I like Twitter because it’s easy to useand it helps me with my online business in several ways, which I share in this post.
There are hundreds of sites and programs that tell you how to make money with Twitter, but I believe in being genuine and posting and replying to Tweets in real time, so anything that promises to automate that process, bring in an insane number of followers (I believe in quality, not quantity!) or pulls what I consider to be a sneaky trick is not for me and won’t be discussed here.
It’s interesting to look back at the time when I was just getting into online business and dreading social media. I knew that I was ’supposed to’ participate in popular social media sites, like Twitter, but it seemed shallow to me. I rolled my eyes, and sometimes still roll my eyes, at what I call ‘tuna fish sandwich tweets’. I’m referring to the messages that many Twitter users post about mundane things like what they had for lunch. Comedians love to poke fun at this for good reason. I imagine that I’ve ‘tuna fish sandwiched’ a few times on Twitter, but I do my best to avoid it.
What I’ve found, as I’ve become more active on Twitter, is that it isn’t simply a shallow and tuna fish sandwich-y place, if you know how to use it properly. Instead, you can find valuable information and meet like-minded people who can help you to improve your business whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned marketer.
3 Natural Ways to Use Twitter to Make Money with WordPress Blogs
1. Research Your Blog’s Niche
By entering what you want to research in the Search feature in Twitter you can see what people are talking about in the niche you’re targetting. This can help you gather ideas for blog posts, articles and products and/or you can deliver interesting content to your Twitter followers by simply retweeting the tweets that are appropriate.
If you want to conduct searches that are more comprehensive and automated than what Twitter offers out-of-the-box, you can use a service like Tweet Scan. Tweet Scan analyzes information on Twitter and several other sites such as identi.ca, bleeper.de and MicroCiaran with the keywords you specify, then e-mails you the results daily or weekly. Tweet Scan has a free 14-day trial. If you upgrade to the paid service it’s only $20/year and will scan information as far back as 2007. It also has an option to backup your Twitter account for safekeeping. I’m quite new to Tweet Scan but like it so far.
2. Network
Twitter allows you to network with people in your niche(s) from around the world easily and quickly in real time.
To find people to follow in your niche you can use the free program Twello. Select up to 10 categories and Twellow will tell you is in that particular niche.
It’s great to be friendly and chatty with fellow Tweeters, trade tips and techniques and use Twitter for entertainment, but if you’re serious about making money with your Wordpress blog and growing your business, it’s wise to use Twitter to find the best people who can help you with that.
To learn more about anyone you meet on Twitter be sure to:
read a few pages worth of their tweets
read a good number of their retweets
see how they interact with other Twitter users when they reply to them. Do they reply at all, or often, or do they simply churn out pitches/tweet their own horn for the most part? Are they a real person tweeting in real time, or possibly a bot or perhaps someone a marketer has hired to tweet on their behalf who doesn’t fully understand the business they are representing.
visit the website they list in their profile and find out more about them in the About section, or similar, of their website .
look at who they follow. Do they seem to be doing reciprocal follows (the number of followers they have is close to the number of people they follow) or are they more selective about who they follow? (much smaller number of followings than followers). If it’s the latter, you can get a sense of what and who they value by visiting the pages of the people they follow.
Tip: Send out personal, relevant replies to other people’s Tweets, not spammy Direct Messages, to introduce yourself. It’s also good to occasionally retweet other people’s tweets if the information is suitable for your followers. Retweeting is an easy, fast, non-invasive way to show interest in, and respect for, what they are doing.
Note:Visit me on Twitter and check out some of the people that I am following if you’re interested in WordPress and meeting online business people who are successful and helpful. Some of the people in my following list are from the old days when I thought I had to reciprocal follow so they may not have much weight for me. I don’t reciprocal follow any more; I only follow people who I truly want to follow, including several members of the private internet marketing coaching forumthat I belong to, run by James Schramko. Definitely follow James Schramko on Twitter if you want to make money online. He’s the man for that.
The more experience you have with the quick Twitter way of communicating, the more you’ll see that you can meet like-minded people who are happy to share information that can help you promote your WordPress blog. You may find yourself engaged in some pleasant back and forths, and eventually some of those interactions can lead to very lucrative business partnerships, or at least free promotion of your blog.
