I'll admit it. I'm one of those writers that used to blush when being called a blogger. My embarrassment was based on stereotypes, of course, and I'll confess them here only to prove a point. I didn't like being called a blogger because bloggers weren't artists. Bloggers were in it for the money and would do anything to make a sale. And if they weren't that, bloggers were publishing drip about their personal lives, which I didn't care for.
I started blogging in 2005, when perhaps those stereotypes had a percentage of truth to them. I kept my blog to myself, oddly enough, but as people started to find me and as my short stories and essays earned recognition in the literary world, The Writing Life blog started growing - whether I was ready for it or not. Now more than ever, I understand that bloggers can't be boxed in to a single category and that, as a young writer trying to earn a living, one of the most important things I can do for my career is identify as a blogger.
Reading Phil Hollows' List Building for Bloggers e-book changed my entire outlook. I purchased it because I'm also an editor for TRACHODON Magazine and am in charge of its blog, Cheek Teeth. I figured I shouldn't let my stereotypes about blogging get in the way of my business as an editor. But, wait a minute…didn't I also have a business as a writer? Listbuilding helped me see that as a blogger I am also an "accidental marketer," as Phil would say, and that by failing to take advantage of branding, list building, and email blasts, I was missing an opportunity to make a name for myself…and maybe even make a little money for postage and gas. I could still write quality blog posts and publish short stories I was proud of, but I could also maintain an active blog and website that offered incentives and literary products to my readers.
So I read the book, twice, with highlighter in hand. I already had the FeedBlitz "subscribe by email" bubble on my site, but it wasn't in the right place and I hadn't notified my contacts, branded the newsletter, or paid any attention to its schedule. Following the instructions in List Building, within a matter of days my email subscribers quadrupled and, several months later, I still get a few new subscribers each week. More importantly, I saw the hits on my website increase over the weekends - when I never post new content - because my subscribers were taking their time with my weekly FeedBlitz newsletter (which is emailed Friday mornings) and perusing my blog via click-throughs that FeedBlitz makes so easy in the newsletter format. Despite my belief that if I organized my readers through an email list my hits would go down, in fact, my hits kept going up.
Bolstered by this experience, I followed the other tips in List Building to a tee. Most changes were small - including a subscription link in my email signature, titling blog posts to make them appear readily in Google searches, dreaming up relevant incentives for subscribers - and within one month traffic on my site increased by over 35% and continues to grow. Excited, I set up my first autoresponder, as List Building suggests. Using an email blast to announce the project, and further promoting it on the blog and through social media outlets, I launched Monthly Fiction by Katey Schultz, 12 short stories in as many months for just $12 - a FeedBlitz autoresponder with my branding that delivers one new short story to subscribers each month for an entire year.
I'm a small operation with a lot on my mind, but List Building for Bloggers made marketing easy for this non-tecchie writer and helped me gain confidence that I do have things I can sell. Just last week I tested Phil's suggestion to market by using repetition. I posted one status update each morning on FaceBook with a quote from my chapbook Lost Crossings. In less than a week, I sold eight copies. We're not talking New York bestseller, but that's eight books that were collecting dust a week ago and will now be wrapped under people's Christmas trees.
I wouldn't be a good "accidental marketer" if I didn't end this post with a pitch. So here it is, fellow bloggers and business owners: Subscribe to Monthly Fiction by December 31st and get 33% off - just $8 for 1 year of award-winning fiction.
About the Author
Katey Shultz is a writer living in Bakersville, North Carolina. In 2010, she had over 10 short stories published and was recognized with 5 fiction awards, including the Linda Flowers Literary Prize. Her most recent work, Flashes of War, is a collection of 29 fictional stories focusing on characters in and around the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The room was filled with bloggers of all ages. I was giving a presentation at BlogWorld Expo and I had lured these tech-savvy bloggers to my talk on the premise of unveiling the 50-year-old technology that was the hidden profit center of their blog.
What is this 50-year-old technology that I speak of? It's e-mail, and specifically marketing via e-mail. Now I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, but let me explain.
First of all, e-mail is not a new technology, it's not a cool new start-up that is getting a lot of buzz. It predates the Internet we know and love today, and was used by university researchers to share data.
But before you start saying that e-mail is irrelevant in our social media world, let's look at a quick study done by Microsoft and picked up by Mashable, which I believe highlights why it's so important to keep building an e-mail list even if you are building an online presence through social media.
You see, people are using e-mail more than ever. According to the study, 96% of people are either increasing their use of email, or keeping it stable. Only 4% of respondents use email less than they did last year.
People who are active on social media tend to use e-mail even more than other people. Surprising? Maybe, but I think it just means that we are becoming more interconnected and we want to you stay in touch with the people who are providing us with entertainment and value online.
So how do you build your list in this world of social media without defaulting to to 50 year old email techniques?
1. Value first
Build your list by offering something of value up front, and continuously sending the best quality stuff to people on a regular basis.
2. Exclusivity
Be upfront about what's different for people who are on your list, versus people who read your blog, versus people who follow you on Google plus or twitter.
3. Make it easy
It's easy to think that everyone in your target market is on social media, but depending on what type of market you're in e-mail is still going to be the best means of communication. So make it easy for people to sign up via e-mail.
4. Push versus pull
E-mail allows for permission based marketing. To top it off, most people are checking their e-mails on a daily basis, versus people who might not even see your message because of the number of friends they have on Facebook and how much activity is taking place.
5. Don't send people away
Your e-mail list should be the biggest ad on your website. Do not send people away from your site by allowing them to click on an ad that makes you pennies. You could be building a long-term relationship with someone after they become a subscriber, and that is worth more than a few cents.
6. Speak to one person
It's easy to start looking at your list as a mass of people, but you need to remember that these are individuals and you should address your e-mails to a single person. That way every person who reads your e-mails feels special.
7. Consistency is key
Make it easy for yourself to remain consistent with your publishing schedule. Don't try to pack too much into your e-mails but rather attempt to deliver the most value in the most succinct and easy to absorb way possible.
8. Ask for what you want
Ask people to share your e-mails or your free gifts with their friends and family. Your content is new to people who have yet to discover you, even though you might be tired of talking about it. You have new fans that have yet to discover you.
Let's do it!
Keep on building your list, because e-mail is here to stay. There are plenty of ways to differentiate your list from those of your competitors and most of the advice comes down to being a good listener and treating your people like gold.
Leave a comment below and let me know what one tip resonated with you the most!
Running a multi-channel social business program, even for a small company, can be a huge investment in time and resources, as many as 500 per year. And for larger companies, social media teams of 40 to 50 full time employees, are not uncommon.
There are many factors to consider before diving into social feet first. Will a multi-channel social media initiative broaden your reach and measurably increase your revenues? How long will it take?
Does multi-channel mean that you’ll be using both Facebook and Twitter? No! Facebook and Twitter are not channels. They’re two different social media services, on two different social platforms. Facebook is a social network (probably the second largest in the world, after China’s Tencent QQ). Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service. Whether or not you engage Facebook and Twitter as part of your multi-channel strategy depends on the nature of your company and your objectives.
