First off, the benefits to getting exposure on the Web. Simply put, you get more of it for less. With the right people using a combination of social media, blogs and articles as well as maybe even some videos and other mediums, more people will be able to read about the goods and services that you have for sale for a cheaper price than with print or even television and radio.

Availability is another one of the big bonuses to going with online advertising. Remember the work that content writers do for you is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week online. With the search engine optimization techniques that are available to today’s Internet marketers, you can also target a select audience to get your message to.

Online advertising campaigns are also much easier to track and measure conversion rates for. With some of the analytics that are available today, smart marketers can refine approaches to Internet campaigns while they are in full swing, usually at no additional cost to the client. For example, it’s not uncommon for a search engine optimization set of keywords to be evaluated and retooled on a constant basis so the client gets optimal exposure and the best return on investment.

Using social media also allows online advertisers to engage their target audiences more quickly and easily. Properly tracking Facebook and twitter accounts allows companies and individuals to be able to see and react to their target audience’s preferences without the need for long drawn out analytical evaluations of data. Getting the kind of information to keep an advertising campaign running smoothly is much quicker and much more immediate online.

Finally, Internet advertising is much more affordable than its predecessors. The Internet has been able to level the playing field so to speak so that the numbers of companies and individuals that any firm has to choose from are much more diverse.

It wasn’t that long ago that business came to realize that they need to work on the Internet in some way or form to be successful. Advertising has followed suit and now people can get broader exposure at a cheaper price with any of the Internet marketers available on the web today.

The forces that be in the entertainment industry are railing against the copying on intellectual property online with these bills and there’s two sides here that seem to be gearing up for an epic battle that concerns us about the implications for Internet censorship.

In one corner are the people like the Country Music Association and the United States Chamber of Commerce. On the other side of the debate are the usual friendly faces like Google , Facebook and Twitter. One group wants a way to protect the items produced by the movie industry  and record labels, and the other group wants the web protected from censorship.

It’s too easy to paint this whole thing in a simple Us versus Them scenario, but the fact remains that when you open one of these doors, all kinds of bad things can happen. Still, before we all go waving the Power To The People flags, it’s important to remember that  2.2 million people are having their livings compromised by the kind of online theft these bills want to combat.

Advocates for freedom on the Internet like NetCoalition have no issues with plugging the holes that allow for this problem and cost the American economy every year, they’re just concerned these news bills seem to want Internet providers to police the people who subscribe.

Of course what makes it all worse is the fact that many Congress members have admitted they really don’t understand the issues that surround the bill.

Back to China. When a country gives out the China Internet Self-Discipline Award to executives from industry, it’s really time to start dusting off that old copy of 1984. There are only eight gateways whereby the Chinese Internet filters lets in the rest of the world and this makes it all more easy to be selective about what gets through.

Most people in that land are unaware of what exists beyond this firewall and only the most Internet savvy people there know how to get around these measures. All this comes from a new book called Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom, by Rebecca MacKinnon

Hopefully, Hollywood wont be sending emissaries there to learn what they can get away with on this side of what’s still a relatively free web.

So what does it take to be a top performance marketing influencer?

Besides having a good grip on how to make money online and having some marketing skills, it also helps to have a blog, a brand and a loyal following on Twitter and Facebook. However, the following may sum it up best…

Impact Radius compiled its list by using a proprietary formula designed to determine blog influence, re-tweet frequency, citations by other influential bloggers and related factors measuring the impact of the top 400 thought leaders. Impact Radius then assigned weights to each factor and ranked the results to create its top 25 list.

Rounding off the top of the list, here are the top 10 peformance marketing infulencers.

Leading the list, the influencers taking the first 10 spots include:

1. Brian Clark, www.copyblogger.com, @copyblogger
2. Shawn Collins, blog.affiliatetip.com, @affiliatetip
3. Jeremy Schoemaker, www.shoemoney.com, @shoemoney
4. John Chow, www.johnchow.com, @johnchow
5. Brett Tabke, www.pubcon.com, @btabke
6. Rae Hoffman-Dolan, www.sugarrae.com, @sugarrae
7. Missy Ward, www.missyward.com, @MissyWard
8. Peter Bordes, www.mediatrust.com, @mediatrustpete
9. Pace Lattin, www.industrypace.com, @pacelattin
10. Lynn Terry, www.clicknewz.com, @lynnterry

While I didn’t make the top 10 list, I’m still sitting pretty at #24, which I’m perfectly fine with since I’ve never been the biggest user of social networks and building up my extended followers and fan base.

