My Twitter Clinics | Letters From Dan

Twitter Problems: Contingency Planning

Posted By: dan | Tags: contingency planning, My Twitter Clinics, spam, twitter glitch, twitter problem, twitter problems
Posted in The Social Media Phenomenon

Do you spend hours of time on Twitter?

Let me rephrase that.

Does Twitter mean something to your business?

If so, what would happen if Twitter went down? If you lost all of your followers? What would happen if someone started spamming from your account? (Could you imagine if someone started sending out porn links from the @microsoft “verified” account?) Do you have a contingency plan?

The fact of the matter is having a contingency plan is sometimes what makes and breaks a company. Let’s take a look at Toyota for example. They’re suffering some major PR bruising right now because they’ve failed to act timely and confidently in the face of their automotive problems.

Let’s compare that to Johnson & Johnson – the definitive contingency planning company. When someone reported they’d found a needle in their shampoo – J&J went into action. They’d already brainstormed that problem and had a book with the fix already written. Within a week they had all the affected shampoo out of stores and new “Needle-Free” labeled shampoo on the shelves.

We know that Twitter has become part of our business because you can barely watch any news program that doesn’t cite Twitter or invite you to comment on Twitter. More and more people are joining Twitter, following companies, brands and people and “believing” what is being tweeted. That being said, it’s also largely out of our control. Everyday, people are encountering twitter problems like:

Spammers
Lost Followers
Lost Profile Photo
Deleted Account
or the inability to log-in among others

The key is to get the solution in your hands BEFORE you have a problem. For example there are two things you have to do to stop a spammer should they get access to your account. Unless you do both, you likely won’t stop them. And once you see spam with your name on it, how long do you have to fix it before your customers’ notice? Before they complain? Before they unfollow you?

I wrote a report called TwitterGlitch that highlights these problems, how to fix them, who to talk to at Twitter to get them fixed and even which third party “help desks” are monitored by Twitter.

The smartest thing you can do to protect your Twitter account is to click on “Profile” everyday and make sure all the tweets on your front page were left by you. And if you’re using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, make it a habit to log-in to Twitter.com once per week to check your account log-in. Otherwise, get a copy of TwitterGlitch and have the solutions to your problems in your hands. Don’t make finding the solutions your second problem.

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Google Wave, Twitter, Facebook, Latitude and Outlook: The Future

Posted By: dan | Tags: AOL, facebook, Google Wave, Latitude, lebron James, My Twitter Clinics, Outlook
Posted in The Social Media Phenomenon, the technical internet stuff

Have you seen what Google Wave is all about yet? It honestly will change the face of the internet forever. There’s no going back. Even if Google Wave fails, if no one uses it – there’s no way to put back the ideas they’ve presented.

Imagine if AOL had failed? Would the internet had failed? I don’t think so. The idea behind the collaborative sharing that AOL put together could never be forgotten and so it shall be with the Wave.

Will Facebook, Twitter and Outlook still exist now seeing what is possible? Or will they adapt and co-exist with this new technology? Can you imagine integrating Twitter with your Outlook account? What about integrating YouTube and Facebook with that?

And finally what really sets Google Wave apart – the blog. Turn an e-mail into a blog post instantly, and then allow commenters to be seen in your Outlook – and have people that know you on Outlook be able to comment on your blog without ever going there. And if they incorporate Google Latitude – you’ll never wonder where anybody is, where posts were made or where your true fans lie.

The saddest part about Google Wave is the fate of the engineers behind. They’ll be lauded in engineering circles. They’ll be applauded at Google conventions. And they’ll be heralded in internet chat rooms. But they’ll never be made into a poster on a teenagers wall.

There’s nothing sexy about genius, hard work – unbelievable ideas and concepts that will shatter what we know today. Nobody will take down their Lebron James poster. Nike will not feature Lars in a Superbowl commercial. And McDonald’s will not be giving out Google Wave Toys with the happy meal.

The price of genius is silence from our popular culture. So Cheers! Google Wave engineers. Thanks for this one big step for Google, one giant step for the Internet.

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Looking to Become a Better Affiliate in Niche Markets?

Posted By: dan | Tags: affiliate in niche markets, David Perdew, My Twitter Clinics, NAMS, Niche Affiliate Marketing, Niche Affiliate marketing System, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop, Niche Cash Generator, Niche Mall, Niche Widget, YouTube Videos
Posted in Internet Marketing: My Newest Ph.D., Niche Affiliate Marketing

Ijust returned from the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop today that David Perdew put on. I’m pretty excited and will be Tweeting about it all week.

