Justin's shared items
NOTE: This is the debut of a new feature - each story I write about, I’m going to place the video of me telling it at the end of the story. I just thought that some folks may not like to sit and read text, but they might enjoy hearing it told, so I’m going to do this with each of the stories I write. Feedback is appreciated!
View the video of the story at the end of this post.
Todd Sorenson - 2008 mule deer
Todd joined me on my deer hunt earlier this year, and it was only fair that I return the favor and follow him around on his deer hunt. Picky details, but I had already followed him around the hills for about 5 days of elk hunting, so I think that would exempt me from being his personal camera guy and resident meat hauler. But, before I get too cranky about it, I was secretly thrilled to be along for the ride. It was cool to be able to kill my first buck in four years with him filming - it was only, really, the third time we’d ever hunted together. So, now the tables were turned and I was behind the camera while he looked for that elusive mule deer.
Let’s take a short walk down memory lane, shall we? On my deer hunt, I killed a buck down a draw only about 600 yards from the pickup in what was easily the shortest pack either of us had ever participated in. Let’s keep that in mind.
Our hunt started off with us staring up at a rather large hill, but hills don’t generally scare us, so we took off up a draw with gusto. At the head of the draw, there appeared to be a herd of horses - which I thought was strange as horses generally aren’t run on range land - especially range land that is prime predator country. I used the camera to zoom in, and sure enough - a large herd of wild horses! This is just one of the cool things about hunting the west. Soon, we found that this was no rare sight. As the morning progressed, we spotted two more large herds of wild horses. Some of the stallions had the coolest markings I’d ever seen on a horse, and each band of horses had at least one stallion with those same markings in it. Obviously some neat genetics are being passed down. As for deer - well, we were sure in some good looking country, but it wasn’t until about ten o’clock that I spotted a doe bedded in a draw across the canyon. There was no way to see all the way into that draw, so we hiked around and put a hunt on the doe in case a buck was bedded with her. When we got over there, however, it turned out to be a doe and her two fawns. Hardly what we were after. We hunted back to the pickup, then, and around 1:30 we piled into Todd’s pickup ready to find a new spot. We figured we’d hiked about 7 miles that morning. Again, I only made him hike a total of 1200 yards - this is hardly seeming fair.
Our new spot looked promising. We sat on a point overlooking a huge basin full of big, tall sagebrush and draws dotted here and there with aspen, manzanilla, and buck brush. I had no doubt we were going to get a shot. We glassed the basin with no luck, and reluctantly we agreed the only way we were going to see anything in that tall sage was to hike through it. So, off we went - we were halfway through it and hadn’t seen anything when we began questioning the area. I mean, it looked so good but nothing was showing so far. We had sat for a break and were just standing up when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and I pointed. Four deer were bounding away - Todd put the optics on them and verified four does. Not what we’re looking for, but where there are does, there has to be bucks around somewhere.
We ended up running into a total of 12 does by the time we reached the head of the basin - they came in bunches of two and three. It was becoming just a little bit frustrating now. We hiked around the hill and a draw opened up before us that was full of aspens and lush private fields below. Now, we were certain that we’d find a whopper of a buck here. But we didn’t. We had now hiked a good five miles from the pickup, and if you’re keeping track, that’s twelve miles for the day. Twelve miles of up and down on lava rock that rolls your ankles and chews up your shoes. That’s 21,680 yards further than I’d made him walk, but I wasn’t keeping track, and I certainly wasn’t holding anything against him.
We swung around the hill and started glassing another basin. I told Todd to give me five minutes and I’d spot him a buck. I had barely said it, and hadn’t even gotten my binoculars out when he stated, “There’s some deer.” And a little while later, “I think the back one’s a buck.” Sure enough. I got my spotting scope out and confirmed what he’d told me. The problem was they were over 500 yards away and there was no cover between us. We had to hike up the hill and get on the other side of the ridge and try and get closer from another angle. We reached the top of the hill and began walking down the ridge - then we crept over to the side of the ridge to locate the deer - and found that we hadn’t gotten any noticeable distance closer - so we backed up and started further down the ridge. We did this several times before we realized daylight was beginning to be an issue, and Todd said we had to do something, now!
