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Bringing The Community Atmosphere Back To Your Blog

October 19, 2010 By 1 Comment

One of the top reasons blogs are successful online over top news and informational sites is the growing, active community that breeds around the words that go live when you hit the publish button.

That personal connection between blogger/reader and reader/reader is what keeps your subscribers coming back for more time and time again (in addition to your kick ass content). This uniqueness of community within blogging is the driving force that continues to create traffic and profits in the blogging industry. However, while there is a ton of information out there on building community in your blogging, there are several things that you need to keep in mind when you are trying to build community in your own corner of the web.

Not All Communities Communicate In The Same Way

While the blogging niche is known of commenting on blog articles, the rest of the online world is not necessarily going to communicate in the same way. I see a lot of bloggers in sports, technology or other niches that try to force the blog commenting down the throats of their readers to find only one or two comments on an article that is getting thousands of pageviews. The reality…their readers want to communicate and form a community around a different online asset.

When you are looking to form an active community around your blog, you need to take a serious look at how members of your niche are communicating online in other areas. Here are a couple of examples to look for…

  • Online Forums and Bulletin Boards
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • Special Interest Sites – Flickr.com, etc.

When you figure out how your audience wants to communicate online, you have to either bring your brand and your blog to them (Facebook Fan pages, Twitter lists, etc.), or create your own asset on your blog (example: add a forum to your site).

Building Communities Takes Serious Time And Effort

To bringing the community atmosphere to your blog takes a lot of time and effort. Luckily, this investment pays off in a big way as you create dedicated and loyal readers in the process that will promote your blog and increase your bottom line. If you are serious about building up this asset in your blogging, you have to be ready for the long haul as it is not an overnight process.

Commenting On Articles – If your readers like to comment on articles, be prepared to answer as many comments as you can to foster that connection between blogger/reader. Also, tailor your content by asking questions and having a defined opinion to breed more comments on articles and between readers. If you have a handful of regular subscribers that provide feedback, reach out to them and ask for some help with getting comments started on articles. The first comment is sometimes the hardest to get…

Jump Starting Forums - Online forums are one of the hardest resources online to get started. However, they can be a HUGE resource in your blogging for repeat visits, pageviews and traffic to your blog articles. You are going to need the help of contests, active moderators to start topics and constant replying to topics within your forum to create the stickiness that successful forums require.

Creating Online Profiles and Driving Traffic To Them – If your readers prefer communicating on social media sites like Twitter for Facebook, you have to build up credible online profiles in each of these online resources. This means you have to have professional looking avatars and background, onsite promotion tools to drive traffic to the profiles and constant/consistent updates to keep fresh content following. One of the easiest ways to create community around your social profiles is to ask questions related to your niche (also great for spurring blog content ideas), but you have to put in the effort to attract followers so you actually have people that will answer!

Strong Communities = Success Online

The most successful blogs online have some version of a community asset on their blog. In most cases, successful bloggers combine multiple community assets to further increase their spread online and attract different kinds of internet users in the process.

If you are serious about making a serious run at online success, your involvement with communication and interaction is key to fostering a community atmosphere around your online real-estate.

Filed Under: Blogging, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Hot Chicks Are Always Going To Have More Twitter Followers Than You

August 5, 2010 By 14 Comments

It’s true…hot chicks are always going to have more Twitter followers than you, but…it doesn’t matter because 1/2 of them aren’t even real and the other 1/2 just have a bunch of worthless followers.

You see it all the time. Some hot chick avatar has 75,000+ followers but they are following 82,000+ and you say to yourself, “man…I wish I had that many followers. I am going to do whatever I can to get them.” I am here to tell you that you should much rather have your 1,000 or even 100 followers rather than their 75,000+ that they spam on a regular basis.

In today’s social media environment, there seems to be an obsession to race to the highest number. Whether it be Twitter followers, RSS feed subscribers or pageviews, aspiring bloggers and social media gurus are all watching stats closely to see where they stand. If you have some successful history in blogging/social media, you already know there is a numbers game and the more you have…the more you typically make. But…the really experienced know that the numbers game is about QUALITY more than it is about quantity.

In the pursuit of stat racing, many aspiring entrepreneurs take the road too much traveled of lowering themselves to sleazy tactics in the attempt to attract more followers or subscribers. They throw up controversial blog posts in the interest of viral spreading instead of quality content. They put up pictures of barely dressed women in their avatars and posts. They even go as far to try to call out other successful entrepreneurs to try to attract attention. If they are trying to use sleazy tactics like putting a hot chick as their avatar, they do not know the first thing about making money online and their business is failing before they even get started.

It’s Not A Race and Quality Matters More Than Quantity

I don’t know about you, but when I build up my online businesses, I do not want a bunch of dirty old men on my lists. I want targeted leads that actually want to digest what I have to say. While there is something to the whole “social proof” theory (more people sign up when they see a big stat…wish it wasn’t true but it is), I would much rather have 1,000 highly targeted followers/leads than 100,000 that are just random.

When you are seeking out new subscribers, followers or new visitors to your blogs and social media outlets, the #1 goal should be finding quality, targeted eyes not just a mass quantity.

How To Find Quality, Targeted Leads and Subscribers

So…we know you need to have better followers and subscribers than the internet marketing hot chick, so where do we find these targeted leads? The #1 way I have found to grow my online real estates is simple.

