Archive for Web 2.0
Track Your Tweets
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Twitter has become not only a great site for connecting with people around the world, it’s become a favorite tool of solopreneurs because:
You can offer tidbits of valuable information to a huge audience.
You can connect with prospects and customers on a personal level.
You can glean market and industry information from tweets.
The trick is to know if your tweets are having a direct effect on your profits. The best way to do this is to track your tweets. Fortunately, because developers know how important Twitter is to marketers, they’ve developed several tools to track your tweets. Here are just a few ways to track your tweets:
1. A standard calendar and an analytics program
The most basic way to track tweets is to record when and what you tweet on a calendar. You can of course use a print calendar however, you can also track them on a calendar like Outlook or Google. Once a week, compare your tweets to your analytics data to see which tweets generated traffic. This way you can determine to a reasonable degree, which tweets make the biggest impact and what days or times of the day are more effective. You can also link to unique web pages in your tweets to make sure you’re evaluating the right information.
2. Twistory
Puts your twitter feed into a calendar so you can see your twitter history. It essentially automates what you’re doing in #1.
3. TweetEffect
Tracks what tweets gain followers for you and what tweets essentially cost you followers.
4. Tweetie
An iPhone application that lets you track your tweets. You can view and respond to the tweets you follow, post your own tweets, and search for tweets by keyword just like you would from your computer only better because you can do it on the go.
5. Twitoaster
A service that monitors twitter conversations. It works by simply aggregating the conversations and publishing relevant statistics.
6. Viralheat
Viralheat is a paid service with membership levels based on your needs. Starting at $9.99 a month,“Viralheat allows you to monitor, analyze and glean insights at blazing speeds.”
Of course there are dozens of other twitter tracking services including sites like Social Oomph/TweetLater and HootSuite that let you schedule posts and track mentions and followers.
Finding the service or software that’s right for you may take a little trial and error. Of course, if you’re looking to simply track your tweets and the positive effect they have on your business, the five mentioned above are a good place to start.
Get Your Articles and Blog Posts Read
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Writing and creating content for your website is perhaps the single most important marketing and business-building strategy available to online business owners. However, in addition to simply creating content, you want to have your articles and content read. Articles that are compelling pull the visitor into your website where they’ll continue to search for more valuable content. They will begin to not only remember your website as a source of good content but also as a reliable business.
Here are five tips to get your articles and blog posts read:
Compelling Headlines
Your headline is the first thing that your visitor or reader will notice. It must grab their attention by appealing to their emotions, making a promise, offering a benefit, inciting controversy, arousing curiosity or stating something newsworthy.
Layout
How you present your content may very well be the next most important factor in getting your article read, right behind your headline. Articles that are heavy with long paragraphs are often skipped. Not because the reader isn’t interested in the content, they’re just not interested enough to spend the time reading the article for value.
In general, people tend to skim when they read online, and an article that is difficult or cumbersome to read won’t be read. Instead, use shorter paragraphs, short sentences and formatting like bold type, bullets or numbers, and subheadings to help your reader make a decision to read your article.
Intro Paragraph
Your intro paragraph is next in line in importance to getting your article read. It should be short and to the point, yet still compelling. Your intro paragraph is used to set the stage for the rest of the article. It’s where you let your potential reader know what you’re going to tell them.
Use Images
Photos, graphics and illustrations come next. For some reason we’re attracted to content with images. Maybe it’s because it breaks up the content or maybe it’s because a few good images can help you tell your story. If you can include relevant images in your content, it will draw the eye of readers.
Compelling Bio
Credentials is the last tip. Sometimes a website visitor does two things: they read the headline and then they scan down to see who wrote the article and if they’re qualified to talk on the subject. This is particularly important if you’re publishing articles on websites, blogs and ezines that are not affiliated with your business website. Create a bio paragraph that puts you in a good light and boosts your credibility and authority.
Getting your content written is half the job, getting it read is the other half. And in addition to these top tips, it is of course essential that you market your content with a variety of marketing and traffic generation strategies.
Strategies For Website Traffic
Posted by: | CommentsWebsite traffic is a good thing. In fact for many business owners, driving traffic to their website is their primary avenue for business-building. And while traffic may be all well and good, what you really want is targeted website traffic. You want the people visiting your website to be potential prospects. Your goal should be to turn them into future customers.
Here are 6 effective strategies to guarantee targeted website traffic.
#1 PPC ads.
Of course, not all Pay Per Click ad campaigns generate targeted traffic. You have to study your prospects and design keyword-specific ads that send traffic to a web page related to the ad. If you have a website about foods for people with Celiac Disease and your potential customers have to dig to find information about bread alternatives, you’re not sending the right kind of targeted website traffic to the right place. Send them directly to your bread products page.
#2 A squeeze page, opt-in list and targeted email messages.
A squeeze page is essentially a way to capture the email addresses of people who are actually interested in receiving your information. True, they may be after your giveaway but that’s okay – they’re still a qualified prospect. Once you have their email address, you can begin sending them informative, entertaining and slightly romotional messages, all of which are designed to send them directly to your website – targeted website traffic.
