StumbleUpon is THE Favorite Social Media Site
February 10, 2008
In my latest Asking the Readers post, I wanted to know what your favorite social media site is. Social media is a huge part of blogging and one of the largest and most powerful ways to get new visitors and more traffic. Successful use of social media can result in thousands upon thousands of visitors. There are pros and cons to this traffic (such as the fact that it doesn’t convert to loyal readers well at all), but obviously, no blogger wants to miss out on the benefits.
And since social media is one of the most important parts of blogging, I had to ask what YOUR favorite site is to promote your blog - whether it be Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Twitter, Sphinn, Reddit, Mixx, Blogging Zoom, or something else - and for what reasons. We all have different results with different sites, so this was definitely an interesting project with many enlightening answers.
Speaking of those answers, let’s take a look at a few of them to get an idea and some new opinions on the social media sites we use (or don’t use but possibly should):
Heath Buckmaster said:
“I think StumbleUpon is an excellent site - far reaching in how you can use it to explore the known internet, and the unknown internet. I consider it to be social networking for my browser. I also think Facebook is an incredibly rich social media site - the extensibility of the applications creates new social networks in any direction you can think of. For example - Scrabulous links you to scrabble players around the world; goodreads books links you to authors and readers who might like the same genres as you or who might introduce you to new authors/genres; the games like vampires/werewolves/slayers/zombies allow you to have fun and attack your friends in a virtual competition. Facebook is leaps and bounds ahead of myspace in terms of useability for REAL social networking.”
Wayne Liew said:
“Add my vote onto StumbleUpon please. Apart from the wide range that it caters, the traffic that it brings along has been something really amazing. Maybe Digg front page can bring in more traffic, SU is a better platform for those who are trying very hard to get onto the front page of Digg.”
Bud Calabrese said:
“Right now I am in love with twitter. I love how I keep meeting new people and the comments and ideas that are posted. It has really helped in creating content because I keep getting new ideas.”
Stuff Guy said:
“Yeah, I’m a big fan of stumbleupon too. It’s helped get my site, which is still fairly new, some decent traffic. Not to mention there are some really good sites to be found via StumbleUpon, a lot of fun flash games and that sort of thing. I thought shoutwire was good too but they come down pretty hard on self-promotion. Has anyone tried Squidoo?”
Steven Snell said:
“I prefer StumbleUpon and delicious. StumbleUpon is so unique and delicious is great for keeping track of stuff and for marketing your own content.”
There are obviously a wide range of social media sites out there, but StumbleUpon takes the cake when it comes to favorites - and I do have to say, StumbleUpon is my favorite social media site as well! Like Steven Snell mentioned, it’s very unique. StumbleUpon has a great system and it’s so easy to send traffic, unlike Digg where you have to have plenty of powerful contacts and a ton of votes for each submission. Even one vote with StumbleUpon can get the traffic rolling. Not only is StumbleUpon great to promote content, but it’s awesome for finding fantastic articles, fun stuff, and entertaining games as well.
There are a lot of social media sites out there, however, and we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just one, or even two or three. I believe picking one or two “main” social sites and building up strong profiles on them is essential, but on the side you should also have the rest of the major social media sites to submit your best content to. There’s a social media site for every person in every niche, no matter your topic, and having several under your belt is important. If you’d like to learn of more social media sites, check out this extensive list over at Traffikd.com.
If you didn’t get a chance to answer and comment on the original question, you can go ahead and share your favorite social media sites with us here, let us know which ones you use, and the successes or results you’ve had with them all. If StumbleUpon is your favorite or even if you just use it, you can also share your results with it as well along with any advice you might have. If you like, provide links to your social media pages so we can add each other and build our networks to help promote our blogging content even further!
My social media profiles:
StumbleUpon
Twitter
Digg
Sphinn
Mixx
Blogging Zoom
Reddit
If you like, go ahead and share yours in the comments! Thanks for reading, and if you liked this article and don’t want to miss out on future Asking the Reader sessions and results, please subscribe to Super Blogging.
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Why I’m Using Entrecard
January 13, 2008
Entrecard is a site that allows you to network with other bloggers. You add a 125×125 Entrecard widget to your blog, where others can advertise and drop their cards. Then once you earn some credits, which is pretty simple, you can advertise on other blogs.
When BlogRush (which turned out to be a total flop, in my opinion) and Entrecard came out and were introduced to the blogosphere, I was a bit skeptical. The idea of Entrecard is that, to earn credits, you drop your card on other people’s site and they drop their card on yours - as well as how much you earn from people advertising on your blog’s Entrecard widget. Spending a lot of work for a little traffic wouldn’t be a wise decision, but for me, that’s not the case. Read more
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10 Ways To Create Exposure For Your Blog
December 11, 2007
Photography by etoile.
