Yeah, why not... hmmmm Ok - here goes, this will be short and sweet...

My friend, Jay Berkowitz of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing consulting firm, has started a new NING community called the Internet Marketing Club.

If you don't know Jay Berkowitz you may think, "Oh - Great a new guy hawking his wares on Ning" - Think Again!

Ten Golden Rules Host - Jay Berkowitz

Jay is all about sharing and education when it comes to Internet Marketing and his podcast "The Ten Golden Rules" is one of the most widely respected Internet marketing audio podcasts in the world. I have written about Jay's delivery and insights before here

Excerpt:

"I appreciate his genuine awe struck and outgoing way of bringing his listeners sound bytes from some of the most powerful and cutting edge Internet marketers and pioneers in our World today. Jay rubs shoulders with and interviews the likes of Seth Godin and Jason Calacanis on a weekly basis. If you don't know who those people are, it's OK because Jay will share the highlights of the careers of these .com and Internet moguls with you when he reports on the Ten Golden Rules podcast. I say Awe Struck, not because I think Jay does not belong in the same room with these mega-tycoons of our industry but because he has a way of approaching these interviews with the kind of exuberance and giddiness of someone who may not belong, but is happy to be there, would bring. Jay belongs - one only needs to read his resume on the Ten Golden Rules website to know he has been playing in this sandbox for some time now. He simply has a style which brings the listener into the room as if we were flies on the wall and Jay is the only person who knows we are there".

More about the Internet Marketing Club:

Starting in October, we will run weekly webinars on topics such as Social Media including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Search Engine Marketing - Search Engine optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC), Affiliate and Performance Marketing, Conversion Strategies and Analysis and Analytics.

Next on Today's Agenda is the Free 12 Week Internet Marketing Course - Provided by: Jeremy Shoemaker

If you are not aware of who Jeremy Shoemaker of "Shoemoney" is... Well, then I would wager that you may not have not been around the web 2.0 or blogosphere for very long. Jeremy Shoemaker helped put the spit shine on blogs as a a way to make money and he walks the walk and cashed the checks to prove it. I have been reading his Shoemoney blog for at least 3 years and it is full of good stuff.

Quote:

Google Adsense Check for $132,994.97

ShoeMoney.com, shares my ups and downs in the world of online marketing to a loyal daily readership of over 30,000 people. ShoeMoney.com has been named the Best Affiliate Marketing Blog and ranks in Technorati’s top 50 blogs for the past three years.

Of course Jeremy is selling an extensive Internet Marketing tools kit subscription at the end of this free 12 week course.  Even though Jeremy would like to continue to make money from his knowlege he is not just putting together some e-book and expecting to get rich. The tools he provides at ShoeMoney Tools have a great deal of value.

I have signed up and completed all 12 weeks of the Free Course and I must say that there is a great deal of valuable information in this Free version. I see no reason to avoid learning from a guy who has made a great deal of money online. All information is good information if you utilize it - right?

Hello, I'm Jeremy "ShoeMoney" Schoemaker and for 13 years I've been building successful online businesses. For the past five years I've been working hard writing a book to help others get started online. I recently decided that there is just too much great information in my book to exclude people from reading it. I have now backed out of my major book deal and turned it into a completely FREE 12 week guide to Internet marketing. No strings attached. Enter your email and start receiving the weekly guides directly in your inbox!

Week 1 - The Beginner's Guide To Internet Marketing

Week 2 - Affiliate Marketing 101: Everything You Need To Know To Start Promoting Products

Week 3 - Market Research: How To Crush Your Competitors And Discover Hot Niches

Week 4 - Introduction to Pay Per Click

Week 5 - Advanced Pay Per Click

Week 6 - SEO Tips, Tricks, and Tactics

Week 7 - Content Creation: How To Create Articles That Attract Users And Increase Sales

Week 8 - Marketing: How To Use Social Media To Spread Your Brand

Week 9 - Make That Cash: 10 Ways To Monetize Your Site And Increase Profitability

Week 10 - Testing & Tracking: How To Optimize Your Site & Make Sense Of The Figures

Week 11 - Building Your Team: How To Network With Others And Find Long Term Partners

Week 12 - Launch Day: How To Kick Start Your Business And Manage Your Projects

Forums Available to TAJ Forums Members in this Category

• Red Ink Diary - Henrietta
• My Blog Utopia - Randy Smythe
• The Savvy Seller - Marlene Gavens
• eBay & Beyond - Dave White
• Auction Wally - Walt Kolenda
• Who Else?

