6 Steps to a Loyal Blog Following

This guest post is by Shari Lopatin of www.sharilopatin.com.

I had a writer friend tell me the other day I have the best social network she’s ever seen.

“What?” I asked, shocked. After all, I only have about 380 Twitter followers (I follow 200-something). “You should check out these people instead,” I offered, with three other usernames. “They have way more followers than me.”

But she persisted. “They may have more followers, but your network is much more engaged.”

Engaged.

So many people think the more followers you have, whether on Facebook or Twitter or your blog, the better. But numbers aren’t what counts. Who cares if you have 20,000 followers, when no one pays attention to your posts?

Whether you’re selling a product, a service, or even your writing, you want people to care.

The key is to build loyalty. My writer friend discovered the loyal nature of my network when I tweeted a question for her. She immediately began receiving tons of responses. What does that mean?

My followers are listening to me—and taking action.

Your social networks will eventually convert into (loyal) blog followers. I’ve had many blog subscribers discover me on Twitter. But just how do you get people to care? Well…

Twitter is abuzz with tons of professionals looking to connect. Use Twitter’s “search” feature to type in keywords related to your business. For example, if you’re a writer, search “writing.” Begin following people tweeting about this topic, and see who follows you back. Then study their Twitter profiles.

What’s their follower/following ratio? Do they seem engaged with their network? If so, take it a step further. Visit their blog. Comment on their posts. Reply to their tweets, and maybe even fan them on Facebook. Then, direct message them on Twitter (or email them through their site) and invite them to guest post for your blog about their expertise. This will develop a trusting relationship with people who have the ability to influence their networks for your site.

This can be done on Facebook, on Twitter, and even on your own blog. Let’s say you’re a lawyer, looking to build your expert status. Follow the steps in #1 to find other influential lawyers who offer great advice. Then, tweet a link to their site or blog post (i.e. “Great advice on handling angry bankruptcy clients from @joesmithlaw, www.joesmithlaw.com/bankruptcy”). Do the same on Facebook.

This does two things: first, it lets your followers know you’re not selfish, and you’re out to educate them (which builds trust). Second, people feel flattered you thought their work relevant enough to share, and they’ll most likely return the favor.

Everyone knows you should always answer questions posted to your Facebook page. But let’s take this a step further. Maybe you’re a media consultant. So use Twitter’s search feature to type in keywords like “blog.” From there, seek out general questions you can answer (i.e. “Anyone know how to connect my WordPress blog to Twitter?”). @Reply, and answer it! Maybe even follow the person.

If someone you follow poses a general question in your newsfeed, answer it, too. People want to be heard, and you can gain new (loyal) followers this way.

People love talking about their thoughts and opinions. For example, on my blog, I always ask a question at the end of my posts. For a recent topic, I wrote about, “Kindles: Writer’s Best Friend, or Worst Enemy?” Rather than just finishing with my thoughts, I asked my readers, “What do you think? Are Kindles securing our relevancy as writers, or helping to kill our profession and demand?” That generated 24 comments. You can also pose questions on your Facebook page related to your business, and watch the responses pour in.

This one is my favorite, and one of the most under-utilized, strategies. I recommend it all the time. When another expert guests for your blog, have them cross-promote to their networks.  Ask them to run a blog post driving traffic to your site the day their article runs. Have them promote it on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+. And you do the same.

On average, I’ve seen this technique double the traffic to a website in one day. Plus, if you partner with someone influential, new visitors will be more likely to subscribe to your blog, follow you on another social network, and best of all … engage with you moving forward!

Don’t sound like a product or corporation. No one wants to interact with a brand (unless you’re Coca Cola or Nike). Sound like a real person who people can connect with. But beware! Don’t overshare—just offer enough to make yourself real to your followers (i.e. Relate to my opening story in this post).

I’ve found the golden rule of social media is this: the more you give, the more you get.

What do you think? Do you find highly engaged social networks equate to more loyal customers and blog followers? How do you develop relationships with your followings?

