Hi Folks,
When I was growing up I was taught, “Never step in front of traffic.” Did you learn that, too?
Well, if the answer is yes, it’s time to unlearn that rule if you’re trying to sell stuff using the Internet. Don’t think the traffic will find you. You’d better find out where the traffic is and go stand in front of it.
This means showing up where your customers and prospects are hanging out (i.e. surfing), so that you can begin to realize the full potential of your market reach.
More on this in a minute . . .
I’m writing this from Mark Hendricks’ Internet Success System (ISS) Master Mind Conference. This is a closed conference for ISS members only. It’s a great way for people who subscribe to Mark’s ISS home study program to meet each other, network and hear from each other about how they’re developing their business, and to learn about novel Internet developments. Two of the participants – Jack Humphries and Ron Capps – discussed social power linking and social networking. Jack has recently released a free guide to social power linking: 2007Authority Black Book: The Best Web 2.0 Resources for Generating Traffic and Winning Customers.
Jack told us it isn’t enough to just have a blog; you need to set it up with the proper plug-ins*, get onto sites like My Space, create linkbait and spread the word by signing up on sites like mybloglog.com and technorati.com plus 10 more. It also means posting (automatically) to a sizeable share of the more than 50 social bookmarking sites. The 2007 Authority Black Book tells you what you need to do and why and lists all the sites or shows you where to find the rest.
Ron, who has a PhD in communication, and has several sites on My Space, pointed out that social networking in the 21st century has its roots in ancient Greek storytelling. As technology continues to develop to make it easier for us to communicate with each other by multiple means, the volume of conversation and social 
interaction will continue to grow dramatically because our stories support the connections we make that contribute significantly to our sense of life’s meaning and purpose.
You can get a free list of over 340 social bookmarking sites that Ron has compiled at: http://www.nicheprof.com/social-bookmarking-directory.html. He also has an audio interview in which he discusses the hows and whys of social bookmarking.
‘Til next time.
Eli
Eli Sadownick
esadownick@y2marketing.com
*Note that WordPress.com does not support plug-ins; you’ll need to have your blog hosted. See wordpress.org for more information.