How did this lead to an Ass Hat?

This morning, I opened my email and was of course caught in the avalanche of electronic stress messages. (Why don't I listen to Tim Ferris of the 4 Hour Work Week?).

One of, well, several of these emails - 12 to be exact, was from LinkedIn. LinkedIn was informing me that I had 12 people who "had asked to be part of my network" - ahhh this is nice, lets do that for some easy mindless wakeup data processing...

As I worked through the invitations and replies (mostly from colleagues at the Examiner.com), I came across one particular invite that caught my eye.

And no... not just because this person is an attractive blonde...

First thing that caught my eye was the tag line...

"Creator and Owner of the Daily Blonde blog".

In today's world you must be unique and you must say something in a short flash of time to catch peoples ever crowded trains of thought. Cheryl Phillips says to the world that she is a blonde on a daily basis - not that there is anything wrong with that... (Paraphrasing Seinfeld).

To me this says Cheryl has a sense of humor and... the moxie to make something of it. I dug deeper, which in today's world is not a huge demand on journalistic resources... What I did was follow the link, on LinkedIn (get it) to the Daily Blonde Blog.

The first story on The Daily Blonde was a bit of a trend follower, a cynical view of the recent Sara Palin story (Sara Palin Leaves Office Early), but something else on the homepage caught my eye. What I saw was another story of interest, which of course lead me to click another link.

AssHat of the Week.

From the Daily Blonde

The Asshat of the week story leads in with:

...I realized that it was time to pay tribute to the irresponsible parents that seem to think I run a home daycare and restaurant for their children. So, this week’s AssHat award covers quite a few heads. It’s a big hat so there’s no problem making sure everyone fits under it.

The story goes on to describe -in letter form - to the irresponsible parents in this single mothers neighborhood, not only that she is not the summer day care provider, but more so, that these other parents should be responsible for their own kids. Parents should feed, bathe, and make sure that their own children are safe, not pawn them off on another parent for 10-12 hours without a care.  It is an article that any responsible parent in any neighborhood in America can relate to these days.

Why am I writing about this Asshat Award thing?

• It is a unique article with humor and touches on a subject many of us parents have wanted to say out loud, but never had the moxie to do ourselves.
• The entire idea of the blog has originality and style, coupled with humor and caring.  It is a recipe people obviously like.
• I only found this blog through Social Networking and LinkedIn, now I am writing about it - This is how the Internet of Today works!

The last point is what I wish to stress in this article.

People are searching the world we call the Internet for information.

No matter what business you are in, no matter what you sell, no matter who you work for or if you are an attorney or a broker or a architect or a ditch digger - there are people out there that want to know what you know and they will find the information you publish - if you leave enough "clues" to follow.

Clues in the form on links, links in the form of: LinkedIn profiles, Twitter accounts (with active tweets), Facebook profiles, forum posts and more...

People will follow these clues, bread crumbs, links, Tweets, opinions... all back to you.

These are the people you are looking for as an audience, they will find you and see you as a leader if you publish the information they are searching for.  Without an audience, there are no leaders, without leaders the audience continues to search...  Find your audience and help them to make you a leader, let them stop searching for your information, give them what they want no matter what that is.

Just Do IT!

Get out in the world and write something, post a video or take a picture - people will find and admire what you have to say or share, if you make an effort to share good things and if you spend some time contributing to other peoples lives by sharing and recognizing others that share as I am doing today.

I had never even heard of Cheryl Phillips and the Daily Blonde before, even though she is a blogger of note and one who should be followed:

With an Alexa rating of approximately 150,000, over 1600 email subscribers and an average “stay” on The Daily Blonde by readers of over 3 minutes. She also spreads the word about her blog to over 16,000+ Twitter followers every day. Cheryl is currently ranked in the top 50 Twitter users and was written up as one of the Top 10 Women on Twitter in the world.

Cheryl is a stay at home mom with more kids than she should be able to deal with and she is cranking out quality blog article posts that bring her an every increasing audience - is there really any reason why you can not do this for yourself or your business?  Cheryl Phillips and the Daily Blonde are not just one isolated story of the power of Internet self publishing, she is but one of millions of people who have found notoriety and possible success with social media and blogging.

With the tools available to everyone in today's world of CMS publishing on the net, using platforms like WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal to name a few, there is no reason why any business or professional person should not have the ability to share and inform on a daily basis, just as the Daily Blonde does.

