Well, this week I am super hard at work on a big eBook that will be offered free to people interested in having their own Virtual Buzz Assistant business.

And I also know that many of you are going to enjoy the holiday this long weekend, and you could not care less about Buzz Marketing – and you shouldn’t.  Go have fun.

But some of you are from other countries and couldn’t care about the 4th, so this is for you.

I added a floating window that is integrated with aWeber to the front of my blog and have doubled the conversion rate.  It is early yet, but I like how it is trending.

I know that the window could be built by hand, but for the $47 dollars it really sped up the process.  And I can keep going back and using it to build additional ads.

The only reason I did not roll it out on the sub-pages of the blog is because there is no way to make it only pop up once per session.  So I added it to the top page, and then use the older (and less fancy) aWeber pop-ups below that, because they can show up once and then not again until the next visit.

Long term I may or may not keep it.  Everything depends on the numbers, but I’ve been planning on doing something nicer like that for a long time, and that software made it super fast, so I stopped procrastinating.

We are launching our Buzzoodle Affiliate Program and our blog readers are the first to learn about it.  I really only want a small group of people initially as we develop more ads, write the affiliate handbook, etc.

If you like affiliate programs that have BIG earning potential and you do not mind getting in while the walls are still being painted (not literally) then sign up here.

If you are unsure, you can read the first (intro) page of our eHandbook for Buzzoodle Affiliate Marketers.

Commissions are 2 levels and include eBooks, Virtual Buzz Assistant Requests and membership sites.

Many of the opportunities have not even been announced yet, so getting in now is truly the ground floor of a great affiliate opportunity.

This blog post and an email to a small group of friends will be the only marketing done for a little while, so be the first to offer these things and make real affiliate money, including monthly membership commissions.  If you act this week, you will be offering some of these products before I have even started promoting them.  – Wow -

Are you a business owner trying to figure out this online marketing thing?

First, online marketing does NOT mean putting up a website.  Sure, there are marketing elements in the website, but just having a website does not mean you are doing online marketing.

Think of your website as a brochure you just printed up.  What good is it doing you if it sits in your office?

A huge number of businesses out there right now believe they are doing Internet Marketing because they have a website.  These are the same people that are saying that the Internet does not work.

What I see are certain “Camps” of Internet Marketing – and the small business owner does not fit smoothly into any of them.

Camp DIY

Most things in life could be done by anyone – if they have enough time and resources.  The Internet is no different.  You can build websites, modify design, set up a blog, write articles, split test your email messages, build your list, use social bookmarking every day, contribute to Squidoo, HubPages and Gather, join online communities and answer questions on LinkedIn and Yahoo Answers.

That would be a good place to start but would not REALLY be full marketing, simply higher visibility.

Camp Information Products

This group of people hone great skills and sell eBooks, videos, webinars, etc.  The problem here is that a non-information product company will rarely take the time needed to develop these skills.  It is not their main source of revenue.  That is too bad since this group has a great deal to teach.

Most of the members I see in this camp are solo-preneurs.

Camp Big Business

Just like TV, if you have a big budget you can plaster your ads all over the Internet.  AdWords, Ads, Paid Reviews, etc.  Plus this group has full time writers and SEO Experts.  The small business will dabble with these things but then give up, because they rarely pay off quickly and tend to dent the budget.

Camp Technology

The thing that makes me cringe the most is camp technology.  You go to an Internet Expert that knows how to code things and fall in love with all kinds of custom technology.  You spend a fortune only to find out later that people like things super simple and do not care about all the bells and whistles.

So what is a small business person that wants results going to do?

Here is your plan:

You purchase hosting where you can get great open source tools like Bluehost or OutstandaHosting.com.

You buy templates that you like for your website and blog.

You pay a consultant to set up the look and feel to match your branding.

You purchase an account at aWeber and set up a reason for people to sign up.

You hire a Virtual Buzz Assistant to write regularly, promote your website via advocacy and use social tools to create more visibility.  You set a fixed budget so you know what to expect.