Shari Lopatin is a former daily newspaper reporter who now works in the corporate world as a professional writer, journalist, and media strategist. Find her on Twitter at @ShariLopatin, or read more of her marketing and writing tips on her blog, “Shari Lopatin: Rogue Writer.”

View the original article here

9 Steps to a Daily Blogging Schedule

This guest post is by Caz Makepeace of y Travel Blog.

I publish almost daily on two blogs.

I have many people comment and ask me how I manage to do it, especially since I have two children, one being three months old.

While it is by no means easy, and I spend a lot of my sleeping time awake, there are still many strategies I employ to make it more manageable.

The old adage less is more works here. You don’t have to write a lengthy, verbose story to gain a following.

Short, snappy posts that entertain and get a point across work well too, especially considering the attention span of our society’s inhabitants.

Think photos, poems, thoughts, quotes, community involving questions, giveaways, reviews, curating information for your readers, and highlighting other blogs.

Why not have someone do the writing for you?

If you have strict guidelines attached you can make the whole process that much easier, as your guest writers understand how to format and promote to your liking.

Having someone write one post a week on your site frees you up to write a guest post for another site and attract a new set of readers as well.

Why would I say this in giving tips on how to publish daily? I think you want to know how you write daily, right? Kinda neutralizes my advice.

It’s simple. The more often you write, the better you get at it, the quicker and easier it gets, the more in tune you become with your voice, and the more ideas start to flow to you as a result.

This post is an example. It took me ten minutes to write it on a train. My mind has been blog-post trained in its thinking due to my total immersion into daily writing.

Once you tap into your voice, you tend to write more from your heart and soul rather than your head, which means less of the “logical and fearful” thought processes and more of the flow of words that pack a punch.

All of this ultimately means less work. Less work thinking, writing and editing. I don’t have to edit a post much that comes from deep within.

Find new ways to reproduce your old content. Turn old articles into podcasts and vice versa, turn newsletters and guest posts into new articles on your blog.

The work is already done; the ideas are there, they just need some tweaking and a slightly different angle.

If you have two blogs, like I do, you can use the same photos and content, but just tweak it a little. I often turn a travel experience I wrote about on my travel blog, into one that has a family or child angle for my personal parenting and lifestyle blog.

From conversations, passing billboards, songs and random thoughts, it is amazing what will spark an idea for a blog post.

If you don’t jot it down you will lose it.

I recently flew from Sydney to Melbourne for the Problogger conference. Within 30 minutes I had the outline for five posts recorded in my notebook. Had I not had the notebook that would have been five easy blog posts left at the departure gates waving me off.

The more I write on my blogs and spend time doing what I love, the more I come to understand what time wasters humans are.

Minutes and hours spent aimlessly wandering lost and filling the void with crappy reality TV shows and trashy magazines.

Check how you spend your time.

Ask yourself, “Is this somehow enabling me to grow? Is it fulfilling me? Can I write a blog post out of it?”

If not, put that time into something else a little more productive. We all do still need our down time, sure enough, but just don’t make it more than your on time.

If I check out to watch a movie or a TV show, or go to the beach or out to dinner, I usually find the blog post ideas won’t take a break anyway, and I hurriedly write my ideas in my notebook that is close by.

All creation comes from inspiration. Do those activities that inspire you. You will move mountains when you operate from an inspired state.

The minute I start traveling or spending time with my daughters—the themes of my two blogs—the ideas start flowing and I can produce an incredible amount of blog posts with fresh original content.

I am able to do all of the above things without raising a sweat, or resenting the writing work. In fact I do it with a rush of gratitude and good feelings, because I love it.

When you love what you do it does not feel like work and you are more than happy to spend every waking minute doing it and the sleeping minutes as well.

The more you love the more you can do.

Caz Makepeace believes that life is all about the memories and inspires others to travel and make their life a story to tell at her popular, y Travel Blog. She also owns Mojito Mother, a blog aimed at putting the mojo back into a mother’s life, where she shares her experiences as a mother and a woman following her own dreams.