Pick your topic, fulfill your niche, find your audience and you will create a market that never existed before for your business.

While his interview of the powers that be at Vendio was not exactly from the perspective of a well informed ecommerce specialist or writer, (He refers or defers to his ex-wife's experiences with eBay) this video does offer some insight into how the platform Vendio has assembled works. Scoble does not venture into our world of eCommerce often so I find it interesting that this interview even occurred. Good job Vendio!

For more information about the Vendio Platform, read my review on the All Business Auctions Blog

[This article is re-published here from the Examiner.com]

No one would argue that as a civilization we as humans have evolved. From pre-historic times when humans huddled together in small groups to survive the rigors of the natural elements they lived within, to the days of vast nation states that massed the will of their people into one awe inspiring force.

Social networks of all kinds have been at the core of the human experience.

In the world of today we all seem to have grown more insular.  Many times we look out at the world from behind a computer screen and from within the walls of small cubicles.  Email, chat, discussion forums, twitter friends and online dating all tend to keep us from make the most basic of all human connections - the face to face handshake.

As a person who is wrapped up in the Internet and all of the possibilities it affords and opportunity it offers I have seen and experienced the effects of being immersed in a world where friendships and connections are made from behind a keyboard.  The people you chat with online are mostly all real, but the Internet social experience can never match the tried and true old fashioned world of face to face networking.

This is why groups have sprung up around the world in an effort to climb out from the cubicle lives we have all been leading and actually schedule times to meet one another face to face.

One of these organizations is called Meetup.  The concept is simple at Meetup.com, they provide the tools needed to organize a meetup event and the home base website which allows local meetup organizers to offer a social networking group in thier area based on any interest or dicipline the group organizer wants to bring together.

The numbers of meetups are growing with 5.7 Million members scheduling 179,000 meetups each month in 11,507 cities around the world and covering 8,340 different topics.  There is certainly an interest or topic out there that you can find to fit your personality.

Here in Tampa Bay there are numerous local business and Internet related meetups scheduled each and every week.  There is usually no cost to join a group, although sometimes the organizer ask for donations to help cover the costs of the meetup group fees ($20.00 a month) and the meetup location costs.  Most groups meet at local restaurants or businesses but a meetup could be scheduled anywhere, even in a public park.

The idea is clearly to meet like minded people, no matter what your inclinations or interests are, there are certainly others who enjoy or want to learn more about the same topics.  From getting together to discuss bird watching to photography or small business networking, the idea is a sound and somewhat nostalgic premise.  Our parents joined the Elks or the Moose or the Rotary clubs and still do.  Somewhere along the line the majority of Americans gravitated away from these time honored groups and became more secular.  Now we are gravitating back to the social networking that our parents and grandparents knew was essential to personal and business growth.

Recently I started a meetup group based in Western Pinellas County.  The Pinellas Suncoast Business Strategy Networking Workshop the premise of this group is to get together like minded small business people centered along the beach corridor of Pinellas County to discuss business ideas and challenges in an effort to share ideas and grow as a group of entrepaneurs and business managers.

As an organizer of a group like this it can be a bit stressful when the time comes to actually hold the first meeting but in our case all went well.

The PSBSNW meets every other Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Harborside Jimmy Guana's Restaurant at 3PM.  The group consists of only 12 members so far but as one of the members, Tammy Taylor, said at the first meeting "It only takes two people to have an effective mastermind group" Tammy Taylor is an established podcast journalist and spirtual show host.

While the group may be small, the first meeting was more than any one member expected with an open atmosphere of sharing and brainstorming for each members business ideas and goals.

Another member, Irit is a fine art and estate jewelery specialist originally from Israel and she was impressed with the great tips she learned about getting her fine estate jewlery online faster and more effectively through the use of new and exciting tools and software that she was unaware of before.

Sheri Strykowski is a writer and has been published in national magazines and has worked on television productions. Sheri is just trying to refine her life long goal of building a sustainable internet business under her White Pineapple name and concept.  She shared an incredible networking contact tip with Tammy at the meeting, giving Tammy a possible entry into the voice over marketplace doing commercials for a nationally known marketing company.

The point to coming face to face with your peers highlights the fact that not all knowlege and certainly not all social networking occurs on the Internet.  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Friendfeed are all great places to spend a little time each day. Face to face networking still may be the most productive and rewarding social networking anyone can do - even today. Try organizing or attending a meetup in your area - based upon your interests.  You may be pleasantly surprised that old fashioned social interaction is still the number one way to expand your own horizons.

