Blog
12 Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
Imagine that you’ve taken the giant leap to start a blog to bring more brand awareness and exposure to your small business.
You’ve taken all the necessary steps to build your blog platform and now comes the day when you make your very first blog post. You spend hours crafting a post that is educational, inspirational and positions you as an expert in your field. You are as proud of this post as if it truly were your own flesh and blood. And, most of all you can’t wait to share it with the world.
So, you hit “publish” and wait for your readers to react to your nuggets of wisdom. (And, you wait and wait and wait….)
Why aren’t you generating any comments? Why aren’t people emailing you thrilled that you have shared your expertise with them?
It’s called “lack of traffic” and if there’s no traffic to your blog, no one will ever see it. Period.
So, how can you begin enticing readers to visit your blog? Here are twelve quick ways to generate a flow of non-stop blog traffic:
1. Create great content.
Obviously, this goes without saying. But, your content needs to educate, entertain, inspire or offer a solution to your reader’s problems. You want to try to accomplish at least one of these tasks with every blog post.
2. Keep your posts short.
We are living in an age where short attention spans are the norm. Keep your posts under 500 words so that you don’t lose your ADD readers.
3. Get your blog indexed in Technorati.
This is the daddy of all blog catalogs. Make sure that you go through the very simple process of submitting your blog RSS feed to Technorati.
4. Submit your blog feed to other top blog catalogs.
Blog catalogs and RSS feed catalogs are where readers go to find blogs to read. You want to make sure that your blog is there. To make the process even easier, you can use a service such as SubmitinMe to manually post to the catalogs for you.
5. Entice your readers to subscribe to your blog.
Offer your readers a free goodie (such as a downloadable ebook, whitepaper, audio class, etc.) if they subscribe to your blog.
6. Let your social networks know about new posts.
Whenever you post to your blog, Tweet it out to your followers, update your LinkedIn status and let your Facebook friends and fans know about it. If it’s a good post, they will pass it on to their community as well.
7. Get involved in the blog community.
Blogging is a social activity. Read other blogs, comment on other blogs and refer to other blogs within your own blog posts.
8. Comment back.
When your readers make comments on your blog, make sure that you comment back to them. You want to encourage a natural back and forth dialogue between you and your readers.
9. Participate in a blog carnival.
A blog carnival is a blog event that it is dedicated to a particular topic and is published either weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of an article that contains links to other blog posts on that particular topic. Blog carnivals can be a wonderful way to produce awareness around your blog. Read the rules and regulations of the blog carnival and get involved.
10. Offer to write a blog post for a high-traffic blog.
Research various blogs within your particular industry. Read the blogs, comment on the blogs and interact with the blogger. Once you’ve established a relationship, send them an email politely letting them know that you would be willing to be a guest blogger for them at any time in the future. Include a link to your own blog so that they can check out the quality of your work.
11. Use your blog posts in your ezine.
Instead of writing a brand new article for your weekly ezine, send out the first few paragraphs of one of your past blog posts. Then include a link for the reader to continue reading the post on your blog.
12. Include your blog URL in your email signature.
Develop an email signature that you use whenever you send an email. Of course, your email signature should include a link to your blog.
Once you implement these twelve strategies, you’ll certainly notice a spike in traffic and begin generating comments and interaction from hundreds (even thousands) or readers in your particular industry.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
3 Steps to Twitter Time Management
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
So, you’ve jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and have embraced the experience wholeheartedly.
You’re doing everything that you should be doing, Tweeting out industry tips, quotes and strategies, connecting with targeted followers and spreading the word about your small business.
But, there’s one problem. You’re spending hours a day on Twitter. You don’t have time to write your blog posts, you aren’t sending out press releases and worst of all, you haven’t spent the time that you should on your small business.
So, what’s a Twitter-lover to do?
Here are three quick and easy ways to manage your time on Twitter:
1. Consolidate.
Your Twitter home page isn’t configured for time-management. It’s cumbersome and requires you to click back and forth between screens in order to access your Twitter stream, replies, and messages.
Instead, use a software application such as Tweetdeck to organize and categorize your Tweets all in one place. The best part is that it’s a free application that no Tweeter should be without.
2. Automate.
There’s no reason why you need to log into your Twitter account several times a day, just to send out industry quotes and tips. There’s software that can do the job for you. My personal favorite is Socialoomph and it allows you to preload Tweets and schedule to send them out at a later date.
I’ve actually gone so far as to load dozens upon dozens of small business marketing quotes into Socialoomph and drip them out to my followers over time. That way, my followers see me and my small business pop into their Twitter stream several times a day (and most don’t even realize that the process is completely automated). It’s the perfect way to generate massive visibility around your brand.
3. Communicate.
Of course Twitter is a social network and it won’t work if you depend solely on automation. Therefore, get involved in the conversation and ask and answer questions, retweet interesting posts and interact with your followers. You should strive for a few minutes of personal involvement on Twitter about three times a day.
Even though Twitter is a fantastic marketing platform, it is only one of many marketing tools that you should be utilizing to spread the word about your small business.
Therefore, put these three tips into play to ensure that you’re not wasting valuable time and energy Twittering away your day.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
50 Powerful Call to Action Phrases
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
Are your prospects doing what you’d like them to be doing? Are they ordering your ebooks, opting into your website or clicking on your links?
