I'm Looking for Guest Bloggers

I've decided that the best way for me to keep a steady stream of content added to this blog, is to let others write it for me.

So, I'm looking for articles and tips written by subscribers to my newsletter. I will then post the articles on the blog. PLUS, I'll add them to the article section inside the SBM Marketing Club members area.

This is a great opportunity for you to show off your writing skills, plus create backlinks to your website.

Here's the criteria:

1. Articles must be between 200 and 800 words and cannot contain ANY links in the body of the article. Of course, a resource box will be accepted and any links in your resource box will be made live.

2. Articles can only be on the following topics:

Web 2.0 - this includes blogging, social media, social networking, squidoo, etc.

Article Marketing - includes all aspects of article research, writing, submissions, etc.

Affiliate Marketing - includes all areas of affiliate marketing.

3. Articles must already be free of typographical errors and formatted so that all I'll need to do is copy and paste them.

4. Articles must be original to you. This means that you wrote the article yourself. IF you do use a private label article, it has to have enough editorial changes to make it uniquely your own.

5. If you do not want others to be able to use your articles on their blogs or websites, you MUST specify this in the closing paragraph or copyright section of the article.

To submit an article for consideration, first make sure you're a member of the FREE SBM Marketing Club. Then send the article to contactsbm @ go2sbm.com

I will then contact you and give you an approximate date when it will be published.

When sending your article, PLEASE include "article submission" in the email's subject or it could be deleted.

Sharon McPherson
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Want To Know Who Clicks On Your Twitter Links?

Keeping myself busy working on the SBM Marketing Club has really cut into my time spent on Twitter lately, which unfortunately, has kept me out of the loop on the latest tools and resources that have been released to help make your Twitter experience easier and more profitable.

However, I did just come across a service called TwitClicks that I can see quickly becoming my favorite Twitter resource.

TwitClicks is a free service that enables you to shorten the URL you include in your tweets, but unlike TinyUrl.com and others, this one enables you to collect data on your links that were clicked.

In addition to telling you how many times your link was clicked on, it also includes other data like, the browser the person was using, where they live, where the clicks came from, and most importantly, which Twitter users actually clicked on your link.



Ok, so you may be asking, "Why do I need to know all of this information?"

Here's how Kyle Graham, the creator of TwitClicks, answered that question in a post on the TwitClicks Blog.

"Realizing that Twitter is a great tool for connecting with your blog readers and followers, I created TwitClicks to help people prioritize these efforts. As social media evolves, "information overload" will increase and online business owners will continue to become more and more fragmented in their efforts to succeed.

Wth the dawn of Web 2.0 and user-contributed data, the amount of information on the web literally exploded...way faster than search engines can keep up, so more and more tools like Google Reader, PopUrls.com, and others are starting to arrive to assist in the "filtering" of all this data.

Now that social media has gone main-stream and EVERYONE is now talking about it, it's clear that 2009 will see an even further spike in the amount of information available online which will create an even further demand for tools that help filter this data.

One more example: We all love twitter, but do you ever get a little overwhelmed about all the people talking about their cats, or their 'visit to the doctor'? As a result, some say, 'who care's', or 'twitter sucks, but what they're feeling is really a symptom of the larger issue: And that is, Twitter is great! but it doesn't do such a great job at letting people FILTER their data.

Ok, so back to the question at hand, 'Do I REALLY need to know 'WHO' clicked on my Twitter links?' The answer, in short is...Yes...Yes you do. TwitClicks helps users, particularly online marketers, to better determine WHO to focus their efforts on in their online strategy, whether it's determining who to network with or knowing how to refine their tweets for maximum effect, and the like."


Sharon McPherson
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Affiliate ABCs - Free Podcasts

If you're just getting started with affiliate marketing, make sure to stop by geekcast.fm and listen to the free Affiliate ABCs podcasts with Vinny OHare, a.k.a. NyFalcon and Deb Carney, from Team Loxly.