In case you’re not familiar with the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop and products, David Perdew has put together a “community college” for all who want to be an affilite in niche markets. He’s created products like the Niche Mall, the Niche Widget and a 10 part video series called Niche Cash Generator that allow budding internet marketers to go from nothing to “in business” in a matter of minutes.

What’s great about NAMS is that it is not a pitch fest, in fact it is truly a hands-on workshop. Lynn Terry, Kathleen Gage, Mark Hendricks, Joe Marsh, David Perdew, David Preston, Alex Syseof, the WordPress Wizard and many more have taught at the workshop.

During this last workshop, 4 of the internet marketing experts put on a live, recorded “teleseminar” about how to create and sells products in 90 minutes. It was fantastic to get a step by step plan from the experts, which really breaks it down and makes it very simple. Buy that teleseminar for yourself here. In fact, in 90 minutes this teleseminar was thought up, created, recorded and put on-line to be sold. That was awesome.

I’ll be sure to link up all the videos, chat and new products here over the weekend. Enjoy the day!

Check out:

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Work From Home Doesn’t Mean the Work Will Be Easy

Posted By: dan | Tags: affiliate marketing, facebook, family and friends, friends, google ads, home parties, making money, making money at home, My Twitter Clinics, network marketing, part time job, search engine results, traffic generation, website, working from home
Posted in Getting Things Done

Working from home doesn’t mean you’re going to have lots of time to play with the kids, watch movies and do the dishes. To succeed from home, on your own, you’re going to need a better work ethic than you did in your day job. The difference is every minute you spend will result in dollars in your pocket.

I’ve been working from home for a while now. Just like you the work started out as a part time job to make sure I had some income in case something went wrong with my job. I’ll tell ya, it’s a good idea to start before you quit or get fired, there’s a lot of work to do before you’ll really be making money.

Let’s take networking marketing as an example. While the network marketing model of old required home parties, discussions with family and friends and the inevitable loss of friends, the new model requires none of that. To be successful you’ll need to develop some “about me” style websites, sales pages, create Facebook accounts and Twitter followers. You’ll to have a variety of places on the internet where others can find and learn about you. That desire to hear more is where the sales come in.

To make money using Google ads, you’ll need to have a website in place that gets traffic. That traffic generation part is what takes a bit of time to create. Whether its posting your site’s photos on Flickr, commenting on relevant blog and article posts, writing articles like this one, or building pages that rise to the top of the search engine results – all of that takes time.

Affiliate marketing is the same way. In order to sell things through links or e-mails, you have to have built a list of people to receive these links. Whether that’s Twitter, opt-in pages, Facebook groups or purchasing e-mail lists, it all takes time – the kind of time you don’t have once you are unemployed.

If you’re interested in specific ways you can start making money at home, please contact me at tri4time@hotmail.com or follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/danrmorris

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Join YTB

Posted By: dan | Tags: blog, Business, business category, clippershiptravel, entering your name, instant, My Twitter Clinics, number, Page, right direction, Sign, site, sponsor, travel, Turning Travel into Money, ytb
Posted in Turning Travel into Money

Are you interested in learning how to join YTB? You’ve probably been to YTB.com and have found it’s hard to join YTB without a sponsor.

Allow me to make it easier than you think. If you’ve already been introduced to YTB and you just need to find a way to sign up, contact me and I’ll get ya going.

If you haven’t been introduced but are just curious, please read a couple of the other posts in the Travel Business category on this blog. Or ask me some questions on Twitter. I can at least help guide you in the right direction.

If you’re ready to go right this instant, then go to the Join YTB Page HERE. To Sign Up for YTB you’ll find out it’s a two-step process. The first step is entering your name, e-mail and phone number on that page. It will ask you if clippershiptravel referred you, which is my YTB site, so click yes there.

The second part is where you cab either learn more or you can join on the spot. If you’re familiar with the two options- then go to town. If you’re not, then stop and get a hold of me so I can explain them in more detail. In either case, if you’re a travel fan – this is a lot of fun.

Enjoy! I look forward to chatting with you.
clippershiptravel@hotmail.com (if you have questions)

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The Hub and Spoke Internet Marketing Strategy: A Twitter Clinic

Posted By: dan | Tags: affiliate marketing, basic internet, blog, Dan Morris, facebook, Google, hub, hub and spoke, internet marketing strategy, Internet Marketing: My Ph.D., My Twitter Clinics, network marketing, relevant traffic, sitebuildit, strategy meeting, Twitter Clinic
Posted in Internet Marketing: My Newest Ph.D.

