Archives for August 2011

Extra! Extra! You can automatically create an online newspaper with Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds.

There is a free service called Paper.li that enables the automated, daily, twice daily or weekly creation of a newspaper customized by you.

But why would somebody subscribe to one of these online newspapers? Well, that's up to you to assemble interesting content.

Paper.li will create an online newspaper based on Tweets from a single Twitter user, your Twitter account and the people you follow, a Twitter list, a Twitter # tag, keywords on Twitter, keywords on Facebook, or an RSS feed.

The benefit to you is that your content should be incorporated into the newspaper, so that it will regularly point to your affiliate site.

People can subscribe by email to a Paper.li newspaper, and you can also have it auto-posted to your Twitter account.

I have used Paper.li newspapers in the past based on my Twitter account and people I follow, as well as for the Twitter list of speakers for each Affiliate Summit conference.

There is an opportunity in an “Editor's Note” box in Paper.li to add a note to your readers, but I've found that it's a great spot to feature some sites.

You can add live links into that area.

I'd definitely suggest activating the option to have your Paper.li newspaper to automatically post to your Twitter account, as many people mentioned in the Tweet each day will ReTweet it, which provides more exposure for you.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for driving quality traffic to an affiliate site if it is relevant to your professional life.

There is an Application Directory on LinkedIn with a variety of tools to enhance your profile.

There are many that can make your profile more dynamic and interesting, but the most useful LinkedIn Applications to me are those that refer people to my site(s) directly or indirectly.

The WordPress application in LinkedIn enables you to pull the RSS from a blog into your profile.

The links from the WordPress application go directly to your blog.

I like this application a lot, since it provides the excerpts and links, but it's stuck at the bottom of your profile.

The Twitter application (Tweets) is better, as it features your latest Tweet right at the top of your LinkedIn profile.

You can also have your Tweets included in your Activity stream, which displays on the right of your profile.

There are lots of other applications to explore and figure out ways to leverage for traffic, but I'd suggest these two at a minimum.

If you'd like to see my LinkedIn profile and connect with me there, go to http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawncollins.

Lots's of people think of Meetup.com as a useful site to organize local meetups, but they also have an advertising option where you can sponsor targeted meetup groups for a small fee and drive traffic to your site.

The Meetup Perks opportunity enables you to create a compelling discount or member Perk, submit it to Meetup.com, and they share that Perk (upon their approval) with relevant Meetup Groups that you want to target.

You can approve or deny the groups, and you just pay $5 per month per Meetup Group that accepts your Perk.

However, and this is even better news… the price is free until further notice!

So, you're able to get targeted traffic from a set of groups, and you can choose to sponsor as many or few as you choose.

I'm currently sponsoring over 60 groups. I started with a few and scaled up, and it's worked out well for me for traffic and sales.

More details at http://www.meetup.com/sponsorships/.