My Final Traffic Update

This article and video were written and produced based on my opinion of what I call Social Media Hype. You may have a totally different opinion. I base mine on actual events that happened to me and my blog. Please join in the discussion whatever your viewpoint may be.

I thought [...]]]>

My Final Traffic Update

This article and video were written and produced based on my opinion of what I call Social Media Hype. You may have a totally different opinion. I base mine on actual events that happened to me and my blog. Please join in the discussion whatever your viewpoint may be.

I thought I would announce the final results of my recent surge in Social Media traffic and non-Social Media traffic. Guess which one won?

Anyone who is familiar with this site knows that I was recently posted over at Chris Brogan.

I made a spoof video about all the hype and hoopla that was being made over the release of Chris’s “Trust Agent” book.

To my surprise and delight, Chris posted the video. What a cool thing for Chris to do for me.

At the same time, Allyn Hane at BloggerIllustrated.net, Internet Marketing Video Blog made several spoof videos of A-list bloggers also. Allyn was mentioned on Grizzly Brears blog, Make Money Online For Beginners. I also have been receiving some traffic from another up and coming internet marketer, Lis Sowerbutts, Passive Income Online. She made mention of our video spoofs and I have received traffic from her. BTW, if you haven’t read Lis, I would go and check out her blog. I dig chicks with attitude.

Allyn received a huge surge in traffic from a non-Social Media blogger (Griz). I appreciated the fact that Chris posted my video, but my Social Media traffic results were disappointing to say the least when you consider the huge amount of so called social media subscribers Chris has. As someone new to internet marketing, I feel lucky to received such a quick and helpful education that I hope I will carry with me as I continue to work on internet marketing in various forms. After I was mentioned on Griz’s blog, my traffic also surged and has been steady ever since.

There is a huge lesson to be learned here in Social Media marketing. However, I’m not the teacher, only a student. I made a video presentation of my Social Media surge and I hope that you will enjoy it and I also hope that the stats will open your eyes and help you on your journey in internet marketing. Your Social Media strategy may deserve a second look if you are serious about traffic to your blog.

For those who may be interested in the technical aspect of the video, here is how I made the video. Everything is Apple Mac based. I first made the presentation using the Apple Keynote program. All of the slides, transitions and typewriter text was made in Keynote. Keynote is how Apple kicked PowerPoint’s rear end.

To embed the video clips in Keynote, I used a screen capture program for Mac’s called IShowU.

Once I finished the presentation, I exported the presentation as a QuickTime movie. This is a very cool feature of Keynote. You can turn a presentation into a movie.

Once I made the presentation into a QuickTime movie, I imported it into my Mac video editing software, Final Cut Express. In FCE, I tweaked the video and added my music etc. I made this particular video in 4:3 aspect instead of the usual 16:9. The process is not a quick process but it’s very flexible. If you can think it in your mind, there is a good chance you can reproduce it in video form with these applications I mentioned. It’s not hard, it just takes practice like everything else in life we do.

Music by the O’Jays.

2009 BloggerLens.com

It’s been one heck of a week. I became a Grandfather on Monday morning. His name is Carter and as hard as I try to be a badass tough guy sometimes, this little booger melted my heart the moment I laid my eyes on him and I instantly fell in love with this little guy. [...]]]>

It’s been one heck of a week. I became a Grandfather on Monday morning. His name is Carter and as hard as I try to be a badass tough guy sometimes, this little booger melted my heart the moment I laid my eyes on him and I instantly fell in love with this little guy. He’s why I haven’t been too busy on Blogger Lens lately.

Back to business now. I implemented something new on my hyperlocal site this week, MonroeScoop.com, that I think is pretty cool and should add a lot as far as multi-media goes. It is something that I think you should consider doing on your hyperlocal blog also. Through the use of Google Voice, I added 2 telephone interviews in the body of my articles. You can check out my earlier Google Voice Review. Google Voice gives you a very easy option to record your telephone conversations by simply hitting the number 4 on your keypad. To stop the recording, press the number 4 again. The recording will be stored on your Google Voice page and you can simply hit the play button to listen. Very, very cool in my opinion.

At this point your work is not over. When you record with Google Voice, you will hear a prompt that your recording is started and ended. You do not want your listeners to hear this if you place in one of your articles. You have to do a little editing at this point. As of now, Google does not give you a way to embed the recording through the use of a widget, you have to get it there yourself. Here is what I do.

• I play the recording on my computer (Mac) and I record the internal audio as it’s playing. I record as a QuickTime movie. Those files are .mov
• I then go in and trim the ends of the recording and take out what I do not want to be there. If you have QuickTime Pro, you will have the ability to do this. If not, you can purchase QuickTime Pro from the Apple website for around $30. You can also do this with Garage Band.
• Next, I covert the recording into an “aif” file from my QuickTime menu.
• Next, I import the recording into iTunes.
• Next step. Convert the “aif” file into an .mp3. (easy to do).
• Upload the .mp3 file to your web host
• Embed the recording into your article using the PodPress WordPress Widget.

If that seems a little hard and a lot of trouble, it isn’t. Those steps only take a few moments. If you are using a Mac (you should be) it’s a breeze. Do it once and you can do it with your eyes closed from then on. If you are using a Windows PC, I cannot instruct you on how to do it. I’m sure it can be done however.

Here are the benefits as I see them.
#1. I can drink beer while I’m doing a telephone interview and no one knows what I’m doing.
#2. I can scratch myself if necessary.
#3. I can pick my nose and can’t be seen. I do not have to leave my house.
#4. Save gas. I don’t have to drive anywhere.
#5. I can…well, you get the idea.

Here is an example of how I used this on my own site. I placed a headshot photo of the person I spoke with. Yesterday I spoke with the Marketing Director of our local shopping mall and I also spoke with the Executive Director of our local Red Cross. Getting these type interviews are very easy once you have gained the trust of these people in your community. I’ll talk about trust in another article but it’s important that as you build your hyperlocal blog, you determine your mission and you gain the trust of the leaders in your community if you want to invite them to be part of your website. I doubt that many folks in your community would be willing to display themselves publicly unless you have built the trust with them.

Here are the 2 telephone interviews:
[display_podcast]

You can visit my site to view these also. Monroe Scoop.

I can tell you right now what Allyn Hane will say about this feature. He will tell me to use it for paid interviews and articles from local merchants. What if a local car dealer or store was having a blowout sale and needed the extra publicity that you could provide? An article and a telephone interview could land a few extra $$ in your account. What do you think? Who would like to hear me interview Allyn Hane by telephone and play it here?

I hope this helps and gives you some additional ideas to use on your hyperlocal blog. Be as creative with your site as possible. There are no rules. No idea is stupid unless you figure out it doesn’t work. If you have some more ideas regarding this, please share them with the readers, I’d love to hear them.

2009 Hyperlocal Blog