Ask MyWebGal, Deb Augur

How To Build A Personal Brand Through Blogging

Tom Lindstrom — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:51:44 +0000

A strong personal brand is not just for the Hollywood stars anymore. Building and promoting your own brand has never been easier. Having your very own personal brand is very empowering. Any entrepreneur can tell you it is a milestone worth remembering when you know you have built the personal brand so many others only dream of. It is all about knowing how to get it and wanting it hard enough to reach for it.

Personal branding is so important to have in the technological times that we live in. If you are a freelancer or just searching for a new job it can give you the advantage over the competition. The secrets is finding the place that you need to start. Forming connections through blogging and social media connections can put you over the top in building the personal brand that you need. However, it is not a non-perishable commodity. If you are not active in maintaining the brand then all of the work that you put into building it will be for nothing.

You want your presence online and your brand to set you apart from the rest of the crowd. This takes everyday efforts. Building your brand is nothing that you can do with a one time fix. You have to be consistent and live up to the expectations of the people that are following your brand or social media pages.

You want to think of the reasons why people should listen to you. Then you have to figure out not only how to get them to listen, but how to hold the attention of your audience. You want them not only to read, but to share your pas.ges and blogs. You should be constantly honing your skills and seeking to improve.

Communication is huge as a blogger. You must be able to reach your targeted audience. Keeping value and accuracy in your work means everything. Readers need to know that when they are dealing with you that they are reading quality work. Everything has to be accurate. One mistake can cost you a great amount. Your online reputation should be maintained at all times. Creditability is everything.

Posting status messages on Facebook on a daily basis is mandatory. It should be quality content that will hold the readers attention. Be sure to follow your leads and continue to build your networks as well. You will be able to do this by reaching out and giving back. Offer promotions, samples, coupons and other things that will attract interests. Be sure that you are focusing on your web-site as your hub though. This is where the personal brand will be really created.

Do not let all of the focus of your brand be online. In order to build an online brand you have to work at it offline. Always utilize strategic methods rather than reacting to challenges. Always be true to yourself and your brand. You do not want to be recognized as a loose cannon or untrustworthy. Doing something to help others succeed is a fantastic way to show your are in it to win it, but not all for yourself.

Allow the readers to build a trust with you. There is a relationship that builds with the readers and the bloggers. It is the underlying way of building a strong personal brand. You can build a brand very quickly. It is important to write content surrounding the things that you know. Make sure you are adding your content to share sites. The more people who can get the information that you are putting on the web, the more readers you will have. This is especially true for engaging work that is interesting and accurate. People are intrigued by the small glimpse that you are allowing them into your mind.

Blogging is a trending self-profession. There are countless numbers on the internet everyday. If you are doing the networking that you need to do on a daily basis then regardless of what you write about you will have readers. Building your brand depends on you and the efforts that you put into it. You can have a strong brand easily. Building it is the hardest part. Maintaining it is easy enough with an hour or so every day to blog and network.

There is hobby blogging, mommy blogging, expert blogging and more. The possibilities and subjects are endless. There is something for everyone on the web. As long as you truly know or have a passion for what you write then the audience will feel that. If you are bored or the content is stale the audience will pick that up to. Building your personal brand will come easy as 1-2-3 if you do something that you are passionate about.

About the author: Tom Lindstrom writes about social media and Internet marketing at TLMarketing.net. You can also follow Tom on Google+ to get the inside scoop on his best marketing strategies.

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Error? Fun with 404 Pages

Deb Augur — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:13:17 +0000

Not many people put much thought into their 404 pages but they are often an accidentally ”highly visited” page on a site. So, maybe it’s time we think about that and put some thought behind our 404 error pages. At least make it less of a nuisance for your visitors that stumble on them!

Here’s a TED talk video of Renney Gleeson telling the …

Story of a page not found

What’s really funny (to me anyway) is I goolgled “the best 404 pages” and I came across a few lists where the “cool” 404 pages were not found!

If you have, or have seen any great 404 pages, let us know in the comments. We’d love to see 404 page creativity!

Here’s one of my 404 pages: OOPS!

It’s easy to do in WordPress. Simply look in “Appearance / Edit Theme / (Your core theme files) / 404.php and change the page URL to one you’ve created to take it’s place.

You could also use the WordPress plugin called Redirection, too. It is even simpler.

If you have any questions, let me know.

In the meantime, share your cool 404 page finds with us!

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How to Create a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Deb Augur — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:48:06 +0000

If you haven’t heard about Crowdfunding yet, you’re in for a pleasant surprise, but know this: while Crowdfunding is all about gaining the financial backing you need for your startup or product, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd and not reach your funding goal.

