That’s right, folks. I’m going to be the one person truly brave enough. I’ll point out something that has irked us social media types for quite some time, but too many are afraid to open their mouths. I’ve heard the grumblings long enough, so I’ll take the bullet for the team.

TweetDeck sucks!

Don’t you all feel so much better now?

Now, to all the non-believers clutching to your prehistoric ideologies circa August 2009, feel free to flame me in the comment section. I can take the heat. But before you stone me to death like a Salem witch, I will make these concessions:

Yes, I think TweetDeck is the “best” third party desktop application for using Twitter.
Yes, I know it handles multiple accounts and integrated with Facebook & Linkedin.
Yes, it’s awesome that you can drag/drop photos & movies and view within the program.
Yes, it has an increased API limit, infinite columns for lists and saved searches.
Yes, I’m aware that many seem to think TweetDeck is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

But does any of that matter when it grinds your computer to a halt after one hour of its usage?

I already know what’s coming, so save it. You’re going to explain the intricacies of an operating system, spew off mumbo-jumbo terms like registry hacks, memory leakage, CPU acceleration and ask “dude, why don’t you just install Windows 7? It’s awesome!”

That’s all well and good. I appreciate your willingness to help. But I’m not a total schmuck when it comes to computers… and if I can’t even figure out through all my stubbornness how to limit the application’s resources – then how great can it really be when 90%+ of the demographic using TweetDeck have even less of a clue than I do?

So, what am I using now to satisfy my Twitter addiction?

In true Arlen Spector fashion, here comes the flip-flop. As of this week, I am officially throwing all my support, however non-influential is is, to the web-based app CoTweet. It’s a pretty heavy piece of software geared primarily towards companies, but I have $8.35 in my Paypal account, so I guess I can be considered a “business”, right?

Only using this new application for a handful of days, I’m obviously in the infatuation stage of our relationship. What this means is soon you’ll see either one of these two things in the near future:

1. A blog post here soon reviewing CoTweet, singing its praises.
2. A retraction to this post next week as I sheepishly return to using TweetDeck.

Which one do you think it will be?

Recently, I did a guest post at Remarkablogger about hustling. Many people seemed to really enjoy it and Jordan asked if I could elaborate on how people can leverage someone else’s audience to create buzz. Now, I’m nowhere near as awesome as him when it comes to the humor stuff. I’m Aussie. My sense of humor is likely to get me mocked. So, I thought I’d make this post incredibly chillaxed instead!

So, what the heck am I on about?

Typically, people write a piece of content and publish it on their own blog. They then rely on their own network to spread the word. If they are feeling desperate, they will beg for attention. That’s when people DM you asking for retweets and will constantly request social media attention just so they can achieve their attention of viral.

That’s fine, but you can achieve a bucketload more success just by popping that baby on someone else’s blog.

Do you know someone in your niche that always seems to get retweeted? Or a topic that causes people to go nuts? If you guest post on that blog, you will be able to tap into that organize network.

This may be a bit geeky for some, but let me explain. If you are lucky, one action can lead to multiple audiences being leveraged. For instance, I do a number of guest posts on Problogger. Each post gets me exposure via a number of methods.

• All posts get delivered via the RSS feed. This is the main method of exposure.
• All posts are delivered to Twitter via Twitterfeed. This can lead to a number of retweets.
• Because more people see it, more people write opinion posts and mention the person that wrote the original article. This puts my name in front of more readers.
• Darren links to each post via his Facebook page. People provide additional comments and ‘likes’ via this platform.

One post can lead to five different groups of people reading your content. These are just the ones I remember while simultaneously watching a very long movie.

Tap into the right audience:

To do this, you have to look at relevant blogs in your niche. You have to:

• Check how much of their content gets retweeted. Read the associated comments and see if particular posts get retweeted more than others.
• See how many comments are on the post. This is the true sign of engagement and is where you can find fans for your own blog.
• See where else they promote their blog.

This can give you a fair idea of the potential for that post to spread organically.

You then have to check out what type of content does really well via that network. I’ve found that there are two things that influence this. The first is the viral potential of the headline. I still suck at this – you’re better off going to Copyblogger.

The second factor is how awesome the content is. Now, if you’re working your arse off like many of us you will already have a good eye for picking out the content that rocks the blogosphere. Figure out ways to replicate that.

What do you do if the post goes viral?

Let’s say, your unpolished guest post about 30 Bloggers to Watch in 2010 gets published and goes viral while you’re sleeping. What do you do then?

Firstly, you pay attention to the comment section. Encourage people to contribute to the discussion and respectfully deal with those who are picking fights. Sometimes it’s just a reflection of how much they value the community.

Second, you head straight onto Twitter. Don’t just look for straight out retweets. Look for keywords relating to that post, your name. If someone sounds like they really engaged with your content, follow them. Send a nice DM or @reply and invite them to engage with you elsewhere.

If you are respectful and give back to the community, they are likely to help you out when they see your name pop up again.

Over to you!

I’ve had so much success by leveraging other peoples’ audiences. And, while it sounds totally icky, it’s really not. I provide free content and the opportunity to earn cash in return for getting some exposure. It’s a win/win situation and gives you the opportunity to learn a lot quicker.

