Blogging. Fatherhood. Business Building. It's all here.

How To Leverage Twitter To Bring Old Posts Back To Life

March 21, 2011 By 6 Comments

Blogging and WordPress do a lot of great things together. Search engines love the code and regularly updated content, writters find it easy to publish their content and sites are relatively easy to navigate and find what you want. In the web world, that is a pretty strong formula for success.

However, there is one plaguing problem in blogging platforms and structure that frustrates the hell out of bloggers over time.

We spend all of this time putting together articles that are meant to inform, entertain and help people only to find that a year later they are buried in the archives for no one to find. With regularly updated content, our timeless content continues to be pushed down the line making it harder to find by new readers and search engines alike. The easy fix is to remember these articles and link to them within new relevant articles, but how can we start to easily leverage social media to get those same articles in front of the eyes of our followers?

I started searching around to find a tool to do this for me as I do not want to be spending hours of my day scheduling these posts (I have better things to do that generate more income). After looking at the features of several different options, I landed on one that had what I needed and started the testing process.

WordPress Plugin: Tweet Old Post

First, let me start by saying I typically do not like automated systems. They tend to be very impersonal and everyone knows when you are using one even if you think they do not. If something is going to be automated, it needs to be highly configurable and able to integrate into more personal atmospheres easily by providing value.

I uploaded Tweet Old Post to my WordPress install of Blogging Labs and started the configuration process. Luckily, this free plugin allows you to do several essential tasks that make it usable for me in this application.

Timing of Old Post Tweets

You can set the random times that tweets go out to your followers. Part of the reason that Twitter is the perfect testing ground for a system like this is because the timeline moves quick enough that you will not be annoying people and it has a viral aspect to it that you hope your articles start to get retweeted. If you do it too often, people will ignore your links and unfollow you, so setting a random time for these tweets to hit your timeline hours apart does wonders for not looking like spam.

Excluding Categories

One of the biggest things I needed in a plugin such as this one was the ability to exclude entire categories from being tweeted out. Information that was tweeted from my archives needed to be timeless to still be relevant. I did not want old articles that are no longer applicable to today’s environment to get tweeted out because that would look terrible as it has zero value to my followers.

Omit WordPress Categories

By being able to exclude categories, I can remove blocks of archives that should not be tweeted, or I do not feel provide enough value to my timeline. As you can see from my excluded lists, I tried to keep any articles from my archives to blogging tips, tutorials and advice.

Exclude Specific Posts

To fine tune the process even further, there were posts that I didn’t necessarily want retweeted within those categories as well for one reason or another.

Omit Specific WordPress Posts

Tweet Old Post allows you to also omit specific articles from being sent out to your followers automatically. Another great feature that I needed to insure the quality of the tweets would be at their highest.

After you have everything setup, an automated tweet ends up looking like this on your timeline.

Tweet from Tweet Old Post

A Couple Of Things To Keep In Mind…

Before you jump in headfirst and never look back, keep these couple of things in mind.

  • If you are going to set something like this up, you need to have some archives to pull from. As you can see, I really fine tuned my process, but if that came down to a dozen or so post by the time I was done, I would be sending out a very small number of articles over and over again. Talk about annoying for anyone that is following you.
  • You also need to gauge reactions within your Twitter following to see how people are taking the automation. In my @robbsutton account, the change was actually taken in very well and I am now getting traffic and RT’s into my older content…which was the goal. I even started asking around to followers to see what they thought and the overall reaction was positive.
  • I do not think this kind of automation would work with Facebook. The timeline does not move fast enough to keep you from clogging the system and in the end you would end up annoying friends and family at the same time. Saying that…if you have your Facebook account linked to your Twitter account so when you send out a tweet it updates your Facebook page, I would break that link before you start testing this out.

Overall, I have been happy with the result as I am always looking for ways to bring people to content that has been buried down over time. There are not very many efficient ways to get this accomplished, but Tweet Old Post seems to do a really good job by leveraging the fast moving timeline of Twitter. It’s highly configurable backend is the only reason I believe you can really make an automated system like this work.

But…just remember…you need to actually converse with your Twitter followers as well and RT other content. Your entire timeline can not be just automated tweets of your own content if you want to be successful with that online medium.

Download Tweet Old Post for free here.

Filed Under: Content, Plugins, Reviews, Social Media, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

4 Tips To Insure Your Success In 2011 and Beyond

January 5, 2011 By 6 Comments

With 2010 behind us and 2011 up and running, everyone is looking to improve this year over last. For many of you, you might be looking to make 2011 your breakout year as you take your dream and make it a reality. It is possible, you just have to keep you mindset on the right path to success and that makes the sky the limit for what you can accomplish over the next 12 months.

