Social Media & Internet Marketing

  • Using Articles to Market Your Business

    The Internet is filled with content. Content of all types can be found on websites and posted on forums. Just about any subject you are looking to learn about can be accessed on the Internet. Using articles to market your business is a free promotion that is highly effective.

    What have you spent? You may have spent a few hours doing research on your topic and then you sat down to write some interesting content. The content was posted on your own site or sold to other sites that deal in buying articles.

    The best way to use article marketing is to write about something that you know. A topic that is familiar offers a host of different spins on one subject that can be marketed in a variety of places. You can submit articles to online sites, e-zines, print magazines, and newsletters. Any one of these places will give your work more exposure.


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    Come up with several ideas for article content. Keep a notebook with you so that you can jot down article subjects and titles. If you are putting together several “how to” articles, keep a list of what to include in the articles. The more information that you have on hand, the quicker you will be able to produce an article.

    Surf the Web to see what types of articles are out there. If the subject that you have chosen is pretty much done to distraction, choose something else to focus on. Most of us have more than one area of interest or expertise so we can use that to find another marketing avenue.

    What about rewrites? If you are the owner of the content, exercise your right to use it again and rewrite it from another angle to get more use out of the subject. Tailor your articles to the specific guidelines of the site or publication where you will be submitting them for consideration.

    Above all, don’t forget to plug your website or product at the end of the article. Most sites will let you have a small bio at the end. If they do, use it to the hilt. Always, always include a hyperlink to your website so that people can find you easily. They will want to read more on the subject and this can’t be done if they can’t locate your site.

    A hyperlink will take them directly to the website. If you forget to use the http:// at the beginning, they will have to copy and paste into the browser. People want things to be as easy as possible and so do you if you want their traffic.

    Article marketing is free and fun. Use the knowledge that you have gained on a particular subject to enhance your business and make you some money. People are always looking for good sources of information.

    At Strategize Your Success we help women entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. 

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  • Social Networking Gets Way Easier When You Know Your Target

    5-a-targetIf you’ve been operating your website and business for a while, you probably have a good idea who your target market is. But your social media audience could be considerably different. Plus, each network is unique, so how you approach each one might be quite different.

    It’s important to take the time to explore your target market because the more deeply you understand them, the easier it will be for you to create a connection and keep their attention.

    To get to know your social network target market, here are a few things to look at.

    Know Where Your Customers Are

    Ideally, you want your social media following to be reflective of your target customer base. There is no sense in building up an audience of people who have no interest in buying your products. It seems obvious, I know, but I’m always surprised by people who are more concerned with follower numbers than actually building a targeted connection.

    This report from comScore can give you some clues on how certain demographics of the population are spending their time online, giving you some ideas where your market might be. You can also gather this information by engaging your own audience on your blog and elsewhere to find out where they might be.

    Pay Attention5-b-pay-attention 

    Pay attention to what your current followers like. Take note of what they respond to, comment on and share. Look beyond their interaction with you and look at their own profiles. What is common to the people who seem to follow you?

    Ask Them

    Engage your followers in conversations, so you can get to know them better. You can even create polls and ask them direct questions about what kind of content they’re interested in, what questions they need answered and more.

    Shape Your Own Target

    You certainly have some control over your target market as well. If you share certain types of content, you are more likely to attract a certain type of audience, so don’t be afraid to experiment.

    Add to that, you can shape your following by following targeted people as well. Follow companies and individuals whose social network presence resonates with you. Get involved with their conversations and connect with their audience as well.

    Using This Information5-c-application

    Once you have a good idea about who your target is, you have to deliver the content they are looking for and this may take some experimentation. This is the time to put aside your personal preferences and find out what really gets their attention and engages them.

    To help you start formulating the right kind of content, ask yourself the following questions:

    – What are their key interests?
    – What beliefs are vital to them, as it relates to your niche?
    – What are their goals?
    – What challenges do they have?
    – What are their dreams and wishes? 