According to the American Marketing Association, a marketing channel is a set of activities you need to execute to move goods from the point of production (your office) to the point of consumption (when your customer buys or downloads your product). A social channel is different because the social channels that your customers are using are constantly evolving, as technologies, and customer preferences on technology uses change, from month to month.
Here are some suggestions for successfully engaging the social customer using social channels:
Consider deploying a methodology called l-P-O-S-T-m, partly developed by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in their book, Groundswell, l-P-O-S-T-m stands for listen, people, objectives, strategy, tools and measure. (I added the "L" and "M").
The “l” stands for listen. For the first few weeks, you’ll just want to “listen” wherever your customers gather, on-line. If you’re a B2B brand, Facebook and Twitter may or may not be on that list. It all depends on where your customers are gathering online as to what tools make sense for your business.
Recently a big customs brokerage company was having trouble making a list of “watering holes” because there were only a couple of relevant spots in their industry. Our recommendation was to call 250 of their current customers and 250 of their lapsed customers, and ask them six simple questions:
Have you ever used the social web to search for information on our industry? (YouTube, blogs, forums, LinkedIn, etc.)
Where do you go to find information on our industry?
Where do you find videos to help you learn the tactics of our industry?
Have you ever created original content on the Internet?
What kind of content?
Have you ever posted a review of a business that you’ve worked with?
Once you obtain this data, you can assess if social makes sense for your business.
If it does, dive a little deeper into the People, i.e. the “P” in your strategy. Obviously, you’re going for current and prospective customers, but now, you have some data on where they actually hang out, and which social tools might be worth using, to reach them. Most critical, in the first half of your social strategy development, is picking the single business objective upon which to hang the strategy. Too many companies try to hit multiple objectives in their first engagement, and fail.
Next up, devise the strategy to reach these individuals – this is actually the hard part. If you’ve never written strategy before, I strongly recommend using the Four Actions Framework, from the book Blue Ocean Strategy. Picking the tools should be done last, not until a strategy is set.
You’ll know a lot about which tools (channels) your customers and prospects are using by “listening.” If you’re still wondering about the latest social tools read the top social media blog Mashable.
How do you tell if your multi-channel strategy actually works? That’s where the “M”– measurement – comes in. Be sure to select the measurements that connect directly to your business objective first. And put a premium on all measurements that can be automatically measured by your social media monitoring system, or marketing automation systems. These types of measures are highly indicative of future revenue, but don’t take lots of man-hours to complete.
About the Author
Adam Metz is the Director of Social Business at The Pedowitz Group, a burgeoning social demand generation firm. He is also the author of social strategy book There Is No Secret Sauce and the forthcoming book on social business, The Social Customer (McGraw-Hill Business, September 2011).
To obtain a complimentary copy of There Is No Secret Sauce, email: adam@pedowitzgroup.com, or break into the office of any successful marketer!
Social Media is definitely playing a huge role in the way people uses the Web these days. It already affects the way many people work, having permeated both home and work lives. By 2014, eMarketer estimates that 65% of all US Internet users will be using social networks.
Social media is increasing its penetration rate over years
Knowing this, Google is now using in their algorithm the "social graph" has a sign of trust. From a Web site’s persective, if you are currently increasing your Web site's ranking through the use of search engine optimization (SEO), you might be interested in knowing that social media influences your rankings for target keywords.
Here are 2 important areas where to use Social Media for SEO:
1) Make sure to have a presence on the top social media sites – regardless of where your audience is.
Remember that we are thinking SEO here. Maybe this recommendation won’t be valid in a distance future but now in 2011 it is very valid. Top social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube contains the most "authority" from a SEO standpoint – meaning that they influence Google’s social algorithm more than any other social media site. By establishing a solid presence on those platforms, you allow your site to gain more authority for target keywords on the search ranking result pages. Here are some tactics:
[Facebook, Youtube and Twitter] Create a customized profile page. Add your link to your Web site in your profile bio.
[Facebook, Twitter and Youtube] create tons of (real) friends and followers. If those sites are already related to your audience, make sure to connect your niche’s influencers and authority speakers.
[Youtube] Add a link in the description each time you publish a new video
[Facebook & Twitter] Automate updates on your profile pages coming from your blog articles or news releases.
[Twitter] Encourage "retweeting" articles on your Web site
[Facebook] Encourage "liking" pages & articles on your Web site
[Youtube] Encourage "subscribing" on your Web site
2) Target social media sites related to your audience.
It is crucial to be where your users are. Forums, Wikis, Blogs or any other online communities related to your niche are good places to start for influencing your site’s SEO. Why? Because: search engines give importance to signals coming from topic-related sources. Here are some tactics to consider:
[Forums] Contribute actively by replying to user questions. Add a search engine signal (link) in your signature or your profile page. Make sure to follow the forum rules in order to avoid being banned. All comments must be relevant and your intent must be aligned with "positive contributions."
[Blogs] Contribute actively by commenting on articles related to your niche. To avoid being flagged as a spammer, comments must be relevant and your intent must focus on "positive contributions."
[Blogs] On a niche blog, write an article on an uncovered subject or a subject that allows you to add quality or encourage debate. Leaving a signal in the article is useful for the community and is recognized by a search robot.
[Wikis] If your Web site or Web page is worthy of being on a Wiki page, that it can provide value to that Wiki page, you can add it in the "external links" section. Again, the intent for placing your signal must be nothing else than "informative" and "can provide value".
In conclusion, Social Media is more than just a trend – it’s a movement. You will want to think of it as an undeniable mean for connecting to your users and you will want to implement Social Media as the CORE of your Web Strategy.
About the Author
Raymond Denis is an online advertising professional working for AXA - a car insurance company in Canada. Along with managing a car insurance blog, he provides to businesses internet marketing strategies and tactics to improve online performances and goals.
[Editorial Note: Although this guest post talks about enterprise sales, the points made by Dan about persistence and relevance apply to any blogger trying to monetize by direct sales, whether to readers, advertisers or other partners. Stick to it and you'll be successful!]
Have you, a member of your sales team, or one of your inside reps ever called a prospect two or three times without connecting and then given up?
The answer is likely “yes” as the temptation is to assume a prospect isn’t interested and move on. Yet many of the best prospects need to be contacted multiple times by voicemail, email and direct mail over a period of weeks and months before a conversation occurs.
Here’s why: executives often don’t respond until a need’s priority has escalated. It’s likely that your first few attempts didn’t overlap with the prospect’s need window. Positive outcomes increase when the person calling makes multiple attempts in multiple media across several cycles.
My favorite stories are about client successes. The best one of these is work we did for a global consulting company where we deployed one of our people for a full quarter to make contact with CFOs at the nation's top 50 utilities.
The associate applied a B2B prospect development touch cycle that frequently includes the following at the C-level:
The associate makes navigation calls to confirm target prospect contact information and administrative support.
This is followed by a series of discussions with administrators to first sell them on our client's solution and then sell them on helping us get in front of their boss.
The associate then engages in multiple cycles of contact that include calls, voicemails and immediate email follow ups. A cycle can include as many as six attempted calls, three voicemails, and three emails over 10 business days.