Congrats to everyone who has made the list, and thanks to Radius Impact for performing the study. For everyone else, hopefully you come across some new people you didn’t know about, and maybe even learn something from their blogs.

The Main Street Fairness Act (MSFA) would change the existing law that only required merchants to pay taxes when they had a physical state presence. BTW, don’t you just love the title of that piece of legislation? Drips with the kind of Orwellian double speak we’ve come to expect from our jackal politicians on both sides of the border. Under this new totalitarian piece of tripe, even affiliates would need to pay sales tax. Notice how none of the politicians involved talk about personally taking cuts in their pay to help rebuild the tax coffers?

Politicians are the same dolts that keep arguing the merits or horrors involved with Internet online gambling as well. Currently, that industry is illegal in the United States even though it’s worth billions and the same bills keep getting introduced and defeated like the current one back on the fryer in New Jersey.

It’s not a question of paying taxes. I pay mine and keep detailed records of all my transactions as I’m sure most of my colleagues on the Internet do. There’s just something wrong about working in the modern day equivalent of the gold rush and having old school politicians and government agencies come to us with their hands out so they can propagate their cushy government lifestyles and clunky dying ways.

Most of us came to work online from other places because we knew the world had changed and was continuing to change. It sucks to hear instances where people who are clinging to old school government troughs are telling us we need to pay our fair share. We do. Maybe it’s time they learned to pare down and stand up on their own two feet. The gravy train has long been over.

For WordPress users, they need to see about upgrading their installation to version 3.0.5, which fixes several security bugs that are most dangerous to those who have authors with limited permissions on their blog. Google, on the other hand, is slowly rolling out a new two-factor authentication system that may help keep your email and other information more secure.

If you use either or both of these tools, you may want to look at making the needed changes so you can get the full benefit of their security improvements. Otherwise, you’ll likely find that your blog, your email and your other personal information are at greater risk.

WordPress Launches 3.0.5

WordPress users who have a standalone installation of WordPress on their server, will likely want to upgrade to 3.0.5 as soon as possible.

The upgrade addresses several severe security issues including:

1. Two security issues that would have allowed a author or contributor-level user to gain greater access to the site.
2. Another security issue that would have allowed an author-level user to read information they weren’t supposed to access, such as drafts or private posts.
3. Two additional security issues that help secure plugins, especially those that don’t use WordPress’ built-in security API.

Obviously, if you don’t have author or contributor-level users or don’t use many plugins, there is less urgency in this upgrade but, considering it is a free update and takes only minutes to install automatically, it’s well worth going ahead and upgrading.

At the same time as WordPress 3.0.5′s release, Automattic also announced the release of the fourth release candidate for the WordPress 3.1 branch. This release deals mostly mostly small bugs that were found in the third release candidate and marks a clear sign that the 3.1 branch is very near completion and should be sent out to the masses very shortly.

Google Introduces Two Factor Authentication

For users of Blogger, or even just Gmail or other Google tools, Google is rolling out two-factor authentication to help make your Google account more secure.

The basic principle is that, instead of merely having your email address and password to log into your Google account, you also have to enter a second, numerical passcode. This code is always changing and is sent to the user every login via either text message or the “Google Authenticator” app that is available for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Since this number changes regularly, it makes it much more difficult for someone to phish your password and anyone who wishes to enter your acount without authorization has to have access to your email address, password and your phone, making the process significantly more difficult.

Two-factor authentication is hardly new, PayPal has been using a security key system for years and many corporations and government agencies have required other kinds of security tokens for even longer.

But despite their history, security tokens have not gained widespread usage due to the perceived hassle (both in setting them up and using them) and the fact many don’t wish to either use text messages or to purchase keychains or cards to keep around. This has limited the application to high-risk targets such as banks, corporations and so forth.

Fortunately, Google’s system is free for anyone with a smartphone or with an unlimited text messaging plan and, as such, may mark the beginning of widespread usage for more personal targets.

As incidents like the Gawker leak have shown us, passwords are very vulnerable to being leaked, guessed or stolen, making a second layer of authentication very important for critical data.

