For those who may not be familiar, consider picking this up from your local video rental. You’ll find a brief overview of the scene I’m referring to here.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know you had the Black Knight, (or his digital-password equivalent) protecting your website?

The Dreaded Dictionary Attack
Today, even modest computer users can easily have as many as a dozen passwords to remember, and it can be difficult to manage. Despite this, resist the urge to use the same password for all of your accounts. Similarly, avoid using a word that would be especially simple to remember. Among the most common words used, according to the experts in Inc. Magazine, are “password and “password1.” Still others use a common date.

Unfortunately, these types of passwords are simply no match for a dictionary attack. Automated password-cracking tools can check more than a million password variations in 28 hours — imagine how quickly they could breach your website when you don’t fortify the gates properly.

None Shall Pass!
Passwords composed of random strings of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation can usually withstand an attack, but they are hard to remember. Consider keeping a list of your passwords in a secure place (not next to the computer!), so that you can refer to them when needed.

Additional strategies that will help you create difficult-to-break passwords that are easy to remember include:

• Two words connected by a number can withstand many attacks.
• Take the first letter of each word in a phrase and add a number or symbol and a capital letter. or “Mary had a little lamb”: Mhall#72.
• Try strengthening an abbreviation by swapping a symbol or a number for each a or e in the abbreviation. “salesman” becomes “$@lesm@n.”

Follow these tips, and your adversaries will quickly move on for more vulnerable opponents.

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For all of the interpersonal discussion that surrounds social media, the core itself seems strangely devoid of any real person-to-person interaction. One comment I hear from clients again and again is, “how do I rise above the noise?”

The internet, and specifically the rise of social media, has made it even easier for folks to pursue ruthless ambition to succeed online. Blogging isn’t a major financial draw for most people, but “getting rich blogging” is certainly a goal that shines bright on far too many people’s annual resolutions. The rat race, a phenomenon that social media is supposed to avoid, has merely moved online, with everyone desperately competing to end up one follower ahead, one blog comment up from their competitors, with online bragging rights as the primary (if not sole) payoff.

If you want to utilize social media responsibly, working out who’s worth it and who isn’t should be one of your first priorities. These tips can help you navigate the waters and distinguish the masters from the wannabes, and should form the basis of your online contact strategy.

It’s not just about numbers.
Some of the world’s biggest spammers have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, while there are bestselling authors that may only have a couple hundred. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, and they shouldn’t be your sole basis for determining influence. This is a strategy that’s sure to end in disappointment and frustration. Instead, look for traffic that’s valuable – the type of readers and followers that take action, rather than the type that merely skim the content and move on. Further, you should focus on engaging those followers by being genuine in your communications, showing interest in others, and providing content of value.

Self promotion knows no bounds online.
A major part of online success is being able to see through the smoke and mirrors that many personalities put up around themselves. With the internet making anonymity and disguise so simple, many people set up illusions that simply aren’t themselves. I like to compare this to the classic 70s game show, “The Dating Game.” It’s easy to sit behind the partition and try to impress the “contestant” with how charming and clever you are. But sooner or later, they will step around the partition — that’s the moment of truth. Will they be surprised with what they find?

If you want a true indicator of someone, contact them directly, and try to look through the self promotion that’s often visible in tweets and blog posts.

Thought leaders often dominate traffic leaders.
Blogger and author Tim Ferriss made this distinction during an internet conference. The online writers with the most readers aren’t always the most powerful, or even the most valuable. Those that have the most powerful audience are always the most powerful. Think about it this way: if you were marketing B2B products, which audience would you prefer? 10,000 regular consumers, or an audience of 100 CEOs of top firms, each with a massive budget for inter-company products. Pick the audience by strength, not just by size.

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According to a recent study from ABI Research, North American sales made via smartphones added up to about $544 million in 2009.

The fastest-growing activity on cellphones is shopping directly from the handset. Retailers in every niche — from Amazon to CVS have launched software applications that enable shoppers to browse many products and buy directly from their iPhones and Blackberrys.

Gartner Market Research reports that retailers are getting the applications right — shoppers are able to place orders and either pick them up, or have them delivered to their home or hotel without ever having to deal with crowds or salespeople directly.

