Close
Close
Written on 11/30/2010 at 12:09 am by

Three Essential Tips to Growing Sales and Service, One Tweet at a Time

Filed Under: Social Media

This guest post is written by Phil Hollows, the Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz.

Twitter offers small businesses and independent professionals unique opportunities to out-maneuver their larger competitors, by using the social network as a real-time prospecting and customer service system. You can improve your pipeline and grow a stellar support reputation simply by following these three simple tips:

  1. Use Twitter Search to find leads and spot problems in real time.
  2. Know when to tweet and when to hold off.
  3. Use Twitter’s Favorites function to aggregate testimonials.

1. Get vain! Twitter search is real-time market intelligence.

Tweets are, effectively, people shouting from the rooftops, in public, about what they’re doing. Some of their cries will be relevant to you and your business. The trick is to find the signal in the 1,000 Tweets-per-second noise.

What you need is one or more well-tuned Twitter searches, running in a good Twitter client, such as TweetDeck. Once you’re set up, you can quickly identify the people talking about your industry, you, or your competition. I have TweetDeck’s audio alerts set to go off only on the relevant searches; when I hear it chirp I know there’s something I need to pay attention to.

The first essential tip is to start with a so-called “vanity search”—to find people talking about you, your business, and your niche—at http://search.twitter.com.

You’ll probably find there’s too much information with your basic search criteria. To tune the results, go to the advanced page at http://search.twitter.com/advanced to add filters and get more granular. For example, I use a search that excludes the text “http” so that I avoid (re)tweets referencing my own company’s URLs. This narrows down the search to people who are talking about us (which is what we want) instead of people who are simply using the service.

Once the search is tuned, add it to your Twitter client, then rinse and repeat for your competitors and industry terms. You should monitor them the same way.

You’ll quickly discover service and support opportunities from people who need help. You’ll find sales openings when people talk about your industry, the problem you solve, or frustrations with competitors. You’ll find new communities you can join and influence. I guarantee that you’re going to get some surprises and insights long the way!

Working this way, you can solve problems before they become crises, or close the deal before any competitors know there’s even new prospect in the market. You’ll be permanently one step ahead of everyone else.

Tip 1: Twitter search, properly tuned, is free and as timely as you can get it—right when the user is articulating a need you can address.

2. Tweet! Don’t tweet!

Now that you have some hits, it’s the perfect time for you to introduce yourself.

Having found a conversation you want to be part of, you must be sensitive. I recommend sending exactly one tweet, something like: “FYI, saw your Tweet, this might be of interest” (for sales), or “Hi, I’m Phil from FeedBlitz, how can I help?” (for support). No matter what the purpose of your tweet, link to a page or URL that adds value to the conversation.

Examples of great URLs to send include:

  • a feature comparison matrix
  • a relevant ebook, online video or podcast
  • a support page or knowledge base entry
  • a Wikipedia entry on the topic
  • testimonials and recommendations (your LinkedIn profile, perhaps).

Whatever you send, it should be one link, at most two. Your tweet goes directly to the right person at exactly the right time.

Then, stop. No more tweets for you! Anything more than a single tweet with a relevant resource is too much. It’s a very short step from relevant interruption to spam. Don’t do it.

With luck, you’ll get a reply and the conversation will open up. If nothing else you’ll get kudos, and potentially have your tweet retweeted to the user’s followers—that can pay dividends later on.

Occasionally, folks will get angry about your talking to them out of the blue, even though they’re talking in public. In my experience, engaging with someone who takes this perspective is usually a lose-lose situation. Self-righteousness is immune to logic, and you’re better off leaving well alone. As long as you’re following the “One Tweet and Out” rule, just mark it up to experience and move on. It’s hard to do, because the criticism feels very personal, but it’s essential that you don’t talk back.

Tip 2: Tweet only once. Tweet with relevance. Then stop.

3. Use Twitter Favorites as real-time testimonials.

Eventually you should have enough Tweets from customers and fans that it’s worth favoriting them. In Twitter, favorites have their own RSS feed. I don’t really think anyone else is going to subscribe to it, but it’s a fabulous resource to send to your business’s new prospects: a list of real testimonials from real people in 140 characters or less.