Twitter

It seems that Debbie Levitt CEO of ASWAS, an eBay Stores designer and consulting company based in Boston, MA and a personal friend, has come out very strongly against the grass roots marketing efforts of Bonanzle.com.  A Prominent blogger and also a friend, Henrietta of the Red Ink Diary has responded quite directly to Debbie's take on the Bonanzle Action Club.

Henrietta has been a friend to Bonanzle.com since the beginning, I don't think she is a member of the BAC, but could be. It is a pretty small club of only 50 people when weighed against the 30,000 members of Bonanzle.  Yet the effects of its political style grass roots effort to get out the word about the site seem to have gained some attention in eBay circles (where Debbie Levitt is a big swimmer).

The Article on the Red Ink Diary is available for all to read in its entirety here Red Ink Diary.  I have included a short quote below to give you the idea of where Henrietta stands. (Note: Links to the articles Debbie Levitt wrote in the ASWAS blog are included, just as they appeared in the Red Ink Diary.) I don't know if I would have been quite as direct as Henrietta was in her post, but she expressed her point without leaving any doubt.

From the RedInkDiary

The words which come to my mind are confrontational, short fuse, defensive, impulsive, and ‘no thank you’. This person seems to have a bee up her butt about Bonanzle and for such an important, influential and successful business owner, (I quote below from her profile on Practical eCommerce) to devote her valuable time to badmouthing a site which should be beneath her notice and that of her presumably paid staff; does make me wonder.

...the CEO of eBay’s first Certified Service Provider, which offers services for online sellers including branding, design, and personalized sales and marketing strategies. (She is) eBay’s first Certified Consultant and the first Education Specialist trained by eBay. Her recognized expertise as well as her approach to online branding, marketing and strategy are redefining the model of what are “good” eBay listings, eBay Stores, or websites.

She has written two posts about it this month. One on February 10th which has a comment by Mark Dorsey and an illuminating response to that comment by the blogger.

“As for helping me with future content, I have tried to contact you a number of times through email and Twitter, and that’s as far as things have gone. I guess I’d only matter if I were a BAC member. “

Shame on you Mark for not realizing what an important and influential person you were failing to treat with awe and respectful deference.

The second post is today and comments have been closed. You may however comment here on Red INK

End of Red Ink Diary Quote - All Rights Reserved

Personally I have no idea why Debbie Levitt would raise such a ruckus over the Bonanzle Action Committee. They are just happy members  and sellers on the Bonanzle.com platform who freely give of their time to help increase the reach and awareness of an upstart bootstrapping eCommerce alternative that has simply grown faster than any other in history.

Did the 50 members of the Bonanzle Action Club help that growth along?

• You bet! - how much they helped is really indeterminable.

Is it evil, backhanded or unfair?

• No way! - The tactic has been used the world over.

eBay has their own shills and cheerleaders, they almost invented the practice and they did it on a much larger scale than 50 unpaid members of a small site that has grown beyond anyone's expectations. These are people who actually sell product on the site they are promoting, not some paid staff working out of a boiler room. The difference here is that the BAC members are doing it in a new medium called social networking and they are effective at adding dialog to sites where there already was an interest.  (They could be more effective, but that is a matter for a different post).

I have been writing about Bonanzle since before the Bonanzle Action Club (BAC) came into being. I am not a member of the BAC and I will never be a member of the BAC because membership is closed.  I have written good things about Bonanzle because I instantly saw the advantages offered by the site, it worked,  it is easy to use and because I liked it.

I have been so impressed that I have created an off Bonanzle website development project for its members that is known as Bonanzle Webstores. This is not funded, administered or run by the team at Bonanzle or its ownership yet they have been more than helpful in the creation and development of our program because it will help bring in new traffic to Bonanzle.com and its merchants.

I have never been paid, offered payment, bribed or told what to say. I have also written honest critiques which in most cases have been accepted and acted upon by the founder of the site Bill Harding. While the site is not perfect and there are several improvements that could be enacted, the founder and head programmer works hard to make the site work for all of its members on a daily basis.

Bonanzle is a very interesting and ever expanding marketplace that has piqued mine and several thousand other peoples interest. The entire massive and ever expanding groundswell of acceptance has not come from just 50 people repeating the same comments on several blogs or sites around the Internet (something I have a problem with - please be original BAC members i.e. paraphrase your comments on blogs - don't quote verbatim what the BAC blast says each time - OK - just say what you feel in your comments) .  The interest has come both from within the seller base and from outside the community from sites like Google and from blogs like this one.

