Living in Las Vegas, snow is a rare commodity. It gets cold, and snow up on Mt. Charleston, but generally it’s once in a blue moon for it to snow in the Valley and stick. However, as I type we are getting flurries. Who knows, we might be making snowmen in a little bit (they did on the other side of the valley day before yesterday).

And… in my continuing odd post for the day, I read something interesting in the Las Vegas Review Journal. A commentary written by Gail Collins, a columnist for The New York Times.

I’m not going to replicate the entire article, but the section that caught my eye about dogs:

“Folks at the University of Vienna conducted a test in which dogs were asked to shake hands over and over and over again. If you have any experience with dogs, you will not be surprised to hear that they were absolutely delighted. And they didn’t care about being paid! The opportunity to perform the same trick endlessly with a stranger in a white coat was reward enough.

Then the researchers brought in new dogs that were given a piece of bread as a reward for every handshake. The uncompensated dogs watched, lost their innate love of mindless repetition and grew sullen.

“They get so mad that they look at you and just don’t give you the paw anymore,” said Friederike Range, one of the scientists.

So OK. Dogs are secretly obsessed with fairness. (And bread. Who knew?)”

Strangely enough, as I read that portion it reminds me of so many individuals I’ve “met” online. They work their little buns off for nothing, yet some “bigger dog” comes along, steals all the thunder, and gets all the bread.

This might sound familiar to anyone who’s joined an affiliate program, promoted it with real heart, and gotten squat (or peanuts) for their efforts. While the “big dog” made tons of money from your efforts.

But there is hope… and a way around this… Start your own thing!

However, you must be picky! By that we mean, so specifically “niche” picky that you’ve taken a big old umbrella of a website (or blog) down to its finest points.

“Health” is not a niche, it is an umbrella. However, “colon cleansing” is a specific niche under the umbrella of Health.

“Home business” is not a niche. However, joining a specific home business (or starting your own service or product oriented website narrowed to a single product or service) IS a niche.

This particular blog you are reading right now is NOT a niche. It is an umbrella, encompassing all sorts of niche-like features to internet marketing and social media – from monetizing blogs, to social bookmarking, to freelance writing… and so much more (hang out a while and read the archives there’s tons of help and direction in this here blog!).

Get the idea?

Another valuable thing to keep in mind is choosing something you are passionate about. If you sign up for something that just sounds like a money maker, with no real understanding of what it is or how to run it, what’s the point? You’ll merely be out the money it took to join (and maybe maintain) because you lack passion.

So snow, dogs, umbrellas, niche markets, passion… and that wraps up today’s post

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We love comments! So please do!

As online readers, we all have an immense arsenal of potential ways to track this and that as it strikes our fancy. And today, I’m going to let you in on a secret you may not be aware of…

You must have noticed how we really stress the value of commenting at the end of each of our posts… right? You have noticed, yes?

We’ve done write ups about dofollow and nofollow, and the value of free marketing and advertising yourself through the simple process of replying to posts you read on blogs.

FREE marketing! Yes, the few moments you take to make a truly constructive reply to any post on any blog can (and does according to our tracking stats) bring you free visitors to whatever link you choose to use as you fill out the comment form.

It’s so darn simple, and free, that after reading you’re crazy if you’re passing this up.

And this tool – Co.mments.com – allows you to easily access blogs you’ve asked questions on, and hope to hear from either the blog owner or one of his or her visitors to get the answer to your question.

Of course, that’s just one idea and way, to use this marketing tool.

Okay, not everything is worth commenting on. Maybe your brain has taken a siesta and nothing comes to mind. But, let’s face it, as humans we all have thoughts, opinions, experiences, and questions about something. It’s just built into our DNA to have our say.

That’s what those commenting boxes are for! And, repeating myself yet again, you’d be crazy not to comment. It’s FREE marketing.

I’ve started our own comment tracker using the above Co.mment website.

If you’re a blogger, especially a WordPress user, than you most likely have the Sociable plugin (if not, get it). Co.mments is one you can activate that will allow your visitor to quickly add individual posts of COMMENTS to conversations they wish to follow.

As an online internet marketer, start your own Co.mments account. This way, you can quickly and easily keep track of posts that you are:

1. Interested in hearing what others have to say

2. Waiting perhaps for an answer to a question you ask

3. Begin the process of networking within that post with the other readers of that post.

Be you blogger or marketer (or both), it’s fast and easy to create an account. You’ll then get your own (see ours above) web page link for quick access (bookmark it and refer to it often!), along with a feed that you can use perhaps on a Squidoo lens or….

Those who comment on a regular basis will see the value in this great tool. Those who are not yet using commenting to its fullest can now start that ball rolling with ease.

Sign up for your own Co.mment account today (it’s free!).|

SPECIAL NOTE: As SEO testers, we’re also interested in how (or if) this particular social marketing tool shows up in the search engines. With a PR of 5 and Alexa rank hovering at the 83K mark, not testing this would be a huge mistake. So bloggers, be sure to offer this as an option for bookmarking on your blog. And marketers, it’s such an easy way to keep track of where you’ve been it would be silly not to use it. All your comments, one page (your own!), and a quick reference guide as you check back on your favorite posts.

You’ll find our Co.mments icon right below here… it’s the orange one with the slanted row of dots on it in the “Be Sociable Please Tag Us” section. Click it, track this and/or any of our posts, and see how very easy your commenting life becomes

After Posting Update: Just found this Christmas song on JuliesJournal and wanted to add it to this post. A bit off topic, but it’s very cool. Enjoy!

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Okay now here’s you chance, don’t pass it up. Take one minute and let us know what you think! Your feedback and input do matter to us! Leave your comment!

Last night while posting about a free PDF creator, I also noticed something unusual about some (not all) of our links here at Online Internet Marketing Strategies. What I noticed was while we have the “dofollow” and “commentluv” plugins on this WordPress blog, they don’t always work properly.

So I went searching for a surefire cure to what we perceive as a problem (we want to give everyone who does comment the benefit of commenting!).

I found… (more…)

One of the most valuable, free, and overlooked forms of marketing and advertising is commenting on blogs. We state it over and over at the end of every post we make, and while many take us up on the offer, there are hundreds if not thousands who visit and completely miss the boat.

Below, we’ve inserted a video that will give you complete and meaningful instructions on how to choose the right blogs to comment on, why, and the tools to set this all up to make your life a whole lot easier (and all the tools are free). (more…)