Blog Consulting by Visionary Blogging

13 Ways for Bloggers to Sleep Better

Easton Ellsworth — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:35:57 +0000

I went to bed at 4 AM last night, er, this morning. I’m still a bit bleary.

Why? I was up late working on some things for blog consulting clients.

It’s not fun but that’s what you gotta do sometimes to make sure your blogging efforts yield good fruit.

Here are 13 ideas to help you sleep better (and, I hope, longer) at night knowing your blog is doing what it should.

Keep your blog content churning out regularly. Miss a beat and you’ll lose some winks. Get your posts published or scheduled for publication before you’ve been awake one hour. That way you can bask the rest of the day. I’ve lost more sleep from this one than I can shake a very large stick at.
Set clear goals for your blog in at least the following areas: content, design, community, traffic, subscribers, search presence, social presence, conversion and value. Drill down farther if you like, but at least have long-term (say, 60-month and 12-month) goals and short-term (say, 30-day, 7-day or even daily) goals in these nine key areas. If you don’t know where you want to go, the pointlessness will drive you nuts at night.
Review your goals regularly. Have them continually in your mind’s eye. A goal-oriented blogger is a well-sleeping blogger.
When you tweak or upgrade anything, do a unit check. Otherwise you’ll toss and turn at night with that nagging feeling you forgot something.
When you get ideas for blog posts or static pages, for goodness sakes, write them down. Jot them on an index card you keep in your pocket like me, or write them backwards on your forehead so you can see them in the mirror. Just scratch the muse’s itch whenever it comes around and you’ll find that your muse will let you rest better.
Remind yourself that blog design is a journey, not a destination. It’s an ongoing quest, not a task with a checkbox. So it’s okay to close your eyes and drift away even though a
somewhere is creaking. No blog has a perfect look. If anything, that should excite you and become the stuff of glorious dreams about your blog’s cosmetic future.
Engage with at least one person in your blog community every day. This could be as simple as emailing a quick, heartfelt thank you note to someone who has left a great comment at a blog post of yours. Or mixing your blog with Twitter or with Facebook in one of at least 75 ways to enhance the conversations around your blog that can blossom into trusting relationships. Just do something to interact, or you’ll sleep like Ebenezer Scrooge sans the Christmas cheer.
Watch blog traffic trends more than you watch day-to-day flow. Watch both, sure, but use a telescope more than you use a magnifying glass with your blog’s traffic. That way you can sleep at night after a low traffic day or week, knowing the flow will ultimately continue to increase as long as you are doing things the right way and there are more human beings with the potential to learn about your blog.
Don’t worry how many subscribers you have; focus instead on making them happy campers. When in doubt, resolve to have faith. 10 RSS or email subscribers may be better than 1,000 if the 10 are passionate and the 1,000 are meh. You’ll always sleep more deeply when you’ve approached blog subscribers as though they’re people like you than when you see them only as numbers.
Optimize for good search engine rankings, but optimize for humans first and search second. Computers don’t make you lose sleep. People do.
Spend a little less time promoting your blog on social media and a little more time creating great content at your blog. You’ll sleep like a blog – sorry, like a log – knowing that there’s something to talk about before you start talking about it.
Decide exactly what to consider a successful conversion and don’t go to bed without tracking your blog’s conversion rate. Some blogs have several criteria for successful conversion – getting readers to subscribe, getting visitors to click through to the company website, getting people to buy a product or click an advertisement – but the principle of identifying and tracking conversion rates with the best available tools will always be in vogue. You’ll never have to count sheep at night if you’ve been carefully counting your blog’s conversions throughout the day.
Don’t get superstitious about what constitutes value – or about anything else, for that matter. This post contains a list of 13 things – I’m not triskaidekaphobic – and I also think you shouldn’t worry excessively about or obsess over the question of your blog’s worth and value. Does it have meaning to you? To the people who visit it? Does it make a difference? You can and should pick some measurable metrics (like revenue, number of visits per month, backlinks, etc.) to help you decide how “worth it” your blog really is to you and/or your business or organization. Just don’t lose sleep over it.

I hope these tips help you find more success – and more and better sleep – as a blogger.

What else can we do to get better sleep? What causes you to lose the most sleep over your blog?

image by flattop341

Special Offer Through July 7: $77 Total Blog Inspection

Easton Ellsworth — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:25:22 +0000

Through Tuesday, July 7, I’m offering my Total Blog Inspection service package for $77 (normally $297).