Some apps deliver even more value. At book retailer Barnes & Noble, users can snap a picture of a book with their iPhone, and bring up reviews on the handset’s screen. Stores report they have seen increases in both reservations and purchases in stores, as well as purchases from the iPhone app.

Interested in creating an iPhone app for your business? This self-service solution may be just what you are looking for. For those who may prefer to have someone design an app for you, check out this service.

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In this Issue:

• Popular Stories at ESB Journal
• Cleaning up Twitter Clutter
• Save Face with Wall Backups
• 31 Days to a Better Blog
• See Your Site as Visitors Do
• Google Sidewiki
• Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz
• Weebiz Business Community
• 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition – Deadline is approaching!

I don’t have a problem with caffeine — I have a problem without it!

Popular Stories at ESB Journal

Here are a few of the most popular stories at Entrepreneur & Self-Employed Business Journal:

• Ten Steps to Create “Ready-to-Buy” Customers
• 5 Small Business Tax Tips for 2010
• Get Off the Perch with New IPEVO USB Camera
• Small Business B2B Marketing Trends for 2010

Cleaning up Twitter Clutter

If you are tired of spammers among your Twitter followers, or are just plain feeling overwhelmed, help is on the way. I recently c ame across a free tool that analyzes your Twitter followers, and creates a report of those who you may wish to consider unfollowing. You can then either remove those folks yourself, or have Twit Cleaner handle it for you for a nominal fee (starts at just $5.00).

• Analyzes all the people you follow
• Finds time wasters, spammers, the boring, bots etc
• Creates a detailed report of everyone you’re following
• Increases the integrity & authenticity of your brand or personal image
• Clears up the ‘background noise’ of Twitter
• Enables you to focus your time & energy

Save Face with Wall Backups

Facebook has over 300 million users currently — there is a very real possibility that information could be lost if their server were ever to crash. Items like user photo albums, friend lists and profile data could potentially be lost. If you are using Facebook for business, you may even have more to lose.

A new tool called SocialSafe allows you to back up your Facebook friends, photos, profile data and wall status updates to your own computer. The process takes literally seconds to do, and the application is currently being offered for just $2.99. Check out the video below to see how it works.

31 Days to a Better Blog

If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the “one day” basket – you’re not alone.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.
Each day in the project contains:

1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

This two-pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.

Who is this Workbook for?
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:

• those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
• those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
• bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration

This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog.

By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:

• written a variety of different types and styles of posts
• learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
• promoted your blog in a variety of ways
• built relationships with readers
• reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
• developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
• discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
• designed a plan for the next month of your blogging

All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset. Download Your Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for an Investment of $19.95 This 94-page resource (actually it’s 188 pages as there are two pages on each page really) is ready for your download right now.

“In Seattle, you haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running.”   – Jeff Bezos

See Your Site as Visitors Do

Are you struggling with your home page layout? Ever wonder where the prime real estate is for items such as multimedia or advertisements?

A new study released by The Poynter Institute observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed mock news websites and real multimedia content. While the study was limited in scope by typical standards, it does offer insights that webmasters can implement now to begin enjoying higher conversions on special promotions, CPA offers and affiliate links.

Combined with other site metrics already used by news website managers — usability testing, focus groups, log analysis — the Eyetrack III findings could provide some direction for improving news websites. To read more about homepage layout, visit this link.

Google Sidewiki

Google Sidewiki is a new add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer that enables users to leave comments and information about any webpage. Users can comment about service that they receive on websites via the Sidewiki, and then share their comments via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

With the advent of Sidewiki, you may no longer be able to control the conversations about your brand; in fact, the possibility exists for competitors to utilize Sidewiki to bad mouth you. The tool is very new, and there are likely to be similar tools introduced in the future. In the meantime, downloading Sidewiki and building a strong presence can help to eliminate potential problems, as well as allow you to monitor conversations about your brand.

Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz

Sarah Prout is the director of Sprout Publishing, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, publisher, business coach, online socialite and mother of 2 little darlings.