I haven’t done one in a while, but spent some time at a biz strategy meeting tonite and feel like tonite is a good nite for a twitter clinic

Tonite’s twitter clinic is about your basic internet marketing strategy and how to create the structure. I’ll post this later on my blog.

So let’s get started. First of all I don’t think you’re going to get very far without a website. That means a blog, a sales page or a site.

There must be a place people can go to buy what you’re selling. That’s not a negative thing. If you’re selling shovels, you’ll need a place

for the guy buying shovels to go. So let’s call that page your money site. Let’s define money site again. You need a page, a Facebook group,

a blog site, a full blown website, a squidoo page – something! where the transaction can be made. If you’re doing affiliate marketing where

you only need people to click on a link – then maybe Twitter is all you need. But you won’t get far with that. A Facebook Group can be more

lucrative than Twitter (sometimes). I prefer a full blown website, but sometimes that’s very easy to put together. Now that you have a site

(or a page) the goal is to get people there. The more relevant traffic you get, the more buyers you’ll find.That’s where the structure comes

into play. Like FedEx, your structure needs to be hub and spoke, where your money page is the middle hub and everything else you do is the

spokes. Maybe you’ll write an article for ezinearticles.com pointing people to your site – that’s a spoke. Maybe you’ll start a Facebook grp

and you’ll send messages to the group with the link to your site (another spoke). The key is to build spokes where relevant traffic can be

directed to your money site. Sometimes you need to have two steps before your money site. Maybe you’re selling antioxidant drinks. . Build a

few articles that send people to a review site. One spoke to another spoke and then have links to your money site on the review site. You’d

do this when you’d expect the buyer to do research before actually buying. Attract the lead, give them research and a place to buy.

Other spokes are forum and blog posts, twitter links, facebook links, digg/delicious/stumbleupon links, blog articles, press releases

and spokes can be off-line as well. Infomercials drive folks to websites. That’s a spoke driving traffic to the money site. So basically the

ideal internet marketing strategy is to have a site where people buy and then a bunch of ways people can find you. This system works great

for network marketers. MLM folks can’t change their company site, but they can use the internet to drive traffic there. My favorite way to

do that is with a SiteBuildit Site. This is a site that’s designed to exploit a niche and get to the top of Google for that niche. If you’re

in a Candle MLM, maybe the niche is ‘bedroom candles’ from which you create a site all about different kinds of bedroom candles with links

to your network marketing site to sell them candles. Check it out for yourself http://www.ilovesbi.com/limitedtime.html It’s the best way I

know to drive tons of traffic to your site, while you’re working on another niche or spoke or business. So tonite’s Twitter Clinic has been

about creating an internet marketing strategy.

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The Live Birth of our Daughter: Millie Virginia

Posted By: dan | Tags: baby, baby girl, Baby Millie, birth, dad, facebook, hospital, Millie Virginia, My Twitter Clinics, nurse, tweets, Virginia
Posted in Raising 5 Kids (if you count me, too)

This was the series of tweets I made “live” during the birth our fourth child, and first baby girl. I’m quite excited for having done this. Without it, memories of the birth seem to fade over time. Here we go, starting the day before.

FROM TWITTER

I’m 48 hrs away from being a baby girl’s dad. My first girl. – 10:08 AM Jun 30th

Inducement Scheduling has changed, now I’m 18 hrs away from being a baby girl’s dad. My first girl. – 7:35 PM Jun 30th

So my wife, who is giving birth in the a.m., is here at Kroger’s shopping for the “people who’ve come to help”. Can’t the relatives get their own cinnamon rolls? – 7:41 PM Jun 30th

Headed to the hospital for the induction of our first baby girl – 5:15 AM July 1st

They’ve started the oxytocin. We should be holding baby Millie in about 3 hours. Yay! – 7:21 AM Jul 1st

@donitabrown I’ll post my “having a baby” video at lettersfromdan.com probably. – 7:43 AM Jul 1st

My wife just told me babies are typically born with blue eyes, then they change later. Is that true? She thinks dogs are that way, too. – 7:44 AM Jul 1st

Contractions are 3 minutes apart now. We’re getting down to the Nitty Gritty. Soon all will be pink. – 8:15 AM Jul 1st

