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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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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I’ll  bet that when you are posting on Facebook  you’re not thinking about the millions of people who are also logged into Facebook. You know what its like you get caught up messaging your friends whilst updating your wall, or skimming through the Friendfeed. BUT you need to remember that amongst the many millions caught up in the Facebook phenomenon some are potential employers, business partners, real friends,work colleagues and more.

If you want to make sure that your Facebook account isn’t going to come back to haunt you, here are 5 Costly Facebook Mistakes  that you should avoid. 

1. Keep it Clean

Your uploaded picture should be neutral if not professional. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the picture is going to be boring, but keep provocative and cartoony pictures tucked away where the world cannot see them. Remember, as an employee or future employee you are carrying the name of whatever company you work for. Provocative pictures never look good, especially when you can run the risk of future clients seeing your profile as well. A rule of thumb is that provocative pictures are for private viewing only.

2. Good Manners Never Hurt Anyone
The wall on Facebook, can be used to openly display any thoughts, articles, or comments you may want to share. As tempting as what it may be don’t make the mistake of putting everything and anything on your wall. Remember common courtesy should considered. So…Don’t make plans with people through wall posts. Save personal plans for personal emails or phone calls. If you’ve been invited to an event and plan to go, send an email or text message straight to the person that invited you instead of announcing your plans and confirmation on your wall. Once again it pays to have good manners you because you never know who may be watching. 

3. To Share Or Not To Share – That Is The Question!
If you choose to make your profile visible to everyone, then it is imperative that you make safe choices. For instance, sharing personal information such as an interest in Sci Fi movies, Eating Pizza and Cats is okay. However, showing personal addresses, names of children or children’s pictures may not be a good idea, because you never know who is viewing your profile or even worse still why they are viewing your profile.

4. Guilty By Association 
Facebook is a Social Site and the theory is that your friends are like minded people who are  a reflection of yourself. So you need to be aware of what pictures your friends are posting particularly if you are one of the star attractions. If  your friends are posting pictures that can be considered ‘too sexy’ then it’s possible that employers will view you as a spitting image of your friends. While it is impossible to prevent all friends from posting pictures of their choice, it is possible to prevent who is allowed to see a person’s list of friends. Take advantage of the privacy settings that Facebook offers.

5. Two Is Twice As Much Fun
If you having difficulty in keeping your profile on Facebook professional at all times then the option of having two profiles is for you. Many people have two profiles keeping one profile strictly for personal friends and the other strictly for professional business networking and coworkers. A great way to use two profiles is to make sure everything on your personal profile is private, while your professional profile can remain public. 

However you use Facebook its important to realise that 20% of companies admit to checking social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace in order to verify potential employees, and 24% of employees are hired based on their social networking site. So the next time you apply for a job, remember to check your Facebook account for any ticking bombs, because your future job could depend on it.

We hope this post has been useful. If you liked it share it with your friends or leave 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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Twitter has decribed Twitter lists  as “a way to organize the people you follow and discover new and interesting accounts.”  Select twitter  users have been told that they are part of a small beta-tester group and asked them not to discuss the lists in their updates.

Twitter lists let Twitter users categorize the people they follow, streamlining their feeds. The news release acompanying the announcement of twitter lists included the folowing points

• Setting up a list is simple
• The homepage will have a list banner that will allow you to make a list simply by clicking on “Create a new List” Once created the list name will be converted to a permalink  like twitter.com and the list can be set to public or private viewing
• On the right hand column of your homepage a new “lists” area will be visible under your bio. Click on this and you will see your list overview page. This is where you can manage your lists and the users public lists that you are a part of. 
• Clicking on any of these lists will take you to the twitter stream of the twitterites on  the list. 

So what does this all mean? Well for those who follow hundreds of other users, the list feature will be a great time saver as it allows users to  separate, dog lovers from podcasting experts. Indirectly it will probably create a sort of popularity contest, showing users how many lists others have been added to. 

We hope this overview has been useful if you like this post share it with your friends or leave a comment.

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Finally its here…. Its been 8 months in the making , BUT its HERE!  The complete collection of  12 Social Media Experts caught on tape spilling the secret tactics and strategies they use to make 6 figure incomes without spending one cent on marketing or advertising.  The mover and shakers of the Social Media world shared valuable information with us and now we would like to share it with you.

Twitter experts , LinkedIn experts, Blogs experts, Podcasting experts,  StumbleUpon experts, MySpace experts, Forums experts, Squidoo experts and more… Ross Goldberg, Mari Smith, Frank Sousa, Leesa Barnes are just a few of the experts who shared there secrets with us. Click here  to see  the complete list of experts.

Listen carefully as Ross Goldberg (aka  Mr Traffic) reveals how he gets a 30% conversion rate using just one of his many Social Media Traffic Strategies… I bet you could profit from a 30% conversion… 

Too many people spend too much time and they get too little traffic. They don’t know the secrets to Social Media Traffic. So what happens is that they end up spending all day on twitter, all day on Facebook, all day on MySpace and at the end of the day they have no money in their bank account.
 
Social Media traffic is some of the best   and easiest traffic to get and   best of all its completely free. However there is a catch – if you don’t know what you are doing Social Media Traffic is like navigating a jungle without a guide. 

Wouldn’t you just love to learn from the experts how to conquer these traffic blasting social media sites?Couldn’t you do with the inside scoop on social media…

Isn’t it time that you used a little Social Traffic Espionage? Click here to get instant access to the experts.

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Wouldn’t it be great if someone could demystify the most popular Social Medias and tell you how and when to use it. Yep sounds like a great idea to me.  In fact this idea sounded so great that we at Social Traffic Espionage decided to just DO IT!

We gathered all the information you could possible wish to know about the popular social media sites and transformed this information into what we believe is the ultimate guide to Social Media  “The Social Traffic Intelligence Manuscript“.

It’s pages are jam packed with must have information. It reveals the basics of the most popular Social Medias, exposes their strengths and weakness’s, explains how you might use social media to generate FREE social traffic, market your product, promote your business or to just make a difference in the world by supporting causes like  saving the whales.

BUT WAIT!!! There is more… The ”Social Traffic Intelligence Manuscript” is FREE. Interested? You can grab your copy of the  ”Social Traffic Intelligence Manuscript”  by simply clicking here.

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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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