Sarah knows more than a thing about creating buzz. At age 14 she was labeled ‘Hallmark’s Youngest Designer Worldwide’ when her vibrant gift wrap designs were available in all major department stores around Australia and New Zealand. At 19, she founded her own greeting card company which is when the SPROUT brand first emerged. At 22, Sarah won a major prize from the  SHELL corporation for writing an award-winning business plan that funded the first print run of SPROUT products. Today, Sarah is an author, online socialite, and entrepreneur that has helped many other business owners follow in her very-successful footsteps.

Her Sprout Buzz eCourse has been specifically designed to give you 30 days of publishing tasks that will rapidly improve your level of exposure online. Each day give you an exercise to complete or contemplate that will form the backbone of intense content proliferation for your business and your brand.

Other Topics Covered in Sprout Buzz:

• How to create a press kit
• Affiliate marketing secrets
• Social media tools, tricks and tips
• Writing killer sales page copy
• Blogging ideas and monetization
• eProduct concepts
• Plus much, much more in 75 jam-packed pages of information.

Save $5 at checkout when you enter coupon code “SUCCESS.”

Weebiz Business Community

Think of a business fair and picture it with all the capabilities of an online social network, that’s Weebiz. Register your company and you will instantly have access to an easy and free tool to find business partners or clients, share valuable industry information or promote your products and services.

Instead of simply waiting to intercept a good opportunity by chance, Weebiz places companies at the center of a hub where opportunities converge. Best of all, it’s free to join!

• Create your own community of business relations
• Interact in a free and permanent business expo
• Promote your business
• Sell your products and services and find new ones
• Find business partners and opportunities
• Promote and evaluate your products
• Manage business contacts
• Stay up-to-date on news about your market

2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition

The research is clear and compelling. Organizations that build great work environments deliver better business results. Organizations that invest in the success of their people have employees that are invested in and committed to the success of the business.

Winning Workplaces and Inc. Magazine are seeking compelling examples of organizations with outstanding cultures for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces competition. The winners will be featured in the June 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine.

The application deadline is January 22, 2010.

Share the Love

As I close out this issue, I’d like to ask you to do me a solid — click on the little green button below, and tweet about the Marketing Espresso to your friends and associates. I sure would appreciate it.

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Now that the hype, heartburn and hoopla of the holidays is just a fond memory, it’s time to get back to business.

I know, you’re probably not quite ready to emerge from celebration mode just yet. Sorry about that — just call me Ebenezer.

We all know that without customers, a business won’t survive. That said, it stands to reason that we have to do more than just court them with clever advertising — we must convert them into customers and keep them. Finding customers isn’t exactly rocket science — especially if you’ve done your market research beforehand (you DID do that, right?). The part that can get a bit dicey is in keeping the customers you manage to get, and maintaining an excellent business relationship with them.

So, folks — here’s your mission, should you choose to accept it. Court those prospects — tempt and woo them. But once those prospects hand over their hard-earned cash to you and become an actual customer, be prepared to treat them like your business depends upon them.

Because it does.

Making a List, and Checking it Twice
Santa knows a thing or two about making a list, and so should you. Don’t let the thought of creating a customer database be daunting to you, though. Open Office has a spreadsheet component to it that is compatible with Microsoft Excel, and it’s free. You don’t have to keep elaborate records — simply keeping track of their names and email addresses will enable you to send off the occasional mailing to keep in touch.

I Have a List…Now What?
So glad you asked. Here are a few tips to maintain those customers, and encourage them to use your products or services again:

Keep in Touch
Your customers are just like you — they get busy with day-to-day life, and may not always think about revisiting your site to check out what may be new and noteworthy. It’s your job to service those customers, and keep them up to date on how you may be of service to them. Whether it is a new software upgrade, accessories to an original purchase, new companion products or sales announcements, you can create a simple ezine to share this information with your customers.

TIP: Don’t make your newsletter an in-your-face sales pitch. Spice up your mailing with tidbits like seasonal observances and holidays, tips, resources of interest, or other morsels that will make readers look forward to receiving your mailings.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Without subjecting you to my lackluster Aretha imitation, you get the general idea. The art of old-fashioned customer service is nearly non-existent these days — on the rare occasions that a customer receives a thank you note or email, it makes an impression. Make your customers feel valued and appreciated, and they will consistently seek you out for their future product or service needs.

