Quick Facts about Twitter

Please don’t let the popularity of Twitter fool you, a good portion of accounts on there are owned by the same people, just using different names. Some people may have 1 account others may have a dozen or more accounts. It’s like Facebook or Myspace, there are a lot of real people on there then a lot of people pretending to be other people as well. Think AOL about 10 years ago when you could have 5 screen names per account so someone could be JohnDoe one second and then JaneDoe the next time they log in.

So who does the majority of the tweeting? Celebrities and internet marketers. The marketers are of course trying to shove another product down your throat and ironically they’re pitching it to other internet marketers. Basically it’s whoever is the best salesman in the situation wins. But don’t let this little rant of mine talk you out of using Twitter, as there are other ways you can use Twitter effectively aside from Tweeting.

Twitter Lists

Ah, the Twitter list, this has to be the greatest invention of all time. So you reserved yourself a Twitter screen name for the keyword you wanted to target. Guess what my twitter name is… pokermoneyclips. Anyway, now that I have my name I can’t really get any more use out of throwing keywords into my titles now can I? Yeah, I can through the use of the “Twitter List.” A twitter list is something you can create in about 5 seconds, where you throw some additional keywords in as the title of your list for SEO purposes. Please keep your titles related to what you talk about though as Twitter is erasing accounts on an hourly basis for mischievous acts. It works something like this, I sell a poker novelty, so I created a list called “poker novelties.” The phrase itself doesn’t generate a ton of traffic but hey I wanted to rank on the SE’s for it so I went after it. So now I have an additional page on the SE’s for my desired keyword phrase that features all my tweets to links of stuff I want people to look at and my main url on the right hand side of the page.

Twitter for one way links

Another reason to be on Twitter is for the one way links back to your website. There are a ton of websites out there that feature twitter user profiles and keep track of who is following who. If someone is following you that is on one of those websites, that’s an additional link back to your site. Not only that, it’s also a link from a website that is not considered a “bad neighborhood.” 99% of poker websites are considered bad neighborhoods by Google, which is why you have to do more work to gain any PR. Let me put it to you like this, I built a website in another “good neighborhood” niche, and well it has a PR of 3 in a matter of weeks with less than 20 sites linking back to it. For us poker webmasters we have to work a little bit harder. Any one way link you can grab is a good thing, and Twitter lists allow you to grab a handful of links without any additional effort.

How To Gain Followers

Being that there are about 5 million products currently on the marketplace to grow a following I’m not really going to spend much time on the subject matter. I will however caution you against paying for automated programs that follow people based on keywords as you won’t see your desired results. You’ll spend more time un-following people than you should and your list of followers will still be incredibly low. Search around for a free alternative, follow a few people a day (if you follow too many people too quickly your account can be terminated) and just run with it as it only takes about 5 minutes a day to grow a decent following. As with the search engines, people following you is equivalent to people linking back to your website.

Now go out there and make the most of this opportunity.

Jason Narog wants to know what kind of poker card protectors you’re using

The most common form of article marketing

The most common form of article marketing involves posting your articles on websites such as Ezine. There are dozens of Ezine clones throughout the net, all of which survive by the written word of article marketers and webmasters. It’s a simple premise, authors write an article about 450 – 2000 words long, then place links in their resource box at the bottom of the page that point back to their website. If the article is written well and makes sense to the reader, the reader may click the link and visit your website. Search engines see these as links back to your site and count it as another vote for your website. Other webmasters also have the option to use your article on their website as well, giving you additional links back to your website.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging works exactly as it sounds, you ask another webmaster for permission to write articles for their website. You write content for them, they let you put a link back to your website in return. Everybody wins, as the webmaster gains new content and you get what you wanted, a link back to your site and more exposure to the marketplace. With each additional website you guest blog on, you reach a wider audience. Being that the average person needs to see your name or brand seven times before they remember you or are willing to buy from you, this can give you the exposure you need.

Article Trading

Similar in style to guest blogging, you simply exchange articles with another webmaster. They give you an article to post on your website, and you give them one in return. This method works on two levels, you gain additional content for your audience, and you gain the link back to your website from their website.

This seems harder than simple link trading why should I do this?

What do you think is more powerful, a well written article or a link buried amongst other links on someone’s website? You’ll be lucky to get a few clicks a month from the link, whereas with the article people are becoming aware of who you are, what you think, and what you’re passionate about. You are providing the audience with something. People on the internet are looking for information, and if you provide them with that information they’ll be happy. You’re looking to grow trust with your audience, and to gain trust you need to provide them with something of value. If you’re a great poker player, share some strategies about poker. If you’re a great math and computer guy, put together a poker calculator for the audience.

Avoiding Duplicate Content

There is a simple method to avoiding duplicate content and it’s known as “spinning.” Article spinning is the act of rephrasing an article to make it unique. The same meat on the topic is still there but it’s worded differently. Is spinning bad? That all depends on why you’re doing it. If you’re spinning someone else’s content then yes spinning is bad. But if you’re rewording your own content to ensure that people will find you in several locations I see absolutely no harm in that. If you truly believe in your service, then spinning can be a good thing. If you aren’t providing anything of value, stop doing what you’re doing right now and come up with a way to provide value.

- Jason Narog is an avid poker player and the creator of the royal flush of spades poker card guard