3. Promote your blog and products
I save this for last because you should do it, absolutely, but it’s one of the most misused and abused things on Twitter. If you’re in online marketing, and even if you aren’t, at some point you will get a spammy follower who direct messages (DMs) you with an offer that is neither personal nor useful and just wastes your time. Some marketers tweet offer after offer, often nothing more than an affiliate link, to try to sucker people into buying yet another get rich quick system, etc. Ideally you should promote your blog in a variety of ways on Twitter, not only by posting links to products for sale. Provide value and interesting content, not just offers. Post links to articles on your blog that also promote your products and services, or your views, etc. I can’t stand it when a marketer doesn’t seem to care that their customers are people, not just PayPal and credit cards. I hope that you can relate.
Yes, there are many sites and articles that are devoted to how to use Twitter to make money, but if you care about delivering value to your customers and potential customers, and you want to form solid business relationships, then using Twitter in a more natural way, in my view, is the better way to go. If you don’t believe me, follow James Schramko, one of the top people in internet marketing (a big WordPress user too!) on Twitter and see genuineness in profitable action.
P.S. if you have a kick a– recipe for the ultimate tuna fish sandwich, THAT is okay to tweet about.
When I log into my WordPress blogs and see a notice at the top of the screen that there is a new version of WordPress, I feel excited and nervous at the same time.
WordPress is ever-improving. With each upgrade I happily anticipate the new features and fixes. At the same time, I feel anxious because sometimes the upgrade process causes problems.
Fortunately there are steps that you can take to up the odds that your upgrade will be successful.
How to Upgrade WordPress
Note:If you want to be extra careful,follow the advice of WordPress expert Leanne King: install the new version of WordPress on a test site before you install it on your real site. Upload the plugins and theme that you’re using on your ‘real’ blog to the test site and activate them. If everything goes well on the test site, all should go well with your upgrade.
…
If you have a recent version of WordPress you’ll be able to do an Automatic Upgrade to the latest version. You’ll see the alert at the top of your screen when you log into your WordPress blog. You can also go to the Tools -> Upgrade menu.
If an automatic upgrade isn’t possible for any reason, or you run into problems, you can try the Three Step Manual Upgrade on the WordPress Codex.
STEP 1:Backup your WordPress blog’s database AND the rest of your WordPress files
Why? Sometimes something goes wonky during an upgrade, ruining part or all of your blog. Having backup copies of your blog files will be essential if you need to restore something that is damaged or deleted. Don’t count on your web host for a full backup. Have your own on hand!
To learn how to backup your database and all of your WordPress files see: Easy WordPress Backup
STEP 2: Deactive ALL of your plugins
Why? Plugins can cause conflict with the upgrade process.
STEP 4: Reactivate your plugins one by one, checking to see if everything is fine after each activation
If you notice any problems, deactivate the plugin that seemed to cause the problem. If the problem resolves, it’s the plugin. Continue to activate ALL of your plugins one by one to see if more problems occur. If any plugins seem to be causing issues, keep them deactivated and visit the plugin developer’s site(s) to see if they will give you a fix.
STEP 5: If the problem isn’t resolved by deactivating or updating plugins:
it may be a problem with the WordPress theme that you’re using. Visit the theme developer’s site to see if they have a fix
it may be one of the common problems that can occur with WordPress upgrades. See the link below to the WordPress Codex for more information. The descriptions on the Codex can be very technical, but there are often helpful links to sites that offer clear directions: WordPress Common Installation Problems
In general, you’re less likely to have problems if you’re using WordPress plugins and themes that are made byreliable developers.
For example, one of my favorite developers,Eric Hamm of frugal Theme, offers regular updates of his theme to address possible problems. Proactive developers like Eric often test the beta version of each WordPress update so they can adjust their product when the new version is available to the rest of us.
To learn more about good WordPress themes, see my popular post: Best Wordpress Theme
FAQs
Is upgrading WordPress free? Yes, and upgrading your theme and plugins is usually free too, but sometimes there is a fee if you’re using premium themes and plugins.
Do I have to upgrade WordPress? It’s best that you do. Each upgrade offers important improvements and fixes. Often there are security fixes, so if you don’t apply them your blog will be vulnerable to hackers.
Do I need to upgrade WordPress right away when I see the notice that there is an upgrade available? The sooner the better, yes. If you must delay for any reason, don’t wait longer than a month.
