Check out http://www.interactive-marketing-blog.com, in addition to this site for updated information and view points on Interactive and Internet Marketing.

We will still keep this one too and update it regularly

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As a self-learned jack of all trades on the Internet, I think that I have had a breadth of knowledge in my own school of Internet Marketing.  I wanted to list some of these skills.  I have since compared them to some of the objectives that the above Internet Marketing schools are stating will be learned in their programs.  From an overall high level… .they are similar.  So how respected will experience be compared to these degrees?  Not sure… but wonder if you will comment!

Here are a few of the skill sets that I believe I have had to pick up in this great field of Internet Marketing.  RESUME Anyone?

790TheZone.com & Level Vodka:

* URL example: http://www.blackatlanta.com/announcement/newsletters/790thezone.html

* Need: Radio station and Liquor Sponsor needed event e-advertising

• I created standard HTML advertising campaign for station and passed event registrants to their custom sign-up page for event registration.
• Experienced high open rates to a demographically matched email list.
• Created a Quick Hit SEO plan, with less than one week search engine penetration for event keywords

* Post Mortem: http://www.blackatlanta.com/announcement/promotions/790thezone/level790.pdf

* Overview: Use of video to promote and evangelize and penetrate top level search engine positions.

* Video Spinning Example: Have used TrafficGeyser.com to “spin” videos to multiple video sites. The following screen print shows this spinning to gain positions 2,3,4 and 5 in Google for keywords.

* BraidsByBreslin.com Example: Promoted Braids By Breslin Product on Youtube and embedded in various feature pages, blogs, and articles to sell instructional DVD’s priced at $20 – $300

* Results of Youtube Use: Gained over 172K views to date and drove over $20K in revenue with the assistance of this Youtube campaign and Search Engine Optimization (NO PPC)

* URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwA2Z4rq7ak

* Presidential Campaign Viral Video Example: Virally seeded a Presidential campaign video that generated nearly 100K views in September 2008 (play.php, /main.swf)

* Article on site www.blackinternetmarketing.com was passively “stumbled” upon via StumbleUpon.com: Although this was not seeded nor paid for on StumbleUpon.com, I have personally seen the benefit of an exponential gravitation towards a site because of Social bookmarking. Results: From 23 visits on November 1, 2007 to 1157 Visits on November 9^th, 2007, there was a 4930% increase in daily visitors traffic, due to the power of a passive StumbleUpon.com bookmark.

* URL: http://blackinternetmarketing.com/the-importance-of-socialbookmarks-a-look-at-stumbleupon/-/Black-Internet-Marketing/2008/06/15/

* Stats Example:

* Background: Understand how a domain name with prime keywords, Title tags, qualified copy/content, strategically generated keywords, alt tags, incoming links from qualified sites can all contribute to the success of search engine positioning.

* Screen Print: number 1/1,960,000 results which leads to high organic Google referrals.

* Myspace.com: Perform marketing evangelism to over 3100 “friends” http://www.myspace.com/blackatlanta

* Facebook.com: Created a Facebook application on their Open Source Development platform! Check out http://apps.new.facebook.com/atlradio/ which has created a viral application installed on some profiles to allow Facebook members the opportunity to listen to Atlanta jazz, hip hop, r&b, and gospel via their profiles.

* Created my own Social Network Site http://community.blackatlanta.com generating almost 9K page views per month on the KickApps Platform with over 300 active members and 700 user-contributed pictures and videos.

* Overview: Have used www.free-press-release.com, multiple packages on www.prweb.com and strategic newsletter releases on highly spidered sites to generate viral PR and blog traffic. The following screen prints shows trendsetting by me using this method since 2003!

* Use of Helloworld.com: Utilize technology to teach Pay Per View Seminars. Live casting ability allows for users to call me, chat live, and take polls for an interactive presentation. Live cast can be seen at Helloworld.com OR on “Iframed” presentations on personal sites.

This allowed sharing of information & lead generation.

* Overview: Key understanding of use of wikis, blogs, personal sites, community sites, domain stack purchases, and more to maintain key search engine positions for personal names and corporate entities.

