I’m here to tell you, you better find a way!

There is some serious magic in Pinterest. In case you’re not familiar with it yet… and I have at least a couple people a day ask me what it is… so I know some of you probably aren’t…

Pinterest is a digital online “bulletin board” ~ well actually it’s really just a “bookmarking site”… however, what makes this bookmarking site different than delicious or any other is it’s all based on IMAGES!!

That’s right… you don’t save links, you save pictures (which are connected to your links)!

You create your own “pin boards” based on a topic that interests you (and/or your target market). Then you “pin” lovely images/posts related to this topic to that board. Take a look at my boards as an example ~ and if you’re already on Pinterest follow me and I’ll follow you back!

So… how does this build my brand?

Let’s say you’ve got a site about kid’s birthday parties! Your site sells everything you could use for every birthday imaginable.

Well… you’re in a gold mine ~ here’s why ~ all those lovely birthday cakes, and decorations are GORGEOUS and will pin amazingly well on pinterest!

Simply set up some boards in your pinterest account… maybe go by year, or by theme?! And then start pinning some of your posts related to this topic… and of course you want to pin other resources you find out there that pertain to that topic as well… the more pins/resources you provide for people the more they’re going to think of YOU the next time they have a party coming up.

This works great for ANY kind of site ~ but for some you’ll have to be a little more creative than others.

This means if you HAVEN’T been using IMAGES in your posts… start, right now! And make sure you add a pin it button to your site so other people can start pinning your things as well!

How does this get me traffic?

If you can’t see it yet, let me give you an example. Last week I pinned a recipe for a spinach pasta casserole. When I went to make it I clicked through to the site (when you pin something the link to where you pinned it from stays with the pin, even when other people REPIN it to their boards!)… anyway… I went to the site to get the actual recipe and noticed the post with the recipe was from 2010! When was the last time you got traffic to a post you did in 2010? The other amazing thing I noticed was it has 17 THOUSAND pins!! What’s even MORE amazing is when I talked about this very same post on Around the Kitchen Table this week… that post had 35 THOUSAND pins!!! It more than doubled in less than a week! So… are you starting to see the power of Pinterest now?

Here’s 10 tips to help you get started with Pinterest…

1. Add the pin it plugin to your blog ~ so your readers can pin your posts.

2. Add lovely images to your post.

3. If you want to ramp it up even further… add some WORDS to your images ~ that way when it’s pinned people will know right away if they want to repin/go to your site to learn more.

Ex…

Which is more likely to get your attention and make you want to click/pin?

~ or ~

as you can see… adding the text makes a huge difference. Granted I pinned them both… but I know exactly where to go when I need healthy recipe ideas fast!

4. As with any social networking site… pin and repin other people’s stuff as much as if not MORE than your own!

5. Have fun, but set a timer… Pinterest can be a HUGE time suck/addictive site. Set a timer so you don’t spend the whole live long day there. (believe me… it can happen)

6. Comment on other people’s pins… it starts a conversation and gets you noticed.

7. Follow other people! If you like their boards, then follow them. They’re likely to follow you back, and the more followers you have the more people see your pins. It only takes one person with a lot of followers to repin your stuff for a huge traffic landslide!

8. Did I mention have fun?! Go into Pinterest with a “fun” mindset… don’t calculate, and figure it all out… have fun! It will work if you just go into it with a fun attitude. It’s a really fun site.

9. Think of the PROBLEMS your target market has, and pin things that will help them solve it!

10. You can pin things from Amazon… after you do ~ go back and grab your affiliate link and then go to “edit pin” and put your affiliate link in. Pinterest is using their own affiliate links on pins where people haven’t gone back and added their own, so take advantage of the opportunity. A “vision board” or “things I want” is a great place to put amazon products. oh… and also “books I love or want to read” type boards as well.

So there you have it… 10 tips to drive traffic and build your brand with Pinterest. But the thing is… Pinterest is still technically in BETA so you can’t just go sign up. You’ve got to get an invite. If you want one please connect with me on Facebook and I’ll send you one.

If you want to learn even more about Pinterest… everyone and their brother is writing about it now… here’s a few of my favorite posts:

Pinterest Marketing via CopyBlogger

How to Better Your Blog with Pinterest via SITS Girls (and a GREAT pinterest linkup ~ great way to add new people)

Be a Pinterest Superstar via MomAdvice

and of course we talked for 30 minutes about it on Around the Kitchen Table this week as well.

That should definitely get you started. ;P If you have questions, leave them in the comments!

Speaking of comments… Make sure you READ THE COMMENT POLICY!! If you don’t have a real name in your name field your comment will be deleted. This is a community, not a drive by link drop. Thanks.

Related posts:

1. 6 Quick Tips to Drive Traffic From Facebook
2. Building Your Brand and Network Using Twitter Chats
3. More Video Marketing Tips for the Camera Shy

So once she mentioned it I headed over to her site to check out what she was up to. Let me tell you… it’s brilliant! What she’s done is hook up with some other bloggers who blog on a certain topic and pooled past blog posts and created an ebook out of it. She’s the printables queen so she’s also thrown in some free printables in the package. But what a brilliant idea.

Let’s break it down.