Within 72 hours of your purchase, you’ll receive:

A complete 130-point appraisal of your blog’s content, design, community, traffic, subscribers, search presence (SEO), social presence, conversion and value
A written report in PDF format with my best tips and recommendations for the improvement of each aspect of your blog, delivered by email
A 10-minute video screencast that lets you watch my computer screen as I visit your blog and give you specific advice to enhance the written report; I’ll send you a private link by email so you can view/download it
A personalized list of recommended tools, websites and resources to help you increase your blog’s success quickly, emailed to you with the written PDF report
A 30-minute phone consultation with me to discuss my in-depth blog review and your blog improvement plans, scheduled at your convenience
30 days of personal support by email/Twitter/IM to answer your questions on how to implement my advice for your blog

If you’re not completely satisfied with the experience, I’ll give you a full refund.

Any questions? Please contact me or comment below.

Blog Content Improvement: A Struggle of the Heart

Easton Ellsworth — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:31:59 +0000

Have you ever been frustrated by your blog writing? By your inability (as you see it) to create compelling content? By the difficulty of coming up with ways to make your blog’s content more effective for your business or organization?

My friend, I have so been there.

Better Blog Content is a Matter of the Heart

I sang in choirs in high school.

At first I was shy and never wanted my voice to stick out and be heard, so I tried as hard as I could to blend in and disappear in the crowd. I wanted to become a really good singer, but I was always terrified that somebody might hear me practicing. Improvement was a painfully slow process.

Have you ever been in a situation like that?

How did I finally get up the courage to break out of my timid shell and improve my voice and my boldness? By clinging desperately to two things that no amount of fear could destroy: a deep and abiding love for singing, and an insatiable desire to get better at it. As I continued to hold on to those strengths, I was able to eventually earn the opportunity to sing a particularly significant solo in the last choir show of my senior year.

I’ll never forget that moment.

Improving Blog Content Takes Guts

Your blogging is like my singing.

You make a blog more successful by first feeling it, deep in your gut.

It’s that urge to do something bigger and better and different with it, that quiet fire that rattles your bones and won’t let you sleep until your blog finally does what you feel it was meant to do.

Diligence is impossible without desire.

Remember: That which you persist in doing becomes easier for you to do — not because the thing itself becomes easier, but because your ability to do it improves.

So grab your mic. It’s time to warm up.

What’s Your Worst Blog Content Challenge? 10-Second Poll

Please answer the question below.

Thanks so much for your response. If you want personal help with your blog content, please check out my consulting services or contact me personally.

The Best Method to Improve Your Blogging Content

I recently laid out these general blog improvement steps at the BlogCatalog blog:

Step 1: Figure out where you are.
Step 2: Decide where you want to go.
Step 3: Decide how to go there.
Step 4: Go there.
Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4.

In my next post, I’ll explain how to follow each step to create more effective, more rewarding content on your blog.

For you, what’s the toughest thing about improving your blog’s content?

photos by kevindooley, laffy4k

Improve Blog Content: 29-Point Checklist

Easton Ellsworth — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:49:39 +0000

Want to make your blog content better fast?

Here’s a carefully assembled checklist you can use every time you analyze the quality of the words, images and sounds that you publish at your blog.

Blog consultants, social media strategists and anyone who owns or manages a blog should find this useful.

29 Key Aspects of Blog Content

We’ve identified the nine blog improvement types. Now let’s break down blog content evaluation and improvement into 29 key areas:

Number of published articles (posts + pages)
Age of first published article
Age of latest published article
Posts published per month
Comments by blog visitors per month
Trackbacks/pingbacks per month
Words per article
Images/audio/videos per article
Internal links per article
External links per article
Compelling headlines
Descriptive headlines
Concise headlines
Appropriate writing style
Useful content
Remarkable content
Targeted content
Accurate content
Unique content
Viral content
Effective use of multiple media formats
Appropriate anchor text in hyperlinks
Appropriate number of hyperlinks
Relevant hyperlinks
Descriptive use of categories/tags
Concise use of categories/tags
Relevant use of categories/tags
Visible policies
Useful policies

How to Use the Blog Content Checklist

The list is sorted thematically, not by priority. It’s meant to help you move quickly and efficiently through the blog evaluation process. After you go through each element, you can use the Visionary Blogging method to form and execute a solid plan to actually make your blog posts, pages, photos, videos, etc. more effective.

Items 1-10 can be quantified directly; the rest cannot, but are best measured on a sliding qualitative scale.