#1 – This Is Not A Backup Plan

Your future is too important to treat your business as a backup plan. I hear far too many bloggers and small online business owners say, “It makes me some side cash and hopefully…one day…it will be full time.” One day never comes with that attitude…it will always be side income instead of your profession.

Owning your own business (online or not) is dependent on a correct mindset from the very beginning. Do I believe in working a 9-5 until you can replace the income with your blogging? Absolutely. I even suggest working both if you can pull it for as long as you can balance the needs of your lifestyle (before you have kids, etc.), but if you expect to make it big with the mindset of small…you are sorely mistaken. You have to jump into your life headfirst as if there was no other option. You want to be full-time with your dream and that is the goal from day one. Will it provide side income in the meantime? Yes it will, but you will spend the side income on stuff you don’t need with a bad business mindset instead of putting it where it belongs…back into your business for growth.

Start 2011 with the mindset that you are going to make it big in 2011. It is not if or hopefully…it is when and that is dependent upon you.

#2 – Form Efficient Working Habits

We waste a TON of time. It’s true. Even those of us that think we are incredibly efficient still waste a lot of time.

In 2011, you need to figure out how you can efficiently work to get the most out of every minute you are in front of that computer or networking. I personally use tools like Evernote, Google Calendars and scheduling posts to make sure I am running at full steam at all times. Just recently, I used my need for efficiency as an excuse with my wife to pick up an iPad. While my intentions were to just get an iPad, I actually found that my efficiency level increased during meetings and on the go as I had a way to get ideas down on paper easier and a way to edit plans/invoices and other documents during crucial meetings.

My efficient working habits are not going to be the same as yours in most cases but you need to find out how you can make the most out of the time you have. There are going to be things that come up to derail your plans, so having everything in place and planned will be crucial to your success in 2011.

#3 – Watch The Trends

If someone would have told you to ignore Digg 3 years ago, would you believe them? What if they told you Facebook was going to be more powerful than Google 2 years ago?

The web is still finding its way. Its users are still figuring out how they want to share and find information online. Ironically, 2010 marked the year of consumers (yes…your content is a consumable) going back to their roots of personally recommending products, services and other items through social media outlets like Facebook. How many people looking to buy a vacuum cleaner online hit up Facebook first to ask their friends what they are using before they searched Google? Online word of mouth is building up steam quickly, so capitalizing on that trend can bring you some serious growth by not wasting time on old, tired out methods.

However, just because it is the trend that is working today…that does not necessarily mean it will the the trend of tomorrow. It is up to you to watch out for the next Facebook or Twitter. Will there be another flood of social media like those two created? Probably not…but what if the next flood is something that is branded outside of social media?

In 2011, you need to watch the trends and test theories to see what works for your audience and your business. You never know…you could find a secret goldmine.

#4 – Stay Positive And Have Fun

2010 in many ways was the year of negativity and polarizing opinions. Personally, I stopped watching the news as it was just depressing. At the end of the day, we are all dealt the same hand of cards. It is up to us to make the most we can of this one life we have, and if we are going to live it miserable and negative…there isn’t much point.

Your success this year will completely depend on your outlook on life. Are there things going on in this world that you don’t agree with? Yes. Are there people in your life that just get on your nerves? Yes. Is that going to change? No…but you can change how you interact and look at the world. By staying positive and having fun with your life, you will attract other positive people and things. If you make the conscious decision to be negative and angry, you are going to attract nothing but negative and angry people or things.

If you only do one thing that will help your business this year…it should be to have fun with it. The rest will fall in line naturally.

Filed Under: Blogging, Lifestyle Design Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How To Leverage Social Media Into An Asset For Blogging

November 11, 2010 By 9 Comments

Last night, I gave a presentation at the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup on social media and blogging as part of Atlanta’s Social Media Week. I was one of three presenters of the night and the only one that fully relies on blogging for income. I brought along the Kodak Zi8 to record the session and the video came out ok. The small sensor camera really struggles in low light and I wasn’t wearing a mic, but the quality was good enough to publish.

One word of warning…apparently I REALLY talk with my hands. It is funny what you realize about yourself when you have to watch it on video.

How To Leverage Social Media To Grow Your Blog

In the video, I talk about basic principles in regards to social media, blogging and how you can combine the two to increase your business, traffic and bottom line and then I answer some questions from the audience on generating income and increasing traffic.