There are hundreds of Crowdfunding sites today and the industry, designed to help individuals and groups raise funds from the “crowd,” is growing at a phenomenal rate.

Who’s the Crowd?

The crowd consists of family, friends, fans, followers and strangers.

In pledge Crowdfunding, upon which most of today’s Crowdfunding sites are based, people are not investing in a business, product or idea. They are not receiving equity. Nor are they donating to a charity, this gift is not tax deductible.

Not an entirely new concept, Crowdfunding lies somewhere between investments and charity.

That’s the part crowdfunders (those with campaigns) need to understand.

The people who support campaigns do so for their own reasons. They may like the idea of being a part of something bigger than themselves, or helping an interesting person, project or startup, or owning a pre-release of an item to be produced, or obtaining one of the enticing rewards being offered.

Like I said, people have their own reasons to contribute funds. It’s one of the most important things to be prepared for when building a campaign. You need to create enticingly strong, emotional or intellectual reasons for your audience (think crowd) to relate to. What would make them want to fund your campaign?

Another all-important-part of creating a successful Crowdfunding campaign is attracting your crowd. The fact is the Crowdfunding site you choose to post your project on is not responsible for bringing the people to your offer. Their part in this is giving you the platform – the technology and capability to set up your campaign. Your part is bringing your contacts together in support of your project and helping them spread the word to their contacts, all converging upon the public space in which you are provided.

While creating anything with the intention of going viral is difficult, at best, it can happen with your campaign with concerted effort and marketing savvy.

How do you get this particular marketing savvy?

Watch other campaigns. Watch lots of other campaigns. See what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. What attracts you to some of them while other make you just leave the page? That’s a great start.

Know that your network of people is where this all begins. Hopefully you have built a relationship with the people in your social circles before you even consider building a Crowdfunding campaign.

It takes an audience, a great message and story, massive effort and perhaps a good deal of luck to end up like one of the few that have gone well over their intended goal and ended up with a million dollars* or more.

What makes what you want to do worthy of Crowdfunding?

That is the ultimate question.

* Have you heard about the ipod nano “watchband?” Their crowdfunding goal was $15K but they collected nearly $1-million ($941,648 to be exact!) on Kickstarter. (Product pictured above.)

Crowdfunding is the future for entrepreneurs with a passion to create the next coolest thing, even if it’s not for everyone.

So whether you’re looking for funding for your project, or want to help fund someone else’s project, you can do it!

Soon I’ll be introducing a crowdfunding project site that I’m co-founding with a couple other women. We plan on focusing on women (not exclusively, though) . I’ll be announcing this soon.

In the meantime…

We are putting on a live event June 9th, 2012, at the Radisson Hotel LAX. We have a panel of true experts (and successful fundraisers) to help you understand how to create a successful campaign! It will be very exciting (and informative).

For more information on this live event, go to CrowdfundingLive.com >>

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We Are Defining Entertainment of the Future on YouTube

Deb Augur — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:08:53 +0000

What does Rebecca Black, Justin Beiber and Yosemite Bear Vasquez… have in common?

YouTube Viral Videos!

Kevin Allocca is a professional YouTube watcher… actually he’s YouTube Trends Manager. In this very entertaining 7-minute video he talks about viral videos and how they come about.

The secret?

The unexpected. Like cats watching cats watching “cats” on YouTube!

And, as Kevin explains in this video, we don’t just enjoy now, we participate, which means we’re defining entertainment of the future.

Thanks to Mitch Joel of Twist Image / Six Pixels of Separation for bringing this TED talk to my attention… and I just had to share it with you!

Enjoy! And don’t forget to let me know what you think of the video…

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Awesome WordPress Plugin

Deb Augur — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:50:10 +0000

This WordPress plugin is not new but I just found it and had to share it with you. It’s called the “Ultimate TinyMCE.”

A lot of my clients and friends are going to want to install this plugin right away. It simplifies many of the things they want to do but often don’t because of the level of difficulty.

With a click of a button you can add YouTube videos (with just the share link), AND add, create and manipulate tables! There’s also advanced features for images and ordered and unordered lists.

It adds a lot more text formatting capabilities, too. You’re going to love it! Popup windows, image mapping (hot link multiple areas within an image), use short codes and so much more!

Check out the video to see how easily you can do these things (and more) with this awesome WordPress Plugin …

Let me know what you think about it!

Does this sound like something you would like to have?

Do you already have this particular WordPress plugin? (If you do already have it, why didn’t you tell me about it! LOL)

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