Can I go back to older versions of WordPress after the upgrade? Yes, but it’s usually not recommended to rollback (revert) to older versions. The fixes and changes in structure in each upgrade will make it more likely that you’ll have problems when reverting. Also, if you don’t have a backup of your WordPress database and files prior to your upgrade, a successsful rollback is almost impossible.
My blog is a mess after the upgrade. How do I restore it? You may have to delete everything, do a manual install of WordPress (see: Upgrading WordPress), reinstall your plugins and theme and restore your database.
I’ve been searching for a simple, affordable web analytics service so I can monitor my sites easily.
I use Google Analytics, and often check the stats that my Hostgator account provides, but I’m never satisfied with the way that the data displays or the limitations for what those services scan.
Now there is a new WordPress web analytics plugin by the highly respected Joost de Valk that might provide what I’ve been looking for.
Joost de Valk is the WordPress and SEO expert behind yoast.com
de Valk creates some of the best and most popular WordPress plugins including Google Analytics, Breadcrumbs and Sociable.
Recently he developed a free WordPress plugin that promises to offer more options than Google Analytics, and many unique, advanced tracking features when you upgrade to the paid version of the analytics service that it’s affiliated with. The service is called Clicky.
You can use the free version of Clickyon 1 website with somewhat limited, but adequate, features.
To get ALL of the features that Clicky offers for about $59 a year an upgrade to Pro will allow you to put Clicky on 10 sites, and add many advanced features such as:
- Twitter analytics
- web analytics for iPhone and other mobile devices
- secure (https) tracking support
- advanced visitor segmentation and analysis
- spy (see every action by every visitor!)
- goal tracking
- alerts via e-mail and Twitter
EVERYONE who signs up for Clickygets a 21-day trial of the Pro version with no obligation to buy.
After registering for free, you download the Clicky WordPress plugin from the site, upload it to your plugins folder, install, activate, then enter the tracking codes from your Clicky account into the the Clicky plugin interface.
The yearly fee is quite reasonable compared to other analytics services. I like Clicky’s simple, option-rich interface. I also like the plugin’s interface (no wonder Joost de Valk is one of the best WordPress plugin developers!). I chose to receive a full report daily about my site via e-mail.
If you’re using Clicky,or decide to try it after reading this, please come back and post your experiences with it.
For example, Jonathan Lane and James Schramkohelped me determine that an iPod Touch is more suitable for my needs because I’m not interested in the cell phone feature of iPhone at this time. That saved me money.
Also, thanks to the responses, I downloaded a nice collection of apps that I’m very happy with.
10 Good iPhone & iPod Touch Apps for Online Business
1. WordPress 2 allows you to write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on all of your WordPress blogs
2. Analytics App is mobile access to your Google Analytics data
3. PayPal makes it easy to send money, check your balance and view past transactions
4.CB Stats is handy if you promote Clickbank products, allowing you to check the stats of up to five CB accounts
5. Bloomberg lets you read the latest financial news headlines, world market updates and stock quotes, charts and news
6. Twitbird Pro helps you access and manage all of your Twitter accounts both online and off
7. Roboformfor PC or 1Password for Mac will store your logins securely. Note: you need to install the parent programs on your computer in order to use these apps. Roboform offers a free version of the parent program but it will only store a small number of logins. You’ll likely have to upgrade to store more, but the price is reasonable.
8. Things is a task manager to help with productivity
9.Camera Genius replaces the default camera with one that is feature-rich (iPhone only)
10. Currency Converter Pro calculates conversions between more than 200 world currencies and all the old legacy European currencies
That’s a good start and should keep you busy for a while!
What are your favorite iPhone/iPod Touch apps for online business?
Most marketers put off getting professional helpwith their online business for months, or years, due to the expense of coaching or because they figure they can do everything on their own.
Yet, successful online entrepreneurs often say that until they had a coach or mentor to advise them about their business, they struggled online.
The good news is that there ARE affordable coaching options, including joining a paid internet business coaching forum like the one I belong to.
7 Reasons Why You Should Join a Good Paid Internet Marketing Coaching Forum ASAP
1. Constructive Criticism
A good marketing coach and other forum members will tell you what you are doing right and wrong with your sites and strategies, helping you to improve things quickly instead of wasting time and money on trial and error.