On the last cycle of attempts, our voicemail explains we do not want to pester the individual, we would like to talk, but we won't leave another message.
So here is what happened:
The CFO called us back after the 42nd touch and said, "Don't stop calling me… you are my conscience. I have listened to and saved your voicemails, and I have saved some of your emails. I want to talk to you. I have just been extremely busy. Call me back in two weeks on Tuesday at 10:00 AM, and I will take that call.”
Two weeks later we generated a high quality opportunity for our client.
It closed in five months for $1,000,000,000. Yes, a billion.
When you approach prospects by thinking in multiples – multi-touch, multi-media, and multi-cycle – you multiply results.
About Dan McDade
Dan McDade is President and CEO of PointClear, LLC, a prospect development firm that helps B2B companies drive revenue by nurturing leads, engaging contacts and developing prospects until they're ready to close. The Sales Lead Management Association named Dan one of the 50 most influential people in sales lead management in 2009 and 2010. Dan’s first book, The Truth About Leads, is a practical, easy-to-read book that helps B2B companies focus their lead-generation efforts, align their sales and marketing organizations and drive revenue.
As founder/manager of an online community for women (Girlfriendology.com with 21k+ Twitter followers - @Girlfriendology), I take a mixed, and somewhat unique, Twitter follower strategy. I also don't want some people to take this personally, but I intentionally stick to my brand of being 'female' and 'friendly.' Friendly to me means "I want to be in conversation with you;" so on Twitter, I’ll follow you back.
Going a step further, I am focused on female followers/followees. I typically follow back the females who follow me. I do look through my following list frequently which is somewhat time-consuming – but always interesting and I often find and reach out to women and companies I’d like to learn more about, interview on my BlogTalkRadio show or ask to contribute a guest blog on Girlfriendology.
I intentionally and diligently try to keep my followers female-oriented so I block most men (generally aside from friends, influencers or representatives of companies with whom I’d love to work). I also spend time (which to me is also very limited), but I think it is worthwhile to also block spam accounts. So, when a company asks me how many Twitter followers I have, I know they could look at my followers and see that it is a pretty pure list of primarily women. (Companies come to me to reach female potential consumers and that is what I want them to find when they look at my followers.)
And, because I focus on females and try to avoid spammers, I do not auto-follow.
I proactively follow women especially those who I believe might be interested in Girlfriendology - they are bloggers, moms, PR and Brand experts, women who tweet about friends/friendship (sometimes even 'shoes'!) and some are personal friends. I would like to grow my Twitter followers and believe it is worth the time I have to invest in keeping the list growing and relatively pure. Admittedly I’m sure some spam accounts are in there and possibly some businesses that might not be viable or strategic partners, but overall, I believe it’s a list I can own up to.
Admittedly, I do this to build exposure to my brand (of Girlfriendology) as well as, again admittedly, impress potential advertisers. I love that 21k+ Twitter followers can DM me if they’d like. (Yes, some DM me to ask me to RT their info or join the Mafia, but those are actually very rare.) I believe it shows my followers that I want to be able to have a conversation with them - I’m not just talking, but I’m listening to them as well.
Yes, it is time consuming to manage a large Twitter following but I’ve made some amazing connections with the women that I followed back on Twitter. One follower just gave me a great idea for a conference I’m speaking at. Others have DM’d me with ideas for guest blogs, interviews and blog post content. Many of my Twitter followers have RT’d me, followed Girlfriendology over to Facebook and, to be honest, have made my day just by saying something that inspired me.
So, to each his own Twitter strategy, right? I’m just glad we have options on how we manage access to this amazing community. Keep up the good work Phil! Thanks for letting me voice my opinion.
I remember my first copywriting class. One of our assignments was to write a 30-second radio spot. My teacher told us to use this rule of thumb when addressing the audience: Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them what you’re telling them. Then tell them what you’ve told them.
In marketing, we’re hired because we can “tell the story.” Whether it’s with words or pictures, we cleverly craft our messages and deliver them through a media outlet. If we want our message to get through, we tell it as loudly, frequently, and as cost-effectively as we can. Have you ever seen a Marketer’s resume that said “good listener”?
For me, the change happened slowly, I hardly knew it was happening. I began my career as a designer for advertising and print. The best shot we had of listening was whether the client was happy with how many coupons came back. Of course their goal is also to negotiate the best rates, so while I had many satisfied clients, I couldn’t be sure if it was the service or the results.
Shortly thereafter, I made a transition in my career and shifted my skills to the web and became a Webmaster. Few of my print colleagues were making this move, but clearly, this was the way things were moving. The first web analytics I ever saw were raw server logs. It was so cool to see how many people “hit” index.html or logo.gif. Of course things were pretty basic, but I was starting to listen. The challenge with web analytics is they are an aggregate view of a snapshot in time. It was listening, but it was like listening to a crowd – impossible to tell what any one person was saying.
Then email marketing started to hit its stride. Now here was a way to tie a specific person to a specific action. I could tell that so-and-so opened my email, clicked through the link, and went to my website. Awesome! Except that they were then lost in the crowd, unless I went through some crazy web gymnastics, I could not tell where that person went, or what they did. Still, I could identify who responded to my message and who did not.
With email, the process was faster, I could very quickly tell if people liked my story or didn’t. I also had to be content with knowing that on any given day 95% or more of the people would dislike or completely ignore my story.
When I was first introduced to Marketing Automation, the lights went on for me instantly. Now, I could finally take all that email activity, combine it with their web activity, AND (and it’s a huge AND) build a conditional response. Wow! I could listen and respond accordingly.
Marketing Automation, while attracting a lot of attention, is still very new in terms of adoption. According to a recent interview with Jeff Pedowitz, CEO of The Pedowitz Group, he estimates that only about 3,500 companies worldwide are using these systems. That amazes me.
It is the people, process, or technology that is getting in the way?
At first, I said it was the technology. Marketing Automation was brand new. The companies were small, you weren’t sure if the salesperson’s slides matched the available products or just the vision. Today, these companies are available as SaaS, they’re built on world-class hosting facilities, and the products do as promised – they’re mature.
Maybe it’s the process…
How many times have you sat in an uncomfortable chair in a hotel function room listening to the story of *cringe* Sales 2.0? (I’m not a fan of anything labeled 2.0) Inevitably the story illustrates how Marketing is “owning the conversation” longer, sales is no longer the controlling source of information for a buyer, the internet changed access to information, yadda, yadda, yadda. Depending on the speaker, some technologies are bolted on and whammo! Money pours out the end of the pipe. Awesome.
There are two valuable take-aways from this: First, the buyer is in control, and second, we (Marketing) think we “own the conversation.”
Why wouldn’t we think we own it? We have ramped up our publishing skills to push content out over a gazillion different channels; we can monitor everything; and we can automatically send responses based on those levers.
It’s got to be the people!
So as few of my colleagues at the time transitioned their skills from print to web, from web to email, how many were transitioning from email to Marketing Automation? After all, with all this great technology, someone still has to drive it, but more importantly they have to know where to drive it.
Marketing has to be listening on all channels in order to communicate on all channels. Simply telling the story isn’t good enough anymore. Which brings us to the latest development: Social Media.