1. Comment on other blogs. Being community involved is a very important thing. If you drop by other blogs, especially ones related to yours or in your niche, and leave a quality comment that adds to the discussion, the author of that blog will surely notice what you have to say and visit your own site in return. And besides the blog author, it’s pretty likely that several of their other commentators will see the great comment you left and wonder who wrote it, visiting your site to find out. Caroline Middlebrook has written a great post on blog commenting that you should read.
2. Link to other blogs and sites. I know that personally whenever someone links to me and I get the trackback for it, I will go to their blog to see where exactly that link is coming from. Linking to other bloggers helps to get those bloggers to notice you, and besides that, often times they might return the favor and link back to you in one of their posts, sending more of their readers and more exposure your way.
3. Guest write on other websites. Something I don’t do a lot that I should is writing or guest blogging on other sites. At least once a week you should write up a quality article and have it published on another blog in your niche, thus reaching a whole new readerbase and audience and hopefully extending your own by doing so. Guest posting is probably one of the greatest and easiest ways to get exposure if you know how to write! Read A Guide to Promoting Your Blog Through Guest Posts for more information.
4. Use social media sites. If you’re already writing great posts, then take the time to submit some of them to sites like StumbleUpon.com, Digg.com, and BloggingZoom.com. If one of your posts becomes popular and gets a lot of votes, it can hit the front page, thus sending you thousands and thousands of visitors! After a while of using social media, take some time to figure out what kind of content does best on those sites and use that knowledge to your advantage. Quick Tip: Adding an image to your post and using lists increases its chances of doing well with social media by almost twice as much (as long as your post’s quality is good to start with)!
5. Ask other blogs to link to you. This one is iffy, and you have to do it right if you want exposure and a good reputation. In fact, if you implement this method incorrectly, you could have the opposite affects you were hoping for! The key thing here is to contact other bloggers in your niche, even the big names and the small ones too, and tell them about an article you recently wrote and why it might be helpful for their readers. As long as you are polite and considerate, it’s worth a shot and won’t hurt - you might get some links in return, and even if you don’t you’ll still get the attention of everyone you’ve contacted.
6. Hold a contest or give something away. Everyone loves free things and competitions. If you can come up with a giveaway that provides something people will want, you’ll surely generate some exposure and backlinks to your blog, especially if your contest is well-run and organized. You can give away something like a cash prize, or if you don’t want to spend anything you can write up a GOOD QUALITY e-book or give away a month’s worth of advertising space on your site. This is a surefire way to increase traffic if implemented properly!
7. Create some linkbait. Not everyone is good at creating awesome linkbait, but it’s always worth a try. If you can come up with a new idea or something creative and off-the-wall, you can generate tons of links and traffic. Lists of the top blogs are good ones that often draw in lots of links and visitors. But linkbait doesn’t always have to be some new and fantastic idea, you can also create controversy instead - if your opinion on a topic is different than the opinion of everyone else, say so - and don’t back down from your position!
8. Hold a blog carnival or group writing project. Write a post on your blog asking for all of your readers to submit the best articles they’ve written on a certain topic. Set a deadline, and afterwards gather all the articles you’ve received and create one post linking out to them all. This not only creates a great resource for all of your readers, but gives your other readers and fellow bloggers a chance for some exposure of their own - which they may return by linking back to your resource! I recently ran a group writing project called The All-Time Best Blogging Articles, and it turned out great and drew in plenty of new visitors!
9. Purchase advertising on another blog. If you buy advertising on another site or blog related to yours, you’re going to get exposure and traffic, no doubt about it. Search around and find a quality blog with affordable prices that targets the kind of audience you write for, and purchase a banner or some other form of ad space on that site. If you can find a blog that is willing to write reviews for money, then you can order one of those as well. If people read a well-written, positive review of your blog, then that will increase your exposure and reputation by a mile!
10. Keep writing fantastic content. Like said earlier, if you have great content but no one reading, then there is no point. However, if the opposite is true - you have people visiting your site but no great articles for them to read - then that is even worse. Set yourself a schedule and maintain great content, and no matter what, in time the exposure and traffic WILL come!
Hopefully the above ten tips will help you generate some attention to your blog and get it noticed. As you might have figured out, visitors are one thing and loyal readers are another. It’s important to convert the people who visit your site into people that will come back on a regular basis to read what you have to say: that’s what makes your blog successful! So pick some of the methods above, implement them, and once you start getting traffic to your site make sure you have buttons for people to subscribe to your RSS feed on display in an important part of your blog. (Notice: my feeds are promoted in the top of the sidebar.) Reply to all your comments and emails and keep in touch with your visitors so they’ll be willing to come back to your blog continuously.