Text Summary On Social Media Presentation Video

Everyone already knows the most popular social media spaces online. We all use them on a daily basis to converse with friends, keep in touch with family or to follow our favorite celebrities. When we do this act, we are functioning within the core, fundamental purpose of social media.

Entertainment.

99% of users of social media have zero interest in blogging or starting a blog. However, they have a great amount of interest in conversing with other like minded individuals online who share their same interests. That need to communicate is what we can leverage into our blogging to pull readers back into our content.

All of these social media spaces (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.) in and of themselves do not generate revenue or traffic. They are their own separate sites with defined purposes. The blogger has to tie all these separate entities into something usable and measurable by giving them a common home base. That home base for the blogger is the blog.

By going out and pulling potential customers and readers back to your content, you are bringing value back to social media by turning it into something that can be measured and converted.

With Facebook fan pages, branded Twitter accounts, LinkedIn groups and other aspects of these social media sites, we are able to create a consistent branding atmosphere, a consistent voice and a consistent purpose that all increase our traffic and revenue.

If Only It Was That Easy!!

The theory of “if you build it and they will come” applies as little to social media as it does to blogging. The trick for the blogger is to go out and converse with members of social media sites to pull them back to your content.

However…there is one major mistake I see most bloggers and businesses do when they are looking to expand into social media to increase their web presence.

They do ZERO market research.

Just because Joe down the street told you Twitter is the next big thing or you believe you have to be everywhere at once does not mean that is the right plan of attack for your blog or business.

Most bloggers and business owners like to do what I call the shotgun affect. They spread themselves out really thin across all aspects of social media just hoping something sticks. The result…nothing does and they become another person that says Twitter or Facebook doesn’t work. It isn’t that they don’t work, it is your approach that failed.

Your job as the blogger or business owner is to go where your core audience interacts and bring your content and brand to them. It is not your job to convince them that Twitter is better than Facebook.

For Bike198, I find that Facebook is a much higher converter as cyclists could really care less about Twitter. My Facebook likes and shares are very high on that site and it serves a great purpose in my blogging. However, in the blogging niche, Twitter took off like wildfire and bloggers across the world are using it as an easy way to spread content and connect with other bloggers. It all depends on your target audience and how they are already communicating. Once you figure that out…you go there and set up shop. If you do that, your chance of success is much higher than if you just recklessly hope something sticks.

That is the key to making social media successful for increasing your profits and expanding your brand’s reach on the web.

Filmed with the Kodiak Zi8 and edited with iMovie and Keynote

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

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: , , , , , , , ,

Underground Blogging Secrets: Extracting Money From Your Blog

October 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

With the ultimate goal of pulling monetary value out of your content, you have to figure out how to extract dollars out of words. While we drive traffic to our blogs to get more eyes on our content, if you really want to make it online full-time, you have to build up a digital empire by applying underground blogging secrets that extract money out of your content.

We watch bloggers everyday do it wrong. They post up content, promote it on Twitter and Facebook, sit back and wait for a social media traffic spike and then rinse and repeat. Meanwhile, they keep checking their stats and wondering…”why am I not making any money?”

You are not making any money because content publishing on its own is not a monetization effort. Have you ever looked at a blog and wondered, “how the hell does this site make so much money?!” It is because 90% of all of the income made online (unless you have as much traffic as Perez Hilton and…if you are reading this post…you aren’t) is actually made off-site. If you are really planning on making money in your blogging, you have to realize that your blog content is the means of attracting more readers and your off-site marketing and promotion is your means of monetizing those readers.

So what can you include in your digital empire to actually generate income? While there are dozens of ways to generate revenue…here are the big three.

  1. It’s All In The List – The word email list makes most people flinch up and run for the hills. However, it is still the #1 resource online for generating income. Before you start thinking you have to be an email spammer to make money, that is actually the complete opposite from the truth. Your email list is your means to build up trust and respect with your readers…not spam the crap out of them. Your email list is a collection of your loyal minions that help you grow your business past the couple bucks a day stage. With that respect…comes responsibility to continue delivering the goods (both free and paid).
  2. Your Own Products – When you sell a product (eBooks, tangible goods, services), you income is generated outside of your normal blog content. By providing valuable resources and goods, you further solidify your reputation online and…through that…you create repeat business. The big question you have to ask yourself is…”what do my readers want to spend their money on in my niche?” Once you find the answer to that question, it is up to you to provide the solution.
  3. Exposure – The online world is growing rapidly. With major print productions looking to online resources as a way to evolve and grow, more readers are looking to digital resources over typical print. This opens a huge door for entrepreneurs looking to make it big as you no longer have to compete with the high, up-front capital investment required for print. With enough traffic (and email newsletter subscribers), you are able to provide exposure for companies in your niche for advertising. However, this requires you to step outside of the online world and go after the advertising dollars. If you are planning on putting up an “advertise with us” and sit back and wait for the offers…you are going to be consistently waiting. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, step outside the box and cold contact potential advertisers.

