I promised I was going to share some tricks of the trade I learned working on this whole “switching servers” issue, and here I am. 

First of all I have to say, when I dug into this I had no experience with server work, I have never had anything to do with it and had a very vague idea of what serverland was all about, as I’m sure is the case with a lot of folks reading this post. 

I hosted my site with Dreamhost. And what I started noticing was that I had hard time accessing my blog many times and it would take a long time to load. 

Not acceptable. 

I have burned more midnight oil in the last 2.5 yrs then most of people getting to their PhD. I have also spent a ton of money buying all those courses and books to learn how to bring the traffic to my site FREE – and now, that it’s all snowballing and traffic is coming, WHERE IS MY WEBSITE??? 

So I jumped in it with no life jacket. I twitted, I read, I researched, and here is what I found out on my own and from few good peeps who were willing to lend me a helping hand. 

• You will never be completely satisfied with your server company
• Dreamhost is mostly either great for some or hell for others
• Here is few review sites you can check out to see what’s good and what’s not so good. They claim to be totally independent 3^rd party.
  • http://webhostinggeeks.com/
  • http://www.hostreview.com/
  • http://www.webhostmagazine.com/wh/ws/index.asp 

• Before you switch to the new server, you will need to request a copy of your site along with the database from the previous server company – that will hold you entire site with all content and everything else that goes with it.
• You will need to learn to use FTP – whether you like it or not. Yeap, could have been in Mayan language as far as I was concerned, had no clue what it did nor how to operate it. To my amazement uploading my files to the new server turned out to be much simpler then I thought. You truly point on the files, point on the destination location, and click. Simple as that. No need to learn Mayan.
• I was told that most FTP software works pretty much the same – I used coreftp.com – and it worked great for me.
• I ended up with some 3800 files that needed to be copied and it took coreftp.com to do it in just under 40 minutes. So be patient. Get some snacks prepared while waiting and be excited that it’s all going to be back up and working in about 3 weeks…just kidding…
• The whole process may take up to 72 hours is what the industry standard answer is but you might see the results in as little as 24 if you’re really, really good at all this.
• I chose a server hosting company that was rated A or A- (depending on the review), that had a 24/7 support phone and email, and where I got a super-duper smoking deal on price at webhostingpad.com . Their current special is a 3 yr deal for $71.64 which is $1.99/mo – and usually is only $3.99/mo.
• The guys on email support got my 4 out of 5, but the guys at the 1-877 got my 5 out of 5. 

One thing I learned from all this was that I was really worried about my site being down and not looking all put together in front of my prospects and in the end, that week (it took a whole week for my blog to be up and running because I had some other domain issues as well) my lead count did not even flinch. And I came to a realization that when you have established yourself to be of value and integrity to your audience and your marketplace, it can be forgiving over some technical, short-lived, could-happen-to-anybody glitches. 

To learn the strategies that will help you establish yourself as a value and integrity to your audience and marketplace visit here: www.UltimateLeadsToday.com

Aleksandra

I just went to Google and typed in “free internet marketing leads” – there are 12 million pages of relevant results.

But is your pipeline being filled with free internet leads as you’re reading this?

If it is, I suggest you go grab some icecream, cold drink, or whatever you enjoy doing when you don’t have much to do, shut your computer down and take the rest of the day off. You’re doing what 95% of network marketers can’t do – and that is to generate leads, much less leads at no cost.

But if you’re not there yet, where do you start? If those 12 million pages on Google did not help you what will?

Maybe nothing, maybe as you read this article you’re already overwhelmed. Well, it’s not that hard. It’s complex, but not that hard. And it takes time…and a little bit of an effort on your part. Whether to do it yourself or finding someone to outsource it.

I get asked all the time: There are so many ways to generate free leads, which strategy is the best?

My answer is always the same: they are all good.

i.e.:If you hate making videos and are obviously uncomfortable doing it, not ready to “get over it” than no matter how great videos are, it won’t yield great results for YOU.

Now, that we got that question out the way let’s look at your options – in no particular order:

1) Videos

2) articles – posted to other sites

3) blog – articles posted to your site

4) Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc

5) Ezines

6) Classifieds

7) List builders

PPC – yes it can be at no cost to you

9) Forums

That should give you good number of choices.

They all work. But for now, pick one, maybe two at most, you feel comfortable and feel like you would enjoy doing – for the beginning. As you get going and start getting results with those, then start adding more sources from the list above if you so choose.

As I said, they all work but they all require work as well. One or 2 (posts, mailing, conversations, friends, etc) or possibly not even 10 will bring you many results. Lot more needs to happen prior to some noticeable results.

So if you’re going to do videos or articles (regardless of where you post them) you should start with 10 or so and then add 2-5 per week for the first 30 days. When you start  mingling on social sites, especially Twitter & Facebook, you should try to start 20 new conversations day and add some 50-150 new friends a day.  To learn more tips and tricks for successful Twittering, go here: “Ultimate Twitter Optimization Blueprint” , and for find out what you should and should not do in Twitter make sure you visit here: “10 Cardinal Sins of Twittering“.

Also, I would suggest you don’t start with PPC at first – you have to have foundation built for it to become “no cost”. That is advanced form of marketing.

Other than that, it really does not matter where you start as long as you start somewhere and not wait till you get “good” and “more familiar” before you move a finger.

Get going! See you at the top.

What marketing-on-a-budget strategy have you had the most success with?