Find where your potential new visitors are hanging out and bring them back to your blogs, Twitter account, Facebook fan pages, etc.

New followers and subscribers are not going to magically find you online. The “build it and they will come” theory to online growth never held true so it is not going to work for you. If you really want to grow your blog and business online, you are going to have to actively search out new visitors and find a way to get them on your pages. Here are a couple of examples to get you started.

  • Actively Guest Post On Popular Blogs In Your Niche – One of the most popular ways to attract new readers is to guest post on other blogs. This theory works incredibly well in niches that have active bloggers. If you are in a niche that does not have a strong blogging community, you are going to have to look to other outlets to pull new readers in.
  • Build Up Online Forum Profiles – Online forums are still the #1 place for dedicated online obsessed to exert their passions and share them with others. For every niche that you would want to blog about, there are a ton of active forums that you can participate in. However, forum communities are extremely sensitive to spam, so becoming a valuable member of the community is essential before you start pushing your content.
  • SEO Targeted Content - In my biking niche, I rely on Google and other search engines to deliver a large portion of my new leads. By doing keyword research with Google Adwords and writing SEO optimized articles using Scribe, I can bring in a massive amount of targeted, new visitors a day. While building up a blog with strong SEO presence can take time, it is still the #1 way to pull in new visitors. For beginning blogs, focusing on long tail keyword strings can bring you in some early success when you can’t compete with the older, larger sites on high competition keywords in the beginning.
  • Use Your Search Functions - Within Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets, there is always a search function that allows you to find targeted leads. While this may not be the most efficient way to get a large number at once, they are highly targeted. By finding out which hash tags your audience is using in Twitter and which Fan Pages they are following on Facebook, you can open your blog and social media accounts to an entirely new audience.
  • Interact and Communicate – Blogging and social media is still a people business. Interact and talk with as many people in your niche as you can. Those friendships that you grow over time will help you grow your business exponentially.

It isn’t rocket science. The more you try to cheat the system and employ tactics that you think are going to get you drastic results with 1/2 the work, them more you are setting yourself up for failure. Just remember, the fake hot chick on Twitter is going to act like they are making butt loads online…but in reality…their un-targeted leads are not making them a thing. Focus on quality and the results will be bigger than you would have ever imagined.

Model photo by Mike__G

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , ,

Never Underestimate The Power Of Free

January 28, 2010 By 11 Comments

As a blogger, you slave away delivering high quality content for your readers that they get to digest on a regular basis for free. After all of the late nights, time away from family and countless hours churning out that content, what do you get in return? You get the request for more free stuff! Everything from free forum sites to free ebooks. Your readers are not only asking…they are expecting you to continue the gravy train by delivering high quality, free content and resources on your blog. When do you catch a break? When you do you get to ride the gravy train for awhile?

Never Underestimate The Power Of Free

There is a very specific reason you are giving away the farm. Free is a very powerful asset to your blogging. As you look at other blogs in your niche and around the web, take a serious look at how they leverage the power of free to increase their business substantially.

You Are Gaining Trust

By giving away products, services and articles for free, you are gaining the trust of your readers. They come to expect high quality content out of your blog over time and that consistency will play in your favor as you continue to grow. They will trust you enough to recommend you to others, they will trust you enough to sign up for email newsletters and they will trust you enough to purchase paid products in the future. Why are they going to do this? Because of your solid track history in delivering quality.

You Are Positioning Yourself As The Expert

You are the resource that people are going to flock to in your niche for information and resources. Since everything is free, you are attracting a larger audience to your content. Larger audiences and more public content positions yourself and and your blog as the expert due to the increased amount of content and resources. Do you trust people or companies with your credit card number that were not recommend or you do not know anything about? Probably not and the same holds true with blogging. When you position yourself as the expert in your field through free content and services, you are gaining an immeasurable asset.

You Are Gaining Assets For Future Income

By giving away your content and products for free, you are gaining future assets that will be leveraged in the future for monetary gain. You are gaining rss subscribers, newsletter subscribers, forum members and essential links for organic search engine results. This will gain you more affiliate sales, direct advertising revenue and sponsorships by having an even larger following.

You Are Making Money Now

Yes…your ebook and your articles are free, but that does not mean they can not contain affiliate links where applicable. How do you think most internet marketers, bloggers and site owners make money with nothing but free product? The are allowing their affiliate links (for companies and products they trust) to reach a wider audience through the use of free products where they would not see as many eyes through a paid product. The trick…only promote/link products that you 100% believe in and support to keep the trust building around your brand.

The Power Of Free

The power of free is a huge money making resource for bloggers as it continues to increase trust and income. For many bloggers, it is still a hard concept to grasp as there is a lot of time and effort that goes into free products. As you look for ways to leverage your blog and increase revenues, trust in the power of free to grow your blog past the clouds. You and your readers will receive much more benefit through the process than you lose out on by creating a paid product right off the bat. Successful blogging is about finding those equations that work by balancing free products and services along with your paid options.

Be on the lookout: At the beginning of next week, I am launching a new free eBook. This eBook will require no opt-in…no money…and will be license under the creative commons license so you can email and link to it however you want to (as long as you don’t alter it or claim it as your own!).

Image by Sanandreas

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Tagged With: , , ,