We headed way down the ridge to get into a little depression and started to make a stalk. We located one of the does across the basin and we were about to go nuts when we realized she was still out of range! This was becoming exasperating - and on top of that, where had that buck gone?!
Realizing that we were down to do or die time, Todd decided we would just move in on the deer in plain site. We hadn’t gone far when I spotted a doe up on the same ridge as us and now above us! How had she gotten up there?! No matter, we dropped down and got into position. We noticed two other does feeding with her. Then another came from behind the brush. And another. I was in filming mode now and was filming one of the does when Tod whispered, “There he is!”
I swung the camera over and located the buck and gave Todd the go ahead to shoot. Now, I’d like to interrupt this story to let you know that Todd has been telling me all season long that he’s never needed more than one shot to bring his animals down. One shot, one deer. One shot, one elk. One shot, one bear. We all know the story on my own shooting - well, let’s just say Todd can no longer say that all his kills have been one shot jobs. He unloaded his rifle at this buck - and then had to take his pack off, dig in his pack, grab the box of shells, and reload - and all of the deer just stood there and let him do it! I couldn’t believe it, and Todd couldn’t believe it either, but he was going to make the most of it. But his next shot missed, too! I could sense a little frustration, but at this point it was more bewilderment and outright confusion. Later, upon analyzing the shots, Todd figured he had been over compensating and shooting over the top of the buck. He settled in for the next shot and was taking his time - and when he squeezed it off, the deer leaped up in the air and we knew he’d scored a hit. The deer went down, then got up and disappeared over the hill. It was as near the end of the day as I’d ever seen a deer shot - and I knew we were a long ways from the pickup, and I thought Todd had shot the deer in the hind quarters and we were going to have a tracking job and it was getting ugly. Todd felt good about the shot, but I kept thinking of how when it went down, it looked like it dropped on its haunches, and I feared a butt shot. We walked over to where we’d last seen him, and you can imagine the flood of emotion as we saw the deer piled up from a heart shot of all things right there!
Todd’s buck - yes, it was that late!
It was 7:20 when we walked up on the deer and the full moon was officially in the sky. It was 8:30 by the time we got the job done, and as we started back for the pickup, we realized how lucky we were that the moon was full. The pack out was between four and five miles and we piled into the pickup at 10:45 a flat out wearied couple of hunters. That was as full a day as I’d had hunting in a while - I left my house at 6:00 that morning and I pulled into my driveway at 12:30 the next morning. We guesstimate that we hiked around 18 miles that day - which isn’t an amazing number, but it was more than 30,000 yards further than I made him hike for my deer. I’m not keeping track, though.
A thrilling hunt - and one happy hunter with his second buck ever.
My buck that Todd filmed - very cool to be with my brother on his buck after he was with me on mine. Special memories.
Here is the story on video.
Two days ago I asked Does Affiliate Marketing belongs on Twitter. The conversation that has emerged from that question has been rich - thanks for your contribution.
At the end of that post I said that I would post some tips today for affiliate marketers on how perhaps they should engage in the practice on Twitter (if at all).
As I mentioned in the previous, post I’m not anti affiliate marketing or doing it via new media - but I think the ‘method’ and ‘attitude’ of the marketer is very very important. It can mean the difference between conversion or not - it can also mean the difference between keeping followers and losing them.
Before I get into some Twitter specific tips let me share a previous article with some general affiliate marketing tips for bloggers.
Let me also say that I’m still not convinced that Twitter is the best place for affiliate marketing. However if you do choose to do it on Twitter here are some starting points:
Tips for Promoting Affiliate Products on Twitter
1. Relevancy is Key
One of the things that I noticed earlier in the week about those who were promoting the affiliate product on Twitter (an AdSense tips product) was that quite a few of them were not normally writing about anything to do with AdSense. Adding a link to an affiliate product that has little to do with what you normally write about on Twitter is not smart. For starters it won’t convert and secondly it potentially will annoy your readers. If you’re going to directly promote products from Twitter make sure they are relevant to the followers you have.