1. Identify a topic that will be of use and interest to your readers.

Mandi’s kind of lucky because she has so many channels and blogs about so many different topics she has a wide range of things to choose from ~ but you can make it work too. If I wanted to do one for this blog I might choose a topic like getting more traffic, or blog plugins, or blog topics.

If I was doing one for It’s a Wahm Life I might think about recipes, kids activities, time management tips, ways to take care of yourself ~ see how it doesn’t have to be exactly what I blog about ~ but something my readers would be interested in?!

2. Hook up with another blogger who blogs on the topic.

It’s always nice to have help. Teaming up with someone who does blog specifically on the topic of your collaborative ebook may make it easier to connect with the people you need to connect with. I’ve found bloggers to be extremely willing to collaborate ~ so all you really have to do is just ask. Let them know what the plan is, what their part of the plan will be, and what the benefits will be for them.

3. Identify content you want to include in your book.

If you’re collecting recipes ~ start searching for recipes on all your favorite blogs. If you’re searching for SEO tips, start searching around for that kind of content on the blogs you read. If you’re looking for kids activities ~ well, you get the point.

4. Contact the writers.

Once you’ve identified some content (ie blog posts) you’d like to include in your ebook, contact the blog owner. Let them know what you’re doing, and ask them if they would allow you to include their blog post in the book. Of course you’ll link back to their site from the book.

*tip* try to get someone who is well known in the niche to say yes first ~ that way you can mention they will be participating and others may be more likely to say yes. It’s always nice to have your name and website associated with a big name in your niche.

5. Put the book together

Once you’ve gotten permission to use the content go ahead and put your book together. It can be as simple as copy/pasting the posts into an open office text document and then exporting as a PDF. You can of course, add images, and some additional content to make it really out of this world.

6. Send everyone who participated a copy of the ebook.

This one is pretty self explanatory ~ send everyone a copy. Also let them know when you’re going to publish it, and ask them to mention it to their readers. It would be a good idea to have it uploaded and the post at least written so you can give them the url to send people to.

This is a fun win/win situation for everyone involved. You’ll all get more traffic and readers from participating, and your readers get some great content and introduced to other people they may not already know. If you continue to work on this strategy you can create a specific section on your site where people can go to find all the free ebooks you have available.

This idea would be PERFECT around a holiday, or special occasion or a time that is important in your niche. You could do these regularly and on a variety of topics. This would allow you to create a LOT of relationships, and do it more in a one on one way, that’s a little more private than some of the other methods we’ve talked about thus far.

So what do you think? Will you work on a collaborative ebook? If so I’d love to hear how it turns out… please let me know.

Related posts:

1. 10 Tips to Drive Traffic and Build Your Brand with Pinterest
2. Build Some Buzz to Propel Your Business
3. Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

So here’s a few ways I manage to provide great content and create conversations and connections with my twitter friends.

1. Read blogs.

Yep, I know everyone tells you to stop reading blogs but if you’re wanting to connect with people in your niche you’re going to have to put yourself out there. Comment on the blog posts that speak to you. This is one of the best ways to start creating a connection with other people in your industry. Every blogger loves comments… and when they start to see your name regularly popping up, they’ll remember you.

So what’s that got to do with Twitter?  Everything! When you read a great blog post, go ahead and tweet it! If the blog has a retweet button, just click it! I personally like to add a little comment at the end of the tweet. I use a little arrow <– and then my comment so people know it’s me, and not the blog author.

There’s a bonus if you’ve commented on the post as well… people will see you there and you can even help drive more traffic to your site.

2. Conversation Starters

I like to schedule tweets to go out through the day (when I know I’m going to be around to engage). These tweets are what I call conversation starters. They’re questions or thoughts that encourage people to answer me.  I get ideas for these conversation starters from reading blog posts, or articles about my topic. Reading magazines or books can also be a great way to find conversation starters.

Here’s a couple examples:

My table is filled with paper clutter… any tips on keeping it clutter free?

Poll: do you send pictures to out of state relatives or put them online? (I’d just gotten into a big discussion with my mom about buying school pics lol)

I like to google articles related to my topic and get ideas that way. If you are using tweetdeck you can schedule these conversation starters to go out through the day. (I set mine at one an hour or one every other hour) If you have your replies set to chirp at you in tweetdeck you’ll know when someone has replied to a conversation starter and you can go and continue the conversation.

3. Ask questions

People love helping out on Twitter. If you’ve got a question, or you need help with something. Ask your twitter friends!

4. Share funny things that are happening.

The other night I was on the computer and I heard my husband yelling at the dog to get out of the bathtub. (he was running a bath for himself) the ensuing splash and frustration was funny… I shared that. I got 2 or 3 people replying to me as well… both that they felt bad for my husband, but also that they have to keep the bathroom door shut or their dog does the same thing.

The other night Hanna was in a particularly bad mood. She yelled at my husband “Just go away and stop touching me”. Which I thought was hilarious… shared that.

People want to know what’s going on with you… they want to glimpse into your life and your world. Let them. Share your world with your twitter friends.

5. Your blog posts

Of course you want to share your blog posts as well. As long as you are talking and retweeting sharing your blog posts will not look at all strange, in fact, it will be a great way for people to stay up to date with your blog. However, you don’t want your blog posts to be the only thing in your stream.

