John Dilbeck Musings

I just created a new Site Build It Webmasters group on Squidoo.com.

If you are a Site Build It! webmaster, you are invited to create a new lens about your SBI site and how you use Site Build It to create your online business.

If you create a lens using the above link, you will be submitted for membership to the Site Build It Webmasters group on Squidoo.com.

As long as your new lens is about SBI and/or your SBI website, I’ll be happy to admit you to the group.

(Site Build It! websites, only, please.)

This is a great way to get one-way links to your site and the pages within it.

Squidoo lenses are powerful ways to build one page websites that link outward to other resources. You can even make money while you promote your site.

Do you have a CafePress store related to your SBI website? Add a CafePress module to your lens and sell your wares.

Do you sell products from Amazon.com on your SBI site? Add the top sellers to your Squidoo lens, too.

Feel free to put your 5 Pillar affiliate links on your lens(es).

Let’s all help each other succeed.

Act On Your Dream!

JD

Recently, Amazon.com offered a beta release of two new marketing tools for their many associates.

Omakase links

The first is a new type of link, called Omakase, that is automatically optimized for both the associate and for the Amazon customer viewing the link.

As I understand it, this Omakase link looks at both the products most sold by the affiliate and the type of products most often purchased by the viewer, if he or she is an Amazon customer.

Currently, I’m testing an Omakase link in the top-left corner of this blog on my Amazon Store page. I’ll probably test it on other sites over the next few weeks.

I would appreciate it if you would go to my Amazon Store page and see if the four products shown are something in which you may be interested. Don’t purchase if you don’t want, but I would appreciate feedback on whether or not the products closely match your preferences.

You are invited to offer feedback by commenting on this post.

Amazon aStore

The second is not just a link, it’s an entire store that can be customized by the associate.

Since I have a general readership, I offer links to most of the products Amazon offers in my Amazon aStore.

I’ve selected nine featured books related to blogging, success, and marketing on the opening page and have links to most of the categories of products offered by Amazon.com.

This store can be linked to as a stand-alone store, or can be added to a website using iframes or framed pages. Currently, I’m testing it as a stand-alone store that I’ll link to from a variety of blogs and websites.

I would appreciate any comments you have on the Amazon aStore.

Your purchases support this blog

This blog is supported by your purchases from the merchants I promote, with Amazon.com being one of them.

By purchasing from my links, you allow me to stay home full time and care for my Mom, who otherwise would have to go into a nursing home because I would have to get a job or take on out-of-home projects.

I appreciate your purchases and hope you will continue to find items of interest on this blog.

I do not earn a lot from Amazon, but I welcome every commission I receive from them as a result of your purchases.

Thank you.

JD

I guess each of us has our preferences for which search engine we like to use.

For the last couple of years, I’ve preferred to use Google for most of my searching, although I still use others to compare the results.

If I’m researching keywords or I want to see which sites place well on various search engines, I’ll use a metasearch engine such as ixquick.com.

A couple of weeks ago, SiteSell released their Search It!, which really isn’t a search engine, but is a front-end tool to help you search for a wide variety of things using preformed search queries.

Recently, I became aware that Amazon.com has released a9.com, which can search several databases at the same time, including google, google images, inside books at Amazon.com, inside a movie database, and more. You can read more about it at Why Use A9.com?.

A9.com has the interesting feature of saving your searches so you can reuse them later. It also has a diary and a place to store bookmarks. I haven’t used all the features, yet, but it’s great to be able to search for something, such as “Murphy, NC 28906″, and see results from Google, from inside books at Amazon.com, and images returned from Google. It offers some truly useful features that I’ll be using in the future.

Try it out for yourself and see what you think.