For those that are more video oriented, here’s a screencast I shot of me using it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

OK – so what is Twiends and why would I want it?

It’s a FREE web app that helps you build your Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans – which in turn will help build your social cred or authority.

Typically with Twitter you gain followers by following others. You follow them, they follow you (hopefully) – and if you’re lucky you wind up with pretty close to a 1:1 ratio of followers and people you follow.

But a 1:1 ratio doesn’t really give you that much authority – or street cred – now does it? I mean, if I’m following 250 people, but I only have 240 followers, well chances are I’m not really lighting anyone’s social fire – am I?

And that’s roughly my current stat (I’m not the world’s biggest Touiterrer, but I can see Twiends changing that).

Let’s take a look at some folks that carry a bit more social weight:

Kelly Felix: 2,772 Followers – Following 35
Kris Mainieri: 12,690 Followers – Following 586
Conan O’Brien: 2,851,998 Followers – Following 1

So when you see those stats, you know that people are bit more interested in what these folks have to say!

Twiends may not get you to 2 million Followers (well, not quickly at least), but it can easily help you boost your ratio and increase your credibility.

How does Twiends work?

Simple! It’s very much like SocialAddr in that it works on a credit system. For example, you follow someone and you earn 7 credits. Then someone follows you and it costs you 1 credit. In this manner, you would build a nice respectable 7:1 ratio.

What’s nice about Twiends is that it’s not just a completely random bunch of folks following each other. They give you the option to select your interests – say, SEO, Marketing, Weightloss, & Gummi Bears – and it will show you other users with the same interests. This lets you choose from people that you’re actually interested in following.

Even better, it means there’s a much higher chance that the people following you are actually interested in what YOU have to say as well! Which is great if you start marketing to your Followers.

In addition, you can view everyone’s mini profile – their interests, bio, latest tweet – simply by mousing over them before you decide to follow (and earn those credits). You can see it all in action in my screencast: http://youtu.be/jHBHdnSTVjA?hd=1

This really helps in choosing REAL people – and not just Twitter bots.

Twiends works the same way for getting Facebook Fans to Like your fanpages. You Like a page – you earn credits – in turn folks will Like YOUR fanpage.

It does the same for Youtube videos, but in my opinion, this piece isn’t as enticing. You have to sit through at least 90 seconds of the video to earn credits.. Not really worth it to me.

They DO offer you the ability to buy credits as well.

I wasn’t too big on that idea and so far I have stuck to just using the free credits. Although, halfway through recording my video I started talking myself into purchasing some credits. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but you CAN purchase 10,000 credits for $150.

That could easily get you 5,000 – 10,000 Followers or Likes! Not too shabby, but I don’t know how those numbers compare to using shorttask.com or mturk. Not too mention which would have better quality.

But, it is a thought. An easy way to get 10,000 new Twitter Followers.

In the meantime, it is absolutely FREE to use Twiends, and well worth it if your social profile could use a bit of a boost (like mine!)

Give it a shot and let me know what you think of Twiends.

So what the heck is all of this Kitty Fancy Pants nonsense?  Well, this post is simply an experiment on video sitemaps.  I had to come up with a search team that did not have many results for this particular test, and hence Kitty Fancy Pants was born.  I borrowed the famous surprise kitty video for this test.  Can you believe that thing has 44 million views!!  I don’t think my rework with get that many views.  Actually I hope not, because Kitty Fancy Pants is hosted on my server!

Kitty Fancy Pants Gets Fancy

So at this point, I’m simply trying to use the kw Kitty Fancy Pants enough times so that my site will get indexed quickly.  To do so, I will be following all of the the Bring the Fresh ninja tricks.  Hey, why shouldn’t I throw a link in here – right??  lol  So back to this whole Kitty Fancy Pants phenomenon, what do you suppose a kitty would actually do with a pair of fancy pants?  I hear that some kitties have been known to where boots – but fancy pants?  That is a new one.  Although, Kitty Fancy Pants isn’t all that new because I found three pages of results for the kw!

The Breakdown of Kitty Fancy Pants

So let me quickly explain what is going on here with the kitty and it’s supposed fancy pants

• I borrowed the video
• Uploaded the video
• Created the post
• I brought the fresh with Bring the Fresh

And if all goes according to plan, I should see a result for my Kitty Fancy Pants video.  BTW, I have to throw a THANKS to Fred and his Online Marketing Dojo for sharing this video related ninja trick!  Thanks Fred!  The least I could do was throw you a backlink.  