The key to success online is through diversification. If you can take one thing from vastly successful corporations, it is that diversification is the one thing that keeps a profit driven company consistent over the longhaul. By constantly evolving and adding in different methods of income generation, you are able to weather storms with ease.

What would happen if your primary income stream went away tomorrow?

The scary question that most bloggers never ask themselves. With as many viable income streams as you can manage coming into your digital empire, you are able to consistently grow and not worry about disastrous situations. You just keep rolling on…expanding and growing while others falter.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Top 12 Success Killers In Blogging (with Solutions!)

June 23, 2010 By 17 Comments

We all want to be successful. As we pine away at producing content into the wee hours of the night, we do not hit that publish button hoping that no one will read what we have to say so that we can make $0.00 per hour…we hope that it takes off like a viral masterpiece so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor! However, there are certain aspects of blogging that can completely derail your goal and keep you in the “could have been” pile for years to come. It is important that you address each of these success killers in your blogging to insure that you can be more efficient and keep the snowball effect rolling. Otherwise…you are just going to be spinning the wheels of disappointment.

Top 12 Success Killers In Blogging

So let’s jump straight into it. Here are the top 12 success killers in blogging. If you do not get these items in check, you might as well pack up the laptop now and give up. These are not in any particular order as I find each of these items just as important as the rest.

1. Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media

Yes…social media is a fantastic way to bring in traffic to your blog and establish yourself as an expert in your niche. But…social media is also an addiction that can rob you of precious minutes throughout the day that could be used for actual productivity. If you want to really see how rampant this addiction is in today’s society, just take look at how much your friends that don’t own blogs spend on Facebook and Twitter!

Solution: You can use tools like HootSuite and MarketMeTweet to schedule tweets that also update your Facebook accounts and pages. It is also a good idea to block off a small portion of time during the day to focus on social media and then close those apps to cut down on distraction while you work.

2. Your Email Inbox

If you are anything like me, that 3 (or 40 in some cases) that is in a red circle on my email app drives me crazy. I just can’t not open it up and read it! Your email can drown you as a blogger. We all want to answer our emails in a timely fashion, but if we are spending the day answering one email at a time, we are disrupting work flow and concentration on our goals.

Solution: Just like with social media, block off a period of time each day to handle your email. During the rest of the time, close your email app or window to prevent the urge to jump into it every 5 minutes.

3. Not Tracking Statistics

Watched statistics increase. Any business owner will tell you that is just a natural part of the business building process. As you start to watch your metrics and earnings, you will see trends that can help you in the future as you try to increase income and productivity. How do you know what you need to improve if you are not sure what isn’t performing well? You don’t, so watching and tracking statistics is vital to success.

Solution: Luckily for bloggers, there are a ton of free and paid tools to make this happen. For web stats, you can use Google Analytics, Mint or CrazyEgg. For the monetary side of things, I typically like to just use Excel to track earnings and trends.

4. Procrastination

“I’ll just do that tomorrow.” I can not even begin to tell you how many blogs that one line has killed. Procrastination is a hard thing to combat when you do not have a boss leaning over your shoulder asking when a project is going to be completed. Being your own boss means that you actually have to be your own boss.

Solution: Set time lines and checklists and then stick to them! By writing things down and mapping out your day/week/month/year, you make yourself accountable. You are the only one that can get the job done and no one else cares (well maybe your readers) if you do or not. So get on it and get organized.

5. Low Self Worth

You started a blog or business because you wanted to make something better for yourself. You also started it with the belief that you were actually capable of completing that goal. With time, after a couple of trolls hit your site or you do not see success right away, you start to think that maybe you aren’t good enough or it just isn’t in the cards for you. One of the worst thing an aspiring full-time blogger can do is to start lowering their self worth by not believing in themselves. Confidence is required for success.

Solution: To keep the motivation and confidence rolling, celebrate the small successes. Did you have more subscribers today? Make your first 50 bucks? Celebrate these small successes that will lead up to large ones. You will be surprised what that can do for your blogging morale.