2. Personalization Matters
Another obvious flaw in many of the tweets that we saw in the example mentioned in the previous post were that they were identical to everyone else’s. We saw Joel Comm set up a system where he pre-populated tweets with a script that simply told those reading it to go download a product. Joel actually stopped by my previous post and reflected (among other things) that those who personalized their messages converted better than those who did not. I think this says a lot. A personal recommendation is going to get a much better response in terms of actual conversions and it is far less likely to hurt your relationship with your followers as the tweet will be in your voice and hopefully out of your experience with the product.
3. Genuine Recommendations
My policy with affiliate marketing is to only recommend products that I have used or have had someone close to me who I trust use and recommend. This is again something that will add weight to your recommendation and increase conversion - but it’ll also help your reputation and stop you from promoting products that are rubbish. Recommend a product that doesn’t work and your own reputation and any trust you’ve built up with those who follow your advice will suffer. Don’t sacrifice your own brand for the sake of a few quick dollars.
4. Be Conversational
I have used affiliate links directly on Twitter on three occasions (from memory). In each instance they were Amazon Associate links and they were a part of a conversation that I was having with other Twitter users (from memory they were at times when followers asked me for recommendations on products). The links that I left were relevant, the conversations were started by others and they fit naturally into the conversation. From memory I declared that they were affiliate links on at least two of those occasions. The opposite of this ‘conversational’ tweeting is the ‘cold call’ tweet which comes out of the blue.
5. Link to Affiliate Products Indirectly
If I were to recommend one tips above others it would be this one. I think it would be much more effective and less intrusive with the culture on Twitter to tweet a link to a post you’ve written on your blog that includes an affiliate link - than to tweet the affiliate link directly. Write up a review of the product on your blog, give a balanced review, share why the product is relevant to your readers, tell them who would benefit most from it etc. And THEN tweet a link to the review. The problem with Twitter is that you’ve got 140 or so characters and to really do the product you’re promoting service and to give your readers a well balanced review you need more than that.
6. Moderation is Important
In any affiliate marketing (and perhaps all types of marketing) those who you are speaking with will begin to ’switch off’ and become blind to your promotions if you hit them too many times with marketing messages. This will especially be true on Twitter where I see the audience is highly skeptical to marketing messages, are attuned to transparency and where they can very quickly opt out of receiving future communication with you. Not only can they opt out when your messages get too much - they often subscribe or follow you on the basis of what you’ve already written. If all you ever do is promote products (or yourself) you’re unlikely to grow a readership or become anyone with any kind of influence on Twitter.
7. Listen to Your Followers
The thing I love most about Twitter is that it a listening device. A lot of people use it and promote it as a broadcasting tool (which is can be useful for) but I’m increasingly finding it to be a fantastic way to hear what people are thinking - both about life in general but also you. If you engage in affiliate marketing on twitter make sure you stay in tune with how people respond. This doesn’t just mean watching what people ‘reply’ to you but also means watching what happens to subscriber numbers after you tweet and also watching what people say about you without using your @username (you can set up an RSS feed on Twitter search to watch for keywords like your name).
8. Be Useful
This is a fairly general Twitter tip but it applies to affiliate marketing. If you’re going to promote a product on Twitter make sure it’s highly useful to your followers. This is connected to being relevant - but goes beyond it. I find that the more useful my Twittering is the more positive feedback I get from followers. The same is true from blogging and interestingly enough it applies to the products I’ve promoted over the years. The best feedback that I can possibly get after an affiliate product campaign is from someone who bought the product and thanks me for recommending it because they found it useful. To me this is the ultimate feedback because it means I’ve not only made a little money, but more importantly I have a reader who is happy, who remains loyal and who is perhaps even more loyal than they were before I made the recommendation. This really comes down to smart selection of products to recommend - make sure that they are the best!