The BAC members are simply reaching outside the site to make the site known to those who have never been exposed to it. From there the decision is completely in the consumers hands, try Bonanzle or not - it is up to the potential member.  The BAC does nothing to trick or deceive people into trying the site.

I agree with Debbie Levitt on one point however.

I dislike the term or slogan "Best eBay alternative", in fact I dislike any mention of eBay when referring to Bonanzle.  They are two different marketplaces, two different systems of eCommerce and they really have no comparisons at all, other than history.

The history of eBay is one of a grass roots driven growth curve built on social interaction (first between sellers and then between buyers and sellers). Bonanzle has re-created that excitement from the early days of eBay, when sellers sold to sellers and everyone helped one another learn how to use the tools provided by the venue to become successful.  Bonanzle and eBay both have the same history in regards to a fantastic growth curve and they both share a history of having a very small marketing budget.  eBay was not perfect when it started and is still not perfect all these years later. I would wager that if you could access a screenshot or go back in time to read the forum comments of users of eBay after roughly 6 months of operations and compare that to the Bonanzle site we see today, the differences of platform and the similarities in regards to history would be oh so clear.

In today's world of internet marketing, having a small marketing budget does not necessarily rule you out from competing for business.

Being creative by using customers enthusiasm is a fantastic way to create evangelists for your brand. This is exactly what Mark Dorsey at Bonanzle has done with just 50 of his best customers.  I am certain he has many more volunteers for the BAC but for management reasons they have kept the number small.

I am sure the method of marketing being utilized here can be called many different names, is it unfair? No.

Is it unusual?, maybe in this space but it is used by fortune 500 companies the world over in this new World of Internet based marketing.  Should it be an issue for a eBay based service provider to come out so strongly against?  I really don't think so.

Debbie Levitt, on a personal note...

I want to say that I appreciate the work you do and I have always loved your designs, your speaking and your in depth knowledge of eBay. I don't want you to take my comments here personally, but I don't agree with the implications of your post(s), your insinuation that Mark Dorsey is anything but approachable and informative or that he only speaks with BAC members.  I also am uneasy with  your inclination to take the negative tact sometimes used against other companies in posts on your blog to somehow promote yourself as a consumer advocate.

Debbie, you are a marketing person and you represent ASWAS as the CEO and as its chief evangelist. Your consumer advocacy always has been one which promotes your own services and that of eBay or other eBay service providers you work with.  There is nothing wrong with promotion, and you do a fine job of it - when you discuss matters that pertain to your business, eBay or how your clients excel in new and exciting endeavors online. You have a great track record, an avid following and a long portfolio of quality work.

I really do not understand why you are endeavoring to slow the growth of a new and exciting community of sellers and buyers who simply choose to do eCommerce elsewhere besides eBay.

The people who choose to use Bonanzle really have no effect upon your business.  Does it help your company to point out what you think are wrongs that in fact have no effect on you, on your clients or really eBay in any way? I understand how you want to expose wrongs and be a stand up person who is respected in your industry, and in fact, you have been that person for many years.  Take the respect and knowledge and experience and use it to promote the good of your community, add to the knowledge base of your clients and readers by interjecting reason and not necessarily interjecting doubt where none existed.

The members of the BAC are only a small problem for those of us who have to approve their comments, and to me.. that is no problem at all because comments are what bring a blog to life.

The media thrives on news, and believe it or not, Bonanzle is news.

Bonanzle has something people like,  sales are being made by the merchants who use all of the tools available to them on the Bonanzle platform, and there are improvements being made almost on a daily basis. There is no way that Mark Dorsey on his own could gather the attention that he has for his company without some help. He can either pay cash for that help, or he can use customers who are also evangelists. The ring of truth always comes from actual customers - on this I am sure we can agree.

You and I ask for testimonials from our clients - is this really all that different?

Except for the fact that Bonanzle Action Club Members give testimony each and every week on the behalf of Bonanzle.

I am actually envious - I don't have as many clients as Bonanzle.com has that are so impressed with my work that they would take 20 minutes of time each week to promote for me. The ones I do have, I cherish,  but I have yet to organize them into a committee. Having clients that sing your praises is the best marketing in the world... Using the power of word of mouth is a basic tenant of all marketing.

