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Experienced Copywriter and Social Media Manager

Posts by James Dabbagian

How to make money using Pinterest and Affiliate Links

Jan07
2012 2 Comments Written by James Dabbagian

I never figured I’d be the kind of person to enjoy using Pinterest.

English: Red Pinterest logo

Image via Wikipedia

However, I wasentertained enough by the concept (and the fact that I MUST try the newest in Social Media happiness) that I had my good friend The Tsaritsa give me an invite to use the network.

 

After a while, I noticed some people listed some of their favorite books on their boards, which gave me an idea…Why not make boards of books I recommend, and make a little profit as well.

 

I created two boards: One for Blogging and Social Media books, and another for PowerPoint and Public Speaking books. In both boards, I added links to some of the books I personally recommended, BUT I also had affiliate links with them (And I clearly disclose this in both the board description and the description for each book.)

By doing this, I have dramatically increased the amounts of clicks I got for my Amazon Associates links. The process below is for Amazon Associates, but can easily be adaptable to almost any other affiliate system.

 

  1. Click on the “Link to this page” button in your associates window, then click on “Text only.” Click the text link on that page.
  2. Use your “Pin it” bookmarklet to grab the picture and link. Note that sometimes the bookmarklet won’t work, so you’ll have to grab it manually through Pinterest’s website.
  3. Describe why you’re recommending the product. I don’t add books I don’t recommend myself, so I explain what I liked about the book, or what was important about it.
  4. Add a disclosure that your link is an affiliate link. This is quite important, we wouldn’t want the FTC knocking down your door.
The best part is that you’re doing several services here: You’re providing people with products that can help them, allowing others to put your pins on their boards (And YOUR links) and making yourself some commission doing all of this. 
Now it’s important to remember that this only works for referral links with an image of the product on hand (and it has to be a decent-sized one or else Pinterest gets bitchy) Sadly, I’ve tried to use this with E-Junkie and it doesn’t work. I assume it’s because the links are redirects to other URLs but I could be wrong.

And again, I must stress you DISCLOSE THEY ARE AFFILIATE LINKS. Don’t get yourself in trouble by forgetting to put them there. And be sure you know what books you’re pinning to your boards. You might not like what you end up “approving.”

Posted in Social media - Tagged , , ,

Review: How to Network on Twitter by Jade Craven

Jan05
2012 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Cover: How to Network on TwitterOne of the best things I like about Twitter is its ability to interact with others quickly on a real-time basis. You can make your name known to the best in the business, tell a company how much you love their product, or even participate in a discussion. Twitter is a great networking tool, but it’s a rather bizarre tool to wield. Fortunately, Jade Craven  has provided a great how to for networking in a cheap eBook.

What I like

Craven’s book provides a very comprehensive study on the many ways one can use Twitter to interact with others. They range from simple steps to take at startup such as writing your Twitter bio to participating in a Twitter Chat, to even live-tweeting real-time events as they happen. She gives detailed advice on putting these to work for you, and includes examples as well.

She also provides advice on using other social networks, as well as other tools. For instance, Craven gives advice on when a conversation on Twitter should instead be moved to another place, such as a blog or through email. All good information to make sure you avoid making an epic faux pas like certain celebrities have done in the last year.

What Could be Improved

Craven also includes blog articles from other bloggers on Twitter as well, but in the form of links to their specific blog articles. While she has every reason for doing this (quoting parts of their work without permission would result in copyright infringement and/or plagiarism, especially since this is a paid ebook) it’s a little annoying to have to click on the links in order to see the information that the other blogger has working for them. I’d like to see the information all in one book. What if I didn’t have a data connection at the moment? I wouldn’t be able to see the content she recommends.

Bottom Line

Jade Craven’s book is a great way to get started if you want to learn the basics. Since the cost is under $5, it won’t be too bad of an investment either. While there are some content holes in that they are other blogger’s content, it’s still a good resource for your first few steps in Twitter, and establishing yourself or your brand.

How to network on Twitter  (Disclaimer: Affiliate Link)
PDF version coming soon.

Additional Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge from the author as a review copy. However, The above review was not under any form of influence by the author nor any other party.

Posted in Book Review, Twitter - Tagged , ,

New Presentation: Twitter Chats: Interacting with others in Real-Time

Jan01
2012 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian
If you want something more portable than my Twitter Chat guide, now you got it! You can share this Slideshare presentation on your own site if you want to explain what Twitter chats are.
View more presentations from JTDDesigns.
Posted in Social media, Twitter - Tagged , , ,

#BWECHAT for December 14th – Guest Blogging

Dec15
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Posted in Liveblogs - Tagged , ,

12 Christmas Albums and songs that don’t suck.

Dec14
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

I’d like to deviate a bit from my usual Social Media and Blogging schedule and discuss something that always plagues me every Holiday season. As I said on G+ earlier today, I hate a lot of Christmas music. Why? Because most of it is horrendously slow, depressing, and insomnia-curing. Fortunately, Dr. James has a prescription in the form of several much better albums. Your mileage of course may vary.