Right now, systems such as Google’s are the best available and will likely become more common over the next few years.

Bottom Line

If you value your data, your privacy and your site, then you need to take security seriously. Fortunately, both Google and the WordPress development team are both working to help make security easier and better.

If you use either of these products, take a moment and upgrade your sites and your password security. You’ll be glad that you did.

While these steps may not secure you completely, that’s because nothing really can. They will, however, make you a much more difficult target and motivate attackers to move on to other, easier targets.

The main take away from the interview is that blogging is no longer just for people who want to make an online diary. Blogging is serious business… if you want it to be.

If you don’t already have your own blog or web site, now is the time to get started. Make a new year’s resolution to start a new blog and just commit to one or two posts a week, and a year from now you will have a blog with over 50-100 posts of content!

You never know where your blog might lead you… you could be the next blogger to appear on ABC NEWS!

The course covers everything you need to know about making money online in it’s 24 training modules. Modules range from the basics such as registering domain names and setting up your hosting account right through to link building, social media and traffic generation. Advanced topics such as Pay Per Click marketing, landing pages and selling products are also covered.

When I spoke about the course a few months ago it cost $392. Therefore I was both shocked and pleased to read last week that OnlineProfits is now free. All you need to do is sign up for a hosting account through one of the sites partners such as HostGator or HostNine. Hosting packages start from around $4.95 a month, making this the cheapest marketing course on the net.

OnlineProfits Marketing and Business Training

In the program you will get much needed help from several mentors such as Yaro Starak, ProBlogger book author Chris Garrett and our very own Zac Johnson.

Online Profits owner Daniel Scocco is also available to help too and over the next few months he will be doing a live case study where members can see how to turn a brand new website into a profitable website worth thousands of dollars.

Here’s a recap of the 24 subjects which are covered in the course:

1. Business Principles
2. Domain Names
3. Website Setup
4. Markets & Niches
5. Business Models
6. WordPress
7. Web Design
8. Blogging
9. Keyword Research
10. Online Forums
11. Online Stories
12. Web Content
13. Basic SEO
14. Advanced SEO
15. Link Building
16. Traffic Generation
17. Web Metrics
18. Social Media
19. Selling Advertising
20. Email Marketing
21. Affiliate Marketing
22. Pay Per Click
23. Landing Pages
24. Selling Your Products

If you are looking to increase your knowledge of blogging, marketing and making money on the web, then I encourage you to check OnlineProfits out. Not only will you get access to a wealth of information, you will also get access to some of the most experienced marketers and bloggers on the web. The live case studies will also show you exactly what you need to do to make money from a website.

Have any BloggingTips members joined up already? If so, please leave a comment and let fellow readers know what they can expect.

Thanks for reading

Kevin

Link: OnlineProfits

After all, I’m getting ready to celebrate the 10th anniversary of my 37th birthday (you do the math), so of course, anything that seems like it’s age-related is just jumping out at me.

So the headline “Is blogging a slog? Some young people think so” hit me almost as hard as the ma’ams do when I’m out buying groceries.

According to a study done by a group at Harvard, kids just aren’t finding blogging cool anymore. Since they’re all so busy texting away, their forms of communication have also become a lot shorter.

Instead of putting their efforts into maintaining blog entries, they’re putting their thoughts, aspirations and advertising copy out there on places like Twitter, where they can do them in 140 character bits, rather than on websites that require more work and time.

But just what is everyone tweeting about? The best tweets — and the ones that get re-tweeted — are about, you guessed it, blogs.

So even with this disheartening news about the younger Internet users turning to quicker takes for more instant gratification, is there still room for good blogging?

Of course there is. Because, with all the quickness and immediacy of tweeting and texting, there remains one thing missing — great content.

After all, while you can get your points out there really fast with a quick text, there really isn’t room for much more than a few words by doing that.

How can you share your political thoughts, your how-tos, or even a great recipe for homemade salsa when you’re limiting yourself to just a few choice words?

According to the article, younger people haven’t entirely abandoned blogging. They’re still using it for working purposes. However, the thrill has gone for those users, and they’re turning to more immediate communications and video to communicate their most pressing issues.

So how do we bring it all together again? The answer is simple — take a look at your blog and see if it’s keeping up with the times.

Are your posts way too long? Are you taking forever to get to the point?