Maybe you and I should look at creating something like the BAC ... Hmmmm iBusinessLogic Action Committee - Naw, it doesn't sound right, does it.... ASWAS-AC?

Tell you what, I will join your AC if you join mine....

Why?

Because WordPress is just so darn good and as a developer I can make it perform for clients like almost no other CMS platform. 

Joomla! is another great CMS (Content management system) and we love working with it, but for pure ease of use and unbelievable client (User) satisfaction, WordPress is very difficult to beat.  

From basic eCommerce  to business oriented informational and corporate websites to personal blogs, real estate sales, or news magazines. WordPress as a CMS is the king of customization. 

Check out this video to get a sneak peak at the next iteration or WordPress - Version 2.7 coming soon to a WordPress installation near you. 

[wpvideo UBy8AaXJ] 

The new features (detailed in the video above) make WordPress even more user friendly, which is a great step forward for our goal to bring easy to manage website development to our clients.  

Check out WordPress for your own website or blog, you really can not make a better choice for a functional, easy to update and ultimately configurable website back end.

In other words - it is really cool, and almost anyone can update a WordPress based website. 

I like to say - if you can write an email - you can publish online with WordPress.

Amazon vs eBay? - Cliff Aliperti’s Inside Scoop on Amazon FBA

Cliff is a long time eBay seller and now a new Bonanzle Booth owner. Cliff knows his business and he also knows how to get the most out of eBay and Amazon, now he is tackling the world of Bonanzle booth sales (in his spare time).

When iBusinessLogic announced a special offer to Bonanzle Booth owners to build a website/blog with a Bonanzle product feed (See: Bonanzle Website Offer), Cliff was the very first to jump onboard!

Cliff plans on using this new website/blog in conjunction with his existing website to bring in long tail search traffic to both his website, and his Bonanzle and eBay operations. Cliff is an expert in his field of memorabilia and movie collectibles. He will write informative and interesting blog posts about the history of Hollywood along with informative articles about the great finds he has in his inventory of thousands of unique collectibles.

Our first design for Cliff's new website/blog looks very nostalgic, we certainly hope he likes what we have done. But if he needs a tweak or two, or a completely new look, we will make it right for him.

Things and Other Stuff - New Look

We have other projects in the works for Bonanzle sellers and I think it will build a great community over at Bonanzle if more sellers join in with their own blogs/websites designed to not only promote their individual businesses, but also the entire Bonanzle community.

The more outside links leading back to Bonanzle, the better sales will be for each and every Bonanzle merchant. This is one way to build traffic for a selling venue through a grass roots effort. With every Bonanzle merchant who has a desire to not only increase their own business, but also add to the entire health of the site as a whole, sending traffic from sites like Cliff's new Bonanzle focused website/blog, the selling venue will grow in both sellers and buyers at an even more impressive rate.

If you have been considering building a website to promote your own Bonanzle or Etsy, or Online Auction or even eBay sales... Just get out there and do it! The biggest step is the first one, and we all know after that, its all just a matter of following through.

Cliff Aliperti, is following through!

Congrats Cliff!

Read more at the iBusinessLogic.com/blog We even have a another Bonanzle Booth owners website screen shot - let us know what you think of "A Night Owl's Treasures"....

Seth Godin

Some of you may be unfamiliar with what a "podcast" is or why anyone would listen to one?  Podcasts are recordings of events, shows or seminars and/or the occasional sales pitch.  Some podcasts are similar to talk radio shows with live callers hosted by a main host and sometimes a co-host. 

Today's "radio show" has been moved off of the airwaves and into your iPod or other mp3 device.  Thousands of these podcasts are available, mostly for free, in the iTunes store. Far ranging topics are available as podcasts on iTunes and in other places around the Internet.  I usually focus on the Internet marketing and ecommerce titles but also download free photoshop training, "This Week in Tech" podcasts from Leo Laport, John C. Dvorak's "Cranky Geeks" financial news and a few more.  Topics are plentiful and inspiration is included. 

I listen to these podcasts to try and learn something while doing things which would be unproductive otherwise.  I have learned a great deal just from this free resource and I have been fortunate enough to forge more than one friendship with people I would never have met because of podcasting. 

• I first met Dave White of "eBay & Beyond Basic To Business"
  

  Dave & Scott interviewing Scot Wingo

and eCommerce Radio Network through a service called entrecard. I started a conversation with Dave to see what he thought of entrecard and the rest is history.  I have since appeared on Dave's live talk show as a co-host over 20 times and I have tried to help Dave, where I can to develop new markets for his show with Online Auction and Bonanzle sellers.  Dave is the heart and soul of his show.  As a long time eBay seller Dave always defends the rights or point of view of the merchant when it comes to eBay.

