I just got off the phone with the CEO and Founder of Pyrabang, Christian Perrillo (see note at the very end of this post). I had a specific reason for calling (a subscription problem of my own doing), and was more than pleasantly surprised to reach him by phone.

For the observant visitor, you’ll note on the sidebar of this blog, the vertical box to Pyrabang. It “looks like” (in its own odd way) a Google adsense box (which are also there). However, that’s where the resemblance stops.

Pyrabang is more like Digg’s little brother – in my mind – especially after the conversation that I just had with Christian.

Only “similar to Digg.” Pyrabang goes well beyond that popular social media website. Pyrabang’s tagline is “the new media” and this new media serves multiple purposes: (more…)

If you publish an ezine or a blog (where you are willing to add a classifieds page), joining My Wizard Ads is right up your alley.

This ezine ad co-op has (and continues to be) been in existence since 2001. The premise is you get a new subscribed (not rss-feed, a real signup) to your ezine and/or blog in exchange for giving that person a bit of ad space (6 lines, 60 characters per line).

In a typical ezine, the ad is run in either the ezine itself, a classified ad edition, and/or posted online.

But blogs, too, fit the bill (see JustLavellsBlog as an example for bloggers – scroll down the page).

The way it works is Lavell, and all publishers be they ezines or blogs, receive a new reader they add to their own mailing list in exchange for running one ad for that new subscriber (who in turn is now a permission-based potential customer for you).

The process is simple.
The guidelines are reasonable.
The ability to build your contacts invaluable!

I highly encourage you to check into this master list building – FREE – technique.

It’s strange how ideas and thoughts just come into a person’s head. It’s going on midnight here, but I suddenly had the crazy idea to make a post.

There’s a reason behind my midnight madness, and my topic about “failure.”

First off, I talk to and email a ton of people who habitually choose the wrong things to promote online. It’s like they are magnets for what’s absolutely wrong for them to be doing. And, unfortunately, you can’t seem to stop them – common sense just goes in one ear and out the other.

But this also isn’t a post about picking on people. What I thought about was the idea of failure and what having thoughts of failure can do to a person.

Individually, we’d all love to never fail. But it’s also unreasonable not to assume that somewhere, somehow in your life you’ll never run up against a brick wall.

It’s times like that when Edison should come to mind – with his 1000 or 2000 attempts at making the light bulb. Or if Edison doesn’t come to mind, you’d do well to know that he never considered all those attempts failures, just how not to make a light bulb.

Positive twist!

The law of attraction and attracting wealth (be it whatever you perceive wealth to be) is and has been for quite a while now a big deal online. Lots of books, tons of websites, numerous blogs… all geared toward the positive thought that yes thoughts are things. And what you think (or praise or condemn) directly impacts your life and the lives of those around you (and yes, around the world).

We’d all do well to think more positively.

What this is all leading up to is… politics. Yes, this isn’t a political blog, but you’ll notice if you go back through the archives that that doesn’t always stop me from writing what I think or feel or have to say.

This is one of “those” moments.

I’ve been hearing for weeks now all about the “Party of No” – the Republicans. And about how very proud they are to wish the President fails, and directly influenced by that failure our very government.

Now there’s a positive thought (yes sarcasm in case you didn’t recognize it right off the bat).

Why in the world would you hope anyone fails? You most certainly don’t (I hope) sit at your computer day in and day out saying, “I’m the party of failure, I’m going to purposely fail and be a great failure online.”

Sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous.

We all hope and pray that our efforts pay off – be they more income online or just a modicum of success at being online.

Let’s take that same attitude up several notches. Forget party affiliations and start putting our positive thoughts, our positive energies into turning this country (and the world) around. It’s not a matter of one side winning or one side losing. For god’s sakes, grow up!

If you’re not familiar with the 100th monkey story, I suggest you click that link right now.

Hopefully you will be happily surprised. Real change is possible for those who truly reach out for it. Be a reacher!

And may your days start and end with success!

Hopefully you are running some statistical accounting method on your website and/or blog like Google Analytics. By tracking the information in and out of your site, you will also be made aware of pages that either got lost in the shuffle, were eliminated completely but still referenced elsewhere on your site (that you forgot to remove the link to), or pages seach engines like Google (for reasons unknown) expect to be there, but aren’t.

