These are big sites, they do fairly well with Adsense.

I do, however, have smaller niche sites, but not for Adsense… I prefer Chitika for smaller sites. I also use some easy affiliate stuff on my small niche sites, mostly stuff from NeverBlue.

I take other measures also that help me to stay “legit” and my next post is about this very thing… in fact, my next post is the very most important thing I have ever talked about here. It has actually been written for about 3 weeks now (sitting in drafts), but I just have not taken time to shoot the vid that illustrates the point. Afterall, this is “Blogger Illustrated” ain’t it?

Jumping Into Social Media

I have also been learning, watching, experimenting with social media marketing. Yeah, hard to believe eh? But there is no denying the usefulness of this medium when it comes to brick and mortar businesses. (not that social media fluff where some dude with a sh*t eating grin runs around giving seminars). I am talking about REAL social interacting from REAL businesses with their clients or potential clients. It’s been quite obvious to me for many years that big business doesn’t get it, but small ones do!.. and that is cool shix IMO!

Couple social media platforms with some bad-ass SEO and you are golden. I’ve always known WHAT social media SHOULD be, but it took Josh and Steve to really hit me with it head on and calm my passionate outbursts LOL.

So that is what and where I am… plus, I still work my corp job and right now I am pulling 13 hour days — No vaseline.

Hit me up on Facebook if ya like.

3 Points About The Walmart Blog

(1) The Walmart blog FAILS! because big companies won’t devote the right resources to social media projects, if they devote any at all. Keep in mind that I work for a very large company and have for the past 12 years. I am a middle manager.

I am also the guy who has been quite outspoken when it comes to bending the ears of all the top execs at every chance I get, urging them to jump head long into social media and blogging. So far, my big mouth has really not made much of a difference because the lawyers have warned the c-level execs about the “dangers of social media.” But one good thing happend recently: the head of sales for our entire company took a pop shot at me at a high level meeting by snidly remarking, “well, if you need to get ahold of Allyn Hane, just go to his blog… har har ha ha…”

My company is stuck in the dark ages, so I applaud Walmart for at least giving it a go, but to be honest, the failure of the Checkout Blog actually speaks volumes more. It shows me that the giant Walmart does not see the value in blogging and web 2.0 style interactions. If they did, they’d hire 4 or 5 people who did nothing more than just blog, full time. But instead, the large team of writers for the Checkout Blog are middle and senior managers who are already very busy and stretched in their other responsibilities –meaning the blogging takes a back seat when things get busy. They also have no direct incentive to make the blog profitable, so they don’t.

Can you imagine the great things that could be done on a Walmart blog that was alive and full of passion and human interaction and cared for by a full time staff of fully invested employees? Let’s talk more about that in the next point ok?

(2) Without a doubt, blogs are the ULTIMATE social media tools for business and personal uses. Any so-called social media professional who does not value blogging for business is a fake and a liar, straight up! In the case of Walmart, their blog was started for the wrong reasons: this is obvious as it has been left to die a terrible death on a well-designed page.

Here Is What WALMART Should Do With Their BLOG

So what could the Walmart blog be? Let me run with it… after all, I am just a blogger myself…

Right now, it is spring time, and the Walmart near my house is loading the parking lot with all kinds of great landscaping supplies, trees, shrubs, flowers, fertilizers, top soil, garden statues and other cool outdoor decor. If Walmart had a full time lawn and garden blogger, that person could hold a small workshop teaching people how to build a beautiful flower pot bouquet with annuals. The entire workshop could be conducted in the local Walmart garden center and could be filmed, edited and posted on the blog. Cool right… and guess how many flower pots you would sell across the country? Probably more than a few, but you wouldn’t come off as pushy of overly marketing! You’d offer value locally at the store, and nationally on the blog… coolio!

Let’s go a step further: what if that lawn and garden Walmart blogger got together a group of Walmart employees and they went to a local nursery school in an economically depressed area and re-landscaped the front of the school using eco-friendly landscaping principles and native plantings that require little water? What if they also set up a compost bin and taught the kids some of the principles and uses behind composting? Video tape it and blog it boys and girls!!!!

How many compost bins could you sell at the local stores? But more than that, what great public relations feelings would this spread about the Walmart brand? How good would those volunteer employees feel about the good they did? How cool would it be for them to be on video or in pictures on the blog that is viewed by hundreds of thousands of people?What if the local TV news picked up the story? What if you tweeted about it? The possibilities are freeeeking endless!!!!!

Are you getting the point here guys? More than that, why is Walmart NOT getting the point?

(3) Big companies dumb down their employees and outsource creativity to people who are not personally invested in the business, thus harming their message and killing the passion dead! (I’m guessing a little here, but I bet many jobs that were performed by actual Walmart employees 20 years ago are now outsourced… not necessarily overseas, but they are outsourced to companies that are not directly related to Walmart) …So when mid-level employees are afforded a chance to be creative, like on the Walmart blog, they have forgotten how to be real, fun and passionate about their subject. They instead are used to following rules and staying inside a safe box of cold corporate guidelines. These Walmart employees are not in creative positions like marketing and design as those functions are now outsourced. They have also forgotten how to interact with humans who also happen to be customers. It’s become all about numbers, counts and profits, not relationships and meaningful interaction.

You guys tell me what you think. I am very interested in your opinions. By the way, this is EXACTLY why I am teaming up with Steve, Josh and Brian on a new project, Echelon Social Media Consulting. It’s about time.

I love this shizzy cuz the noobs flock to the “big swinging dicks” of Twitter (those with excess of 20,000 followers) like flies on day-old dog poopy and buzz around soaking up the funk! I think just today I have read that Twitter is going to replace Google, RSS Feeds and Facebook, all before lunch time tonorrow. One ass-hat also had the nerve to send out a blasted affiliate link to another of that Frank Kern scammer’s “buy my holy shit get rich in a box package for $1,997 before they sell out” things.

I love that Frank Kern guy; he rips people off with his re-hashed BS “copywriting coupled with brainwashing” course in a box or whatever the hell it is… yeah, I wanna be like that! In fact, I wanna be like the jerkweed Twitter gurus who send/Tweet out his affiliate links every day. LMAO!

Anyway, since it seems so easy to be an authority in the Twitter world (just get a bunch of drones to follow you and give you virtual felacio) I figured I would make a prediction of my own: that being that Twitter will soon replace toilet paper. Afterall, Twitter is “cleaning up” and consolidating everything in 140 characters or less, right?

Follow me now, follow me all, you Twitter robots!

For the record: I really like Twitter as a social platform. You can meet great people there and you DON’T have to stuff affiliate links up their rears! I like to connect with real people on Twitter, Like Wayne John from Blogger Help: cool SoCal cat this guy, like-minded methinks.

I also think it is a great place for big businesses to connect with and stay in touch with, their customers. But as far as internet marketers (you and me) making money there: don’t waste your time… unless you are a scammer!

This is why smaller companies can and should use social media to their advantage. Big companies take way too long to figure out how and why they will utilize tools like Twitter. A big company will spend $40,000 figuring out IF they should even use Twitter and another $20,000 paying corp lawyers to cover their ass while they do it.

A small business will just DO IT! ok, watch the vid now ok?

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Here is the video he shared with me Cops Vs Fireman (Rated-R) FYI

Also, please excuse the poor lighting on this video. I swear I am only 35 years old though I appear older and much wrinkled in this one. Note To Self: Makeup and better lighting! Vain jerk.