Please refer to my complete Blog Improvement Checklist for a complete list of blog improvement aspects and advice on how to form a clear plan for improving your blog.

Improving Blogs: Remember These 4 Bits of Advice

You can’t effectively improve what you don’t effectively evaluate.
You can’t effectively evaluate what you don’t effectively measure.
You can’t effectively measure what you don’t accurately see.
Which is why you need to know and use the Visionary Blogging method.

Coming Soon at Visionary Blogging

An overview of blog content improvement (the big picture on how to do it right), plus free tips on how to improve your publishing rhythm.

I will cover each of the 29 aspects listed above right here at VisionaryBlogging.com in the weeks and months to come. Why they matter, how to evaluate and improve them, how they fit into the big picture of your path to online and offline success, etc.

Please subscribe now so you don’t miss the good stuff that’s coming.

Ask a Question on How to Improve Your Blog

Any questions about the 29 elements of blog content improvement? Stuck on a particular point with your own blog? I’m here to help. Leave a comment below or grab me.

images by eecue and AgniMax

Blog Improvement: Do You Know These 9 Key Areas?

Easton Ellsworth — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:56:40 +0000

Blog improvement is a tree whose trunk is vision.

Emerging from the trunk are nine main branches:

Blog content improvement – Making your articles, photos, podcasts, videos, etc. better at grabbing your audience’s attention and leaving them constantly satisfied yet hungry for more
Blog design improvement – Making your blog look, feel and work better for the people who visit and engage with it
Blog community improvement - Building a more vibrant community around your blog
Blog traffic improvement – Getting more of the right kind of people to discover your blog, and helping them become its greatest supporters
Blog subscribers improvement – Increasing the number and fanaticism of folks who subscribe to your blog’s updates via feeds or email
Blog search engine optimization (SEO) improvement – Strengthening your search presence – that is, getting better rankings in major search engines and moving more people through Google/Yahoo!/Bing/etc. searches to your blog
Blog social media optimization (SMO) improvement – Working to improve your blog’s presence on various social media, social networking and URL sharing websites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
Blog conversion improvement – Moving more blog visitors through the process of becoming customers, ad clickers, or even just avid readers
Blog value / return on investment (ROI) improvement – Making your blog more worth the time, money, sweat, tears, etc. for yourself and for those who come to it

No matter what kind of blog it is, it’s got these nine areas to possibly improve. Trust me on that one.

Why You Should Care About the 9 Areas of Blog Improvement

When you take time on a regular basis to evaluate your blog and look for ways to make it more successful, I want these nine items to run automatically through your mind. Helps you focus, you know?

Whenever I take a close look at a client’s blog, one or two of these branches almost always stand out as needing immediate attention.

The more know about how blog improvement works and how to think about it, the faster you’ll be able to prevent problems and make positive changes to your blog and in your blogging.

You can learn more about the twigs and leaves growing on each branch by using my free Blog Improvement Checklist. I’ve also got an assortment of blog improvement tips.

Coming Soon: Blog Improvement Advice Galore

Tomorrow we’ll start look at the first (and foremost) branch: improving your blog’s content.

Over the next few months we’ll go through each branch in more detail here on the blog. Please subscribe to Visionary Blogging now if you haven’t taken the 15 seconds to do that yet. You’ll love it.

If you want really intense help with one or more aspects of your blog – whether it’s a personal blog, non-profit organization blog or some kind of business blog or professional blog – please let me know. I’d love to help.

Coming very soon, I’ll have a big update to my Iris blog consulting service, Visionary Blogging courses, events and guides. I’m staying busy, no doubt about that!

So … which of the nine branches of blog improvement is the most important? Which one are you struggling with most right now? I’d love to get a comment thread going on this topic.

image by kencam1

How to Think About Twitter: A Quick Example

Easton Ellsworth — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:00:32 +0000

Visionary Blogging, as you may already know, is all about using blogs and social media with a careful sense of vision and focus.

Twitter is a rapidly emerging tool that practically screams to be used haphazardly.

Here’s a quick example of how to think about Twitter.

I am currently helping Heifer International with its Twitter account. Yesterday we came across this tweet (Twitter status update) by Ashton Kutcher, the world’s number one Twitter user in terms of followers with just over two million.

One of the things Heifer does on a daily basis is give goats and other animals to poor families around the world to help them achieve self-reliance. It also allows people to pay for those animals in someone’s else honor – so, you could get a birthday gift of a cow or a goat or some bees, but they wouldn’t actually go to you. They would go on your behalf to someone who really needed the gift.