If you're unfamiliar with Deb and Vinnie, they're both affiliate marketers in the retail market. That's right, they've created affiliate marketing success - OUTSIDE the "make money online" and "informational product" niche.

And you probably won't find it surprising that my favorites of their 6 free Affiliate ABCs podcasts are Getting Started Using Twitter Part 1 and Getting Started Using Twitter Part 2

Sharon McPherson
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Affiliate Income Using FREE Methods

I recently included Affiliate Income Using FREE Methods into the members discount area of the SBM Marketing Club.

Presented in an easy formula so that you can actually follow along, Affiliate Income Using FREE Methods is a total of 30 powerful videos that shows you step-by-step how to set up an entire affiliate marketing campaign which will enable you to start making money online without having to invest a dime.

Please note that the price shown on the salespage is NOT what club members pay. To purchase this product at member discount prices, log-into the SBM Marketing Club and click the "Member Discount" link in the menu.

If you are not yet a SBM Marketing Club member, you can join free here!


Sharon McPherson
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Social Networking and Article Marketing Videos added to the Club

I've just added 2 new products to the members discount area of the SBM Marketing Club.

Social Networking For Newbies

This Step-By-Step Breakthrough Video Series Shows How Any Internet Newbie Can Quickly and Easily Build High Converting Leads For Their Niche By Using Social Networking Sites!


Article Marketing Made Easy

Discover How Easy It Can Be To Launch A Successful Article Marketing Campaign Today! - MRR Included


Please note that the prices shown on the salespages are NOT what club members pay. To purchase these products at member discount prices, log-into the SBM Marketing Club and click the "Member Discount" link in the menu.

If you are not yet a SBM Marketing Club member, you can join free here!


Sharon McPherson
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Free Club for Affiliate, Article & Web2.0 Marketers Launches

I'm happy to announce that the SBM FREE Marketing Club is finally launched!

SBM Marketing Club members receive unlimited access to Article, Affiliate and Web 2.0 marketing tools, resources and information that helps them learn how to effectively build, manage and grow their business.

Here's some of what you'll receive immediate access to with your FREE membership:

• A subscription to my weekly newsletter.
  
  


• Tips, Articles & Affirmations related to starting, building and marketing your online business.
  
  


• Audios, Videos & Reports related to Affiliate, Article and Web 2.0 marketing.
  
  


• PDF Copy of Affiliate Classroom Magazine. (Updated Monthly)
  
  


• Free access to powerful online marketing tools.
  
  


• Free Ebooks & Software. (Updated Weekly)
  
  


• Exclusive Product Discounts available to Members ONLY!

So what are you waiting for? Join the SBM FREE Marketing Club now!


Sharon McPherson
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Joel Comm To Host a 12 Hour Live Ustream Tweet-a-Thon

If you were to ask me which web site is the MUST use site to get free traffic, there can only be ONE answer.

It's not MySpace.
It's not YouTube.
It's not Facebook.
And it's not even Google.

These are all valuable sites, but the one site that should be a part of your traffic strategy in 2009 is...

...Twitter!

I'm going to cut straight to the chase...

If you aren't using Twitter, you are missing out on the greatest opportunity for building relationships with your customers and prospects.

You are missing out on the best free branding tool on the web.

And you are missing out on the BEST site to get gobs of FREE traffic!

There's just no excuse for any business, whether small or large, to not be using Twitter.

So how do you get started?

And once you start, how do you leverage Twitter for your business?

You may have a lot of questions...

.. and there are answers.

Do you know Joel Comm?

A New York Times best-selling author and one of the web's most successful marketers, Joel is a Twitter expert.

Last year, he wrote a 30-page report that has been downloaded thousands of times.

That report caught the eye of a major New York publisher who asked Joel to write the definitive guide on Twitter for business.

The result is his brand new book, Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time!

The book has just become available on Amazon and if you are serious about harnessing the power of social media to get free traffic to your site, you really should get a copy now!

Anyway, Joel's going to be doing something significant for the official launch on Thursday, February 19th. It's a completely new approach to a book launch and may be a model for those who want to do likewise.