If not, you’re missing out on one of the top-secret weapons that copywriters have used for years to get their prospects to act accordingly.
So, what do master copy-writers do to move prospects to action? They ask them to act.
That’s right. You simply need to ask your prospects to do what you want them to do. It really is that straightforward.
But, most landing pages, sales pages and emails don’t utilize this bizarrely simple technique (which is also why most ad-copy performs so poorly).
According to usability expert Jared Spool , when visitors find powerful action words on a landing page, they are successful at completing their task 72% of the time; if the action word isn’t on the page, they are only successful 6% of the time.
Obviously, it’s in your best interest to ask your prospects what you want them do, how to do it, and that you want them to do it immediately.
Here is a list of 50 powerful “call to action” phrases that you can use in your future ad-copy:
1) Click here.
2) Click here to find out all the details.
3) Download now.
4) Immediate download.
5) Reply today.
6) Try it free.
7) Start your free trial now.
8) Sign up for your free trial immediately.
9) Your free trial is just a click away.
10) Join now.
11) Start now.
12) Talk to an expert.
13) I invite you to…
14) I urge you to act at once.
15) I can’t wait to hear from you.
16) We’d like to hear from you.
17) Just hit Reply and we’ll email you the details.
18) Sign up online at ____.com
19) Learn more about us at ______.com
20) Order now, while there’s still time,
21) Place your order now, while everything is still in front of you.
22) In a hurry? Call 555-1212
23) For even faster service, call 555-1212.
24) To place your order, call us toll-free at ____________.
25) Just reach for your phone.
26) Mail your order today!
27) Send in your application today!
28) We’re waiting for your call.
29) I urge you to send for our free brochure.
30) Send for our free catalog.
31) Mail this convenient coupon today!
32) For more details call 555-1212.
33) Please don’t hesitate to call us.
34) Why not give us a call to find out all the details?
35) Call us this week to schedule an appointment.
36) It’s important that you respond promptly.
37) Offer expires March 1st.
38) For a short time only.
39) Order now and receive a free gift.
40) See it in action.
41) Get it now!
42) Request your FREE quote today.
43) Free Shipping
44) Money Back Guarantee
45) Best value
46) Limited availability
47) Expires at midnight tonight.
48) Act quickly.
49) Reserve your spot now.
50) Sign up now, while you still can.
So, there you have it. A list of fifty powerful “call to action” phrases to use in all of your future ad-copy. The results will astound you.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
Positioning Presentation Nov 2011
I had the chance to present some thoughts on positioning yourself, your products and your business in the marketplace recently. If you are interested, I’ve attached a pdf of my presentation notes here. The notes are half pages, so when you print them out, there are 2 per page for a total of 4 pages.
Essentially, I outlined why I think it is important to start with who you serve. So many times, we get caught up in very generic expectations of what we should be doing to market ourselves thinking that we have to conquer the entire world. In reality, most of us need to reach a steady, committed set of clients with whom we can be connected over time. Mass marketing can be very effective, but it is also very expensive. And even when you are engaged in mass marketing, you are really carefully targeting your audience.
So when in doubt, start with thinking about your ideal client. Focus on who is a good client or customer for you and you may find that you can be much more efficient with your time and talents.
Positioning Presentation 7Nov11
3 Simple Tips for Writing Your About Page
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
Did you know that the “About Page” is the 2nd most popular page on your website? The main reason so many of your website guests pay a visit to this page is simply because they’re interested in knowing the “person” behind your small business. They just want to connect with an actual human being. (Is that truly too much to ask?)
That being said, hopefully your “About Page” isn’t a tiresome dissertation of mind-numbing facts about your small business.
Here are three simple tips for putting together an “About Page” that will stun your visitors:
1. Avoid stock photos.
Stock photos are just not going to cut it when it comes to depicting your small business. Your visitors want to get to know you. They really don’t care if you’re fat, skinny or somewhere in between, they’re just trying to make a connection.
Your visitors want to get to know the “real you,” not the slick and polished picture of Mr. Joe Clipart.
2. Don’t use wearisome industry jargon.
There’s nothing worse than an About Page that drones on and on with industry jargon that only your mother would care about.
Here’s an actual “About Page” paragraph that I read the other day:
“XYZ Marketing Solutions is a recognized leader in online and offline marketing solutions. Dedicated to providing the highest level of marketing expertise, XYZ Marketing Solutions delivers unparalleled support, superb customer service and superior education to their discerning clients.”
Yawn…are you sleeping yet?
Here’s the deal. When visitors read about your small business, they don’t give a hoot about your high level of expertise or superior education. They simply want to know how you can solve their problems.
I rewrote John’s “About Page”:
“If you’re looking for ways to create more visibility, generate more leads and make more money, XYZ Marketing Solutions will produce maximum results for your business.”
3. Include your contact information.
If you operate a small business, then there needs to be an easy way for prospects, customers and clients to contact you. Obviously, you don’t need to give out your home phone number. You can simply use a 1-800 number that redirects to your cell phone (i.e. Grasshopper is a low-cost, professional choice.)
And, the same is true for providing a simple way to email you. If you don’t want to use your personal email account, but want a low-cost email solution try Zendesk.
So, make sure that when visitors land on your “About Page,” you give them something to remember. It’s as simple as that.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