• Jay Berkowitz has a smooth voice and gentle delivery. His podcast is titled "The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing"which just also happens to be the name of his company. Rule number one of the Ten Golden Rules is that there are "no rules in Internet marketing". (Listen to the podcasts to hear the rest). Jay's podcasts take people to places and into interviews with luminaries from the Internet marketing world that most of us would never meet.  People like Matt Cutts of Google, and Andy Sernovitz of word of mouth marketing but also others you might not expect like Robin Cowie of the Blair Witch project and Worldwide brands or even myself from time to time.  Jay interviews these people without the all knowing superiority one might expect coming from a Madison avenue marketing director (Jay was a Marketing director for companies like Coca Cola and McDonalds and helped Sprint & AT&T with a few online campaigns, just to name a few - oh and then there was e-Diets), Jay approaches these interviews much like one of his audience members might do. With genuine interest and a little bit of awe that he actually gets to speak with these famous and wealthy people. If there is just one Internet Marketing podcast you try, start with episode 1 of the Ten Golden Rules.
  

  Jay Berkowitz

I am honored that both of these gentlemen include me in their lists of friends. Since meeting each of them I have had the privilege to meet and travel with them to conferences around the country.  I must take credit for unleashing Jay Berkowitz on the world of eBay and turning some eBay marketers world upside down, by arranging for his speaking at Rocketplace Disney and then helping to bring Jay to eBay Live 2008, where he launched his book and packed his seminar with a standing room audience (rare at Bay Live this past year - expet for Seth Godin's seminar in the same hall).  

Podcasting has helped me to learn and expand my depth of knowledge for myself and my clients. As a listener and a speaker I have been enriched by the experience with new relationships and new opportunities.

Back to Seth Godin...

Marketing Over Coffee with Christopher S Penn and John Wall is another must listen podcast. Heck, these guys practically invented Podcamp (a gathering of podcasters in various places around the country devised to share podcasting ideas).  On the last episode of Marketing Over Coffee the hosts of this popular podcast just happened to have a live recording of Seth Godinon stage giving one of his famous seminars on marketing. Instead of editing the recording so they could dissect and comment on what Seth was saying, Dave and John simply laid down their microphones and let Seth speak for himself.  A Wise decision!

What did Seth Say?

You can find the podcast download here: Seth - Tribes but essentially Seth Godin has pronounced traditional marketing not as a dying methodology, but simply a dead corpse.  Seth Godin observes that the old way of marketing, the marketing methods which we have all grown up with, and he terms as "Interrupting People Until They Notice You", has not worked in over ten years.  

Television was the inspiration for this annoying kind of marketing and since we all grew up watching television, we all assume that style of marketing works. Show people your name enough times, interrupt their train of thought, place yourself between them and what they are doing and they will not only remember you, but they will buy from you.  Seth Godin says that's all hogwash! 

Listen to the podcast if you want to know what direction your marketing should follow.  I believe Seth is right. We simply do not pay attention to television commercials, banner ads, billboards, bouncing gif images, or loud obnoxious carnival hawkers any longer.  People have been numbed by the noise.

People are craving actual, real content... Stuff they can evaluate, read, touch and feel.  People want to know who they are dealing with and they don't just want to know the specifications of your products, they want to know what, if anything, those products are good for?

In my view, using the power of content and information in a small business is the new marketing plan. Inform, entertain, teach, share and contribute.  Your customers want to know they can trust you, your customers will go where they can find out more information about your products.  If you do not have a place for them to find that information, your customers will go elsewhere.  

Every business should have a website and a blog! Blogs Work! From a blog a business could host a podcast, these kinds of opportunituies are available to each and every business in America!

New Marketing is informational and informative. We are all part of a tribe of some sort (listen to Seth about that) and we want to belong, we buy things we think other people buy and we respect other peoples opinions. 

Get out there and give yours!

Question recently seen on Twitter from @stevekennedy:

Do you think using Twibler to post your eBay items here helps your conversion rate? Have you asked any buyers? I am just interested to see if anyone has ever made a sale because of Twibler. Thanks 4 input!

I will attempt to answer the question, (any comments from readers with different points of view are welcome in the comments section below) but...