And when you’re writing, are you paying close attention to what someone could grab onto and retweet? Or are you just going on and on about subjects that nobody really cares about but you?

When was the last time you updated your blog? I mean really updated it? When did you make your graphics easy to use? Include a video or a game that readers would find entertaining?

And are you using those new-fangled ways to communicate yourself? Do you have a Twitter account? They’re great for contacting other professionals in your field, and for putting the word out there yourself about what you’ve written.

Keeping your blogs exciting does take a lot of work. However, abandoning the use of a good blog is a big mistake. After all, we all have something to share — and blogs give all of us a great opportunity to share what we know with the world.

The 20 page eBook is a great introduction into how you can build a name for yourself and make money though guest posting.

In the Ebook you will learn:

• How to guest post
• Guest posting problems and how to avoid them
• How to generate post ideas

If you are looking to make money through guest posting or build traffic to your blog through it I recommend checking the course out. It is being sold just now for an introductory price of $10 but this price will go up soon

Link : Guest Posting Mini Course

The course has a massive 24 training modules, ranging from basic tutorials to more advanced techniques. Each section has a range of articles, podcasts, video tutorials and interviews. The content has been written by some of the most well known marketers in the industry such as Michael Gray, Yaro Starak, Chris Garrett, Neil Patel and Zac Johnson.

Module List

1. Business Principles
2. Domain Names
3. Website Setup
4. Markets & Niches
5. Business Models
6. WordPress
7. Web Design
8. Blogging
9. Keyword Research
10. Online Forums
11. Online Stories
12. Web Content
13. Basic SEO
14. Advanced SEO
15. Link Building
16. Traffic Generation
17. Web Metrics
18. Social Media
19. Selling Advertising
20. Email Marketing
21. Affiliate Marketing
22. Pay Per Click
23. Landing Pages
24. Selling Your Products

The course costs $392, payable in 4 installments of $98. You will get lifetime access to all of the content once the 4th payment has been made.

There are only 300 spots available, so if you are interested in joining up I recommend doing so quickly as these spots will probably sell out within the next few days. There are a lot of online marketing programs on the web today though Online Profits is one you should seriously consider since it covers such a wide range of topics and has support from many industry leaders.

To find out more please visit the sales page via the link below.

Link : Online Profits

The pay per click ads look similar to Google Adsense except the sites logo is displayed at the left hand side as well (a 64×64 pixel icon).

The BSA Pemium option is still in beta. Currently this ad option is only available to Web Design and Web Development sites with the minimum purchase being $2,500.

Both options are still in a beta phase but I don’t expect it will be too long until these options are rolled out to everyone, which will give different ways of selling ads on your blog.

Links:

• Announcing BSA Premium and Pay Per Click
• Official Press Release

On three occasions, I have been asked by the blog I was writing for to contact the company that was discussed in my post and get their comments ahead of publication.  Since I did not have a contact at these companies, I first had to figure out who to try and contact.  Then I had to wait to hear back.  In the first case I never heard back and the blog never ran my article.  In the second case I never heard back, but the blog ran my article after waiting a week.  In the third case I was able to use the name of the blog I was writing for and actually got a response – albeit little more than “no comment, Mr. small fry.”

This is the challenge that has led to the founding of Plato’s forms by Darryl Siry (CEO) and Ben Metcalfe (CTO).  The company has just received 545,000 in seed money and plans its first product for journalists and corporate communications professionals in the Spring of 2010.

The investment provides some credence that Plato’s Forms is on to something, but at this point since they have no demo I am more intrigued by the idea than any reality.  The idea is simple, responsible bloggers want to get input from the companies they are writing about.  Many companies are willing to talk to a journalist and add commentary to the story the journalist is writing.  However, while companies can staff to respond to a limited number of newspaper, magazine or TV reporters, few have the resources to respond to every blogger. Plato’s Forms hopes to offer that communication pipeline – a way to allow a responsible blogger to reach a company and vica-versa.

Plato’s Forms is selling itself to investors as “a professional messaging platform focused on solving the problem of rapid proliferation of misinformation in online media.”  I will be keeping an eye on this start-up (check out their blog), but only time will tell if they can truly help connect bloggers and companies in a meaningful manner.

The new form generator lets you customise the form more easily. In the past Aweber users had to generate a standard form and then customise the form and it’s surrounding area themselves. Not any more! The new generator lets you choose from a variety of templates and lets you enter text in the header and footer too.