Big Things from Small Packages
Everyone likes to get free stuff. While this may not be an earth shattering revelation to you, it may be something you haven’t considered. Drop a promotional pen, business card magnet or notepad into an outbound shipment, along with a “thanks for your order” note. You don’t need to go crazy ordering lavish items; but, you do need to make sure that any token you offer includes your name, logo and contact information on it.

Give Me a Break
Discounts are always welcome. During these challenging economic times, a discount on a future purchase may well encourage a future purchase in a timeframe of 10-30 days. You may consider setting up an autoresponder series that mails recent customers a promotional offer to encourage a future purchase — or you may use your regular ezine to send out these offers to your “preferred customer list.” Again, this all goes back to making your valued customers feel valued.

Turn Customers into a Commissioned Sales Force
There is no stronger endorsement than that of a satisfied customer. If we’ve learned anything from the boom of social networks, it is that consumers will seek out the advice and feedback of their peers before making a purchase decision. Turn your customers into brand evangelists by offering them a discount or free gift when they refer a friend that makes a purchase. Most shopping carts allow you to add a custom field for data collection during the checkout process — this provides a simple way for shoppers to give credit to the friend who referred them.

Make 2010 the year that you skyrocket your site traffic, and convert those prospects into paying customers!
Download your FREE COPY (no registration required) of the Promo Diva’s 2010 Profit Boosters Tool Kit — featuring helpful tips and resources to help you start the new year right.

Click here to claim your copy!

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Unless you’ve been living in a sandtrap, you’ve no doubt heard of Tiger Woods’ recently publicity nightmare involving his alleged infidelity.

While I am no golfer, (unless we’re talking Putt Putt), I did see a marketing lesson among the headlines. Only time will tell if Tiger can regain his “golden boy” status — but in the meantime, here’s a few reputation management tips you can garner to improve your own game:

Take responsibility right away. I really think that Tiger dropped the ball (I couldn’t resist) by not coming clean right away. There were too many things about the much-publicized car crash that just didn’t add up. Among them was my personal favorite — that Elin smashed in the back window of the vehicle in order to get Tiger out. Call me skeptical, but a much more likely scenario is that while she may have gotten him out of the car, Elin took a “slice” out of Tiger in the process…back window be damned.

Tiger has enjoyed years of fame, and millions of dollars from his talents. Sponsorships account for more than a small portion of his income each year — and those sponsors count on the celebrity cache of Tiger’s brand to help sell their products. In addition, Tiger’s style and personality have won many new fans for the game — including throngs of young fans who look up to him as a role model. True, he’s only human; but for those whom society has placed on a pedestal — and are richly rewarded as a result — shouldn’t they be held accountable for their actions, just as anyone else would?

Give sincere, heartfelt apologies. In this instance, you can’t settle for par. Family should obviously come first. Then, reach out to your fan base, and extend them an apology for your behavior. Finally, look toward those sponsors whose brands may have suffered as a result of your actions. They may drop you, and that is certainly their prerogative. Be that as it may, they are no less deserving of an apology.

Rebuild your image. Just as a caddy would advise you on how best to make that perfect shot, you must surround yourself with people, products and services that can help restore your good name. Tiger must demonstrate that he is committed to his family, and intends to put an end to his philandering. The status of his marriage is still uncertain — however, he has children that will be directly impacted by his actions. Making his wife and children his first priority will earn him support among his fan base. They won’t immediately forgive him, but they will be willing to do so in time.

Many celebrity athletes have been disgraced at one time or another, (names like Michael Vick, Pete Rose, and Tanya Harding come to mind), and while not all of them have recovered, some of them have. Michael Vick’s highly publicized dog fighting ring sent shockwaves through the NFL, and incited both fans and non-fans alike. However, in a very controversial move, the NFL allowed Vick back in. He is currently the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles.

In golf, business and in life, the same rules apply. If you make a mistake, the best thing to do is get out in front of the situation and take responsibility. Apologize when you make a mistake, and make sure the apology is sincere. Finally, take steps to prevent any reocurence of the mistake, and work to win back trust and support.

Hopefully Tiger will emerge from this situation a better man. In the end, strength of character will trump athletic ability.

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You’ve decided to finally jump on the social media band wagon — congratulations.

Before you go head out into the social media jungle and begin tweeting, facebooking and youtubing with reckless abandon, I urge you to take a moment and formulate a plan.

