paycheck was spent.

I felt like the world was crashing down on me, I had to do something fast, very fast, before my family and I were out on the street. I needed another way to make money immediately. And as I was thinking about it, I asked myself: Before I make any moves that will tie me into another job I'll just end up hating, why don't I consider what it is I want, and more importantly, what I don't want in a job?

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At 10:15 pm I discovered that I had not brought a Macbook power supply on the trip. I was in a hotel on Coronado Island, and early the next morning I was flying to an aircraft carrier off San Diego for an overnight visit. I doubted that the carrier had Macbook power supplies laying around, so I was in trouble. I posted a message to Twitter that I was in this predicament, and within ten minutes, five people offered to bring me a power supply. I took one of them up on the offer, and he delivered it to me within an hour.

This illustrates the practical implications of a large following on Twitter. In addition, of course, there is the sheer vanity of amassing more followers than your friends. The question, “How do I get more followers on Twitter?” is unspoken because admitting that you want more followers is to acknowledge that you don’t have many. Thus, you probably don’t need this advice, but you may “have a friend” who will find it useful.

Tip 1: Follow the “smores (social media whores*).” They are the folks with large number of followers and seem to be the opinion leaders (and perhaps even “heros”) of Twitter. You can get a good idea of who they are by viewing Twitterati.alltop, TwitterCounter, and Egos.alltop. There are three reasons to follow them: first, many have scripts that will auto follow you; second, you might learn something from watching what they tweet about; third, when people look at your profile to see who you follow, you want to appear that you have a clue. (*originally coined by @worleygirl who passed it to @pauladrum who passed it to me)

Tip 2: Send @ messages to the smores. They probably won’t answer you, but that’s okay. All you want to do is appear like you have a relationship with them to enhance your credibility. The theory is, “If she is tweeting with @scobleizeer, she must be worth following.” Bull shiitake logic, admittedly, but it helps. To bastardize what a famous PR person once told me, “It’s not who you know. It’s who appears to know you.”

Tip 3: Create an effective avatar. Your avatar is a window into your soul, so you need to create one that doesn’t look like you shot it with a camera phone while you were drunk. In most cases, use a simple, informal straight-up photo of just your face—not you and your dog, car, kids, or surfboard. Increase the exposure to brighter than you think it should be. Fix the red-eye. Crop the photo because Twitter is going to display it as a postage-stamp size image. If you can’t fix up your photo, send it to Fixmyphotos. Upload a large version of it (approximately 500 x 500 pixels) and let Twitter scale it down, so that when people zoom on your photo, they can see your gorgeousness and not an ugly pixelated image.


If you have access to cool image tools, then create an avatar that raises the question, “How did he do that?” (That’s the category I think my current avatar is in.) If you represent a company, then use its logo—but this is boring (sorry, Tony). Avatars with cleavage may help you get followers that you wouldn’t want, but that’s your call. Bottom line: When people view a stream of tweets, your avatar (and therefore your tweet) should stand out.

Tip 4: Follow everyone who follows you. When I first started on Twitter, Robert Scoble told me to follow everyone who followed me. “But why, Robert, would I follow everyone like that?” The answer is that it’s courteous to do so and because when you do, some people will respond to you and eveyone who follows them will see this—which is more exposure for you.

Having said this, when you get to more than fifty or so followers, it’s impossible to read what all your followers tweet. At that point, you have to focus on direct private messages (“Ds”) and direct public messages (“@s””).

Tip 5: Always be linking. The fact that your cat rolled over or your flight is delayed isn’t interesting, so get outside of your mundanity and link to interesting stories and pictures—you should think of yourself as a one-person StumbleUpon. The Twitter pickup artist’s mantra is ABL (“Always Be Linking”).

Fortunately, you don’t have to find these sites by yourself because there are companies and communities who are dedicated to this task. Here are my best sources.

StumbleUpon. People in the StumbleUpon community mark sites that they find interesting. You can install the StumbleUpon button by clicking here and go from site to site; you can visit the StumbleUpon recently popular websites list; or you can add this feed to your feed reader. Sample picture.

Alltop. If you’ve ever seen me post ten tweets in a row with links to (what I consider) interesting sites, it’s because I’m parked in front of these four Alltop sites: Psychology.alltop, Science.alltop, Lifehacks.alltop, and SocialMedia.alltop. At any of these sites you can scan hundreds of stories at a time and pick off the ones that will attact followers. (Disclosure: I am co-founder of the site).

