There are no Social Networking Secrets!

Make Tons of Money Every Day Without Working- Yeah Right!

2010-12-17T08:30:00.001-06:00

There is money to be made on the internet. There are money making programs that actually work out there, but let me clue you in on a little secret: If someone is making a ton of money on the internet they are not going to share their secrets for $19.95 In fact they are not going to even share the secrets for $999.95 They are going to continue making money with their system until they no longer making money from it.

Then they are going to sell their system to you. Yes, you heard me right, after the money is all dried up from their system they will box it up and sell it to you, thus making themselves money on a system that no longer works. You may think I am crazy but it is very true. No one is going to make it so they can no longer make money just so that you can.

The programs that actually work are things like Google Adsense which is 100% free to start and 100% free to continue. There are other ad-based programs out there that are also 100% free to start and 100% free to continue. Amazon has a great associates program that is 100% free to start and 100% free to continue. Other things like CafePress where you design and sell T-Shirts is 100% free to start and 100% free to continue. The point is, just about every program you see out there that is for sale is also, you guessed it, 100% free to start and 100% free to continue.

I take it all back. Nothing is 100% free these days. There is the cost of your computer and your Internet and of course you must put a dollar value to your time. What I am getting at is that there is no need to pay someone else for their research when you can do the same research in the time it takes for the package to be mailed to you.

There is one other thing that I would like to mention. BE CAREFUL who you give your credit card info to. Recently there was some proof that one of the programs was actually created by terrorists and they used the money to fund acts of terrorism. There was also a program sold that opted you in for monthly subscriptions that did not exist so again, BE VERY CAREFUL.

Got comments or questions? Post them here or send an email to ClearNetworking@gmail.com

The Next Best Thing Since the Instructions for Slicing Bread

2010-12-16T08:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we talked about the follower and how to increase the quality of your followers. Today let's take a look at the quality of your tweet and how to make it re-tweetable. You could have just written the next best thing after the instructions for slicing bread and it will not matter one bit if no one ever sees the content of your link. It will just fade away into the ether of the internet.

Those who took some journalism class might remember an entire unit or chapter on how to write headlines. Imagine your website or blog to be the New York Times and it is buried on page 23. Somehow you must make your headline so catchy that it will make the reader stop and read your article. The casual reader will scan for something of interest.

Just remember one very important thing, no matter how catchy the headline it needs to be about the article (or in this case website or blog) otherwise you will not get repeat customers. I am by far not a great headline writer and even I need to work on this. I do remember my journalism class and my teacher says headlines can be done two ways: good or terrible, there wasn't an in between. My teacher said to write the article first then build a headline. I am sure it could work the other way around as well but this is the way I do it.

Write your article, give it a catchy headline and then add your link. Here is a note for you, if you have a website it is better to use your actual link rather than a link shortening service. Why? Most people like to know where they are going when they click a link. Some people do not care, but many will not click a link if it is completely blind. If you need to use a link shorting service try using ones people see all the time like twitpic, tinyurl or google. This will at least help a little.

That is it for today. Come back tomorrow for another tip on how to increase your following on any given social network. Got questions or comments? Post them here or send an email to ClearNetworking@gmail.com

How to get the Best Kind of Followers on Twitter!

2010-12-15T08:30:00.001-06:00

Followers are important on Twitter. The more followers you have the easier it is to spread your message, sell your product, offer your services and so on. The most important thing is having the right kind of followers. Just having a lot of followers that ignore everything you say just makes you look big to someone who doesn't know what twitter is all about. Lets talk about some ways to increase the quality of your followers.

Do a quick marketing plan to determine who would be interested in your product or service even if it is just you that you are marketing. That may seem silly to you if you are just doing Twitter for fun and to meet new people but the idea still applies. What kind of people would be interested. Get specific on this. Do not settle for men between the ages of 22 and 29 who make $30k a year because they are all different.

Try to get very specific on the the type of person you want to reach. Such as men 22 to 29 who make $30k a year and play first shooter PlayStation games on Friday night instead of going out on a date. Or women 27 to 36 who make $45k a year and have their hair and nails done on Tuesdays between the hours of 2pm and 4pm. Okay, maybe that is a little too specific but I think that you get the point.

The main thing is to try and get specific types of people to follow you so that they will be interested in your product or service. That way when you make a tweet it will catch their eye and they will ask for more information or click on a link. These types of people can be found by using the search feature that Twitter has. Type in key words just like you were looking for something in a search engine. Remember the more specific you get the closer you will get to finding what you are looking for.

This series will continue tomorrow. Please feel free to give me some feedback if you want by posting a comment or by sending an email to ClearNetworking@gmail.com

The Biggest Secret about Twitter Social Networks Don't Want You to Know!

2010-12-14T08:50:00.002-06:00

Yes, it is once again to talk about your Twitter followers. How many do you have now? 10,000 or maybe 25,000 or maybe even more. You've done everything to increase your Twitter followers so that you can have more leads with whatever special program it is that you are trying to work. Now what?

Chances are that you do not have much of a real following. Most of the time your big numbers are pretty much other people just like you who are trying to get massive amounts of followers to sell their special program. Kind of a vicious cycle isn't it. Try this, look at your stream and see how many of your followers are are posting questions about what you are trying to sell or provide. Are they seeking out your services or are they offering pretty much the exact same thing?