I had to leave the room while the epidural lady is in there. Needles give me the willies. After 3 natural births, my wife is trying painfree – 8:25 AM Jul 1st

@chriscobb thanks. She’s doing fine so far. The epidural is making her feel “warm and fuzzy” right now. And the grandmas are on the way. – 8:37 AM Jul 1st

Our doctor says her cervix is “wildly favorable” for giving birth soon. That “wildly favorable” made me laugh. – 8:44 AM Jul 1st

@OMGchronicles “that wildly favorable is how she got pregnant”, that’s funnier than the doctor’s comment. – 8:51 AM Jul 1st

My wife had her first contraction since the epidural kicked in and said ‘oooh that’s nice. I just had a contraction’ (with a wry smile) – 8:54 AM Jul 1st

@TraciKnoppe you’re right, our doc is not old, she’s a 30 something female with a “wildly favorable” personality. – 8:57 AM Jul 1st

The grandmas have arrived with snacks, sweaters, blankets and smiles. We’re 5 cm, Marcia is comfortable, and 4 minutes apart. – 9:04 AM Jul 1st

@twokidsandamap Grandma just said “oh you’re Tweeting. This will be your first Twitter baby”.9:11 AM Jul 1st

Had a brief “scare”. Marcia’s blood pressure dropped because of the epidural. Now they’re administering ephedrine. – 9:32 AM Jul 1st

Marcia’s blood pressure has normalized and we’re just hanging out. – 9:40 AM Jul 1st

We’re now taking bets on the birth time. Grandma #1 says 2:30 cst, grandma #2 says 12:15, Marcia and I say before noon. Stats next -0 10:13 AM Jul 1st

We’re 5 cm, 80% effaced, 3 – 4 minutes apart, water is broke, epidural in place, Marcia still smiling. – 10:14 AM Jul 1st

July 1st just sounds like a good birthday, doesn’t it? – 10:53 AM Jul 1st

Marcia is comfortably napping at the moment. I can hear the heart beating of the baby via the monitor. Just a pleasant moment. – 11:03 AM Jul 1st

@twokidsandamap at some point, my wife is going to tell me to stop tweeting and to tend to the birth, though the epidural experience is dif. – 11:10 AM Jul 1st

My dad and cousin Nicole are standing by taking care of the baby’s brothers-all 3 of them! – 11:23 AM Jul 1st

We’ve now been in the hospital for 6 hours, on potocin for 4 and now we’re at 6 cm! Yay! – 11:29 AM Jul 1st

My wife is so not in pain she just hummed the Empire Carpet Co. Jingle. – 11:38 AM Jul 1st

@formerfatguy yep, we’re hopefully having the baby in the next hour. – 11:45 AM Jul 1st

@vivavelo I’d certainly be up for letting Twitter name her IF she didn’t already have a name: Millie Virginia Morris – 11:47 AM Jul 1st

Contractions are now 2 minutes apart. (We’re 6 cm, 85% effaced) and she’s still smiling and as beautiful as ever. – 11:50 AM Jul 1st

@jrmoore13 Thanks for the kudos. My wife is still doing fine. Shouldn’t be long now. – 12:17 PM Jul 1st

Marcia went with the epidural (after 3 natural births) in hopes of avoiding the pain of the stitches afterward. Crazy, eh? – 12:18 PM Jul 1st

Contractions are still 2 minutes apart, but she called in the nurse because the . . . Oooh! We’re 10 cm! – 12:51 PM Jul 1st

The doctor is coming, the baby is coming out! – 12:59 PM Jul 1st

Millie Virginia popped out 1 minute ago. Very pretty. No stats yet! – 1:05 PM Jul 1st

Little Millie has the cutest cry. She’s got the pasty cheesy stuff on her skin and real long fingernails. Tiny little cute nose, too. – 1:23 PM Jul 1st

Little Millie weighs 7 lbs 12 ounces, 20.5 inches. I’ll have pics and video up momentarily. – 2:12 PM Jul 1st

So, she weighs 7 lbs, 12.5 ounces is 20″ and was born at 1:04 today. Here’s my video of her immediately after birth – 2:31 PM Jul 1st

It’s so strange to think I have a daughter now. I’m pretty excited and incredulous at the same time. – 4:30 PM Jul 1st

@SusanPreston I posted a link to a video of our baby on Facebook: www.facebook.com/danrmorris – 4:42 PM Jul 1st

Thanks for all the twitter love for our new baby today. Friend me on Facebook, I have posted a video of her. www.facebook.com/danrmorris – 5:52 PM Jul 1st