Ashton’s tweet may not have been directed to Heifer. Nevertheless, it created an opportunity for Heifer and its fans to speak out in favor of animals as vicarious gifts.

So we considered our options:

Ignore @aplusk completely
Reply to him via some other medium (or offline)
Post a tweet to @aplusk as if talking only to him
Post a tweet to @aplusk as if talking to @Heifer followers and/or Twitterers in general

We decided on the last option, because we thought it would be best if the public told our story for us in their own words.

Next we needed to settle on the content of the tweet. Some options we considered:

Invite a powerful/popular voice to the conversation (first impression: @Oprah because she and @aplusk have exchanged tweets before and she is a Heifer supporter)
Share links to the Heifer website showing the awesomeness of giving gifts of animals in another’s honor
Share similar links on other websites
Directly disagree with @aplusk
Question @aplusk’s premise and invite @Heifer’s followers to respond

What we came up with after a few minutes of brainstorming may not have been perfect, but I think it did the job well:

We replied to Ashton and appealed to Oprah Winfrey for backup, sharing three links to Oprah.com showing that she supports the concept of giving the gift of animals on someone’s behalf.

Sure enough, several Twitterers soon replied @Heifer or @aplusk (or both) with excellent tweets about why they sided with us and not Ashton on that point.

Whether @aplusk or @Oprah ever tweet back about it doesn’t matter so much. What mattered was that Heifer International showed it was listening to the conversations that are happening online about its way of doing things, and that it sincerely wants to help people make the world a better, easier place to live. That’s why we tweeted what we did when we did.

I hope this quick example makes sense. Please let me know if there’s anything I can explain that would help you make decisions in your own Twitter use.

Do you think our tweet was effective? How could it have been better? Got any similar examples that you’d like to share?

Social Media Strategy Tips From Bloggers Unite

Easton Ellsworth — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:34:38 +0000

I recently asked Richard Becker, a consultant for Bloggers Unite, to share some insights on how he and the BU team have used social media to recruit members and encourage participation in their efforts. Here’s what he had to say.

What was your strategy for spreading the word online about Bloggers Unite when you first launched it?

The initial Bloggers Unite challenge was distributed in the discussion section of BlogCatalog, which is how my company was first introduced to Antony Berkman’s idea.

Since I was managing an experimental nonprofit blog, which highlighted business giving, I thought the initial BlogCatalog challenge — for bloggers to all post about the same social awareness issue on the same day and raise money for DonorsChoose.org — fit in well as a best practice. (The purpose of the blog is to stimulate business giving by providing examples from companies of different sizes.)

I contacted Tony to see if he had a news release about the event, but he didn’t. Instead, he gave me a call and asked if I would be willing to write a release, which I could then use for the blog. Since I have a long history of supporting nonprofit events, the release was relatively easy to write. In addition to the blog and our own distribution, Tony sent the release out on the wire and to some tech writers he knew. It received a surprising amount of attention, which reinvigorated the discussion for bloggers.

How has your promotion strategy changed or evolved since launch?

In terms of coordinating main events for Bloggers Unite, we’ve since developed a flexible campaign outline with several stages of a strategic communication plan within BlogCatalog and beyond BlogCatalog, which includes mainstream media and social media.

Once BlogCatalog members discuss and pick an underserved social awareness issue, we seek (or sometimes they find us) a primary benefactor such as Amnesty International, AIDS.gov, or Heifer International. Working with those benefactors, we are able to provide an outline of possibilities that bloggers can choose to write about on a designated day. BlogCatalog develops the badges and our company writes an abstract that highlights various topics. We always stress that they can write about anything they want within the context of the topic.

We release news and information about Bloggers Unite events using traditional and social media outlets, specifically publications, media outlets, and bloggers that have an interest in the topic. We also augment release distribution with announcements on BlogCatalog and other social networks as appropriate. With a base of 190,000 bloggers, BlogCatalog members are the real heroes in helping us announce these main events. And, we place a priority on recognizing these bloggers whenever and wherever possible.

BloggersUnite.org will operate a little differently because the vast majority of events will be driven and managed by bloggers or BloggersUnite.org members on their own.

What has been the single greatest motivator for bloggers to join your community?