2. Saving Time and Money
New marketers will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on marketing products, hoping that at least one of them will help them reach their goals. They also spend many hours learning the technical end of the business, often wasting time with buggy software and inferior services.
Help from coaches and members on a good coaching forum will save you time and money on products and services and technical issues. You’ll be guided to quality tools that are appropriate for your specific needs.
3. Realism
Coaches on good forums willNOTfeed you lines about how anyone can be an ‘overnight success’. They’ll tell you straight up if your goals and expectations are realistic.
4. Encouragement
There may be days when you feel down about your business and want to give up. The coaches and other forum members will help boost your spirits, giving you the energy and incentive to go on.
5. Networking
Successful internet business people know a lot of people in the marketing world, including underground marketers that you could never find on your own. On the forum you’ll meet people who will make excellent JV partners or help you to connect with people who might be an asset to your business.
6. Promotion and Referrals
If you post frequently and use a signature with your website urls, the coach and forum members may visit your sites and perhaps share the information with people that they know. They might even buy your products or promote them to their own list as an affiliate.
7. Wings
A good coaching forum will prepare you for the online marketing world, no matter where you’re at. Who knows, if all goes well, maybe one day you’ll have your own paid internet business coaching forum.
IMPORTANT: As you look for a good online business coaching forum to join, keep in mind that the coaches who run the forum should be successful marketers, NOT just successful coaches, to make joining worth your time and money.
James Schramko, excellent coach and phenomenal online business success who runs the coaching forum I belong to and recommend.Check out his famously good internet marketing blog here
Traffic to my websites, and opt-ins, have more than doubled thanks to the techniques I’ve learned on the forum. This is where I learned about SYA, the article marketing service I use.
I love my daily visits. I get more value out of a 45 minute read on this forum than I do from any marketing book or ’system’!
You can join the forum’s waiting list
by clicking on the membership card below:
PS Please say hello to me when you get in! I log in at least once a day and post often.
There are plenty of articles and websites devoted to WordPress online. If you know anything about search engines like Google, you understand how hard it is to attract visitors to a site when there are lots of competing sites.
I learned how to attract more people quickly thanks to James Schramko, the marketing whiz behind the famously good internet marketing blog Internet Marketing Speed, and the other coaches and experts on James’ private internet marketing coaching forum: SuperFastResultsNow.com
Since joining the forum and implementing the recommended strategies, traffic to this site (and others I operate) has more than doubled, as have opt-ins.
If you want a good shot at being successful online, you should get on the waiting list for the forum RIGHT NOW.
Yes I mean it, I’m not just speaking marketing-speak. I’m speaking with enthusiasm, as I do about all of the products and services I believe in.
Joining the forum is one of the best things I’ve done in my life.
And if you don’t know who James Schramko is, you will soon enough, so be prepared. Get in before he (justifiably) raises the price. As of this writing, it’s around $100/month. That’s NOTHING compared to standard coaching fees.
Getting on the waiting list is not a commitment to buy, it’s a commitment to giving yourself a good chance to make money online. When the doors to the forum open up again, you’ll at least have a shot at gaining access. It’s up to you whether you actually join or not.
webinars that teach you both the basics and advanced techniques and strategies to make money online
proprietary members-only tools that help you build high ranking websites and blogs quickly and easily
feedback from other prominant marketers, like Leanne King and James’ coaching partner, an underground marketer named Andy
secret strategies that James uses that you won’t find anywhere else
genuine inspiration and encouragement
sound advice about how to improve what you’re doing, whether you are new or already making good money online
product recommendations so you won’t waste money on another useless, complicated marketing system again!
Everyone on the forum is very nice! I was worried that I’d be intimidated when I first joined, but no, I have always felt very welcome. You will too.
When online marketers are advised to write reviews of products they believe in, they’re often told to list negative things about the product because it’s more realistic.
Ok, if I must do that to be more believable, here’s a negative:
sometimes when James Schramko posts replies to forum members, he makes minor spelling mistakes
I hope that you’ll join the forum. You’ll see me there because I post regularly. Please say hello!
P.S.Want to learn more about James Schramko’s marketing techniques before you sign up? Visit Internet Marketing Speed and get his free report!
P.P.S. Do you have questions about the forum? Feel free to write to me at http://www.AskLillea.com and I’ll do my best to get back to you within 48 hrs.