Wrapping up Kitty Fancy Pants

OK, so at this point I’m up to three hundred words – give or take.  I feel that I’ve properly kw’d this out, but I think I’m going to install SEOPressor on this blog just to see out of curiosity.  By the way, I’ve heard that curiosity killed the kitty, but curiosity is no match for Kitty Fancy Pants!  I wonder if exclamation points are taken into account in “the algorithm”.  Hopefully not in a bad way, because I have used quite a few of them in this post.  Look!!  There’s another one now!  For anyone that has read this far, (first – why did you??) I apologize.  This certainly has not been the most exciting experimental post.  The problem is that I’m hungry and I can’t stop thinking about an Italian Villa pizza.  I think I’ll just wrap it up and Kitty Fancy Pants and I will go grab a few slices!

Well, if you do any sort of marketing via Facebook you might want to read on to find out more.  If not, feel free to use the next 10 minutes to catch up on your favority soap opera news.  Now, for you folks makeing the most of Facebook – Facebook Markup Language – or FBML as the kids call it – is DEAD!!  Dry your tears – it’s actually a blessing.  Sure Mark Z crafted a plucky app, but did he really need to construct his own markup language to go along with it??  The majority answer with a resounding NO!  Not when you have alternatives out there that can do the job just as well (if not better).  iFrames and HTML5 for example.  What?  You’re not familiar with these?  Hmmm..   FBMaxed may be right up your alley then!

With the advent of iFrames and the HTML5 framework, the door to new adventures and possibilities in the producing of your Facebook Fanpage has reached an enitirely new level. You can now build an entire blog on your own Facebook Page. I’m talking total web sites with multiple pages, with videos, photo galleries, opt-ins, sales pages, landing pages, hyperlinks, whatever it is that you can do with a web site, you can do it here on Facebook. Wow, interaction with your fan base on Facebook has never been this thrilling!

With all these new features and tools available, it is indeed timely and spot on for a full program that streamlines the whole process of creating and implementing a site on your Facebook Fanpage, to make its grand entrance.

Enter FBMaxed.

This is by far the only Facebook Page system that I know of that utilizes both iFrames and the dynamic HTML5 framework together. Yes, FBMaxed makes sure that you stay ahead of the curve and even declares that it will future proof your Facebook Page by virtue of its customizable themes and templates. They even double as mobile websites and have been tested on Android, Blackberry, iPhone and iPad!

One thing that really stands out is that this software basically allows you to custom construct two web sites for your Facebook Page. Why two? One is a reveal splash page, meant to be seen by people who have not “liked” your page, while the other is a real, full web site that is visible only to those that have “liked” your page. As for the reveal splash page, it is, get this, an entire web site by itself. It’s not just a single page with an image and some text; it’s a comprehensive web site where you can include anything you want into it such as videos, lead capture opt-ins, photo galleries, and more! Talk about generating a teaser site to get people to “like” your Facebook Page, so they can get to see the real, complete thing!

I was also very impressed with the three solid customizable themes that come with FBMaxed. It effectively takes care of all the grunt work in building and implementing a website on your Facebook Page. What are just some of the things that these themes can do? Opt-ins, PHP email contact forms, HTML5 video, photo galleries… wow, just wow. I’m really tempeted to ask here now, is there anything that FBMaxed can’t do?

The icing on the cake, however, is the excellent value-added services that the FBMaxed team is offering to its buyers. They will hold webinars every few days to guide them through the setting up of their very own facebook Page. After every webinar they will hold a question and answer session where folks are given a chance to clarify any doubts or uncertainties. These webinars are also posted as downloadable videos so buyers can revisit them anytime they want to, in case they missed out on a webinar or just want to revisit certain topics. And of course, they also have email support to answer your questions and concerns.

All in all, if you are into social media marketing and want to control the market and competition, or want to spread brand awareness and keep in constant touch with your visitors on facebook, then FBMaxed is definitely a must.

Many of you already know from previous conversations that I *really* like the results I get from social bookmark backlinks. I’ve gone on about PixelPipe (still one my favorites) and SocialAdr – and now along those lines SocialMonkee is looking like another GREAT *free* app for getting those social bookmark backlinks to your sites.

They have two interfaces – the first and easiest is the Firefox plugin. So all you do is go to the page that you want to create backlinks for, click the lil monkee head in your Firefox browser and submit.