On that date, Joel will be conducting a live broadcast Tweet-a-Thon!

The Tweet-a-Thon will be a live Ustream broadcast for 12 hours straight, and he's got an all-star cast of power Twitter users lined up. It's going to be big... VERY big.

I'll be there for as many hours as I can, and I'm hoping you'll join us for lots of fun and FREE training from some of the most respected leaders in Social Media, Marketing, Business and Entertainment, including grammy award winner, MC Hammer - Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay"), CEO of online shoe seller Zappos.com - Wine Library TV's, Gary Vaynerchuk and more!

By the way, if the people I mentioned above use Twitter to build and promote their brands and/or businesses, don't you think you should be too?

Open your free Twitter account here!


Sharon McPherson
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Social Media Profit Coach Explains What Twitter Hashtags # Are & Why You Should Use Them

One of the most frequent questions I see asked by new Twitter users is...

..."what the heck does the # sign mean, and why are so many people using it in their tweets?"

Plain and simple, the # sign, or hashtag as it is commonly referred to on Twitter, is a convenient way to group tweets about a particular topic into one centralized Twitter stream.

For instance, as I'm writing this, one of the more popular hashtags being used on Twitter is, 6nations. So, if you go to http://search.twitter.com and type #6nations into the search box, you'll find all of the messages that were tweeted about Europe's International Rugby Tournament that included that hashtag in the tweet.

The video below by Social Media Profit Coach, Scott Tousignant, walks you through in more detail what a hashtag is, why you should look for trending hashtags, why you should participate in hashtag events, and why you should create your own hashtag event.

After you've watched the video, please use the "post a comment" link below to let me know if you've found this post helpful. Thanks!

Sharon McPherson
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How a Bankrupt Fitness Trainer is Using Social Media to Dominate Affiliate Marketing

When I first started using Twitter 9 months ago, Scott Tousignant, also known as @FatLossQuickie, was among the first users I started following.

My first impression of Scott was that this was a guy who truly demonstrated what the word "social" really means in relation to "social networking".

Apparently Clickbank thinks so too, because in November of 2008 they featured a 3 part series that Scott wrote about how you can promote Clickbank products using Twitter on their blog.

And when Deborah Micek (@CoachDeb), co-creator of Blogi360, and one of the social media experts I most admire, started raving about him, I knew I had made a smart decision when I chose to follow him.

That's why I was happy to learn that Scott recently launched a new training program called, Social Media Profit Coach, where you will discover how you too can use the same strategies he did to harness the power of Web 2.0/Social Media to take his Fitness Training business online, build it to the point where he no longer has to have a brick and mortar business, can operate it from the comfort of his home, set the hours he wants, and enjoy the freedom that his new lifestyle offers.

The strategies that are taught within the Social Media Profit Coach program can be applied to any business in any niche. And you don't need to be an experienced online marketer to begin taking immediate action applying these strategies.

If nothing else, at least go there and download his FREE guide, Fat Loss Riches to discover how Scott cracked the affiliate marketing code to dominate the search engines for every product he promotes.

Sharon McPherson
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Free Affiliate Marketing Video Squeeze Pages

Hi Guys,

I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. I've been busy working on getting things set up to enable you to get your hands on the great things you'll find inside the SBM Marketing Club once it is launched.

But because I don't want you to have to wait too long, I wanted to let you know about a great bonus resource right now!

It's called, Affiliate Power Videos...

When videos began to grow popular on the Internet, the Internet Marketing landscape started to change.

And Affiliate Marketing was not exempt.

The most classic mistake people tend to make in affiliate marketing is not capturing the opt-in leads first before sending their visitors to the merchant's website.

So what smart marketers often do is have their own Squeeze Page for their visitors to opt into their list, BEFORE sending them to the website they are an affiliate for.

This is so the affiliate marketer can build their own opt-in list and do follow-ups later.

On the other hand, a few, but exceptionally smart marketers, have taken this to the next level.

THEY IMPLEMENT VIDEO MARKETING, TOO.