The initial BloggersUnite.org community is currently being driven by BlogCatalog members who have always supported the Bloggers Unite initiative. Many of them asked us to host more events, which is why Antony Berkman, Angelica Alaniz, Daniel Tijerina, and Oscar Tijerina made launching BloggersUnite.org a priority.

BloggersUnite.org provides anyone the opportunity to launch an event, but we’ll still coordinate three official events every year. In terms of what motivates bloggers to join BloggersUnite.org, the primary motivation seems to be that most bloggers want to make the world a better place. While we encourage bloggers and recognize them the best we can, a high percentage of them appreciate that they can collectively change the world by raising awareness and providing example.

What has been the greatest obstacle to getting people involved in Bloggers Unite?

The greatest obstacle was determining how many events were too little and how many were too much. Originally, Antony had hope to launch an event every other month, but several BlogCatalog members felt it was too much. Since, we’ve found that best events require about 90 days of planning and promotion, from conception to completion.

Occasionally, some people criticize the campaigns for either not doing enough. However, after receiving some feedback from the benefactors and reading thousands of posts, I’ve found that the results are solid. Beyond increasing the level of awareness, many benefactors report they gain lifelong supporters and members who take tangible action on their behalf. But even more remarkable are what readers share after the bloggers post. I’ve seen hundreds of comments that thank them for the inspiration to take action and/or sometimes seek help. It’s amazing to see the sheer size of the impact, even when that impact might not be measurable on a scalable method.

What advice would you have for those who are trying to develop a long-term social media marketing/promotion strategy for an online community like Bloggers Unite?

Everyone involved with Bloggers Unite would agree that the most important element in developing any type of online network is to listen to what the members of your community are saying. That doesn’t mean you accept or implement every idea, but developers have to listen to those ideas that have real merit.

For example, after the initial challenge, Bloggers Unite became much more sensitive to the needs of international bloggers, and adjusted accordingly. Given that a high percentage of BlogCatalog members do not reside in the United States, it made sense that they might not be supportive of an event that was tied exclusively to the United States. For this reason, we’ve always worked hard to find international alternatives to whatever organization might benefit in the United States.

Please keep in mind that this approach is different from some definitions of crowdsourcing. We look at the merit of each idea rather than the total number of comments surrounding an idea. The very best ideas — whether recommended by one or one million bloggers — are those that become implemented. In fact, I cannot remember a single campaign that hasn’t been made better by the bloggers who participate. Their feedback means everything to sponsoring a successful program.

Thanks so much to Richard Becker (Twitter: @richbecker) for these insights on how to use social media to spread awareness about a non-profit website.

See case studies of my social media work for more ideas.

Any questions for Richard or me?

The Unspeakable Power of Calm

Easton Ellsworth — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:59:48 +0000

Do you ever feel frustrated by a sense of eternal restlessness, particularly when working on the Web?

There’s an endless ebbing, flowing ocean of content to navigate. It’s always raining and pouring more ones and zeroes, a downright deluge of data that never relents.

I know what it’s like to feel overcome by the flood of it all.

The streams and memes, the passwords and profiles, the alphas and betas, the announcements and contests and promotions.

Deadlines, deadlines.

Expectations and writer’s block and stat tracking and following the latest news from anywhere and everywhere all at once.

It’s miserable unless you force yourself to just calm down.

Oh, the unspeakable power of calm. Oh, the unspeakable power of it.

Can you do something for me? Just for a second?

Stop, please. Just stop.

Shh. Listen.

Okay, hold it right there. You’re not holding still enough.

CALM DOWN.

The Internet’s not going anywhere. Just trust me on this one.

Forget about Twitter. Forget about Facebook. Forget about your inbox.

Let’s take a minute, one full minute, and just remain calm and quiet and breathe.

Only by letting your eyes rest can you set your sights on a higher purpose.

Let go of the idea that you’re on some kind of treadmill with no off switch.

Let go of the worry that you’re always missing out on something that’s happening on the social Web.

Let go and take some time each day to calm down. You’ll be much more successful in whatever you’re doing with blogs and social media. It’s so worth the time.

What makes you frazzled online? What calms you down?

photo by B-art-Man

25 Ways to Mix Your Blog and Facebook

Easton Ellsworth — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:57:09 +0000

Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking website, can combine with your blog to produce powerful results. I’ve been able to help clients such as Kapalua Resort to mix their blog and Facebook worlds. Here are 25 ways to help your Facebook presence and your blog work together to help your business or organization be more successful.