    When you have this deep understanding, you can start delivering things that satisfy the questions above. Remember, to experiment with different types of content. Whether it’s images, video, text, links to blog post or just about anything, find out what they like and deliver more of that.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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  • Growing a Highly Targeted Social Media Following

    We’ve all seen pages on Facebook with thousands…even millions of followers. We’ve seen the same with Twitter and other social networks. It may seem a little overwhelming if you’re starting with a small following and it may feel like you’re just not going to get anywhere if you don’t have a huge following.4-a-million
    But the truth is, a targeted following is always your best bet. While you should always work toward growing your following, you can still get results from your well-cultivated following. So keeping pushing forward. It’s worth it.

    To get you started, here are some tips for growing your following:

    Invite Your Website Visitors4-b-invitation

    When someone visits your website, one of your main goals (if it’s not for them to buy a product) should be to get them on your email mailing list. That way, you can contact them directly over and over again through your list. But another thing you want new visitors and even regular visitors to do is follow you on social media. Having multiple avenues to communicate with your audience is a good thing and allows you to stay in the mind of your prospects.

    Include buttons on your site that allow your visitors to follow you directly on your main social media networks. While, it may be tempting to offer up a ton of options and include buttons for every social network you’ve joined, do consider these pitfalls:

    – By including too many choices, you decrease your chances of getting your visitor to do anything. The old saying that “the confused mind always says no,” is absolutely true.

    – Add to that, when you include buttons for networks you’re not that active on, you don’t provide a very good experience for your following.

    Instead, keep it focused and limit your follow buttons to the networks where you participate readily. In addition, include invitations to follow you on social media in your blog posts and other content. Don’t just rely on buttons in the side bar…ask them to follow you directly.

    Invite Your Mailing List4-c-email

    Asking your mailing list to follow you in social media gives you yet another way to communicate with your audience. Include follow buttons at the end of your emails, but also mention some of your interesting posts inside the emails you send. For example, if you posted a video you know they will want to see, send them to Facebook to view it. Or if you’re online and are available to chat, start a Hangout on Google. 

    Just one tip…make sure the updates you share are public. While it might make sense to make them private, so people have to follow you to see them, it can be frustrating for your subscribers. After all, your subscribers have ALREADY told you that they’re interested in your stuff and have ALREADY given you their email address. Don’t make them jump through hoops to see your additional content.

    Make Friends in Your Niche

    One of the easiest ways to grow your social networking and online following is by making friends with others in your niche. That effect is even more dramatic when you make connections with influential people in your niche. Always spend time on developing meaningful relationship with like minded people because it has a lot of benefits:

    – You can share one another’s content

    – You can share ideas and give each other advice

    – You can cross-promote products. 

    And we’re talking about meaningful relationships here. Not just simply following someone on Twitter and hoping they’ll notice your @ replies. You need to connect them directly, meet them in person or offer to help them in some way. Real relationships don’t develop through liking someone’s Facebook status, so do the work necessary to grow your network of friends.

    Get Involved an Interact

    Even though liking someone’s video on Facebook isn’t going to make you best friends, interacting regularly with people can help you get noticed. Provide useful commentary on content that is complementary to your niche, get involved and be visible. If people can use you, they are more likely to follow you.

    Of course, balance this with the importants of keeping your schedule and avoiding distraction. Always be very purposeful about your participation and you will reap the benefits.

    Remember, Growing a Following Goes Both Ways4-d-2way

    Remember, that growing a following through SM goes the other way too. Get people to share your content on social media, so you can drive that traffic back to you. Getting that traffic back from social media helps you grow your list and sell your products. 

    Always make it easy for people to share your content. Include sharing buttons on your blog posts, free report download pages and just about anywhere you publish content. The easier it is for people to spread the word, the more likely they are to do it.

    More Advice Coming in the Next Couple of Posts

    Obviously, the most important key to gaining and retaining your following is to be interesting and useful. These are huge topics that deserve some discussion of their own. So we’ll be talking about just that in the next couple of posts. Next up, we’ll examine how to be interesting by understanding your target market and really getting a grasp of who you’re talking to. Then we’ll talk about being useful and providing something unique that others in your niche don’t. When you master that, it’s much easier to grow and nurture your following.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. 


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  • Managing Your Social Networking Time

    3-a-time-moneyGetting Lost on Social Media?  Social media is one of the most important business communication developments in a long time, but it’s also one of the biggest sources of distraction and is often a time suck for otherwise productive business owners.

    Learning to manage your own social networking time will help you leverage all those great benefits and help you get rid of those unwanted side effects.