You've probably noticed most top Internet Marketing experts are now using videos on their Squeeze Pages. And smart affiliates are doing the same for their own squeeze pages for one obvious reason:

VIDEOS CAN SKYROCKET YOUR TRAFFIC AND SALES CONVERSIONS!

Unfortunately the problem with video marketing is that you have to know how to create your own videos.

And even if you can make your own videos, what if you learn that the affiliate program doesn't convert well for you after all?

Affiliate Power Videos removes these barriers.

At Affiliate Power Videos, you INSTANTLY get 10 unique, high converting Video Squeeze Pages, PLUS 5 new ones every month.

So all you have to do is:

Step 1: join any or all of the listed affiliate programs (free)

Step 2: Upload the video and squeeze pages to your web host

Step 3: Start driving in traffic, build your opt-in list and rake in affiliate sales!

You might be thinking that this is going to be a costly membership - maybe $97, $197 or even $297 a month.

Well, you're in for a pleasant surprise -- because this one's on the house (read: zero cost)!

Sign up for your FREE Silver membership access now - and I know you could very well have your own string of affiliate video businesses up and running in just a few hours, with or without any technical experience on your part!


Sharon McPherson
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Free Ebook Shows How To Get Free Traffic Using Social Media Sites

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that spending your hard-earned money on advertising and promotion for your business can become a big expense over time. And the truth is, you're probably not getting the results you're wanting. Well, I've found a great and free way to generate more highly targeted visitors to any of my sites using high traffic social media sites! It's all explained in this special report, called: Unlimited Social Traffic In this special report, we reveal how to leverage your marketing efforts using the following sites and methods: Here's what you'll discover: What social media is and how it's being used even in the political arena How to use social media sites as a marketing tool The social media marketing strategy you can follow to get the best results How you can use social media sites as a research tool A critically important thing you must do when networking with others Social media optimization techniques 3 overlooked ways to promote your product using Facebook Why you should start using videos to promote your products What Twitter is, why you should start using it, how it works and how you can use it to make a difference 4 tips on using Myspace to your advantage 3 biggest benefits of using LinkedIn to promote your business How easy it is to start a Squidoo lens and how it can increase the visibility of your website What a podcast is and how anyone can use it to increase their business SPECIAL BONUS #1 You'll also get this special video presentation on 'Social Media Marketing Strategy' as a special bonus: This 3:04 minute video gives some important guidelines to follow when using social media as a marketing tool. SPECIAL BONUS #2 How to Use Twitter This 7:58 minute video contains: An introduction to Twitter Signing up for a Twitter account How to start getting followers How to search for people in your industry How to customize your Twitter account ...More To gain FREE access to the "Unlimited Social Traffic" ebook and bonus videos, simply complete the form found in the column on the right side of this page. You will then receive an email message that you MUST respond to. After your subscription is confirmed you will then be directed to your download. Sharon McPherson Follow @SharonMcP On Twitter If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sylvie Fortin Advises Niche Marketers To 'Dummie Up'

In case you haven't heard, successful and well-known Internet Marketers, Sylvie and Michel Fortin, recently launched a new blog called, Marketers Board.

In their latest post, Sylvie, co-founder of The Licorice Group, a publishing and training company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and online marketers grow their businesses, reveals a virtually unknown resource for finding niche markets using the popular 'Dummies Books' website.

As an affiliate marketer you should always be on the lookout for new resources to help locate the hottest and most profitable niches. Sylvie's video, "How Do I Find Profitable Niche Markets?" will show you how to remove some of the guess work to finding those niches.

Yes, it is free and no, you don't have to give your email address to view the video, but I highly recommend you join their mailing list to receive the latest "Marketing Tips, Rants and Raves From Michel and Sylvie Fortin".


Sharon McPherson
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How I Made Over $300 in 6 Hours Using a CPA Affiliate Network, Squidoo and an Infomercial

Ever notice how circumstances that you originally think are a pain in the butt, can actually turn into an unexpected blessing?

