Music To My Ears!
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Thisguydoug is a self-confessed newbie to the Thirty Day Challenge….
I’ll let “thisguydoug” tell the story…
Hi all, I’m a newbie to the whole 30DC thing. I still don’t understand all the power of Twitter or even the right way to use it to my financial advantage (yet), but I thought I’d share something I found interesting.
I downloaded and installed Flock according to Ed’s videos, got the extensions, got Twhirl, started to blab a few random things on Twitter. Here in Idaho Falls, we have a horse racetrack called Sandy Downs, where sometimes they have outdoor concerts. Friday night on the 10PM news, they announce that rock legend Alice Cooper is going to perform at Sandy Downs on August 13 with tickets going on sale June 21. I’m a big fan of his music and showmanship, so I Twitter something about it, not thinking much about it.
(Yeah, I’m thinking most of Twitter is comments like “I like soup” or “took a nap” or something equally brain numbing.)
Today, I tell a friend of mine at work about this upcoming Alice Cooper concert, but I can’t find this tour date listed anywhere on the Interweb to confirm it. But my searches in Google bring up MY FREAKIN’ TWITTER ABOUT IT!!!
As of right now, 6:37PM Monday June 16 2008, if you Google “alice cooper” “sandy downs” as one search term (yeah, I put the quotes around each phrase just for my search earlier, kind of a hybrid exact search), it comes in at #1. If I just type in the four words, alice cooper sandy downs, with no quotes, it shows up at #4 on Google.
It might have showed up sooner. I don’t know when exactly. But I Twittered this stupid concert comment on a Saturday, and it’s at #1 and #4 on Google two days later.
Now what if I had put an affiliate link in there to sell tickets to the concert (or something similar)?
Are you starting to see the power of this? I sure am!
(Well, Flock me ’til I Twitter.)
ThisGuyDoug
Twitter / thisguydoug (http://twitter.com/thisguydoug)
I downloaded and installed Flock according to Ed’s videos, got the extensions, got Twhirl, started to blab a few random things on Twitter. Here in Idaho Falls, we have a horse racetrack called Sandy Downs, where sometimes they have outdoor concerts. Friday night on the 10PM news, they announce that rock legend Alice Cooper is going to perform at Sandy Downs on August 13 with tickets going on sale June 21. I’m a big fan of his music and showmanship, so I Twitter something about it, not thinking much about it.
(Yeah, I’m thinking most of Twitter is comments like “I like soup” or “took a nap” or something equally brain numbing.)
Today, I tell a friend of mine at work about this upcoming Alice Cooper concert, but I can’t find this tour date listed anywhere on the Interweb to confirm it. But my searches in Google bring up MY FREAKIN’ TWITTER ABOUT IT!!!
As of right now, 6:37PM Monday June 16 2008, if you Google “alice cooper” “sandy downs” as one search term (yeah, I put the quotes around each phrase just for my search earlier, kind of a hybrid exact search), it comes in at #1. If I just type in the four words, alice cooper sandy downs, with no quotes, it shows up at #4 on Google.
It might have showed up sooner. I don’t know when exactly. But I Twittered this stupid concert comment on a Saturday, and it’s at #1 and #4 on Google two days later.
Now what if I had put an affiliate link in there to sell tickets to the concert (or something similar)?
Are you starting to see the power of this? I sure am!
(Well, Flock me ’til I Twitter.)
ThisGuyDoug
Twitter / thisguydoug (http://twitter.com/thisguydoug)
And remember - you have not seen anything yet!!
Ed
Tags: ThirtyDay Challenge, Twitter
June 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
LMAO……still LMAO……..LOL………Great Great story….and hugely interesting, WOW….going to have to get you on my Twitter list to follow…..Thank you both for sharing…..still LMAO
June 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Very cool…
Shannon
p.s. loved the quote: “Well, Flock me ’til I Twitter.” lol
June 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Thanks thisguydoug I didn’t get it until just now. Idaho Rocks! Thanks for your input. I think you will be the one winning the thirty day challenge this year!!
Pamela
June 16th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
lol, you’re tweet has been bumped off #1 Google by this blog post.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
All your tweet are belonging to us
June 17th, 2008 at 3:15 am
thats amazing, and thanks for posting it up here. As a newbie to the 30 DC myself it has answered a few questions i had and also builds confidence in why I am blindly adding so many applications and spending time using them
Well done thisguydoug, go and post about it every day and find some affiliate links to put up there!