    Here are some tips to get you going…

    Know What You Want to Do
    3-b-plan

    Before you log into another social network, make sure you have a very clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your social networking participation. While you should know where you’re going before you go there in all aspects of your life, it’s even more important on social media because it’s just too easy to get distracted. Whether it’s political stuff that gets you all fired up or a funny meme of a cat saying something hilarious, we’ve all been there.

    I’m also talking about knowing what you want to accomplish on a large and small scale.

    You should know what you want over the long term (ex. expand your reach, get more loyalty from your audience, etc.) and what you want to do on a daily basis (ex. respond to comments, post a new video). Whether you use paper and pen, mind map software or voice memos to yourself to plan, record your ideas, so you have a rock solid plan for what you hope to do.

    Limit the Networks You’re Involved In

    Too many business owners try to be everywhere at once. It’s a recipe for burnout and it isn’t likely going to grow your business because you won’t have time to work on your actual business. It’s important to select only a handful of key social networks and if you’re just getting started with social networking, simply start with one network and move from there.

    Of course, finding out what works best for your business will take some experimentation. Just don’t rush to do everything at once because you need to dedicate the appropriate time and effort to seeing what produces the most benefit.

    Finish Other Tasks First

    On a daily basis, work on your core business tasks first and then try saving social networking for the end of the day. That way, you can ensure everything that needs to get done gets done. This strategy also allows you to do more exploration on social networking so you can find new people to follow, interesting information and more.

    Carve Out Your Time

    Know how much time you are going to spend and what you’re going to do before you log into any of your accounts. Setting a limit is important, particularly if you have other business tasks or personal things to attend to when you’re done. Making sure you have your tasks outlined also helps you stay on track…instead of following that link to a YouTube video of an amazing 5 year old opera singer.

    And always remember, when you log in…serve your audience first. You can’t go wrong by focusing on your audience.

    Have a Notification Strategy3-c-notification

    There’s nothing more detrimental to productivity than being interrupted all day long with emails telling you about new retweets, likes and comments. You can limit these interruptions in a few ways:

    – Turn notifications off completely. Rarely, is there a social media emergency and if you’re already checking in regularly, you don’t really need to get an email notification for everything.

    – Some networks, like Pinterest, allow you to get a daily digest of notifications, instead of receiving an individual notification of each update.

    – Don’t send the notifications to your main email address. Choose an address you check less frequently, so you aren’t constantly distracted by the new updates.

    Keep Your Business and Personal Accounts Separate

    While you may share some personal information on your business accounts, it’s easiest if you keep your business social networking activities separate from your personal ones. There are actually a few benefits to this.

    The first is eliminating distractions. So if Aunt June sends you a private message and your friend Steve post a funny picture of his toddler, you won’t distracted from your to-do list.

    Keeping things separate also helps you stay informed about your niche and makes it easy for you to be a useful for source of information for your readers. So follow personal connections on your personal accounts and follow industry leaders and information providers on your business accounts. That way, your news feeds will be relevant to what you are working on.

    And finally, it makes you more relevant to your followers. Many online business owners broadcast business related information to their friends and family when it doesn’t really make sense. And the reverse problem is true. If you’re posting a lot of personal information, it may or may not be of interest to your business followers. You can avoid this, by separating your social media activities.

    Get Help

    There’s no reason you have to do all your social networking yourself. Even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, you can build a team or have someone alongside to help you. You can have someone help you with:

    – Posting updates

    – Scheduling updates you’ve prewritten

    – Creating and collecting images and other useful content you’d like to share

    Building a team that represents your brand takes a lot of pressure off you and allows you to focus more on strategy and business building. At Strategize Your Success we can help you with this (strategizeyoursuccess.com).

    Use Tools3-d-tool

    We are going to talk about various tools that can help you in a later post, but there are plenty of tools that can help you schedule updates, allow you to view your various network streams in one place, compile analytics for you and more. These are very useful tools to ensure you keep tabs on your interactions, allow you to participate more efficiently and can help you rework your strategy for maximum effectiveness.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. 

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  • Social Media and the Big 5 Networks

    What is Right for Your Business? If you’ve ever looked at Wikipedia’s “list of major active social networking sites”, you’d see they list over 200. That’s a lot of social networks to potentially get involved in, but of course, you can’t be in all those places and you shouldn’t be. 

