I’m following Guy Kawasaki on Twitter now. He just started maybe yesterday, but he’s addicted. It is addicting. If I ever run into him again I’ll know what to talk about: bowling at a bowling alley that has free wireless, playing hockey, etc. Plus I know his birthday is tomorrow. How else would I get to know someone famous so well without becoming his actual friend?

Seth Godin, will you Twitter next? I think you’d like it as much as Guy Kawasaki.

He has 511 followers in two days. He only follows 3 people. How many would Seth get?

Paul Wilson is now working full time on our businesses. He instigated something that I just love. The good news of the day. Each day he calls me to tell me something that has developed. Yesterday it was a new web site for our consulting work. I love surprises and suspense, so I can’t wait to hear what the good news will be.

I have good news of my own today - I’m going to CJU! I’ve always wanted to go to this affiliate marketing conference. It’s in Santa Barbara, California. All the major brand names attend. I will have a lot to blog about I’m sure. I already use Commission Junction as my main source to find affiliate programs, but there’s a lot I can learn. I’m interested in how small businesses are using affiliate marketing and ways to make it easiest for people just learning.

That’s it, my good news of the day. I think it’s a good idea to look forward to every day. Maybe I’ll start my own good news of the day with other people in my life. It’s often that the only time we hear back from people is on the bad news or what needs improving. So it’s good to communicate the small successes too. (Oh yeah, that’s what Twitter is for!)

Sometimes I think being funny or clever is one of the best marketing tools - as long as you’re genuinely funny and clever. Many of us appreciate a good story or to be entertained when we’re used to the same old.

I tell people when it comes to eBay auctions, and even on your web site, tell stories. Paint a picture with words. Don’t just put the facts, engage people. Involve them. The longer they stay on your site, the higher chance they will buy. So give them a reason. Even if they don’t buy if they smile they can’t help but like you.

This mom went to the grocery store with 6 kids. Somehow a box of Pokemon cards made it into her basket. She got home and discovered the ripped box. She tells the familiar story about what it’s like to shop with young kids. So she put the cards on eBay and it’s spread like crazy. Thanks to Crystal at Doba for the tip. You’ll have to finish the story yourself. She also blogged about the auction (smart).

This reminds me of a funny grocery shopping trip. When we got up to the checkout and started loading the food onto the conveyor belt my mom let out an alarmed cry. “Who put these in our cart??!” She held up a box of condoms. I think I was too young to totally get it, but I thought it was funny even then. And I don’t think it was me.

But who knows, once when shopping for used books I put a book in my cart about self hypnosis. I didn’t find out until we went to pay. So I guess it worked.

Google AdWords Management Software
What I’ve always hated most about pay-per-click advertising is managing it. I call it a babysitting job. I didn’t think Jeremy Palmer could do anything without being chained to his stats. I know over time he developed ways to mitigate that. Since he is mainly a PPC affiliate and a very successful one, I listen to his advice.

Since I know him I’m certain he didn’t just get lucky or that he got in early or any other excuse why he’s a millionaire as an affiliate. He’s also a decent person who is honest. If you’re running AdWords or other paid search campaigns, you should look into software to manage it.
I just got a newsletter from Jeremy Palmer. In it he endorsed some new software that makes creating and managing PPC advertising a snap. As you may know it automates a lot of things that Jeremy has done by hand for years. For example, when he promoting a dating site, he uses local keywords for states and cities all over the country. Then he makes landing pages - a version that matches each keyword. As you start to realize, this is INCREDIBLY time consuming.

Jeremy Palmer, the Utah super affiliate, has risen to the top tier of affiliate marketing. I know it’s been a lot of work, but I’m constantly amazed by his ability to continually learn and move forward. This is a VERY competitive industry and if you don’t produce, you don’t get paid.

I’m curious what John Jonas would have to say about this software. He’s another friend who is an expert at PPC.

It’s called SpeedPPC management software. It works for Google AdWords and MSN Adcenter.

Here are some of the benefits:

• Dynamically generates landing pages that perfectly match each keyword. Includes example templates.
• Simple code will track PPC across marketing channels, even through email autoresponder series that go on for years.
• Affiliate datafeed integration.This is some extremely powerful server side software that uses affiliate datafeed files to dynamically build as many landing pages as there are products. You can create a new ad group for every model and brand name.
• Learn about maintaining your Google AdWords quality score - this keeps your PPC costs down. If you’ve ever gotten a quality score alert, that means you’ve got to pay more per click or your ad is disabled. It can really hurt business.

I’m sure affiliates will use the tool to promote this product!

Check it out and let me know what you think. If Jonas reviews it, I’ll post a link. The software isn’t cheap, but considering how much you can spend on PPC advertising in a day, you can probably make it up within a day or two. If you have a small PPC campaign, this will help you expand it very quickly.

Check out Speed PPC AdWords management software…of course you don’t have to be an affiliate to use it.

You’ll hear more about this as the day approaches, but Paul Wilson and I are going to speak at the Utah New Media Conference this October. We’ll cover blogging basics - what blogging is and what it can do for your business. The conference is free.

Save the date: October the 18th from 1:00 - 3:00 at the Salt Lake Community College Miller Campus

www.utahnewmediaconference.com.

If you can’t wait to learn more about blogging (I’m probably hitting the wrong group) you don’t have to. Paul Wilson quit his job as a successful sales/marketing guru at Oracle last week and is now independent. He’s consulting with companies on their blogging strategy, and other SEO techniques. If you’d like to talk to him about your business, please fill out my contact form using the link above (you don’t have to live in Utah).

