If you are a Pay Per Click marketer, an important step in planning your campaign is to analyze the existing PPC ads for your keywords. You also need to decide which countries you want your ad to appear on.

Herein lies a problem, when you do a simple Google search using your intended keywords, you will only see PPC advertisers for your country.

For example, if you are in the US, you will only see PPC ads that have selected “US” as one of the countries where the ad will appear. So how will you know how your ad will appear in say…the UK?

The Google Global Firefox Addon allows you to mimic a search done from specific countries. Let me use an example.

Let’s say I want to advertise for the keywords “fuel cell”. If I type in “fuel cell” and search. Google will display the ads for US. This shows that the this keyword phrase is very very competitive and quite likely to be quite expensive.

Now with the Google Global Firefox Addon, I can right click and select “UK” for example, a new window will open up with the search results page displaying exactly the way it would if I were doing the search from the UK.

In this example, I can see that although still very competitive, there are less advertisers for the keyword phrase “fuel cell” and hence its very likely that the minimum bid on this phrase will be much lower for a UK only campaign.

There are many other uses for this great little addon and I’m sure you will agree that its a very valuable tool for a PPC marketer.

Got any other essential Firefox Addons to recommend? Post it in the comments below. :)

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I’ve had an excellent start to the week so far in my online business. Why? Not because of great sales this month (it was a good month too by the way) but I feel just so good this week that I’ve managed to help others succeed online on a personal level too!

Well if you look at my blog posts last month, I was promoting a few affiliate marketing courses. One by Chris X and another by Eric Rockefeller. In my opinion, these are really awesome products because they teach SPECIFIC strategies to make money as an affiliate on Clickbank as opposed to many other courses that teach a very GENERAL approach to making money online.

I’ve helped Chris and Eric sell quite a few copies of their product. However, soon after, I received emails from some of the people who bought the product through my affiliate link that they were struggling to make it work. I realized that as good as the information were in these courses, people who are new to affiliate marketing, Google Adwords and Clickbank always seem to struggle a little in the beginning. And if you think about it, this is perfectly normal. You have to learn to crawl before you walk. Then learn to walk before you run right? Some were even on the edge of giving up.

So I decided to take time off from my other projects in order to personally help some of these new affiliates. After all, my mission when I chose this particular market niche is to make money by helping others make more money online.

Some of them were openly skeptical about ever being able to make money online. That’s the toughest challenge - changing the mindset. Steps to make money online = easy. Helping people believe they can do it = hard!

I have to admit, there were times when even I wanted to quit helping because it was just taking so much time and energy. 90% of the time, my advice is, “read the manual do the steps”. A very common experience is that people who are new to online marketing gets so overwhelmed with fear and doubt that it paralyzes them and hence no action is taken. My so called “mentoring” is asking the question “what does it say in the manual?” followed by the prescription “Ok, go do that”. Simple.

I am so glad that this week, our joint persistence finally paid off. I received emails that after a few unsuccessful attempts, their campaigns finally started to convert. The code has been cracked and with it the old beliefs too and now the sales are coming in. Here are some of the testimonials and their stories (click the “play” symbol to listen):

Joel Huenink, Nebraska

Jane Shimmin, Colorado

The lesson here is simple. I believe that ANYONE can really make a full time living online. However, you have to expect that there will be a learning curve. You will need to get out of your comfort zone and overcome fears. You will need to learn by doing and that often means learning by making mistakes. But is it worth it in the end? You can bet on it.

In a period of rising inflation and slower economic growth, there’s nothing better than having multiple sources of business income.

In the end, its all about how much you believe in yourself and whether you are willing to pay the price of going through the learning process to achieve your goals. To me, my greatest joy is being able to work from home at my own time doing what I enjoy. And now, being able to pass that ability on to others too. I truly hope this post is helpful to those of you who have thought about making money online but haven’t yet taken the plunge. :)

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If you use Facebook and Twitter, you’ll probably want your Facebook status to be automatically updated every time you post an entry to Twitter. This is a good idea because there are many more third-pary applications to update your Twitter status. This makes it extremely convenient to use. For example you could use “Twhirl” on your desktop or you could use “Twitterific” on your iPhone or mobile device to Twitter. I also prefer using Twitter as the pictures and web links are directly hyperlinked so you can just click on them.

So how do you link the two together? Fortunately, its extremely easy.

Step 1: First go to http://www.facebook.com/apps and add the Twitter application to your Facebook page.

Step 2: Click on the option below the Twitter logo that says “Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status?”