There are a couple tools you can use to have your blog posts automatically sent to your twitter account. My favorite of these tools at this time is twitterfeed.com. I like it because I can add words/content before and/or after the tweet. I can choose exactly what it will show ~ the title, extra words etc. I feel it’s the most customizable tool available. I used to use a plugin but wasn’t very happy with it.

6. Talk to people.

I mentioned it’s a good idea to ask questions… the other part of that is to ANSWER them as well. If you see someone in your twitter feed ask a question, jump in and answer! They’re looking for a response and by answering a question you’re creating a connection. People remember the people who answer them, who speak directly to them.

As you begin to create more connections, those connections will begin to keep an eye out for your stuff. They’ll be more likely to follow your links. They’ll be more likely to retweet YOUR posts when they come up. But you have to start by creating the connection, which means talking to people.

Don’t worry about jumping in the middle of a conversation… it’s expected on twitter for people to jump in. If you see a conversation going on go ahead… add your two cents. That’s what it’s all about!

7. Retweet people.

If you see something that someone’s tweeted, whether it’s a statement, a blog post, or a link to something interesting, just retweet it. Retweeting is a great way to share new things with your twitter friends. It’s also another good way to make a connection with other people. When you retweet someone it shows up in their @replies column. It is a very good way to get someone’s attention. Now don’t do it just for that reason… but it is an added bonus.

So there you have 7 ways to create connection and provide quality content for your twitter friends. Remember, you can do all this stuff in your 10 minute dips into the twitter stream. It doesn’t take all day, it just takes consistently being visible (over time) to build up picture and name recognition from your twitter friends. The more consistently and frequently you get on twitter the more people will recognize your avatar… and if you provide great stuff, are yourself and have fun they’ll even look forward to seeing your avatar and “have” to read your tweets when they see you come up.

Test this theory out… get on twitter regularly. Start conversing and see if you don’t find a few people that you are drawn to… and feel excited when you see their picture pop up and can’t wait to read their tweets. I bet it happens. If you keep it up, over time, in short bursts, you’ll be that person for someone else…

If you’ve got questions about creating content for twitter feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer, but probably not until later this afternoon, I’ll be at school with Hanna this morning. (The dentist is coming to talk to the class!!)

No related posts.

I regularly go out in search of new blogs to read and new moms to connect with. As I go I read blogs and feel like I’d like to get to know this mom better I look for a way to connect on Twitter. Usually there’s a little icon or a badge that says the person’s on Twitter. I click through, and many times I’m so sad to see all that’s there is an page filled with links to blog posts that have obviously been automatically sent right from their blog. There’s no conversation, no interaction, no connection. This totally bums me out.

How can you make connections on Twitter (without it sucking up your whole day)?

This is one of the biggest problems I hear about. I don’t know how to do Twitter without it consuming my whole life. I wanted to work from home so I had time to spend with my kids!

I understand that… and there definitely are ways to get a handle on Twitter, actually connect with your Twitter friends and still have plenty of time left over.

The first thing is tools:

To try to use Twitter from the website is madness. You’ve got to have some tools. My tool of choice is Tweetdeck, but there are others out there, like hootsuite, and seesmic, but I like Tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck is an application you download to your desktop. When you open it up  you connect it with your Twitter account. (You can also connect it to your Facebook account ~ which is super handy). Once you’re all connected you want to set up columns within Tweetdeck.

This is what makes it really easy to create the connection. These columns let you stay connected to the conversations and people you want to get connected with.

My first column in Tweetdeck is the @momtohanna column. This column is filled with people who are actually talking TO me. I want to make sure I know when people are talking to me, so I can respond. Tweetdeck has noises and sounds that you can set to let you know when you have a new tweet. This column is the only one I have a noise set for. That way, when Tweetdeck chirps I know someone’s talking directly to me. I don’t have chirps for any of my other columns or it would be like a jungle. However, I don’t find the level of people talking directly to me to be overwhelming so the chirps are still working out well.

The second column is filled with my “resource” people. These are people who I learn from, find blog post ideas from, who post great links for me to check out. These are mostly internet marketing related people… so I can stay connected with people I enjoy talking to in this niche.

The next column is called #rockinmoms. It’s a list I’ve created within twitter so I can keep track of moms I find interesting, like to connect with, want to interact with etc. Once I created the list in Twitter I went to Tweetdeck and added a column… then it allows me to choose a list to see in that column.

If I want to stay up to date with a specific topic I can use hashtags to follow those conversations. Hashtags are little tags people use to allow people to follow a conversation. Right now I’m following #mamavation in one of my columns. This is a conversation about moms getting fit. When I added the #mamavation hashtag to tweetdeck it shows me every tweet that comes through (no matter who writes it and if I’m following them or not) that has used the #mamavation hashtag in their tweet. Right now Mamavation is choosing a new mom for the next contest so there is a lot of conversation going on with that hashtag. Since I’m interested in fitness, and moms this is a great way to meet and get to know more moms I may not meet otherwise.

I also have a column with the hashtag #wahm so whenever someone publishes a tweet and at the end says #wahm so everyone will know it’s about working from home I get to see those tweets as well.

So there’s my content and my connection points. I have my finger in multiple niches, that all fit together for me to meet more people and connect with more people who are like me and might like to read this or my other blog.