To find you Favorites feed, go to your account at twitter.com. Go to your Favorites, and from the RSS options your browser gives you, choose your Favorites feed. Bookmark the feed’s URL. Done!

As an example, here’s my raw Favorites feed, which I use to track customer service praise for my business, and send to sales prospects looking to switch from other systems. Of course, since we’re FeedBlitz, I actually run it through my own service first to make it pretty, change the feed’s title and add social media sharing options. What I send in practice, then, is this.

Excellent customer service can help close the loop for sales. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

Tip 3: Twitter favorites become a great resource for the times when people ask what it’s like to work with you.

All you have to do is tweet back “Don’t take my word for it, see this…” and let your fans do the convincing for you. It’s simple, powerful, and effective.

Twitter is your real-time sales and service secret weapon

Sales and customer service are both hard to do well. Twitter search makes them easier, by providing you with:

  • direct access to the right people
  • direct access at the right time.

Used well, Twitter Favorites give you the resources you need to make these tasks easier and more productive as time goes by. How else do you use Twitter to promote your business or blog?

Phil Hollows is the Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz, the email and social media marketing automation service and premium FeedBurner alternative. Phil writes the FeedBlitz News blog (subscribe here) and the weekly “List Building for Bloggers” series. Follow Phil on Twitter as @phollows, or read his full bio here.

Written on 11/29/2010 at 6:03 am by

Put Out the Welcome Mat: How to Run a Blog Contest with Panache

Filed Under: Blog Promotion

This guest post is by Nathalie Lussier.

Whether you’ve got a new blog or want to jump start your existing blog, you have two options: 1) keep blogging and hope it pans out, 2) try something different.

In this post you’ll learn how to run a blog contest with panache. Just like you want to organize a great party that everyone continues to talk about weeks after, your blog contest should create a great experience for everyone involved.

People love participating in contests: it makes them feel like they’re a part of something special, whether they win or not.

Before we dive in, let’s look at how running a giveaway on your blog can shift your blog into high gear.

Nurture what you’ve got and watch it grow

Ever notice how people who are good at taking care of what they have tend to get more of it? For example, people who are great at saving and investing money tend to make more of it? The same is true when it comes to taking care of your audience.

A new way to look at blog contests is to consider them as:

  1. a way to thank your existing readers for their loyalty
  2. a way to bring in fresh new readers.

Most of the advice on contests is about creating a buzz and getting more traffic to your blog. But I think it’s even more important to remember that, with a contest, you’re saying thank you to your existing audience.

Contests are also the perfect way to ask people what their challenges are, which will give you an idea of what topics to cover in future blog posts.

Contests create social proof.

If your blog is brand new and you want to build up social proof right off the bat, then consider setting up a simple contest. You will get more comments, social media props, and testimonials than you thought possible.

Giveaways increase engagement.

Ever publish a blog post only to hear crickets chirping? Yuck. No fun.

With a giveaway you’re sure to get lots of responses—if you do it right. The trick is to make your giveaways simple to enter, so you remove the barrier to entry and get more people to participate. The more people participate, the more likely they are to come back for more of your content and become loyal fans.

Start a buzz.

How do you know when something is creating a buzz? When everyone starts talking about it. People love sharing things that are useful, relevant, and fun. If you build your contest with these ideas in mind you’re going to give people something worth spreading.

Share your products or services in a fun, non-spammy way.

One creative way to use contests and giveaways is to offer your services or products as the prize. Structuring a contest around what you offer is a great way to make people aware of your products and services. If people like what you’ve got and they don’t win, they may decide to purchase.

Create a contest with panache

Now let’s look at how to structure your contest to ensure it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

1. To get sponsors or to go it alone?

Depending on the size of your blog, you might be approached by sponsors to offer their products as the contest giveaway. My rule is that you must feel like it’s a good fit for your audience, and stand behind the product, if you’re to give away an external party’s product.

For one giveaway, I mailed out two of my favorite books, so there was a values match there.

You could also approach sponsors that you think would be a good match for your audience. However, like Darren demonstrated in a previous article, it’s actually easier to give away your own products or services if you have them.