CNN. CNN is hard to beat for up-to-the minute news. You’ll be competing with CNN’s own tweets which has 52,000 followers as of today, but still leaves you about five million other Twitter users to attract. Seriously, you can attract followers just by cherrypicking the best of CNN stores. To do this, you need immediate notification of breaking news, and CNN’s email alerts are as good as it gets. Click here to sign up. This is its recent stories RSS feed, but email notification is faster and therefore better for the purpose of attracting followers. Sample: “Monks Brawl Before Religious Holiday.”

New York Times. Like CNN, the New York Times is a lovely source for links because it provides both up-to-the minute news as well as carefully crafted, intellectual stories. This is its home page RSS feed. You can also pick from a bunch of feeds here. You and your readers do have to register, but it’s worth it— perhaps the only site that is worth registering for on the Internet. Sample: “A Political Manners Manual.”

Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed is a also a community of people looking for interesting stuff. You can visit its home page to find stuff or subscribe to its RSS feed. Samples: “Lunch Bag Art” and “Young People Love Obama.”

Truemors. This is the much criticized site that I started a while ago. I’ve subsequently sold the site to NowPublic. Like it or not, the stories at Truemors are carefully selected and highly edited. The woman behind Truemors, Annie Colbert, is an extremely good writer and editor. Its feed is here. Sample: “Facebook Tops BBC in UK Traffic.”

Newswise. Newswise is “a trusted resource for knowledge-based news, embargoed research results, and expert contacts from the world’s leading research institutions: universities, colleges, laboratories, professional organizations, governmental agencies, and private research groups active in the fields of medicine, science, business, and the humanities.” Holy kaw! In other words, it features hardcore science. Some stories are embargoed and you have to register to prove you’re a journalist for them, but even the stuff that’s not embargoed is very good. Its RSS feed is here. Sample: “New Generator Produces AC Current by Stretching Wires.”

ZDNet. If you want to push out info-tech links for nerds and geeks, it’s hard to beat ZDNet. Just about every day there’s some story that will interest the 95% of the world that uses Windows. ZDNet pushes out email notification here, and its RSS feed is here. Sample: “In Depth Look at Windows 7.”

Digg. Many people think that Digg is a good place to find stuff that approximately 100 forty-year old men living with their parents find interesting. I don’t use it very often because that’s not who I’m trying to pick up, but you can find many few gems there. Its main RSS feed is here, and you can find specialized feeds here. Sample: “Gears of War 2 sells 2.1 million copies on day 1.”

Kirtsy. Kirtsy on the other hand is “Digg for chicks.” It’s a social networking site where women post and rate stories. The stories here range from mommy/homey stuff to “Liz Hurley’s Boobs: They’re Real and They’re Fantastic” (I’m not making this up). Its links are particularly effective to attract female followers and sensitive men (oxymoron?). Its RSS feed is here. Sample: “5 Jobs You Wanted as a Kid (And Why They Suck).”

Techmeme. Techmeme makes no bones about it: it uses technology to find the hottest tech stories. It’s a community of one: Gabe Rivera, and he’s a good guy. Where ZDNet usually contains ITish stories, Techmeme casts a bigger net for anything tech. Its feed is here. Sample: “Google CEO on Obama Tech Czar Job: No Thanks”.

Bonus: Rewrite the headline. Here’s a power tip for you. The most powerful way to start a headline on Twitter is with the words such as ”How to… ” and “Why… ,” so don’t hesitate to blow out the existing headline and rewrite it to make it more interesting and relevant to the kind of followers you seek.

Double Bonus: Scan Goodtweet.alltop. To make it easier for you to scan the best sites for interesting links, we created Goodtweet.alltop. It aggregates the the feeds mentioned above plus my favorites from the various Alltop sites to make life even easier for you.

Tip 6: Establish yourself as a subject expert. One thing is for sure about Twitter: there are some people interested in every subject and every side of every subject. By establishing yourself as a subject expert, you will make yourself interesting to some subset of people.

Step 1 is to actually be an expert—but that’s beyond the scope of this posting. Step 2 is to find tweets that you can supplement (I explain how to find these tweets below in the TweetDeck and Twellow sections in Tip 8). Example 1: you’re an expert on Macintosh. Search for “Macintosh” and answer people’s questions. Example 2: you’re an expert in public speaking. Search for “Powerpoint,” “keynote,” and “speech” to add value to tweets. People are likely to not only follow you, but also retweet your posts and therefore give you additional exposure.

