Friday, May 29, 2015

How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog With Twitter


What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social network that is free to sign up for. You will be allowed to create a profile, upload a picture, and follow friends, family, and celebrities. Unlike other social media platforms, anyone can publicly follow you without your approval. 

There are over 500 million Twitter users making Twitter one of the great traffic drivers on social websites. If you use it well, twitter can bring your blog or website heavy traffic. You really need to be active, and creative and have lots of quality content to make your readers want to keep on coming back for more.

Recently Twitter had changed the name to X even though it still works as Twitter. The features haven’t been changed yet. You will find out that the Twitter website will switch to X.com.

 

How to Open Twitter Account

 

Step 1

Go to X.com/signup.

 

Step 2

Click the sign up button. 

 

Step 3

A Create your account pop up box will appear, and you’ll be guided through our sign up experience. You’ll be prompted to enter information such as your name and phone number or email address.

 

Step 4

If you provided an email address while signing up, we will immediately send you an email with instructions so we can verify your email address.

 

Step 5

If you provided a phone number while signing up, we will immediately send you a text message with a code so we can verify your number.  

 

Step 6

After entering your information, click Next.

 

Step 7

In the Customize your experience pop up box, check whether you’d like to track where you see X content across the web and click Next.


How to Sign up for an X Account 


Step 1

Go to X.com.

 

Step 2

Click on Continue with Google.

 

Step 3

A Choose an account pop-up box will appear.

 

Step 4

Choose the Google account you’d like to use. If you don’t see the account you want to use, click on Add account.

 

Step 5

In the Customize your experience pop-up box, check whether you’d like to track where you see X content across the web and click on Next.

 

How to Pick a Username
 

  • Your username, also known as a "handle," is the name your followers use when sending replies, mentions, and Direct Messages.
  • It will also form the URL of your X profile page.
  • X will provide a few available suggestions when you sign up.
  • You should feel free to choose your own.
  • Choose a username that is the same as your website name.
  • You can change your username in your account settings at any time.
  • Usernames must be fewer than 15 characters in length.
  • They cannot contain "admin" or "X", in order to avoid brand confusion.
  • You can sign up for a X account with an email address or phone number. 
  • You can sign up with an email address.
  • You verify it through a confirmation email that will be sent to you.
  • And an email address can only be associated with one X account at a time.
  • You can sign up with a phone number.
  • You will verify it through an SMS text message with a code.

 

How to Bring Traffic to Your Blog With Twitter

 

1. Add a Picture or Image

  • A cool and attractive picture or image in your blog post tweet will definitely attract traffic to your site.
  • Just make sure that it coordinates with your post.
  • Make sure to put in a picture or logo.

 

2. Create a “bio” Description

  • Create a  relevant but short “bio” description.
  • Place your website or blog URL in your "bio" description.

 

3. Start Tweeting

  • Make a habit of tweeting at least once a day, if not more.
  • Start following people, developing a community, and posting daily for about 2 months, since your account will be new and without followers. After that, you can start looking for followers.
  • Follow people who have lots of followers.
  • Try building 20 followers in a week from community posts and discussion forums.
  • This is when you can start tweeting.
  • Make short and interesting Tweets.
  • There are about 140 words that you are allowed to post.
  • Get creative with ‘links” as you tweet them.

 

 4. Use # Hashtags 

  • Hashtags are a great way to spread your tweets to various topics.
  • Hashtag is a word or two behind a # that makes a common discussion subject.
  • If anyone tweets using your hashtag, it will show up in the feed for that #hashtag search.
  • This will help you generate more interest in your blog or website and more traffic as well.
  • You can use #hashtags with your keyword on Twitter.


5. Use @mentions

  • A mention is how you include Twitter users’ @usernames. They are a way you can send a tweet directly to followers, customers, or anyone on Twitter.
  • Use @mentions to send a tweet directly to followers, customers, or anyone else on Twitter.
  • If your blog post comments on well-known or popular bloggers, website masters, companies, or customers, mention them in a tweet that links back to your post.
  • You might get lucky and your tweet will be retweeted.
  • Mention people who’ve made good comments on your blog post, too. This is a great way to thank your loyal blog readers.
  • You can also mention the author of the blog post. Whether they are a guest blogger, a new blogger, or even a regular blogger on your site, mention them in a tweet that links back to their post.
  • It’s a nice gesture, and will likely result in a retweet to their followers.

 

6. Include a Fascinating Quote from Post

  • Give your followers a taste of your blog post by including a captivating quote from your article.
  • Try to find a quote that gives a flavor of the content of your post.
  • If your followers like your quote, and retweet it, they are also likely to click through to your website.