These are known as your 404 page errors, and letting them pile up can be a time consuming task to set straight and (potentially) hurt your standings.

Mostly they are just a pain in the neck to get search engines like Google to stop seeing. In fact, years ago on a completely different hosting server, I did use the cgi-bin (we don’t now). And, even though the hosting had changed numerous times, those cgi-bin 404 errors kept haunting me. So when I saw a recent incoming newsletter about this problem, I figured it’s a good time to give everyone either a heads up or reminder to track these down and eliminate them.

In fact, Mary Peng of Web Analytics World has recently put out an article on how to make the most of those inevitable 404 errors. She writes:

No matter what type of site you may have, 404 errors may cost you something. It might not be money, but it’s costing you something. Retail sites could be losing money. Other types of sites, however, may be losing something just as valuable… pageviews… return visitors… things like that….

The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don’t benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they’ll leave and bring their money to another site.

Within her article, she also suggests another resource that gives you some great suggestions on how to fix up your 404 errors.

You’ll also discover some very interesting and creative ways you can make those dreaded 404 errors more entertaining. Here are more cool ways web owners have created their 404 pages.

So don’t wait too long. Do stay on top of these “lost pages.” Put them to valuable use and never lose another visitor to your site again.

Comments Welcome! Please Add Yours!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for several days now, ever since I read an article in our Las Vegas Review Journal dated Monday, February 16th. In fact, it’s been sitting on my desk just waiting for the right moment to go from paper pile to post.

What really caught my attention was the headline, “Cultural differences: Economic values may explain why businesses owned by Chinese-Americans are faring well in the recession.”

We see all too often people pulling away from the very thing they should be doing during down times or slow times or tough times – especially online. The energy exerted to build a business is tamped down (or shut down) in the hopes that somehow, magically, sales will continue – in spite of no advertising or marketing.

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Here’s something that very well may (and should) change your perspective on “should I or shouldn’t I be advertising and marketing or even blogging?”

“The fortunes of a newspaper published out of a second-floor Chinatown Plaza office may give us insight into differing attitudes about money and ways of surviving tough economic times.

In a time when a 162-year-old national news chain such as the Tribune Co. file for bankruptcy protection, the Las Vegas Chinese Daily News is actually growing, fueled by an increase in advertising. The paper has gone from 16 to as many as 36 pages since printing its first copy five years ago.”

The article goes into further details by defining how different cultures view our current times; “…many Chinese business owners consider a time of economic stress a time to spend money on advertising.”

This advertising “outlook” is considered to be a definite separation of U.S. and Chinese cultures. Where the former sees nothing but doom and gloom when it comes to doing business, the latter are taking advantage of great rates and exceptional deals. These factors also attribute to the fact that over 20,000 valley residents of Chinese heritage are surviving the highest unemployment rates in a generation.

“Chinese attitudes about money include the notion of saving profits and growing slowly, instead of leveraging long lines of credit and expanding rapidly, several business owners said.”

Now here’s the best part, and what I’d really like you to come away with (having read this post… thank you):

“The Chinese rely more on what is known as a relational economy, compared to Americans, who function more in a “me economy.” The Chinese system is based more on, “I do something for you, you do something for me,” with everyone being on the same level.”

Sounds a lot like the Golden Rule applied with a fine paint brush to the art of keeping customers coming back by treating them right.

So if you’re asking yourself, “Is now a good time to slow down with my marketing and advertising?” we think it best to tell you the answer is no.

Recovering lost ground is costly.

Instead, plan and budget for an amount comfortable (and affordable) for you in today’s economy. Be it $10 or $1000, keep your business plans afloat and keep them growing.

We’ve said it before and we’ll keep on saying it. The internet waits for no man, woman, or child. Let up for even a tiny bit of time and your competitors are going to sweep right over you.

Your wise move is again budgeting. Keep your ads out there, continue investing your time and energy, too.

These rough times will not last forever, even if (in the moment) the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t shine very brightly.

Stay on top of what you’ve been doing, and when the sunshine hits, you’ll be well positioned – ahead of your competition – in the months and years to come.