What Are The Reasons People Use The Internet? If You Don’t Know, Now You Do!
Take a look at this chart from an iprospect study on social networking behavior. Further proof that people come to the Internet for two main reasons… Pleasure & Problems! Take a look at the two biggest results below. One is for product research (solving a problem), and the other for entertainment (pleasure). I’m going to keep stressing this over and over until it’s branded into your brain. What do you do to solve problems for your customers, or to... Read More »
Win Jim Kukral’s Domain Name Contest: NicheROI.com
Take my domain names, please. I own about 150 or so domain names, most of which I don’t or ever will use. But I keep buying them as I “hope” to one day make them a good home. So why not give them away to someone with a good idea who can use them? Here’s the deal. Every once in a while I’m going to give away one of my domain names to one of my readers who can come up with the best business model or website idea for that domain name. No, you don’t... Read More »
I Care About Your Success, Get Rich Quick Guys Don’t
The other day I wrote It’s True… I’ve Made Over $500,000 From Blogging. The truth is, I wrote that piece a long time ago and never published it. Why? Because I was worried of how people would perceive it. I was worried that people would think I was lying. I was worried that people would think I was boasting. I was worried that I would look like an a-hole “money making follow me and get rich quick scammer’. I was worried it would hurt my... Read More »
Shareasale Star Thingy Vs. MacGyver? No Contest!
As Shawn mentions, Shareasale is running a contest where they try to get their affiliates and merchants to submit videos explaining the purpose of their “ShareASale Star Thingys”. Those “thingys” are yellow spongey stars that they gave out at the last Affiliate Summit event. Great idea Brian and company. So I had to participate in my own way. But this is NOT my entry, rather, an introduction to my entry. Or view it at Youtube direct. Here’s... Read More »
How Do I Become A Super Affiliate?
I get this ALL the time from new online marketers. “Jim, do these super affiliate guys who sell ebooks really make all the money they claim or are they just full of you know what?” And every time I get that question, I have the same answer. Yes, some do make all that money, and no, some are not full of you know what. The trick is figuring out which is which. Jeremy Palmer is one of those “real” guys you should listen to. But he wasn’t always... Read More »
What Is Social Search & Why Does It Matter?
Searchengineland nails “what is social search” with a piece today entitled ‘The Impending Social Search Inflection Point‘. This is probably the best piece on this topic I have read yet. A bit technical and high-level, yet still very readable for the masses. I admit I had to read it twice, heh. A few highlights I pulled out below. According to Jupiter, 41.2 percent of users report that general search results are often not directly relevant to queries,... Read More »
Links For Monday, April 2nd, 2007
http://www.siteforthecure.com/ The Site for the Cure is a site which allows anyone participating in any charity event such as a walk, race, run or ride for charity to talk about what they are doing and why they are doing it, to talk about the event, and to link to their own sponsor page in order to raise sponsorship funds. The Site for the Cure allows people to search by name, location, cause, and event for people to sponsor. Reflecting on Business as a New Chapter Begins Inspirational... Read More »
How To Sell A $100,000 Sponsorship For Your Blog
Joel Cheesman is a blogger in a niche of career/recruiting. Early in 2007 Joel sold a one-year sponsorship for his award-winning blog, Cheezhead.com, to Jobcentral.com for $100k. I recently interviewed Joel via email to find out how he did it, and how you can do it to. Jim Kukral: Was it your idea to sell your entire blog or did the sponsor suggest it? Joel: Mine. Jim’s Analysis: It just goes to show that success comes to those who ask for it. Decide what you want,... Read More »
I Just Resigned From ReveNews
I just posted my farewell post over at ReveNews. Today was my last day as Publisher. My first blog entry at ReveNews was on March 1, 2005. Three months later in June 2005 I was officially handed the keys to the ReveNews community car. And I drove it pretty hard that first year. In fact, I don’t think I slept much behind the wheel that first year. So here we are 3-months into 2007 and I am announcing that I’m officially handing the keys to ReveNews back to Wayne... Read More »
Online Success Lessons From ZEfrank
ZE’s gone, but not forgotten. Well at least “The Show” is over, and yeah, ZE’s still around in spirit, that’s apparant by reading one of his post “the show” interviews over at Slate.com. This piece is for anyone who wishes to learn how to be a successful online, in any capacity. Why? Because if you read it, you’ll learn just how accidental this type of stuff can be at first. Ze Frank tasted Internet stardom early. In 2001, he... Read More »
New BUMPzee Community Launched Today: How To Be Successful Online
You all know how much I love BUMPzee! Well, I love it even more now that I was chosen as one of the select few to manage my very own community while it’s still in beta. So what community did I make? Introducing the ‘How To Be Successful Online’ BUMPzee Community Bookmark this: http://www.bumpzee.com/onlinesuccess/ What is the community all about? The How To Be Successful Online community is for anyone who is interested in learning how to be successful on... Read More »
The Wrong Question: Will Adsense Die When Google CPA Takes Over?