* Screen Print: High positioning of personal name “Brandon Johnson Atlanta”

* Overview: Key understanding of how to strategically blog and add copy via XML/RSS feeds to increase search keyword density. Subsequently, have a great understanding and working knowledge of services such as Sitemeter.com, Technorati, Pingerator.com, haloScan.com, and Feedburner.com to improve viral nature of blogs.

* Number 1 out of 7 MILLION results for my Blog …, Have a number 1 placement of a personal blog, www.blackinternetmarketing.com for keywords “black internet marketing”

* Overview: As a web developer and intermediate skilled designer, I am able to scope projects very well. I have a key understanding of great open source software packages such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and more and can use these platforms for economical installations leading to content rich SEO plans.

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Recently, Pirate Bay, a Peer to Peer Tracking site specializing in sharing music and film was ordered to be shut down. To do this, the Swedish court ordered their ISP (Internet Service Provider) to pull their plugs on hosting. That ISP, happened to be “Black Internet”.

Per an article on http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1530549/pirate-bay-pulled-internet..

Swedish authorities ordered that The Pirate Bay be disconnected from the Internet and the site’s bandwidth supplier Black Internet was threatened with a fine of $70,600 if it didn’t pull the plug.

However Black Internet’s shut down had hardly any effect on Pirate Bay. The site was completely offline for only a short while until another ISP was found. A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak that it “got a new connection to the net” pretty quickly.

Our serendipity came in as our site is optimized for decent traffic from the search terms “Black Internet”.

Tips and Suggestions For Analytical Serendipity.

1.  Watch your stats.  As seen below, we have a site that lately, has not gotten a lot of traffic.  However, a major spike from a reputable Analytics program like Google Analytics  lets you know that traffic is real.  (normally, Google will rule out Spider and bot traffic).

In this case, traffic increased over 900% in one day.

Traffic Boost for "Black Internet"

2.  Determine traffic source:  In this case, we know from the search engine report what keywords were successful.  “Black Internet”.  But whatever the source of the referrer traffic needs to be investigated.  Sometimes, this may even be social sites, such as Myspace, Facebook etc.  In this case, it was search engine positioning.

3.  Go research the traffic source:  If the source was a blog or article, then investigate to understand what you think caused the traffic boost.

In this case, our traffic boost came from the search engines.  So our next step was to do a search for those terms.  When that happened, immediately, we saw the reason for the surge of traffic.

"Black Internet" Search Engine Ranking

Ideas to Monetize Traffic.

1.  Try different products that may cater to the story.  In this case, we are evidently catering to:

• those who like peer to peer file sharing.
• those who may like films and music
• those who may need web hosting
• build an email list for future marketing.

Therefore, we can always start with Google Adwords to offer contextual ads.  OR we could offer affiliate marketing/CPC offers that may resonate with this audience.

Short Term Traffic.

The buzz will soon bust.  So utilizing this time to your advantage is KEY!

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Just kidding… but on the real, we had our webinar recently  on NO B.S. methods to make money online.   In this webinar, we showed the audience how to create online revenue via inexpensive website creation and promotion methods, with subsequent affiliate program monetization. 

Check out the webinar by Clicking Here…. It’s  Free

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Too many people these days may see the capitalistic shortfalls of men like Madoff….  Guys who rob, steal, and cheat.  However, in my eyes, his LOVE of money became the root of his evil  There is the other side of life with money, which shows that money can help one acquire the things that make his mind, body, and soul better.  Once these three are better, and in good and equal proportion, he or she is able to live his or her life to the fullest.  Agree or disagree?  Grab the book and let’s comment and talk about it!  The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

Chapter 1

The opening paragraph may be enough to scare the average person away… but truth may reign.  It says, “Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich.  No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of mone; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent, he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with. ”

Well, Money –>  Gets Things —>  Which helps to develop the mind, body, and soul.  VERY basic, and once you really assess it… believable. 