That's exactly what happened to me, when a sleepless night led to me discovering a method that enabled me to make over $300 in 6 Hours using a CPA Affiliate Network, Squidoo and an Infomercial.

While suffering through another bout of frequent insomnia I happened upon a television infomercial that caught my attention because it was advertising a marketing program that I had seen a few days before as a $17 cost per action offer at ROI Rocket.

And that's when the light bulb went off!

Realizing that I could take advantage of the free website traffic the television ads would generate, I immediately implemented the following marketing plan...

1. Research - I needed to be certain that the program I would be promoting was above board, so I did a Google search and checked InfomercialRatings.com to see what folks were saying about it. Satisfied that the company was indeed providing people with what the infomercial claimed they would, I then wrote a short review of the program using the information I had learned from my research.



2. Gathered My Affiliate Link and a few graphics for the program from ROI Rocket.



3. Set Up A Squidoo Lens. Knowing how quickly marketing trends can change I knew I didn't have time to set up a review page on my own website then wait for Google to index it, and not wanting to spend money on an Adsense campaign, I decided to use Squidoo to build my review page after reading that lenses there get indexed by the search engines rather quickly.

Then I went to bed - anxiously anticipating what type of results my little experiment would render.

Imagine my surprise when the next morning I had not only earned over $300 in affiliate commissions, but my Squidoo Lens was ranked #1 on Google for my chosen keywords - which I made sure were included in the title and url of my lens.

And although I did make some commissions out-of-the-blue, I could always tell when there had been another airing of the infomercial because commissions would spike dramatically for a few hours then trail off. The people who were visiting my lens and clicking through my affiliate link were not spending any money, yet I made $17 a pop each time they filled out a form to get free information.

This trend continued for approximately 5 months until the infomercials stopped airing and the company removed the offer from ROI Rocket. I then simply deleted the lens.

Now I'm not going to promise you that you'll make the same money I did, or that your lens will get indexed by Google in under 6 hours, but if you'd like to try this marketing method, here's the steps to take.

1. Check out the latest infomercials and read what people are saying about them at InfomercialRatings.com



2. Sign up for a free affiliate account at ROI Rocket. Search for cost per action or pay per lead offers that are either an exact match or comparable to the infomercial product you have chosen to promote.



3. Open a free account at Squidoo and build a lens for the program you have chosen making sure to use a keyword-rich title and url for the lens. If you're unfamiliar with what Squidoo is or building a lens, I suggest you check out Social Networking on Squidoo written by Squidoo expert, Tiffany Dow.

If you decide to try this for yourself I'd love to know what your results are. You can enter them in the comment box found below.

Resources mentioned in this post:
ROI Rocket
Squidoo
InfomercialRatings.com
Social Networking on Squidoo


Sharon McPherson
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4 Twitter Tools I Can't Live Without

If you're a serious Twitter user like I am, I don't need to tell you that keeping up with tweets, replies (@) and direct messages can sometimes be overwhelming. Throw in trying to manage your followers and those that you follow and you may wonder if you took on a full-time job when you joined Twitter.

In the 8 months I've been tweeting, I've seen dozens of new tools and resources created to help make your Twitter experience easier and more enjoyable. The 4 listed below are those that I use on an almost daily basis.

1. TwitterMail - Enables you to send Twitter updates from your email client. Will also send you a daily email in digest form of all @ replies sent to you.


2. My Tweeple - Lists your Twitter followers and the people you are following in alphabetical order. You can follow, unfollow, block - or ding bots and spammers all from one site.
   
   


3. Twhirl - A pc desktop application that lets you read and send tweets, replies and DMs (direct messages) from one central location on your desktop. Also gives you the ability to automatically send retweets, favor tweets, follow and unfollow.
   
   


4. Twitrefresh - On those rare occasions I'm twittering from someone else's computer I turn to Twitrefresh, a web-based application that automatically refreshes your Twitter homepage every 60 seconds.

I'm interested in what you think of those I've listed, and if you have a favorite Twitter tool or resource you just can't live without please share it using the comments link found below.


Sharon McPherson
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