    You may find that some of those networks fit perfectly in with what you’re doing, but for the most part, you’ll probably focus your efforts into some of the 5 big networks we’re going to talk about in this post. My goal is to help you understand what these networks are all about and how they might fit in with your marketing plan.

    Facebook

    Facebook was launched in 2004 and reported they have 955 million monthly active users at the end of June 2012. They are the largest social network by far that reaches a wide audience and age ranges.

    With Facebook, you can create a Facebook Page where your audience can sign up to receive your updates. Over the past year, Facebook has become a much more visual network with companies and individuals sharing more photos and videos.

    A wide variety of businesses benefit from participation in Facebook. Businesses can also advertise cost-effectively to grow their following and Facebook provides “Insights” which provide Analytics to help understand the effectiveness of posts.

    It is also a very interactive network that allows for the sharing of detailed content and the commenting system makes for an even more cohesive interaction.

    Interestingly enough, Facebook is a more closed format than networks like Twitter and Pinterest, in that it’s more difficult to have your content seen by people outside your direct following. Still, with the large number of people on Facebook, it’s difficult to go really wrong with your Facebook presence if you built it strategically.

    Twitter

    Launching in 2006, Twitter now has over 500 million active users and receives over 1.6 billion search queries daily. Twitter also reaches a fairly wide demographic like Facebook does.

    Twitter’s uniqueness comes from it’s 140 character limit on updates, creating a need for businesses to create interesting, entertaining and concise content for their users. While, you can upload photos to Twitter, it is a more text-based social network and that works very well for some businesses.

    It is also a very open format where, unless your Twitter updates are made private, users can search and easily find content from people they don’t follow. As I mentioned, the site has over 1.6 billion queries per day which presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses sharing content on popular topics.

    LinkedIn

    The oldest of these big 5 networks, LinkedIn was launched in 2003. While considerable smaller than Twitter and Facebook, they are a more focused network. With 175 million followers, LinkedIn’s focus is on professionals making connections.

    Service providers do very well on LinkedIn, but most businesses can benefit from a LinkedIn presence. The site is a source for not only finding employment and clients, but also allows like-minded business people to share ideas, advice, connect to work on projects and more.

    Google+

    A relative newcomer, Google+ was launched by the search giant in 2010. They have over 400 million users, but only about 100 million are active on a monthly basis. Google+ attracts a more technically-mind audience, but offers interesting possibilities due to its connections with Google’s other products, including search.

    Like Facebook, Google+ allows for the sharing of lengthy content, creating discussions, sharing photos and photos. And while Google+ doesn’t necessarily reach the average social media user, the strength in Google+ comes from a number of sources and a couple of notable ones are:

    – The +1 button: On the network and throughout the web, Google users are able to show appreciation for content by giving it a “+1”. The +1 can help grow word-of-mouth audiences, but also can have an impact on traffic through search engines.

    – Hangouts: Sophisticated video / audio conferencing software is built in to Google, allowing businesses to make more meaningful connections with their audience. Even the President of the United States and other public figures have held their own Hangouts.

    Bottom line is, if your audience is on Google+ (it may or may not be), it’s a good idea to explore the possibilities.

    Pinterest

    Pinterest is social media’s current darling. They officially launched in 2012 and according to Comscore, by January 2012, had 11.7 million users. While on the surface, it seems like they have a very small audience, it’s a unique network that many business strategists are keeping an eye on and many businesses are tapping into.

    This is the most visual network by far, as it’s focus is on sharing photos (videos can be shared too) of things that interest its users. These shares are called “pins” and allow users to create virtual “pin boards” in a variety of categories. The site also attracts considerably more men than women, giving you something to consider in your participation.

    If your web content tends to be very visual or your product photos are visually appealing, there could be a place for you on Pinterest. Like Twitter, Pinterest is a very open network and you will find that your Pinterest content is readily seen and shared by people who don’t directly follow you.