What I am getting at here is that social networking does nothing for you if you are trying to build a network based on people trying to sell the exact same thing. It would be like if Walmart and Target were friends telling one another about their latest deals. See what I mean. You need to try and build a social network of people interested in what you are selling or offering not fellow competitors.

No one is really teaching how to get massive amounts of followers that are interested in what you do. Well, there may be a few but I don't see ads for them for some reason. This week I will do my best to share some valuable ideas for building an interested social network. Just remember one good solid lead is better than 50,000 leads that lead nowhere. Tune in tomorrow and see what I have up my sleeve.

I would love to hear what you have to say. Argue with me. Ask me a question. Yell at me. Leave a comment or shoot me an email at ClearNetworking@gmail.com

Earn the Respect of your fellow Tweeters

2010-11-10T09:41:00.003-06:00

You can have 50,000 twitter followers and it might mean absolutely nothing. You may have 798 followers and it means everything. It isn't about how many followers you have, don't let anyone tell you different. It is about the quality of followers.

MySpace used to be the end all and be all of social networking. Now it is just bands telling other bands about their shows. It has gone by the wayside and very few individuals even bother logging into their accounts any more. Twitter is quickly becoming the next MySpace. Look at your feeds. Is is social networking experts talking to other social network experts about the next big scheme?

The way you build a solid base on Twitter is not to just run out and get as many people following you as you can. The key is to make people want to follow you! How do you achieve this? First off, don't spam. Let me repeat that, do not spam people. Did I mention that spamming people is bad? People get enough spam. They don't want to see it from you.

If you read an article you think will help someone, tweet about it. If you wrote an article that might help someone, tweet about it. If you have a product that might be useful to someone, tweet about it. But the most important tweet is engaging someone in conversation. Just saying hello goes a long way. You don't automaticly have respect when you start your Twitter account. You have to build respect and earn trust so that when you do have something to share it doesn't just get ignored.

How AdSense Works For You

2010-11-09T08:47:00.005-06:00

If you start doing Google AdSense to get rich, it isn't going to happen over night if it even happens at all. There are so many people selling the perfect system to make millions of dollars with AdSense. Want to know the only ones who actually make millions of dollars with AdSense? Google. Yep, that is about it.

Every time you see the headline "So and so, makes $37,000 in on week from Google AdSense and so can you!" just go on about your business because the reality is that you might do weel to make $37 a week unless you have several million readers on your blog a day.

We are not saying that it is impossible to make great money with AdSense, we are just saying that even if some of the things you read are true they are the exception and not the rule. Don't quit your day job when your $39.95 best system in the universe arrives at your door. Guess who just made money with that? We'll let you figure that out.

There is a huge wealth of knowledge about AdSense on the internet. The best information does not cost you one dime. It is located on Google, you know, the guys who created the system. They have pages and pages of information that these other guys copy and sell to you. Take a few minutes and take a look at what Google has on their site about their program and see if you really want to put money into the guys pocket that just happened to copy and past the info into a sheet for you for $39.95

How To Network 101

2010-11-04T11:31:00.002-05:00

How do you start the long journey called Social Networking? Fist thing that you need to realize is that there are no secrets worth paying for! Anyone claiming to have the secret or the best program and asks you to pay for it is selling you lies. Not one part of social networking requires you to pay anything more than for internet access and if you cannot afford that, there are free internet wi-fi sites popping up every day.

What most of these systems do is exploit you for not knowing how say facebook or Twitter works. Every bit of the information is out there to find 100% free of charge. All you have to do is use a search engine to find it. Some people will try to convince you that their time tested and proven approach is better than the other thousand guys. That is a lie.

Do your research, ask for tips for free. But if you really must give someone your money, why not give it to charity and write it off. ALL of the information they are selling is free somewhere else. If you don't believe me, then go ahead and spend that $19.95 to $199.95 then find the information out there. I bet you won't get a refund. Your satisfaction isn't guaranteed, theirs is.

Print media on the decline?

2010-11-03T12:41:00.003-05:00

There was a time when you sat down in the morning to read the paper with a nice cup of coffee. How many people still do that? It turns out that most print media is starting to have a larger online following than print. The lower overhead allows publications to offer online subscriptions at a fraction of the print rate.

A lot of people today get their news from facebook or Twitter posts. Is social networking taking over the news industry? That is a great question and we would love your feedback.

How has Social Networking changed Election day?

2010-11-02T14:54:00.003-05:00

There was a time before the internet. Most people do not remember that computerized social networking is a relatively new thing. Before MySpace, before facebook, before Twitter, there was word of mouth, there was the tv, there was the radio.

Election time is today. Even though we do not have a presidential election this year, there are many important issues on the ballots. Today we would like to pose the question "How has Social Networking changed your view on candidates and issues surrounding elections?"

Has it made it easier to make a choice? Has it made it harder to make up your mind? How has it changed things for you personally. Please feel free to post a comment, we really want to know what you think.

It has been a while

2010-11-02T12:11:00.001-05:00

It has been over a year since we posted anything. Though we have good reasons for not posting, we have decided to not bore you with the details. We just wanted to let everyone know that we would be starting our blog back up here. Feel free to view some of the older blogs. Over the next few weeks we will be bringing over some of the blog posts from our other site. We are very happy to be back!