And if/when you are an expert, don’t be afraid to express your opinion. It’s better that some people follow you and some people refuse to follow you than no one knows who you are at all. There are so many people on Twitter that some are likely to agree with you.

Tip 7: Incorporate pictures and other media. Who can resist a tweet such as “Picture of my new puppy”? Nobody, that’s who. And your topic doesn’t have to be anything as sweet as a puppy. I’ve tweeted pictures of shower heads from Microsoft in the Singapore Airlines lounge, the world’s longest toilet flush, and two sacred cows in Mumbai to get followers, so I know multimedia works. The key is the tweet leading to the picture. Stuff like ““If Microsoft made shower heads,” “World’s longest toilet flush,” and “two sacred kaws/cows” works. (See reference to Posterous below to see how I post pictures and video.)

Tip 8: Use the right tools. At the end of the day, you either have many followers or you don’t. A good effort doesn’t count, so you might as well use the right tools to make picking up followers as easy as possible. Here’s what I use:

SocialToo. SocialToo provides a service that automatically follows everyone that you do. It also enables you to send them a nice welcome message. If you heed my advice to follow everyone who follows you, it’s indispensable. It can also inform you when someone has stopped following you too.

Adjix. This is a Firefox button that you install by dragging onto your toolbar. You click on the button, and it grabs the link of the page and creates a tweet while it displays a thumbnail of the page you’re tweeting. You can see how many people clicked on the link from an administration area. I create almost all my tweets that contain links this way.Finally, you can make money by allowing ads in your links.

TweetDeck. TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that front ends Twitter. You can open multiple panes on it with specialized purposes like displaying your direct messages and custom searches. These custom searches enable you to create a “dashboard” to Twitter.


TweetDeck is what I use for custom searches. I have a pane with this custom search (brackets not included): [Guykawasaki OR Alltop OR “Guy Kawasaki” -Alltop.com]. This finds all instances where people mention “Guykawasaki” as well as my own tweets because they are from “@guykawasaki” and “Alltop” plus it removes all tweets with “Alltop.com” (Notice that there’s a minus sign before “Alltop.com” and you must capitalize the “OR”.). I remove tweets containing “Alltop.com” because hundreds of people evangelize Alltop news posts by using this Twitterfeed (see below).

You can also do custom searches like this at the Twitter site by clicking here, but the TweetDeck interface is much prettier.

Twellow. Twellow is a site that categorizes people according to their interests by monitoring their public messages. Its categories include accounting, advertising, marketing, real estate, and science. You can use it to find people who are interested in the same topics you are. Here is an example of the people in the beer category (Courtesy of @ducttape).

Twittelator Pro. This can provide the same custom search results as TweetDeck, so I use it whenever I’m not on my MacBook.


Posterous. Don’t click on the link. Instead, send an email to post@posterous.com with a photo, video, or audio clip attached. Posterous will create a blog for you and post the photo, video, or audio. You can even include the HTML embed snippet from video sites like YouTube, and Posterous will embed the player. Your subject line becomes the headline of the posting, and the body of the email becomes the posting itself. Then set your Posterous blog to automatically post to your Twitter account, and voila!, you have pictures, video, and audio in your tweets. This is how I tweeted the showerhead picture from the Singapore Airlines lounge. The Posterous FAQ explains it all. An alternative for posting pictures is TwitPic. It is also quite easy to use to tweet pictures, and it is integrated with TweetDeck.

Twitterfeed. This website enables you to automatically post RSS feeds as tweets. I use it, for example, to automatically post all Truemors posts as if they were tweets from me. When you really trust a site’s feeds, I recommend that you incorporate Twitterfeed to reduce the burden of manually finding good content.

Tip 9: Repeat your tweets. Try this experiment: take your most interesting tweets (as measured by how many people retweet them, perhaps) and post them again three times, eight to twelve hours apart. I used to think that people would complain about repeating tweets, but I’ve never had a complaint. My theory is that the volume of tweets is so high and most people check in at about the same time every day, so people don’t notice repeat tweets.

Tip 10: Ask people to follow. That’s right just come right out and ask them to follow you. For example, I’m here if you want to follow me.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There you have it: just about everything I know and do to attract followers. If you have more ideas, please add them to the comments for this blog, and I’ll add them to my list. I look forward to watching you blow by me in the number of followers! Just remember: “Always be linking.”

For more news and information about Twitter, you can also visit Twitter.alltop.

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Testing new pst to see if Tritter butt works

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Top 10 Ways to Earn Money Online Using MyLot

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Tutorial online money

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