    Parting Thoughts

    Where you put your focus, is up to you. Just remember it’s always better to do one or two things really well, instead of a bunch of stuff haphazardly. If you’re just getting started with social media, pick one to get your feet wet. If you’re already involved, consider if you’re putting your attention into the right areas and perhaps make a plan to explore new areas or dig deeper into existing ones.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. 
    Visit our website for information at  strategizeyoursuccess.com.
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  • The Profitable Blogging Formula = Great Content + Smart Marketing + Monetization Plan

    I’ve really enjoyed sharing in the past few posts some new ideas and perspectives for profitable blogging. When you think about all that has been covered, it really comes down to a couple of things.

    Great Content:

      As a blogger, you aren’t going to get anywhere with substandard content. That’s no secret and I doubt that’s a problem for many people here. 

    There are so many great bloggers and they are publishing awesome content and engaging their audiences meaningfully, wherever they can.

    It’s the next two pieces that are sometimes problematic.

    Wise Marketing:

      Never rest on thinking you’ve done enough to promote your blog because you’ve written great content, responded to your comments and posted an update to social media.

    It takes more than this.

    You have to be active in your marketing. Get out there and reach and retain new audiences.

    You grow them through advertising, making new connections and writing for other publications. You retain them by growing your mailing list and RSS subscribers. These are all important keys to the puzzle.

    Monetization Plan:

      Of course, you also need to monetize your blog. It doesn’t matter if you sell advertising, sell ebooks on Kindle or make crafts on Etsy…you have to work it all into your blogging. You need to find advertisers, you need to optimize the placement of ads, you need to create products and you need to tell your audience about them.

    All in all, profitable blogging does take work, but it’s more enjoyable and, in the long run, easier than any 9 to 5 job. Put the work in now to enjoy the benefits for a long time to come.

    Good luck to you on your blogging journey…wherever it may take you and thank you for taking the time to listen.
     

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. 

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  • Making the Most of Guest Blogging Opportunities

    I’ve talked about guest blogging before. In fact, I think it’s quite obvious that being a guest blogger can be a tremendous benefit to you and your business. Guest blogging allows you to reach new audiences and establish your expertise further. Add to that, it allows you to forge new personal relationships with fellow bloggers and that is always a good thing.

    Guest posting example

    There are a few things to keep in mind when participating in guest blogger opportunities.

    – High traffic is good, but not always necessary.

    Obviously, guest blogging on a high traffic blog is likely to give you the most exposure, but there is often competition to get posted. In addition, there are plenty of highly targeted smaller traffic blogs that can provide good exposure.

    – Learn about the blog’s audience and write specifically for them.

    While you may write about the same topics, no two blogs are exactly the same. Learn what makes the blog you’re writing for unique and keep in mind what their audience wants to hear.

    – Always read the submission guidelines carefully.

    Look for what types of topics they want, what formatting you should use or any other specifics they are looking for. Don’t get rejected just because you make a silly little mistake.

    – Promote an opt-in, not a link to your home page or a product.

    You’ll get the best results with your guest post if you make a free offer to their readers. Linking to your home page may bring in plenty of traffic, but what happens when they click away, never to return? You want them to opt-in to your list, so that you can bring them back to your blog later, make product recommendations and keep in touch with them for months and years to come.

    – Engage the audience and respond.

    Just like with your own blog, readily ask your readers questions and respond to their comments. Consider this your opportunity to forge new relationships with those interested in your topic area.

    – Write for the same blog again.

    Let the audience really get to know you and look forward to your posts. While you can see benefit from just one guest blog post, the benefits multiple as you come back and become a more familiar face to the readers.

    Make guest blogging a regular part of your promotion plan and you’ll start to see which opportunities are worthwhile and which are not. You can also use your contributions to certain blogs as leverage to get the opportunity to write for even bigger audiences.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. 

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  • Growing Your Blog Following: I’ve Got Good and Bad News

    Just about every blogger would love to have a larger following. A bigger audience means we can get our message out to more people and ultimately, we can achieve more profit from our work. But when it comes to growing your following, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.

    The good news is, it’s not that difficult to grow your following.

    The bad news is, it’s going to take time and work, but if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, it will be well worth it.

    A lot of bloggers are so focused on the writing part of blogging; they neglect the work they need to grow their blog’s audience. While writing great content is a definite way to attract traffic and grow your word-of-mouth, it’s rarely enough. Make sure you dedicate time, effort and even some cash to growing your following.

    A few ways to get more eyeballs on your blog:

    – Make your RSS feed readily available and encourage visitors to sign up. You can have the obligatory RSS button in your side bar, but also encourage visitors to sign up in your posts and remind them directly how to sign up.