How do I have time to read all those tweets?

I don’t. Let’s not be crazy here… no one has time to read all those tweets. I treat twitter like a river. When I need a break I’ll go to twitter for a quick dip. I’ll look at what’s in my Twitter stream right then. If there’s something interesting being discussed I’ll jump in the conversation. If I have found something I think other people might find interesting, I’ll make a comment or post a link.

10 minute dips in the Twitter stream.

That’s how I connect on Twitter. When I get frustrated with a project and need to take a break… 10 minute Twitter dip. When I’ve finished a project or crossed something off my list… 10 minute Twitter break. When I’m done with my work and I’m ready to go hang out with Hanna… 10 minute Twitter dip and then off I go.

10 minute dips allow people to see you online regularly. They allow you to connect and be connected to, but they also allow you to go out and live your life. How many 10 minute twitter dips you take in your day depends on your schedule, what you’ve got going on, and quite frankly ~ how much you enjoy connecting on Twitter.

I love twitter… and it can become a bit addictive. To counter balance my love for Twitter I make sure I don’t turn on my tweetdeck until AFTER my writing work is done for the day. It is very hard for me to concentrate when I see Twitter updates popping up on my screen, or hear the chirps of people talking to me. While Twitter is an important part of my business… it’s not THE most important part and I need to make sure I get those things done before I jump into Twitter.

That’s how I pull information FROM twitter… next time I’ll talk about how I add information to twitter. The content you share is as, if not more, important than what you take from the experience. So stay tuned Thursday for that.

What about you?

How are you using Twitter to connect with and create friendships in your market? I’d love to hear. Today on Around the Kitchen Table Mary K and I are going to be talking all about social median, Twitter, Facebook and how to use it for your business without it taking over your life. If you have questions or want to talk about it please join us on the show. The chat room will be open and we’ll be taking your questions. The show starts at 10am Central Time… hope to see you there.  You can find the show (as well as archives of past shows) at www.CelebrateWahms.com

Here’s the replay of the show. Thanks for everyone who stopped by and participated. We had a really good time!

No related posts.

2 blogs.

1 target market.

2 Very different traffic strategies.

The first blog is a very niche related, product focused blog. The other is a more information related site, with plenty of products to be sold as well.

Site one:  Toddler Ride On Toys

As you can see it is very specific and details a lot of excellent information on ride on toys. Very specific, and very keyword rich.

Tina’s best bet for getting traffic to this site is to go for search traffic. She wants to find people who are interested in a specific ride on toy ~ they’re looking online to buy that toy. She wants to get them from the search engines.

To do this, Tina will identify targeted keywords with good search volume and low competition ~ write up a post targeting that keyword and then build links to the post. As she builds links to the post it helps the authority of the overall site, but it also helps push that particular post up the search engines for that keyword.  As she continues to work on this she will find her site is ranking quite well in Google for her targeted keywords ~ she gets traffic and makes sales.

This is pretty straight forward. However, I am guessing that  most people do not have a blog that is this straight forward. So let’s look at blog number two.

Blog number 2: Fun Kids Activities

As you can see this blog focuses more on ideas and concepts than solid things you can sell ~ so it’s going to be harder for Mary K to simply target keywords and get traffic from Google. While I’m sure there are plenty of keywords out there she could target Mary K is a very interactive person and has a writing style that doesn’t exactly fit the mold of “keyword targeted posts” Never fear. She still has options.

I think her strategy for getting traffic to this blog should focus on creating a community. Once she gets a group of regular readers they will help her spread the word organically. They will also trust her opinions and buy from her because of it. How’s she going to do this?

1. Identify her target market.

Who needs ideas for activities to do with their kids? First time moms? Busy moms of multiple kids? Single moms? I’m sure she could brainstorm even more and come up with some very specific groups of people who need what she’s offering. (I know as a first time mom I LOVE her site and use it often!)

2. Identify where her target market hangs out.

She needs to start connecting with these people, so she’s got to figure out where they are spending time online. Do they have their own blogs? Do they hang out on twitter? Facebook? A forum? Hell, they may still be at myspace. She’s got to figure out where they are and then get involved and get to know them.

3. Get involved with her market.

No matter where she finds this target market she’s got to get involved with them, she’s got to create relationships with them. Now, I personally know that Mary K is a master of creating relationships which is why I think this strategy will work QUITE well for her. If she was a loner who hated people I would suggest she get her hiney into the keyword tool and start finding keywords to target. (that’s part of the art of internet marketing ~ knowing your strengths and weaknesses and creating your business around what works for YOU).

She can comment on their blogs, she could add them on twitter and start conversations ~ same with facebook. She could join the forums they hang out in and help ~ answer questions, provide support ~ you know ~ be friendly.

In all of this she is able to link back to her blog so as people get to know her better they stop by and check it out. Since her content is top notch they will likely keep coming back ~ not only that ~ as she becomes more a part of their community they will also retweet her posts, recommend an activity she talked about to other moms they know and thereby build her community even more.

