Larry Brauner of Online Social Networking makes an interesting (and perhaps obvious) point. After attending a webinar, he brings home a point that maybe some of us ARE missing.

Do you follow blindly what your “guru” is telling you? Does it often seem that by the time you get to “do it” the doing has already been done to death? Do you always have that “missed the boat” feeling?

Maybe there is a reason…

Larry speaks out about the human tendency to “flock,” and questions whether that is a wise internet marketing (or social media marketing) strategy.

We were recently enrolled taking a very publicized course about social media. We did withdraw from that course when it appeared that the areas for marketing where oversaturated and perhaps not the best choice. Another case of too little too late (and at a very expensive price tag to learn the lesson!) ??

Larry’s point of zagging if everyone is zigging is a point we should all take to heart. Doing our own thing, planned mine you, not mindless, has always served us well.

Thanks Larry for the reminder!

Doing my Entrecard, Blogcatalog, visiting other people’s blogs thing this beautiful Sunday morning, and I came across:

How Much Is Your Blog Worth

courtesy of my visit to BloggerFocus.

Not expecting much (even BloggerFocus was laughing with their returned amount of $0.00) I went ahead and visited the link… just to see.

You’ll see our result in the left hand sidebar – wow what a surprise!

Now who in the world would pay us that much we have no idea, but the really neat thing is that in terms of “value” it does appear that all our very hard work to promote and interact within the blog community (and outside it, too) is really “paying off.”

We work daily on using the very features and resources we tell you about here on ourselves. I call it “work” only because yes it is in the promote your website (blog) category. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Getting out and about visiting other people’s websites is fun, informative, and common sense.

You want to be discovered, right? Well to do so you must be willing to get your hands dirty and interact.

“Good things come to those who wait” is so misleading.
“Good things come to those that go after good things” should take its place.

QUESTIONS:

What major form of interacting and promoting do you use?

What do you consider a complete waste of time and why?

What is your blog worth?

A while back on Andy Beard’s blog, I read his review of both TrafficJam and Blogrush. Andy’s post leans heavy on the TrafficJam side, but conveys lots of additional information you also might want to know.

Please Note: To have your posts show up in TrafficJam, you will need to sign up a FREE account first at Blogrush

Here’s a quote from Andy’s post (the links out are ours):

“Even if you have absolutely no interest in TrafficJam or Blogrush, I strongly suggest you read this post, especially if you are interested in viral marketing techniques that are guaranteed to build you an email list.”

Also in Andy’s post, he mentions of course the creator of TrafficJam, John Reese.

The long and the short of both posts (both well worth reading) is that bloggers gain the advantage of having their writing seen and read, and in return marketers also get the edge on uncovering what people are talking about… in other words, this is a really cool research resource tool.

You’ll note that the conversation on Beard’s blog harkens back to February. Okay, so TrafficJam is no longer “brand spankin’ new” in that sense. But as a resource for getting the word out about your blog, and from a marketer’s perspective of needing to keep one’s finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the blogosphere, we think you’ll agree that this is a winner.

Have you been using TrafficJam? What has been your experience?

If not, what is your first impression of this as a potential resource? Useful, not…??

Please let us know by adding your comments to this post!

I’m not going to get too worked up over this one, but since one arrived yesterday and just now in my inbox, I really need to get this off my chest.

The subject line for this guy’s email is one of those “you just made a commission” mailings. Since we actively promote several services and products for other people, along with many of our own, this message must be opened, right? Checking to see if it is legitimate is just good business practice.

However, you just know as you are taking those few seconds out of your own life to open the darn thing that it is totally bogus (but again you must check it just to be sure).

By wasting moments of my life, this does not endear me to this particular marketer. In fact, I find it downright insulting and annoying that he tries to pass off a “PayPal-type” subject line as one of his own.

Smarten up! I’ve got the guy’s name burned into my brain now and from this point forward all his stuff will go right into the trash (assuming I don’t just take yet more moments out of my life to open and unsubscribe myself first).

Yes we would all love to have every bit of mail we send opened, read, and acted upon by others. But nothing can possibly be gained by annoying people to the point that unsubscribing is their only recourse.

Choose your words wisely. The right combination, and the whole world is reading. Choose incorrectly and…

So I ask you, does this type of marketing bother you, or am I just being overly sensitive? Is the guy “clever” or “annoying”? And how would you handle it?

This may seem like the most obvious to some, but other Entrecard users might be “surprised” at this twist to visiting other people’s blogs and dropping cards.

Log into your own Entrecard account.

Using either the cards shown across the top or even starting with a current advertiser, right click on the card and open that site’s information in a new window (you could even just visit your own blog and start there, but logging into Entrecard is fastest).

Then (remember you are in a “new window” at this point), click on the link out to that particular blog. Find the Entrecard widget and drop your card.

NOTE: LEAVE THAT CURRENT BLOG OPEN IN YOUR BROWSER! Later you can revisit it to comment, but at a minimum you will allow the window to be open long enough to help NOT penalize the blog owner (read up on “bounce rates” to learn what I mean). Be kind

Leave the window OPEN and RIGHT click on the current advertiser who’s card is showing on that widget.

(Highly suggested: Use Firefox and make sure your newly visited sites will open in a new TABBED window or use the RIGHT CLICK method above.)

Drop your card on this next site and click on the advertiser doing his or her thing on this new widget.

Once you get a rhythm going, it’s easy to go from blog to blog to blog. If you “get stuck” (and you will every now and then), just start the process over with a new choice from your dashboard or under CAMPAIGN.

This way you don’t keep visiting the same ones over and over (unless you really want to), and get to add numerous visits quickly and easily.

Here’s another suggestion that really is well worth your time and (no) trouble:

As you close the Tabbed Windows one by one, take a look around and see if there isn’t something you’d like to put your two cents in about… in other words leave a comment!

It’s sort of amazing how few people are really using Entrecard to its greatest advantage. A quick, simple, super easy way to FIND WAYS TO COMMENT on other people’s blogs. You won’t always get a “follow” link, but you’ll be doing yourself and your blog/website a huge favor in terms of word of mouth advertising about YOU.

So let’s recap:

1. Drop Entrecards efficiently
2. Comment for personal name branding
3. Comment for backlinking

Do this each day for 5-10 minutes and you’ll have 100s if not 1000s of backlinks for yourself in a very, very short amount of time!

Enjoy!