Good luck on getting exposure for your blog, and if you have questions or remarks feel free to ask or share what you know in the comments area below.
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Gain Traffic and Make Money Online by Using Forums
November 27, 2007
Photography by gaurang.
A forum is basically an online discussion group, focused around one niche. The members of a forum can make posts and discuss everything related to their niche, ask and answer questions, and even private message each other. A forum is like a blog for the people!
For example, take Digital Point Forums. This is a forum I actively participate in the most, and it is for webmasters. There are separate boards in which you can discuss search engines, SEO, link building, domain names, HTML & web design, and a lot more.
The first thing you need to do is go to your favorite search engine and enter “[YOUR NICHE] forums”. For example, you might enter webmaster forums, technology forums, or even gardening forums. I will guarantee you that no matter what you blog about, there will be a forum out there you can join.
Once you find a forum you like (or even better, two or three) sign up for them all. Make your username your blog’s name or something equally catchy - and of course, your password something you will not forget. After you make and activate your account, go into your “User Panel” or whatever it might be called on the forum you signed up on. Add an avatar (a small icon which goes beside all of your posts and identifies you; can be changed later) and a signature (can also be changed later).
The signature is important; it is what helps you gain traffic! Make sure you read the rules associated to the forum, and if they permit it, link to your blog in your signature. Use catchy vocabulary and colors that will make people notice your signature and want to visit your site.
Then all you have to do now is get to posting! Make sure you add value to every conversation and don’t just take, give back to the community by answering questions you know about. DO NOT SPAM. Remember that your signature will be shown at the bottom of all your posts, so you want to make good replies with a lasting impression.
Remember how earlier I mentioned Digital Point Forums? Well, this is how the money-making comes into play. I recommended everyone who has a blog or website to join this forum - you can definitely learn a ton here, I know I have!
After you sign up on DP Forums, again you should add your avatar and signature. But this time, take note of their Buy, Sell, or Trade Forums. I’m pretty sure your account must be of a specific age and that you must to have made a certain number of posts to use these forums, but once you’ve done that they will be your best friend.
At times I have not been able to get the exposure I wanted for my advertising sales, and I can do that on DP Forums. If I’m selling banners or text link ads, I usually make a post on DP letting the other forum users know. In fact, most of my previous advertising sales have come about through negotiating on the DP Forums. Without using forums, I would not have made as much money as I have today.
Basically, using forums is ONE OF THE SMARTEST THINGS YOU CAN DO if you are a blogger or webmaster. You can reach a whole new range of people who might be interested in your site. You can gain plenty of traffic and, if you play your cards right, make a little money in the process as well.
But remember, for people to check out your site or trust you, you have to give back to the community. Spend time daily reading topics and replying to them with helpful information. People will see your signature and click on the link to your site. Whenever a question or post comes up that you have written about on your blog, link to your article! I have done this before and people have actually visited it and thanked me for bringing it to their attention. JUST DON’T SPAM. Be helpful and be honest and the favors will be returned.
Using Forums You Can:
- Reach a whole new group of people,
- Gain plenty of traffic,
- Possibly make money online,
- and learn a lot of new things about your niche!
What’s to lose? Get started and join some forums. :)
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Do You Want Your Blog’s Traffic ZOOMING Through The Roof?
November 14, 2007
But how is that possible? If you’ve tried the 75 Ways To Increase Your Site’s Traffic and are still yearning for more, then what are you left to do? Join BloggingZoom.com!
Come on, I know you’ve heard of it. Because if you haven’t then surely you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks. Blogging Zoom is the newest, hottest thing - and I think it’s definitely better than Digg!
Blogging Zoom is a brand spanking new website where you can submit your content and others can vote it up, potentially sending it to the front page where it can be seen by everyone. And even though Blogging Zoom’s age is tiny, its traffic levels are not. Within its first week of life, Blogging Zoom has surpassed millions of other sites in terms of hits and pageviews. Take a look:
The best thing about Blogging Zoom is that it’s a new site, and if you join early it’s pretty easy for one of your posts to become “hot” and hit the front page or the list of the most popular articles - over half of my own posts I’ve submitted became “hot”. And if you need further proof about what a great way to generate visitors Blogging Zoom is, according to Google Analytics it’s already in my top ten list of traffic sources.
Besides all of that, Blogging Zoom is just a great site. It’s already become a great community where I’ve learned about other cool blogs and bloggers and found some great articles to read. And one other plus that makes Blogging Zoom different is that SEO - search engine optimization - is part of its inner workings. Blogging Zoom is FOR ITS USERS. That’s another advantage it has over its competitors.
If there’s just one place you’re willing to submit your best articles to, forget Digg and Sphinn. Blogging Zoom is the way to go. I’ve already learned that from experience!
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