Getting Started with Social Networking

2009-08-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

In today's economy many of us are looking for ways to make more money. There are many get rich quick scams out there that promise to make you rich with only working for 15 minutes a week! My favorite ads show images Obama giving you a stimulus check or lowering your interest rates and "How I made $12,00 by placing ads on Google!" It all makes me laugh! NEVER give your credit card info to any of these places!

Yesterday I asked you to write a list of topics that you are passionate about. I also asked you to pop those ideas into a search engine and see how many pages came up. Hopefully you listed the number of pages shown next to each topic. Any topic that has less than 5,000 or 10,000 pages put a line through it, these will probably not be useful for making any kind of money. Keep the ideas written down but lets look at the ones that have 50,000 plus pages listed. Your chances are a lot better with these!

Time to start writing blogs, right? WRONG! O.K. Maybe not wrong, but I would like to suggest something else before you ever start writing. First off a name. A name you ask? Yes, choose a name for your blogging profile. Your username should be 15 characters or less and should describe your topic. Next you need to check to see if the username you chose is available. Available where, you might ask? Well, check blogspot.com, wordpress.com or where ever you choose to host your blog.

Don't register your blog yet! Check your username at social media spots like MySpaace, FaceBook and Twitter too! Believe me, it looks a lot better if you have the same username in multiple spots, it is called branding and it helps! Be sure to check with gmail.com and or other free e-mail sites. I like gmail.com for my web mail because it is linked to other Google programs and it just makes it all a lot easier. Once you have a username that is available at all the spots go ahead and register all all of the sites. Just an FYI- you should write down all of the usernam/passwords on a piece of paper so that you do not forget them! Do not sign up for adsense just yet. We'll get to that in just a minute.

Now, is it time to start writing? NO! Now what? Well, you now have multiple sites that you just registerd for. You should go ahead and try to fill out all of the profile information on all of the sites. If you are web savy and or graphicly inclined go ahead and set up all your sites to have the same theme. Most of the sites allow you to use your own CSS and if not they at least have the ability to modify what they have on their site. Be sure to use the same profile image on all of your accounts. This helps to build your "brand" and will help out in the long run.

Alright, now write seven articles with about 400 words in each article in your Word Processor program and save them. Yes, you are using one of your topics that you are passionate about. Once you have seven articles, write seven more and save them as well. Be sure to have an image in mind for each article. After you have 14 articles post them to your blog. On blogspot and wordpress you can schedule your atrticles. Schedule the first seven articles as being posted last week. Post the next seven articles to come out over the next seven days. When you are done it should look like you started last week and you have the next week scheduled to go.

Making Money is Hard Work!

2009-08-03T07:33:00.001-05:00

Last week we talked about making realistic goals for making money. Once again I want to stress that if you want to make a lot of money very fast without spending any this advice will not help you! Making money is hard work. Think of it like making minimum wage at your first job. You had to make the minimum for a while before you could make more. Walk before you run, well maybe crawl before you can walk.

There are many sites out there that offer the end-all be-all success in a box program. Well, selling that information for $97 or $149 or even more did make those people rich. They got rich from working hard and finding out what people want. People want to get rich quick even though everyone knows that the "results may vary" statement should read "results are not typical, the typical result is to quit well before you ever make a dime!"

Alright, back to step one and setting up goals. So, you have set your realistic goal and broken it down into how much you need to make a day for that goal to be made. Keep this in mind, the first month you will more than likely not make any money at all. So, do not get discouraged remember you are trying to build a long term wealth building program even if your goal is to make an extra $25 a week. $25 a week equals $1300 a year. That does not seem like much but that is a realistic goal!

The next important thing to know is that no matter what, the best way to make money with adsense is to blog. Many of the $97 programs out there are nothing more than a list of topics for you to blog about. What these people do not tell you is that unless you are passionate about what you are blogging about you are likely to never make a dime! Blogging is about passion. It does not matter what you blog about as long as you are passionate. Somewhere out there someone is buying adwords about what you are blogging about!

I guess we should back up just a bit and explain adwords and adsense. Adwords is a Google advertising system where people bid on keywords so that when the keyword is used their ad will show up. Adsense is a Google advertising system where they place ads on your site relative to the keywords you use on your blog or website. The easiest way to understand would be to go to Google and read about it there.

O.K. Back to step two. You don't need to be worrying with adsense just yet anyway! The first part of step two is figuring out what you are passionate about. So, until tomorrow, think about all the things that you are passionate about and write them down. Make a huge list, make a small list, just make a list. After you have a list, type the idea into Google or another search engine. See how many pages come up. Tomorrow we will discuss the results.

How to Make Money with no Financial Investment!

2009-07-31T07:49:00.005-05:00

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So, you want to make a ton of money without spending any? You want to get rich fast? Your goal is to quit your day job and live off the money you make while you sleep? Well, your time has come! With my proven system for generation large amounts of cash while only working three minutes a week is finally here! Um, and then you woke up!

Anyone who tells you that you can make a boatload of cash without any work is full of it or they are suggesting something illegal or both! If you have an e-mail address I am sure that even the best spam filter does not filter out all of the get rich quick scams out there. Be careful not to follow any of the links to the make money from nothing sites, many of them make money off of you!

The first step in making money is setting a goal. You would not start anything if you did not have a goal in mind. If your goal is to make $5000 a month from home working 15 minutes a day, read no farther! If you set your first goal to make an extra $5 to $10 a week within the first couple of months and making much more in the log run then keep reading! Expect to make about $.10 an hour or less for the first couple of months.