    – Build your mailing list. We’ll be talking about list building next as it is very important; probably even more important than your RSS feed. Unless you serve a real techie audience, more of your readers will email than use RSS, so make sure to ask your visitors to sign up every chance you get.

    – Make friends with others in your niche. Here’s another people never seem to take the time to do. Make meaningful friendship with other bloggers, product sellers and website owners in your niche. This means more than liking someone’s status on Facebook. It means talking directly with people and developing friendships.

    And why should you make friends? Well, it’s very simple. Friends are more likely to share your blog URL, your content and your products. So make lots of friends and do the same for them.

    – Use social media to supplement your following. It’s a sign of the times, but social media is often the focal point of many people’s web experiences, particularly younger generations. They go to Facebook or go to Twitter and they read blog posts, find news and other information there. You definitely want to be seen in social media, so there are a couple of things you can do:

    – Include sharing buttons on all your posts. That way your readers can pass your content onto their social media connections.

    – Get involved in a few strategic networks where you can reach a large part of your potential audience.

    – Buy ads. Sometimes buying traffic is the quickest way to growing your following. You can buy ads in newsletters, on other websites, on Facebook and even through Google Adwords. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money to make a lot.

    – Guest blogging and other content contributions. Contribute content to other people’s blogs, podcasts, reports and websites wherever you can. It’s an easy, free and effective way to reach new audiences and establish your credibility. Seek out opportunities that will give you a lot of exposure, but don’t turn your nose up at opportunities that allow you to reach small, but very targeted activities.

    As you can see, becoming a successful blogger isn’t just about blogging. It would be nice if we could just write and things fell into place, but it’s not how it works. Carve out time in every single work day to build your following.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.
    Visit our website for information at  strategizeyoursuccess.com.

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  • Is Anybody Listening? How to Get More Comments on Your Blog

    It’s the frustration of many a blogger. They keep writing, writing, writing, but the comments are few and far between. If you’ve dealt with this, you may have felt like you were talking to yourself. I’ve been there myself, so know how you feel.

    The good news is that commenting is not a true indicator of success for anyone who blogs for profit. You can measure your success by whether or not you are reaching profit goals for your blog. The fact of the matter is, we can have a nice sized audience reading our content, appreciating it and taking action on it, but they may never leave a comment.

    Still, a nice steady stream of comments is good for community building and provides a sort of social proof for your blog. It shows that people are reading your content and like it, so others may follow suit. So the goal of increasing comments is a good one, as long as that is not your main focus in your blogging for profit journey.

    To help you, here are 14 ways you can encourage more comments on your blog:

    1. The first key to more comments is simple. It’s traffic. If you’re only getting a few hundred visitors per day or less, you probably won’t see a lot of comment activity. That doesn’t mean the traffic isn’t valuable, but it means you shouldn’t be alarmed by low comment volume. So your first step is to increase your traffic and we’ll actually talk about growing your following in the next post, so be sure to come back for that one.

    2. Ask questions in your posts. If you want people to leave a comment, ask them a direct question. Ask questions about things people are passionate about to get a bigger response.

    3. Use Controversy. When a post is controversial or shows a very strong opinion, that’s when you’ll find the commenters come out of the wood work. That doesn’t mean you have to be rude or offend, but just make people think and don’t be afraid to express yourself.

    4. Humor. Just like controversy, humor is something that gets people talking. Make people laugh and they’ll thank you, share their own jokes and more. Making people smile is a good thing too.

    5. Reply to comments. Think of comments as the start of a conversation. Where possible, reply to your comments and engage your readers. They’ll be more likely to come back and comment more if they feel like someone listens to and appreciates what they have to say.

    6. Make response posts. If you get a great comment that opens up a new discussion, make a new post out of it. It’s a continued conversation and encourages the same people to come back and add even more to the conversation.

    7. Ask friends and family to give you a boost. If you’re just getting started, ask people you know to come by and get a little discussion going. Others are more likely to speak up if they see others doing it too.

    8. Don’t require registration. If you feel you’re in need of comments, don’t put up barriers for your readers to make comments, including registration. Requiring registration just creates a couple more steps for someone before they comments and most people will simply click away, rather than bother.