Wayne
June 17th, 2008 at 4:08 am
“alice cooper” “sandy downs” has 13 results on google. So ranking for it should be extremely easy. I don’t see the big news in this.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:13 am
@Koen A veteran would not be surprised by this - but can you remember the first time you got ranked in google for something you did - I can - vivdly. it’s aways a cool moment and something to be celebrated!
Ed
June 17th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Considering thisguydoug is a newbie, this was great. I’m sure some previous 30 Day Challengers have not achieved this (which is ok).
“How do you eat an elephant? — A bite at a time”
Yeah for thisguydoug!
June 17th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I was VERY surprised when this happened. And, admittedly, I’m fairly certain that I was the only one looking for those specific search terms at that particular time. Not much of a target market, and “ranking for it should be extremely easy.” Agreed.
Yeah, put any two random items together, slap it up on a web page or forum post somewhere, search for them, and tell everyone you ranked highly for something THAT NO ONE IS SEARCHING FOR . It certainly looks like that’s what I did. Anybody can do that, for whatever terms they want. Big deal. Not news to anybody. Who cares?
My point was that I now understand that Google follows this stuff. Why should it be there in Google’s search results page at all? It shouldn’t. I wasn’t even trying to rank for anything. Honestly, I had forgotten I’d even posted that on Twitter when I saw it on the results page.
But what if I had put a little thought and some basic keyword research into a Twitter post? Maybe use some keywords a hungry market is searching for, provide something of value in a link, and get some free targeted traffic out of it.
Now I see that, with just a little forethought and a few carefully chosen keywords, I think it’s possible to rank on Google with nothing more than a well-worded Twitter post. Maybe only for a short time, maybe it won’t even be there ten minutes from now. I don’t know.
I didn’t even think that was possible. I’ve failed with blogs, affiliate marketing, traffic exchanges, lost money on pay-per-click, and any number of IM products I’ve bought. I almost approached the $100 threshold in AdSense after more than two years, and just before I got there, Google canceled my AdSense account last month because I was “a risk to their advertisers.” I haven’t made anything online. I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t know how to do it right. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone follow my advice for anything.
I still think upwards of 99% of what I see on Twitter is useless nonsense. But I’m starting to realize that maybe I shouldn’t be so irritated that I can’t see the forest because this one stupid tree is in my way.
ThisGuyDoug
P.S. I like soup.
P.P.S. Took a nap.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
The truth of the matter is that yes, you could probably type Alice Cooper Sandy Downs on just about any web page and rank in the top 3 for that phrase because there is zero competition, so “monetizing” that ranking would make you exactly zero dollars. It is also key to notice that your listing is no longer in the search engines at all.
***BUT*** it’s the realization that you can rank fast for these lower competition items that is the core of the 30 Day Challenge (at least it was last year) and figuring this out is the first step into becoming a real internet marketer.
So in that regard, congrats on seeing the light! it’s a long road ahead and Ed Dale is the guy to lead you… listen to ever word that guy says. Seriously!
June 17th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Flock on, Doug!
That is awesome!
June 17th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Yeah but N O W, this blog is right at the top for “Alice Cooper” and “Sandy Downs” and the Twitter is second. Which also shows you the innocent power your friends have to create the buzz to keep you up there for long enough for others to find you too….
This story was reallly helpful!!!!
By the way though… I started a blog on wordpress and switched it over to blogspot because I liked the colored fonts etc. better… but now I see that it doesn’t have the same nice stats and clicks per entries that wordpress had. harumph!
PLEASE help walk us newbies through some of the little details we may be missing!! Thanks!!!!!!
June 17th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Wow - Ed, I’m starting to realise how good you are at what you do!!!! Just googled Alice Cooper Sandy Downs and guess what - your posting with the TDC website popped up at number 1. You are the master of what you do - I am in awe and I await this years challenge with baited breath!!!!
June 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Ed is absolutely right - the feeling of getting ranked for the very first time is an absolutely fantastic feeling. My first YouTube video started out on the keyword search as on … around the bottom of the fifth page. But through social bookmarking and Ed’s other techniques, I’ve managed to get it #1 (for the main keyword search) on Google Video and #3 on Youtube.