You experiment with AdWords with multiple keywords and multiple pages.

You contribute as much as you can, and outsource the rest.

Why is this a good plan?

This is a good plan because it is low cost, has a long term view and is an investment in your web visibility.  It helps you hone your message and makes sure your blog and website do not sit dormant and lose the traffic they were getting.

Sure, you are spending money on various tools and help, but all of it is low risk, fixed, and an acceptable risk for reward.

I had someone ask me a few questions for an upcoming eBook about weathering a recession.  My answers were probably a little more buzz related than average, and I thought some of you might like them.  So here they are:

 1. What are the common mistakes most businesses make in a recession?

This is something of a loaded question.  Mistakes obviously depend on the industry you are in.

It is well known that cutting back on marketing in a recession will mean a negative impact on your future growth after a recession.  However, if you are in survival mode, there may be no avoiding it.
2. What are 10 methods you would use to survive and prosper in a recession?

#1 – A recession is a great excuse.  This won’t be popular, but a recession is a great excuse to make cuts.  If you have had some marginal performers, use this as an excuse to become leaner and meaner.

#2 – Use down time for new product development.

#3 – Identify what makes you special and then get the whole team behind creating buzz.

#4 – Reinvent yourself.  An industry can collapse any time, not just during a broader recession.  Look at how Kodak reinvented itself after film sales dried up.

#5 – Shore up the value you are creating with your existing clients.  Make sure you keep what you have before worrying about new customers.

#6 – Upsell to your existing clients worries.

#7 – Take advantage of more availability of workers.  Hire Virtual Buzz Assistants to work from home and create more results for you.

#8 – Sell hope – focus on how your product or service helps provide a light at the end of the tunnel.

#9 – Automate more – If you need to save money, find ways to automate processes that used to take a person.

#10 – Don’t give in to recessionary thinking – Your attitude should not dip with recession worries.  If your attitude dips, people sense it and you will hurt your prospects.
3. What are some little known money-making opportunities for businesses?

It really depends on the business.  I would not suggest losing focus on your main money makers. Assuming you have the time to spend, you might try setting up every person in the organization with a blog, giving them a class or workbook on how to use it and creating an affiliate lead genration tool for each person.  Then every employee could be an affiliate marketer for the business (as well as a content creator.)  By making everyone a brand ambassador with the potential to earn some extra money, you make every person a member of the marketing team.

There is a new social network for business.  APSense – I am almost afraid to recommend these things as they tend to fill up with people hocking eBooks and other things, but this one does have some potential.  They seem to have thought a lot about the features and even have revenue sharing added to the mix.

Go set up a profile if you are interested in checking it out.  One thing I like is that they have built the network to promote your business – so none of the pretending to not be promoting yourself while you promote yourself…

I have worked with a lot of people that come to us and say, “I want buzz!”

Some succeed, and some fail.  Buzz itself is not an acceptable goal.  If you just know you want buzz, you are dooming your effort.  The success factor has little to do with buzz, and everything to do with understanding what a reasonable goal is in the first place.

So what are some examples of good buzz goals I have seen?

Goal:  Increase search engine saturation for our brand.

Goal:  Increase local word of mouth to pass a levy that is too close to call.

Goal: Increase website traffic by creating links and referrals.

Goal:  Establish our expertise over the next 24 months in the ______ industry.

Goal:  Generate 10% more referrals by facilitating word of mouth on the web.

Goal: Build an audience that wants to hear from us – add a minimum of 500 names per month.

Goal: CEO to be interviewed by 4 bloggers per month.

Now some examples of bad goals:

Bad Goal:  I want to create buzz to blow the sales off the roof.

Bad Goal:  I want to be #1 in Google for a general term.

Bad Goal:  I want to have a blog/myspace page/facebook profile because I read about it and I have to.

Bad Goal:  I want people to go into Walmart and demand that they carry my product.

