Wizzley: A Writers' Community Launches

Wizzley, a new writers' community, has been in public launch for just over a week.

There are now over 350 authors and more than 350 original articles.

Wizzley is an article site with the option to add images and video and
other modules to enrich the article content.

There is a strong emphasis on quality with the minimum requirement
of 400 words per article.  The site has inbuilt duplicate content checks
to ensure the originality of the content.

Wizzley is very much a community so members contribute to the
community as well as write articles.  Community contributions are by
way of forum posts, commenting on articles and contributing to
improvements of the site.

The Wizzley community is a dynamic group of writers who respect
each other and collaborate in the process of creating a great site
and building each others confidence and competence as a writer.

Wizzley members can earn revenue from direct affiliate links as well
as from the following income modules:

• Adsense
• Amazon
• Allposters
• Zazzle

Revenue from these four modules is shared on an impression basis -
50% of impressions will show the author's affiliate ID and the other
50% will show Wizzley's affiliate ID.

You can also earn income from referrals - 10% of the impressions
from referrals' articles will show your affiliate ID's (for life). This
share comes off Wizzley's 50%, not your referral's.

Wizzley's Alexa rank at the time of writing is:

• US   -   17,511
• Germany  -  9,418
• Global   - 135,953

Come and join us at Wizzley - the fun, fast and friendly site for authors.

 

YouTube - Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks

Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks

Social networks shape our thinking, our lives and our actions.
They are arenas of influence. Nicholas Christakis in this video
presentation shows how social networks can explain the growth
of philanthropy, obesity and drug use.

His visual presentation of the forming and re-forming of a
social network over 15 years is stimulating and enlightening
It will change your perspective of social networks and
their power for creating good in the world.

Nicholas maintains that social networking is embedded
in our genes and that one only has to look at our offline
social networks to confirm this.

The question for us as business owners and online
marketers is. "How are we going to use these arenas
of influence?" Will the world be a better place as a result
of our actions on Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, RedGage
and other social networking sites?

Posted via email from Ronpass posterous

 

Traffic Dashboard Review: structured guide to traffic generation

Marlon Sanders has just released his Traffic Dashboard
which gives you 16 ways to generate traffic to your
website, blog or Squidoo lens.

The rows in the Dashboard represent 6 broad traffic
sources:

• article marketing
• search engine optimization
• social media marketing
• banner ad marketing
• email marketing (incl. solo ads)
• affiliate marketing (for your own product)

I purchased the system after very strong support
for the product in the Warrior's Forum.

The whole system is designed as a point-and-click
access point with each icon representing a source
of traffic or another step in an already introduced
traffic source.

For example, the first row of the dashboard discusses
article marketing. Each of the icons in this row
provide a stage in the process in the form of
detailed step-by-step instructions. Icons cover
keyword research, writing the article, the resource
box, landing page, submission and editing and
outsourcing. Each stage is illustrated with
screen shots and examples.

The social media row of Traffic Dashboard is
different in terms of the level of detail provided.
This row, for example, covers Facebook Ads,
YouTube, Video Sites, Squidoo Lenses,
The Epiphany and Images. ["The Epiphany"
is Marlon's personal insight into how to really
generate traffic.]

Thus the level of detail for social networking
in the social media row is a long way from the depth
and comprehensiveness of my SquidooRoo Program.

However, Marlon does provide an easy entry point
for someone who is not used to using some of these
aspects.

There is something in Traffic Dashboard for both the
newbie and the advanced.  I know I certainly learned
some things on my first run through.

Strengths of Traffic Dashboard

• range of areas covered
• step-by-step process
• very well illustrated
• motivational (encourages you to "have a go")
• builds confidence as you master each step
• strong support for newbies
• introduces some new approaches to generating traffic
• "The Epiphany" - worth the cost of the product.

 Weaknesses of Traffic Dashboard

• product tries to cover both newbies and advanced
• some areas (such as social media) are not comprehensive
• the depth across topics varies considerably
• the Squidoo instructions are inadequate

I mention the last point specifically in the light of the
Google Algorith Change and Squidoo's response.
Squidoo is now putting a lot more emphasis on
original content and lenses that lack original content
(that were tolerated before) will now be locked.
Traffic Dashboard does not make this point
clear.

Despite some of it's limitations, Traffic Dashboard has
some real merits.  If you are a relative newbie, or at the
intermediate level of Internet marketing, it has a lot
to offer through its systematic approach and
step-by-step instructions.  More advanced Internet
marketers may find that they are already doing
60% of what is covered (and more besides).
However, there is very real value in "The
Epithany" which shows you how to leverage your
content creation.