This is SO important that I should probably post about this every week!
Promise yourselfthat you’ll do a backup in the next few days and then regularly for ever after!
How often? If you post on your blog frequently, then a weekly full backup is wise.
I had a scare recently. My blog vanished! My hosting company is the highly respected Hostgator. They do backups of all sites once a week BUT something went SO wrong that they didn’t have a recent backup for me!
I back up frequently, so I had a copy that could be used instead. My backup was short a few posts so it wouldn’t have restored everything, but that was better than the alternative – starting from scratch. Fortunately I was able to correct the problem without resorting to my backup, but I was very glad that I had it on hand.
You’ll probably think you’re safe and it’s no big deal to be slack about backups UNTIL you lose your blog to hackers or other weird goings-on. Please be prepared!
And while you’re at it, beef up your security to keep hackers out by doing two simple things that I guide you through here:
For Best Security, Change Your WordPress Password AND Admin User Name Often – At Least Every Few Weeks!
Frequently changing your WordPress password and admin user name will help to prevent hackers from breaking into your blog – a serious problem particularly if your blog is popular and you are successful online.
It’s also important to change them if someone helps you with your blog and needs your user name and password to login to do the work. When they have completed the work, change your admin user name and password immediately. Even if the person is trustworthy, someone in their company might not be. Better to be safe than sorry!
How to Change Your WordPress Password
It’s simple. Sign into your WordPress blog and select Users in the menu on the left-hand side of your screen. It’s the icon shown in the picture below:
<— When you hover over the icon, you’ll see a drop-down list of options. Click on Your Profile.
At the bottom of the Your Profile screen, you’ll see the option shown below (click on my screenshot to enlarge it):
This is where you change your password. Make sure that you make it complex and hard to crack. The strength indicator will help you choose something appropriate.
And don’t forget to record your new password for the next time you sign in! I use *Roboform*to remember my passwords. I highly recommend it!
How to Change Your WordPress Admin User Name
Most WordPress bloggers do not change their admin user name. They keep it at the default name ‘admin’ or leave it at whatever they chose when they first installed WordPress.
Bad idea!
Changing the admin user name is simple. Go to Users again and click Add New. Fill in the new admin user name and other information. Next click the role drop down box at the bottom of the screen and select Administration. After that delete your old admin username and you’re done!
Remember to change your WordPress password and admin user name, or at least your password, often!
For more FREE WordPress tips and techniques, please sign up for my FREE series via the popup box that appears on this blog, or the sign-up box on the top right-hand side of the screen.
The key to getting traffic from articles is the ‘author resource box’ you include at the end of each article. That’s where you put in the links that will inspire people to click to visit your site to learn more or whatever else you want them to do.
In master article marketer Steve Gillman’s book,You Can Make Money Writing, there is good, clear advice about how to inspire huge curiosity in a reader so they won’t be able to resist clicking on your links. This is my favorite book on article marketing, and it’s under $20, so be sure to check it out.
Steve also makes the point that EzineArticles.com is the best training ground for article writing. Their standards are higher than those of other free directories. If your articles are approved for publication by Ezine Articles, chances are high that will be approved by other free article directories as well.
Below is a short video from Ezine.com about creating an author resource box to get your started. But I recommend that you to check out You Can Make Money Writingto get even better advice about how to create simple, intriguing author boxes.
Kick A– marketer on his way to becoming a multi-millionaire?
Australian James Schramkoruns one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world.
His no BS style, generosity and clever-smart strategies attract thousands of visitors every month, including me.
Spend time on his blog and follow his advice – you’ll improve your sites and sales. I certainly have.
But James is also a ninja.
He uses secret tools and techniques to build high ranking sites and increase conversions.
He sometimes hints about them on his blog & Twitter
Makes you curious doesn’t it? You always figured successful marketers were doing things that they don’t talk about openly.
Yet James does share some of his secret tools and techniques if you know where to look. They are ultra cool and effective. Fun too. I use them daily.
I had to wait a little while to get behind the curtain. But it was worth it. Now I know many secrets - the secrets of other successful marketers including a mysterious Swiss guy named Andy.
P.S. Want to learn more about how James does things before joining the waiting list? Visit his blog, Internet Marketing Speed, and get his FREE 19 page report ‘Fast Start to Internet Marketing’
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