The other option (if you don’t use Firefox) is via their website. Same idea, you just manually add things like your URL, keywords, etc.

You get 25 backlinks FREE each day – not bad!

But here’s the kicker: They (of course) have a Premium membership – and IT IS FREE ALSO!!!

What?? A free “Premium” membership?? What is this oxymoron madness of which you speak??

The Premium membership comes with all of this goodness:

* Submit your pages to 100 UNIQUE SITES instead of 25!
* Build backlinks to your pages 3 TIMES A DAY, every day instead of only once!
* Build up to 9,000 BACKLINKS EVERY MONTH instead of 750!
* Get access to reports to keep a record of all the backlinks you create!
* Get access to an RSS feed of ALL your links to get them and your pages indexed faster!
* Get advanced video training to learn how to make the most of your backlinks!
* For even better search engine rankings, more traffic, leads and sales!

And like I say, you can get a Premium membership for FREE!

You score the Premium membership by referring getting 12 other folks to sign-up for the FREE SocialMonkee membership (where they get 25 links a day).

How can you (we??) lose?!?

So yes, I’m here today searching for 12 other folks to sign up for the FREE SocialMonkee – and in turn I hope you guys do the same – post to forums – blast to Twitter – FB etc… I mean it only takes 12 free folks to get to the Premium level – where you then get 300 backlinks per day! 9000 per month – for LIFE!

Oh, btw, they DO have a pay option to also get to the Premium level…

A-HA!! I knew you were trying to get your grubby hands into my pockets!

Hmmm… as much as I would enjoy that I still say why not go the FREE route??

But check this out:   the Premium membership is $47 – ONE TIME PAYMENT!!!! You *know* I hate anything with a monthly recurring charge!! That’s just another reason why I think SocialMonkee is great – it’s a one-time, low payment that gets you 9000 social bookmark backlinks every month for LIFE (well, here’s hoping the monkee does live a long and prosperous life though lol).

So – find 12 other free users (like I’m trying to do here), or drop $47 – either way, I think this one is a great deal!

What do you think?? He’s got full videos and more info up on the site: SocialMonkee.

Give it a peek.

Backlinks

All Automated!

Auto Backlink Bomb

That link will get you Auto Backlink Bomb for a
* one time payment
* lifetime updates
* and thousands of Profile backlinks – all on autopilot!

If this is the first time you’re hearing about Auto Backlink Bomb, please allow me a moment to tell you about a ‘robot’ app that I recently picked up – that I am truly loving!!

Obviously we’re seeing that Backlinks are a huge key in getting our pages ranked. I know many of us are using SEOTrackbacks, Link Juicer, and some are even trying out XRumer – all of which are great for building comment backlinks to our sites.

But I also read that having diverse backlinks could really help. So we’re already getting comment backlinks – but how about from social media sites – and from profile pages.

It was when I was searching for an easier way to create these Profile page backlinks that I came across “Auto Backlink Bomb”

Now, please – don’t let the silly name and his sales-y squeeze page run you off!! 

It’s almost a shame that a product THIS good has such a “hype-y” name. Actually, the name and it’s website turned me off initially too. I thought: “Sure another over hyped uBot script”, but fortunately I came across a review for it that made me give this one a second look.

Auto Backlink Bomb (or from here on out I’ll refer to as ABB) creates profiles for you on various web site platforms. Once your profile is created, it will place a short bio and include a kw link back to your site. So the whole concept is an automated way of building another type of backlink to your sites.

ABB builds profiles on web sites that are built on these 5 very popular platforms:

Expression Engine
PHPFox
SMF
Elgg
MyBB

As a bonus, PHPFox and Elgg are actually blogging platforms! So ABB will submit your blog posts/articles to all of those sites that it creates your profile on. And it supports spyntax for ALL of the submissions – even the short bio/sig line profiles.

That means more diverse backlinks AND diverse anchor text!

Now look, as someone that has purchased WAY too many automated submitters (*cough* Incansoft *cough*) that didn’t work – or had only a 10% success rate, I was pretty skeptical.

But one of the really cool features of Auto Backlink Bomb is that you actually get to SEE it working!

I’m not talking about getting a log file at the end (although it does that too). I mean you actually can WATCH the bot opening up the actual web page in it’s window, creating your account, verifying your e-mail, and posting your content – all while it’s happening live!!

SO YOU KNOW IT’S WORKING!! 

