Define your objectives and goals for the year – set aside an hour or so to write out some objectives for the coming year. Take each of the objectives and develop some goals to help you achieve them. Remember keep them specific & realistic. You want about 2/3 goals for each objective and it is good to put a “promise by” date on each one.
Create a Facebook fan page, find other Facebook users in your niche, follow their pages & groups – Facebook has not only become a place for people to connect and network, but it has also become another way for businesses and organizations to connect, network and promote their organization. The main way to network on Facebook is of course by creating a profile or even a group, which can be a little more professional then just a profile. However, if you really want to network and promote yourself, business or organization, then creating a Facebook Fan Page is the best way to do this.
It can be a little difficulty finding on Facebook where to begin a fan page, so you’ll have to go to the main page for creating a fan page. When beginning a fan page, you’re given the basics, which make it look like a glorified profile page. A raw fan page includes a wall, feed, photos, videos and list of fans. Although this can suffice, if you really want to attract fans who don’t just consist of your circle of friends, you’ll want to make some upgrades to your page.
Making your fan page interactive and graphically appealing are two of the most important ways to attract new fans. Making it interactive can easily be done with Facebook’s Application Directory that has a wide-range of applications that can be added to your page with a couple clicks. Putting interactive applications on your page gives users a reason to not just become fans, but to continually visit and interact on your page.
Along with making your fan page interactive, it’s important to give it some personality by making it look attractive. Facebook allows you to upload a logo or photo for your fan page, but that just isn’t enough. Give your page some flare. Put a sharp graphic linking to your website or a flashy banner along the side bar that promotes a contest.
Doing something like this offers fans and potential fans a reason to not only visit your fan page often, but to also visit your company’s website or blog. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited a website, just too immediately leave because there was little effort put into the design of the site.
Go on, try creating a Facebook fan page; it doesn’t cost anything and you can reap the benefits for yourself or business. Build off your page, keeping it fresh and new, so that your fans have a reason to come back to it. Check out these 5 elements of a successful Facebook fan page.
To find other Facebook users in your niche do a search using your own keywords & phrases, use the results to search deeper for pages & groups with high activity. Become part of the community and participate as much as you can. When you have done that, do it again, participate, participate, participate!
Create a Twitter account and find other Twitter users in your niche to follow – use the same method as above to search for other Twitter users, again use your own keywords & phrases, follow as many as you can. Post your own Tweets 4 or 5 times a day. You can take this further and create your own Twitter “landing” page, learn more here.
Find & follow other blogs in your niche, try and guest post on other blogs - if you have written content for your site, then you can write a guest blog post. They are usually shorter and slightly less informative. That doesn’t mean that the quality of the post isn’t good, it just means that the surface of a topic is touched upon so that the reader will look forward to future posts for more information. Initially you’ll want to blog on topics with which are “on topic” and are based around your own niche obviously. Once you get known as a good guest blogger, there will be others beating down your door for the opportunity to have you guest blog for them. Try to write a series of similar articles, this will mean choosing a topic you know well. This will ensure that readers will come back to read more. Check out Pro Blogger for a great post on guest blogging here.
Become a serial commenter and comment on other blogs in your niche - there are many places to search for blogs in your niche. Go to Blogsearch.Google.com (or go to Google click “More” and select “Blogs” from the drop down menu.) Now using your own keywords and phrases type them into the search box. For every blog you find that mentions those words or terms leave a comment, your name and a link back to your blog or website, preferably the home page. You can take this process further and choose specific kinds of posts to comment on. There are certain posts that always get lots of comments; these include Competitions, Personal Stories, Creative Posts (out of the ordinary), Hacks, Relatable Posts, Question Posts, Debates, Opinions, Humour, List Resources. So go on go out there and keep talking, be controversial, have a strong opinion. You WILL get noticed!
Develop an editorial calendar - this is actually a nicer way of saying “create some sort of plan about what you are going to post on your blog”. One of the best ways to improve traffic to your blog is to have lots of original content and post it regularly. To help generate a constant stream of traffic and attract real fans, you need to have a content schedule. This may mean writing blog posts every day of the week or it could mean just every other day. Your readers will start to know when to expect a post from you. Having a content schedule helps grow your reader base. If you write about specific things on specific days, readers will know when to come back. Readers will also take you more seriously if you have a plan behind the blog, that is they know it’s not just the boring old drivel that is off the top of your head. It will help create a community and turn your blog into a favourite amongst your fans. A content plan keeps people coming back for more, especially with Niche Blogs
Keep your content original & interesting use different styles of posts – battling bloggers block is something all bloggers suffer with from time to time, especially when we need to keep our posts original. Here are 5 different styles that we come across on a regular basis.
Instructional – Instructional posts describe to people how to do something. Tips posts are often the ones that are amoung the most popular, for example this ebook would be classed as an instructional post if I were to add it to my blog
Informational – These posts simply give information on a particular topic. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of the niche you are writing on.
Reviews – This type of post does well because loads of people search for reviews online of all sorts of things, usually when they are about to buy a product. I know I often Google a review on a product for example I would type “Play Station 3 review”. Reviews come in all shapes and sizes on every product or service you can think of. The posts are very powerful and last a long time in regard to Google ranking.
Lists – These are the easiest posts to write, they usually start with 5 reasons why…, My top 15 ways to…, 7 mistakes that golfers make when… etc. They are extremely popular with readers and other bloggers like to link to them
Interviews – Audio and video has never been easier to add to a blog post and interviews are an ideal way to add interesting content to your blog. Interview experts in their field, for example if you have a blog that writes reviews on restaurants, go along and interview some local restaurant managers and get their take on the industry – who better right? This works for any niche, be creative with your choice of interviewees & organise yourself before the interview, have a few well thought out questions to ask, much better than many questions that are just ramblings
There are so many different styles of posts others include – Case studies, Profiles, Problem solving, Inspirational, Research, Critique and even the good old Rant!
Submit articles – Stumble upon, Digg, Shinn, Mixx, Stumble Upon is a social website which allows its users a different way to experience the Internet. Instead of searching for specific items on search engines like Google, Stumble Upon users only have to tag specific personal or professional interests and then ‘channel surf’ the web by simply clicking on a button on Stumble Upon tool bar. Upon doing so, they will be randomly directed to specific websites which adhere to their lists of interests. Users can then choose to tag the webpage they are on or give it a ‘thumbs up‘ or ‘thumbs down‘ to indicate if they want to see it again. Users can also use the Stumble Upon toolbar as a form of social bookmarking. By surfing the web and tagging or submitting specific websites, each user can keep track of which websites they like and share it with others. Here is a link to
“10 Simple Steps to Increase Blog Traffic Via Stumble Upon”.
Digg, Shinn & Mixx use the same principle, simply Google them to find out more. The more social websites you join the more chance of traffic you will have. There are numerous other social bookmarking sites, too many for me to list. Check out the full list here
Participate in blog carnivals; a Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There are many kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics. Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every Monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editor’s opinions or remarks. There is so much stuff in the blog-o-sphere, just finding interesting stuff is hard. If there is a carnival for a topic you are interested in, following that carnival is a great way to learn what bloggers are saying about that topic. If you are blogging on that topic, the carnival is the place to share your work with like-minded bloggers. Blog Carnival is the place to come to find carnivals you are interested in, to submit your blog articles to carnivals where they belong, and to organize and maintain carnivals.
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