There you have it - my guide for Affiliate Marketing on Twitter.
Have Your Say about Affiliate Marketing on Twitter
I’m aware that some will still be pretty anti the idea of promoting affiliate products on Twitter (and I remain unconvinced except through the indirect method of promoting links on your blog rather than direct ones that I mention above) but IF you’re going to do it - those are my starting points.
I’d love to hear more discussion on this topic though. Marketing on Twitter (and all kinds of social media sites) will only continue to happen more and more so the more we discuss it the better!
Tags: affiliate marketing, Affiliate Programs, social media, twitterIndividuals interested in starting or finding ways to grow their small businesses should check out the Small Business Owners Association (SBOA) of Northern Kentucky’s 2008 Showcase on October 16th, 2008. The event will be held at the Boone County Cooperative Extension Service Office at 6028 Camp Ernst Road in Burlington, KY from 4 PM to 8 PM.
The SBOA’s mission is to provide a comfortable environment for the advancement of small, micro, and home-based businesses by offering educational opportunities in sound business principles and ethical practices, and by building trusting relationships among its diverse members, their supporters, and the Northern Kentucky community.
This event is designed to showcase SBOA members business’s to the public, as well as provide an opportunity for small businesses to learn about all the resources available to them in their community. In addition to displays promoting SBOA members, representatives from groups designed to support small business will be on hand to provide information about the services they provide. Groups scheduled to be present include; The Northern Kentucky Chamber, NKU Small Business Development Center, SCORE, Home Builder’s Association, several BNI chapters, WIN (Women in Networking) and the Covington Business Council among others.
The event will provide an opportunity for the public to find out more about the wealth of resources that are available for small business in Northern Kentucky and opportunities to network with SBOA members and the attendees. There is no cost to attend the event and food and refreshments will be provided. For more information about the event, check out www.sboanky.org or call Larry Weber with KeyBank at 859-442-6167 for more information.
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For those who are curious, the links above are what is called “affiliate” links. That means if you click them and make a purchase I get a small fee for sales generated. You pay nothing but I get help paying the bills. Thing of it as supporting this blog 
Thanks!
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( cowritten and deeply inspired by Jon Swanson) Emilio rises at six and starts coffee. His RSS reader has many blogs to read, plus links to a “Bible in a Year” website that sends him daily updates. It’s no longer strange to be reading the Bible in his RSS reader. It just feels like another way to connect. Emilio is thinking of setting alerts for his community in general, plus for specific issues facing the people in his congregation.
Emilio has a personal blog for reflections, and a website for the Church, as well. Most recently, he’s added a section for using UStream.tv to show live sermons. Not that every house has a broadband Internet connection, but if this is another way that someone who can’t make it to the church can feel connected to the community, why not give it a try.
Other churches are putting up sermons and special events on YouTube and GodTube. Emilio has found ideas for sermons online regularly, or rather, ways to refresh his own ideas with the wisdom of others.
Some churchgoers in his extended online community are doing things like Twitter their local service. Others have been confronted for bringing technology into the church. In some affluent churches, there are even Second Life outposts, and online campuses. It’s a balance of concerns and considerations: are you still part of a community when represented digitally? Does God hear your prayer in pixel form? Emilio leans towards yes, but he knows that others aren’t as understanding.
Emilio knows that there are more challenges to taking religion into social media. He’s read and studied the book UNCHRISTIAN, by David Kinnamon. In this book, Kinnamon talks about what outsiders think about Christianity: hypocritical, focus on conversion, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, judgmental. Emilio feels there’s a much greater risk of these concerns spreading in the online world, where some context is lost.
Emilio recently upgraded his cell phone, which allows him to receive email from people with questions, receive text messages from people seeking a quick check-in during a rough moment, and it’s allowed him to be able to take pictures and share them online with the larger community. As Emilio visits a lot of hospitals, he sometimes records quick audio messages with someone sick, to be able to store and play this message for a family member later on.