Social Media accelerated the buyer’s control not just away from sales, but also away from marketing. Any illusion we had for “owning the conversation” quickly vanished as soon as it arrived. The individuals own the publishing space. Their content is as valued as ours, and they control how they interact with us.
But listening got easier.
It’s now our job to look at the whole picture, from web visits, email activity, survey responses, and social media activity. We need to listen across all channels in order to identify the right prospects, advocates, and even angry customers. Some clues are obvious, some are very subtle.
Ideally, I think marketing should be trying to hand over the story-telling responsibilities to our customers. Why not? We strive for the credibility they already have. Our time should be spent listening, being good brand stewards, and communicating based on the dialogue that’s taking place. Of course we can still tell the story, but our stories should not be mistaken for the voice of our brands, that exists, as it always has, in the minds of our customers.
About the Author
Ed Thompson is Director of Demand Generation for The Pedowitz Group (TPG), a burgeoning demand generation company focused marketing and sales solutions that drive topline revenue. TPG helps clients become successful Revenue Marketers® at http://www.pedowitzgroup.com/.
Contact Ed via email: ed@pedowitzgroup.com and Twitter: @edthewebguy.
My name is Martin van Hemert, and my website Utah3D.Net has seen tremendous growth in the past year, almost solely through email and other social media. The site is a showcase for spherical panoramas. So what's a spherical panorama? The best explanation is an example. Click on the image below, then click and drag directly in the panorama after it has loaded. You will be able to move in any direction, including up and down:
If you experience any motion sickness, you're moving too fast!!
As our traffic has grown, we've paid attention to the sources of that traffic. Here's where things get interesting. Less than 1% of our visitors come through search engines. Reports show large percentages coming through email links, and other social media links. These same reports show the largest percentages as "direct". In other words a URL entered into an address bar. If we had a catchy, short URL, people might be manually typing it in, but here is the URL to our most visited panorama:
Not very easy to type, is it? It even has a misspelled word in it! Yet, this page has had over 6,000,000 page views this past year, a number we can hardly believe, and for which we are grateful. We feel a very large percentage of this direct traffic is actually through email referrals.
Here is where FeedBlitz comes in, and no, Phil did not ask me to say this. For our audience, the best way for us to get the word out about a new panorama is through email. We view this as the kick the ball needs to start rolling. I started with another email update service (which shall remain unnamed), but after checking with 6 email addresses and finding only one was receiving anything, I quickly switched to FeedBlitz, and am glad I did. The service is great, and the emails get through. When I have a question, the answers have been quick, and they've even come directly from Phil. We currently have a little over 3400 subscribers.
The next time you need to take a trip, but can't book a flight, I hope you'll visit Utah3D.Net.
About the Author
Martin van Hemert is an architectural and fine art photographer based in Utah. Much of his early work was produced on 4x5 inch sheet film, and he has been involved in many phases of photography and custom photo printing. Over the past several years, he has become obsessed with creating spherical panoramas. In fact, he is probably thinking about panoramas right now. When he’s not shooting or fine tuning photos, he can be found feeding his wife’s horses, growing alfalfa to feed his wife’s horses, and taking long walks on the beach.
If you'd like to expand your audience and have a fun story to tell that's relevant to social media, SEO, email and online marketing, please reply and let me know. Articles should be four to eight paragraphs - say 500 to 1500 words long - and, again, do tell a story if you can. Metrics are helpful to back up any claims you make, plus don't forget to include a bio and photo. If you are writing a testimonial (more than welcome but not required for guest posts) please ping me for some additional guidelines. Please ensure that your post and links are safe for work, which is what the FeedBlitz News audience expects. Posts may be edited for space, style and content; we'll obviously link back to you.
So, to reiterate, we're currently looking for bloggers to guest post on FeedBlitz News. If you have a story to tell about your use of FeedBlitz specifically, email or social media marketing in general, or have an article that you believe would benefit FeedBlitz's audience, please let me know. It can be a case study, a how-to, editorial, or something else - we're going to be very open to relevant submissions. It doesn't have to be FeedBlitz-centric (although that would obviously be cool! :-) ).
This is a great opportunity to have your post featured on a blog with some 31k subscribers, as well as on most pages of FeedBlitz.com (and the FeedBlitz home page is PR7, so that might be of interest if you're interested in SEO).
Interested? Then please email me (phil at feedblitz dot com) or tweet me (@phollows) and we'll get the process started. I'm really looking forward to getting those submissions!
Followed by Email, and social media which includes Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and about 40 to 400 more options that will come and go.
Each new advancement in communication is supposed to make us more money and/or save us time.
But there is a tipping point, a point where you might feel that it is all pointless?
Your email marketing campaign, your blog posts, your tweets, status updates, all take time and who is reading them anyway?
So you contemplate dropping one, two, or three of them, not really sure which ones to keep doing.
There is another option that I discovered a few years ago, and you are reading it right now.
FeedBlitz.
I write 36 blog posts every single week, on three different blogs. Plus about 4 other posts a month on a couple more blogs.
I do this in my free time along with working 50+ hours a week in advertising and marketing for a group of radio stations, serving on a few local boards and advisory committees and having family time and a weekly date night with my wife.
Each blog covers different subject material, and appeal to different people.
Instead of me composing a newletter, FeedBlitz does it for me. Readers can subscribe to any and all or just the one that most suits their interest. FeedBlitz pulls my blog posts and sends them via e-mail to subscribers.
One Less Thing to do, thanks to Feedblitz.
About the Author
Scott Howard adopted the name ScLoHo several years ago so he would not be confused with the Michael J. Fox charater in the 1985 movie "Teenwolf".
His 25 years of advertising and marketing business includes radio, print and a variety of social media outlets.
He is most active on Twitter @ScLoHo and his blogs which can be found at http://www.scloho.net/; or simply Google ScLoHo and you'll find him.
He can be contacted at 260-710-7078 and Scott@ScLoHo.net
I have issues. I want to publish my written work to the world only to find out that I am limited in time, money and, some might argue, talent. After a little R and D, I found a great solution called RSS, really simple syndication. When I built my RSS feed first, I thought I was living the high life. Imagine... a tool that allows you to publish to your blog once and then replicate the information seamlessly in multiple ways... Bloglines, Google Reader, other websites and yes, even the ever popular iTunes. I thought I had it made! After all, everyone knows that 'if you build it, they will come'... right?
Wrong! Although RSS feeds have made my life as a writer easier, unfortunately society as a whole doesn't understand them and people's eyes tend to glaze over once you mention subscribing this way. The problem isn't in the technology; the problem is that subscription can be cumbersome if you don't intuitively understand this technology. Because of it, less tech savvy individuals are reluctant to implement them for daily use. So, I was back where I began...tons a great information and minimal readership. There had to be an easier way!
I realized that if I was having this constant problem with RSS feeds, then chances were that millions of other bloggers were experiencing this issue as well. So then, the question became how could I utilize this amazing tool and make it easy for my readers at the same time? What I found was FeedBlitz. I realized I could let technology do the grunt work while I sat back and enjoyed the pure pleasure of writing. Sounds simple and easy right? Well with the right tools, it is just that...simple and easy!