During last week’s BTF webinar I took it out for it’s initial spin (no pun intended lol). I was keeping an eye on it on one of my monitors off to the side. It was pretty cool actually seeing one of these bots FINALLY work!

Now like anything automated, there were a couple that didn’t go through – It created ~350 new profiles – and I think only 10 or 20 total out of the 350 created profiles had an issue.

So that’s what – a 95% SUCCESS rate!

Of those few that didn’t complete – a couple had no response from the site… a few others the username I chose already existed on the site – but in the end – ~350 new profiles created automatically!!  :-O  Nice!

And only 350 because I stopped it and went on to the verification step – otherwise it would have kept on cruising.

So yeah, next was e-mail verification. It scraped the yahoo e-mail account that it created for all of the activation links – EVEN the junk mail folder – and then once gathered, queued them up to be ‘clicked on’ one by one. Again, I was able to watch it live as it browsed to the sites and worked it’s magic!

Next step was to go ahead and have it actually post my links in the newly created profiles. I mean, this is where these bots usually fall on their face – right?? Once again, NO PROBLEM – smooth sailing… 297 new backlinks on the Expression Engine sites.

It was right about then that the webinar was wrapping up and I was tired so I decided to stop the bot again… plus like I say – I already had 297 new backlinks in a matter of minutes!    I still can go back in a few days and have it add my blog posts to the ~50 PHPFox accounts I created.

So the 2 second summary:

It automatically:
1) Creates accounts on sites built using Expression Engine, PHPFox, MyBB, SMF, and Elgg
2) It then scrapes the yahoo mail account to do the authentication for the new profiles
3) It then posts your bio, signature, blog posts to the new accounts – with your links – and can do so using spyntax
4) It supports Decaptcher (but I had problems getting it to work – I need to look into it – it was my first time using a decapther service).
5) It also has some RSSMasher and Pinger thing that comes with it – I didn’t get to that yet – but basically it takes the newly created profile links, puts them into an RSS feed on IceRocket, and then Pings them! So we get faster indexing and one less piece of work!
6) It comes with ~1500+ sites that it can create accounts on out of the box – but it also includes a scraper for you to find your own and add to the list
7) I’m assuming it’s going to wash my dishes too at this point (but I have not verified that yet) 

So – needless to say, YES, I am very happy with this shiny new object. And I know we’re supposed to refrain (me especially), but like I say, I justified this one because I felt it would serve a good purpose (backlinking) but in a different way (different type of backlinks).

The kicker is that we can pick it up for only $58! That’s a ONE TIME / no monthly fee price – and includes lifetime updates! Did I say: No monthly fees?!!! (And btw, he keeps releasing updates, so this guy appears to be on top of it!). $58!!!!

Here’s the link to pick it up at $57.97:  Auto Backlink Bomb

You can also watch a couple of videos he has there to actually see this thing in action.

Read through the thread here to see what other BTF’ers are saying about ABB – and there are also feedback on it over at WF: http://www.warriorforum.com/internet-marketing-product-reviews-ratings/259206-auto-backlink-bomb.html

He also has a slew of quick tutorial videos on his forum to walk us through every feature of the app and how to set it up.

Why? What the heck is a ‘Dropbox‘??

Glad you asked!

There’s a great video on the Dropbox site that gives you all the details – but as they sum it up:

“It’s like a Magic Pocket! A single, secure place for all your stuff.”

Ooooo, I like Magic!!

Yes, well, while that is a good description, in other words it’s free “cloud storage” that gives you the ability to access all of your important content from anywhere in the world.

For example, one way I use it is that I have a BTF folder in my Dropbox space. I keep the Fast Start Guide, the scorecard, my list of plug-ins, GoDaddy account codes, SEOTrackback files etc – everything BTF related – in this one folder.

Now I can access that BTF folder from anywhere! On my work computer, on my home computer, on my netbook – and even on my phone!

And it’s not that I have to surf out to a website and download this stuff (although, you can do that if you’re on someone else’s computer and need to) – it’s already THERE – on the device I’m using!

You see, what Dropbox does is it integrates into your device. So, on Windows, when I open up “My Documents” the Dropbox folder is in there. And when I click on that folder, there is all my BTF stuff.

When I copy or save something new into that Dropbox folder, it automatically syncs it to my other devices! So no matter which device I’m using – all of my important stuff is always RIGHT THERE!