The list goes on.

Here is the simple key:  It is great to have long term goals that are big, but your short term buzz efforts must be achievable steps to realizing those dreams, not the dream itself.  Focus on things that will interest your target audience and be valuable (and/or) easy to pass on.

I use a variety of tools for doing research and saving things.  Online notebooks are useful to capture data and save it.  For example, you can capture a page and even if the page changes later, you captured what you wanted.  Useful for book research, etc.

Then I stumbled upon a Diigo.  This is some nice stuff.  Now I can put notes and bookmarks on webpages and see my notes when I return.  I prefer this much over something like del.icio.us, which seems to not be doing too much to keep growing.

I did not install the toolbar.  I have too many things installed already and did not want to risk slower performance.  However, with a little playing around I added the button to the favorites and it is working nicely.

I especially like the feature that gets more information on a page.  Now I can see how popular a blog is before I contact them.

If you want a better way to do web research and organization, give Diigo a try.

We always encourage people to do it themselves.  Your employee base can create a lot of buzz for you.

Today I talked to someone that was creating a lot of buzz for a company she used to work for.  She left the company and it ended up going out of business.

The problem that resulted from her was this.  She’d set up pages on myspace, facebook, etc. and built communities around herself and the company.  When the company went under, all those people got upset and she was the only person left as a visible target.

Then, because a company email was used to set up those accounts, she could not cancel them because it no longer existed.

So here is someone that did everything right, and ended up hurting her personal brand.

So how do you protect yourself?

1. Use a free email account that you can access even if the company shuts down your email – Whether you are fired, quit or the company closes.
2. If you are building buzz on your own time, work more on your personal brand as an expert but mention the company frequently so you both get buzz but you are building an asset for yourself.
3. Don’t say something you may regret later.  If you say your current company is better than a competitor, you may find it hard to get a job with the competitor later on.
4. Don’t build a community around a product that is likely to fail.  It is a lot of work to create a good community and you must have the focus be broader than a product that you are not sure will make it.
5. Keep a list of things you need to update in the case of a major change.  If you leave the company, you will need to update a lot of things.  LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Twitter, MyBlogLog, etc.
6. Don’t promote something you do not believe in.  In fact, don’t work for a company you do not believe in.  But if you are stuck for the time being, don’t create fake buzz.
7. Take your time in creating buzz.  Make good choices and be careful not to say things that can be misinterpreted or used by a competitor.

The general best way employee evangelists can protect themselves is to respect and manage their own personal brand as well as those elements of company buzz they create – with an eye on growing both independently in the future.

Have you ever had someone recommend something to you via email?  Sometimes it is interesting, but not something you need right that minute.

 With all the good news about the power of Word of Mouth, one thing that I think has not previously gotten attention is the ability to archive Word of Mouth for future use.  I do this all the time.  I often remember who sent me an email that I knew would be useful one day, and I simply go back and search for it.

But there are many ways to store Word of Mouth referrals for future use.  Here are the ones I can unintentionally use.

• Email Archives
• Bookmarks
• Blog Posts – If I think I want to share it.
• iGoogle Link
• Tumblr
• To Do list in Microsoft Outlook
• Forward email to my wife and expect her to remember for me.
• Future to do item in my Treo
• White Board behind my desk
• Slips of paper I scatter about and review when I clean
• Pass on the word of mouth and then later go back and ask that person if they remember what I told them.

And there are some that I do not do, but others do.

• Extreme Note Taking - I want to buy some notebooks and give this a try.  I used to write in journals daily but the computer killed that habit.

It is worth considering these things.  We can measure inbound links, sales, inquiries, etc.  But how many times has your product been archived for future use?

Excellent and Interesting podcast of Jeff Sheard of Cisco by Stan Reliham.  They discuss how companies like Cisco and others are using Facebook and Second Life to increase productivity.

Later they discuss some new technologies Cisco are developing on Telepresence.  Be sure to listen to the whole thing.