Step one is to set realistic goals. Take a minute and look at what your short term goals are. Take a look at how much you would need to make each day to meet your short term goals. Remember that it will not happen over night nor will it happen very fast, but if you build a strong foundation you can create something that will add income for you forever.

We will be looking at step two next week. If you have any questions in the mean time please feel free to leave a comment!

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How to make money without spending any!

2009-07-29T09:30:00.004-05:00

Been gone for a couple months but I am back now! I want to help you make some money without spending anything but time!I am going to show you how to make extra money in your spare time. How would you like to earn an additional $40,000 a week by working 10 minutes a week? So would I but that is very unreasonable! Making an additional $100 a week is not unreasonable!

What could you do with $100 extra a week? Starting next week I will be exploring some guaranteed ways of making additional income with a small amount of effort. Of course, you will have to spend some time working to get the income stream started but once you get everything lined up it is just a matter of keeping things fresh and new.

Nope, I am not going to give you any get rich quick or pyramid schemes, just tested true ways to earn extra income with your spare time. So, if you really are looking for that $40,000 a week go somewhere else and buy their package! I am selling nothing! Now, if you end up making it big from my ideas it would be nice to buy me a beer or something, but I am not asking for it. If you do decide you want to buy me a beer let me know and I will be happy to accept it!

I invite you to tell your friends about this blog. If you have comments or suggestion please feel free to send them my way!

Social Networking: Kids Know Best!

2009-06-07T09:21:00.004-05:00

The early bird catches the worm. Cliche? Yes, but still very true. When it comes to social networking you never know what the next big thing will be. You never know if that obscure site is going to end up being talked about on some famous talk show. If you were in at the beginning, then you may be able to benefit better than if you were not!

I am not saying that you should go and sign up for every single new social networking site. Well, if you have the time to do that, that is definitely the best thing to do. Not many of us have the time to seek out the new stuff each and every day. Time is important so use common sense and start with the people who make social networking site boom or plop!

Got children? Are they in the teen years? Maybe early 20's? This is probably your very best source for finding the next big social networking site. I swear, it seems that the teens of today know way more about anything dealing with the net than any of us older generation! A huge plus is that they don't charge huge consultant fees to answer a few questions!

Want to know what the next best application is? Ask a 16 year old! Or if you are thinking about creating the next best social networking site or application, ask your kid what they want! I know it may seem silly, but rarely do you hear about a group of 50+ year old group of guys starting a social networking site in their garage! Nope, instead you'll find many teenage millionaires who started by trying to make something better or easier for them to use!

I am not saying that every teen has all the answers but they do have some answers! Be sure to tap into this valuable knowledge base every chance you get! You won't be disappointed. Questions or comments? I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

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All abouth the Hash Tags!

2009-05-19T08:15:00.004-05:00

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From #followFriday to #tips, hash tags are a great way to organize and categorize conversations on Twitter. Hashtags.org shows the most recent group tweets on Twitter

To see which groups have already been created, visit www.hashtags.org - the official site that creates, organizes and displays these groups. Use the search box in the upper right corner to see if your group name is already available. If it isn’t, you can create it simply by tweeting and including the hashtag (#) within your post.

It is now time to familiarize yourself with hashtag commands, so that you only broadcast a message out to the people you want to receive it, those being the members of your hashtag group. Here’s a quick rundown of the more useful ones:

1. Follow #tag - (example: follow #tip) - lets you follow all updates tagged with #tip.  

2. Follow username#tag - subscribe to all updates from a certain person that are sent to a group. (Example: Follow @ClearNetworking#tip will give you every post by @ClearNetworking sent to the #tip group) 

3. #tag message - Send a message or question to the group. (Example: #tip Don't set up an automated message with a web address in it.) 

4. #tag !message - Send a message only to people who are subscribed to updates from #tag. (Example: #tip !How many tips have you retweeted today?)  

5. Leave #tag - Unsubscribe from the group. If your friends are subscribed to this group as well, you’ll still get messages from them that include updates for the group. (Example: leave #tip will unsubscribe you from the Tips group, but you’ll still get messages from your friend whenever send a message to #tip). 

6. Remove #tag Unsubscribe from the group and from friend messages that include this tag. So if @ClearNetworking posts directions to #party010 and you’ve typed Remove #party010 in your Twitter status bar, you won’t see the directions even if @ClearNetworking is on your followers list.

It might be a good idea to print out this list and keep it with you for a while until you remember what command does what. Questions? Comments? We'd love to hear them!

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Common Sense Social Networking!

2009-04-21T07:58:00.004-05:00

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Everyone wants to think that once you have a product and a social network that you automatically start making "the big bucks!" This is just not the case. In order to make money you have to work at it. And in some cases you may have to spend some money to make some money. Nothing in this world is totally free, but that does not mean you have to pay cash for everything!

The biggest secret to social networking is that there are no secrets. Be Social! The number one thing missing from social networking is being social! If you have thousands of people in your social network you may find it difficult to talk to each and every one of them on a regular basis. Finding creative ways to communicate with your social network is the goal of every networker.

Find out who is actually listening to you. Whether you are on Twitter or FaceBook or MySpace, it does not matter how many people are in your social network if they are not paying attention to you. Try and ask questions and see if you get a response. Offer prizes or gifts for filling out a survey. Try and see who is paying attention and why, but more importantly find out who isn't paying attention.