FeedBlitz creates a delivery method for my feed that millions of users are familiar with... email. Simply put; this tool translates RSS feeds into email. What is beautiful about this application is by enabling a simple and easy sign up form on my website; users can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves to my feed without any additional work. And after the initial 3 minute setup, you can let this tool go to work and then forget about it. Your blog post comes into their inbox and looks just like a typical message. Since it takes no configuration on their part, it takes the guess work out of the subscription process.
Since implementing this tool my subscribers list has multiplied eight times. I have been able to connect with my readers on a proven platform instead of hoping they come back occasionally to read my posts. I’ve also noticed an increased amount of conversation and reposting on Facebook. This was none existent before but by adding the ever popular 'like’ button to my email, readers effortlessly promote my blog. The result was my fan page jumped from 50 fans to over 200 in a matter of one month without any additional marketing on my part.
Another great thing about this tool is that it dynamically lists past article titles, with links, in each email it sends. They neatly display under your current post. This is a great way to catch the skimmer's eye, converting to readership. Perhaps they didn't have time to read yesterday's article so simply reminding them it is there may bring them to the site to read it. A total win in my book!
Equally important is that this tool converts your posts to tweets without ever having to login into Twitter through the website or your smart phone, it does this automatically for you. It is important it is to keep presenting your information to your followers, and by connecting your RSS feed to your Twitter account this tool does the work for you. One reason I love this is that I am constantly forgetting to tweet. Twittering is quick and easy either way you do it, but why not automate the process when possible?
Along with the amazing features I have already described, FeedBlitz also gives the ability to do newsletters, surveys, subscriptions and advertisements. These can all be geared to making money in the process. All for one low monthly fee, based on the number of subscribers, it amounts to mere pocket change. This tool lets you buy in for cheap and costs only increase as readership grows, which fits nicely into my long term plans. Plus, it offers a dynamic analytics package, so tracking opens and click through is a breeze. If you haven’t used it yet or are thinking about trying it out, I give it two thumbs up! Try it today to start building your readership while simplifying technology!
About the Author
Juli Camarin writes a daily blog that explores the Bible and gives insight into scripture. She is currently blogging verse by verse through the book of Hebrews. After serving on a pastoral teaching team for over five years, she felt called to focus on writing down and sharing what the Lord constantly reveals to her. A teacher at heart, her passion is to teach the word of God as it comes alive trusting that it will also come alive to her readers. You will find her daily thoughts and inspiration at jcblog.net.
A year or two ago (decades in social media years), I was all about ‘the Twitter.’ (Betty White reference) I concentrated my social media efforts and time on growing my Twitter followers to be a large community of women. My blog, Girlfriendology.com is about female friendship, hence the gender focus. Hours of following, unfollowing, tweeting, RT-ing, #FF-ing led to a decent Twitter following - around 20,000+ and primarily women. Just what I was hoping for.
Personally, I enjoy Twitter, I love my Twitter friends and would rather get my news from strangers on Twitter than spend an hour watching the news. But, I had to ask: was our Girlfriendology community on Twitter?
Mashable reported that as many as one-third of women 25-34 check Facebook first thing in the morning (many before even getting out of bed) – it’s that important/interesting to them. Forbes said: “Facebook, the largest social networking tool in the world, is dominated by women,” with 57% of members female and women being more active (aka: social) on Facebook.
IRL, my BFF’s are on Facebook – a lot! Many will never attempt to tweet or be interested in Twitter. Their friends are on Facebook, so they are too. For example: in my friend Colleen’s office of all women, every day they grab their lunches and eat at their desks – while they’re surfing Facebook!
So to Facebook I went, to grow my community for my blog, and I have, putting in a lot of time and learning a lot of lessons along the way. Here’s a few of the tips I’ve learned in growing my community -currently 12,000+ females and growing - on Facebook:
1. Survey your Community – How well do you know your community/readers? I ran an online survey to research my readers, find out insights into the community and source content ideas/material, etc. I asked my community what social media sites they use. Over 90% of the survey respondents indicated they were either ‘addicted to,’ or on Facebook several times a day. Over 90%! I also asked them where they interact with Girlfriendology most often – on our blog, our Facebook page, Twitter, our online community, etc. Again, the top answer was on Facebook. The survey findings confirmed – I need to put time and energy into my Facebook marketing and community building. TIP: Ask your community about their social media preferences and then go where they are!
2. Plan your Updates to fit their Schedule and ‘Likes’ – Based on research (online information and observed among friends), I know that women check in on Facebook before and after work, as well as during lunch time. Women also visit Facebook frequently on weekends – you can tell by when comments are made, or from your insights (stats on Facebook pages) on how many impressions are generated at different times. Taking a hint from my friend Colleen and her office-mates, I post a daily ‘girlfriend video lunch break’ with a female-friendly funny or inspiring YouTube video every day. Women like inspiring quotes, so I also post one or two daily. I take note of what they ‘like’ and comment on, and respond with more of the same based on their engagement. TIP: Know your audience, their schedules and be consistent with your Facebook updates.
3. Schedule Your Updates – I know exactly what you’re thinking: I don’t have that much time, right? I agree, it can be overwhelming but it’s worth putting some effort into your community on Facebook. To be honest, I can’t imagine any audience who isn’t on Facebook. Use tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite to pre-schedule your updates. Set-up your Facebook updates to then tweet them. I put in a couple hours over the weekend to load my Facebook updates for the coming week. I created a simple grid of the daily updates (and days of the week) I want to pre-schedule - inspirational quotes, the lunchtime video, a ‘Girlfriendology Classic’ (a link to an ‘old blog post’ that is evergreen and that I want to generate new traffic for) and, especially at the holidays, a ‘girlfriend gift recommendation’ which incorporates an affiliate link. This way, during the week I only have to add occasional updates and links to new blog posts, etc. TIP: Plan ahead, create a schedule then pre-load your Facebook updates.
4. Use Facebook to Grow your Mailing List – As I mentioned, a lot of my Facebook traffic never makes it to my website. I also know that they people come and go on Facebook. My goal is to engage them in my community so they do visit the blog, comment on it, visit the Facebook page and through the experience feel part of Girlfriendology. To stay in touch with my followers, I encourage them to sign up for the weekly newsletter – it’s easily accessible on my Facebook page. (Check out this blog post on growing your newsletter list.) I have posted my ‘Sign Up’ form on Facebook (on a tab) and remind them to do this every Wednesday (see below). TIP: Make it easy for your friends and fans to join your mailing list.
5. Create a Promotional Calendar – We all have lots of social media communities and promotional opportunities. So I created a promotional schedule for my social media communities that’s not overly promotional. On Mondays, I post a ‘FRIENDly’ reminder to share Facebook.com/Girlfriendology with their girlfriends – it goes onto my Facebook page and Twitter updates (as do all of these). On Tuesdays, I ask women to follow us on Twitter.com/Girlfriendology. Wednesdays are my ‘sign up for our newsletter!’ day. Thursdays, I promote our girlfriend gifts/products and Fridays are a great day to remind them of our upcoming Girlfriend cruise. I make it a short and hopefully ‘sweet’ reminder of how they can engage in the community. TIP: Create a Promotional Calendar with your different social media sites and opportunities for monetization (like affiliate links or products that you sell).