Delivering digital products is much easier than following up with someone to ask for their mailing address, and it’s also a great way to debut a new product or service.

2. Keep it simple, sweetie.

The easiest way to invite people to participate in a giveaway is to have them comment on a blog post. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to participate. You want people to participate and get excited about the contest.

I also recommend emailing your newsletter and directing them to the contest blog post so they can enter, even if they haven’t visited your blog in a while.

3. Add a social media component.

It’s easy to assume that people will be so excited about your giveaway that they’ll be shouting it from the rooftops. But unless you ask them to spread the word, they probably won’t. We’re all busy and after someone enters a contest they’ll probably be off to the next thing. One way to get the most bang for your contest buck is to build social media sharing into the contest.

Ask participants to tweet, Facebook like, or blog your contest for extra points. If it’s just a matter of clicking a tweet button, they’re a lot more likely to take action.

Be clear that sharing on social media sites (using a hashtag so you can track it, for example) will give them a greater chance to win.

4. Ask people to get creative.

If you’re offering a more highly priced, valuable prize, and you know people will be chomping at the bit to get it, then make them get creative.

The perfect example of this is Marie Forleo’s contest, where she gave away a seat to her live event in New York City, complete with accommodations. Marie was very clear that she wanted to get people to take action in a way that would get them moving toward their goals, whether they won or not. So she fashioned the contest in a way that rewarded people who filmed creative videos. This got many people to post their very first video online!

5. Decide on the winning criteria.

Often the easiest way to identify your winner is to select someone randomly, using a number generator. That may be the most egalitarian way of giving out a prize, but I think you’ll get a lot more engagement if you set selection criteria. For instance, you might let readers know that you’ll pick the response that’s most passionate.

You can also set up your contests using a two-step process, if you’re having a hard time choosing a winner and the prize is substantial. First, gather the contestants and have them comment or film videos, then set up the finalists in a poll. In this case, the numbers will clear show who the winner is. Having a poll will also get the participants to share with their networks to gather votes, thus bringing in more visitors.

Being clear that you’ll be the final decision-maker is just as important as the rest of the criteria I’ve mentioned here.

6. Keep to a timeline

One of the biggest mistakes I see new bloggers make is to have a contest every week. Unless your blog is set up to be a contest blog, you want to build contests in as a fun surprise and not a regular occurrence.

The problem with too many contests is that you’re essentially bribing your readers instead of giving them good value through your content. I recommend running contests once per quarter.

Most giveaways run best with a deadline that’s about a week away. This gives people enough time to enter and to share the contest with friends. The timeframe’s also a short, so it won’t get lost or forgotten on a to-do list.

Your contest giveaway action plan

Here’s a quick recap that you can use as a checklist to plan your first (or next!) contest:

  1. Choose your purpose: good will, buzz, engagement, launch.
  2. Decide whether you’ll go with a sponsor, give something you possess/buy, or offer a product or service you provide.
  3. Choose the scope: make it super-simple or ask people to put some skin in the game.
  4. Pick a time frame: no more than a week, and no more often than every quarter.
  5. Kick off the contest with your social media network, blog, and email newsletter.
  6. Keep the energy going after the contest ends by giving everyone who participated something really cool like a free ebook or special piece of content.

Have you ever used a contest on your blog? How did it go?

Nathalie Lussier is a contest loving blogger and a finalist at the Infusionsoft contest, who will love you forever if you vote for her Raw Foods Witch here. It takes less than 5 seconds, and you’ll see how to run a high-end contest at the same time! Tweet her at @NathLussier.

Written on 11/29/2010 at 12:09 am by

How to Use a Magazine to Improve Your Blog

Filed Under: Video Posts

View this video at full size here.

Looking for a little inspiration for your blog? Check out this simple exercise that I do from time to time, particularly if I’ve got a little time to spare and a magazine handy.

Note: pick a magazine that relates to your topic—unlike I did in this video! [Read more...]

Written on 11/28/2010 at 12:06 am by

10 Realizations that Will Crush Your Little Heart In Your First Year of Blogging

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips

This guest post is by Moon from Experiments in Passive Income.

