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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Link to ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Blog

How to introduce people that you actually want to help

Posted: 03 Oct 2012 05:23 AM PDT

Lets say a friend who just started a new company wanted you to intro them to someone who might be interested in their products or services.

Hell, I will throw me under the bus. Thats actually why I am writing this. Cause while I appreciate all the awesome people who know of companies that can do awesome with the PAR Program… Sometimes their introduction makes me cringe and puts me in a weird spot.

Yea I know it sounds like I am being a total jerk. Don’t get me wrong there is no introduction that is a bad introduction. But there are for sure ways to really help a brother out.

So lets say you email me and your like, “Shoe this PAR Program thing you have is amazing let me introduce you to my friend at ACME Corporation he really needs this!”. And I am all like great I really appreciate it.

But your email looks like this:

Subject: ACME AND PARPROGRAM !

Jim at ACME you need the Par Program you guys talk!

Seriously ?

Ok enough about not how to do it. Let me tell you from my experience what has worked well. I will continue to use the Par Program and ACME company as examples. Comments in parenthesis and italics.

Subject: Jim from ACME Widgets meet Jeremy Schoemaker

Ok couple of things on the Subject. 1 – You make the guy you are buttering up feel special. You are using his name and his company name. 2 – The person you are introing them to, the guy who wants to sell them stuff you are using his full name… not his company. He is a person not a company. The goal is to get the original person to open the email… not make them think this is some business to business bizdev crap.

Hey Jim,

I wanted to introduce you to my friend Jeremy Schoemaker. Jeremy is the founder and president of the PAR Program. The Par Program takes a one time website visitor and converts them into customers via email and social media. (25 word description AT MOST).

(status of company): They are only a couple months old but have quickly established themselves as a cutting edge breakthrough way for companies to rapidly expand their business.

(trust / social proof) I met Jeremy at Affiliate Summit where they had a booth for the PAR Program and after hearing about what they were doing with Blu Electronic Cigarettes, State Farm Insurance, and other big name companies in the space I immediately thought of you.

Sorry to digress. I just really like what Jeremy is doing and feel its a no brainer for ACME. I will let you guys take it from here.

Your Best Friends Name

Ok I went a little crazy there… I guess I was just wishing everyone would intro me like that… hrmm maybe I should write them swipe copy!

Actually if you want to test it feel free to mail it to anyone you know that has a product or service. (see what I did there).

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What’s More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content? - DailyBlogTips

What’s More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content? - DailyBlogTips


What’s More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content?

Posted: 03 Oct 2012 03:40 AM PDT


Some people believe that good writing will always win out. A good writer will be read, regardless of what they write about.

Other people believe that content alone is king. If you have great information, it'll be read – even if the way it's written isn't so good.

Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.

On the one hand, content matters: if you have nothing to say, you're unlikely to find an audience. Style won't win out over substance.

But on the flip side, content alone isn't quite enough. After all, which post would you rather read?

  • "Ten WordPress Tips"
  • "Ten Easy Ways to Get the Most From Your WordPress Blog – Today"

I think you'll agree that the second one sounds much more enticing … even though both posts might have the exact same information.

How to Improve Your Content

If you know you're a good writer but you're struggling to build an audience, the problem might lie with your content.

To improve, try:

  • Asking your readers what they want you to write about. You might be surprised!
  • Focusing on giving value with every post – ask yourself "what will the reader get out of this?"
  • Writing list posts or "how to" posts – these are easy ways to offer something useful.
  • Narrowing down your niche – focus on one key topic area, rather than writing about anything and everything that interests you.

How to Improve Your Style

If you're packing your posts full of value but not getting much response, the problem might lie with your style.

To improve, try:

  • Spending more time editing each post after you write it. Try reading it aloud to get the flow of sentences and paragraphs right.
  • Crafting great titles and gripping introductions that hook your readers and encourage them to read on.
  • Writing in a friendly, direct way, as though you're addressing just one person. Use "you" more than you use "I".
  • Asking a friend to review your post and point out areas where the writing could be improved.

I'd love to hear what you think about style vs content. Do you feel that your strengths lie more in one area than the other? Do you prefer blogs with useful, in-depth content, or ones with a great writing style that makes for enjoyable reading? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Ali Luke is a writer and blogger, and author of Publishing E-Books For Dummies. She runs a teaching / community site for writers and bloggers, Writers' Huddle, which has just opened for new members. Join now to take her eight-week Blog On ecourse – where you'll learn all about different post and page types – and to get access to the archive of seminars, mini-courses, and more. All the details are here.

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Original Post: What's More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content?

Google AdSense for Feeds Will Be Shut Down. Feedburner Next?

Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:02 AM PDT


Last week Google announced a new spring cleaning round, which is basically when they decide to shut down services that they don’t consider important or relevant anymore. Normally those are services that very few people are still using, indeed, but on the latest round that was one curious item: Google AdSense for Feeds.

I use that product, and make a decent amount of money with it (combining all my sites close to $1000 per month). So yeah after December 3rd that will be gone.

I suspect that there are still a lot of people using it as well, as AdSense for Feeds was the main/best method to monetize an RSS feed. Even if you only made $100 per month it was still good money, as it could pay for your hosting fees, for instance.

In other words, I don’t agree with Google’s decision. I would rather have them announce they won’t be updating the service anymore or providing support for it, instead of completely shutting it down.

But hey that’s life. They probably had their reasons, so let’s accept that.

If you made decent money with AdSense for Feeds there’s one immediate alternative: substitute those units with private banner ads or affiliate offers.

The shut down of AdSense for Feeds raises another important question, though: is that a signal that Google’s overall plan is to shut down Feedburner? There are many people around the web speculating so.

If this is the case such a measure will affect A LOT more people. I am sure there will be alternatives around to deliver your RSS feed, but changing that will be a bit of a pain if you have a large subscriber base.

Stay tuned for the next chapter of the RSS saga.

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Original Post: Google AdSense for Feeds Will Be Shut Down. Feedburner Next?