Tuesday, November 1, 2011

SMS Cash!! Simple as that; Twitter Tip Tuesday


Cashtexts.com is a marketing company that uses text message marketing to go direct to the consumer. The are obviously building geo-targeted lists where advertisers can come in and advertise their product or service without having to build their list on their own or do not have the time or patience to learn how to use text message marketing.


The ingenious part to this is cashtexts.com is paying their subscribers to build the list for them through a network marketing model. For the NON-BELIEVERS of network marketing, you can stop reading now. For the Believers or the interested parties, this is a fantastic opportunity just to earn income from what you're already doing 20 times a day. Checking & sending text messages! Really!!!!???? FREE $$$







As with twitter and other social media platforms, people are always searching and looking for easy ways to make money on-line. Especially in this economy. Most marketers have probably heard of Magpie, Sponsored Tweets, or Revtweets where people are paid per click or sale on the ad that is posted to their twitter account(s).


These advertisements range in the amount one can be paid for joining these ad networks and there also dependent on how many followers you have to whether your signed up as a pro or basic affiliate.


As a marketing enthusiast I have learned to keep my options open to "value." It doesn't necessary matter the industry, but the way I personally look at it. If I'm already doing, using, or have a way to leverage what I'm already doing  or using and it's at a great price, in this case FREE. Then I look at it and say, "it's worth a try! What do I have to lose (besides time of course)." Others hold no value in FREE and that's fine too.


So when my buddy Norm sent me an e-mail a while back about earning $ to simply look at roughly 5 texts a day I really thought to myself that this could be just another time waster. When I actually signed up  and got the e-mail and watched the video I was pretty shocked when I started to do the math.


Most people, or I should say most negative people will look at it and say to themselves 'another one of those things' before they even learn a single thing about it or how it works. Admittedly, I really didn't need another thing on my plate.


When Robert Kiyosaki published The Business of the 21st Century, I was already confident that network marketing was going to grow by leaps and bounds. But I had NO idea of the places where I was going to see the industry grow by leaps and bounds. Just when I think I have seen everything Network Marketing has to offer, I'm surprised yet again by what turns up.


Cashtexts.com is a marketing company that uses text message marketing to go direct to the consumer. The are obviously building geo-targeted lists where advertisers can come in and advertise their product or service without having to build their list on their own or do not have the time or patience to learn how to use text message marketing.


The ingenious part to this is cashtext.com is paying their subscribers to build the list for them through a network marketing model. This is a huge opportunity for those who looking to add a few hundred dollars a month to their income! For the NON-BELIEVERS of network marketing, you can stop reading now. For the Believers or the interested parties, this is a fantastic opportunity just to earn income from what you're already doing 20 times a day. Checking & sending text messages! Really!!!!???? FREE $$$


Here is your twitter tip Tuesday text the phrase cashtexts 4241 to the number 69302 


Now, you wont be making it rain over night. But here's an opportunity for the interested to really go out & put network marketing to  the test w/out any fear of rejection. Here's what I suggest. Make 1000 cards  with your text # here info about FREE $ opportunity and see all the negative Nancy's of the world turn down another opportunity while they text their friends about another scam they just saw. WHile you slowly build another income stream straight to your bank account!


I have already been singing the praises of the book Get Rich Click by Marc Ostrofsky. He has his own page on this blog :)  In  the book he says it's no longer a word of mouth society. He calls it a "world of mouse" society (ain't that the TRUTH!!).There is clearly NO SHORTAGE of opportunities out there to bring in additional income streams. Also in the book he goes to explain how mobile is one of the industries that has UNLIMITED growth potential. I threw that in because you won't believe me if I told you. Network marketing is a bonafide income stream and business model that has been around for over 100 years! Here's your opportunity to give it a chance... FREE of charge to read & send cash texts! It's as simple as that!






Text the phrase cashtexts 4241 to the number 69302 and follow or just scan the QR code.