This post comes from someone who has made a ton of mistakes and is on her way to learn from those mistakes. You and I probably have a lot in common … after all, you’re here to learn about blogging and how to do it well and, well, I’m trying to do the same.

Being the owner and author of a blog that is in its first year of infancy, it’s been an emotional roller coaster ride—kind of like riding a car with a driver who makes you think of your impending death thanks to their inept braking skills and their random urges to switch lanes (without looking).

As a new blogger in a very crowded niche, I’ve found the year tough. It’s been tough finding my voice among so many others, producing content that is rich and teaches others a thing or two, attracting traffic that sticks (subscribers)—all while trying to establish a schedule.

Still, it helps to be prepared. Here are ten things that will crush your little heart in your first year of blogging:

1. You’re still waking up to low subscriber levels.

After eight months, only 100 subscribers are subscribing to your blog feed. Yeah, that will kill you inside. You might smile on the outside and tell yourself all’s well … but you’ll have to swallow your pride and evaluate how you’re hindering your blog’s growth. Are you presenting your readers with boring content? Or do you need to guest blog to bring exposure to your new blog?

2. You realize that attracting visitors is more than just good SEO.

Sooner or later, you’ll realize that attracting visitors to your blog is more than just good SEO (long-term strategy). At that point, it’s time to buckle down and learn how to use Twitter, su.pr, and Facebook properly to garner thousands of views a month.

This type of social media marketing needs to be done, and done well. And it will take you more than a few minutes to promote your content properly and on a daily basis. No one wants to simply hear noise on their media streams—give them that, and they’ll quickly stop paying attention to you.

3. You realize what SEO entails.

Eventually, it dawns on every budding blogger that SEO involves much more than just incorporating your keywords into your content excessively and using keyword rich links. If you want search traffic, you need to spend a few hours a month learning about SEO and actually executing it. It’s amazing how much time I’ve spent catching up on SEO, but I’m still not using it properly. I bet you’re not, either.

4. You fail to monetize your blog.

When you don’t earn even a measly $100 per month from your blog, despite trying hard, it hurts. But earning money through your blog is more than slapping ads on it. Keep trying!

5. You realize there are no easy ways to make money through your blog.

It’s absolutely essential that you write great, unique content and create a list of subscribers who love that content. It’s not 2001 anymore! People have become wary of the Internet, and they want proof of your success before they’ll trust you. Give it to them.

6. You understand that you need to do more for others.

You want subscribers? You need to do more. To get that list going, you should probably create a handy, free ebook or report that deals with a topic related to your blog, and helps your readers. Yes, you do have to help others in order to help yourself.

7. You recognize that good content can take more than an hour to create.

Great content will definitely take more than an hour, especially if you’re a beginner. Anyone can produce good content. You’ll need to write unique and in-depth content to give your readers something to talk about and impress other fellow bloggers—to get the buzz going, so to speak.

8. You realize that people want to read specifics and in-depth case studies.

Your readers can find generic crap anywhere. There are tons of blogs that talk about growing your traffic or making money online … and the majority are boring!

Instead, show readers how you’ve helped someone grow traffic or what strategies you’ve implemented to make money through your blog. This is precisely what I did when I showed my readers how exact domain names can kill the competition! This kind of content takes a bit of time and experience to develop. Keep plugging away!

9. You understand that networking is a necessity, not an option.

This doesn’t mean you re-tweet someone’s post occasionally. You need to converse with your followers, ask questions, and interact with other bloggers—successful ones as well as beginners in your niche and peer bloggers who started around the time you did. Create a group that helps promote each others’ posts. You never know who will get your hype snowball rolling.

10. You realize that you’ve been doing most things wrong!

Just because you knew all this stuff doesn’t mean you executed it at all, or executed it properly. At the time when I started my blog, I thought I knew something about blogs and making money online. But that learning is an ongoing process. Once you realize this, you might feel momentary despair. That’s okay—as long as you continue to take steps and improve your efforts.

Despite all these things that might have you sobbing under the blanket with a pint of scotch, hopefully you’ll realize that you should keep going. In fact, if you love what you’re blogging about, the pure thrill of having your content go viral or making your first few sales will probably have you giggling like a school girl and make you realize that it’s all worth it.