Import your blog into Facebook.
Start or join a Facebook group that is about the same topic as your blog (but that is not necessarily about your blog).
Create or become a fan of a Facebook page that is relevant to your blog.
Make sure your Facebook profile includes a link to your blog.
On your Facebook Wall, make an update that mentions an article at your blog and invites people to discuss and share it via Facebook and other media.
If you’re up for it, create a Facebook app that has to do with your blog’s subject.
When a person leaves a comment at your blog, look them up in Facebook and add them as a friend. If they’re already a friend, send them a public or private message of appreciation in Facebook.
When someone becomes your friend on Facebook or becomes a supporter of any Facebook groups or pages in your charge, visit their Facebook profile and try to find out if they have a blog elsewhere. Visit any blogs you find and leave thoughtful comments.
Watch your blog’s traffic carefully to see how who is finding it via Facebook.
Consider creating a special welcome page at your blog just for Facebook users. You could include the link to this “welcome Facebookers” page at your Facebook profile page.
Host a special event at your blog (such as a contest or a virtual conference) and invite Facebookers to attend.
Create a Facebook event and invite your blog followers to attend, support and spread it.
Once in a while, publicly ask your Facebook friends and supporters to interact in some way with your blog – give you feedback on how to improve it, answer a question you’ve posed at your blog, leave a comment at your blog, etc.
At your blog, include a link to your Facebook profile and any related pages or groups in your About and/or Contact pages as well as at your homepage (for example, in your sidebar).
Stealth mixing: Given that you have the ability to privately contact Facebook friends and to privately email any commentators at your blog who have left email addresses along with their comments, take some time on a regular basis to just say hi and mention the other half of your blog/Facebook universe.
Consider paying for some Facebook ads that drive traffic to your blog.
Integrate Facebook Connect with your blog.
Add a widget or plugin to your blog that displays some recent updates from your Facebook wall, a Facebook group/page you’re involved with, etc.
Once in a while at your blog, publish an article that talks about Facebook and shares some of your personal progress at FB.
Once in a while at Facebook, post about your blog’s progress.
Remember the power of static pages, which live outside of the regular stream of blog posts. You could, for instance, create a set of several static pages at your blog’s domain that refer to your Facebook efforts. Which leads us to …
Strategy. Ponder the relationship between your Facebook and blogging efforts. How much time are you spending on each? How much time are you spending on your quest to meld your blogging and Facebook thrusts? How much time and energy should you be spending?
Metrics. Track everything you can, particularly those items that relate directly to the combination of Facebook and your blog. The traffic that passes between the two … the links that appear on the Web to each subset … the amount of funds raised or business generated through each subset … etc.
Read and re-read articles like this. And keep looking for them. There are quite a few out there – many more than I’ve linked to here. Make it a point to study relentlessly the ways in which you can leverage Facebook-and-your-blog much better than “Facebook, and, um, your blog.”
Ask for help. You don’t have to do all the mixing on your own. Making Facebook and blog combinations and campaigns work more effectively than the sum of their parts can be extremely challenging.

Along with blog and Facebook mixture, try blog/Twitter mixing, Visionary Blogging-style.

By the way, here’s my Facebook profile. Would love to connect with you there!

How else can you mix your blog with Facebook?

50 Ways to Mix Your Blog and Twitter

Easton Ellsworth — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:03:22 +0000

Here are 50 simple ways to take your blog and your Twitter account, mix them together and make something even tastier than its ingredients. I’ve used these tips in work for Blog Action Day (@blogactionday), Heifer International (@heifer) and others. Share and enjoy.

Use Your Twitter Account to Increase Your Blog Traffic

Using Sn.im, BudURL or a similar URL shortener that tracks clicks, share links to blog posts and static pages on your blog on a regular basis.
Use Twellow and Twollow to find and follow Twitter users in your blog’s niche. Say hi to them on Twitter and introduce your blog.
Include a link to a specific landing page on your blog in your Twitter profile (example: @miscellanearts –> this page). Use it to welcome Twitter users and invite them to subscribe to and revisit your blog.
Direct message some of your Twitter followers and ask them individually to please visit your blog and perform a specific action, like leaving a comment on a post or sharing a link to one of your blog posts on Twitter. Most people respond readily to private, sincere invitations. Er, but don’t overdo it.
Before you tweet, ask yourself: “What could I say that Twitter users would find satisfying to such an extent that they would stampede to my blog via my Twitter account to get the long-form version of my short Twitter bursts?”