 

7. Mention Names of the Blog Post and Blogger

  • Make it a habit to mention the author or name of the blog post or, maybe a guest blogger on your blog.
  • If you also mention the name of the blog post or, a guest blogger on your blog post and in a tweet that links back to their post, you might get lucky and get a retweet from their followers.
 

8. Retweet their Tweets

  • If someone mentions your blog or website content on their Twitter, make sure you retweet their tweet.
  • If your followers like your “quote”, make sure that you always retweet it.

 

9. Ask for a Retweet

  •  Asking for a retweet (or RT) is a fab way of getting your blog-related tweets retweeted. 
  • So make it a habit of asking your followers to retweet, or RT your update.

 

10. Ask Questions

  • Always ask a question” that could arouse curiosity or make readers instantly click on your tweet.
  • Asking a question generates lots of engagement thus making you get more clicks to your blog or site.

 

11. Create Contest, Sweepstake and Competition

  • Set up a contest, sweepstakes and competition on your website or blog to give the new readers a reason to visit.
  • This will create traffic as they make a comeback.

Always remember that the more appealing, exciting, and attractive your tweets are, the more your followers will click on them, and the more they will drive traffic back to your blog. Have you tried any of the above Twitter marketing methods and if so what has and hasn’t worked for you?

Friday, May 22, 2015

Content Marketing Strategy Tips for Bringing Traffic to Your Blog











What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing is a type of advertising in which businesses write articles about themselves, or their business or field of expertise as a marketing strategy. They will write and create backlinks to their websites so as to improve them in search engine ranking and bring traffic as well. This can help grow your business in several ways. When you publish articles, your business will become more visible online leading to more traffic to your website and more customers for your business. Publishing articles can help improve your website's search engine rankings if they contain keywords that people are searching for.
 
On-line article marketing can effectively improve organic search results in a number of ways:
  • Help in getting traffic for additional keyword searches.
  • Assist in building awareness and reputation as well as branding.
  • Increase targeted traffic from other quality-related websites.
  • Helps attract more incoming links to your website or blog.
 

How to Do Article Marketing


1. Clear Niche


  • Make clear what your niche market is.
  • If your website or blog is about “makeup”, then all your articles should be about “make-up”.
 

2. Great Title

 
  • Pick your title well.
  • Let it contain SEO keywords.
  • It will improve your Search Engine Optimization.
  • Also,  make sure your titles are short and catchy.
  • This is what will pull readers in and make them want to know more.
  • Be creative and make sure your headline accurately reflects the content of your article.
 

3. Write Articles of Quality

 
  • Make sure you write quality articles.
  • Give your readers all you got, so as to always come back to your blog or website.
  • Insert backlinks and links from your website.
  • Keep your articles short and sweet nobody wants to read a whole book, so get to the point and deliver your message in as few words as possible.
  • Aim for around 500 - 1000 words.
 

4. Use Imagery

 
  • Most people are visual, so adding an image or two or even an infographic can really help capture attention and communicate your message more effectively.
  • Make sure the images are relevant and of high quality.
 

5. Find The Right Keywords

 
  • Search for keywords and phrases in search engines like Google that are going to be searched for most online.
  • Use Google Ads Keyword tool to search for relevant keywords and have an idea of how many people are searching for them.
  • Once you’ve found your right keywords avoid over-saturating each article with them so that they sound natural.
 

6. Promote Your Articles

  • Promote articles on social media, on web article directories, article submitting sites like ezinearticles.com and goarticles.info
  • Promote your articles on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
  • Do not forget to include sharing buttons.
 

7. Always Proofread and do Spelling and Grammar Check

 
  • The point of writing articles is to show others that you are knowledgeable and even an expert in your niche.
  • For you to make that mark and make your readers be confident in you,  make sure that you avoid misspelled words or grammatical mistakes in your content.
  • Use the free Grammarly extension installed on your browser. It fixes errors as you type.
 

8. Stay On Top of Industry Trends

 
  • Do research often to stay current on what people are talking about and what they want or need.
  • Follow bloggers in your niche who are already doing great in providing good content and captivating the imagination of their supporters and mimic them.

 
9. Guest Blog

  • If you are a guest blogger to other blogs, make sure you always link your articles by leaving your links.

Always make certain that all the content is yours and original not copied from other websites and blogs. Article marketing can be a very effective tool for businesses if used correctly. Article marketing can help businesses to reach a wider audience and to build trust and credibility with potential customers. 

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Email Marketing: Step by Step Guide



What is Email Marketing

Email marketing is a channel where you send marketing materials electronically to your subscribers’ email addresses. These are people who have given you permission to send them such emails. Email marketing, when done right, can be very powerful and more effective than social media advertising.