6. Ask them to ‘Suggest to Friends’ – The first ‘obvious’ first step isn’t always obvious! Start with your own friends. Build your online Facebook community by suggesting your site to your current connections. Ask them to share your page with their friends. Make it obvious that you want/encourage/LOVE referrals to your Facebook page. Tweet about your page and link to it. In my page description (on the left column, under the logo on my Facebook fan page), I start the copy with “Suggest to Friends” (right under the ‘Suggest to Friends’ link Facebook provides) to make sure they don’t miss that request. Recently I added the ‘Suggest This’ free Facebook app to my Facebook page. It creates an additional tab at the top that says ‘Suggest This’ to make it easy for your fans to share your site with their friends. (Just search for ‘Suggest This’ in your Facebook apps.) I believe in having several reminders and ways to grow your Facebook community. TIP: Ask your community to share your Facebook site with their friends, then make it easy to ‘suggest your site.’
7. Every Blog Post, Interview, Guest Blogs, etc. … SHARE! – Don’t be shy, you have good things to share on your blog and in your community, right? Your Facebook community ‘liked’ your page and expects to know what is going on with your blog. Every time I post a new blog post, it automatically becomes a Facebook update (and Twitter tweet) with a link to the blog. (This is set up in my FeedBlitz settings so I never have to worry about it. It also updates my LinkedIn page.) Any other newsworthy updates – like you’ve guest blogger on a site, interviewed someone on your BlogTalkRadio show or posted a new YouTube video, update your Facebook page and remember to include any links back to your site. TIP: Share your updates and links.
8. Add the Facebook LIKE button on your Blog – Does your blog also promote your Facebook community? We’re all competing with social media, other blogs/web sites and every other online distraction. So, our goal should be to engage our community and connect with them in various ways. I highly recommend adding the Facebook ‘LIKE’ button on your blog posts – both at the top and bottom of the posts. As readers click it, it puts an update on their Facebook page/friend stream with a link to your site – spreading the word on your blog to your fans’ friends. TIP: Use Facebook to build your blog community, and your blog community to build your Facebook ‘friends.’ Make it easy for them to help promote your community!
9. Create a Conversation – That’s what social media is about, right? Use your Facebook updates to get your friends’ input, ask their opinion, look at things a different way. I try to add questions sometimes that are ‘female friendly’ (topics women love to discuss). For example, I posted the question: “What’s your favorite ‘chick flick?’” once on Facebook/Girlfriendology. That question generated over a hundred responses and a blog post that now gets a lot of traffic – just by asking a fun question to discuss. Keep in mind - every update should not be just about you/your blog. Promote other blogs or sites your readers would benefit from, acknowledge members of the community who participate and add to the conversation, and add content/updates that make your readers’ lives better – they’ll love you for it. TIP: Ask questions, listen to their response and don’t hog the conversation!
Wow, that’s a lot to do, I know! But I think as you grow your friends/fans/followers you’ll find ways to manage your Facebook contacts and updates, as well as the techniques that work for you in engaging and growing your community. Go for it! If your readers/fans are there, you should be too!
About the Author
Debba Haupert founded Girlfriendology.com in 2006 as a community of women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. She speaks on friendship and social media and has worked with ConAgra, Healthy Choice, Frito-Lay, Kroger, Biz detergent, Crystal Light, etc. You can find her at Girlfriendology.com, on Twitter @Girlfriendology and Facebook.com/Girlfriendology.
To help your business attract customers through this exploding new medium, I recommend video blogging. While many people are intimidated by the technical complexities of producing online video (or are just shy about appearing on camera), video posts to your blog are easier than you think.
Five Easy Steps for Easy Video Marketing Online
To get started in online video there are a lot of complicated strategies and equipment that you can use. Instead here’s the plain and simple way I recommend that can get you started in online video quickly and inexpensively:
Camera: Almost any video camera today can plug into your PC to upload video to the web. Use your point and shoot digital camera, a hand held camcorder like the Flip, or my personal preference, a web cam.
Setup: Prep some notes about what you want to say, and find a pleasant, quiet and well lit spot to use as a background for your video shoot.
Shoot: Turn on the camera and start talking. Save it when finished.
Upload your video to YouTube: This is the part where non-technical people get intimidated but it's really quite easy. An account at YouTube is free. After you have one simply go in and click the button that says "upload". “Browse” to find the new video file on your hard drive and click to upload it. You can even use a webcam to record directly onto YouTube, if you would like.
Distribute Your Video: Here’s where the marketing part kicks in! Once your video is live on YouTube, you can syndicate it around the web. Grab the URL of the video's page on YouTube and promote it on your blog, Facebook, Tweet about it, and share it with your friends and business associates.
Even better than sharing the URL is to copy the "embed code". If you have access to the HTML of your website or blog's pages, you can paste this embed code in to make a YouTube video player appear on your site. That way visitors can watch your video without leaving your site.
The cost of all this? FREE!
BONUS TIP: Automatic Video Syndication by Email
My favorite online video syndication technique it is to share my videos by e-mail, too. This may sound complex but FeedBlitz makes it easy!
Your e-mail newsletter subscribers will see a nice big JPEG taken from your video. They can click on that picture to visit your site and play the video right away. This is a super handy FeedBlitz feature that can help you get double duty from your online videos. It also attracts much higher clickthrough rates than simply including a URL.
So to share a new video I follow the steps above: I shoot and upload the video to YouTube, followed by posting the new video on my blog at ScottFox.com by pasting the YouTube embed code into a post. Then, when my e-mail newsletter goes out each week via FeedBlitz, attractive, clickable JPGs from the videos I post are automatically included!
To see this technique in action please visit ScottFox.com to subscribe to my free e-mail newsletters. Each week I'll share with you more practical online marketing and e-commerce money-making strategies just like those detailed here.
I'm looking forward to seeing your smiling face soon in an online video, too!
What are your online video marketing tips?
Are you posting your videos in your Feedblitz emails yet?
About the Author
Scott Fox is the host of the online marketing success coaching community ClickMillionaires.com. He is a serial startup executive, podcaster, and author whose e-business strategy coaching helps solopreneurs, small business owners, and corporations make more money online. He is the best-selling author of two books: Internet Riches and e-Riches 2.0: Next Generation Online Marketing Strategies. Visit http://www.scottfox.com/ for free email newsletters and http://www.clickmillionaires.com/ for a free trial of his personalized coaching community.
Twitter offers small businesses and independent professionals unique opportunities to out-maneuver their larger competitors, by using the social network as a real-time prospecting and customer service system. You can improve your pipeline and grow a stellar support reputation simply by following these three simple tips:
Use Twitter Search to find leads and spot problems in real time.
Know when to tweet and when to hold off.
Use Twitter’s Favorites function to aggregate testimonials.
Thanks Phil for having me on the FeedBlitz blog to talk a little video. For those I haven't met yet...a virtual quick hello and nice to meet you.
