Bonanzle Promotion for Dummies Like Me!

Squidoo and Facebook and Myspace Oh My!

Delicious and Digg and Blogging I'm Scared!

Google and Twitter and Stumble What's That?


Makes my head spin just looking at the names!

So there I was a few weeks ago, cruising the forums at Bonanzle and psu, and I kept reading about all those things mentioned above. Everyone said "Promote! Promote! Promote!" so I jumped in with both feet and started Stumbling and Squidooing and reading peoples blogs and adding comments and favorites and zipping around randomly and having no clue whatsoever as to what I was doing. I very quickly got myself all confused and overwhelmed.

So I stopped. Didn't do anything but read and occasionally post on the forums at Bonanzle. I didn't even think about that stuff; my eyes glazed whenever I came across any mention of them while I was reading. But I knew I'd have to bite the bullet concerning them again eventually, so it was always bubbling in the back of my mind.

Then after several days I decided I had better approach this project rationally. (Yah right. Me rational. snicker) I decided to focus on just 3 of them to keep myself from getting overwhelmed again, and choose Squidoo, (which I had started several months ago pre-Bonanzle and never finished), Twitter, and (gulp) blogging.

I do need to take just a minute and talk about Google before I get to my 3 choices, tho.
The Google rss feed is the single most important thing you can do for your Bonanzle Booth. This feed puts your items onto Google Base and Google search pages, and most of our t-shirt sales come from buyers coming from Google. From what I've heard on the forums, most all Sellers will agree that many of their buyers come in from Google, too. So if you haven't done it already, you need to. Now. The following will help to get you started:

On your Bonanzle "My Bonanzle" page there is a large green link in the center that says: "Add your booth to Google Products search". Click that and then go through the options, choosing what is best for you, then following the instructions. And yes, you do need a Google account. If you need a gmail email address, message me and I'll send you an invitation to get one. And if you need help working through the process of adding the rss feed, ask on the forums or email Mark at support@bonanzle.com.

Oh, if you purchase a membership and want to set up Google Analytics, (great tool), the number you are given that looks like this: "UA-123456-8", when you add it on your Google apps page, do not put the quotes in. Like I did. And then couldn't figure out why it didn't work. (rolls eyes) (Thanks again, Mark, for helping me figure that out!)


So onto Twitter.

Twitter is probably the easiest (and quite possibly the most fun) promotion task you can do. Go to http://twitter.com, sign up, add me (mrsmoondog), and use my "following" list to start adding Bonanzle Twitter people. Not quite all of them are Bonanzlers, but if you join this wonderful Twitter/Bonanzle group, you can also use this list of group members to add to your own list: http://twittgroups.com/group/buyatbonanzle
Then start Tweeting!

A strong word of caution: Twitter recommends that you do not add more than 10 people a day. Spammers tend to add a whole lot of people at once, and adding more then 10 people a day could get you locked out of your Twitter account. So, stick to adding just 10 or less new people a day and you will be fine.

Easy peasy!


And now Squidoo, which is a bit more complicated. But you know what? The more I mess with my lens, the more I'm enjoying it. It's fun!

If you've never seen a Squidoo lens, here is mine:
http://www.squidoo.com/gbmBonanzle

The best advice I can give you about Squidoo is to just start something, anything. It is all fully editable all the time, so you can change it at any time. And there are so many hints, tips, and tricks available at SquidU, the help pages, and from other lenses, that you can figure out how to do just about anything.

Here is a great thread with lots of info by one of Bonanzle's resident Squidoo Gurus:
http://www.bonanzle.com/forums/1/topics/6056

And here is a popular Bonanzle lens group by another Bonanzler on Squidoo:
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/bonanzle

Once you get started on Squidoo, there are a few things you can do to connect your lens to other Bonanzler's lenses thus helping not only them, but your own lens as well. (Find these Bonanzle Squidoo people on the group lens page by clicking the link above.) You can rank other Bonanzlers lenses by clicking on the little stars at the top left side of the lens, 1 to 5 stars. Over on the right side menu you can "favorite" a lens and "lensroll" as well. Lensrolling puts a list of lenses in that right side menu. On many lenses you can leave little comments, answer questions the lens owner asks, and/or add a link back to your Bonanzle booth there.

All the things that you do to your own lens and to your friend's lenses increase your ranking in the Squidoo world. They also invite other Squidoo lens owners to come to your lens and rank, lensroll, comment on, and add links to, which also increases your ranking. They higher your ranking, the better your chances of people seeing your lens.

When you have your lens in the edit mode, at the very top on the right side there is a line of 4 buttons. If you click the one that says "Health" it will show you 6 quick options to improve your lens, or tell you if you did a good job. (Love that!)



As for blogging, that is the thing that you just have to jump in feet first and do. If you are just starting out and are a bit uncertain about what to write, I suggest that you not try to do any heavy promoting or any such thing. Write your blog about something you care about, want to share knowledge about, pets, kids, shoes, Twinkies, whatever interests you that you are somewhat knowledgeable about. Just something to break the ice. If you have a Google email address, then the Google blog is a good one to use. (This one.) I know there are others, but as I am such a newb at this myself, I don't know what they are.

So that's my Bonanzle Promotion for Dummies Like Me! blog. I hope it at least helps to get you started. Thanks for reading!

AJ aka mrsmoondog
http://www.bonanzle.com/graphicsbymoondog
http://www.bonanzle.com/catspaw
Twitter username: mrsmoondog on http://twitter.com/
Squidoo Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/gbmBonanzle