Danny Fortes realizes the POWER and potential of text message marketing. He also LOVES connecting with new #tweeps!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Twitter Tuesday Social Snob!!

We always like to have our own space within social media. Certain boundaries, so to speak. Many tweeps  take offense to etiquette violations within social media. You don't have to look at your stream very long to come to this realization. 

Here we are in a world that projects instant gratification. Everything is fast food, 24 hours, instant coffee, drive thrus, we want it now mentality. We keep hearing all the social media hype, the "ROI"; people of all kinds using social media to connect like never before.

There's new people entering the space everyday, every hour, every minute, every second of the day. And that's a POWERful thing. There are social media services here one day and gone the next. The newbie enters the space often mis or under informed. It's like attending the pool party your friend invites you to, that's not his party. You get invited and he says, "the people who invited me said to tell EVERYONE." 

People just keep showing up to the party and before you know it, all the people who were at the party early are now not having as good of a time as they did when they were by themselves with their small group. People just keep showing up and jumping right into the pool having a good time . My question to the early arrivals, the social media snobs is; who said it was your party? 


There are social norms like a proper introduction, having a natural conversation, and building a relationship when you show up to a party you were invited to and knew better. But, if you had a big party but it wasn't at your house, it was in Times Square, would you really get annoyed if someone you did not invite showed up? Would you get irritated with all the guys on the sidewalk peddling everything from jewelry, glow sticks, and stuffed animals? Probably not.

I have noticed how many people get annoyed when you shoot them a link (I was guilty of this in the past) I was misinformed. It's even more hilarious to me when there are ads everywhere from your mail, tv, e-mails, the side of someone's car, at the intersection, on your receipts, and credit card statements. You know this is the short list. It's obvious we get bombarded with marketing messages ALL DAY LONG! It's completely acceptable in our society as a whole, in case you (the snob), haven't noticed.

I'm not gonna single out the "social media gurus, wanna be gurus, and social media snobs" who are getting ever so annoyed with all the social media "spam" entering the space but has also been there since the beginning (notice how I didn't use "their"). But seriously! What did you expect? Are you having a party where only the social elite of NYC can attend right in the middle of Times Square? 



You can get annoyed, irritated, frustrated, and tired of all the spam, solicitations, marketing messages, mlms, and offers that come across your streams or inboxes every single day.  But guess what? It's not your party, so stop your whining! 

Danny loves social media and is by no means an expert. He is still learning the hard way; by just jumping in!

If you like this post or dislike it, please share. If not I won't get offended. I'm not a snob.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Twitter Tip Tuesday Got Hack?

Have you ever been woken up by repeated text? It's like an alarm clock when it happens. I happen to crash at my buddies house last night and he said, I got a DM from you last night but you were already sleeping. But when it's late at night you're not at your peak performance level it's too much energy to think. So needless to say he didn't think twice about it. Me, I was in la la land.






Fast forward to this morning. I have a bunch of DMs (Direct Messages) and @replies instructing me to change my password. Obviously I took the time to do get that done because they all had been receiving spam in the form of DM from my account.  


But here's what he did find out. He noticed when he clicked on the link he was taken to a twitter log in screen. The problem was he later realized the url for the twitter home screen was spelled 'twitterlr.' Apparently, it was a screen capture page that looked exactly like the twitter home page except they take your information and hack your account. 


He had worked in IT for years and he explained that it's a password ID capture page then sends it off into a password file. He explained people in his industry had to learn how to build interfaces to capture this information as a test. Essentially a mimic'd layer that looked exactly like the twitter home page but took our IDs and passwords and placed them into a different file to  wreak havoc on everyone's morning!! Not very nice kids!!




A as one of my tweeps Jim messaged me and said, "someone is always trying to screw up a good thing." Ain't that the TRUTH!