READ the full article here:  http://www.blackatlanta.com/home/?option=com_content&view=article&id=1455:the-science-of-getting-rich-chapter-1-review-and-reflections&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=124

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Yesterday, I was chatting with my oldest son about the economy and his job situation.  He has taken a “non-traditional” route.  By not finishing college, he has had a little harder road than some of his other friends who did finish school.

As I sat there trying to encourage him, I did take the opportunity to try to interest him in learning all that I do.  Now, granted, I have been doing this for years… so perhaps it looks a litte more intimidating than it really should.

I showed him some affiliate commissions…

Affiliate Commissions for Slim Chews

Braids By Breslin Affiliate Program

But with all of that, I am still not sure that he understands all of the streams of revenue join together to make some cool cash flow.

I TRIED to show him, (in terms he could understand), search engine optimized pages of mine showing a number 1 spot… but still not sure that he got it…..

Google Search Engine Optimization

I even tried to show him where his family, owns and operates BlackAtlanta.com and 30 other African American city sites with Number 1 Google Status out of 15 MILLION results, which brings miscellaneous affiliate dollars and ad deals from all kinds of companies…

Google Black Atlanta Positions

I even showed him how we get small daily checks from Google….

Google Daily Clicks

BUT… with all of that

I think the easiest for him to imagine was when I sparked his imagination by telling him that he could take something that he loved…. turn it into an electronic ebook… and then SELL it.

I helped him calculate the total hours that he thought it would take to write the ebook… and then what it would take to get it in front of a hungry audience who wanted it.  (it is a HOT idea… and if he does not write it, I will!)

Not everyone has an internet marketer for a dad.  But EVERYONE & anyone can acquire RESOURCES.

Personally, I would check out Tim Harris’ sytems.  He shows you how to “Beat the Recession/Depression By Learning How You or Anyone can Generate Instant Fast Cash with no mony, no special skills, or no connections on the internet. ”

Now, I am a realist…. so I preface my recommendation with two knowns for acquiring success..

• There are people in this world who have a silver spoon and the royal hookup.  They come from money, generate more money, and pass money to their kids.  Nothing wrong with that…
• THEN, there are hard workers….. who start with nothing and make something.

If you fall into the first boat, good for you.  Otherwise, in the second bullet, you summarize most of us.  You summarize my son, who can come up with unconventional ways to make cash, even though he did not do the “traditional” college route.

Tim shows you how to:

• implement cash generating strategies for the internet
• how to monetize web sites
• use tools to get started
• produce internet products within 24 hour
• write sales letters
• get people to endorse and praise your product.

Better yet, he has a 2 hour course on how to make money from CPA networks, (like I showed you above in the Slim Chews Money Screen Shot)

Again, click here to check him out…. If my son would read all of these helpful guides, and watch the videos, he too would be on his way….even if he has a marketer for a dad!

More Reading from BlackInternetMarketing.com

• See how I was able to use landing pages to market the Braids By Breslin program.  Click here.
• See how we started marketing a version of the Slim Chews CPA program by clicking here.
• Check out our comments on landing pages in the weight loss sector.. .Click here!

Good luck!

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Online dating is a huge market online.  We straddle the fence between Match.com and BlackSingles.com.

For us, BlackSingles has a better reception as far as media conducive to our demographic and better yet, they take the time to keep their banners fresh and up to date.  Our experience shows that Match.com has a seemingly larger database of potential dates…. But what good is that if no one is getting to those landing pages?

Here is an example of the testing that you should clearly do to effectively monetize traffic via all of your affiliate programs.

Goal: To get as many site visitors into a conversion funnel to become a dating customer.

Traffic Sources: Mostly organic traffic on one of our test sites:  www.blackatlanta.com

Our ClickThrough Stats:

Dating Impressions and Click Throughs for Multiple Banners

Please note that Revenue can still be generated on this clickthroughs!   As with most affiliate programs, we are most concerned with:

• setting that all important cookie
• getting them to sign up for an email list for the affiliates to market and convert
• a direct conversion, (which did not happen yet on these clicks)
  

Banners:

Banner 2401

Banner 2408

Banner 2413

Results

So out of 253 banner impressions, the 3 different banners got varying degrees of rotation.

