LocalTweeps offers new way to customize your local status

April 22, 2009 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: Twitter, Web Services 

If you’re not already aware, LocalTweeps.com offers a way to add yourself to their directory based on your local ZIP code.

Recently, I added my Twitter account to LocalTweeps.com for the 28906 ZIP code.

Today, I visited the site to see if anyone else had added their Twitter account for the Murphy, NC ZIP code. That’s when I saw that they had a new way to update your LocalTweeps status.

So, I gave it a try.

The key is to first be sure that you’re registered at LocalTweeps.com and then, when you want to update your LocalTweeps status, end the tweet with the #lt hashtag. Make sure it is the last thing in the tweet.

I also included the #MurphyNC hash tag so the tweet would show up on other sites where I’m using that. As long as the #lt comes after the other hashtag, it still works fine.

I still have some trouble with the LocalTweeps.com site’s search function now and then. If I go to their home page and click the Search link, I can enter “28906″ and almost always find myself listed in the resulting tab.

However, when I link to the same search page, it often shows nobody listed. I don’t know if that’s a bug in their code or if my browser isn’t interpreting it correctly.

Since I live in an area where there are few people on Twitter, and even fewer tweeting about local events and news, it doesn’t make a lot of difference right now.

However, since I’ll be working with my new marketing consulting clients to help them get more out of Twitter, this should become more important in the future for all of us in the 28906 ZIP code.

It’s one more piece in the puzzle for promoting businesses, people, and events in Murphy, NC.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Post flyers to your Facebook profile from Vflyer

March 12, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Advertising, Dilbeck Marketing, Internet Marketing, Murphy NC 28906, Web Services 

Do you know about Vflyer.com?

I’ve been watching this site as it has developed over the last couple of years and opened a free account in 2007, but never did much with it. I created a test flyer, but never published it.

I think Vflyer.com is ideally suited for people who sell products and who want to create flyers with text and photos using templates that are pretty well designed.

For example, if I were a real estate salesman or sold cars, I’d be using this service on a regular basis.

Since I sell services, I haven’t found it to be all that useful for me, but I keep in touch with what they’re doing so I can pass it along to my consulting clients.

Today, however, when I was catching up on reading the blogs to which I subscribe, I ran across a very interesting post on the Vflyer blog:

New Feature! Post Links to Your Flyers to Your Facebook Profile.

That caught my attention!

I’m always looking for ways to leverage my advertising on social networking sites.

Since I hadn’t visited my Vflyer site in awhile, I went there and saw how pathetic it really was. Now that I was aware of it, I couldn’t leave it like that, so I spent a half-hour or so updating the information and creating a new flyer for my local marketing consulting.

Just as their blog indicated, it was extremely easy to post a link to my new flyer on my Facebook profile.

Not only that, Vflyer automatically posted the flyer to my Google Base account and could have posted to other sites, but, since this was mainly for testing, I chose not to do that.

Another nice thing about Vflyer is that it is easy to create a PDF of your flyer that you can print, email, or otherwise distribute, even if you know practically nothing about PDFs.

There are a few things I don’t like about the flyer I created.

At the top of the flyer, where I’m describing my service, it does not put a blank line between paragraphs, or even indent new paragraphs, and I think that is just bad form.

Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the layout and the ease of creation of the flyer.

I could have done it myself using Pages or a word processor, but it would have taken much longer and probably would not have looked as nice.

The other thing I am not happy with is the wording in the attributes section of the flyer. I know that it should talk to my clients and should not be about me, so there are some things I will be changing before I start distributing it seriously.

Still, it’s not bad for a free service and about a half-hour of work.

If you’re my friend on Facebook, you can see the link to the flyer.

I know I don’t use enough photos on my blogs and other publications, and this flyer is no different. If I had more talent in that area, I’m sure I could have found a good photo, but I didn’t.

However, if you’re renting property, selling homes, selling cars, or running a service business that is more appropriate for photos, Vflyer makes it easy to add them.

As a free user, you obviously don’t have all the features that paid members enjoy, but it still does a very good job. Paid accounts start at less than $15 per month and I believe their service would easily be worth that amount if I sold high-end products, especially if I lived in a larger town that had a local Craigslist or Kijiji site.

All in all, this was an unexpected, yet very interesting diversion from what I had planned for my morning.

I already know of a couple of clients I’ll be advising to start using the services provided by Vflyer.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

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Is Aweber or Feedburner better for syndicating blog posts via email?

February 15, 2009 by JD · 15 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Web Services 

I don’t know about you, but most of the people who subscribe to my blog posts prefer to subscribe via email rather than using an RSS feedreader.

I used to use a feedreader, but I’m finding that I like subscribing to email feeds better, now.

There are at least a couple of ways to do this. You can use Aweber or Feedburner. I’m sure there are other ways to do it, but those are the two that I’ve used and like.

Feedburner is a free service that is owned by Google, so there isn’t much danger of it going away anytime soon.

Aweber is a company that specializes in email marketing and autoresponder services. I use them for several email marketing series, distributing newsletters, and broadcasting messages to subscribers now and then.

Both companies provide reliable service.

When you subscribe to someone else’s blog via email, which do you like best?

When you offer your readers the option to subscribe to your blog via email, which do you prefer?

As long as you have an Aweber account, I guess you could use both, but for some reason I can’t define right now, I don’t think that’s a good idea.

So, which do you prefer, or do you have another option you like better?

Act on your dream!

JD

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Twitter blog says nothing to report

February 11, 2009 by JD · 8 Comments
Filed under: Social Networking, Twitter, Web Services 

For the last couple of days, there has been a lot of rumors and speculation that Twitter is going to start charging corporate customers for using the service.

Yesterday, the Twitter blog was updated with a post entitled: Nothing To Report Just Yet

In part, the article says…

However, it’s important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we’re thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services.

So, all the speculation about how Twitter is going to determine whether someone is an individual or is acting as a corporate presence is unfounded and a waste of time.

Now, back to work.

Act on your dream!

JD

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The best collection of analytics tools I’ve seen in one place

July 1, 2007 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Web Services 

Adam Ostrow writes, in his article Analytics Toolbox: 50+ Ways to Track Website Traffic:

From analyzing your RSS feed to counting page views to visual representations of where your visitors are clicking, there is no shortage of companies looking to help you better understand your web site’s traffic. In our latest “toolbox” installment, we analyze (pun intended) the wide variety of applications and tools available for keeping tabs on how your sites, feeds, blogs, emails, or even your intranet is performing.

Not only does he list a great variety of tools and techniques, his readers are leaving useful comments, too.

I thought I was well versed on this topic, but Adam lists companies and tools that have never crossed my traffic analysis radar.

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