Headed back to the hospital, I went out to get my wife a smoothie, after having given birth a few hours ago. – 6:49 PM Jul 1st

So, she weighs 7 lbs, 12.5 ounces is 20″ and was born at 1:04 today. Here’s my video of her immediately after birth – 9:20 PM Jul 1st

@virtualcfo Thanks for saving the paper. I got the local Hermitage Daily today, but that’s all I had time to get.Can anyone save me USAToday? – 9:32 PM Jul 1st

@goatflavor I will do my best to be the guy I want her to marry. – 9:33 PM Jul 1st

Baby Millie is doing well, just a few hours away from being one day old. – 9:18 AM Jul 2nd from web

Baby Millie slept through the night other than her 3 feedings. She grasped breast feeding almost immediately, within 20 minutes of birth. – 4:28 PM Jul 2nd

Marcia came out of the epidural quite well. Within 2 hours she had complete feeling back in her legs. Only her back is sore now. – 4:29 PM Jul 2nd

Marcia was up and walking around the hospital wing today. She’s eating fine and loved the 2nd cherry smoothie we brought her. – 4:30 PM Jul 2nd

A lovely patron at the Custard Place on Lebanon Road bought the smoothie for us. Very nice of her. 4:32 PM July 2nd

For some reason, she’s not allowed to leave the hospital till tomorrow at 1:00 – so she’s resting comfortably at the hospital. – 4:30 PM Jul 2nd

We had a lot of help from relatives during the whole thing. My dad and niece helped watch our three boys during delivery. – 4:31 PM Jul 2nd

My mom and Marcia’s mom were in the delivery room with us. They got to be part of the experience and are a tremendous help now. – 4:32 PM Jul 2nd

Alex, our 18 month old, could care less about Millie. He said “hi” and “baby”; otherwise, he’d rather play. – 4:32 PM Jul 2nd

Cameron, our 7 year old, can’t hold Millie enough. He didn’t even want to go out to lunch and to the park. He just wanted to hold her. – 4:34 PM Jul 2nd

Cole, our 5 year old, got to hold Millie today for about 15 minutes. I think he’s hit his “holding the baby ” threshold for a while. – 4:34 PM Jul 2nd

I’m trying hard to divide my time between my 3 boys and my wife. But with help here, I’m also trying to finish some projects before tomorrow – 4:35 PM Jul 2nd

I think the hardest part about having multiple kids is managing to spend time with them all together, and separately. All while working. – 4:35 PM Jul 2nd

Those few moments I get between 5:30 and 7:30 are hard to parse. Between dinner and getting ready for bed, that’s not a lot of quality time. – 4:36 PM Jul 2nd

Anyway, I want to thank all of you for the well wishes you sent. Yesterday I got over 200 messages from you all. It was awesome. – 4:37 PM Jul 2nd

As I said earlier, Baby Millie is doing well, and is now 27 hours old. Thanks again! – 4:38 PM Jul 2nd

I just learned that some of my non-twitter friends joined twitter yesterday to watch our “live birth” tweets. – 5:39 PM Jul 2nd

@cynthiawebster That was her first epidural birth and she absolutely loved it. But, yes, she was a trooper. – 9:00 PM Jul 2nd

@chriscobb Marcia and Millie are doing just fine. Millie is such a mellow baby (fingers crossed) – she just enjoys looking around. – 9:03 PM Jul 2nd

So my new baby girl is much prettier now that she’s been cleaned up. Go to Lettersfromdan.com – 10:03 PM July 2nd

We get to bring baby Millie home today. Yay! (I think I’m more excited that my wife is coming home though). 9:15 AM July 3rd

Headed to the hospital to pick up my wife and new baby girl. 11:08 AM July 3rd

@marylmorris YEP! We all got back around 1:30. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. 8:30 PM Jul 3rd

By the way, Millie’s head is the softest thing in the world. Not a chinchilla or our other 3 boys could beat that softness – 9:15 PM Jul 3rd

And now she’s sleeping in her mother’s arms. Thanks everyone for your love and support during the birth. All the messages we got were fantastic!

Letters From Dan

Looking to Become a Better Affiliate in Niche Markets?

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Work From Home Doesn’t Mean the Work Will Be Easy

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The Hub and Spoke Internet Marketing Strategy: A Twitter Clinic

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The Live Birth of our Daughter: Millie Virginia

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Twitter Problems: Contingency Planning

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