Per the results, Banner 2413 was the winner with 80 impressions and 4 clickthroughs (5% ).  This banner also received ALL clickthroughs!

Some Reflections

Now, some may say that should clearly promote a winner only after a solid test number of impressions given.  Sure, we could have waited for 100 impressions a piece for ALL banners, but sometimes, a HUNCH can help you in making money.  Just ask Warren Buffet.

So clearly, the last piece of this is that we immediately go into our ad server and deactivate the two losers!

Now, these results were click through summaries for that the Affiliate program has provided to us.  You can use your analytics program or vendor programs… JUST GET STARTED!!!!

**************************************************************************************************************************

Update:  as of 2/10/09, Our study still stands… The Click through rate has decreased…. but with over 300 shows a piece, still has a better click through than the other two.

Click Through Is Still The Winner

DEFINITELY turning all traffic towards Banner 2413.

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Hair Braiding Tests

We utilize Zac Johnson’s Landing Page template to see if we can get a domain name ranked, and start sending traffic to an Affiliate Program.

In our articles Hair Braiding: How Hair Braiding Videos Padded My Pockets and Zac Johnson: Comparison Landing Page Template | SlimChews.net , we went over:

• Hair braiding DVD’s as an affiliate revenue stream
• Landing page templates, of which a couple great ones are located over at Zac Johnson’s blog.

Today, we launch an experiment to:

1. get a DOT BIZ domain name ranked, and hopefully well for the terms “hair braiding” or “hair braids”.  www.hairbraids.biz
2. utilize landing page templates by Zac, which we have definitely used successfully for conversions.

We will eventually utilize Google Optimizer to do an A/B test against Zac’s product comparison landing page and the regular landing page template available at his site.

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Reading up on JohnChow.com, I found an interesting shot and wanted to screen print it.

This screen shot is centered around the idea of that it is a usability nightmare, to have to scroll to the right and back again to continually read the light box contents.

Aweber.com has a feature, when making the lightbox, that will allow you to adjust the width.  Testing should be done in all browsers….

Yes, we have all done something …. we just got lucky by calling John’s web site out….

But How do you ensure compatibility in your browsers?

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Hair and Fashion have a huge market place online.  Do a web search for Hair Braids or Hair Braiding or Braids By Breslin to see how…

A couple of years ago, I advertised on BlackAtlanta.com for a company called “Braids By Breslin”.  The banners did not really have a very high click through rate for the general population of site visitors.  However, I quickly noticed in the stats that the term “Hair Braiding” was quickly becoming very popular as far as natural organic traffic for the site.

This was because of some ancillary content that I had added as a landing page for the terms.

So I contacted Braids By Breslin by email, and coincidentally, they were starting an Affiliate program.  I was their first affiliate.

For months, I enjoyed easy affiliate commissions from natural search engine traffic for “Hair Braiding”, and was even able to tweak search engine optimization for other keywords like “hair weaving” or “Kinky Twists”.   And then the GOOGLE flip out occurred.  Google flopped on me and my stream of revenue went down the drain.

Some Key Learnings

• Search engine optimization is a GREAT way for free traffic opportunities.  It is also VERY direct, in that the end user is definitely looking for your product or service.
• However, when Organic traffic is the ONLY source, if SEO efforts flop, then one should be prepared to supplement traffic in other ways.

A Solid Hair Braiding Product

Another key learning opportunity was basically that, you should promote strong products.  In this case, promoting an affiliate program, with strong products.  Here are some high quality Hair Braiding Examples!

With The Complete Training Package, You Get…

The Braids By Breslin “Four Hairstyles In One ” DVD

The Braids By Breslin “Cornrow Compilation” DVD

The Braids By Breslin “Weave Compilation: Volume 1 DVD”

The Braids By Breslin “Weave Compilation: Volume 2 DVD”

The Braids By Breslin “Master Wig Maker DVD”

The Braids By Breslin “Fusion DVD”

And The Braids By Breslin “Extensions” DVD

So,

1. Look for a niche in your traffic (Check your Stats!)
2. Then look for a product in which you could put in front of that demographic to buy!

Good Luck!

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