(First of all, thanks to Productive Dreams for the great Twitter icons.)

Whether you do it manually by checking your followers list or automatically through a service like TweetLater, automatically following every person who follows you is a pretty dumb idea, at least, if you want a lot of good followers.

“Well Gregg, if it’s such an idiotic act, why do people do it?”
Usually, for fear of those people unfollowing them a few days later. They want to keep their follower counts as high as possible, no matter what the cost and they would rather have someone following them for the sole purpose of having the following reciprocated than have no followers at all.

“So, whats the problem, the more the merrier right?”
Not quite, there is this little thing called the 2000 follow limit. You see, Twitter will only let you follow 2000 people at one time, and then, once you reach 2000, you can only follow an additional 10% of those people that follow you. So, lets say you have 2000 followers, and you are following 2150. Guess how many people you can follow before Twitter says “no more”…50. Yep, 10% of 2000 is 200, plus the original is 2200. Today, you can only follow 50 people. Kind of stunts your growth, huh?

No Two Tweeple are Alike
Here’s the thing, when someone follows you and then doesn’t bail on you a couple days later, do you know what that means? Well, among stalkers and people who don’t know HOW to unfollow, there are going to be a choice few of them that actually WANT to follow you. Imagine that, people following you because you tweet interesting, valuable stuff.

“Gregg, you are off your rocker, why would people WANT to follow me?”
Strange as it may sound, Twitter was not created to be a popularity contest but rather a way for people to connect and share. The purpose of people connecting was because they wanted to hear what the other had to say and are interested in what they do. So, when we autofollow people, we are going completely against the grain of Twitter, and pickup up useless followers along the way. Why not try to drive up your follower count by tweeting things people are actually interested in?

It’s Also Gween.
Think of Twitter like the earth, we all know that we can’t just keep consuming resources like crazy, we’ve got to cut back and allow mother earth to breath. On Twitter, we all know that they frequently get overloaded, by scaling back our follower count and not just following everyone and their dog, we will also be doing Twitter servers a small favor.

My Advice, Stop Autofollowing
So, aside from having room to follow as many people as you would like, not autofollowing will grant you a much more valuable list of followers. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

I find it idyllic that the race to 1,000,000 Twitter followers is between a media giant and one man. Thousands of employees, reporters, journalists, TV personalities, and staff suddenly have an equal voice with one guy sitting in front of his laptop…at least on Twitter.

A sign of the times, that perhaps mass media is losing it’s hold on their pipeline into our homes and lives. It shows the power and influence one person can hold in the world through something as ‘simple’ as a website. Pretty amazing.

The great part about Twitter is how easy it is to build a large list of “followers”. Experienced users have proven this by gaining 10,000 followers in as little as 3 weeks. Even a beginning user finds that within a few days, 50-100 people are listening to what they have to say. Today is just a subtle reminder that although global population may increase, the world is definitely getting smaller.

We all have a voice, and now we know it can be heard on a large scale. What are you going to say? I’ve heard it said that we all have a desire to do something unique, something that makes a difference in the world, no matter how small. Twitter is a medium that may be the answer to this desire.

One of the many strategies for Twitter users to keep a large number of followers, is to reciprocate the love by following every person that follows you. Lets say, however, that you wake up one Monday morning and find that 150 new people are following you. Is there any way to follow all of them with one click of your mouse?

The answer is no. It actually takes three clicks.

The site you’ll be looking for is called Twitter Karma (http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/). All you have to do is follow these four simple steps.

1) Visit Twitter Karma and type in your user name and password (don’t worry, they don’t store this info)

2) After it loads your followers, select “View only Followers” from the dropdown menu.

3) Scroll to the bottom and click the “Check All” button.

4) Click the “Bulk Follow” button.

That’s it, you’re done. You have successfully shown some serious love back to a large number of tech-savvy microbloggers that have nothing better to do with their time than to worry about what you are doing every few minutes!

MISSION: Over the next three months create 10 brand new websites for 10 different people.

Lots of talk about stimulus plans and our economic situation is echoing through the media. As you know, I believe very strongly in the ability of the internet to efficiently help businesses increase revenues and compete against larger rivals. Which is why I want to help 10 people get a shiny new website when they may need it most. Here are the details on each site:

• Price: $250 (regularly $750-$1,250)
• Subpages: Up to 7 During Creation (system allows for unlimited user page creation)
• Search Engine Optimized: YES (for the keywords of your choice)
• User Able to Update: YES (you can update it yourself, no extra fees)
• Integrated Blog: YES (if desired)
• Ready in: 2 Weeks
• Other Features: By Request
• Includes one month free membership to The Ultimate Employee Training Academy ($97 value)

If you are interested in getting a new, snazzy website for your business, startup, or personal use, shoot me an email at contact at greggblanchard dot com and put “Website for $250″ as the subject.  We’ll talk a little bit about what you need, work out some details, and if you feel good about it, we’ll make it happen.

Over the last few months, as the recession has sunk in a little deeper and businesses have begun to dig in their heels, I have noticed one thing:

Businesses, more than ever, are looking to internet marketing for the answer.

And they are smart in doing so. The internet provides a lean, automated way to reach a vast number of people that traditional marketing methods can’t. However, along with this desire, they are also looking for something else:

The ability to do it themselves to maintain control and save money.

To answer this need, I’ve spent the last couple months putting together “The Ultimate Employee“, a system that helps businesses quickly create a profitable online presence. Here’s how it works.

Part 1 – Core Training Library
The system starts with access to a core video training library, teaching the fundamentals of a sound, efficient, profitable online presence.

Part 2 – Monthly Training
Then, every month we hit new, unique methods of marketing more powerfully and efficiently to streamline the system.

Part 3 – Monthly Checkups / Feedback
This really is the icing on the cake and the keystone of the program. Every month I sit down and take a half an hour to look over each member’s online marketing efforts. Then, I turn on the screen recorder and for 15-20 minutes I give you specific feedback, advice, and breakdowns on how you are doing, and where to go next.

I have seen this formula work for many business owners and I am excited to see it work for many more in the months to come.  It is exciting to me to have the possibility of helping a large number of businesses simultaneously.

For more info or to take it for a quick spin, click here.