I’ve made all these mistakes and then some and I won’t be quitting any time soon! What mistakes have you made in your blogging experience? Share them with us!

Join Moon as she shares results of her passive income experiments at her website. You can check out her free ebook, To The Moon & Back, in which she details all her experiments in the span of a year

Written on 11/27/2010 at 12:03 am by

Inspiration vs. Obligation: the Great Creativity Debate

Filed Under: Writing Content

Ali’s recent post discouraged us from forcing creativity. If you don’t feel it, she said, don’t write. Yet Gretchen recommends sitting down and writing every day, because you’ll get in a rhythm and stay connected to your material.

Well, which is it? Should you force yourself at your blogging, even when you don’t feel the inspiration, or wait patiently for the muse to visit, hopefully before you lose your readers through neglect? I’m curious to hear how you approach this question. After all, blogging is about content, right? If we can’t generate content on demand, what are our chances of being great bloggers?

As a professional writer, I’ve had plenty of time to consider the inspiration vs. obligation (or creativity vs. productivity) question, and I think the best answer revolves around self-awareness.

Starting out

When I began writing, I’d only write when I felt the urge. Fortunately for me, that was a fairly continuous state, but for many bloggers, it’s not. This is particularly true for the beginning blogger who’s striving to build an inventory of great content, but after an initial flush of inspiration, finds themselves scratching for ideas, and creatively burnt out.

As you’re beginning, and getting a feel for either blogging itself, or your topic in particular, you might do well to try to write multiple posts at those times when inspiration strikes. If you’re feeling psyched about your topic, don’t spend three hours honing one post: spend it drafting five posts. Then, on the days when you’re not feeling so creative, spend your time honing and publishing that store of articles, tiding your blog and your readers over with consistently great content until the muse returns.

This approach keeps you engaged with your blog and your topic—you’re working on new content every day—and can significantly boost your post quality, since you’re reviewing drafts with those fresh eyes that writers and editors are always talking about. It also keeps readers engaged, and returning.

If you can consciously tune in to your inspiration, you’ll come to know what it feels like, and understand the capabilities that come with different degrees of inspiration. Will you get three posts from today’s inspiration, or ten?

This approach really comes into its own as your blog becomes a longer term project.

Long-term creativity

If you’ve monetized your blog, or established a strong following, you may well find that you have more of an investment in it—and in producing great content for it. Without content, your income will drop, and your audience will be disappointed. Suddenly, writing when the mood takes you won’t seem like such a viable proposition any more. And with that thought comes a new kind of pressure.

Many bloggers struggle at this point, because posting becomes a monetized task—it becomes work, and an obligation—and the sense of creative fun that writing used to hold suddenly seems to disappear. But if you’ve taken the beginners’ approach I outlined above, you’ll have a strong chance of getting through this phase, to reach a point where you can produce a reliable stream of quality content on demand.

You’ve spent your first months or years of blogging learning what the creative urge feels like, and what it makes you capable of. You’ve also been developing your creative muscle and learning the techniques and skills that make your writing great.

So you have a rich store of experience, knowledge, and inspiration to fall back on. You also know what you’re capable of, creatively speaking.

When you sit down at your desk to write, you’ll know if you’ve got zero articles in you, or twenty. You’ll be able to manage the ebbs and flows of your creativity. Most importantly, though, you’ll be able to rely on your knowledge and skill—rather than heaven-sent inspiration alone—to produce excellent content.

You’ll know that all you need is that 1% inspiration to kick you off. After that, the work of writing the post is all perspiration: technique, concept, and skill.

Do I write my best work when I’m inspired? Who knows? Over time, the idea of “creative inspiration” has become immaterial. I just write. I know when I have a wild rush of ideas, and I know when my mind seems more suited to the more predictable work of editing and polishing my content. But through the process I outlined here, the magical, mystical quality of “inspiration” has been replaced by the more sustaining notion of reliable output—output being, by its very nature, creative.

How do you manage the balance between inspiration and obligation when it comes to creating content for your blog?

Written on 11/26/2010 at 12:01 am by

How Changing My Intentions Made Me Money

Filed Under: Blogging for Dollars

This guest post is by Roman from how this website makes money.