First lets discuss what Twitter is for those who have not yet been initiated.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is first and foremost a social network

Scott Pooler on Twitter

Twitter asks "What are you doing?" and provides users with a 142 character chance to inform the world about what it is they are up to?

Think of an early 1990's AOL chat room with dozens of updates per minute available to everyone in the world. Only, as a user of Twitter, one may pick and choose who's "updates" they want to follow. Conversely other users may choose to follow you, even if they do not know you. 

These features make Twitter unique, simply due the fact that users can craft the experience by selecting whom they follow.

Interested in Internet marketing and the Tech world? Simply follow icons in these industries and fellow Twitter users who also follow the thought leaders. The same goes for almost any interest or industry you can think of. Transparency is all part of Twitter, not only can you follow interesting people, but you can also see who they follow and do likewise.

Its the fastest and sometimes most accurate way to get the news and collect intelligence about anything or anyone with whom your interested in.

Twitter has become a phenomenon of the Web 2.0 world and one of the most interesting major success stories of the last several years. According to stats just released from Nielsen Online, Twitter recorded 2.3 million unique visitors in August (US-only), an increase of 422% from the same period last year.

Twitter is doing something a lot of people like. Whether it is the mobility (Twitter can be used on most smart phones or simply through SMS text on a cell phone, or the customization of who can be followed and possibly networked with...

Twitter has peoples attention.

In March 2008 on the All Business Auctions Blog, I wrote about Twitter and asked if it would be used at eBay Live 2008?

Twitter - Tweet - Share the News and More - Do you Twitter Baby? eBay Live 2008

Twitter at that time seemed to be an enigma to the eBay community.

Times have Changed

Twitter has been embraced by many eBay thought leaders, gurus and just plain sellers and buyers since last March.  As we all know, there are many types of people in the eBay community.  

Many of these people, (and this is not exclusive to eBay centric Twitter users) use Twitter to promote more than what they happen to be doing at the moment. Twitter is used for monetary reasons such as to broadcast links etc to hundreds or even thousands of people who have chosen to follow the user.

The beauty of Twitter is you can pick and choose whom to hear from.  i.e. if you are sick of eBay gurus promoting the next set of DVD's guaranteeing you will make millions on eBay, it is a simple matter to stop following these individuals. 

This leads me to Twibler

Twibler is an application which promotes itself as a marketing device for eBay sellers. By joining Twibler, entering information about an eBay account and a Twitter account, the seller is given a tool which will send out a message on Twitter (a.k.a. a Tweet) every time the seller lists a new item on eBay. All for FREE.

Sounds great, right?  Marketing on auto-pilot...

Using social networks to market eBay listings, is this not what all of the "experts" have been telling sellers to do for some time now? 

Yes - Except

• Twitter is a Social Network - This means the users (your followers) are interested in what you are doing, what you have to say - not necessarily the products your selling.
• Marketing via social networks requires finesse, no Ron Popeil Ronco style Vegematic sales gimmicks needed here - this is not the 1970's.
• There is a difference between social network marketing and simply "using" a social network for traditional marketing efforts.
• Many eBay sellers use bulk uploading tools when sending listings to eBay - This creates Twitter Spam when connected to Twibler. No Twitter users want to see a consecutive list of 10, 20, 50 or 100 Tweets from a single Twitter user utilizing Twibler to promote eBay listings.
• Spam is Spam - no matter if it is in your email inbox or your Twitter account - Do you appreciate Spam?
• Just because something is Free and Easy to use, does not make it effective or worthwhile.
• Twitter is an amazing tool to build a personal brand - Twibler can destroy that effort in one bulk upload to eBay. 
• People do not follow other people simply to see the products they sell. People follow others in a social network to learn more about them, what they think, what's newsworthy, not what they list for sale on eBay today.
• In the case of a company, followers want to learn about news and events related to that company. If they want to buy a product from the company, they know how to find it.

The Twibler website claims opening a new or second account on Twitter will solve all the problems above. Please explain to me the purpose, if no one was following the new account? Unless you sell something extremely rare on eBay, I doubt any eBay seller would collect many Twitter followers with an account that simply posted eBay listings to Twitter.

In the end it is a matter of not understanding the craft of social network marketing.  As a business person, one should try to understand social networks before wading in with easy to use tools like Twibler, which in the end could do more harm to your brand than good for your sales.  

Twibler does not post any statistics about increases in sales due to the use of the service, and I suspect they never will. Are you really ready to bet your social marketing plan on a single untested and ill conceived RSS feed reader for eBay?