A quick background before we get into the meat and potatoes: My name is David Siteman Garland. I'm the founder of The Rise To The Top where I do in-depth, fluff-free, no-holds-barred video interviews with unique entrepreneurs and big thinkers; plus articles, video blogs and more all aimed at helping hustling entrepreneurs (and aspiring entrepreneurs). Perhaps due to insanity, since 2008 I've made over 500 videos on the web in all kinds of formats with over 2,000,000 views to date. I have essentially been a video guinea pig trying everything under the sun. But enough about me, here are the goods:
In this fluff-free video you learn:
Why video is the next best thing to face-to-face communication
Content? Audio quality? Lighting? Video quality? What is the most important factor and the least important (and why)?
Ideas to get started for bloggers, content creators and aspiring video superstars
So get started and give it a try today!
About Guest Posts on the FeedBlitz Blog
FeedBlitz publishes a guest post every Tuesday from bloggers, email and social media marketers. We welcome relevant subsmissions for new ideas; click here if you'd like to learn more.
Most people write a post and that's the end of it. You're probably syndicating your blog feed to the usual places: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, at the very least. And that's a good thing.
Yet there are many other ways to get more mileage out of your content.
As discussed in one of my prior articles, content syndication is just one part of the equation. But to really get the most leverage from your blog, think about how many ways you can repurpose the content (and then syndicate the new formats to all the usual sites).
Repurposing your content means turning your blog posts into different formats like reports, white papers, articles, slide shows, videos, podcasts, teleseminars, ebooks, etc.
Why Repurpose Content?
It may come as a shock, but not all your ideal clients know about or read your blog! There are people in your target audience hanging out on other sites all over the web. People are looking for information to read, share and learn from, and you want them to find you and your solutions.
When you publish content on your blog, you're most likely providing valuable, relevant information that demonstrates how you solve the problems of your ideal client or customer.
While having that content on your blog is a great place to start, there are many more prospects you can reach by simply repurposing the content in a few ways and distributing that content on other platforms.
You get more exposure and more value from the time you've initially invested in creating the content. Not to mention that you can drive more traffic back to your home base.
What You Need to Know
There is some preparation required when repurposing and distributing your content on multiple sites. First, you must set up accounts on the sites you want to use for distribution. Always fill out your profile completely, along with adding your picture when you can.
Also I recommend creating a template you can use to hand this project off to an assistant. For every new post you repurpose, you'll need to have the following information handy: title, short description and keywords. This should be fairly simple to pull from the original post. Now you're ready to go.
Let's look at three simple ways to repurpose your blog posts that don't require a lot of time or technical know-how: articles, PDFs and audio.
#1: Reformat for Article Directory Sites
This is the simplest and fastest way to repurpose your blog posts.
If your posts are about 500-1000 words, this is a great way to get in front of millions of additional eyeballs. While there are dozens, if not hundreds, of article directory sites, two stand far above the rest and will do the job for you: EzineArticles.com and IdeaMarketers.com.
Upload your repurposed blog post to EzineArticles.com to get in front of 30,000,000 monthly visitors.
Both sites have been around for years, have millions of monthly visitors and are easy to use. Both have the option to upgrade a free account to a paid account so you can get faster approval and featured status, but you can get great exposure without the investment.
When you submit your content, you may want to tweak the title and make sure the content is not overly self-promotional. EzineArticles will reject articles with promotional links in the body.
You'll also need to create an Author Resource box with contact info, a call to action and a link back to your blog or landing page.
Both sites give you the option to have links to your new articles syndicated to your social sites.
#2: Reformat for Document-sharing Sites
Document-sharing sites cater to those who want to share and read documents as PDF, Word docs or slides. Scribd, for example, has tens of millions of readers every month who read and download documents from the site. The advantage here is that you can embed links and images in your documents, unlike some of the article sites that don't accommodate images.
Docstoc.com, another popular site, gives you the tools to sell your professional documents as well as give them away for free.
Again, it is super-simple to distribute your content. Copy your blog post into a Word doc; make sure it's nicely formatted; add your author bio with a call to action and link(s) to your blog, site and/or free reports; then convert to PDF. Upload and you're done.
A cool feature on some doc-sharing sites like Scribd, Docstoc and others, is the ability to embed your documents on web pages and blogs. This gives readers an easy way to share your content and again extend your reach to new audiences.
Scribd and other document-sharing sites let fans embed and share your content on their own sites.
I'm seeing more and more bloggers create audio versions of their blog posts. This is not difficult to do and gives your audience an additional way to consume your wisdom.
Not everyone likes to read, so create a podcast and you extend your reach even further. There are dozens of podcast directories, and of course the heavyweight is iTunes.
About 13% (27 million) of U.S. Internet users listen to podcasts so this is an audience you don't want to overlook. They may never find your blog, but they're using iTunes to find content.
You don't need to be a recording star to create a decent audio of your blog post. I recommend Audacity, for free recording software. You'll need to host your mp3 audio files on the web and create a podcast feed. Some options are Podbean or Feedburner if you post the audio on your blog.
Once the podcast feed is created, submit it to iTunes (and any other podcast directory you wish). To submit to iTunes, go to the iTunes Store, navigate to the Podcasts directory, and click on the Submit a Podcast link.
The information you'll need to have on hand when you're ready to submit your podcast includes: title of your “show” (the collection of audio posts you'll be creating from your blog), description, keywords, category, and if possible, a graphic image or logo for your show.
Once you have the podcast feed created and submitted to iTunes, then it's simply a matter of recording each blog post. I suggest a two-step approach to distributing the audio: 1) add the audio to your blog post so people can read or listen on your blog as they prefer and 2) add to your podcast feed so people can download to their mp3 player and listen on the go.
Add an audio version of your blog post to reach a bigger audience.
TIP: when you record your blog post, make sure to add a call to action or invitation to visit your blog along with your name and URL of the blog.
Much of this work can be done by a virtual assistant, especially submitting your article/document to the various sites. You write and record the post, provide the info: title, description and keywords, then have your assistant do the formatting and submissions.
Articles, PDFs and audio posts each provide an opportunity for you to reach new audiences. Now you've got at least three more paths from high-traffic sites leading back to your home base.
How many ways are you leveraging your blog posts? These are just three examples. What other formats have you found to effectively repurpose and distribute your blog content?
About the Author
Denise Wakeman is an Online Marketing Advisor and Founder of The Blog Squad. She helps entrepreneurs and small business owners leverage blogs and social media tools for their business to boost online visibility to get more traffic, leads, customers and opportunities. Denise writes on 3 marketing blogs, is a columnist for SocialMediaExaminer.com and is a contributing author on business blogging in “Success Secrets of Social Media Superstars.” She frequently speaks at conferences about business blogging and how to gain expert status through social marketing. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Newsday, Canada's National Post, FastCompany Online, as well as many other online and offline publications. Learn more about Denise at http://denisewakeman.com/
When it comes to starting a blog there are a number of resources and tools that you will need to consider. There are literally thousands of tutorials and blog posts out there that will take you through the top ten plugins or the seven things you absolutely must do when you start a new site, even down to the way you arrange your home office to get the best productivity.
Some of these things you can just ponder about for a while until the mood takes you like plugins to enhance your site or choosing an East facing computer desk but, there is one thing that you will want to get right if you are at all serious about this thing called blogging.