I’m actually surprised that this came so late. I fully expected this discussion to start in the blogosphere and on forums the day Google announced their entrance into the CPA market. But, it’s here now, and people are talking about it. Will Adsense Die When Google CPA Takes Over? I don’t know. Again, I’m a marketing and branding guy. I’m not good at answering questions about billion-dollar business models and whether or not they have legs. Guys... Read More »
Online Video Click-Through Rates Vs. Traditional Banner Ads, It Ain’t Pretty
Interesting news piece over at my old stomping grounds clickZ.com today. Entitled ‘Online Video Ads Leave GIFs and JPGs Standing Still, Says DoubleClick’. The entire piece can be summarzied into this paragraph. People are about twice as likely to play a video, or replay one that started automatically, than they are to click through standard JPG or GIF image ads. Video far outdistances plain image ads when it comes to the coveted click-through rate, said DoubleClick.... Read More »
Will Google Try To Own Affiliate Marketing Like Everything Else?
As I walking up to do my speech on blogging at the last Affiliate Summit event in Vegas, a gentleman got out of his chair and stopped me to say hello. He introduced himself as a product manager from Google, gave me his card, and told me he was looking forward to hearing this presentation in particular. How’s that for pressure? Turns out, we communicated after the show and he agreed with my ideas and like my presentation. Looking back at the moment, and seeing all the... Read More »
Online Conversations & Business Blogging Insights From The Void
Hugh from Gapingvoid.com summarizes a talk he gave to the fabled PR agency Edelman. These 16 learning points pretty much sum up all intelligent thought on business blogging, online conversations and more. Do yourself a favor, click here, go read it and thank me later. My favorite tidbits? 5. The growth will come, I believe, not by yet more increased efficiencies, but by humanification. For example, take two well-known airlines. They both perform a useful service. They both... Read More »
Google’s Move Into CPA Validates The Affiliate Marketing Industry
Well, not that we needed it to be validated. Those of us in the affiliate marketing industry have “been validated” for close to 10 years. We know it works. We know it can be successful. However, it can be argued that Google’s move into the cost per action space does in fact validate the affiliate marketing industry further in the minds of “outside” industry. Let’s face it, affiliate marketing has always been kinda like that red headed step... Read More »
Do You Know How To Make An Amazing “About” Page?
My Cleveland friend Anita Campbell, who is also the super small business guru over at SMBtrends.com, recently interviewed me for a piece she was writing about “About pages” for INC Magazine. The finished piece went live today on the Internet at INC.com. entitled ‘About Your Website’s “About” Page‘. So, Do You Know The Keys To A Good About Page? The “About” page — also known as the “About Us” page —... Read More »
Is Your Shopping Cart & Ecommerce Site The Best It Can Be?
MarketingSherpa’s 2007 Ecommerce Study was published today and distributed via email with a pdf download. There are, of course, some pretty interesting results included in the report. I’ve detailed a few of my favorites that will hopefully help you out. Click here to buy the full report. If you’re in the business of affiliate marketing, as either an affiliate or merchant, this benchmark guide should be of particular interest to you. Shopping Cart Abandonment... Read More »
How To Change Your YouTube Video Thumbnail Image?
Graywolf teased us a bit in his video entry here, and below about a technique that can set your YouTube thumbnail image. Here’s his video. So, does it work? I tested it out, after trying the math in my head. I’m probably wrong, but we’ll see. It worked! See the black video overlay with the message? This post from Crunchnotes, and the comments, are postulating that it is the center/middle of the video. That’s what I did above. However, YouTube... Read More »
You Want Short-Term Traffic, Or Long-Term Trust & Respect For Your Blog?
Here’s your Kukral blog tip o’ the day. You can’t fake or quick-hit your way into being a “big time blog”. There is no quick road other than to provide high-quality content consistently over time, while building respect and trust. Here’s what you shouldn’t do, and I’m sorry to have to do this because I recently added this blog to my blogroll because I noticed it was everything I mentioned above. Yet now, it’s going down... Read More »