Technology has so many great uses. Unfortunately, with the technology come very creative minds who use the POWER of these and other platforms to wreak havoc in our lives. In this case I just have to take the good with the bad and not give them any negative more negative energy other than frustration. Tomorrow it will all be forgotten. Unless someone doesn't check their twitter account until then. 




Danny LOVES twitter and many other social networking sites and truly apologizes for any inconveniences caused by having his account hacked. 



Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Twitter Tip Tuesday NO Junkies Please!

Where do you go when you need to fill your information bucket? When you have questions about places, how tos, and or the newest social media happenings? I'm sure you go straight to facebook right?

Here's a quick fill in exercise. Seek and so you shall ______? 

I remember being pretty naive about twitter, but with facebook seemingly changing weekly these days, I see twitter becoming even more popular. I've heard several grumblings about facebook's new changes. If you haven't heard about the changes yet, I'm sure you can ask someone who is constantly inviting you to play farmville. They'll get you caught up to speed or you can just get on twitter and search for the information yourself. I'd advise the latter (there's a pic below), you're more likely to get better articles than consulting a know-it-all, #imjustsayin ;)

Some pretty interesting feedback about all the new changes and I have already seen a small migration away from facebook. Some realize twitter has never been better positioned to reach more of the masses (credit facebook). That's obviously in my humble opinion. It will be interesting after all is forgotten in a week or two about all the facebook changes to see if this has some long term side effects either way. I do understand one thing, CHANGE is constant, especially when referring to facebook these days.

Here's a snapshot below of what some people are saying about the new facebook changes a long with some links to related articles.




When people ask about twitter, I like to think of it more as a Google meets facebook. You still have plenty of social interaction and can immediately connect with people from all of the world,  in  your city, and everywhere in between. When you need answers, where do you turn? For some, Google would be tops on that list. For me, large scale conversation and articles I go straight to twitter. If you suffer from S.A.D.D. (Socialmedia Attention Deficit Disorder) like me, I have just the site for you to search your brains out. Tweetgrid is one of my favorite sites to search twitter. I LOVE this site to be able to search up to 9 streams at 1 time. That's a POWER tool right there!! Time Leveraged twitter search baby!! It's quite the twitter fix and will lead to overuse!



For the newbie, I think a site like this can only accelerate one's learning curve. You can also perform most of the basic tweet functions right on tweetgrid's dashboard and even more. This tool is beyond cool! Power tweeting and search all right on 1 screen. Warning!! It May be tougher for the visually impaired. You'll see what I mean.


Be mindful of how much time you spend on tweetgrid. You can TRUTHfully spend hours searching the world only to realize a few hours went by as quick as it took you to read this article. You've been warned. Let me know if you find what you're looking for.


Danny Fortes is a social media enthusiast, network marketer, blogger, and currently a Poke the Box reader. You can connect with him on twitter @xdannyfortes or leave a comment below. He needs a fix ;)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Twitter Tip Tuesday; Scheduling Your Attention

Do you ever feel like there are days when just life gets in the way? When those days are here, is your first thought about what you need to post on facebook or twitter? If you're sick in bed with the flu that's one thing. Moving, traveling, or just wanting a day off to play on social media is a whole other ball of wax.

When we get sick we can't necessarily plan for certain events. When these things happen we generally call our boss, who more than likely we're afraid of, and take advantage of a sick day that we 'supposedly' earned or is a benefit to us. Or do we just welcome the sick day with child like enthusiasm as an escape from the proverbial same old same old? 


If I planted a seed and you just need a day off this I have a link at the bootton of the page with some tips and tactics on calling in sick.




In the world of social media we can always take a few days off and it seem like we never missed a beat or a day. Less of course your friends keep asking you questions and you're no longer able to respond their questions or posts in real time. But it's social media right? Who's really paying attention? ;)

For sick days or everyday, scheduling tweets has to be one of my favorite things about twitter. You can publish 60 percent of your content before you even decide to have coffee. That's pretty cool huh? We won't even get into the array of POWER tools that are out there because you may stop reading my post now and not get off your computer till your eyes are all but closing from exhaustion with all of the fun stuff that's out there. 