Benefits of Email Marketing

Below are a few benefits of email Marketing for your blog:

 

  • Promoting your products or services or ebooks or content
  • Build relationships
  • Building engagement with your brand
  • Driving traffic to your website or blog
  • Turning prospects into customers
  • Turning one-time buyers into loyal fans or customers

 

Types of Marketing Email

Below are the different types of marketing emails when you want to either promote a special offer, encourage users to download a whitepaper or e-book, sign up for a free trial, or provide regular updates to subscribers. 

  • Campaign
  • Newsletters
  • Infographics
  • Reports
  • White papers
  • Webinars
  • Ebooks

How to Choose an Email Service Provider 

 

The easy, effective, and less time-consuming way to collect and send email newsletters is to use some of the fantastic online services. Below is a few selections of some online email service providers to consider:


1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a powerful email marketing platform that has a free plan that allows you to add up to 2,000 contacts. You can quickly build an email newsletter that looks great. The reporting can even show you who is opening and clicking. This allows you to market better to specific people. there are paid versions of Mailchimp with more features, but you will have more than enough of those with just the free version.

 

2. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an autoresponder email tool that allows you to grow your email list and then either automatically email those new subscribers over time or send a good email whenever you want to get a message out. It is easy to use and has great designs.


3. Mailer Lite

Mailer Lite is easy to use and perfect for people with little time or experience to get mailing campaigns up and running. They have a feature that you can use to drag and drop. The functionality is excellent for novices, and there are a lot of templates you can choose to modify. They also have a free plan that gives you up to 1,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month.

 

4. Active Campaign

It is one of the best email marketing software due to the loads of automation options it has. Once you have entered data and organized everything, it is more or less set. Active Campaign has some free options, data migration assistance, great customer service, and many integrations with other software. it can be challenging to learn, and a little more pricey.

 

What Email Marketer Should Do

 

1. Set up Auto Responder

  • Always make sure the autoresponder is set up.

2. Create a Mail List

  •  Make sure that your readers sign up for your news mail.
  •  You can use the pop-up sign-up box.
  • This box will last for about 20 seconds.
  •  After the reader signs up, they will be taken to a link to click on the welcome email sent to them.

3. Include Contacts in Emails

  • Make sure that the emails that you send have your contacts, introduction, picture, and important links, where they can add their email addresses, etc.

4. Write Friendly Emails

  • Make sure the emails you send to your readers are friendly and personal.

5. Weekly Updates

  • Create and send your weekly update without fail.
  • Always include what has been happening to the website the past week.
  • Always send the coolest messages, discussions, competitions, links, tips, tutorials, videos, and images.

6. Main Goals of Weekly Updates

  • The goal of the weekly updates is to drive traffic to the site.
  • The updates help to build community and make money through promotions as well as branding.

7. Have an Attractive Title

  • Just make sure you give them an attractive title of the email as well.

8. Always Send Promotional Emails

  • You can use the auto-responder sequence through your email service every month to send your promotional emails.

9. What to Include in the Email Content

  • Through this email content, highlight a product that you recommend or affiliate for.
  •  If you have an eBook, you can go ahead and promote it as well.

10. Use the Scheduling Features

  • Always use the scheduling feature for a weekly schedule to make emails automatic.
  • ConvertKit,  Constant Contact, Aweber, and MailChimp have a scheduling feature for autoresponder emails.
  • This feature will enable you to indicate what days of the week you want them to send.
  • There are several email marketing software that are very good and effective such as ConvertKit,  Constant Contact, and Aweber.

11. Personalize the Email

  • Keep your emails real and personalized.
  • Include people’s names and other friendly personal details you know about your email subscribers. 
  • Avoid too much information though.

12. Have a Blog Schedule Calendar

  • Keep a consistent schedule calendar for your blog article publications.
  •  It will make it easier for you to keep on track.

13. Regularly Send Articles to Readers

  • Send regular articles to people who’ve signed up for your RSS feeds.
  • Post regularly to earn the trust of your readers.

 

They say money is on the list so make sure you do this diligently and with wisdom.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Video Marketing Strategy: The Ultimate Guide



What is Video Marketing?

  • Video marketing is a new type of internet advertising and marketing.
  • First, there was the rise of smartphone technology that made watching videos easier and more convenient.
  • Video Marketing is the second most popular content type on social media for increasing engagement.
  • Websites see a search engine boost when they add video because it increases page quality and the time visitors spend on the page.
  • Video marketing hasn't only transformed how businesses do their marketing but also how consumers shop.
  • Social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have always been about video and focusing on video.
  • Even platforms that don’t offer native video uploads emphasize the value of video marketing.
  • The videos usually should last between 1 to 5 minutes.
  • The videos should be topic-specific, simple, and easy to understand.
  • They should match with the content of the articles as well.

 

Why Video Marketing?  

 

  •  Video marketing helps businesses appeal to the growing demographic of internet users who watch video clips on the web.
  •  80% of web users access on-line video content at least  once per week.