6. Unrealistic Expectations

A lot of bloggers jump into the scene with unbelievable, unrealistic expectations about blogging as an income. Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. If you are looking to make money fast online, take a look at pure affiliate marketing or some other form of faster income generation because blogging is about building a real business over time. If you are expecting to start a blog and be full-time in 6 months, you are just going to be disappointed and give up at the 6 month mark.

Solution: Set real, obtainable, honest goals for yourself and then start chipping off those goals one by one. The addition of small, completed goals equal the large payoff over time.

7. Not Setting Goals

Are you just winging it hoping for the best? Do you even know where you are headed? If you are not setting goals, you are just wandering in the wasteland of the Internet with the hope that something is going to hit one day. Successful business planning is centered around setting and achieving goals. Without that…you are just a blind man in a maze.

Solution: Set long-term and short-term goals. The short-term goals should add up to the long-term over time. Track these goals and cross them off as you compete them.

8. No Defined Purpose

How many blogs have you gone to that do not seem to have a defined purpose. They start off with a specific niche and then start talking about blogging, their life or some other random subject that has nothing to do with their original intent. The by-product of this behavior? The blogger starts to lose their audience, credibility and success.

Solution: Pick a niche and rock it out. No one wants to hear about blogging on your gardening blog. They want to hear about gardening! As time progresses, you can expand into other related subject matters (like tree growing), but you need to keep it related. You can kill your blog by going off topic frequently.

9. Bad Promotion Strategies

The “build it and they will come” mentality to blogging is gone. Unfortunately, there is just too much mess on the Internet today to rise above the noise without some kind of self-promotion. In today’s world of successful blogging, you have to be a marketer as much as you are a blogger to get your name out there.

Solution: Find the promotion strategies that work best in your niche. There is no “one size fits all” solution here so you are going to have to test guest posting, forums, social media and other outlets to see what works best in your niche…and then keep testing.

10. No Monetization Strategy

As I wrote in a recent article “Are you writing articles that actually have the ability to make money?“, there are a lot of bloggers that assume that traffic equals income. So…they keep writing, day in and day out, to find they are increasing their community but they are not making a dime doing it. You have to actually have a monetization strategy in your blogging to generate income. It is that simple.

Solution: Test, test and retest different methods. Whether it is PPC campaigns, having your own product, affiliate marketing, direct advertising, membership sites or a combination of all of those methods. You need to take an honest look at how your content is actually going to generate income and then test those methods to death to see what works the best on your blog.

Bonus Hint: If you do not have an email newsletter (I use Aweber), you are not going to make a significant income online. Quite possibly the biggest mistake you can make as a blogger from a monetization and growth standpoint is not starting an email newsletter from the very beginning.

11. Not Treating Your Blog Like A Business

Blogging for income is not a hobby, it is a business. If you treat your blog as a hobby…it will only ever be a hobby. You have to treat your blogging as a business if you ever want to be successful.

Solution: Treat your blog as a business by tracking expenses, income and filing the appropriate taxes. My blogs are actually under a LLC as well. When you start implementing some of these solutions and planning goals for your blogging, you are stepping into the serious end of the business. Take yourself and your business seriously if you really want to make it.

12. Sub-Par Copycat Content

Saw someone else making money on their blog and decided to do the same thing? Or did you start a making money online blog without having actually ever generated a penny online? Blogging is all about over-the-top quality content. The “go on this journey with me” content strategy does not work. Blogging is still and will always be about connecting with readers through high-quality content.

Solution: The trick to producing incredible content is writing about a subject matter in which you are passionate about or have a lot of knowledge. Your readers are going to be able to see through a fake, so by writing on these subjects, you are being honest and providing quality. Once you have done that, get on a posting schedule that works for you and allows great content…then stick to that posting schedule.

There you have it! The top 12 success killers in blogging. Are you doing anything on the list?!


Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Generating Cash, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Has #FollowFriday On Twitter Worn Out Its Welcome?

March 17, 2010 By 9 Comments

Follow Friday has been a part of Twitter almost since the beginning. The idea is to recommend people you follow to your followers to increase the viral spreading and introduce new people they might be interested in. Now…like anything else on the Internet, #followfriday or #ff has attracted a swarm of spamming and “copy and paste” action that has diluted its effectiveness on Twitter. While I always appreciate any mentions on Follow Friday, I too have started to ignore it as the same stuff keeps popping up every Friday like clockwork. So the question becomes…

Has #FollowFriday Worn Out Its Welcome?