    9. If comments are moderated, do it swiftly. If you moderate all your comments before they’re posted, make sure you do so quickly and frequently. Making people wait is a definite conversation killer.

    10. Consider using a Facebook commenting plugin. There are a variety of plugins that allow your readers to post their comments through Facebook. This can encourage discussion because the comments can appear on your visitor’s timelines and then their friends can join in the discussion as well. Just remember, not everyone has a Facebook account, so it’s a good idea to have other options too.

    11. Make it easy to reply directly to specific comments. Make sure that your commenting system is set up so people can comment to specific posts. It makes is easier to create sub-conversations from the main post and it’s also easier for your readers to follow the comments.

    12. Use your mailing list. Tell your subscribers about new blog posts and encourage them to come by. These are people who have already indicated they are interested in your content, so share it with them.

    13. Respect and encourage the opinions of others. People will disagree with you, but you can still respond respectfully and engage them in a discussion that is educational for both sides. It’s a great opportunity to show that you’re open to other ideas and you’re willing to discuss the issues.

    14. Acknowledge your regulars. If people comment more than once, welcome that back and thank them for their contribution. After all, by commenting they are contributing to your blog and making it more vibrant. Show you’re grateful for that and they’ll be back to do it again.

    Think of your blog as your community. If you want people to be active, you need to be a gracious host and be active yourself. While traffic will usually increase your comment volume, there are other things you can do to encourage comments from the visitors you already have.

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  • Using Images to Create Unique Blog Content

    Today’s web is far more visual than it was just 5, 7 or 10 years ago. These days, with faster Internet speeds and sophisticated mobile devices, it’s possible to use more images in your content. 

    In the past, you’d have to be worried about page load speeds and while you still need to aware of it today, more web users expect a more visual experience when consuming content. The good news is, not only do your readers expect it, using images also benefits you and your blog.

    Using images in your content has a number of benefits including:

    – They have visual appeal and grab attention.
    – Images can make people laugh, cry or bring out other emotions.
    – Personal pictures from your own life can create deeper connections with your readers.
    – Photos and screenshots can illustrate concepts and processes.
    – Your content is easier to absorb by visual learners.
    – Images break up your writing into easier to read written chunks.

    It’s easier than ever to make your own image and to find commercial-use images online…even for free…so there is no excuse not to start experimenting with them.

    A few ways to use images in your blogging:

    – Adding an image to the top of your posts can get attention, instantly provide clues as to what the content is and keep your readers interested.

    – If you’re creating how-to posts, you can use photos or screenshots to show each step or the critical steps in the process.

    – If you write reviews, add images of the product being used, the results of using the product, pictures of you with the product and more.

    – Upload a photo and have fun with it. Ask your readers to caption it.

    – Create eye-catching and thought-provoking images that you can use for social media and then link them to your content. Try adding quotations, funny sayings and giving them food for thought.

    – Get your readers to submit images. You can run photo contests, ask them to show them using your product and so forth.

    No one said you had to make or find all the images for your blog. 

    Of course, knowing how to quickly and easily find images is going to make this a lot easier.

    So here are a few ideas and resources for you: 

    Obviously, you can make your own. Sometimes an iPhone or mobile phone works, but it doesn’t hurt to invest in a good camera to produce top quality images.

    – Take screenshots. You can take a picture of anything you do on your computer and edit the screenshot with any graphics editing program.

    – Pay for stock photos at sites like iStockPhoto and BigStockPhoto. Some of the photos can be a bit on the expensive side, but the image quality is very good and they have a good selection.

    – There are also free stock photos sites that offer a pretty decent selection. Try sites like Stock.xchng, MorgueFile.com and Public-Domain-Photos.com.

    – If you use the advanced image search on Google Images, you can search by “usage rights” and look for images that are “labeled for commercial use”. Be aware that the search may not always be accurate and you should double check image licenses before using them. Attribution may be required and there may be other restrictions.

    – You can do a similar advanced search on Flickr for commercially available images. Just like with a Google Images search, make sure to double check all licenses.

    There are many uses for images and plenty of sources where you can find them for little to no cost, so there’s no excuse for not using them in your blogging. Test different types of images for different purposes and see what works well for you. You may find you have a more engaged and interested audience as a result.

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