Our good friend Ross Goldberg (aka Mr Traffic) says in his typical no BS style – “Your blog is the cornerstone of your social traffic campaign”.  While most of us share his enthusiasm for blogging not everybody is sure what is needed to create a brilliant blog that stands out from the crowd. To assist you in creating that awesome blog we would like to share with you “7 Brilliant Blogging Tips”

1. Get Serious and Buy Your Own domain
It’s important to be in control of your own destiny. If you are in it for the long haul you will want to have your own domain. Although it might sound complicated it’s not. There are heaps of hosting sites and domain purchasing sites that have great help desks and instructions for newbies. Personally we use Hostgator, and are a huge fan of its live chat feature.

 2. Choose a domain name that suits your blog 
I know it sound as blatantly obvious…But lots of people overlook this step. It’s no use having a  domain name like www.carwidgetsRus and having a blog that talks about growing tulips.

3. Use WordPress and wordpress plugins
WordPress blogs are easy to use, manipulate and there are thousands of themes. Don’t forget  to install wordpress plugins. There are heaps of wordpress plugins with specific functions so make sure you pick wordpress plugins that suit your blog, and assist with SEO and social  traffic optimisation.

 4. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Blah Blah Blah…Personally we get bored with lots and lots of words in a post. Make your post brilliant by the inclusion of pictures. Give the words a break every now and then by including a picture. Pictures serve two purposes they make the post more interesting and they can  convey a concept quicker than the words in lengthy paragraph 

5. The three C’s
Consistency, consistency, consistency…It’s important to blog with consistency. Resist the urge  to go off on a tangent, stick to the topic of your blog. Try to publish a blog post at least once a week. You want to deliver to your readers consistent information on a regular basis, this will assist in developing a relationship with your readers.

 6. Don’t Ignore Comments
We get a real buzz out of people leaving us comments. It means that people have read our post   and it had an impact on them… Make sure you approve the valid comments, and disapprove the spam. If the comment includes a question it’s imperative that you reply to the comment. A  blog is supposed to be interactive and you should take any opportunity to interact with your readers.

 7. Content is King
People visit your blog looking for useful information. Provide useful information with heaps of content and you will have them coming back for more. Remember that blogs are supposed to be interactive and your readers are no different to you. They want interesting and informative content. Our previous blog post 7 Reasons Why Blogs Are Vitally Important can assist with more blogging info.

We hope that you found these 7 Brilliant Blogging Tips useful. If you liked this post feel free to share it with your friends or leave a comment.

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1. Stand Out From The Crowd
Your personnel brand is how you can stand out from the crowd and rise above the noise of your competition. Make sure you take the time to create a remarkable personal brand! Remember competition is fierce, you have to make an unforgettable impact.  Define your target audience, give them high quality content jam packed with solutions to their most annoying  problems.

2. Follow People With Similar Interests
Lots of people get hung up on the number of followers they have. BUT this means nothing if the people who follow you are not interested in your business or product. It’s best to build and nurture a following of people who have similar interests because they are more likely to be genuinely interested in your business or product.

3. It’s A Conversation, Not A Continuous Sales Pitch
Twitter is a  Social  Media  site, it’s for conversations. Get involved with others by responding  to other peoples Tweets or start a conversation with others. Mind your manners and resist the urge to jump into twitter and broadcast one continous  sales pitch.

4. Tweet , Tweet, Tweet
Its important to tweet often.  Make sure your tweets are of high quality, interesting, and informative. The idea is to engage other people in conversation not send them to sleep. Mix it up a bit… You can include quotes, links to videos, pictures, jokes , or interesting articles .

5. Dominate Your Niche
It doesn’t matter what your niche is its imperative that you own it .  Position yourself as the expert in your niche by solving problems for others. Comment on blogs within your niche  and  don’t  forget to include your Twitter URL.  This can assist  in connecting you with the kinds of followers you want to attract.