View the original article here

Get Your Blog Ready for 2012 in 13 Steps

When you are used to seeing something on a daily basis, your eyes become so accustomed to the picture that you can hardly see what’s become old and boring. Same is the case with your blog.

How long has it been since you have had another (good) look at it, checking for discrepancies in design, content and layout?

Has it been a while? It is good because now when you do, it will almost seem like laying eyes on it for the first time. You can see it from the eye of a first time visitor and see if it is time to make some changes.

Let’s spruce things a bit – it’s time to give your blog a makeover. Let’s look at it with a critical eye.

When you open your blog homepage, what kind of first impression does it leave?

Do you get a feeling that it’s a very busy blog, with lots of things going on all at once? Too many ads perhaps? Videos? Sliding bar? Photos?

Do you get an uncluttered feeling so that your eyes are immediately drawn to the content?
Make sure the design conveys what is intended. See that it is professional and not amateurish. This will go a long way in creating trust in your readership.

New visitors are a precious and a rare commodity. They come to your blog and they are almost always in a hurry.

In the first five seconds of them landing on your blog, you should quickly answer these questions.

• Who are you

• What is your blog about

• What you offer your reader, preferably something that is unique to your blog

In other words, you need to convince the new people to give your blog a chance, and you have to do it fast.

The easiest way to understand your brand is to think about what people say about your blog when you are not there.

You can start with the blog title and tag line. Perhaps your tag line could use another look? It’s really good to be sure that you are doing things right from the ground up.

If you haven’t gotten your own domain name by now, now is the time to rethink that decision. Nothing says more ‘unserious’ than having a wordpress or blogspot extension in your url.

Imagine somebody reading your blog.

• What sort of a person are they?

• How old?

• What might they do for a living?

• Their interests and hobbies?

• What are their problems?

• What keeps them up at night?

• What are they looking for when they come to read your blog?

Keep them in mind when you are writing your posts.

Do a reader survey if you have a large enough audience. Do not assume your ideal reader is you. They might have more varied interests that you.

When you write for a specific type of reader, it helps you to see if your style suits this type of audiences. If you are marketing blog; an inspirational, soothing type of writing style might not be appropriate for your readers. On the other hand, if you are mommy blog, writing in a snarky way might push your readership (mothers) away.

Always present your content in such a manner that is easy to understand and you are not using too much jargon or technical language.

Put up a confident, friendly picture of yourself on the about me page, and on the sidebar as a bonus. You want to present a professional image of yourself that shows you being approachable – a smile works wonders for your image!

Did you think your about me page is about ‘you’ . Hmm, funny, that’s what I thought too, turns out I was wrong, at least in the way I perceived it.
Your about me page is where you tell people how you can help them. Turns out your ‘About me’ page is about your reader.

Some things to keep in mind while writing your ‘About me’ page.

• How you can help them?

• What makes you qualified to do so?

• Why did you start this blog – tell them your story.

Use a clear, friendly, approachable picture of yourself and not a logo. Most people prefer to interact with a person.

What do you want your readers to do when they visit your blog? If you want them to subscribe, then ask clearly and without hesitation. Know you are a blog worth subscribing to and people will get the idea.

Offering something free like a report or an ebook is a great way to encourage people to sign up. It is not a bribe, plus if your ebook or blog content was not worth subscribing for, you will be left with many unhappy readers and eventually lot will unsubscribe.

Keep your opt-tin easy and in a place that is easy to spot. Usually, the top of your side bar works well for most people.

Make your posts easy to share but don’t go overboard with this one.

If you give your readers too many choices, chances are they won’t use any.

Plus, it is good to show some social proof on your blog. Show people that it is a place worth coming to.

A lot of new bloggers don’t do this initially simple because it never occurs to them.
Use plug-ins or manual links under a link category.

It helps new visitors to your blog to see your best stuff quickly and decide if they want to stay and explore. Don’t worry if they don’t, they probably don’t fit your ideal reader profile anyway.

When you started your blog, you might have a different purpose then. If things have changed a bit, or if you are writing about other things than originally intended, it’s time to shuffle your categories.