All you need is love subs
It doesn't matter if you want to write a blog right now for pleasure or for business, you will almost definitely need one and if you leave it too long or got the wrong one in the beginning and then change your mind later on then it's going to feel like you have to start all over again.
You'll see it on those "must do" lists and read the dilemmas on forums where people debate which is the best or when to get one. What is it? It's what is sometimes called, “The List” and sometime in your blogging career it's a certainty that you are going to want your own one and ask people to subscribe to it.
What, why, when, where and how much?
What
A product that will handle your feed for feed readers, send out your feed for feed by email subscribers AND send out emails on demand.
Why
Without a way to notify your readers of what your news/products/services are then how will they know to come back and read/buy/hire them?
When
Right now! Strict anti spam laws requires a double opt in for email subscribers. If you start off using a free service or an inferior one that doesn't allow emails related to marketing then moving to a new provider means that you will have resubscribe everyone again, probably losing half of your subscribers!
Where
Feedblitz.com. That's it, one site does it all.
How Much
From as little as $1.49 per month. That's affordable right now and you don't need to put the pressure of having to pay (for some sites) up to $30 every month right from the start even before you have any subscribers.
3 little words
I run The ComLuv Network for over 30,000 registered users of the widely used CommentLuv blog plugin and I've been using FeedBlitz services for over a year to send out RSS feeds, subscribe to feed by emails and on demand newsletter services (something you can't do with FeedBurner).
I recommend FeedBlitz to all bloggers old and new because of 3 little words:
Reliability – it sends out thousands of emails in one shot in literally minutes and works every time
Value – you pay on a sliding scale which is perfect for smaller blogs who don’t need a fully $30 a month service.
Support – Phil Hollows, its founder, listens to users. You can send him emails, tweets or even shout loud enough and he’ll respond! (He worked with me to ensure CommentLuv users links were given special treatment in comments)
Try it and see for yourself
If you are at all serious about publishing content online, it doesn't matter if it's stock market news or pet food recipes, you'll want to let people know about it. When you do, you should use something that is going to be reliable from day one. Phil offers a free 30 day trial and it takes just a moment to set up. This applies to all bloggers, young, old, new or seasoned - You NEED FeedBlitz!
About the Author
Andy Bailey is the creator of the CommentLuv plugin and ComLuv Network. CommentLuv rewards your readers by automatically placing a link to their last blog post at the end of their comment. It encourages your community and helps vsitors discover new posts.
Guest posts at FeedBlitz are a weekly series from bloggers about email marketing and social media. You do not have to be a FeedBlitz user to guest post here, nor do you have to promote FeedBlitz (but we sure like it if you do!). If you would like to guest post at FeedBlitz News click to find out more here.
As blog and website owners, we are always looking for ways to increase our readership. While there are many factors that attribute to increasing your readership; content, great topic, photos, etc.
I'm here to share with you how I have grown the mailing list on my blog, Hoosier Homemade, much faster by offering free printables (and a weekly newsletter, Cupcake Chronicles) to visitors who join the mailing list. The printables and companion weekly mailing, Cupcake Chronicles, is exclusive content - cupcake designs, how-tos and monthly free printables - that only email subscribers receive.
I started out with just my blog’s newsletter, which had about 1,600 subscribers at the end of August 2010. Six weeks later the list has grown 50% - to well over 2,400 now. Using the exclusive content incentive - the printables - has been a significant part of that success.
What are Printables and Why do they Matter?
My readers are for the most part, Moms who love creating fun and easy treats for their families and saving money.
There are two different kinds of printables. The first are store coupons readers can access online, print at home and take to the store, these can be found online at websites like Coupons.com (affiliate link). The second kind of printable is the form of a Cupcake topper, like these fun Halloween printables. Making the printables only available to email subscribers is a great incentive for my blog’s readers to join the list, and they're a great match for my readership's lifestyle. They're also a great link between my online presence and their lives in the real world.
Incentives Increase Readership
I know many of you don't offer a recipes, crafts or even cupcakes on your blog! But the ideas are endless for offering a free printable or other incentive. Maybe you write about menu planning, you could offer a printable with the days of the week. Or if you share organizing tips, like Life Your Way, you could offer organizing printables.
It doesn't have to be printables, of course. The whole idea is to think outside the box. What do you have to offer? What do your readers like? How could you bring more readers in? What would they really value that you can offer? Make your incentive match your target audience and your list will grow faster.
Making Your Own Printables
If printables are an option for you, if you can't design them yourself find a designer and ask them to swap advertising with you. The Paper Cupcake is currently providing me with 1 printable per month for my Cupcake Chronicles Newsletter, in exchange for advertising. Then my virtual assistant adds the printables to my blog each month and adds a link to the newsletter. Having printables has grown my list; mailing the printables also increases traffic back to the site when the mailing goes out.
We use FeedBlitz to mail out regular updates from the blog automatically, and FeedBlitz’s newsflash feature to send out the printables and Cupcake Chronicles to the list.
Are you ready to gain some new readers?
Give printables – or some other incentive – a try! It really works. Have questions? Please feel free to contact me, I'm happy to help!
FeedBlitz welcomes relevant guest post submissions on the topics of email, social media, blogging and online marketing. You don't even have to be a FeedBlitz user or publisher to post here! Click here to find out more.
And now for something completely different - Easy Halloween Cupcake Recipe!
[Phil says: Liz has generously agreed to share an easy cupcake recipe with us! Easy, because as my kids will attest, I'm no chef. So give it a go this Fall and let us know how they turn out in the comments. Over to you, Liz!]
It's that time of year...Halloween! And these Halloween Cupcakes couldn't be any easier!
One of the things I often do to create special cupcakes, is take a regular boxed caked mix and add some extra ingredients to it, changing the flavor.
Chocolate Orange Cupcake Recipe:
1 Chocolate Cake Mix (devil's food is good)
4 large eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 cup Orange Juice
Directions:
Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all ingredients and divide into liners. I use a little less than 1/4 cup per cupcake, this yields about 30 cupcakes.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.
Orange Buttercream Frosting Recipe:
Favorite Buttercream Frosting (store bought or Homemade)
1/4 cup Orange Juice
Directions:
Mix frosting using the orange juice to add flavor. Frost cupcakes and add a few sprinkles, a fun Halloween pick or create pumpkins.
For the pumpkins, frost cupcake completely and mound the frosting up a bit in the middle making a pumpkin shape, then sprinkle with orange sugar. I like using a bowl to dip the cupcake into the sugar or you can simply sprinkle it on, being sure to work over the bowl so you can re-use any extra that falls off. Using a toothpick, create some lines on the pumpkin and add a green gumdrop or piece of green licorice for the stem.
I'll admit it. I'm one of those writers that used to blush when being called a blogger. My embarrassment was based on stereotypes, of course, and I'll confess them here only to prove a point. I didn't like being called a blogger because bloggers weren't artists. Bloggers were in it for the money and would do anything to make a sale. And if they weren't that, bloggers were publishing drip about their personal lives, which I didn't care for.
posted at 8:34 AM
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