Check out this product - it may be just what you
need to introduce some system and discipline to
your marketing efforts:
Traffic Dashboard

*****************************************
Ron Passfield, PhD, is the creator of SquidooRoo.com,
a 24 weeks (6 months) training program in
social media marketing which covers content creation,
promotion and social networking including Facebook,
Twitter, Squidoo, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube, and
RedGage.

3 Things That Can Block Your Motivation

In this audio I discuss three things that
can get in the road of your motivation at
work or with your online activity or, more
specifically, with your social media marketing.

These barriers to motivation are:

1. your mindset
2. your comfort zone
3. your past experiences

The audio discusses how these things dampen
your motivation.

In the my Social Media Training Program, I
address these issues and encourage you to
change your mindset, go beyond the limitations
of your comfort zone and to break free
of the constraints of past experiences.

The SquidooRoo program is as much about
your inner journey as it is about the mechanics
of social media marketing.

In this training program in social media marketing,
I explore multiple ways to improve motivation
and increase your productivity.

Why not join us on this learning journey
and find your true motivation and capacity?

Related Resource:

http://www.squidoo.com/WonderfulWizardofOz

Facebook Changes: New iFrame Facebook Pages

Facebook will be replacing FBML Facebook Pages
(Facebook Markup Language) with the new
iFrame Facebook Page with effect from 11 March 2011.

You will no longer be able to use FBML to build your Facebook
pages.  You will have to host your own Facebook Pages.

This means that you will have to learn about iFrames and get access
to some templates to speed up the process of making
Facebook Pages for yourself and/or your clients.

The iFrame Pages will be more powerful but there are less guides,
templates and software available to assist you with this process.
However, if you want to make Facebook Pages in the future, you
will not have any choice as you will have to use iFrames.

Daniel Tan and Phil Benham have come up with a great solution
to the new iFrame Facebook pages.  FBMaxed gives you:

• Three (3) HTML 5 cusomizable Facebook iFrame templates*
• Step-by-step video instructions
• Recorded video webinars (downloadable)
• Email support

* Optimized for Mobile

The templates incorporate the "reveal" function - the "reward" page
is revealed only after the reader "Likes" the page.  You have the
option of displaying an alternative page for those who don't "like"
the landing page.

The new iFrames Facebook pages can hold video and
lead capture opt-ins. You can show full websites with or without
the reveal option.  So this is what you can have on your Facebook
Page:

• Multiple pages on one Facebook Page
• PHP email contact forms
• HTML5 videos.
• Photo galleries
• Extended Facebook Pages (3000 pixels)
• Lead capture opt-ins
• Sales pages & Landing pages
• Reveal Splash pages

Daniel Tan has provided a wide range of great products and even
Traci Gregory, who has developed her own iFrames application,
recommends Daniels's FBMaxed as easier and more flexible.

Check out the video now and see what FBMaxed offers

P.S. There will be webinars every few days for people who purchase
this product with Q & A sessions included. - so heaps of support.

****************************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD, is the creator of SquidooRoo.com,
a 24 weeks (6 months) training program in
social media marketing which covers content creation,
promotion and social networking including Facebook.

Ezinearticles.com - New author guidelines 2011

Info  PR: 3  I: 3,180,000  L: 0  LD: 204,748,582  I: 323,000 Rank: 7  Age: Oct 12, 1999  I: 0  whois source Robo: yes Sitemap: no  Rank: 1586  Price: 989030 Links: 12|3 Density

Quality Criteria for Authors

In response to the Google Algorith Change 2011, Ezinearticles.com
has now finalized its new Quality critieria for authors.

The list is provided here:

1. Doubling the time for editors to make quality checks
2. No longer accept article submissions via WordPress Plugin and API
3. Two weeks limit for removal of identified dead links (vs 35 days)
4. Only 10 additional submissions to reach Platinum Level (vs 25)*
5. Minimum 400 word count (vs 250)

* Note: if you do not make the quality grade (platinum member) after
20 submissions you will no longer be allowed to submit to
Ezinearticles.com

The NoFollow Link Debate

There has been a heated debate over the suggestion by
Ezinearticles.com that they would introduce a nofollow link
process for the Resource box area of an article (they already
have this in place for "within article" links).

Blog comments became quite heated over this topic
(50 + pages of comments). There was a very strong resistance
to this proposed change as it stopped authors from generating
quality backlinks via Ezinearticles.com.

The effect of the no- follow tag on links is that search engines
will not follow/index the link and no "link juice" or anchor text
will pass from Ezinearticles.com (now PR 6) to the
author's website.  Thus the author would not gain a quality
backlink (see Matt Cutt's video below explaining Google's
position on no-follow links).