The Utah bloggers dinner is this Thursday, August 30 at Applebees in Draper, Utah at 6 pm:

123 E. 12300 S.
Draper, UT 84020

Everyone is responsible for their own food and for adding to the conversation. These are a lot of fun. If you’re a blogger you’re welcome to come, even if you’re not from or don’t live in Utah. I’m not sure if I can go this time - but I love going. It’s a loud group and once in a while you get a trade secret or gig. But the best part is hanging out with some of the coolest nerds in the state.

There have been a lot of great posts this week by friends about article writing and directory submission. These are ways to get valuable links from established web sites.

Here are the posts:

5 Methods For Coming Up With Strong Article Ideas - also applies to blog posts. I want to add one - books.

A Comprehensive List of Website Submission Directories from Paul Wilson

Building Your Personal Brand Without A Blog by Writing Articles by Jason at Jibberjobber

Top 6 quick tips to help you write compelling article content - from Moller Marketing

Here is an article about writing powerful headlines - Locker Gnome

Web Copy Overhaul in 10 Easy Steps - Locker Gnome

Writing takes time and work for me but I can do it and like doing it. It’s definitely something that anyone can improve on by learning and trying. Since writing (using keywords you want to rank for) is a big part of SEO and marketing your web site, it’s a good skill to develop.

My own ecommerce baby products store, an experiment for me, is getting really, really close. Check out Paisley Babies - baby products. The most exciting part of this store is still to come. I have a friend in Mexico I met through Twitter. He’s an artist and I commissioned him to paint some art for a baby’s room. It’s a set of a moon, star, and sun which are brightly colored.

I also want a selection of cards and t-shirts. I think I’ll search Threadless for now. Ok, I did. Not much of a selection yet. Cafe Press?

Here’s a picture of my favorite person (I got his teddy bear at Affiliate Summit):

I want to add the following features:

• design your own onesize feature
• paisley babies t-shirts for pregnant moms who are having twins, triplets, etc. with feature to make them into a e-postcard “coming soon…” and put the due date
• paisley baby cards and baby shower invites with paisleys of course
• comments on articles and a social networking piece
• printable cards that are free
• a forum to share baby care tips
• an affiliate-based baby products blog to review/discuss the best products, like my favorite, what I call the baby train. It’s a wagon with 3 compartments that the triplets in my neighborhood ride in.

I’m not baby hungry. This is part of my ongoing experiment to make my entire income online. I’ve never had an ecommerce store and wanted to be a 1-person shop. I know a mom with triplets and it fascinates me how they keep it all going. They are about 1 year old now - 2 girls and a boy. I was teaching about branding. For smaller retailers you need a target market or niche. This is mine.

Feedback or ideas welcome…and this is bigger than it appears…I want to do something much bigger for moms, more details to come.

I just noticed that Guy Kawasaki has a link to Doba - a Utah dropship product aggregator on his blog. It’s on the bottom right under “Alignments of Interest”. It says, “Doba - Drop ship products for ecommerce sales.” Does that mean Guy is an investor? I did some reading and he’s actually an adviser for the company.

I’m impressed that CEO Jeremy Hanks has Google alerts on his company. He notices what is said about Doba and comments on blog posts. Now that is conscientious! (I’m a huge fan of Google alerts as a way to track your online reputation - put one on your name and your company and Google will email you every time you’re mentioned online. Or, for ideas on what to blog about.). I also noticed for the words, “Guy Kawasaki, Doba” I have two posts in the top 20 on Google. One for this version of my blog and one from the old version. Different stories.

While I was on Jeremy’s blog - I watched an interview with him. He says the strongest product category on the Doba is computers/laptops, home & garden, electronics, bed & bath, and clothing & apparel. Also, about half of their customers are selling on eBay and half are selling their products in their own store.

Here’s where I think Doba is best - to round out your product selection when you only have a few products for your online store, or to make things more simple (no dealing with suppliers directly which for some can be a good thing). eBay is a lead generation tool people to your ecommerce site. Another company I’m curious about is called Shopster. How is it similar to or different from Doba?

Rich Schefren is truly a great writer, and his blog is first rate. He can really expand and illuminate an idea. Today I read his series about information overload.

The internet is so alluring that it can quickly suck up our time and leave little to show for it. We have easy access to the world’s best minds.

You know what Rich says is the root cause of information overload is for internet marketers? (this will surprise you):

“There is an underlying cause for our haphazard information gathering and it’s resulting information overload. Believe it or not, it comes down to self-esteem.”

What?

Lack of confidence. I know - not quite what I expected either. As my friend Nate Moller says: Focus, Focus, Focus. He’s a great example of having confidence to move forward without knowing all the answers. I see him do it regularly. He’s not afraid to ask or do something perfectly, he dives in and gets better by trying. I liked sitting across from him because he asked me a lot of questions. It made me feel good to share information with him. And at the same time I listened to his confident style and learned from him.

More from Rich: “…instead of trusting what we already know, we’re afraid of everything that we don’t know. It’s this fear that becomes the road that takes us off course (and, as he says, kills productivity). The net effect of the info-overload is that we diminish our ability to discern the great from the good and, in the process, make ourselves mediocre by measure.”

Confidence says you know enough and can learn what you don’t know. You can trust yourself. Most of us are self-taught. I often wondered if I really knew or if I was good at faking it. Then I decided to be honest about what I didn’t know even if it meant feeling stupid. I realized I knew more than I thought. I also realized that other people didn’t know everything either. I started to test what I thought I knew, made some mistakes but confirmed a lot too. Then I was more open to the many talented people I’ve met in this industry who are very generous with their knowledge.

Like Rich, I’m curious what you do to focus. How do you build self-esteem? And, how do you avoid information overload?