I understand that you may still have questions. That’s cool. Leave them in the comments and I’ll help you out.

Jade Craven is passionate about helping small businesses and solopreneurs create social media strategies that resonate with their customers. Visit her blog as she shares her stories. Jade is a guest posting ninja on many of the top blogs, so it’s an absolute pleasure to have her stop by today!

After the initial allure wears off, we all come to the realization that it is indeed hard work to succeed as a blogger. We start focusing more on serious business-building efforts, putting in long hours to create helpful content that inspires others to seek us out.

Our to-do list keeps growing exponentially as more ideas pour out from our minds. We attack each task with a sharp knife, inching closer to what we perceive as the holy grail.

Getting our hands dirty, we promote our work hardcore using tools to spread the word and position ourselves in a market. Never passing up a networking opportunity, we vigorously attempt to connect with anyone that takes a glance at us and rush to influencers at the slightest chance to get our names in front of their eyes.

In the process, are we missing out on opportunities simply because we’re too focused on the work at hand?

Relax. Loosen up. Take a break. Open your Twitter client. Spend some time on Facebook or Linkedin. See what others are doing. Not even when it comes to business, but as real people with real lives. Talk. Interact. Joke around. This is what truly bonds people together and helps build relationships. Not talking ’shop’. Not incessant self-promotion. Not the bottom line.

You can very well make the same impact on someone simply by sharing a common interest outside of business. You can get your “big break” simply stemming from being the person who’s enjoyable to ‘chill’ with.

In a world where so many people can be connected to one another easily, the ability to network has never been more important than it is right now. How are you taking advantage of the opportunity to make an impact? Simply using the tools for work, work, work like most are? Or can you make yourself stand out more by connecting with others as real people?

Put away the business proposal. I’m not interested.

Put away your latest published book. I’m not interested.

Put away everything. Let’s just hang out. Who’s with me?

The stream of @replies on Twitter has been insane.

The wall on my Facebook fan page scrolls down to infinity with requests for this information.

Even my e-mail inbox has been a non-stop barrage of question after question:

• “Jordan, can you please let us see your daily visitor count?”
• “I’m dying to know how many incoming referrals you’re getting back to your blog!”
• “You must be killing it on the Beyond Blogging affiliate sales! How much have you made?”
• “I’ve subscribed to your e-mail list, Jordan. What are the numbers like for it?”
• “What are your goals for this year? Can you please list them in no less than 1500 words?”
• “I say I’m a pro blogger yet I don’t know how to freely view your Google PageRank and Alexa ranking. Can you just tell me?”
• “My name is Nelumba Savimbi. I am sincerely proposing to you to render me your highly needed assistance in respect to safekeeping of some of my Uncle’s money that arose from Diamonds sales. Fine sir, do you have any room left inside Nathan Hangen’s ass?”

Well, I don’t want to let any of you down, especially seeing you’re all clamoring for these answers.

I’m not going to give out all my secrets, though. I’ll save more of my stats for 84 other blog posts this year. If you want this highly sought out information, definitely look out for them. You should be able to tell since I’ll title them: “How I got X statistic in X period of time”.

Here’s what you’ve all wanted. A screenshot of my Google Analytics and income the past month:

You can see yourself in my stats!

The Money I Found In My Couch!

I figure this would be a good time to reflect on the ‘heyday’ of URL shortening – when anyone with $10 and a game of Boggle could launch a multi-million dollar business! We can obviously see the results of this gold rush now, but let’s also take a look at the ones that didn’t quite make it… ones that never lived up to their potential or may have been too bold, too soon.

I present you with the list of the Top 10 Failed URL Shortener Spinoffs of all-time:

facetio.us

A spinoff of the now defunct faceto.us aimed at sharing humorous links. Coming in at a whopping double digit number of characters, company went under after web users thought they were “just kidding”.

biCurio.us

A sub-brand of curio.us aimed at users who want to share links, but aren’t sure which social media platform they lean towards.

DigBig.as

Created as a collaborative project between just.as and DigBig as a shortener exclusively for fans of Sir Mix-a-Lot.

is.god

The religious right wing of is.gd branded as “the moral way to shorten”. When questioned that their web address contains an invalid top-level domain name, the company creators stated “it all comes down to faith that the Lord will get you there”.

fire.me

The merger of fire.to and bloat.me was destined for success… until most users who were found clicking on their links were subsequently fired for spending too much time at work on Twitter.

shur.ly

Why did shurl.net go out of business? A 47 year-old loner obsessed with the movie Airplane! thought it was cute to purchase this domain name… then launch a “don’t call it Shirley” campaign against the company.

bacn.il

The eccentric founders of bacn.me attempted to expand into the lucrative Middle Eastern market without realizing most of their users couldn’t click on their links for religious reasons.

MooUrl.in

Same fate as above for this MooURL spinoff.

clit.ly

In the attempt to compete with the popular bit.ly, the downfall came early when female bloggers saw that all male visitors were getting 404 “not found” pages.

fuck.it

A rich entrepreneur paid $10 million from the Italian porn industry for domain name to compete against hurl.it. As a monetization method, approximately 3% of the shortened links take you to advertisements, spam & malware. Directed at the gambler inside all of us, the service’s tagline was “A viral video or a virus? C’mon, fuck it!”