6. Get Retweeted
It’s simple you must be Retweeted to GO VIRAL. But don’t panic!  Getting  Retweeted, is easier than it sounds. Simply add conversational value,  tweet about interesting things, share news or other content that people will want to pass along.  If your stuck for words, we invite you to  check out  one of our previous blog posts ” Twitters Top 9 Most Retweetable Words and Phrases”

7. Ask For A Retweet!
Don’t be shy you’re running a business. Ask for a Retweet, that’s right all you gotta do is ask. Simply add  ”Please Retweet” at the end of your message. Some people prefer to use a shortened version Plz RT since it uses less characters.

We hope you find these rules useful. If you liked this post feel free to share it with your friends or leave a comment.

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Twitter Marketing Exposed is specifically designed for twitter newbies and intermediate twitter users.  It’s pages are jam packed with vital information that you can apply to your twitter account. Stay tuned while we give you a  sneak peak at whats  included;  

• Direct Messages, Retweets, Hastags, Twitter search, URL shorteners explained and more
• Twitter Tips For Beginners
• How To Start tweeting And What To Tweet About
• Most Popular Retweetable Words and Phrases
• Twitter Following and Follower Barriers
• How To Choose Who To Follow
• Gaining Followers
• Reasons Why People Unfollow You
• Twitter Lists
• Advanced Tweeting Tips

BUT WAIT!!! There is more…Twitter Marketing Exposed is FREE!  Interested? You can grab your copy of  “Twitter Marketing Exposed“  by simply clicking here.

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1. Know Your Audience
A lot of people are tempted to complete the Bio without thinking about why they joined twitter in the first place. Before you write your Twitter bio we suggest that you think about the Twitterites you want to connect with. As a guide ask yourself these questions.

Do you want people to find you by your career, company, industry, location?
Why are you using Twitter?
Who are the people you want to connect with?  

2. Include Keywords – Not Junk
We suggest that you don’t simply enter a bunch of keywords. A lot of people do this because they think the more keywords the more ways people have of finding them when using search functions.  This can be a costly mistake… If your bio looks like a jumbled collection of keywords then it will be totally uninteresting to people and they won’t want to follow you. Your bio might look something like this.

I am a keen gardener and hiker who also has a passion for the outdoors, internet marketing and affiliate marketing who loves social media

3.  Smile!  - Upload A Photo
If you want new followers putting a photo of yourself here is really important. People like to see who they are following and they will follow someone with a picture rather than someone who has the default avatar provided by twitter.

4.  So What  DO  you do?
Make sure your bio includes what you do. People use Twitter for lots of different reasons, however the networking and business twitterites  follow people based on what they do and their topics of interest. This aspect of your bio is even more important since the launch of Twitter lists, since most people when building lists use the information in peoples bios to build a specific Twitter List.  

 5. Location, Location, Location…
The location info assists people with searching and finding others in their same area. You can even make a twitter list based upon location. There have been some people who have met on twitter only to find out that they lived just around the corner.  FYI… If you are chasing rankings on Twitter your location is important as users are ranked by their locations.

6. Link Love
Include your website url, blog url or a specific landing site. Some people make the mistake of including a shortened url in this field. You know what we mean, tinyurl, bit.ly, ow.ly, etc. DON’T do this!  Twitter doesn’t shorten the links in this field, so don’t use a shortened URL link. Worst case scenario people will think its spam and no one wants to follow a spammer.

7. Its Not Carved In Stone
Bios were meant to be dynamic , changed  and tweaked as needed. There is no such thing as a perfect bio. So don’t hesitate to tweak it and then tweak it some more if you have to.

Its important to remember that the Twitter bio may be small, but it’s powerful. An awesome bio has the power to attract Twitter followers like a magnet. We hope this post was useful. If you like it please share it with your friends or leave us a comment.

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In today’s modern society if you can’t catch a persons interest instantly with a great witty headline you run the risk of  loosing a sale or not gaining a friend or twitter follower.  Copywriters know how words can impact a message and grab a persons attention. To rise above the noise in this busy world you can’t afford to ignore the importance of using a little copy writing in your headlines. Its true that copy writing is a skill and takes time to learn… BUT that being said here are 3 Irresistable Catchy Headline Tips For Social Media properties.