4. Be consistent.

This is the final item of this plan, and the whole plan hinges on it.  To become part of a community you have to be there. You have to be around, interacting regularly (read daily ~ especially in the mom niche). Have you ever had a friend who pops up for a week and then disappears for months? Think about how you feel about those friends. I love them, but they aren’t the people I talk about all the time. Nope the people I talk about all the time are the people who are in my life all the time.

It works the same here ~ you hear me talk about people, bloggers, friends, accountability partners regularly around here… that’s because they are part of my daily life. They’re like family to me, so of course I would talk about them, just like I talk about Hanna and my husband.

I’m not saying you have to connect with these people 15 hours a day, but you need to create a reliable presence in the community so people will know you’re reliable and really part of the community.

As you can see these are two very different blogs ~ however targeting pretty much the same market ~ but driving traffic to them is done in very different ways.

What kind of blog do you have? What kind of traffic plan do you have? Are you implementing the plan? Sticking to it? I’d love to hear what you’re up to in the comments.

No related posts.

I did a couple videos over the weekend that work together to create a nice twitter action plan. I know I’ve discussed how to use twitter in a previous post, but I thought I’d lay it out in some really simple steps here, and let you watch the videos.

Twitter Marketing Action Plan:

What you’ll need:

1. Twitter account
2. 5 to 10 commentluv blogs you enjoy reading
3. su.pr
4. twellow.com

Let’s get started:

1. Go to twellow.com and search for people who are your target market.  This doesn’t mean they have to mention your exact blog topic, but they are people who would want to read your blog topic and get to know you better.

ex. ride on toys site ~ you could look for parents of toddlers ~ there’s plenty of them.

2. Follow 5 to 10 people from twellow.com (every day)

~ You can also just peruse your twitter stream and look for conversations that are going on. Stop by a person’s page if you don’t already follow them and check them out. If they seem interesting then follow them.  (do this 5 to 10 times a day)

3. Interact with your followers.

When you follow people they will most likely check you out and then follow you back. Now is when the real relationshipping part comes in. You need to talk to these people. You want to provide them with some quality stuff.

• have your blog posts automatically go to twitter (tweetmyblog plugin or tweetfeed.com will do this)
• if you do video have your videos go directly to twitter (there’s a place on youtube to do this)
• tweet links to seriously cool stuff
• tweet fun stuff your market will be interested in

You can use the commentluv blogs and su.pr to provide tons of great content to your twitter account, and leverage your time with blog commenting. After you’ve commented on a blog (getting a link back to your site) use su.pr to share the blog post with your twitter readers.

Su.pr also has a tweet scheduling tool where you can schedule your tweets to post later, so you are spreading your tweets out over the day instead of all at once in a few minutes. This is nice because you get to reach more people over the day. Not everyone is on twitter at the same time as you.

While sending quality  links and information is good, the way you really create relationships on twitter is by participating in the conversation and getting to know people ~ and letting them get to know you.

If you’re using tweetdeck ~ which is a desktop application you download to use twitter and facebook you can set up a whole column for people you really want to connect with. You do this by creating  a list in your twitter account, and then adding that list to your tweetdeck. (If you’re interested in a step by step tutorial on how I actually do this let me know I’d be glad to show you).

Your twitterstream can get really busy when you get a lot of followers, but that’s what makes it fun. Scan through your timeline and read what people are doing  ~ you don’t have to spend hours doing this ~ just take a glance and look for something interesting. When you find something you can reply to that person and make a comment. This will get you noticed by that person (provided they aren’t a movie star or blog star lol ~ most regular people welcome replies and to engage in conversation) and can start a conversation. The people you have actual conversations with are more likely to remember you, and you them.  Last night I got into a great conversation with Catherine Caine (who is a blogger I follow) just by making a comment about her new header.

The other way to build a relationship with people on twitter is to retweet their messages. The more your retweet for other people, the more likely they are to retweet for you. It’s a very reciprocal game over there ~ you have to play with others and others will play with you.

This may sound like a lot but it can really be done in 30 minutes or so a day. Check out the twitter action plan for more succinct time table.

Here’s the videos:

How to Get More Traffic Using Twitter:

How to get more traffic with blog comments:

If you’ve got more questions about twitter or blog commenting let me know and I’ll do my best to answer. I’d love to hear what strategy you’re using to increase your traffic with twitter  ~ leave me a comment and let me know.

No related posts.

1. There are SO many ways to get traffic.

2. I’ve set up a challenge for myself and had to decide (really decide) what I was going to do.

As you know the most important thing for your bus tour is to get people on the bus. If you’ve got nobody on the bus there’s no people to buy your products and services.

I am really good about building relationships with the people on my bus… but I’ve definitely not focused on getting MORE people ON the bus.

That’s my challenge for the next 30 days.

I decided to set a goal to get 5 new subscribers every day. I know ~ not a huge number, and it’s probably not that much of a stretch for me but… (yeah I should have probably gone for 10 new people a day but…)

Now I had to decide HOW I’m going to reach that goal.

How am I going to get people not only TO my blog but also get them to sign up for the blog 2 hours report.

1. I decided on working with video. I haven’t done much video. It is a goal I set at the beginning of the year, so I decided to go with that. It’s also really easy to leverage video and it does well in the search engines… so it had a lot going for it.