WoW – it truly IS magic – isn’t it?!  :-O

Bottom line, if you ever work on more than one computer or device, Dropbox just makes life a whole lot easier. No more having to copy files back and forth, no thumb drives, no need to e-mail yourself a copy of that picture – it’s all in Dropbox.

Sounds pretty awesome!! I’m gonna go check it out! But, hey… wait a minute! If it’s FREE, why are you giving me a ‘referral link?? What’s the catch??

How observant!    No catch – and it most certainly is FREE. They give you 2 GB of storage space. Every time you refer someone they give you – and the other person – another 250 MB of free space!

So if you use my Dropbox link to sign up, they’ll give me another 250 MB – and they will give YOU another 250 MB of free space – so 2.25 GB of free storage!!

So, you could say I’m doing us BOTH a favor by providing my Dropbox link!

Or you could say I’m doing YOU a favor by clicking on it and signing up!!  

Yeah, I guess you’ve got a point there!! 

All kidding aside, Dropbox is a great service! I’ve grown to love it so much that I’m starting to get tight on space – hence the Shameless Promo here. But really, if you’re new to Dropbox, and you use more than one computer or device, check them out. I think you’ll really find it handy! And did I mention it’s FREE?

So, I finally joined Bring The Fresh.  I went the Full Disclosure route – why screw around, right?  If I’m going to do this, I may as well go full speed ahead and at the same time make my life easier by getting all of the information up front.  The next few months should be interesting trying to balance the job AND launch an IM career, but I’m determined to make it work.

On a side note, I also picked up Info Product Killer (IPK).  It was only $37 and I’ve heard so many good things about it, I figured, why not?  From everything I’ve seen so far I think BTF will cover all of the bases for me, but it will also be good to get another insight from a different mind into the whole niche blogging thing.

The “real world” (i.e. my work – not the MTV show) has been keeping me too busy lately to really dig into any marketing strategies.  In my spare time though I’ve been keeping an eye on Tiffany Dow and her reviews of Bring the Fresh.  I’m hoping it’s not just all hype because I’m ‘this close’ to pulling the trigger.  Considering how much I was spending PER MONTH on another ‘guru system’, it probably can’t hurt to take a shot on Bring the Fresh.  Heck, the Core lessons are less than one month of the other program.  If the results that Tiffany Dow is having are any indication, then BTF looks like it could really be a winner!

But HOLD ON!!  Ed Dale is also getting ready to release The Challenge 2010!  The Challenge is a re-tooling of Ed’s very successful “Thirty Day Challenge” – and oh did I mention, it’s FREE!!  One thing I’ve learned in the past several months of investigating Internet Marketing is that lots of folks are selling the same old, rehashed information over and over.  So, if Ed Dale is offering it for FREE, then why should I pay for it?

Like I say, I’m really interested in Bring the Fresh, but I think I will wait a week to see what the updated Challenge has in store.  Any other #30DC alumni out there?

So now I’m looking at some of the offerings out there for automating the process of multiple blog installs.  The two that are showing the most promise right now are BackupBuddy and WordPress Desktop.  I have both in hand and will try to put them through their paces over the next week and then come back here and post my findings.

I had some interest in WP Auto Installer by Mass-Automation, but I’ve found them not to be very user friendly (IMO).  Several times I’ve gone to their website only to be greeted by a page telling me they are ‘closed’ and giving a listing of their business hours.  I could be wrong, but I’ve always thought the value in having a company/product web page was that your information was available 24/7/365.  But hey, that could just be me.

So what are YOU using for WordPress automation?

BUT, and there always is a but… The 2 GB of free space is a bit on the weak side. This is where SkyDrive really shines. Actually it shines 10x brighter than Dropbox – as in, Microsoft gives you 25 GB of cloud storage FREE!! The biggest downside to SkyDrive is the interface – or the lack thereof.

There is where Gladinet comes into play. Gladinet (also free) allows you to map cloud storage as a network drive – thereby giving you that Explorer interface to SkyDrive (and other third party cloud offerings, such as S3). So you sign up for your free SkyDrive (or just activate it if you already have a MS Live ID i.e. Hotmail, XBox Live etc), download and install Gladinet and BOOM – you now have an extra 25 GB of storage and share space in the cloud! Not too shabby, eh?

I still prefer the ease of Dropbox at this point, but as I’m already running low on space I will be making great use of the SkyDrive + Gladinet combo!

What do you use?