While I could ponder this question in a nice, quiet room by myself, that would solely be my opinion and who really wants to hear that anyway?! So…I went to the source. I hit up Twitter and asked…

Does anyone pay attention to #ff anymore? I always appreciate the mentions, but does anyone use it effectively?

Now…let’s take a look at the responses…

Neonjade

@robbsutton I followed 10+ new tweeps today due to #ff. If you only do a couple posts and say why you like, I look at ones that interest me

bestieverdid

@robbsutton No, unless the recommending person includes some compelling reason for their #ff choices.

AtlantaWineGuy

@robbsutton I like the #FF which give reason(s) as to why someone recommends following that person.

HotCookinChick

@robbsutton I used to do #FF all the time, fell off, but in past few wks have started again. I’ve found really gr8 people in #FF recommends.

marijolamarche

@robbsutton I agree. I think that we pretty much follow all the same people already within our interests!

mpolicha

@robbsutton I’ve never found it the least bit effective, too much #ff spam where people recommend entire lists in the hope of reciprocity.

andrew_girvan

@robbsutton Its still one of Twitter’s biggest trending topics when you look at the figures

mikebiewer

@robbsutton I find other beer blogs to participate in when people list out a bunch of people to #FF

daphneroseknows

@robbsutton I’m trying to figure that one out myself.

Bottom Line From My View On #FollowFriday

As you can see by some of the responses, there is a mixed bag of opinions regarding Follow Friday. I really think it all boils down to quality (like most things). If you are recommending other Twitter users with a reason why, then people pay attention. If you are just copying and pasting every Friday like a machine, you lose the punch that comes with recommending other people on Twitter.

Regardless, I think Follow Friday is pretty much here to stay on Twitter, but to use it effectively…you need to make your Tweet stand out from the rest by providing something different. Do not just throw up #ff and a bunch of names. Try a different tact that draws attention to you Tweet and screams, “THESE ARE QUALITY PEOPLE ON TWITTER!”. Just don’t use caps…that is really annoying.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Are You Using Twitter To Its Full Potential?

February 5, 2010 By 7 Comments

Twitter is a great tool for a lot of things. You can find out where people are, what they are doing or even who they are talking to. With 140 character blasts out into web space, we now know exactly what everyone is doing and when. But…there are still a lot of Twitter users that are not using this great social media outlet to its full potential. Yesterday, I used Twitter to outsource some work at a price that I could really get on board with. So how did I do it and how can you apply this to your blogging as you continue to use Twitter to promote your blog and solve your issues?

Using Twitter As A Resource

Wednesday night, I had a great recorded interview with Darren Rowse (@problogger). Over the course of 36 minutes of recorded phone conversation, we covered a lot of ground…and that meant a lot of text to type up. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time to sit around and transcribe all of that valuable interview content to text. It just isn’t happening in my schedule if I actually want to post a text version sometime in the next 6 months.

Instead of hitting up Google and finding who had SEO’ed their site the best. I went to Twitter and sent out one Tweet.

@robbsutton – Question: Anyone know a good, cheap transcription service?

Exactly 40 minutes later…almost to the second….a friend of mine, Yaro Starak, responded with…

@yarostarak – @robbsutton Try my good friend Becki at wordsintoprofits.com. Tell her I sent you :-)

About an hour later…

@beckimaxson – @robbsutton Looking forward to transcribing your interview with @problogger!

It was seriously that easy. In a 24 hour period, I had my interview transcribed for a price that was incredible. To make matters even better, the quality of the transcription was better than I had seen out of any of the higher priced options out there. It was insanely easy and I got the price I wanted to pay at a quality that was higher than I was expecting. It really doesn’t get any better than that.

BTW…the interview with Darren will be live on RobbSutton.com on Monday morning. So be on the lookout.

Why Twitter Is Such A Great Resource

There is a lot of talk about the viral nature of Twitter and how you can use that leverage to promote whatever you have going on online (even if that is just brushing your teeth). But…you also have to remember that these same people you are talking to on a daily basis are using products and services that are related to your core subject matter. Why go to Google or another search engine find who has advertised the most that day? I would have never found the resource above on my own, and it was much better than anything I would have found through my own digging.

Twitter is a valuable resource to find real time, real world suggestions on products and services you are looking to use. All you have to do is ask, be a little patient on the responses and be open to suggestions.