Christopher Knight argued that using the "no follow" tag
for the Resource Box links, would show Google that
Ezinearticles.com were not "gaming" the search engine
system and would improve its quality score.

Other commentators pointed out that Articlebase.com
had a 100% "no follow" policy and still were hit very hard
by Google's 2011 Algorith Change.

The debate then turned to, "What is the fundamental purpose
of Ezinearticles.com?"  Christopher Knight argued that the primary
purpose is to serve the reader with content that helps them
solve their problems/issues - Ezinearticles.com does not exist
to provide quality backlinks for authors.

Many of the commentators then argued that authors submit for
two purposes - to get traffic and quality backlinks. They suggested
that if the second benefit was taken away, many authors would no
longer publish on the Ezinearticles.com article directory.

Christopher Knight, Owner of Ezinearticles.com, then
withdrew the suggestion of "no follow" links from 
current quality considerations.

The discussion, though, highlighted Ezinearticles.com absolute
commitment to improved quality (necessary for its survival)
but genuine willingness to engage in discussion and consultation
with its members.

It also highlights the need to be continuously vigilant about quality
and innovation, even for an organisation that holds a premier
position as the No. 1 article directory of the Internet.

Related Post:

The 2011 Google Algorith Changes: Ezinearticles.com Response



********************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD, is an expert author/Platinum author
with Ezinearticles.com with 40 published articles.
Ron is the creator of a training program in social media marketing,
covering content creation, social networking
and promotion:
http://www.squidooroo.com

**********************************************

Matt Cutts from Google on "no follow" links

Ezinearticles.com Response to Google's new "Farmer Algorith"

Google bots on-the-move

If you thought it was difficult in the past to get your article
published on Ezinearticles.com, things are going to be
even tougher in the future.  Ezinearticles.com is
predicting that it's current 40.6% rejection rate will
climb to at least 60% because of new measures it is
putting in place to improve the quality of the site.

These changes have come as an immediate response to
what is being termed as Googles's "Farmer Algorith"
changes.  Google has decided that it is time to
change its search engine algorith to dump poor quality
sites from high rankings:

This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites
—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from
other websites or sites that are just not very useful.

Google plans instead to give more value to what they consider
to be high quality sites:
...it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites
with original content and information such as research,
in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

Unfortunately sites like Ezinearticles.com, who go out of their
way to create quality through human editing and other measures,
have been among the hardest hit.

Ezinearticles.com has already recorded the immediate downturn
in traffic it experienced after the changes were announced:

While we adamantly disagree with anyone who places the
“Content Farm” label on EzineArticles.com, we were not
immune to this algorithm change. Traffic was down 11.5%
on Thursday and over 35% on Friday. In our life-to-date,
this is the single most significant reduction in market trust
we’ve experienced from Google.

There has been an immediate response by Ezinearticles.com
which has signaled the following changes:

1. tighten the software mechanism that detects copied content
2. no longer accept submissions directly from WordPress blogs
3. reduction in number of ads per page (to keep article reader focused)
4. 600-850 words may become the new normal with 400 being the minimum
5. increased rejection of "advertorials"
6. tightening up on categories that tend to encourage spam or poor content
7. may start rejecting content that is not unique to
EzineArticles.com alone. (this is in line with some news release outlets.)


So you can expect a whole lot of tightening up on Ezinearticles.com
but also on HubPages, AssociatedContent.com, Suite101.com and Buzzle.com
- all of whom have been negatively impacted by the Google Algorith Changes.

Some of the winners in the aftermath of the Google Algorith Changes are:

1. eHow.com
2. youtube.com
3. ebay.com
4. facebook.com
5. instructables.com

...plus Sears and Walmart!!
  
Dan Abbamont who compared some stats before and after the change
based on Google Canada suggested that Squidoo too lost 15 places
in search results.

This is not supported by other stats supplied by researchers.

Squidoo's recent appointment of large numbers of GiantSquids
as SquidAngels to do quality control over allocated
topic "neighborhoods" (sub-categories) was probably done in
anticipation of these Google Algorith Changes.

Whatever, the final fall-out is, the whole arena of article marketing
and content creation has changed yet again.

Related articles:

PotPieGirl gives her perspective on these 2011
Google Algoritm Changes changes:
http://www.potpiegirl.com/2011/03/my-theory-on-the-google-algo-change/trackback/

************************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD is the creator of SquidooRoo.com, a 6 month
program in social media marketing.  The Program covers,
content creation, social networking and promotion including
press releases.