Two years ago I stumbled across the concept of blogging for money.  Instantly it hit me as the perfect thing: sit behind a computer, design a site, write, be my own boss, work from home, what could be better? I knew nothing about traffic, SEO, backlinks, Pagerank, or keywords.  I knew nothing about how to make money with a website.  So what did I do next?  I registered the domain name howthiswebsitemakesmoney.

Looking back all I can do is laugh at my arrogance.  Like thousands before me and thousands who will come after me, my first attempt at blogging was a site about making money online.

Two years later, I know how to start a site, I know how to write content, I know about SEO, I know about backlinks, I know how to add advertisements … but I still do not know how to make good money online.  The site makes dimes a day, not dollars.

The site has been two years of disappointment.  Two  years of waking up in the morning and seeing the same green egg in AdSense.  Two years of waiting for a four-digit affiliate check with my name on it.  Two years of working without pay.  Two years of scratching my head.

So I asked for advice, and every time the reply was the same: create a site about something else. Create a site about what you know and what you enjoy.  Do not create a site with the intent to make money, create a site with the intent to help people by doing something you enjoy doing.

What happened when I changed my intent

Six months ago I created a new site.  This time my intent was pure pleasure.

I live in Prague and I love it here.  So I made a little site about how great Prague is and what people should do when they come for a visit.  It was built in a month.  In a gust of activity I designed the site and wrote the content.

It was so easy.   I did not agonize over what to write about.  The content flowed effortlessly from my head to the keyboard.  I did not have to take long walks with the dog or waste water standing dazed in the shower coming up with new ideas.  I just sat down at the computer and wrote about what I know.  It was so easy I actually looked forward to it.

As an afterthought, I created a simple page where people can order a real postcard from Prague.  Visitors select a picture of Prague and fill out a form indicating what they want written on the postcard.  After they hit the Submit button I get the request by email.  I grab a postcard and, like an ancient scribe long before computers, lick the tip of the pen and write.  After pounding a Prague stamp on the postcard I toss it into the mailbox on my way to work. I charge $4.00 for this five minutes of work.

I created this site with no aspirations of becoming rich, no day dreams of shaking hands with Oprah, no imagined scenes of telling my employer to find some other donkey to kick around. I created the website because it was easy for me to do and I enjoyed it. I made it because I needed a break from my ‘real’ website. I expected nothing to happen.

Again, I was wrong.

My hand is ink blue from all the postcards I have written.

I wrote a postcard from a son playing a trick on his mother: “Hi, Mom!  Sorry for not calling in last few days.  But I am in Prague with friends.  Having a great time and the beer is sooo cheap.  Say hi to Dad.”

I have written postcards to countries all over the world.  Some of them in languages other then English—I have no idea what I am writing. Fortunately, the order form does not allow Chinese characters!

I get emails from people thanking me for the information they found on the site, thanking me for the postcard, asking for more information.

I feel like I am making the world a better place.  I made a website about something I know about and am interested in and people are thanking me. Emotionally it is a soft, warm, fuzzy ball.

And yes, I am making money.

Intend to enjoy and you might make money

I learned a lot about making money online not from my site about making money, but from licking postage stamps.

New arrivals to the make-money-online scene go through the same initiation—they start out with the intent to make money, then fail to make more then a pile of pennies.  For some it means the end and they quit, but for others this brutal introduction teaches them that their intent needs to change.

Of course, making money is about traffic, clicks, affiliates, backlinks SEO, but it’s also about finding something you enjoy doing.  If your intent is only to make money the odds are stacked against you: you will probably quit.  But if your intent is to do something you enjoy then you will keep moving forward until one day, you will be surprised to find that you are making money.

What’s your intent?

Roman intends to figure out how this website makes money.  He has been trying to do that for two long years, so when he needs a break and do something fun he goes onto his other website to send a real postcard to his mother who misses him very much.

Written on 11/25/2010 at 9:25 am by

How to Use Social Media to Attract a Higher Advertiser Rate

Filed Under: Social Media

This post is by Clare Lancaster, of WomenInBusiness.com.au.