Even though it was a small niche (the Chinese tourist attraction “Hainan Island”) with only 240 total results on youtube, it was still great. It’s encouraged me to keep trying.
I’m looking forward to the 30DC this August! Thanks for everything, Ed.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:32 am
FAB! Thanks for posting this and letting us see a bit about how further twitter could work.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
THIS is what finally convinced me to get started with Twitter.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Wow I just thought it was a good little story made me laugh, with a little lesson and had a nice ending……:-)…Do I have to get all serious…..:-)….?
Oh and Heather, ED is good no doubt about it, but don’t tell him……..:-)
June 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Thanks thisguydoug…I am a true newbie, I started the TDC last year and got to the point where I had to write stuff. Eeekkk, panic set in and I ran away with my tail between my legs. I don’t know anything about anything to do with internet marketing at this point. I’ve seen a bunch of terms like pay per click, rankings, etc and know that at some point I will have to write stuff but I don’t have a clue beyond a very fundamental understanding. I, like you, had no idea why I should be using Twitter or any of the other so called “tools”.
This was a great post for me because it helped me “see the light”…whooeee! I had the same question as you…why would anyone want to know what the heck I am doing right now and the same thoughts about the posts…so what if you are having soup! Besides, I am a private person and wasn’t feeling all that comfortable about sharing what I am doing…but it does make me feel like a bit of a celebrity when someone actually messages me…lol.
I am also feeling a bit of a loss at times because it seems to me that everyone is so far beyond my level. I am, however, taking it one step at a time and listening to what Ed says. I am hoping, with the help of Ed and his cohorts and everyone who posts helpful stuff like yours that I will, in time, come to the end of the tunnel and hopefully the beginning of an online business.
Thanks again for the post…it was a great eye opener for me.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Congrats, thisguydoug. I also saw some Twitter post rank well in the serps before, but I thought that was just some quirk and won’t last or has no value at all. I think you’ve presented some interesting insights on the possibilities of what can be done in Twitter. Your post, btw, is still at no.8 in Google, from my location.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:53 am
I’m back to see what nuggets I can pick up this year
July 1st, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hi
I think that Koen and many others missed something huge.
It’s true that it’s dead easy to rank number 1 if your entire competition is 19 (”alice cooper” “sandy downs”)
BUT - if you type it without the “” the competition is 426,000 and thisguydoug is ranked no.6 without any work done.
Thisguydoug , although it’s very exciting to see your post on the first page of google, I think you made much more than this, as being raned 6 among 426K is not easy.
Great work and thanks for sharing!
July 4th, 2008 at 5:08 am
I didnt get the why we were using twitter at all as I didnt know anybody on it, and thought the only reason was to follow ed and the dan and after time build contacts and follow each others thoughts, It didnt even occour to me that twitter chat gets indexed. I think thats fantastic just wow even with a small amount of lime light thats a very powerful tool. thanks for bringing this to light.
July 12th, 2008 at 1:35 am
I am completely new to this stuff and am totally intrigued by the ThirtyDayChallenge. I have been trying to follow along with stuff though Ive started a bit late (yesterday) Im kind of confused as to when videos come out or what time the shows broadcast. If anyone can help I’d appreciate it.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:00 am
“twitter spam” WITH quotes returns 39,000 pages. How is my canary-flavored-meat-product niche ever going to compete with that?
August 6th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Great job. I am also a newbie, just started the today. I am starting to see how all this works. Thanks for sharing.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Just got in the #30dc and I needed this bit of encouragement today. I’m still plowing through pre-season and it’s nice to feel like I am doing the right thing. Thanks for sharing.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:31 am
It seems that I was short changing Twitter. John Chow uses it all the time and I get much material from him. He knows technology, blogging and marketing. When the rest of the fog clears, wow! I really didn’t understand why Twitter was so important. Lets just say I am so new at this that it all looks very mysterious at this point.
Thank you all for your posts and for the little bit of daylight I am beginning to see. I am very new at this and still on day 5 of pre-season so I don’t even have my running shoes on yet. Thank you everyone.
Alice Cooper, Sandy Downs, and thisguydoug, I owe you!