It can be particularly difficult to change our marketing “voice” from commercial to non-commercial. We are inundated with advertising messages everywhere, every day — and many users turn to these networks to escape brands altogether. Still others use social media to gain greater insights into brands before making a purchasing decision. They will listen to feedback from other consumers, compare you to the competition, and gauge your customer service. These factors are crucial, and should not be overlooked.

So, we know that our audience is always operating on the assumption that we are trying to sell them something — and a lot of the time, that’s true. Marketers do try to sell things online, even if it is during an online conversation that is not directly related to their products or services. Their persistence has made it difficult for other marketers to sell their products, even when they are deliberately ignoring the non-related conversations and targeting buyers that really are interested.

The mass marketing activities have poisoned the well, and it has made it even more difficult to penetrate social media’s marketing shield. But make no mistake, it still can be done.

There are hundreds of examples of brands succeeding through social media – Zappos, AirAsia and Whole Foods spring to mind – but replicating their success can be incredibly difficult. However, there is one thing that seems to separate social media’s major marketing players from the wannabes that have tried and failed. It is the level of “marketing drive” behind them, and it appears to be inversely proportional to the amount of success that they find.

Huh? You read that correctly…I said inversely proportional. Counterintuitive, yes. But, highly effective, nonetheless.

Marketing drive is persistence. Persistent marketers always try to sell, no matter what the circumstance. “Looking for ice cream? Why not buy this humidifier too?” That’s their marketing style — it isn’t winning them any popularity contests, and it certainly isn’t bolstering their bottom line, either.

The Zappos school of thought is that rather than attempting to force a consumer into a sale, allow them to elect whether or not they wish to talk about buying. If folks aren’t talking about buying, Zappos isn’t jumping in with the subtlety of Kathy Griffin and trying to change the subject.

Social media communities are not averse to marketing; but social media users hate direct, pushy marketing with a passion. You’ll be about as welcome as spandex on Mr. Blackwell’s Best-Dressed List.

You’ll stand out, but not in a good way. Get the picture?

Success in social media is relatively simple — add value. Let that guide your activities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like. I may be interested in what you are selling, but I really don’t want to hear about it all the time. Just as offline marketers pick and choose which markets they’re targeting, online social media marketers need to take a step back and examine what opportunities are actually worth it. Once you’ve identified your target, join the conversation, but remember to be genuine, helpful, and interesting. In the end, this will win you respect and business.

People turn to Facebook and Twitter to communicate with each other, not with major brands and marketers. And while there is always going to be the one in one-thousand user that responds to direct marketing, the conversion rate for appropriate, targeted conversation will always much higher. When you enter social media determined to sell 10,000 units, you are destined to fail.

If you are already marketing with social media, now is the time to take a quick reference glance in the mirror. If you aren’t marketing like the successful big brands, you can still change course. Target your audience and provide them with genuine value and your efforts will be rewarded. Leave the pushy sales tactics behind.

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Featured in this video: Adobe Photoshop

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It’s not exactly a secret that I am a huge 80s music junkie. That said, it should really come as no surprise that when I began working on today’s post, I drew inspiration from Boy George and Culture Club.

I realize that George O’Dowd is not exactly someone you’d typically think of for offering sage business advice. After all, he’s known for his technicolor tresses and eyeshadow — not for his business savvy.

Even so, Boy George was right on the money when he crooned, “…time won’t give me time…”

Efficient time management is essential in business. We know we can’t cram more hours into each day; our only option is to make the best use of the time we have each day. Those “big name” marketers make it look effortless — but what they aren’t telling you is that many of them outsource entire facets of their business to others. They may be employing virtual assistants, copywriters, and webmasters to handle functions that you are trying to juggle all by yourself.

You can still join the Culture Club of savvy internet marketers — all you need to do is establish a plan to work more efficiently each day.

Create a Clean and Chaos-Free Environment
Your work environment is integral to your productivity. Take steps to eliminate clutter and distractions. It doesn’t matter how big or how small your working space is — when you keep it clean and organized, you will be able to accomplish much more. Even if you have no home office and are only working on a computer, make sure your files and documents are well organized so you don’t lose precious time searching for important documents and files.