As a blog business owner, your brand needs to reach beyond your blog.

Your presence on social media is a valuable one. In some ways, it’s the ultimate opt-in. When someone follows you on Twitter, subscribes to your YouTube channel or likes your Facebook page they’re making a choice to connect with you—and are receptive to your message.

These communication channels become assets for you to cultivate loyalty, relationships, and importantly, influence.

These assets are valuable not only for you, but for advertisers also. More and more, my advertising leads are inquiring about social media reach. They don’t just want a banner ad on my website—they want their brand exposed to my social networks.

There are creative ways to add more value for advertisers (in exchange for higher rates) without being spammy. You don’t want to sell your soul and lose the trust that you’ve built, but there’s no reason why you can’t monetize the attention of your audience beyond your blog.

Ways to use social media to offer more value to advertisers

  • Publish a blog post to welcome a new sponsor and tweet about it.
  • Publish a monthly “Editor’s picks” post including from your advertiser’s products/service range.
  • Continue this by linking to a page within an advertiser’s products/service range from Facebook.
  • Add a page to your Facebook account detailing monthly special offers that you’ve negotiated with your advertisers.

Make sure in all cases that the line between all advertising/editorial is clearly drawn and appropriately marked.

Add your social media statistics to your media kit and include any extras that advertisers will receive when they choose to book a campaign with you. You’ll get extra dollars for minimal extra work, and your advertisers will receive extra value.

Haven’t separated your personal social media accounts from your blog’s yet? Next week I’ll explore the pros and cons of doing just that.

Clare Lancaster offers blog reviews to help improve the business performance of your blog. She is passionate about helping people make their own path in work and life and can be found on Twitter most days (@clarelancaster).

Written on 11/25/2010 at 12:03 am by

How to Create Killer Content for Your Blog: New Course Starting Soon

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

create-killer-content.png While great content doesn’t guarantee success,  it sure does help! Yet so many bloggers struggle to produce content that engages with and meets the needs of readers.

As a result, Chris Garrett and I have put together a brand new short course—Create Killer Content for your Blog—to help set you on the right track.

The course is presented over five modules (in five days):

  1. Planning your content: coming up with ideas, finding your voice, types of posts to try
  2. Structuring your content: writing your content in a way that works
  3. Polishing your content: taking good content and making it great
  4. Killer multimedia content: podcasts, interviews, slide shows, and video
  5. Live webinar: a Q&A call with myself and Chris at the end of the week.

This course starts Monday, 6 December and it costs just $29.95 (or $99 if you bundle it with the other 3 upcoming Pillars of ProBlogger courses).

If you can’t do it all in the week in which the course is scheduled, don’t worry: you’ll have access to all the course materials for 12 months, so you can take it at your own pace.

Who is this short course for?

Creating Killer content is for you if…

  • you’re struggling with producing content for your blog
  • you’re trying to find your voice as a blogger
  • you’ve run out of ideas to write about
  • you’re just looking for a little refresher and/or inspiration.

Note: we’re assuming participants of this course have a blog. If you don’t, check out the free Getting Started Blogging course.

So if you’d like to inject your blog with some killer content, this is a course for you. Sign up today here.

Written on 11/24/2010 at 10:21 am by

StudioPress Offer 25% Off Themes – Last Sale Ever

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

If you’re looking to start a new blog or redesign a current one, you’ll want to check this out.

StudioPress Premium WordPress ThemesStarting today, StudioPress (the creators of some amazing themes) are offering 25% off all of the products that they make if you use the word “BLACK” as a coupon code. It’s part of their Black Friday sale, which ends on Tuesday.

This discount applies to all of their themes and frameworks, including:

I’ve switched two of my main blogs over to StudioPress themes in the last few weeks, and have been very impressed by the results. They’re fast loading, well optimized for search engines, and simple to use and secure.

The team at StudioPress also tell me that as of Tuesday (when this ends) they won’t be doing any more discounting—this is their last sale.

Make the most of it and secure a StudioPress theme today.

Disclaimer: I’m an affiliate of StudioPress. As a user of StudioPress products I’m more than happy to recommend them. That’s why my face is on the front page of their site telling the world how much I love them!