Using API’s for Fun and Profit

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So every major software platform out there has an API. I’m not just talking about “social media” stuff here. I’m talking about all software, be it: project management, Google Places,  your affiliate network, or any one of the major pay per click players. All of those platforms will usually just give you access to all or a portion of their data programmatically. No site scraping needed.

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a programmer to do crazy stuff with other peoples’ APIs. Sure, being a programmer helps, but coming up with really cool ideas is what its really all about.

You don’t have to know much to go somewhere like Yahoo! and checkout the API Console and start to get some ideas. Just poke around and see what kinds of information you can get. The ideas will start flowing.

The real power you get is when you start combining the APIs of different platforms to create new and exciting things. What if you used the Foursquare API for location based services and checkins in combination with the Facebook API to find all of the single chicks where ever you’re planning on going drinking tonight. Yeah. It can get down right creepy (or fun, depending on which party you are).

So let’s make some profit.

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C’mon, get your PPC campaign right.

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I’ve had discussions with dozens of different people about their PPC campaigns, and almost everyone tells me that it “just doesn’t work”. That’s because you’re doing it wrong, not because it’s a bad place to advertise. PPC is valuable – probably more so than any other form of advertising you could do. Why? Because you can track it.

I’m not talking to those of you out there that have PPC down to a science. You don’t need to read this. This is for the casual business owner, who thought it’d be a good idea to advertise on Google or Facebook. Five figures later, you have a sour taste in your mouth and you don’t think it worked. The problem wasn’t the ads. It was how you managed them.

If you’re new to PPC, you might get some value out of this as well, so read on.

There are three things you absolutely need to do in order to be successful at PPC:

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Create iPhone Apps with jQTouch

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What is it?

jQTouch is a library for jQuery that has been optimized for iPhone and other mobile devices. It makes it really easy to make the jump from being a web developer to being a mobile app developer. I don’t really know Objective C and I really didn’t want to deal with learning it, but I wanted to make an app for my phone – just to build something quick to keep track of some stuff. I quickly found that jQTouch is the best platform for doing that if you’re a web developer.

There is something really cool about mobile app development on the web versus in an app store. There are some pretty distinct drawbacks too.  Here’s what I’ve found so far:

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FAQ: What are follow and nofollow links?

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Follow and nofollow links refer to a tag that can be placed in the linking (anchor) code of your website.  It usually comes in the form of the “rel” attribute.  It looks something like this:

<a href=”http://www.jtgraphic.net” rel=”nofollow”>jtGraphicn.net</a>

Why are these attributes on links important?  They help organize the internet and give relevancy to websites that deserve it and don’t give relevancy to websites that don’t.  Google and other search engines use this information in the “rel” attribute to tabulate the score, or authority, that one website gives to another.

Getting a large number of follow links increases the relevancy of your website for the keywords relevant to the link.  Usually the “anchor text” or text between the <a>…</a> tags is what most directly contributes to keyword relevancy.  When websites build in areas where users can submit their own information, they tend to use nofollow links to reduce spam related link follows.  Simply neglecting to include a “rel” attribute makes a link a “follow” link.

You can get follow links many places, including top comments areas on blogs, guest posting, press coverage, and article submission sites.  There are a ton of other places to get follow links as well.  What do you find is the best way to get follow links?

The Smart Way to Start a Project

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Your next amazing idea doesn’t need to be a big project with a ton of investment. Sometimes people jump directly to the website building part of their next big venture, when really that’s more like a mid-point. You can build an amazing website that costs thousands of dollars and looks pretty, but if it doesn’t attract any users or doesn’t convert, you’ve wasted your time and money.

Have a plan.

People skip the planning stage too often. It’s hard work and they don’t want to do it. They just want to jump right in. A plan doesn’t need to be some 30 page business plan, but it should fill a certain amount of criteria. It also doesn’t have to be that detailed. It should answer the 5WH criteria at least:

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How to Build and Drive Website Traffic

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Probably the single biggest question about building websites I get is how to drive traffic. I’m not saying it’s the most important part, but it’s definitely key. Content is king, sure, but if you don’t have traffic, you could be pouring your heart out to a wall. Really what every website wants is quality, converting, long-lasting traffic in high volumes.

There are essentially four ways to drive to your website, which are: search engines, direct traffic, referral links, and your ‘list’. I’m going to teach you how each of those things work on an intermediate level and what their value is compared to the others. I’ll be covering some of the more detailed finer points of these traffic sources in the future. This is basically a primer for what is to come.

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How to Build Content for a New Blog

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Building content for a new blog can be extremely formulaic.  I find it’s actually easiest to get the first ten to fifteen articles built before writing starts to get more challenging.  That’s because after you write the first set of articles, you need to start getting creative.  I’m going to give you a blueprint for building those initial articles and we’ll cover on-going content in a later post.

Creating the Initial Content

This really depends a lot on your niche, but I’ll try to give you the building blocks for building that initial push towards bringing your blog online.  The core step to launching your blog is building the initial content.  I say ‘building’ instead of writing, because this is extremely formulaic in nature.  The goal is to create ten articles to cover your first month of content release, so you don’t want to throw all of your knowledge into one article.  Always hold back a little bit of information to give them later.  That will keep them coming back AND give you material for later.  Also make sure your posts are not more than 700 words.  People tend to get bored if they’re much longer than that.  If you have a post that is over that, consider breaking it into multiple postings.

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Affiliate Summit East 2010

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I went to Affiliate Summit West 2009 and loved it, so it was time to go again. I scored a pass from John Chow, but quickly realized I had an extra, so I ended up giving it to a buddy of mine who doesn’t even own a computer. I was apprehensive, but I knew everyone was nice and would accept him even though he’s a techno-turtle.

Friday

As many of you know, I live in Vermont, so the Hilton in NYC is about a 5.5 hour drive. I left with Charles from Perfectly Grand because I convinced him to go and check out this “affiliate thing”. We left Vermont around 2PM and ended up reaching New York City around 7:30.

Saturday

The Audience Conference was amazing. The small feel of the whole thing made it really easy to approach the big kids in the industry and start a conversation. Talking with people like Jason Calacanis or Chris Brogan was really great. It’s an awesome feeling when Jason can pick me out of a group and ask what I do. Brogan did a great speech. I think he was funnier than some of the comedians. Great job Chris. We all really owe Loren Feldman a standing ovation.

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Series: 7 Weeks to a Successful Blog: Week 6

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Get attention and be successful.

I recently read Jim Kukral’s book ‘Attention: This Book Will Make You Money‘ and loved it. I gave away a copy of the book to a reader yesterday. He really sums up what a lot of other people say about websites in a different way. Most other people discuss how traffic is the driving source behind revenue on a website and they’re totally correct. Some people say that in order to drive traffic, content is king and marketing is the queen (I actually think that was Gary Vaynerchuk, but I’m not sure). What it really comes down to is attention. If you want attention, build a good product. If you don’t have a product (or a good product), you can make up for that and get attention by doing something out of the ordinary or outrageous. Just don’t go after negative attention.

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Series: 7 Weeks to a Successful Blog: Week 5

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Stay focused and have a backup plan.

During the last three weeks, I’ve been going to trade shows, getting sick, and having family issues. On top of all of that, I started two additional business ventures, and started dumping more time into an existing one I was already working on that. Needless to say, my time has been limited and I’ve been slacking on posting to my case study blog, as well as this one.

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