Check out the video below to see how easy the generator is to use.

In total there are 70 templates which you can choose for your forms at the moment, ranging from designs like fitness, automotive and travel. You can change the colours of every template and as usual, you can decide what fields are included in the form too.

Below is a custom form I knocked in a minute up for the BloggingTips Newsletter.

I’m really impressed with this new generator. It makes creating great looking forms quick and easy and allows those without good design skills to present a professional image on their blog without having to hire a designer. If you use Aweber for your blogs newsletter, I recommend signing in and trying the new generator out.

Link : Have a Look at the New Web Form Generator

I’ve seen a few different reactions to this decision this week but the general consensus seems to be that most bloggers think this is a good move.

Disclosure

I’ve only wrote a few paid reviews for Blogging Tips however all of these reviews have been fully disclosed to readers to make sure that they understood a payment was received for reviewing it. In my opinion, that’s the only way to do things.

I really don’t think it is in any bloggers benefit to sell out their readers and recommend a poor product in exchange for a gift or cash payment as they will quickly lose their integrity. And if the readers of a blog don’t trust the owner, they are very unlikely to purchase any products or services from them (and might unsubscribe too).

I know everyone doesn’t think this way though. I’ve read many positive reviews of products and services which I knew were very poor, but nothing was disclosed within the review so we have to assume that the review was unbiased.

Some advertisers aren’t too keen on disclosure either. I’ve had a few advertisers back out after I told them that all paid reviews had to have a message at the end saying the review was paid for.

Who does the new FTC Rule affect?

How pro-active will the FTC be in enforcing this new rule? It is highly unlikely that they will waste their time targeting bloggers with a few hundred readers, or even a few thousand. It is more likely that this rule was introduced to generally discourage biased reviews and to make it easier for them to fine high profile bloggers and celebrities who break the rules.

Though is it possible for them to effectively enforce it anyway? Surely every product recommendation isn’t going to come under scrutiny, it just isn’t practical. I think it will remain fairly easy for people to give positive reviews if everything is under the radar i.e. if they are not blatant about it.

Perhaps I’m being negative. I do welcome this new rule as it discourages biased reviews, but I believe this doesn’t really affect the majority of us as it’s only high profile celebrities and bloggers which will be under the spotlight.

What do you think about this new rule?

Related Link : FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials : Changes Affect Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsements

* Thanks to DaneBlogger, who brought this news story to my attention on Monday

The space for self-publishing is getting lots of investment right now with a handful of other companies trying to change the world of self-publishing. You have WattPad an e-book sharing company, Vook, which tries to blend books and video and Lulu which is the most similar to FastPencil.  If you get serious about self publishing each is worth a look, even if it is just to gather ideas.

FastPencil sports a 4 step process and it is the 1st step, connect that is the most unique.  FastPencil is integrated with both Facebook Connect and Twitter to provide for communication and collaboration. The “scribble, tweet or share” feature automatically updates Twitter making it easier to share your thoughts and activities with your community.  At any time during the creative process writers can invite their social network, fellow authors and FastPencil experts to review and provide comments on the book.

Using FastPencil you can write, you can format text, you can add images, and you can track revisions and word count.  There are links to handy references like a a dictionary and even Wikipedia.  The interface is easy to use and matches their goal which co-founder Michael Ashley notes as “We’re building the tool simple enough so that someone like my mom could use it, but complicated enough that a professional really could author books and publish, distribute and promote them.”  The Blog to Book import feature is one that could be attractive if you have lots of content on you existing blog.

When you’re finally ready to publish, FastPencil walks you through a long list of features and settings you can control, including legal considerations, your ISBN, the covers, the size and templates, the spine, and even the price.  FastPencil eliminates traditional barriers to publishing and enables authors to sell their work directly to their particular audience.  Additional publishing packages include consulting, author and editorial services, custom formatting and distribution.

There is no minimum run-rate, so you can publish one copy or 1,000 copies, and you’re free to sell the books on Amazon.com — although FastPencil will take a revenue share.  The company even publishes to Kindle if you think that an e-book is your marketplace.  So, if you are considering self-publishing and want a good place to start, then FastPencil can help turn that book idea into a reality. I am only dabbling in the writing phase of FastPencil, but so far I have liked everything I have seen – but no publications … yet!