Ivygirl Media & Design

There’s a new list-building giveaway event that starts on July 3rd! The “Massive List Building Giveaway” already has a ton of contributors and has the potential to drive some serious traffic to your site…

For those of you that are on my mailing list, you know that I’ve promised some big changes are on the way. I mean, its a new year… why not really turn up the heat and see just how many amazing things we can do, right?

Well, to kick things off, I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before: I’m going to give my stuff away for FREE!

That’s right… FREE! Since I wrote Casting Some Link Bait last year, I’ve periodically offered some special discounts to you – my readers – because I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to learn more about “baiting” your links with enticing titles to increase your traffic.

After all, that’s what we’re all working for isn’t it? More traffic? And I have to say that the response to this special report has been really amazing!

But what I’ve recently realized is that the best way to make sure everyone has access to this really important information is to just give it away for free.

And, at least for the time being… that’s exactly what I’m going to do!

So, if you’d like to get your copy of Casting Some Link Bait without paying a penny… here’s your chance!

Try out my free newsletter and when you subscribe, you’ll get an email with an exclusive link where you can download your copy of Casting Some Link Bait for free. And because you’ll be on my mailing list, you’ll be the first to learn about new specials and services as well as the latest trends that can fast-track your online success.

Hi all,

Its been a while since I’ve posted to the blog and I want to start by apologizing for that. I’ve just been really busy working on some things that I think are really going to change the entire look and feel of this site.

But in the midst of all my hard work, I realized that I was still missing one really important piece to my puzzle – YOU! So… I need to ask you for a favor…

I’ve put together a really short survey and I’d really appreciate it if you’d take a couple of minutes to fill it out. See, I’m kind of nervous about some of these changes – I mean little tweaks are no big deal but some of the things I’ve been thinking about are pretty big and to be honest, that’s a scary concept!

Not only are we talking about a ton of work but there’s also some logistics that kind of limit how many people could take advantage of these ideas at one time. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail yet – I’m not ready for that but I do want to see what ideas might be most beneficial to you first.

And that’s where you come in!

So, go ahead – tell me what you think! Its really a short survey and you’ll be doing me a big favor by completing it! Plus, if everything goes as planned, your answers could play a big part in how this site moves into 2009!

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

Peace & Abundance!

Kate

If you’re still trying to figure out the art of link baiting, have I got a deal for you! Between now and September 30th, 2008, you can get your own copy of Casting Some Linkbait for just $5 bucks. Click here to find out how!

These days, getting your “15 minutes of fame” can be as easy as being a top pick on YouTube. But getting that top pick status isn’t always so easy, especially when there’s so much competition to contend with.

Enter Peter Blomquist and Jeff Wiens, co-creators of the Get Hit series at IFC. Using some brutal yet symbolic scenarios, the funny, funny pair of video gurus show you how to master viral video success.

Okay, no more introduction from me – just go watch: http://www.ifc.com/GETHIT

With so much buzz about Twitter lately, marketers everywhere are asking the same question: how can we utilize this to market our service or product?

And that’s a good question.

What you shouldn’t do however, isn’t as difficult to decipher and after finding this on JackHumphrey.com, I thought I’d share – here’s a good look at how NOT to use Twitter:

A client of mine pointed me to a nifty little tool and what a tool it is. Plug in your headline and this free service will analyze your text and give you an Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) rating.

What can an EMV tell you?

Well, the EMV is supposed to gauge the amount of emotional value that your headline will convey. The higher the score, the more likely your headline will be successful and for those of you interested in link baiting, EMV would obviously be key. So, for example – the headline “You Deserve All The Riches That Life Has To Offer” has a 20% EMV rating out of 100, not bad but certainly nothing to write home about.

Theoretically, an EMV of 30 to 40% is considered average for a proficient copywriter while a truly gifted and talented writer might score somewhere between 50 to 75%. A perfect score is supposed to be 100% but according to the tool, that’s hard to do unless your headline is 5 words or less.

So, that got me to thinking: just what makes a good “emotional value” headline? And more importantly, does that really jive with what people are likely to read? So, I decided to test the process.