There's one such tool over there!



But here is what I will share, scheduling tweets for the newbie is something you will want to learn sooner rather than later and will relieve some of the pressure of worrying about when and what to post. Once you learn how to do this, you will LOVE twitter for sure if you don't already.


Timely is a great site to learn the very basics behind scheduling tweets and the bare basics of analytics (measurements). Tweets that get retweeted are measured along with your click throughs (how many times a link has been clicked). In a very short time I was learning about what types of tweets speak to people's interests and the basics of a term we hear all the time but may not necessarily know or understand. And that is 'Ad Copy' (marketers always use  cool terms). I realized pretty quickly that incorporating words like funny, fun, simple, or even asking questions were more apt to get clicked on then just saying...  here, check this out. As you can see from the pic below, now I have to work on my content #imjustsayin




If you're already famous on twitter, like Gary V, all you may have to do is say check this out, and about 300,000 raging social media lunatics will come running just after he hit the tweet button. Me, I have to usually do or say something controversial just to get a click or a retweet (don't know if you have been following long or not to know the TRUTH about my controversial episode). At least using timely, I'll know how many times my link was clicked. It's social media right? I guess you are paying attention.


Danny Fortes is a voracious book reader and and gives tips that 90% of people on social media already know (duh). That means he's a 10%-er and truly cares about the lost social media newbies.


Here's that link on how to get your next social media play day off! How to call in sick  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


If you thought this post was somewhat entertaining, please take another second to click at least 1 of those buttons if you got value in how to call in sick. Today's post is a 2 for 1 ;)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Twitter Tip Tuesday; Some Do's Some Don'ts

If you LOVE Twitter like I do you already know twitter streams run deep! Tweeting for the newbie always comes with streams of questions. Most of them being internal. At least I think so because of my own experience with twitter. How often do I or should I tweet? What do I tweet about? Am I tweeting right? Well,  that all depends. If you're a twitter newbie and just trying to get your footing, you should have a 'plan' or better yet ask yourself is there an end result? If you do not have a direction (I didn't for the longest time!) , do not have an end result you do not know what that direction is yet. Then just  tweet about what interests you in your daily life. There are certainly some do's and don'ts when it comes to tweeting and here are just a few that I think if I had known would have helped.


Some Simple DO's


Tweet Daily


It doesn't matter if you're playing Monday morning quarterback, today's politics, the stock market's flash crash, or your momma jokes. There are always people talking on twitter so just simply introducing yourself and getting in a conversation will not be wasted text. Especially just getting in the conversation


Make Friends


Twitter is so easy to just engage with people with just about anything. But what will happen over time is when you get to know someone you develop a relationship with that person. I have more than a few people on twitter where we have short conversations about a variety of different things and have never actually met them. It's pretty cool actually to learn about people and what they do through social media. Besides, it's just fun!!




Provide Value


Whether you have a direction or not, if you're mindful of providing some value for your audience people will begin to pay attention to what you have to say. You may have just found the best happy hour in town, found the best cafe, or just read the best book. Some people just like quotes. Quotes are powerful to tweeple! Either way, share what you have learned and you can almost bet someone is looking for that information or will just become a lil curious. And guess what? They will just find you.




Some Definite DON'Ts


Are you a Pitcher?


Unless you're name is Roy Hallady, Josh Beckett, or Tim Lincecum your tweets should not all be about your product or service. This happens a lot because you have a lot of internet marketers or products that show how to pitch their product via twitter and other social media platforms, but then most don't consider that people buying their  products are new to internet marketing and social media. So what happens is you can always find new people on twitter and all they're doing is pitching their product and services. So what you need to do is mix those tweets in with what you're already doing. If you think of the 80/20 principle you should be fine. That's 80% about everyone else and 20% about you. That would be a good place to start. 