Though it may look impressive to your friends, having 25,000 followers/friends/etc means nothing if none of them are paying attention. Make sure that you are adding people that will be interested in your niche. The broader the niche the broader your target audience. If making money is your nich then the sky is the limit! If hand made potholders are your nich you'll find less people who will follow you.

The best friends or followers are the ones that find you! These people sought you out or saw your information somewhere and came to you. Treat them like gold! You want these people to always feel like they are welcome in your network. Be sure to never mislead anyone into your social network. This can cause big problems later on. If you are offering something for free make sure that you delivger!

This is all common sense. Sometimes we forget the core reasons for having the social networks in the first place, to be heard and seen by people that will support your business or cause. I would like to hear your views on this. Please leave your questions and comments here.

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Social Networking Results May Vary!

2009-04-08T07:46:00.004-05:00

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There was a time when "word of mouth" was the only way to get information to people! That time was not all that long ago. We've come a long way in the past couple hundred years. "Word of mouth" is still the most powerful form of advertising available to us. Of course, today, the words have changed and so has the mouth!

You can put an ad in front of a million people and perhaps one or two percent may actually look at the ad and one or two percent of the ones that look will actually look at your product or service. Of that percentage maybe one or two percent will actually buy your product or service. So in the end, you have a few dozen sales from one million views. That may be just fine to you.

On the other hand, if someone buys your product or service and they tell five or ten people about it and they in turn tel five or ten people, well then, you could have hundreds of sales just from one satisfied customer! "Word of mouth" costs very little compared to placing a million ads.

Places like Twitter, facebook, MySpace and all of the other dozens of social networking sites give you the opportunity to builds a buzz about your brand, your service or your product. The time it takes to learn the proper etiquette and build the network is your only expense in most cases. Time is money and companies pay very well to build a social networking campaign. For the rest of us, we must "learn the ropes" so to speak.

Here are a few tips that might help to grow your social network a little faster:

Tip #1: Remember the "golden" rule! Don't do anything that you would not want done to you! I could just stop with this one rule and everything would be great!
Tip #2: If you don't no the answer, ask someone for help! Knowledge is power! The more you know, the more you can do! Asking for help shows just how intelligent you really are!
Tip #3: If you do know the answer, let people know, but don't be a know-it-all! By all means help out your friends, enemies, acquaintances! It will do nothing more than make you look good and increase your reputation!
Tip #4: Always remember that anything that is typed on a social network is logged somewhere! Somewhere, everything is being stored! So, use common sense when writing! If you don't want your grandmother reading it chances are maybe you should not write it!
Tip #5: Remember, there will always be someone better than you! There will always be a better marketer, networker, etc out there. Learn what you can from each and every one of them!
Tip #6: Remember everyone starts out a noobie, n0oB, Newbie, etc! Try to remember this when someone asks you a question that seems really stupid! You might have asked similar questions when you started out!
Tip #7: If someone helps you out, try and remember to help them out when they need it! Or if they don't need help, pay them back by helping someone else out! "Pay it forward" so to speak!
Tip #8: Everything has a niche audience! You just have to find them! Not everyone likes everything! That is part of the beauty of free enterprise!
Tip #9: Cutting corners can often times send you back to the beginning to start all over! Many an account on many a social networking site have been banned for trying to skip the "building process" and jumping rightinto the "spamming process!"
Tip #10: Free advice is the best advice! Take it with a grain of salt and study for yourself! You'll get conflicting advice from everyone! They are all right and they are all wrong! It is your responsibility to seperate what works for you with what does not!
Tip #11: If it costs $97 or $47 or even $1.97 rest assured that the only person making money from that is the one selling it to you! All the information they provide you can be found free of charge. Sometimes you'll have to look harder than others.
Tip #12: The internet is FULL of FREE information, sometimes you just have to search for it! Use multiple search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Altavista. Each search in each engine will provide different results!
Tip #13: Never trick someone by using the word FREE if you are charging for something! Many sites out there offer FREE information until you read the fine print! It is just rude to trick someone into a recurring credit card charge- sometimes it can even be considered a criminal act!
Tip #14: Always give an option to opt-out in every situation, e-mail, subscription, etc. Always give everyone the opportunity to walk away at any time. This will come back as a positive experience for everyone involved!
Tip #15: If you see someone in need, help them out, it will come back to you! Helping others is always a good marketing strategy! You never know when you may need a hand!
Tip #16: Work hard and rewards come! My Crazy old uncle used to say: "The harder I work the luckier I get!" This is very true! Luck always has a part to play in all things!
Tip #17: Set aside time for each social network you build everyday. 10 min for MySpace, 30 for Twitter, 15 for facebook, etc....Good routines produce better results than no schedule!

How do You Turn Your Blog into a Source of Income?

2009-04-03T12:10:00.003-05:00

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So, you want to make money without spending any. So, you want to make money working only 15 minutes a week. You have come to the wrong place. Those get rich quick scams are just that- scams. Anyone that says you can make money without spending any is trying to sell you something. Hard work and knowledge can keep you from spending money but always remember that your time is worth money. Don't sell yourself short!

Learning how to make money is not always the easiest thing! There are a lot of companies out there that are trying to take advantage of your desire to make some extra money. If they charge money, believe me, the information can still be found for free! You just have to learn to be savvy enough to find it. Ironically, free information can be your cash cow so to speak!