Before racking my brain, I went to my trusty email client where despite my spam filters, sits tons of spam emails begging me to open them. First, I tried ” baby eraser pebble adult meat”. Yes, that’s actually the subject line on a spam email I received yesterday. And surprise… it scored a whopping 60% EMV!

I found this at Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report who got it from Alex at HowtoSpoter.com and as I’m sure the creators intended, I wanted to pass it along.

The idea is simple but genius and gives “viral marketing” a whole new twist.

Dubbed the Reciprocal Review Carousel, the idea has the potential to really increase those all-important incoming links and thus, boost your traffic and search engine ratings. Follow the directions carefully and let me know how it worked for you.

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions below this line —

Reciprocal Review Carousel idea is based on a few simple yet effective link-building and blogging techniques I have learned:

• Build value of the blog by creating a helpful link from within content.
• Provide value to community by doing a review on a blog you personally like.
• Link to YOUR blog has exact anchor text you want and helps you boost Google Rankings.
• No more than 30 outbound links from any page to prevent penalties for link farming.
• Viral effect of the link – as more bloggers participate, link to your blog with YOUR anchor text, coming from quality content post will spread.

Here is How to participate:

• Copy the entire text between the specified lines.
• Create a post on your site and put at least one paragraph explaining how you joined the Reciprocal Review Carousel.
• Paste the text you copied into your post.
• Remove the Bottom Review and At the Top add your own review with a link to a site reviewed, at least 2 sentences about the site and a note – Reviewed by: Your Anchor Text. Link your anchor text to your site. Here is an example:

WordPress Web 2.0 Guide is a blog providing very useful information on building your very own Web 2.0 portal based on WordPress. Detailed instructions and howto guides make it possible for anyone to create a sparkling and engaging blog and join the community of like-minded individuals. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-er

Sites Reviewed:

• Get the most from life at HappyGoKate.com. From blogging to saving, spirituality to mastering the law of attraction, you’ll find it here. As the tag line says – “life is what you make of it… why not make it something amazing?”

• Peter Lenkefi writes about Web 2.0 marketing strategies at Web2Center.com. He has some killer videos over there you should check out along with a ton of good information on blog marketing and various “new media” promotion tactics. Reviewed by: Link Building Maniac, Jack Humphrey, for the Friday Traffic Report

• Andy-Coates.com is an original creator of Viralink concept and a blog publishing information on Magic, Personal development and blog development. I have found a wealth of information on getting your blog noticed and generating the traffic for free. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Guide

• FitForFreedom is well-established blog where you can find multitude of information on achieving financial freedom. Blog is run by Marco Righter and his writing style greatly adds to the value of information he provides. Reviewed by: Alex

• Secure Your PC For Internet blog run by Colin and provides essential information everyone accessing internet should know. Identity theft is becoming more and more of an issue and by visiting his blog you can minimize the risk of being compromised. Reviewed by: Alex

• VI-SU blog is all about WordPress, AdSense, SEO and Internet Marketing. Although mostly written in German I have found that using Google translate is worth the effort for his posts. Reviewed by: Alex

• Home With Heather is a great informative blog targeting WAHM (Work At Home Moms) and run by … you guessed it – Heather Masson. Information on what works for her in Internet Business written is very easy to read and comes from her personal experience. Reviewed by: Alex

• A Copywriter’s Blues blog published by Alex Badalic, a veteran of advertising turned musician gives you great food for soul. I have found some nice old videos of Johnny Cash performance and he has a lot more of vintage videos to satisfy fans. Reviewed by: Alex

• Did You Smell That blog authored by one of the veterans on network marketing filled with business ideas you can use. David Ledoux is well known and respected in online community and now he makes his experience available via blog posts. Reviewed by: Alex

• Best Damn Blog run by Richard Wing is all about Internet Marketing. Your visit will be rewarded by honest reviews, freebies and information you need to succeed in this cut-throat business without sacrificing your integrity. Reviewed by: Alex

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions above this line —

And that’s all there is to it!

May your days be full of wonder
Of joy and love and smiles
May the doors of opportunity open
And your journey unwind for miles…

May you never cease to question
May you make the world a better place
May you find forgiveness and tolerance
And meet the world with a smile on your face…

May you greet new friends with open arms
While you hold the old friends dear
May you remember to skip and play and laugh
And have a glorious, wondrous new year