2. I also decided to add the lightbox sign up box to my site. I know it can seem intrusive and annoying, but let me tell you… already it’s vastly increased my opt in rate. I also have it set to only show up once when people stop by which is not quite as annoying. (If you see it more than once in a row, please let me know!)

Some exciting things about video:

I know I can get traffic from youtube. I know video ranks well in the search engines. What I didn’t know, until I really started digging into the world of video is just how many ways there are to leverage the 15 minutes it takes me to create a video.

When I started doing a little research on how to maximize my video presence I ran across this article from @buzzblogger, How to Get 1000′s of Views on Your Video.

There are some amazing suggestions on how to maximize my video efforts. AND it got really overwhelming. I mean when am I going to find time to do all this stuff??

I’m not.

I’m going to pick a few of the things she mentions and I’m going to do them. I’m going to do them regularly and consistently. I’m going to do what I can, and if I find I have more time I will add a couple other things.

My plan and how I’ve pulled together some of Kim’s suggestions are what I talked about in today’s video.

Here’s a quick outline of my video marketing plan:

1. Create video (5 to 10 minutes)
2. Edit video  (15 minutes)
3. Upload video to youtube (10 to 15 minutes) I’m writing this post as it’s uploading.
4. Add new video to blog post at twittermoms (3 minute)
5. Add new video to blog post at mombloggers (3 minute)
6. Add video to video section of twittermoms (3 minutes
7. Connect with (add as friend) 5 new people at twittermoms and mombloggers  (15 -20 minutes)
8. Interact/participate in 5 ways at both twittermoms and mombloggers (1 hour)

As you can see a lot of these activities only take a few minutes and could be fit into small time spaces throughout the day. It’s not like I have to sit down and do all of this in one sitting (although I will), but it’s something that can be done throughout the day when you have bits of time to work.

Here’s today’s video: (you can catch all the videos from my challenge at my youtube channel (don’t forget to subscribe!)

Day 2 of the 30 Day Video Challenge: How to Increase Web Traffic

Wide vs. Deep

I touch on the topic of wide vs. deep in the video. Going wide meaning you do a little of everything across the board ~ that’s what I’ve pretty much always done, a little of this for traffic, a little of that for traffic. On the other hand, going deep is finding one method and then figuring out all the ins and outs of it, the tricks that you would probably miss if you were only taking a passing glance at it.

Going deep for your traffic strategy is kind of like doing an authority site ~ you really dive in, and look at every aspect of the topic before you move on. I’ve never really tried it but I can feel it has a lot of potential. So this next 30 days will be a test.

I’ve marked down my subscriber number and we’ll check it at the end of the 30 days and see how I’ve done.

What about you?

What are you going to strive for in the next 30 days? What steps will you have to take to make it happen? Decide. Commit. Write it down. Keep it simple… a few things done consistently every day really add up!

No related posts.

What is a Ning community?

Ning is a huge site that allows people to start their own community without having to do any of the background stuff, like hosting, and programming, and all that stuff.

The rules are changing, but anyone used to be able to create a community there for free. It was a great tool to help build your own community ~ BUT ~ that’s not what we’re talking about today.

We’re going to look for communities within the Ning site that are in our niche, or where our market hangs out. I’m going to use twittermoms as my example throughout this post. It’s the Ning community I spend the most time in, although I could definitely spend more consistent time over there.  Each ning community may be a little different, because there’s different templates you can use, and you can customize what you want to show up on your front page, but there are going to be some parts that are on most if not all the sites.

Let’s look at the really killer features of a Ning community:

Main Page:

The main page is where you’ll see what’s going on across the community. This is all MEMBER CREATED content. That’s important because as a member your content can easily make it to the front page ~ because the front page features NEW content. So each time you create new content, whether it’s a comment in a group or discussion, or a new blog post it shows up on the front page for everyone to see.

Twittermoms has over 25 THOUSAND members. So your front page content ~ even if it’s as simple as participating in a discussion or forum shows up for everyone coming to the front page. Talk about powerful.

Members ~ you’ll also find a place to connect with other community members on the front page. On this site it’s on the sidebar ~ says “members” you can click the “view all” link and it will show all the members of the community. You can spend a few minutes each day looking at member’s profiles and adding a few friends. The more you connect and reach out in this type of community the better.

I believe Ning communities are much easier to create real relationships and friendships because they offer so many more ways to get to know people, and so many additional ways to interact.

Let’s look at them:

My page: When you join you’ll get to create your own page. On this page you have the ability to add content, let people know who you are, add an RSS feed from your blog, add blog posts, add videos ~ all amazing ways to connect.

You might be wondering how you’re going to create all this content on top of the other content you have to create.  It’s not as hard as you might think. Repurpose your content! You can use articles you write for EZA or other article directories as blog posts ~ you can use any video you uploaded to youtube here as well.

Remember, each time you do this your content will show up on the front page of the site. At twitter moms you have the chance to get 25K member eyes on the page, as well as all the traffic that comes to the site via other avenues.

These are targeted eyes too ~ which matters. Once you become active in the community people will begin to look forward to seeing your new content and will be on the lookout for it ~ they will also start spreading the word about it too ~ they may tweet, or FB it. (which is very easy to do at twittermoms ~ since it’s moms who use twitter!)

I hope you are beginning to see the possibilities that come from this type of community.

