I have systematically broken down how you can self-promote, both shamelessly and effectively, in 3 easy steps:

1. Create a ranking that is controversial or unique.  Ideally the topic of the ranking is related to your own core business and includes a number and a superlative in the title (Might I suggest "7 Smartest Guinea Pigs in North Carolina" for a local PetSmart branch?).  This provokes an emotional response for affected readers, although I doubt it is relevant whether the emotion is positive or negative--it simply has to be strong.
2. Explain why you should be treated with authority as a source.  Ideally this involves detailing an objective statistical methodology and being transparent about any subjective opinions that enter into the analysis.
   
3. Publish online and harness social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Note: This guide is an excerpt adapted from "the Daily Beast named Dumbest Site on the Entire Internet" over on Etc, my new blog for Raves, Rants, and things that don't necessarily fit neatly on a consumer Internet blog.

• Related background post: Itty Bitly links BEFORE going Viral
  

Half the fun of sharing links might be tracking how many times they get clicked.  This post follows up on my Zappos mention and explains how a link shortening service like bit.ly might be helpful.

Link shortening got more prominent since 2006 when people started needing to cram links into Twitter messages, limited to 140 characters (this previous sentence is 137).  While bit.ly got my attention as the default shortener in Tweetdeck, anyone can shorten links instantly by visiting bit.ly.

For those who have not done so already, I recommend the following steps:

1. Register for a free account at bit.ly
2. Set up the Sidebar
3. Optional for Tweetdeck Users: Configure Tweetdeck to recognize your new bit.ly account

I had taken these steps before tweeting Chris Hsee's article at Tony Hsieh on August 5th, which means I have some fun data to share about how my link circulated after Tony tweeted it.

As of August 27th:

• 2,216 clicks on my link.  Some users manually removed my @adamstober name from their tweets but a significant percentage did not.
  
• 64% of clicks came in the first 30 or so hours (word travels fast!)
• 90% of all bit.ly clicks to the Hsee WebMD article were from the bit.ly link that I created and Tony Hsieh circulated -- bit.ly creates different short links to track clicks to the same webpage for different users.

To see additional link details and up-date-data and since August 27th, 2010, click here.

I thought "going viral" and being mentioned by one of the top 100 most followed people on Twitter might turn me into that poor kid in the UK who did not want the fame he got when Kanye randomly gave him attention on Twitter, but it did not.

I gain more Twitter followers and get more blog visits when I post about either to my Facebook account relative to the exposure outlined above.  In this instance the attraction was Hsee's research and Hsieh's opinion, not the guy who connected them: me!

Open note to bit.ly: I want better geographic data on where my clicks are going from.  If I have 32 clicks in the United States and 2 in Canada, that doesn't help me figure out where my clicks are coming from.

• Related background posts: Twitter's Tattered Site and Tony Hsieh of Zappos @Mentions Me!
  

The most common question I've gotten since launching Internauts has been: "how did you make your site?  Doesn't that take a lot of time, energy, and money?"  It took an hour or two to set up, the website hosting and design is free, and the adamstober.com domain will be $9 per year starting next year.  It was free this year since I was able to take advantage of a "first-year free" domain promotion.

If you are interested in setting up a simple website similar to this one, read on.

Consider Weebly, the service I am using here which provides the easiest drag-and-drop interface you can imagine--no programming experience necessary.  Other popular options to consider include Posterous, which might be better for sites that only have a blog since you just email them your content, or Blogger.  Since I wanted to have a homepage in addition to a blog, I like seeing the layout before it gets published, and I enjoy the flexibility of being one-click away from adding additional blogs to my homepage, I chose Weebly.

If you would like to customize your web address with a domain that does not include the "weebly" or "posterous" that is included by default, you could test domain availability on domai.nr which is particularly helpful for finding creative domains you would not have otherwise thought of.  This is a better approach than simply Googling your potential domain or entering it into your address bar for the reasons listed here.

Once you have found a domain you think could be worthwhile you will need to secure it at a registrar with a credit card.  While GoDaddy has marketed its way to being among the most well-known registrars out there, I have had phenomenal customer service from 1&1 and recommend using them instead since their recurring prices tend to be a bit lower as well and the offer different introductory promotions every month.

Assuming you use Weebly, you can follow the simple instructions listed on Weebly's site to point your web address visitors to your future site, regardless of who you used to register your domain.  Other build-your-own website services such as Posterous generally provide similar instructions in their FAQ.

Happy Canada Day!  In honour of my bilingual, metric-system homeland, this post is on easy and free online conversions and translations.

• Any time I want to convert anything online I usually run a Google search like "convert kilograms to pounds."  I usually find an appropriate converter within a few clicks but have recently settled on OnlineConversions.com where all conversions are done instantly, on the same page.  No click-through, no pop-ups, no searching, just easy conversions.  [UPDATE August 2010: See comment for a helpful tip.  Thanks Jared!]
  

• Translations are a little bit tougher.  I remember using Diccionarios.com many years ago, since the translations are generally accurate and thorough.  The price for high quality though was a limit on the number of translations you can do for free.  This is one reason why I have gravitated towards Google Translate over the past year.  It is one of those "good enough" solutions, not to be relied upon for high-quality or lengthy translations but just helpful enough to understand a quick word or general idea from any other language.  It is a tool that is useful but imperfect, and provides utility above and beyond a standard dictionary in that it allows you to enter whole web-pages and documents all at once.  You can see a terribly translated Spanish version of this website here, or a butchered French version here, for example.  The overall point is that Google Translate can instantly give you a basic understanding of almost any website or document regardless of what language you speak or what language it is actually written in.  I once needed to translate an entire English Powerpoint presentation to Spanish and uploaded the original Powerpoint document to Google Translate.  I had to go over every word and correct many serious mistakes to make sure it was professional-level Spanish, but the Google translation made for a great starting point and made the process a lot quicker overall.