Hashtag NOT Hashtags 


I recently came across a post where the person was commenting on hashtag etiquette. You have many social media purists out there constantly keeping score of what everyone else is doing. For the newbie who is just so excited to be building momentum, they start placing multiple hashtags in their tweets. This is considered to be a 'dirty' tweet and is frowned upon by the social media snobs. For the record, I used to do this all the time too and had no idea :) So here's a tip! Only use 1 hashtag if you can help it, but definitely no more than 2. It should be placed at the beginning or end of the tweet so it does not disrupt the natural flow of reading the tweet. There are obvious situations where it has to be a part of the body i.e. hashtag is part of the quote because you also have a link. That's fine, but just be mindful.


His intent is all about getting followers! Check his stream it's on all the time!!
He's pretty transparent :)




Don't DM Me if You Don't Know Me


Direct messages are ways to send messages through twitter that you wouldn't want the rest of the world to see. So if you're exchanging information like phone numbers or e-mail addresses and things to that nature use the DM feature. It's also a way to send a more personalized message for the user without having to post it so the whole world can see. So it's pretty obnoxious when we have not even had a single discussion to be throwing a link my way that's not beneficial to me or for me (did I say that right?). If someone sent me a link for a free code for dunkin donuts I would be pretty happy guy. On the other hand if I get a link for your latest and greatest product and you haven't even said hi & I don't know you or your brand, then that's not cool. I can read that in your profile. 

Twtter is just plain fun once you learn how to use it! The TRUTH is you have to use it and figure it out as you go. When you figure it out you'll begin to use twitter for the POWERful tool that it is. Till then have fun tweeting Tweeps!


Danny Fortes is a social media enthusiast and loves too much information. What he does with it, you'll just have to just keep following him to find out!




Please H.B.O. (Help a Brotha Out)! Click just 1 of those tabs below and let's be friends ;)







Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Twitter Tip Tuesday Don't Forget to Mention...


I've recently become a huge fan of Marie Forleo and if you have not had the pleasure of watching her videos, you're robbing yourself of educational enjoyment! So I recently red her book How to Make Every Man Want You:How to Be So Irresistible You'll Barely Keep From Dating Yourself . Slow your role! I'm straight, that's the TRUTH. As a marketer you read people's stuff to figure out and learn from the people who are already successful... she is quite the teacher and I can relate w/her on a few levels. Plus I figure I needed to get inside the head of some successful women. So I gave her a shout out on twitter because I really did enjoy her book. It's AWESOME by the way pick that sh*t i up! Marie being the ever so approachable woman as she is, of course responded w/in 24 hrs. Do you think she know's how to connect with her audience? There's so many people missing the boat this. Don't be that guy! Or gal.










Now that you have made a few tweets and your posting away. Posting your thoughts, feelings, your projects, and what's going on in the world. Are you also building friendships? Are you asking questions? Are you giving shout outs?


In Dale Carnegie's, How to Win Friends & Influence People. There's no sweeter sound to someone than to hearing one's own name. Or at least in twitter's case, seeing one's own name. Remember, in the world of social media or word of mouth marketing, it's not what you're saying about yourself. It's what other's are saying about you. So if you have a cool website, logo, or product and someone else is commenting about it. That's a good thing. People like the LOVE but are so caught up in what they're doing most forget to even say thank you for following. Not a big deal though. If you really want to make friends and build up a following take the time to mention others especially if they're in your niche, city, organization, or even if you're just a fan of what they do.







@replies or mentions about others will get you noticed. I know you can't really keep track of what thousands of people are doing daily. But you can keep track of the ones who mention or engage with you. All you have to do is click on home from your twitter page and click on @ mentions. The way you're followers and following lists are listed is by the most recent. So as long as you're looking at your list periodically most of those people or at least the ones who are actively engaged should stay top of mind. Just take a few mins to go out of your way to acknowledge as many of the real tweeps as possible and give em a shout out or two. :)