Don’t go overboard and list a dozen categories. 5-6 work well, some posts can go in more than one. Keep them simple and use titles that are self explanatory.

People literally spend hours trying to craft the perfect headline – I actually don’t.
Headlines need to serve 3 purposes

• They clue your reader in about what is coming in the article;

• They make a promise of delivering something that will essentially help your audience out

• They make your reader curious enough to look

I often write a basic headline first, even before I write my post. It is simple, plain and looks like an ordinary sentence. By doing this, the purpose of the post becomes crystal clear in my mind so while I am writing it, I can identify when I am going off on a tangent. I am able to follow my one train of thought and prevent over-thinking leading up to wastage of hours.
It helps give cohesiveness to the posts so all bits and pieces of information in the post are nicely tied to each other.

Later you can tweak and play with your headline to your heart’s content. As long as you can answer this question ‘why should I read this post?’ you are fine.

People tend to scan content on the web. The easier it is to read, the more it will be read. Use subheads, bullet points and numbered lists within your body of text.
One sentences and small paragraphs are immensely useful for breaking up large chunks of text. Keep the flow of information going or people will get confused or annoyed and leave your piece.

Give people bite sized, easy digestible content and they will always come back for more.

Look at your blog from the eye of a stranger. Who seems to be the most important person on the blog? Is it the author of the blog or is the reader?
Make sure everything you do on your blog has a single purpose – how you can help your readers. Do everything you can to show how important your readers are and be genuine. You will gain much love and respect.

What are you going to change on your blog today?

Marya is a communicator of ideas – writing for bloggers, writers and content creators. Catch more of her posts at Writing Happiness. Grab her FREE 29 page ebook How to Write Blog Content that Works – Get Noticed Online (and elsewhere!). Follow her on twitter @WritingH, she is very friendly.

Sign-up to the Daily Blog Tips newsletter and you will be able to download the "Make Money Blogging" eBook for free (worth $47).You will also receive tips to improve your blog, strategies to make money and useful resources from around the web.

View the original article here

Get Your Blog Ready for 2012 in 13 Steps

When you are used to seeing something on a daily basis, your eyes become so accustomed to the picture that you can hardly see what’s become old and boring. Same is the case with your blog.

How long has it been since you have had another (good) look at it, checking for discrepancies in design, content and layout?

Has it been a while? It is good because now when you do, it will almost seem like laying eyes on it for the first time. You can see it from the eye of a first time visitor and see if it is time to make some changes.

Let’s spruce things a bit – it’s time to give your blog a makeover. Let’s look at it with a critical eye.

When you open your blog homepage, what kind of first impression does it leave?

Do you get a feeling that it’s a very busy blog, with lots of things going on all at once? Too many ads perhaps? Videos? Sliding bar? Photos?

Do you get an uncluttered feeling so that your eyes are immediately drawn to the content?
Make sure the design conveys what is intended. See that it is professional and not amateurish. This will go a long way in creating trust in your readership.

New visitors are a precious and a rare commodity. They come to your blog and they are almost always in a hurry.

In the first five seconds of them landing on your blog, you should quickly answer these questions.

• Who are you

• What is your blog about

• What you offer your reader, preferably something that is unique to your blog

In other words, you need to convince the new people to give your blog a chance, and you have to do it fast.

The easiest way to understand your brand is to think about what people say about your blog when you are not there.

You can start with the blog title and tag line. Perhaps your tag line could use another look? It’s really good to be sure that you are doing things right from the ground up.

If you haven’t gotten your own domain name by now, now is the time to rethink that decision. Nothing says more ‘unserious’ than having a wordpress or blogspot extension in your url.

Imagine somebody reading your blog.

• What sort of a person are they?

• How old?

• What might they do for a living?

• Their interests and hobbies?

• What are their problems?

• What keeps them up at night?

• What are they looking for when they come to read your blog?

Keep them in mind when you are writing your posts.

Do a reader survey if you have a large enough audience. Do not assume your ideal reader is you. They might have more varied interests that you.