It really does not matter what you are looking for…you can find it on Twitter.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Twitter: Growing Blogs Without Google Since 2007

January 7, 2010 By 17 Comments

So here you are, a new or experienced blogger looking for traffic to start things off or get over that plateau in traffic. In the olden days (like they were really that long ago), you were at the mercy of the search engines. How can I word this article so that it will rank well? How many keyword strings do I need? Are people actually going to read this after I throw in a bunch of crap just to improve rankings and grow my blog? I hate being at the mercy of the corporate search engines to grow my blog!

Then something happened that changed the blogging world for forever…Twitter and other micro blogging sites (Facebook can be included in this mix) gave the small blogger a voice and an audience without the aid of Google. It was an amazing turn of events as you could now reach targeted readers faster, easier and you can do it under your terms! You are no longer at the mercy of the infamous keyword. You are now actually building a following, community and network online by connecting with people instead of statistics! It’s a wonderful thing.

As I look back at 2009, it really was the year for Twitter. With record breaking growth numbers, Twitter gave businesses, blogs and the random neighbor down the street an easy to grow outlet to promote their content or what they were eating that morning in 140 characters or less. If you need proof, you can look at how John Chow grew his blog to epic proportions while being banned from Google completely (has since been let back in after having subscriber counts above the 50k mark). This shows the powerful leverage power of Twitter and social media as we move forward into the blogging future.

So how do I grow my blog to epic proportions with Twitter and other social media outlets without looking like a spammer trying to promise unrealistic goals?

Twitter Tips That Grow Your Blog

The key with Twitter and other social media outlets online is to grow your following, increase your spread and network in a way that brings value to BOTH your blog and your Twitter account. When you try to run them mutually exclusive…it doesn’t ever come out with the results you are looking for. So…as we move forward…keep in mind…a QUALITY social media profile (more than just self promotion that looks like spam) and QUALITY content on your blog is what wins out in the long run. The trick is fusing these two together so they grow as one.

  • Syndicate Your Blog Feed On Twitter – Typically, syndicating your rss feed on Twitter has been handled through TwitterFeed, but…recently…Google released a new feature on FeedBurner (which you should already be using to syndicate your feed to your rss subscribers) that automatically tweets your latest article with a host of options including excluding categories, adding hashtags, controlling the text amount and even making sure there is room for your followers to RT. While I used to recommend TwitterFeed, I now use FeedBurner due to the new options and ease of having less accounts to sign into. By syndicating your feed on Twitter, you are automating a process that you would normally have to do manually and driving your followers to your latest content. You are also giving them an opportunity to spread your new content for you by ReTweeting that article to their followers within their preferred Twitter application or web app.
  • Search Out and Follow Like Minded Twitter Users – Social Media is very much a game of finding people and being found. Twitter is one of the purest forms of that application by being able to search for hashtags, keywords and trending topics. In all reality, unless you are a New York Times best selling author or Oprah, Twitter users are not going to follow you just because you want them to. You are going to have to search out these users, follow them and then hope they check out your profile and follow you back. I do not have time to do this manually every day of the week, so I use a tool called Social Snipe to handle that chore for me. The trick is to find people who are tweeting about what you are blogging about…and then interacting with them on Twitter.
  • Provide Alternate Resources and Articles Related To Your Blogging Topic – No one likes a shameless self promoter (only promotes themselves constantly without any other content), so it is always good practice to tweet other articles in your blogging topic that you think your readers and followers would find benefit from. This increases your credibility online and brings more attention to your articles as they hit the Twitter stream because they are not seen as self promoting spam.
  • Make ReTweeting Easy For Your Followers - If you want your content spread on Twitter, you have to make it easy for people reading your blog to spread your content. As much as you think your readers are going to copy and paste your url into their Twitter app, most if them are not going to go through the trouble even if they like your article. By installing the Tweetmeme plugin, you can insure that you have provided the easiest outlet for your readers to spread your content on Twitter. I typically recommend having an option to submit at the top and bottom of your article. You can see my Tweetmeme button at the top of this article…hit it…I know you want to! ;) And a Twitter icon that submits at the bottom of the article.
  • Display Twitter Profile and Latest Tweets On Your Blog – A lot of social media and blog integration is to make sure you are properly displaying your profiles on your blog. You do not want to make it hard to find you on Twitter and other social media because…the harder you make it…the less follows you will see. On your blog, you are going to want to use a widget (plugin like Twitter for WordPress will do the trick like you see in my footer) and link to your profiles on your About Page and other related sections of your blog. If you want people/readers to find you…you have to make it easy.
  • Run Contests On Twitter – One of the fastest ways to grow your following on Twitter in a way that compliments blog growth is to create a contest on Twitter where they have to follow and RT some line you setup to be entered in the contest. For best results, you are going to want to give away something your blog readership wants (does not have to be expensive) and link to the contest article in the RT line. You are driving traffic to your blog and increasing your Twitter following with targeted leads that will help grow your blog down the line.
  • Have A Complete Twitter Profile – What is a complete Twitter profile? Let’s break it down…a user name that compliments your blog title/brand, a Twitter background that compliments your branding and blog (usually includes urls, useful info, etc.), a link to your blog in the sidebar of your Twitter page and a short excerpt of who you are and what you blog about in the description (DO NOT use the word expert, guru, etc…you can not give yourself those terms and it just looks like spam). It really surprises me sometimes when people completely overlook their Twitter page and leave the background generic. You can get fantastic backgrounds on the cheap from freelancers (TwitterWalls.com did mine for @robbsutton) and you will see an increase in follow rates by having a professional looking profile.