First off, a disclaimer: The links below are Amazon Affiliate links. However, I give you my guarantee that these music albums rock house and won’t put you to sleep. You get good music, I get a little money, we both win. This might set me back a little bit on PageRank due to the links, but I don’t care. This is important for everyone.

Mannheim Steamroller - My favorite Christmas music band, these guys use modern instruments in conjunction with orchestras to produce spiffy versions of your favorite Christmas songs. My personal favorites include Deck The Halls, Hallelujah, Carol of the Bells , and Hark! The Herald Angel Sings! 

Here’s Deck The Halls set to some epic house lighting:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra- TSO is similar to Mannheim in that they also use modern synths and guitars set to orchestra, but they also place heavier emphasis on rock and roll. Their most popular song (and my favorite) is Christmas/ Sarajevo 12/24. I also enjoy A Mad Russian’s Christmas

True Blue Aussie Christmas - This is one of my newer findings, but they seem to be rather funny. A lot of their theme is Australian-oriented (obviously) but there’s a few that I can identify with living in Los Angeles (The heat,) such as Aussie Jingle Bells and Santa of the Desert. Still, it’s a nice pleasant beat and has a nice tone.

And here’s Aussie Jingle Bells in action:

And lastly, here’s some singles:

Bottom Line: If you can avoid it, don’t make your Christmas music suck this year, or any year.

 

Posted in Other - Tagged , ,

Ways to improve the Amazon Kindle Fire

Dec11
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

I won’t bother you with a review of the Kindle Fire. There’s a bajillion different websites you can see to offer that. Instead, I can offer a list of things I feel that would really improve the Kindle Fire. I personally like it for what it is, but I can’t call it a tablet. It’s a fancy eBook reader.

Here’s a list of things Amazon can do with a firmware release.

  1. Allow me to change the direction I have to slide at the first screen.
  2. Enable Screenshots
  3. Enable the Android Marketplace (It already allows third-party software to be installed)
  4. Allow PDFs to be sent via one’s Kindle Email account.
  5. Let PDF files be included in the “Books” Section. It’s annoying to have to put them in “Docs.” 
  6. Show the PDF’s first page, which is usually the title.

Things to do for the next version of the Fire

  1. Bluetooth
  2. Consider a 3G plan ala the iPad
  3. Partner with someone for free WiFi?

Apps you need to approve: 

  1. WordPress
  2. Facebook (The REAL app, not a damn website)
  3. Instapaper (Although this is more a kick in the pants to the developer, not to Amazon.)
  4. The Android Calendar (So I can get Google Calendar.)
  5. Hootsuite
  6. Grocery IQ
  7. Some sort of Wikipedia app
  8. A journal app
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Posted in Tech

Black Friday – Parody of Friday

Nov24
2011 1 Comment Written by James Dabbagian

I rarely post my personal gag projects, but I felt this was relevant. Ever since Rebecca Black’s “Friday” came out, I wanted to do a parody of it for Black Friday.

Unfortunately, Kohl’s beat me to it:

But you know what? It stinks. So here is my parody of the entire song.

12 a m
Waking up at midnight
Gotta be fast, stumble on downstairs
Maybe have granola, no more cereal
seeing that it’s hitting that time again

Ticking on and on everyone’s rushing
Gotta get to the BEST BUY!
Gotta bust the door…I SEE THE LINEEEE!
Sticking out the FRONT DOOR
Sticking out the SIDE DOOR
Gotta make my mind up, which line do I STAAAND?

[BEGIN CHORUS]

Black Friday, Friday,
Buy stuff on Black Friday
Everybody’s looking forward to the deals (deals)
Black Friday, Friday,
Discounts for Black Friday
Everybody’s looking forward to the deals
Shopping and shopping and shopping and shopping
KACHING
Shopping and shopping and shopping and shopping
KACHING
Spend spend spend spend
Looking forward to the deals
[/CHORUS]

3:15 and cramming down the aisles
Runnin’ for things that I wanna buy
Spend Spend, I gotta spend
You know how it is
I got this, you got none
My taser’s by my right, yea!
I got this you got none
Now you’re outta luck!
Sticking out the FRONT DOOR
Sticking out the SIDE DOOR
Gotta make my mind up, which line do I STAAAND?