When you write for a specific type of reader, it helps you to see if your style suits this type of audiences. If you are marketing blog; an inspirational, soothing type of writing style might not be appropriate for your readers. On the other hand, if you are mommy blog, writing in a snarky way might push your readership (mothers) away.

Always present your content in such a manner that is easy to understand and you are not using too much jargon or technical language.

Put up a confident, friendly picture of yourself on the about me page, and on the sidebar as a bonus. You want to present a professional image of yourself that shows you being approachable – a smile works wonders for your image!

Did you think your about me page is about ‘you’ . Hmm, funny, that’s what I thought too, turns out I was wrong, at least in the way I perceived it.
Your about me page is where you tell people how you can help them. Turns out your ‘About me’ page is about your reader.

Some things to keep in mind while writing your ‘About me’ page.

• How you can help them?

• What makes you qualified to do so?

• Why did you start this blog – tell them your story.

Use a clear, friendly, approachable picture of yourself and not a logo. Most people prefer to interact with a person.

What do you want your readers to do when they visit your blog? If you want them to subscribe, then ask clearly and without hesitation. Know you are a blog worth subscribing to and people will get the idea.

Offering something free like a report or an ebook is a great way to encourage people to sign up. It is not a bribe, plus if your ebook or blog content was not worth subscribing for, you will be left with many unhappy readers and eventually lot will unsubscribe.

Keep your opt-tin easy and in a place that is easy to spot. Usually, the top of your side bar works well for most people.

Make your posts easy to share but don’t go overboard with this one.

If you give your readers too many choices, chances are they won’t use any.

Plus, it is good to show some social proof on your blog. Show people that it is a place worth coming to.

A lot of new bloggers don’t do this initially simple because it never occurs to them.
Use plug-ins or manual links under a link category.

It helps new visitors to your blog to see your best stuff quickly and decide if they want to stay and explore. Don’t worry if they don’t, they probably don’t fit your ideal reader profile anyway.

When you started your blog, you might have a different purpose then. If things have changed a bit, or if you are writing about other things than originally intended, it’s time to shuffle your categories.

Don’t go overboard and list a dozen categories. 5-6 work well, some posts can go in more than one. Keep them simple and use titles that are self explanatory.

People literally spend hours trying to craft the perfect headline – I actually don’t.
Headlines need to serve 3 purposes

• They clue your reader in about what is coming in the article;

• They make a promise of delivering something that will essentially help your audience out

• They make your reader curious enough to look

I often write a basic headline first, even before I write my post. It is simple, plain and looks like an ordinary sentence. By doing this, the purpose of the post becomes crystal clear in my mind so while I am writing it, I can identify when I am going off on a tangent. I am able to follow my one train of thought and prevent over-thinking leading up to wastage of hours.
It helps give cohesiveness to the posts so all bits and pieces of information in the post are nicely tied to each other.

Later you can tweak and play with your headline to your heart’s content. As long as you can answer this question ‘why should I read this post?’ you are fine.

People tend to scan content on the web. The easier it is to read, the more it will be read. Use subheads, bullet points and numbered lists within your body of text.
One sentences and small paragraphs are immensely useful for breaking up large chunks of text. Keep the flow of information going or people will get confused or annoyed and leave your piece.

Give people bite sized, easy digestible content and they will always come back for more.

Look at your blog from the eye of a stranger. Who seems to be the most important person on the blog? Is it the author of the blog or is the reader?
Make sure everything you do on your blog has a single purpose – how you can help your readers. Do everything you can to show how important your readers are and be genuine. You will gain much love and respect.

What are you going to change on your blog today?

Marya is a communicator of ideas – writing for bloggers, writers and content creators. Catch more of her posts at Writing Happiness. Grab her FREE 29 page ebook How to Write Blog Content that Works – Get Noticed Online (and elsewhere!). Follow her on twitter @WritingH, she is very friendly.

Sign-up to the Daily Blog Tips newsletter and you will be able to download the "Make Money Blogging" eBook for free (worth $47).You will also receive tips to improve your blog, strategies to make money and useful resources from around the web.

View the original article here