While there’s no “signatures” in a Ning community if you have a unique image put up for your page, people will begin to notice your picture everywhere. If you participate in conversations people will start seeing you around and want to know more about you ~ now you’ve got an entire page for them to get to know you and like you, and you can send them wherever you want from  your page. Very powerful.

Friend requests: It won’t take long and very little participation before you begin to get friend requests. When you’re logged in they’ll show up in a box on the right hand side of your page. You just click the “friends” link and it will take you to the request page. You can click on the people who have requested friendship and learn more about them.

Did you see how that worked? They asked you to be friends, and you looked at their page. If you do the same thing you will get the same results ~ not only will people accept your friend requests, but they will view your page when they do it (most of the time) and get to know you and what you’re doing in the process.

Groups  and forums: If you go to the top navigation bar you’ll see a “community” link. This is where you’ll find where and what people are talking about. Twittermoms currently has 471 groups ~ some are small an relatively inactive, and some are big and have lots of activity. There are groups on everything from Book Clubs to Ebay selling, to breastfeeding, to decorating cakes.  There are literally groups for just about everyone here.  Pick a few and start participating. Each time you do, it will show up on the front page of the site, and people will start to recognize your avatar ~ and feel like they know you. Talk to people directly ~ and just like forums, don’t drop links, but converse with and help people out! For a while the twittermoms book club was very active and we were having live chats with authors every week or two. Lots of fun!

Discussion Forums are a little different. They are more like regular forums. They are one thread of a conversation about a specific topic. It’s also a great place to start a conversation, or ask a question you have. Some conversations will take off, and some won’t but again… every discussion post shows up on the front page of the site.

What Ning community should I join?

Twittermoms is pretty much the only community I’m really involved in anymore, because all of the things I’m involved in are covered in this one community. That may not be true for you, so you’ll need to find a different community.

You can go to Ning.com ~ there is a search box, top right hand corner where you can put in keywords/topics and see what’s out there.  I suggest you look for communities that are active, and have at least 1000 members. You don’t want to be spending time participating and adding content if you don’t really have any audience within that community.

Remember… you don’t have to join a community that’s is exactly about your topic, but you want to join a community where your market hangs out. So let’s say you have an educational blog ~ you may want to join a homeschooling community, or even a community that revolves around healthier foods in school ~ you see your target market will be there as well. You don’t need to talk all about educating children, you can talk about food in schools, and when people come to your page they will see that you have great educational stuff on your blog, it’s a natural progression for them to move to your site.

Here’s some communities I’ve found on  different topics.

Fitness: Bookieboo Very active, lots of challenges, and plenty of twitterchats as well.

Law of attraction: Powerful Intentions very active ~

Law of attraction/EFT: Boundless living ~ great regular challenges and active friendly community

Mom Bloggers: Blogamama

Squidoo ~ Rocketmoms ~ this is an invite only group ~ I can submit your name if you want to participate.

That’s about it, the Ning community can be a very powerful way to build brand you and build traffic to your site. The key is consistent participation. You’ll need to come up with some sort of a plan, so you spend quality time there, but don’t end up spending ALL your time there. This is a great promotional activity, but you need to keep steady with your content creation as well.

If you join any of the above communities, shoot me a friend request! If you have any questions or want to tell us about your Ning experience, please leave a comment below!

No related posts.

We’ve learned that creating this type of site rests heavily on creating relationships. Building backlinks is important ~ it helps with Google ranking so you get free traffic from Google, but building your community starts with building relationships.

Today we’re going to talk about an excellent way to go about building relationships and your readership.

Forums

I’m sure everyone is familiar with regular forums. There are forums on every given topic ~ I mean really. If you Google  your topic + forum I bet you will find something. If you can’t find a forum directly related to your niche I’m sure you can find a forum where your market hangs out.

ex. ride on toys.

You may not be able to find an entire forum based on ride on toys ~ however, I KNOW you can find forums about kids, about toddlers, about parenting ~ all places your target market would be.

Start with finding a forum.

A few things to check out before you join.

1. Is it an active forum? You can tell this by looking at the forum board, see if there are a lot of members (often noted at the bottom of the page ~ this many people online ~ most people online ever). Also note if there are a lot of topics. Check if those topics have replies.

If no one is hanging out in the forum you’re not going to find anyone to connect with.

Don’t take this to mean that you have to find the BIGGEST forum you possibly can. That’s not necessarily true. Finding an active forum ~ a community is much more important than the size. If you find a forum with 1000 really active members who are friendly and helpful ~ you’ll probably be better off than finding a forum with 1 million members, none of whom really know one another.

Sign up for membership

You will have to join the forum to be able to participate. There will be a join button somewhere. Click it, and fill in the form presented. Think about your username ~ this can be used to build the brand of you. You can use your real name, or if you’ve used a name across your other social networking outlets you might want to stick with the same name. People will begin to recognize you all around the web. Aka: momtohanna When I started social networking the name JackieLee was not available everywhere so I made the decision to be momtohanna ~ now I use that username wherever I go online now.

Once you’ve signed up you will most likely have to click a link in a confirmation email before you can participate, so watch for that email.

Add a picture.