[CHORUS]

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, yea
Today is Black Friday, Friday
We we we so excited
We so excited
We gonna blow a lotta dough today
Tomorrow is Saturday
And sunday comes afterward
I don’t want this morning to end

[RAP]

Yo, hey, I’m gonna freeze
So chilly in the fucking morning
In the crap tent
I’m freezin’ wheezin
Mass crowds, switchin’ lines
Wit’ a bbq on unto me
Passin by a hobo in front of me
Hey tick tock tick tock snooze and loose
check the time it’s Friday, it’s now 3:00
We gonna shop now, c’mon c’mon y’alll

[CHORUS 2X]

So…are you going out there tonight/tomorrow?

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged , , ,

Review: The Perils with Paper.li

Nov20
2011 1 Comment Written by James Dabbagian
Newspaper vendor, Paddington, London, February...

Image via Wikipedia

You’ve probably seen them on Twitter. Usually at midnight or at noon. Auotmated Tweets that look like this:

“The Social Media Daily is out!”

“The [SUBJECT NAME HERE] Daily is out”

“The Stupid Generic Crap Paper is out!”

Usually they’re also accompanied by a few replies to users as well, and those users usually thank them without realizing that they are AUTOMATED.

Yes, I speak of the perilous Paper.li. You’ve probably seen their dailies posted on Twitter accounts. You’ve probably even gotten a mention on some of them. Essentially, they take news from other people’s Twitter accounts, merge it into your own e-Paper, and mention contributors to it.

I had my doubts on how effective the service is, but I dediced to give it a try anyway. Being the satirical jerk I was, I originally named it the Stupid Generic Crap Paper, but after realizing it might not have been taken well, I instead elected to name it the “GREATEST PAPER EVER.”

Today, I have turned off Paper.li. I have realized it serves no purpose. Furthermore, it’s also borderine spam in my opinion. I like how it works to give others a voice in your account, but even that has its issues as indicated below:

  1. Irrelevant articles – So many people submit so much content to the Twitternet that gets picked up that Paper.li may not notice that it doesn’t fit the paper. For a newspaper on social media, “Social Cooking” is not the same as “Cooking with social media,” but it’s not that trained yet to do that.
  2. No mentions at all – A majority of my paper.lis had no mentions at all in them, thus in my opinion defeating the purpose of the service.
  3. No Rhyme or Reason – How exactly does an article get chosen to be in someone’s paper? What if you disagree with the content? What if the content turns out to be crap or wrong? You don’t really have a say in the content.
  4. No purpose – Ultimately, what’s the point? Just to have your own newspaper? YOU HAVE A BLOG AND A TWITTER ACCOUNT. THAT IS YOUR NEWSPAPER.
It’s great that everyone’s trying to be a content curator, but at the end of the day, nothing replaces having to do it all yourself, because then you have complete control. 

There’s much better ways to share content online.  Don’t let Paper.li clutter up your Twitter article with pointless spam. 

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Posted in Tool Review - Tagged , , ,

#bwechat – #BWELA Hangover Edition

Nov17
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Posted in Uncategorized

Nook Fights Fire: Nook Tablet VS Kindle Fire

Nov07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Some time ago, I posted about Amazon’s Kindle fire and compared it to the NOOK Color. Well, now Barnes and Noble has upped the ante. Today, they released the Nook Tablet, which clearly was aimed at fighting the Fire. However, let’s take a look and see just exactly how they compare.

Features common to both devices:

  • Both have Dual-core processors
  • Both have 7-inch screens capable of producing 16 million colors in HD
  • Both have Wi-Fi only connections
  • Both can access the Internet
  • Both are based on Android and can download apps to expand usage
  • Both have access to magazines, newspapers and books with a generous trial
And now the differences, again presented in a handy table form:
NOOK TabletKindle Fire
Price$249$199
Memory16 GB RAM, Expandable with microSD Card8 GB RAM, access to cloud storage
Battery11.5 hours reading, 9 hours watching video (Both with wireless off)8 Hours of reading time, 7.5 watching video (Also with wireless off)
Charging timeApproximately 3 hoursApproximately 4 hours
Preloaded Apps“Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora® internet radio, Chess, Crossword, Sudoku, Media Gallery, NOOK Friends™, Email”Unknown, however users have access to Amazon marketplace and one paid app a day downloaded for free.
ConnectivityWi-Fi, Free access at Barnes & Noble storesWi-Fi
SoundStereo Jack, Microphone, speakersStereo jack and speakers
Weight14.1 ounces14.6 ounces

The winner here is a little mixed. In fact, I can’t decide. The Nook has the upper hand in memory and hardware, but the Kindle has Amazon behind it, and has a cheaper price. Ergo, I leave it to you:

Which eBook reader is the best?

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