There’s still so much face to face that he does, and much that doesn’t require an Internet connection, but through these options, Emilio has reached out far beyond his local congregation. He feels friendship with people from all around the world, and he understands the larger struggles people are having through his exploration of other blogs and online media.
With so much more to do, Emilio is happy for his first steps, and looks forward to even more respectful contact with others.
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How does this sit with you?
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These posts are made for sharing. Feel free to repost all or portions of this (as long as it’s not for profit). If you do post it, please make sure you kindly link back to [chrisbrogan.com] and give me credit. Thanks!
Photo credit, Chicago Eye
Well, I hesitate to say a great deal about twitter. Twitter is probably (at least over the last six months) one of the fastest growing social networks I have ever seen. Because of this there is a great deal of information out there already. The fact is, they grew so fast they started having all sorts of server problems. These days, the site is much more predictable and enjoyable. My frustration and their problems have both decreased. So score one for twitter right there.
Also, I have talked plenty about twitter, (make sure you read this post) not to mention the slew of other marketers who are all smarter than me, but in keeping with the spirit of a Social Networking Series, I must add my own voice to the cloud of witnesses.
I am writing for new users. It is my hope that this series will reside here for as long as it helps new users to learn the landscape of Social networking, and most importantly, learn how they can use these respective social networks to increase the traffic, thus their profitability.
So on to the point! How can I use twitter to increase my Traffic?
1. Sign up
It should go without saying, but the numbers of people I recommend it to who never sign up blows me away. Twitter won’t help you if you don’t have an account! See my twitter page and sign up from there.
2. Build your profile
You only get a brief snippet to say something about yourself, add a picture and a link. It is pretty simple, and it will always appear near the top right of your “twitter stream” - the page that shows what you are saying right now, and most recently. Tell us a bit about yourself, and please make sure you place a link to your website. This will be where you get some of your twitter traffic.
3. Tweet
Go ahead and say what you are doing! If your first tweet reads “learning about twitter” then you will be in a large crowd of people (probably including myself). Let’s face it. New users to twitter struggle more than any other network to figure out just what the heck this is all about.
This will help you catch on fast. Look around the network and “follow” some people you find interesting.
For current twitterers, please add your twitter link in the comments section to make finding you easier.
Then reply to some of them. You reply by adding the @ symbol immediately prior to their user name (to reply to me you can say @jaredmlee) or if you are using the web interface there is a small arrow icon beside each tweet which is a reply option. This will get you interacting with the community and finding your voice.
Sometimes I interact, other times I send out random things. For instance the other day I sent out a string of 1’s and 0’s. It actually meant something in binary, and several people replied to me. One even replied in binary. So it’s a place to have fun, but each of those people who replied to me is now a contact. They all had the opportunity to visit my webpage, and many of them did.
The more active you are here the more traffic you will receive. There have been times I have allowed my involvement at twitter to wane, and my stats reflect that.
4. Use twitter feed
Twitterfeed is a service that will automatically send tweets with a link whenever you update your blog. My twitter followers will get a message as soon as I post this.
5. Explore easier options for managing your twitter stream
There are numerous softwares and addons for seeing yours and your friends tweets in real time while you work. Some of the best are twhirl, and twitterfox (a FireFox addon).
There are others. If you use something else and want to evangelize for it, feel free to do so in the comments.
6. Don’t be Selfish
I realize I am starting to sound like a broken record. But this rule is the most universal truth of all social marketing. Be helpful and contribute value to the community. Help people, laugh with people, connect people. The results will blow you away! If you participate, ask sincere questions, get to know people. You will see the payoffs with traffic to your site.
If you consistently ignore others, if you constantly plug yourself and your page. You will get very little traffic.
7. Keep Learning
As always, I cannot possibly say everything that needs to be said about twitter. There are things you can do, like change your background, and use pictures, and use twitter to update your facebook page, and the list goes on and on. Interestingly, as I wrote this, a friend’s feed came into my reader telling you how to change your background! Justin has also written a great deal about twitter, so I recommend you take a look at his blog as well.
If you have resources or other things that might be helpful, I would love to hear from you below.