1) Action, Excitement, Fun
Lights, camera,  action… You have to use active verbs in your headlines. Too many people use passive uninteresting verbs in their post titles and miss out on grabbing anyones attention.  People are attracted to exciting, fun titles. Active headlines inspire peoples emotive responses, while boring, passive ones invite the reader to visit someone else’s feed! Most dull and boring headlines can be transformed easily into action packed riveting headlines just by altering a couple of words. So the next time you are writing a headline make it exciting.

2) Keep It Real
Your headline should be a genuine preview of the actual content in the blog post, twitter post or facebook post. You have got to keep it real. Resist the urge to trick the reader into thinking that the content of the post is something it isn’t by using misleading or false headlines. Write authentic headlines that do relate to your copy. The first paragraph of your content should contain interesting sentances with an edge that compliment your catchy headline.  Remember you want your readers to come back and the best way to guarantee their return is to make their first experience enjoyable.  

3) The Three S’s – Short,  Sharp and Simple
Have you heard the expression less is more? Well when it comes to writing catchy headlines you don’t want to dull or tarnish your action packed interesting headline by using  too many words. Remember the  three  S’s – keep it Short,  Sharp and Simple. Look at your headline, take note of the number of words and evaluate what words if any can be replaced with a new singular word. Always take the time to thoroughly review your headlines.

We hope you have found this post useful. If you liked this post share it with your friends or leave a comment

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 1. Twitter Lists are dynamic and much more than a static listings of users. Twitter Lists are categorized  twitter  streams of the latest tweets from the users on a list.

2. Twitter Lists give you the ability to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or find new people.

3. Each Twitter list has a list page where you can get a snapshot of the Twitter list users  tweets which are included in a complete tweet stream for everyone on the list.

4.  Make following people easier. For instance when you find a twitterite who has an awesome list  you will  beable to add the whole list.

5. Twitter Lists  give you the opportunity to follow people using  a Twitter list without following them as an individual. So…you can view their tweets without actually following them.  In this way Twitter Lists that you belong to can include people you’re not following.

6. Searching for twitterites with similar interests will be so much easier using the twitter list features. 

Twitter Lists why would you use  them?
Not sure about why you would use a Twitter List? Don’t  worry here are a few ideas to get you started

•  Create a Group 
  Use Twitter Lists to organize your tweeps into groups based on anything you want. For example, podcasting, cats lovers, golfing enthusiasts. When you view a  list, you easily see all of  the tweets of the  list members.
• Recommend Your Favorite Tweeple 
  Twitter Lists were designed to allow people to recommend other users to follow. Simply create a public list of people you think other Twitter users should follow, then anyone else can visit that list and follow the people on it (or follow the list).
• Follow People You Aren’t Following
  By following a Twitter List, you’re actually following the entire list not each user on the list.  So… you can use Twitter  Lists to follow people without really following them. How does this work?  Well say for instance that there  are users whose tweets you’d like to follow, but you don’t want in your main Twitter stream, you can add them to a list and then check their latest tweets when you want to by viewing your list. 

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Lets start by listing a few of the things that twitter lists can’t do.

1. You can only add 20 lists to one Twitter account and a  list can only have 500 members.
2. Your sidebar can only display 20 lists. So if you have more than 20 lists you will be only able to see the last 20 lists.
3. You are not able to  control the order of the lists or really anything about the list.
4. The tab that shows you the lists you follow doesn’t allow you to scroll down. So you will only see the lists that can fit in this space.

While not a comprehensive list it gives you some idea of  what twitter lists can’t do. Like any new beta testing feature you gotta expect some bugs and querks.

Don’t worry we havent forgotten about what twitter lists can do, we will have a look at “What twitter lists can do?” in a future blog post.

Have we missed something?  If you would like to add something to this post leave a comment and stay tuned as we  continue to update you with more information about twitter lists.  

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Behind the scenes we have been involved in an awesome project. We had the privilege of interviewing 12 Social Media Experts; the movers and shakers in Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, YouTube, LinkedIn, Forums, Podcasting, Social Bookmarking, Blogging, MySpace, StumbleUpon and more!