Step 3: Authorize the application by clicking on “Authorize Twitter”

And that’s it! Now, every time you Twitter, your Facebook Status will also be updated.

Add me to your Twitter friends list here:

http://www.twitter.com/brianwong

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I am on a campaign to get all my friends on Twitter and to add as many friends as possible to my Twitter list. Add me to your list here:
www.twitter.com/brianwong

When I first came to know about Twitter, I thought “who would want to use this?”. I mean it only allowed you to post 140 characters and to be honest, I just could not understand what Twitter was about. Time to eat my words.

Twitter is awesome! And I think I am addicted. Especially since I can now Twit on my iPhone. Some of you reading this post and hearing about Twitter for the first time are going to think the same thing as I did. But let me tell you to give Twitter a chance. The POWER in this Web 2.0 service is in its simplicity and also because it has an API (application programming interface) which allows other services to integrate with it. There are already hundreds of services that are now integrated with Twitter. The implications for this is enormous.

I will be putting together some information about how to use Twitter effectively over the next couple of weeks if you are new or not using it to its full potential yet. But in a nutshell, let me just give you the basics about Twitter.

Twitter is just like a very very simple version of Facebook where you connect with friends. Once connected, here’s what you can do:

1. Twitter allows you to send short messages from your computer, handphone or automatically - let say every time you update an RSS feed.
2. Twitter allows you to receive or display your short messages on virtually anywhere online including your Twitter sitebut also your Facebook page, Blog or anywhere you can paste html code.
3. Your message can include a link to a photo (using Twitpic), webpage and includes your location from where you are sending the message from.
4. You can send a message to everyone on your friend list, privately to one person or publicly but directed to one person only.

Here are some simple examples of practical applications of Twitter:

1. Say you and your friends are connected on Twitter and enabled receiving Twitter messages on your mobile phone. If you want to send a mass text message to all your friends at once, you can do it with Twitter on your phone. That’s not new. But if you wanted to include a photo you took on your phone and display where you are by location, that can be done easily with Twitter. With a data plan for your mobile phone, you can save a lot on text messages by just using this web service. If you are still using a non-3G phone, Twitter still works using the SMS system.

2. If you have all your friends linked on Twitter, there are 3-rd party applications that can automatically send Twitter reminder for say birtydays and events. You can also have Twitter messages sent when an event is triggered e.g. stock price, new blog post (I’m currently adding that to my blog). Now get this for a whacky application -there is a device you can stick into the soil of your household pot plant that sends you a Twitter message if the soil water level is low! Imagine now that your house plants can talk to you via Twitter!

3. You’re at a social event and you’re having a great time. You do a real time update on your phone saying “having a blast at this party in —–”. If one of your friends is also at the event, they will receive the Twitter message and contact you directly saying “hey, I’m here too”. And now you are connected. If you are in a crowded arena - say a concert, you can take a real time photo of where you are and Twitter it to your friend. They can then try and find you based on the Twitter message.

Listen, I can’t think up all the possible iterations of when Twitter might be useful to you but all I can say is that as more and more people use it and as more and more developers add more applications, it will become increasingly useful to you. You can read more about the possible applications here:

http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Mashups

Now the BEST reason to get Twitter is because we are only beginning to see more and more innovative applications of this device. Get used to using it now so that you are familiar with it.

Now sign up for Twitter and/ or add me to your list of friends:

www.twitter.com/brianwong

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I had lunch with a really good friend yesterday who is also in the Internet industry and we talked a lot of about the future of the “new media”. Despite us both being very involved in the Internet and with Web 2.0 projects we agree that we are not even scratching the surface of what will soon become “the new media” in our society.
I would say that I am an early adopter of new technology personally but I feel really behind when it comes to fully utilizing all the amazing Web 2.0 tools out there today. If I feel this way, I’m sure people who have NOT even begun utilizing some of the tools below will find it hard to integrate them into their lifestyle in the future. I also believe that in the “information age” when the value in our society is determined by the quality of the information you have, anyone who wants to be successful in the future will NEED to adopt “new media” in their day to day routine. So my advice to you if you are reading this is to start now to embrace new media technology.

Here’s a round up of the top 6 key changes or features of the “new media” that we need to be aware of:

1. Democratic News As They Happen:
News in the old media is dictated by the large networks. They decide what IS news and what is not. In the “new media”, we would CHOOSE what is news to us by choosing news sources and being actively involved in nominating what is newsworthy. For example, with Digg.com you can get “news” items posted by individuals and ranked by Digg users themselves so its a kind of democratic news service. The more popular news floats to the top of the page. I actually don’t watch news on TV or even read newspapers anymore. I get all my news via RSS feeds and also via video podcasts to my iTunes account. All free. Also, with mobile devices that can record video and directly upload them to sites like YouTube, you will find a lot of instant news that will break before it reaches mainstream news channels.

2. Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
Surprisingly, a lot of people still do not know what RSS is and what it does. To me, RSS will become an indispensable tool because of the unfathomable growth rate of information. You can no longer read from one source (like traditional newspapers) but you will need to ready from multiple sources. RSS is the KEY standard to summarizing content into a format that can be read on news aggregators whether through your computer or through your mobile device. I use my Apple Mail as my default RSS reader on my computer. Other popular readers include NetNewsGator or Google’s RSS reader called Google Reader. This way, you can get a up to the minute digest of headlines from all your selected news source. You can then read from dozens of sites in a few glances and investigate further if a news item is of particular interest.

3. Going Mobile
My iPod Touch is the first device to bridge the gap between a mobile device and my computer. With my iPod Touch, I find that for the first time, I can actually not turn on my computer to satisfy my information addiction! For example here’s what I do with my iPod Touch - a quick search on the web, read RSS news updates, connect with my social networks (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace), update my blog, check my emails, get location/ map information, use the Bible, quick calculation, share a photo or video, watch a movie on YouTube and the list goes on and on. To think that this device was originally just for listening to music? This is truly the way of the future when all your daily communication and information needs are done through a portable mobile device.

4. New Social Communication Structure
I find today that I am closer to friends that I connect with online via FaceBook chat, or Skype as opposed to people I meet face to face! Is this a bad thing? Well I don’t know. The feeling of connection when you share a photo that is tagged with the friends you know and love seems to provide a very strong bonding feeling for me. Sometimes, stronger than the event itself when the photo was taken. Is it just me? I think as our lives get busier and friends becoming more global (I have friends who are on different continents each week!), electronic social networking becomes a truly VALUABLE tool in preserving that friendship and bond.

Also, I find that its now easier then ever to communicate with ALL of my friends at once. It the past, if you would speak with friends on the phone, you could probably maintain that kind of relationship with about 5 people. Now, with Facebook and Twitter for example, I find that I am reaching out to HUNDREDS of friends at once all over the world.

5. Location Based Services
One of the next big trends is the new media is being able to feed location based information to you on demand. I’m not just talking about GPS. For example, if you send a Twitter update today, you can also specify your location. If your Twitter friends have enabled updates via their phones for example, you will be able to tell when some of your friends are in the same vicinity to you. Another example, if you select “Starbucks” on Google Maps on your iPhone, you will then see all the nearest Starbucks to where you are. In the future, you could attend a function or watch a movie and then say “are any of my friends here” on your social network device and it will tell you which of your friends are there. Better yet, you can even specify what kind of people you want to meet and your device could connect you together. I know this may seem “weird” and kinda scary but I think it will become the norm in the future.

6. Entertainment 2.0 - Beyond YouTube
New services like www.ustream.tv allows you to watch live user created content AND interact with other viewers at the same time. As information becomes all consuming, our attention span drops significantly. People in the future will grow to prefer absorbing media content in 3 minute to 5 minute shots rather than 30 mins to 1 hour slots on TV today. Also, raw and quirky content created by mobile phone cameras or homemade camera’s will make more interesting content to the masses than the cookie cutter type content that is saturating traditional entertainment sources. People will also rely on Web 2.0 services to recommend content. For example, if you like a video, the system will also display related or similar content for you to choose from. Also, social networks allow you friends to recommend what is “entertaining” to you via video posts. Assuming if you are friends you will have similar interests.

Ok, having said all that - “new media” me up here:

YouTube - www.youtube.com/brianwong73
Twitter - www.twitter.com/brianwong
FaceBook - www.profile.to/brianwong73
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/brianliveswithpassion
Pownce - http://pownce.com/brianwong73/
My RSS Feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/brianwong/ZlEi
MyBlogLog Community - http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/BrianWong/
Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwong73/
Skype: brianotg
MSN Messenger: cloudn@hotmail.com
Blink List - http://www.blinklist.com/brianwong/
StumbleUpon - http://brian-wong.stumbleupon.com/
Technorati - http://technorati.com/people/technorati/brianwong
Blog Catalog - http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/brianwong

This is a list of accounts that I am most active with. I signed up with a LOT of services that I just don’t have time to maintain properly.

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