Use Your Blog to Increase Your Twitter Traffic

Include a Twitter widget above the fold at your blog, perhaps in a sidebar. Make sure there’s a really easy-to-see “Follow Me on Twitter” button or link of some sort that blog visitors can use.
Link to your Twitter account/profile (e.g. @easton) regularly in the body of your blog posts.
Link to your Twitter page from static pages on your blog such as your About page, Contact page, Subscribe page, press page, etc.
Devote an occasional blog post to Twitter – discuss what you’ve been posting about lately on Twitter, talk about some interesting folks you’ve met on Twitter, share a bunch of ideas on how to use Twitter (ahem), etc.
Add a “Follow Me on Twitter”-ish link to your blog post footers so it shows up not only on your blog, but also in your RSS feed and for email subscribers.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Content

Ask other Twitter users regularly for personal feedback on how to improve your blog content. What would they like you to post about? What’s their favorite post on your blog? What tips do they have for your content? Etc. Use direct messages (DMs) regularly for this purpose.
Analyze the traffic coming to your blog from Twitter. How long do people stay at your blog after coming over from Twitter? What posts do they read? What actions do they take on your blog and when leaving your blog? What do they seem most interested in?
Take quick polls on Twitter by asking simple, direct questions. Compile the best answers and sprinkle them throughout your blog posts.
Use Twitter Search before hitting publish on your blog posts. See what others may have said about your chosen topic (example). Link to and discuss the best resources.
Read what some of your Twitter friends have said recently. Pick something to expand on and talk about it at your blog.

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter Content

Publish regularly to your blog and tweet regularly about what you’ve just published. A Twitter stream is always more interesting when the Twitterer’s blog is full of fresh content that she mentions on Twitter. Don’t just regurgitate headlines and links to your posts, though – try to add a bonus thought or behind-the-scenes tidbit for blog visitors to enjoy in your Twitter feed.
When people leave comments at your blog posts, look them up in Twitter and say hi with a public @ reply. Thank them for their comment and respond in Twitter as well as at your blog.
When other websites link to your blog content, find out if their bloggers or webmasters use Twitter. As with the previous tip, seek to get a conversation going with them in Twitter that benefits your Twitter followers while giving the linkers special attention.
Talk occasionally on Twitter about your blogging experiences – what’s frustrating you, what’s been exciting in your blog’s development, etc.
Based on the kind of response and feedback you get regarding your blog’s content, tailor your Twitter content to encourage better responses and more useful feedback. In other words, use popular blog material as a springboard for engaging Twitter material.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Community

When people follow you on Twitter, try to get to know them personally and invite them to be active participants in your blog’s discussions. This requires time and sincerity but pays off in mutually beneficial relationships in the long run.
When someone @ replies to you or DMs you on Twitter, ask yourself if there’s anything at your blog that they might find personally useful. Mention it to them if you have it. Otherwise, create it and then mention it.
Add a link to your Twitter account wherever a link to your blog appears on the Web. Your LinkedIn profile, your MySpace page, your YouTube profile, etc. should all tell people not onyl about your blog, but about your Twitter account.
Ask your Twitter followers point-blank what you can do to make them feel more connected to your blog content and closer as a community. Just ask – you’d be amazed what thoughts and insights are lurking in their incredible minds.
In offline conversation, talk about your Twitter account and your blog in the same breath whenever possible. Multiple touch points lead to more intimate relationships.

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter Community

Besides simply asking people via your blog to follow you on Twitter, why not invite them to follow some of your favorite Twitterers as well? You could do this in your blog’s sidebar or using a special static page or blog post that introduces them to your Twitter gang.
Include, unless your blog readership doesn’t like it, a “Twitter ID” field in your blog comment forms (example: TwiTip.) This will lead to more of your blog readers discovering each other on Twitter.
When someone subscribes to your blog by email, send them a personal email inviting them to follow you on Twitter.
On your blog, create content meant especially for Twitter users. Some of your blog posts and one or more static pages should cater to the Twitter crowd, giving them ways to meet each other and feel a part of a collective.
If possible, organize a “tweetup” (offline social gathering for Twitter users) for Twitterers who read or identify with your blog. If offline is extremely difficult, then try to make an online tweetup at a certain day and time where you get together your Twitter followers who enjoy your blog in the comment box at one of your blog posts, in a chat inside Twitter, or on some other platform.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Instead of just saying, “Follow me on Twitter” at your blog, consider using more search-friendly keywords. e.g. “Get quick dog training tips and chat with dog trainer Jack Smith daily on Twitter.”
When you link to your blog on Twitter, use a variety of relevant keywords before or after the actual link.
Don’t just link to your blog’s homepage from Twitter. Link to a variety of posts and pages on your blog as well as its homepage.
Encourage others to retweet Twitter messages by you that include links to your blog or your blog posts/pages.
Ask your Twitter friends or followers every now and then how they think you could make your blog more search engine-friendly.

