Steven Brady

So, while browsing online forums for Internet Marketers, you’ll always hear horror stories of customer service experiences. Just over two months into this, I’ve already had trouble with one user.  Over a $2 sale.  Yes, $2.  On my new site Target Followers a user signed up for 1 week VIP at $2. Less than 5 minutes after paying he already E-mailed me about not being immediately upgraded. I E-mailed him back immediately and let him know I’d manually upgrade him soon. After I did, I let him know I gave him 2 weeks access. The next day he E-mailed me and complained that he had not received enough followers.

First, it’s a new site, and going to the blog anyone can read that. Second, the stats are right on the front page. It’s a new site, and I don’t fluff my numbers. You can see that we’re still new. Third, it’s $2.

I sent an E-mail out saying that I’d give a shoutout, and to let me know if he had any other issues.  I’ve gotten no more complaints.

But I started thinking about it … I’m not going to continue jumping through hoops for $2 users.  I won’t be giving more shoutouts, as then I’d need to do it for every user that doesn’t perform. Shoutouts defeat the purpose of my website.

On a sidenote, there is an unannounced bonus that none of my users know: The VIP countdown timer isn’t started.  That’s right. Out of fairness to new subscribers, their time has yet to countdown! I won’t be starting countdown timers until the individual groups hit 150 users each.

I had four reviews out on my site Android App Review called 4 Android apps that help my online business.  They are here if you’d like to read them:

• WordPress for Android
• Exygy Domains
• Web Analytic Client
• Droidsense

I’ve heard before of WordPress themes that were encoded with links to other sites, and I’ve seen it, to a point.  Well, the theme that I choose for Weight Loss Steve had a link to health pills.  I wanted to remove it, so I went to look into the footer, and it was gibberish.  The theme was encoded, and there was no easy way to remove it.  (I tried an unencode tool, and it didn’t work).  I downloaded another copy of the theme, and it was clean, without the link.

I don’t mind having a link back to the theme’s creator, but I don’t particularly want a theme with a link to weight loss pills. Don’t endorse those one bit.

I’ve stopped using Twitter Tools on my websites.  It just wouldn’t let me make tweets like I wanted.  Instead, I’ve changed to WP to Twitter.  It’s very configurable, but my favourite part is being able to have tweets with my title and the link, without the need for any of the extra crap that Twitter Tools requires.  Definitely worth checking out.

The one thing that WP to Twitter is missing, and I don’t necessarily mind that, is a Twitter updates widget.  I chose Twitter for Wordpress to add my Twitter updates to my sidebars.  It’s a nice little widget, and will seemingly allow up to nine instances of Twitter widgets.  Very nice.

For more controlled advertising, I’ve elected to start using Smart Ads.  It allows me to add code to the top and bottom of each post, and to only show ads on the pages after they hit a certain number of days old.  I quite like this plugin, and I’ve started adding it to my other sites.

And finally, for a bit of security, I’ve added AntiVirus for WordPress.  This regularly scans my installations for known vulnerabilities as well as scanning my themes for changes.  It then E-mails me if there are any potential security threats.  While I’ve not had any security threats yet, I’m optimistic about this plugin, and would recommend it to anyone.

So, while I’d already listed the autoblogging plugins for WordPress, I’d thought I’d go into some of the other software I’ve been using with WordPress to help generate traffic to my sites.

First, there’s All in One SEO Pack, which will (as I’m sure you’ve guessed) optimize your WordPress site for search engines.

Next there’s Google Analyticator to easily add the Google Analytics code to your WordPress installations. The benefit to something like this is, first, you’re not messing with the code in the footer. Second, if you change themes, the code follows you. No needing to remember to readd the code in the future.

Then Google XML Sitemaps Generator, so Google knows what to index on your site. You’ll need this when you sign up for Google Webmasters.

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer is great for pinging services when you post a new blog/article in WordPress. There is a free registration to opt-in to use this software, but you only do it once for all your sites and all MaxBlogPress’s free plugins.

MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad places a rotating text ad at the top of your page. Very simple, but seems to work better for some themes than others. Very configurable, as far as colors are concerned.

Next I use RSS Footer to add a couple small advertisements to the bottom of my RSS feeds. First, on Nexus One News I use it to display an advertisement. Second, I use it on Android App Review to create backlinks to Android App Review, as I openly encourage syndication of the website.

Yahoo News Feed is similar to the Google Sitemap XML Generator, except it creates an XML file for Yahoo News to show up in the news search.

And finally for this post, Smart YouTube makes it so incredibly simple to embed YouTube videos. If you’re ever going to add videos to your posts, it’s certainly worth installing.

Still reading up on how to handle Twitter, including getting the right followers. It’s going to be a long process, I can tell, but I thought I’d share the resources I’d come across.

How To Get More Twitter Followers: Some Methods That Work
Kevin Rose: 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers
Twitip: How to Get More Followers on Twitter
How to get more followers on Twitter – 10 Aweomse Tips from Experts!

Also, Brad Grosse has released a PDF entitled 101 Twitter Tips that appears to be a great read.

I’ve been digging through the Warrior Forum for all this great information.

• It's Christmas week … let the office be LOUD! EVERYONE TALK NOW OVER EACH OTHER! AHHHHH! #fb #
• Ninja vanish. #fb #
• How does one find the time to fill oneself, let alone have excess? Seriously. I'm lost to this. #fb #
• I <3 Demon Hunter #fb #
• [Sickness and disease] is an enemy that is to be sought out and destroyed. – Bro. Curry Blake #healing #jglm #fb #
• Notice: 1500 word E-mails should be separated into paragraphs, and please get to the point. #fb #
• Notice: 1963 word E-mails should be separated into paragraphs, and please get to the point. #fb #
• Notice: Your E-mail client has spellcheck. Been that way for a decade. Please use it. #fb #
• Up too late reading Warrior Forum. Want to sleep, but King of the Hill is on. Gah. #fb #
• Was happy that there was ONE cup of coffee left when I got in. Was sad when I found out it was from yesterday. #fb #
• Sleepy. Just ate most of a one pound hamburger. The rest was undercooked. Totally ready for a beef-induced coma. #fb #
• Uhh … dude from Cheeburger called. Offered me a new burger on the house. Cheeburger win! #fb #
• At the mall. Christmas shopping. #fb #
• Working working working. Then driving to PA. #fb #
• It amazes me the similarities between dealing with children and dealing with salespeople. #fb #
• Merry Christmas everyone. I pray health in Jesus' precious name to all of you! #

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