Twitter is a communication tool that let’s you express yourself in 140 characters or less. As soon as you type it in, people who you allow to see your updates will be able to see them as well. They can follow you too and update their status as well.

This is basically what it is, but this description can’t possibly do it a justice. You simply have to join – which is FREE, and experience it for yourself.

Here is why?

When I first saw Twitter, I thought to myself, why in the world would I want to let the whole world know what I’m doing now? What I’m eating, what I’m working on, what I’m thinking…some of that stuff to me is – for the lack of the better word: PRIVATE.

Yes, that is true, but you can use it to fit YOUR style. And you can share only as much as you WANT to share with rest. The weird thing is that you find yourself adjusting your views somewhat on that issue =).

Here are few reasons why you should be on Twitter:

· Create new friendships and networking contacts

· Meet amazing people from all over the world

· To generate leads

· To follow gurus in your industry and learn

· To influence and teach your followers/team

· To become a celebrity of sort

· To introduce other peoples product/service

·To Introduce your product/service

· And so much more…

Now, there are some “unwritten” rules of Twitter you must know and follow to get optimum results. And back in March of 2009, I wrote an article about Twitter etiquette. Those of you who are already following me on Twitter chances are you have already received a copy of this article from me and if not, make sure to go to http://twitter.com/ultimateAleks, and click the “Join today” button and then begin following my updates (or “tweets” as they are called). You will immediately receive a copy from me – my gift to you.

If you’re truly new to this you can start with my FREE “Ultimate Twitter Optimization Blueprint” when you join my FREE newsletter. The blueprint will guide you step by step through the whole set up of Twitter and what to do next.

After initially being really skeptical about it, I realized how much of value it was to me. Not only that I got to create very interesting and profitable relationships, but I also got to introduce my. And all this happened with people I would never be able to get in front of if there was not for Twitter…huge leverage.

Hurry to Twitter and put if to work for you too.

I’d love to hear your experience with Twitter. Feel free to drop me a line at aleksandra@ultimatemarketingonline.com or leave a comment below.

Happy Twittering!

To YOUR ultimate success,

Aleksandra

There are many places that offer domains, but there are also many questions you must know the answer to prior to getting one, or more… =)

Even though they are only $8-10-15, these things add up too fast and will impact your marketing budget – WHY? Put the money where it will make you money, is my motto.

So, here we go:

1) What’s a domain?

Here is what Webopedia.com has to say about domain:

A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages.

I.e. in the URL http://www.UltimateLeadsToday.com ‘UltimateLeadsToday’ is a domain; and in http://url.UltimateLeadsToday.com ‘url’ is a subdomain.

2) Why do you need it?

• One of the most important reasons for getting your own domain name that will identify you and only you is a significant part of self-branding which I explain and I talk a lot about in rest of my marketing material.

• In the numerous split-testing, it’s been uncovered that a huge chunk of affiliates lose their affiliate commissions due to leads taking affiliate links out and going straight to the source.

Have you ever seen a link looking like this:

http://www.thisisabadidea.com/member/3638898

Don’t ask me why, but people are stinkers sometimes and will take the /member/3638898 part off and go directly to the main company site. As an affiliate, you lose that commission – don’t want that!

3) What kind should you get?

The mother of all domain websites is GoDaddy.com.

Now, once you’re reached GoDaddy.com you will notice that there are domains with many different suffixes like:

.com, .mobi, .us, .me, .gov, .edu, .org, .net, .ca and so on.

That statistic have shown over and over again, that nothing looks as professional and yields the results as .com. So for now, pick a .com domain name and forget about everything else, until you get to the point of building a library of domain names (more about that later).

You will also notice that there are bunch of different upgrades you can add to your domain name. For someone just starting out, it’s not necessary to pick anything else except for the .com domain itself.

On the other hand, if you if you’ve been in the business for a while and you have figured out what structure of domains works for you and your business, then you can venture out in buying domain names with extra words in it, with same domain name but different extension, you can opt for some additional features, like privacy and so on.

4) So now what?

Once you have established the domain structure you want to follow, it is imperative to take the steps which will protect your internet real estate – your websites – from being funneled for leads to your competitor because they might be using a similar domain name i.e. if your website that you invested lot of money and time in is sitting at : http://www.widgets.com do you really want your competitor to have http://www.widgets.net?

Did not think so.

5) If all else fails

If you still have any questions about this GoDaddy.com has a great support team, don’t hesitate to call them.

To YOUR ultimate success,

Aleksandra

For those of you who have been wondering if Mike is really for real… wondering if what you’ve seen and heard on the net is really so: an uncut, uncensored, 70 minute private interview is now available to you as well.

For those who are not that familiar with Mike, he branded “Attraction Marketing/Sponsoring” and “Funded Proposal”.

Mike is responsible for hugely impacting lives of most successful internet marketers on the net today, including my life as well.

You won’t find many great network marketers who are not using his system – that should tell you something…

Something like: you better find out quick what his all about and how you can implement his strategies into your business so that you can reach the next level of success.

Grab a pen and some paper, I promise, you will need it. Mike is not holding back in this interview.

To YOUR ultimate success,

Aleksandra

P.S. After you view the video, drop me a line or post a comment and let me know if you have any questions and what you think about the interview.

Follow the link and register to access the interview.
http://mikedillardinterview.UltimateLeadsToday.com

If you’re looking for a simple but efficient Twitter Unfollow tool that tracks and can unfollow in bulk, watch this video where I reveal an awesome tool that does just that:

P.S. What has your experience been with unfollowing Twitterers?