Google AdSense is one of the easiest ways to generate income through your Blog. If you set up your blog through Google it is very easy to set up AdSense on your blog. If you used another blog platform there are instructions on how to set up AdSense either on Google's site or your blog platform site. Either way, go ahead and set it up. The best click through ads seem to be the text ads not the picture ads. You may want to play around with the ads to see what works best for you. The ones that seem to work the best for me are text ads that follow the same color scheme as my site.

Now comes the fun part! Go ahead and try to write as many articles as you can ahead of time. Writing multiple articles at one sitting also gives you a stronger continuity. Some people actually write a very long Blog then break it up into multiple posts. Either way, you want people to come back, so give them a reason to do so!

Write about what you know because you do not want to look like you are guessing. Be sure to spell check your articles. Be sure to not add a lot of jargon or slang that others will not understand. Be sure to have catchy titles that stand out. There are books written about how to blog. There are no secrets other than writing well written easy to read articles about what your passions are.

If you have questions or comments I would love to hear what you have to say!

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13 Tips to increase your followers on Twitter

2009-03-25T11:55:00.003-05:00

Click HERE to Tweet this Article!

Twitter is huge and getting GINORMOUS! It seems that everyone is writing about ways to get more followers. Here are a few tips that will help you to get more Twitter followers.

Tip #1: Get your name listed with Twitter Directories such as JustTweetIt, WeFollow and Twibes will increase your visibility and attract more followers.

Tip #2: Match your Twitter Theme with your Blog Theme and your Website Theme and yor MySpace and your Facebook, etc. List all your info in the back ground. It may not be clickable but at lest it is listed!

Tip #3: Be PROactive! ReTweet interesting articles. Start conversations. Join conversations. But remember the PRO part of that- BE PROFESSIONAL!

Tip #4: Don't just post links to your site! Post links to other peoples sites. People tend to return the favor. However, Don't post links to sites you have not actually seen, this could assoicate you with poor content!

Tip #5: Add Widgets to your blog, MySpace, Facebook, etc with your feed. Make them show around 5 posts. People will see how much fun you are having and join you!

Tip #6: Put your twitter info in your e-mail signature and your signature everywhere including message boards! The more it is listed the better!

Tip #7: Add your Twitter info to your business card! This one is a no brainer! People actually still use business cards!

Tip #8: Add your Twitter info to any Press Release you may send out! Mention that you Tweet current information on a regular basis!

Tip #9: Ask your followers to share you with their Twitter followers. Be sure to ask nicely! Get more followers by asking your followers to spread the word about you. Word of mouth is the best FREE advertising anyone can have!

Tip #10: Always follow those who are following you! It will help you to interact! If you keep a close balance ratio people will see that you are actively following others as well.

Tip #11: Use #followfriday every Friday! This little tradition has gotten huge! There is an article written about that on here somewhere!

Tip #12: Do unto others! Treat everyone on Twitter like you would like to be treated! The Golden Rule applies to every social networking site!

Tip #13: Tweet often! The more you tweet the more you will get followers! Tweeters like active tweeters!

Smart Social Networking: Quantity versus Quality

2009-03-24T08:08:00.004-05:00

Too many people fail at social networking because of one simple mistake. When it comes to a question of Quantity versus Quality many choose quantity over quality. It all comes down to being able to turn your social network into dollars. People falsely assume that if they have a large social network that they will be able to make a lot of money from it.

I would rather have 50 customers than 50,000 people in my social network that buy nothing. If you take the time to choose the people in your network based on your demographic you will find a lot better return than using one of those auto-friend adder. Remember, the only people that sign up for that are other people trying to grow their list so that they too have quantity!

When it comes to MySpace finding people within your demographic is as easy as a search in the Browse People section. On Twitter it is no different. http://search.twitter.com allows you to put in a search topic and see who is tweeting about it. Taking the time to find people who are actually interested in your product or service will increase your sales potential astronomically!

Don't fall into the habit of randomly adding people to your social network. Build a network of like minded and potential customers. Another great service especially for this is Ning.com and they allow you to set up your own social network niche in a MySpace-like platform. Though I have not used Ning.com I have heard some wonderful things about it.

Take the time to do things the right way not the fast way. Once you start cutting corners you start to lose out on a lot of experience. I know people who have actually been banned multiple times and places because they are always trying to cut corners. If you have questions or comments I would love to hear them!

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What is #FollowFriday on Twitter All About?

2009-03-20T09:29:00.011-05:00

If you are new to Twitter let me tell you about a little tradition started some time back. In efforts for friends to recomend other friends a hashtag was started to help organize the posts into a usable searchable database.

It is a great way to make new friends and get more followers. It is like a word of mouth endorsement from a close friend. Well, maybe it isn't all that! Some MLM companies and mass marketers over utilize the #FollowFriday to get more followers to spread their MLM and Make Money Quick schemes. But, I digress.....

One must have feature in using #FollowFriday is the use of the hashtag in the message field. Use #FollowFriday anywhere in your message and all the @tweeple listed will go into the database. For fun you can type #FollowFriday into the Search Twitter page and see just how many people are using it!

By Clicking HERE you can see how #FollowFriday is used. If you are logged into your twitter account your message area should have a message in it saying: "@ClearNetworking would like to share his FollowFriday Information with you http://tinyurl.com/cr8nmu" Please note you'll need to add the # to FollowFriday for it to actually work.