Interested? Watch the video and stay tuned…

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How do you share these great articles?  Facebook makes it easy… Just follow these  simple directions below and you will have your friends waiting on the edge of their seats  for your next article.

1. Click The Facebook Icon
You see  it here,  you see it there  – “The Facebook Icon”.  Most articles online  have a Facebook icon nearby.  Simply click on the icon and you will be automatically directed to sign into your Facebook account.  Once you have signed in just follow the prompts and a link to the article will appear.

2. Use A Note
Included in  the  row of icons under the ‘what’s on your mind?’ text box, there  is a link icon that looks like a note.  If you place the mouse over this icon the word link pops up.  Simply  highlight and copy the article  link you want to share, and then  click on the little link  icon.   Paste your link into the additional box that pops up  under the ‘what’s on your mind?” text box.  Click the attach button, complete the security check  and hit the share button.
    
3)The Direct Approach – Post It On A Friends Page 
Visit your friend’s  Facebook page.  Simply  highlight and copy the article  link you want to share, and then  click on the link  icon ( remember it looks like a little note).  Paste your link into the additional box that pops up  under the ‘what’s on your mind?” text box.  Click the attach button, complete the security check and hit the share button.

One more tip before we go. It’s  Facebook etiquette to write a comment in the ‘what’s on your mind?” text box that accompanies your link.

If you like this post share it with your friends,  or add a comment.

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Podcasting is becoming popular, heck even  TV shows such as the Bold and the Beautiful are using podcasting in their storylines.

What is podcasting? It can be defined as a series of digital media files, usually digital audio or video, that is made available for download via Web syndication. Basically, in podcasting, you create audio files that are available on your website, which people can then download to their  iPods or MP3 players. “Podcasts” are delivered through RSS feeds; users subscribe to various podcasts.

The widespread adoption of iPods and MP3 players, means that the potential Social Media traffic that podcasting can generate is growing all the time. If you have a product or business and you want FREE targeted traffic then you shouldn’t ignore the power of podcasting.

Ok so your interested in podcasting for your business or product… BUT  how do you make a killer podcast? Stay tuned we are going to share 5 Powerful Podcasting Tips that you can start using today.

1. Original Interesting Content.
If you want to attract and maintain an audience, you will need to share original content in your podcast , or at the very least, present the content in an original way. Think about how you can differentiate yourself from others. Develop a long term strategy that allows you to create a brand that will distinguish your podcast from others.

2. Good Sound Quality
Quality podcasts have quality sound. You will need a microphone that will not include sounds that will distract your listeners from listening to you. What’s a good microphone? If you are podcasting from a home office you will generally need a large-diaphragm, cardioid condenser microphone.

3. Microphone Technique
Spend time in the Podcasting Forums and you will hear the phrase “proper microphone technique”. People often say you either have proper microphone technique or you don’t. Good microphone technique is a blend of many aspects such as physical microphone positioning, diction, speed, mouth form, and presence. The optimum position for your microphone is usually about a hand’s width away from the microphone. The other aspects such as diction, speed, mouth form, and presence are usually improved by practice and time. We recommend that you record your voice, listen to the recording and identify the aspects you need to improve. This is one practical way you can develop good microphone technique.

4. Develop A Plan
Once you have decide to Podcast you will need a plan. Aspects you will need to consider are;

• How much time will the podcast production take?
• How will the podcasting fit into your a current schedule?
• How frequently will you podcast?
• How will the hosting of podcasting files be handled?
• If the podcast is popular, will you ask your listeners for a fee that can be used to cover hosting costs?
• What is your podcasting theme?
• How will the theme connect all the podcasts?

You get the picture …you will need to develop a plan for your Podcasting.

5. The Point.
Get to the point of the podcast, don’t bore your listeners with a lot of fluff about nothing. Talking is a favorite past time for some people but don’t let it hide the quality content you have in your podcast. Listeners won’t waste their time listening to rampant rambling. If you have a point to make, make it in a reasonable amount of time. Take Micheal Chaney’s approach minimize the fluff and focus on quality content.

We hope these tips will give you a great starting point for podcasting. We always love to receive feedback so leave us a comment and if you like this post share it with your friends.

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