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter SEO

When you talk about your Twitter account at your blog, link to it using a variety of keywords as your anchor text. e.g. chihuahua training tips, chihuahua jokes, etc.
On your blog’s landing page for Twitter users, describe your Twitter account in detail, using keywords that describe it well for search engine users to discover later.
Publish links and content at your blog that is meant to rank well in search engines for the phrases “keyword twitter” and “twitter keyword.” (example: chocolate twitter) For instance, you could create a static page devoted to describing your Twitter account about chocolate and link to to your Twitter account from that page using both variants at different points (chocolate Twitter and Twitter chocolate).
If your blog and Twitter accounts are meant to show up well in search results for your name or your company’s name or your organization’s name, etc., then you should create separate posts or pages dedicated to ranking well for each relevant “twitter keyword“ phrase. So maybe you’re Mary Jones, the chocolate maven, and you own a chocolate shop called the Choc Bloc. Create separate content chunks at your blog that will help your Twitter account show up favorably in Google for Mary Jones, chocolate store, Choc Bloc, etc. As a bonus, your blog content will show up well too, so people will either directly discover your Twitter account this way or discover it via your blog.
Encourage people via your blog to link to your Twitter account whenever possible. The more links to your Twitter page, the better. Especially if those links are varied in their verbiage and appear frequently in the main content section of people’s blogs and websites, as opposed to links that all look the same appearing in a bunch of sites’ sidebars or footers.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Value/Return on Investment (ROI)

Keep track of the time you spend on Twitter. Ballpark it if you don’t have an easy-to-use time tracker. An egg timer might do the trick.
Regularly evaluate whether the time you spent on Twitter generated more value for your blog than it cost in terms of time, sweat and/or money. Would you have been better off ignoring Twitter completely and devoting your time and effort only to your blog? How could you make Twitter more useful to your blog?
Consider your blog’s traffic, content, community, and SEO – the areas of focus above. Set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals regarding how you will use Twitter to improve each of those four aspects of your blog, in order to improve the overall value and “worth-it-ness” of your blog.
Keep a record of successes and failures in your attempts to add value to your blog using Twitter. Like that time you posted about XYZ and mentioned your blog post on Twitter and 13 people tweeted about it and you ended up getting 167 visits and 213 page views to your blog, which resulted in $392.80 in sales. Or that time you spent 90 minutes on Twitter meeting and talking to people about the local weather, hoping that they would then subscribe to your blog about raising left-handed guinea pigs in Bermuda. Didn’t work so well, did it? Use these experiences to motivate and inspire you.
For each action on Twitter, consider the underlying goal and whether you could accomplish it better via your blog. Twitter makes chatting with strangers easy, for example – much easier than blogs usually do – but what does that chatting do that ultimately can add to your business or get people to join your organization’s cause or keep the electricity switched on at your house so you can keep using Twitter?

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter Value/ROI

Keep track of all Twitter-related efforts that go on at your blog. How much time are you spending to try to drive blog visitors to your Twitter account? How many people are arriving at your Twitter page via your blog each week and how many are starting to follow you each week? How much screen real estate is devoted to Twitter at your blog? Would it be more useful if something else appeared there?
Regularly evaluate whether the time you spent on on your blog generated more value for your Twitter account than it cost – as mentioned above, in time, sweat and/or money. How much time spent on your blog could have more effectively used on Twitter?
Ponder your Twitter account’s traffic, content, community, and SEO – the areas of focus above. Set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals regarding how you will use your blog to improve each of those four aspects of your Twitter account, in order to improve the overall value and “worth-it-ness” of your Twitter account.
Keep a record of successes and failures in your attempts to add value to your Twitter profile using your blog. Be as detailed as possible regarding the expenditures in time and effort and the returns in readers, subscribers, buyers, contacts, leads, etc.
For each action on your blog, consider the basic goal and whether you could accomplish it better via your Twitter account. Is there social networking, time-sensitive investigation/reporting, or other activity that Twitter would get done better for you than a blog post or tweaks to your blog?

photo by Vermin Inc

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