We will discuss more information on the use of #hashtags later on. If you have questions or comments I would love to hear them!

Twitter Hoax Helps Twitter?

2009-03-19T13:55:00.005-05:00

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Today an article on a well known blog caused quite a stir. Although it was quite obvious to many people that it was a hoax, there were still more than a few that believed it! I am sure that Twitter received more complaints and or comments than they ever have today. Which leads me to a question: Does false information grow your business?

The hoax brought more people to Twitter so perhaps it was a help not a hindrance. I have a friend, a musician, that said any spin is good advertising. To prove it, he got himself arrested in the middle of one of his shows and his CD sales tippled as did his bookings. So, like it or not, Twitter will profit from this hoax!

Just for the record here is the info that was going around. You can see that it is obviously a hoax by the "levels" of services being named after birds.

Premium accounts will come in four tiers: Sparrow, Dove, Owl and Eagle.

The details of the Premium Accounts Hoax are as follows:

- Sparrow ($5/month) – Users get 145 character limit, 5 extra random followers.

- Dove ($15/month) – Users get 160 character limit, 25 extra random followers, 1 random celebrity follower, auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” T-shirt.

- Owl ($50/month) – Users get 250 character limit, 100 extra random followers, 2 random celebrity followers, 30 minutes on recommended list, auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” hoodie.

- Eagle ($250/month) – Users get 500 character limit, 1000 extra random followers, 3 celebrity followers of their choice, 5 hours on recommended list each month, Twitter Concierge for Tweeting while user is asleep or busy (and more), auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” tuxedo, custom “Fail Whale” page when service is down.

More Thoughts on How to Use Twitter!

2009-03-19T10:15:00.003-05:00

The fastest growing Social Networking Tool!
Click HERE to Tweet this post to your Twitter Account!

People are using twitter to make money, to connect with friends and to make great contacts and leads. Are you using it to its fullest? Every day I see dozens of Twitter applications popping up all over the Internet. And every day I see hundreds of Twitter applications being banned for fraudulent usage! I still feel that the best way to utilize a Social Networking Tool is to USE it!

Anytime that you cut corners you are missing out on one very important thing, experience. Those that take the time to learn how to use a tool generally become more adept at it! People who learn to use AdSense make money using AdSense. People that learn to use Amazon.com affiliate program make money using it! Take the time to learn the ins and outs of Twitter and it will become a tool that will help you!

I strongly suggest starting out by reading EVERY word on the Twitter site. If you want to use an application with Twitter, look at the aps that Twitter recommends. Ask questions on Twitter. There is no shame in asking questions. It is the foolish man who asks no questions! There are many people on Twitter that have been there since the beta version and most of them are happy to help.

Here are a few more useful tips that will help you to use Twitter to the fullest!

Tip #1: Take time each time you log in to check your Direst Messages (DM's) and after you read and or reply, delete them. That way you are not faced with the daunting task one day of trying to delete 40,000 messages! Don't forget to delete your sent messages as well .

Tip #2: Reply to all of your @reply messages no matter how petty they may seem unless someone is picking a fight with you. If you reply to all the @replies you are putting your name out there!

Tip #3: Learn some Twitter/Text shorthand to shorten words so that you can add links or better context to yout tweets. BBL=Be Back Later, LOL=Laughing Out Loud, RT=Retweet, TY=Thank You, etc. Learning to shorten is part of Twitter.

Tip #4: If someone Retweets you, thank them for the RT! This will work wonders in building a network of people who will help you spread the word! If at all possible, keep a mental note of those who RT for you and return the favor by RTing them!

Tip #5: Don't post a link in every single tweet and don't post multiple tweets in a row with links. People do not like to see their entire page filled with links and posts from a single person, it is annoying and will get you unfollowed fast!

Tip #6: If you are using an application to send a Direct Message when someone follows you make sure that your message is appropriate! Saying things like "I love your avatar!" or "I want to thank you for following me now click this link!" is counter productive. Simply thank them for following and let them know you are greatful. Don't overdo it and don't underdo it!

Thanks for reading and as always I would love to hear yout take on this article!

How Not to Make Money Using Twitter!

2009-03-18T11:25:00.004-05:00

There are hundreds of websites out there that promise you "how to make money using Twitter." This is not one of those "Make Money Now!" sites. If you want to use social networking to your benefit do not, I repeat DO NOT use the following tips! Please note that every tip is #1 because they are all important! Good luck and Happy Tweeting. If you like this post CLICK HERE to Tweet it to your followers!

Tip #1: Set up an auto Direct Message with the a link to your affiliate site stating that your site is the best thing since sliced bread! (This is just bad form and people keep doing it! It is a quick way to get unfollowed)

Tip #1: Do not engage in any kind of conversation, instead just post links to your website/blog/MySpace/Facebook Page! (Learn to make friends! Learn the game before you try and play)

Tip #1: ReTweet every link you see without checking it out first! (You may not want to be associated with a link that gets busted for something bad)

Tip #1: Ignore people when they ask a question that you know the answer to! (You'll make way more friends or contacts when you help out)

Tip #1: Sign up for every singe program that offers to give you 1000 or more followers without doing any work! (As quickly as these get listed they get crushed! The TOS says no automation)

Tip #1: Log in to Twitter and post 25 links and log out! (People will figure out that you are just there to get people to click your links, fast unfollow!)