There’s Power in a Plan
Having a well-conceived plan for your day will eliminate the possibility of becoming sidetracked and distracted. You have many options at your disposal — from day planners and PDAs to simple applications like Outlook’s calendar function — these tools can help you view your day at a glance, and mark off tasks as they are completed.

Set Priorities and Deadlines
Arrange daily tasks in order of priority. Begin with tasks that have the greatest impact on your bottom line. For instance, taking care of client calls early in the morning will free you up to tackle marketing tasks such as submitting articles, creating newsletters, and posting to social media sites later in the day. You might want to close your email client while you are working on time-sensitive projects, in order to prevent distractions. Tasks such as automating your article submissions and tweets may require an initial investment, but can pay big dividends in the time saved on these activities.

It takes a fair amount of discipline to create and adhere to deadlines that you create for yourself, but it can be done. Creating a checklist that you can refer to each day will provide you with a visual reminder of what you need to complete — and, it will provide you with a sense of accomplishment after you mark each task off the list. For those who work on client projects, having a written schedule to refer to will enable you to schedule your work, and quote clients a realistic completion timeframe.

We can’t add more hours to our day, but we can use the time we have to our advantage. And THAT should be music to your ears.

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With the holidays around the corner and seasonal online shopping on the rise, the LinkShare TweetShop Tool comes at an opportune time for publishers to share more online and take advantage of increased interest among online shoppers.

In the advent of the Twitter-adoption explosion, this new tool brings a host of new possibilities to our affiliate network that is easy, fun and effective at driving revenue.

LinkShare, a leading performance marketing network provider, today announced the LinkShare TweetShop Tool that enables anyone with a Twitter following to monetize their Twitter feeds, and easily turn customized tweets into an effective shopping tool. Generally available to publishers in its network, this innovation further demonstrates the company’s commitment to creating applications that are Easy, Fast and Open – easy-to-use, fast-to-market, and open across channels – and is the latest feature in LinkShare’s Bento Box, a showcase of new tools and applications.

More than 50 million live Twitter accounts exist today with approximately 4.6 million people using Twitter on a daily basis, according to recent research by RJMetrics and Quantcast. These numbers represent a massive demographic with huge market potential that is largely untapped as few companies today have successfully created ways to monetize Twitter feeds.

Additionally, nearly half of all “value hunters” – a new market segment identified in a recent survey by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates – are searching online for the best deals and promotions. Since this growing segment of online shoppers purchase something online once a week or more(3), they represent a growing consumer base that will be using tools like Twitter to find new products, search for deals, and satiate their everyday retail needs.

“With the holidays around the corner and seasonal online shopping on the rise, the LinkShare TweetShop Tool comes at an opportune time for publishers to share more online and take advantage of increased interest among online shoppers,” said Mark Kirschner, CMO, LinkShare. “In the advent of the Twitter-adoption explosion, this new tool brings a host of new possibilities to our affiliate network that is easy, fun and effective at driving revenue.”

With the LinkShare TweetShop Tool, publishers can easily customize tweets through the user interface which automatically creates a shortened URL that directs an online shopper to the landing page for the recommended object of affection.

Through three easy steps, publishers can turn their Twitter stream into a new revenue channel. Just Pick, Point and Post.

• Pick the item to tweet about.
• Point out the cool-factor.
• Post as an updated tweet without the hassle of having to both find the webpage of that item and shorten the URL to fit into his/her tweet.

In light of the recent FTC rulings regarding full disclosure for endorsements, sponsorships and the terms and conditions that apply to any special offer, LinkShare recommends following common sense guidelines when using its new LinkShare TweetShop Tool, such as those developed by the Performance Marketing Alliance:

• Avoid tweeting false or unsubstantiated product claims
• Never create a fake/spam twitter account just to post new advertisements
• Clearly and conspicuously disclose any connections with the advertiser and/or the affiliate network
• Be creative! If it is an ad, it should sound like one, but go beyond a product pitch
• Don’t abuse it. Daunted followers will stop following you and this will undermine your credibility you have built up in your online community

To check out the buzz on this new LinkShare TweetShop Tool, hear what industry experts have to say and add to the conversation, search and/ or tweet on the following hashtag: #TweetShop.

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