This is another great way to brand yourself online. Add the SAME picture wherever you go. People will begin to recognize the picture and will automatically feel like they already know you. This is powerful. If you keep changing your picture people, even people who “know” you will feel like they don’t know you because they won’t recognize the picture.

This is very true ~ unless they’ve met you in person a new picture may not translate into being “you”. So pick an image you like and stick with it!

Add your profile

This is where you get to tell a little or a lot about yourself. Fill in as much as  you feel comfortable. The more you share the better people can get to know you. The more you share the more chances for common ground you’ll have with others.

Remember to put your website in your profile. There will usually be a space for it. It may say website or homepage or something similar. You will probably just need to use the url.

You may also find you can use some html in some of the writing areas. If you can ~ use html to create a keyword anchor text link back to your site. Just make sure it flows in the comments you’re supposed to be making in that area. It will probably look like an “about” section or something similar. So tell your story and when you get to the part about what you do, add a link to your site.

Add a signature

In a regular forum the signature is going to be your best way to get traffic to your site. A signature is a short statement you create. When you post to the forum by starting a thread or participating in a conversation your signature will show up under your comment. Here’s an example of my signature.

Yes, I see I used Jackie Lee there lol ~ I guess I’m doing both ~ not very consistent. I do use the same image everywhere though so that kind of ties it together.

While most places use html code you’ll find that most forums use BBCcode. It’s a little different and can be a little confusing so here’s the code you’ll need to create a keyword anchor text link in a signature.

[URL="http://yourlinkhere.com"]Your keywords here[/URL].

This will look like a regular clickable link when created in a signature, just like the one above.

Participate

Now that you’ve got your profile and your sig file set up it’s time to get involved. Before you start participating in a new forum however, I suggest you take some time to read around. Read some conversations. Look at who’s participating all the time. Look at how they are interacting. See who the “players” are in this forum.

After you’ve taken some time to get to know the “feel” of the place, go ahead and jump in the conversation. Answer a question, comment on a response. Participate.

Do NOT say ~ hey I answer that question on my blog, here’s the link.

NO NO NO.

That will not make you any friends in the forum, and could well get you kicked out. Don’t worry about your website. Your signature is dong the work for you now, you never have to mention your site. EVER.  Just meet people, answer questions, converse, get to know people, make friends. The more you naturally participate the more people will get to know you and like you and want to know more about you. They will click on your signature link, they will click on your profile link. They’ll check you out. If they like you and find you interesting they’ll follow you to your site.

Now if they like you and find you interesting depends on… you guessed it. How you interact in the forum.

This is a great way to meet people, it’s a great way to  build brand you AND it’s not going to be for everyone. I suggest you find a forum or two and test them out. Test them to see if you like hanging out in the forum, if you like the people, if you enjoy the time spent, and if it sends you traffic.

This, like any other “traffic tactic” takes consistent effort. You can’t just go to the forum one day for 30 minutes and then go back a month later.  People will not remember you. You’ll need to make it a regular part of your promotional time if you choose to use this technique.

You may find you don’t like forums ~ that’s ok. Good to know. Then don’t choose this method. If you do find you like hanging out in forums, meeting new people this is the perfect type of thing to do in the evening while you’re watching TV.  It’s something that doesn’t take your complete concentration, so have fun with it, and play with it while you’re doing something else that doesn’t take your complete attention (like watching TV).

I will also add, this is NOT the MOST effective use of your time, so don’t get SUCKED in and spend all your time in forums and not create new content on your blog. Content creation then promotion.

Also… if all you do is read the forum it doesn’t count at all. If all you do is read all you are doing is wasting time. This strategy is ONLY beneficial when you participate.

If you have any questions about finding or using forums feel free to ask in the comments section. On Friday we’re going to talk about Ning communities. While they are a little different than forums, they can be a powerful way to build brand you and your traffic… more about that on Friday.

No related posts.

In any niche there is always going to be a difference of opinions on one topic or another ~ do nofollow links really count, do ride on toys really have benefits, should you use pop boxes in your garden, should a school lunch have 3 carbs in it? Anything you talk about you’re going to find differing opinions. Use that to your advantage. Write a post on the subject, give your opinion on the topic, and then find other posts that have different opinions than you. Link to those posts in your post to give your readers a wider view of the issue.

2. Back up your point:

Take a stand in a post. Once you’ve taken your stand find other people in the blogosphere that agree with your stance and link to them from within your post. You have some backup for your stance, and your readers get to read more reasons why you know what you’re talking about.

3. Link Roundup:

Link to your favorite posts of the week. Gives you a quick and easy post and introduces your readers to blogs/authors they may not already know. (link roundups are often done on Fridays)

4.  Other people’s comments:

You may notice a comment on someone else’s blog that gives you a good idea for a post. Use it. Tell everyone where your idea came from and link to the post so they can see the post that inspired you.

5. Other people’s posts:

You may read a blog post that you agree or disagree with, use that post as a jumping off point for your own post. Tell people in your post what you thought of the original post, and your unique thoughts about the topic. Make sure you share with your readers a link to the story that inspired your story.

There you have it, 5 ways to include links back to another post. Each of these links will provide you the opportunity to create a trackback on the post you’ve linked to.

What other creative ways can you think of to link to another blogger in your post? I’d love to hear how you’re using linking to other blogs in your posts.

No related posts.