Tip #1: Pick a Twitter name that really says who you are like MakeMoney4Nothing or BestMarketer or ILoveAffiliates! (I know my Twitter name is ClearNetworking but I am giving out free info and not selling a thing)

Tip #1: Act like every one of your followers is beneath you! (You followers are your bread and butter if you are trying to make money through using Twitter so treat everyone like they pay your salary, because, well, they kind of do or don't as the case may be)

Tip #1: Totally ignore everything directed to you via @replies or Direct Messages! (answering questions and comments directed at you proves that you are not a robot)

Tip #1: Tell people that they are stupid for not using your tested program! (If you have a good program for making money then good for you! Don't act like you are the end all and be all because of it)

Tip #1: Use an automated system to Tweet ads every minute of every day! (You'll get the boot FAST)

Tip #1: Use a famous person's name to spoof an @reply to make it look like they posted your link originally! This one can get you banned FASTER than you can say "@Twitter says go to my link!" (I have heard of several people trying this and getting into serious trouble. It falls under spoofing in the TOS)

5 Great Twitter Tips!

2009-03-17T14:39:00.006-05:00

Making money with social networking is not a new idea. There are savvy people out there making a lot of money with Twitter. Using Twitter to gain wealth is not nearly as hard as some may think. Gain clients, gain friends, gain respect with these tips for building a following on Twitter. To use Twitter to for wealth building you must first learn to use Twitter!

Twitter is the fastest growing Social Networking tool on the market! There are no secrets to using Twitter. There are however some things that will help you to use Twitter better! Whether you are marketing to make money with your business or just wanting to experience a new way to meet people these 5 tips will help you to accomplish your goals!

Tip #1: Quantity is not quality! You can have 50,000 followers and if 49,995 of them haven't logged in in two weeks you will not be getting your message out there! It is better to have 5,000 or even 500 quality followers than to have a million that don't read what you tweet!

Tip #2: Watch out for scams! Anyone offering to give you 5,000 followers just by signing up for FREE is probably trying to sell you something. Each day I see dozens of these tweets and within a couple of days I see the same sites being warned about because of inappropriate business practices like putting out viruses or stealing your accounts. Check out any of the companies that ask for you to log in with your Twitter username and password and wait a week or more before signing up!

Tip #3: Be courteous and kind. ReTweet interesting content. Reply to questions with helpful answers. Ask nicely when you need a favor and say thank you, it will go a long way to building friends! You want people to ReTweet you, that is the fastest way to get followers!

Tip #4: Leave space if you want to be retweeted! When you retweet something people put RT and @username so leave 20 spaces for the retweet info. This will keep messages to be truncated. Also, if you are putting in a URL put it in the middle to keep the link from being truncated!

Tip #5: Follow everyone who follows you back! People are far more likely to listen to you if you are listening to them. I know that sounds like common sense but you'd be surprised at how many people don't do this!

There are no Social Networking Secrets!

2009-03-17T13:41:00.002-05:00

There are not any "secrets" to Social Networking. There is only the information that you know and the information that you do not yet know! I'll make you a deal, I'll share all the tips and tricks I know if you'll do the same! Just because I am a nice guy, I will never charge you for any content- ever.

I started social networking long before the Internet started. Back in those days you had to actually talk to people! You either met them in person, made a phone call or wrote them a letter. When you met them in person you introduced yourself and gave them your business card, shook their hand and explained who you were. When you called them, you introduced yourself and explained who you were and why you were calling them. When you wrote them a letter, you introduced yourself and explained why you were writing them a letter.

It seems that with the ease of networking that came along with the internet many people forgot the first step in networking: Introduce yourself! Many even have forgotten the second step which is to explain who you are and why you are even contacting them. I guess automation is the reason to blame. You can now set everything up on a website and simply point your potential clients to the website and completely skip the introduction.

I still like the idea of introducing myself first! Your first contact with someone creates a lasting impression. Let's take a look at the hottest and latest social networking craze Twitter. My experience thus far has been that 95% of all the accounts on Twitter are trying to sell you something. Whether it be a MLM or just blatant spam to buy their "Top Secrets to Social Networking" or a program to maximize sales, it is all just spam to me!

Let me say it again, there are NO secrets to social networking. You build a network of like minded people, like minded consumers, like minded business people. You utilize that network to make contacts, make sales, or make friends. Too many people instead of learning to utilize social networking end up brutalizing social networking!

I hope that you will join me in my quest to make social networking clear, understandable and usable. Each day I will add TIPS that are no secret that will help you in your quest to become a better social networker.

TIP #1: Introduce yourself first! Let your perspective friend, client, employee know who you are and what you are about. If you set up an auto response to your e-mail or Direct Message, let this be an introduction, not a sales pitch!

Tip #2: Anyone who offers to sell you social networking secrets is just out to make money off of you. The real secret is that there are no secrets. If you look hard enough there is information on everything!

Tip #3: There are no experts in the social networking industry. There are only three kinds of social networkers: Lucky, Experienced and Inexperienced. We all start out as inexperienced and end up lucky or experienced!

Tip #4: Failure is only failure if you do not take what you learned and apply it to what you are doing! Multiple failures eventually end up as success! The trick is to look at others failures and try not to make the same mistakes, make new mistakes all together!

Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear what you think so please leave a comment. If you found this article useful please click HERE to tweet the link to your Twitter Account!