  •  Popular video sharing website YouTube receives more than 3 billion unique visitors monthly.
  • Viewers crave for video content more everyday, and they’re demanding its availability on different multiple platforms.
  • Millions are streamed to smart phones daily, and hastily increasing user bases for both smart phones and tablets thus more and more “on the go” users will be accessing the content whilst on the move.
  • Video content can generate inbound links and web traffic when included on your content.
  • Videos are highly shared across the web, and marketers who include rich descriptions and keywords in video titles can also benefit from video platform search visibility and a presence on the video results section of Google.
  • Adding text transcripts of video content posted on a website can improve the SEO.
  • Video marketing improves SEO and boosts conversions and sales.
  • Video marketing encourages social shares.

  • Videos are a good source of branding. For content to stand out, businesses must differentiate their material from other companies, especially competitors.


Types of  Marketing Videos

 

There are different types of videos and before you shoot make sure you have an idea of which one will work for you. Below is a list of a few types of videos.


1. Demo Videos 

- They show or demonstrate how your product works.

2. Brand Videos 

- They showcase the company’s vision, mission, products and services. They build awareness of your company and attract customers to your company.

3. Event Videos 

- When your company is hosting events like conferences, you may want to produce videos from that event.

4. How-to Videos 

- These are educational videos that can teach the audience something. It could be about a new thing or when they don’t have enough knowledge of the service.

5. Customer Testimonial Videos

 - These are videos from satisfied customers.

6. Live Videos

 - Let your customers or viewers have a special behind-the- scene of your company, events or presentations.

 

How to Make a Video for Your Business


    1. Make a Script

 

- Make sure you make a script for your video by making a list and an outline of your video. It will prevent you from making too many mistakes and shootings.

- Use clear and simple language. 

- You can have someone check it out for you before you start filming if possible.


2. Set up the Studio


   - Collect your equipment.

- You might need stuff like camera, phone, lights and microphone.

 - The noise should be minimum and don’t forget the background has to be  appealing.


3. Shoot your Video


- Make sure everything is set up then do several shots before getting the final one. 

- You can now edit it accordingly. You can send it to others for review before final video.

 

   4. Upload your Video


- When your video is done, now it’s time to upload it.

- Every video hosting platform will have slightly different requirements.

- Below are a few things you should know before you upload your first video.

 

Video File Formats

 

There are many file formats for videos, and you want to be sure that your favorite platform supports your format of choice. Below are some common formats that most platforms accept:

•           MP4

•           MOV

•           WMV

•           AVI

•           FLV

After that, you can add video-add-ons, titles as well as text.

 

Video Hosting Platforms

 

There are many platforms that you can use to host your videos for distribution and exposure to readers. Below are some of the most popular ones. Remember it’s all about the platform that you choose to use to market your video.


1. YouTube

 

- Everyone is using YouTube.

- YouTube is the largest video hosting  platform and one of the most visited platforms in the world.

- Every day over 5 billion people watch YouTube videos.

- It is free to upload videos on YouTube.

- Build your subscribers, organize your playlist and have a target audience.

 

2. Vimeo


- Vimeo is the second largest video hosting platform.

- It has fewer commercial ads.

- Vimeo is more professional and has more quality videos than that of YouTube.

- It has a more professional audience as well.


3. Instagram


- Instagram is the most popular social media platform for influencers.

- They offer live videos as well.

- Instagram can show videos without sound.

- Always add text or include captions so that viewers can follow along.

-The videos on Instragam are very short.


4. Facebook


- Using video on Facebook seems to give brands greater reach in the newsfeed.

- Brand awareness videos that are a bit entertaining tend to perform well on Facebook.

 

5. Tik Tok


- Tik Tok has over 2 billion monthly users.

- The platform started as a spot or place when Gen Z can post and learn their  dance moves.

- It has now become a hub for every age group.

 - Frequent posting, humor, and authenticity are key on this platform.

 

6. Pinterest


- Pinterest now has a live streaming since 2022.

- If you are a blogger you can promote your new blog post, engage with your audience, or even drive viewers and traffic  to a landing page with Pinterest videos.

- Don’t forget to create  Pintrest videos that encourage viewers to act, whether it's saving a pin, reading a blog, or buying a product.

 

7. Twitter


- Always keep your Twitter videos very short and to the point.

 

8. LinkedIn


- LinkedIn is a professional platform and users spend a lot of time networking and searching for jobs. 

- Keep that focus in mind as you create videos for LinkedIn.

- If your company has some recent hire they would like to introduce, they can make a short video about that.

- You can always offer tutorials on LinkedIn.

- You can always broadcast from industry conferences and events.

 

Make sure you have a quiet background and always respond to comments. You can distribute or market your videos on your website, blog, email as well as social media platforms. Also make room for social sharing. It could make your video go viral.

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