#3 Article marketing.
Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate targeted website traffic. When you publish quality content, and it gets published online in article directories and republished on other websites, you’re reaching a wider audience. The link(s) in your article and in your bio box can all send targeted traffic right back to your website. The more articles you publish, the more targeted traffic you generate.
#4 Blog and guest blog.
Use the advice and strategy described above for article marketing to generate traffic with your blog.
#5 Social networking.
Social networking can send tons of traffic to your website simply because people are curious about you and your business. However, if you’re strategic about your social networking use you will occasionally include links to your website with attention-grabbing posts or headlines. If the idea of social networking is like “Greek” to you, I offer a powerful webinar program called Social Media Made Easy. You can find out more about this amazing program by clicking here.
#6 Comment on blogs and forums.
On most forums and blogs when you participate and comment you can post a link to your website in your signature. This does generate curious folks who just want to know “who said that?!” When you participate in forums and blogs that are relevant to your website and industry niche, you’re sending targeted traffic to your website. You can also try unique approaches like posting reviews on websites and directories for products related to your industry and include a link to your website in your review profile, for example reviewing on Amazon.com. You can post answers on Yahoo! Answers and you can post videos or podcasts on directories and drive traffic to your site much like you would with article marketing.
There are a number of creative ways to drive targeted traffic to your website. Analyze your traffic-generating strategies and tactics to ensure you’re sending the right kind of traffic to your website.
12 Tips for Blog Traffic
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Blogging is one of the best marketing ideas for many solopreneurs and can become the cornerstone of your marketing plan. Here are a dozen ideas for getting more traffic to your blog:
- Post entries on your blog as frequently as possible. Search engines will rank you much higher if there is frequent new content. Several times a week is a minimum.
- Include a place on your blog for people to subscribe. The best blogs allow the reader to get posts through either an RSS feed or by email.
- Use tags on every post. Tags are labels that the search engines use and that will help your posts be found on blog directories. It’s hard to tag too much.
- Submit your blog to blog directories. Here’s a list of 20 “essential” directories from Loren Baker.
- Use guest posting. Have others add content to your blog and write original content for others. Readers of the other’s blog will check out what you have on your blog.
- Comment on other peoples’ blogs. Whenever you do, make sure to leave the URL for your blog. When people comment on your blog, be sure to answer them.
- Create community & conversation. Include calls to action in your posts, ask questions and request comments.
- Use share buttons to the bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon. Each of those sites will provide a widget or plugin for the share button. Submit your very best posts yourself.
- Post on Twitter when you have a new post on your blog. An application such as Twitterfeed.com can automate this process.
- Be sure to use an application to post your blog feed to your Facebook profile or fan page.
- Craft your post titles carefully. Use plenty of keywords, especially at the beginning of the title. Numbers also rank well in titles.
- Spread the URL for your blog offline in all your marketing literature and online in your email signature.
Promote Your Business With Podcasts, Online Radio Shows and Videocasts
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Part of promoting your online business is getting in front of as many people as possible. While you are there, give them something interesting to read, listen to or watch that will direct them to your website through a link. One of the ways that people like to hear about new sites is through podcasts.
What is a Podcast?
A podcast is a multimedia tool that people can follow. Think of it as audio or video information that you can listen to or view on your computer, iPod, mp3 player or any other multimedia enabled device. It’s like having your own radio show on your website.
Podcasts can be syndicated using RSS (really simple syndication). This is the same process that people use to keep up with blogs and websites. The RSS feed allows them to receive updates when changes are made on the site so they don’t have to visit every day.
Creating your Podcast
There is software available to help you create your audio and video files. You can embed code for them on your website so others can view them.
Beyond the technical aspects, the purpose of the podcast is to present interesting information to your readers in a new and unique way. People browse the Internet to find useful items. They like to read, but would admittedly like to watch or listen as it is a more convenient way to get the same information.
So what will make your podcast stand out? Use engaging dialogue, present relevant topics and use visually appealing props and sets for video casts.
Going Viral
For one, don’t forget the keywords. You want people to be able to find your podcasts when they use their search engines. Even if you are using mainly audio, include keyword optimized titles, tags and links in your podcasts.
Submit your podcasts to directories. Use every avenue to get yourself in front of the public. That includes creating press releases to announce your podcasts if you are introducing them for the first time. Optimizing your press releases and submitting them to free press release sites keeps people finding them even after you are through using them.
Let your existing customers in on the new podcast. Use your email list to keep them in the loop as you unroll your podcast project. Give them links directly to the podcast so they can view it and hopefully pass the link on to others.
Your podcast can be turned into a radio show with regular guest spots. Interview other business owners in your niche and notable online personalities who would be of interest to your readers. A recurring show can increase your traffic and your following.
Want to get people to your website? Create a podcast. Turn it into a radio show or recurring video cast to create a following and gain more traffic to your business.