So there you have it! Follow these steps and you will watch your blog grow without the aid of Google. With social media growing by record numbers each year, you can actually grow your blog and your business easier than ever before. It just takes making the right decisions and carry out a plan…the rest will be history.

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

A Look Back: 2009 Blogging and Social Media Recap

December 28, 2009 By 4 Comments

Now that we are all fat and happy from the holiday season, it is time to look forward to 2010 and our blogs. As RobbSutton.com continues to poor high octane content into the cranium of bloggers, lets take a look at where 2009 brought blogging. 2009 was a huge success from both a social media perspective and for blogging as a whole. While the HUGE paydays of Google Adsense are gone for big bloggers (really left earlier than 2009), those unrealistic expectations were replaced with solid business models that will bring the blogosphere into a legitimate money making and business growing strategy. So what happened in 2009?

Twitter and Facebook

Twitter is now a household name. Even if you are not using – or understand – Twitter, you know what it is at the end of 2009. From a social media perspective, Twitter saw a massive amount of growth in 2009 that was unmatched by any other social media outlet. More people are throwing out 140 character blasts than ever before, but that growth will not be sustainable over the long haul…2010 is going to continue the decrease in growth as nothing can keep that kind of rapid growth over time. During 2009, Twitter gave smaller bloggers a wider spread and another outlet to get their voice heard. This meant faster growth outside of search engines for bloggers looking for traffic and connections within their niche. This was a HUGE win for the beginning and small niche blogger as you no longer have to rely on unreliable search engine results to find readers.

Facebook started off as a college student social media site and has grown into the most reliable way to connect with friends, family and other like minded individuals on the net. I know that Facebook is now widespread because even my dad (who said he never would) created an account during 2009. With spam riddling MySpace and LinkedIn keeping its professional atmosphere, Facebook as filled a niche all to its own as the place to hit up to keep your friends, relatives and whoever else in tune with what you have going on in your own life.

Both Twitter and Facebook began this massive growth before 2009, but during this calendar year, they saw numbers that are unheard of globally. As we enter in to 2010, I see individuals, firms and online entrepreneurs finding more inventive and lucrative ways to convert these massive communities.

Blogging In 2009

Blogging is inching its way forward as a mainstream form of communication. What used to be online diaries are continue to grow into full fledged businesses accepted by the general public. Often times, visitors of many blogs might not even know they are reading a blog as the line between full CMS and blogging platform continues to get blurred. As businesses and individuals continue to use blogging as a source of communication and income, we are going to see the line between website and blog continue to merge.

With Julia and Julia, 2009 brought the first mainstream, successful Hollywood movie centered around the theme of blogging. Regardless of your feelings on how blogging was portrayed in the movie, it brought legitimacy to bloggers in the eyes of many individuals who believed that blogging was just a place to rant on the internet.

In 2010, I expect to see more large firms implement blogging and other social media into their business strategy. As of this point, they are still not really sure how to tackle this large consumer base, so there is a lot of testing going on behind the scenes. As Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets continue to grow, we are going to see companies use these as a way to increase their spread on the net. With bloggers attacking the top results on search engine rankings and news media, companies are going to have to rethink there web strategy to stay in tune with the times.

What do you think?

What do you think was the best accomplishment or setback in 2009 for blogging? Where do you think things are headed for 2010? As blogging and social media continue to take shape, your guess is as good as any…so let’s hear what you have to say…

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,
« Older Posts