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11 Ways To Promote And Market Your Blog Posts

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Blog Post Marketing

Do you want more traffic for your blog? So many people look for the answer to this question. They focus on bringing traffic to the blog in general. However, it is not the actual blog people are interested in. It is the blog’s content, the blog posts, that people are interested in. Yes, it is important to focus on getting traffic on our blogs, but our attention also needs to shift to getting more traffic for individual blog posts. If you get more traffic for individual blog posts, then you are also getting more blog traffic. It is simply a better way to strive for blog traffic. If you want to get more traffic for your blog posts, and therefore more traffic for your blog, here are 11 ways to promote and market your blog posts so they get more traffic.

 

#1: StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit

StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit are the three most underrated ways of getting more blog traffic, but at the same time, these three methods of getting more blog traffic are like hit-or-miss opportunities. Some of my StumbleUpon posts got me a grand total of five blog visitors. Others Stumble Upon posts got me thousands of extra visitors to my blog in a few hours. I occasionally use Reddit to promote my blog posts and products. Most of them are swings and misses. However, when I used Reddit to promote a big discount for my Twitter Domination training course on Black Friday (and Reddit was basically the only way I promoted the course at the time), I got over 100 on that day. I have not used Digg yet, but many experts say that Digg is another great place for blog traffic. This blog post explains it really well.

 

#2: Tweet, Pin, Post

You can use your social networks to promote your blog. One of the biggest mistakes blogger make is abiding to the 80/20 rule where they only promote their blog posts 20% of the time. I practically promote my blog posts all of the time on my social networks. Not only does it result in more traffic, but people appreciate the value (I can tell based on the interactions I get), and many of my followers promote my content. You should make it a point to grow your audience on one social network and post consistently on that social network. I focus most of my time on Twitter which is why my Twitter account is the most successful social media account that I have.

 

#3: YouTube

Even though YouTube is the third most popular website on the entire web, and over 1 billion people go on it every month, I still believe it is an underrated social network. I feel as if most of the people who go on YouTube either go on it to watch other people’s videos or barely put in any effort to create and promote their videos. In some of your YouTube videos, you can talk about individual blog posts and then promote them at the end of your YouTube video. At the end of your YouTube video’s description, you can add related videos and articles, and all of those videos and articles can either point back to your YouTube channel or your blog.

 

#4: Guest Blogging

When you write a guest post, be sure to include a link to one of your blog posts in the guest post (you need to check if that’s okay with the person you write guest posts for). Including a link to one of your blog posts will boost your blog’s SEO and also give that blog post more exposure. When you promote your blog post in a guest post, you must make sure that blog post is related to the guest post. Don’t just add a link to one of your blog posts for the sake of adding a link to one of your blog posts.

 

#5: Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are mutual relationships between you and another blogger in which you promote each other’s content. You can use joint ventures to get more visibility for your products and individual blog posts. If you believe one of your blog posts is related to your partner’s niche, ask that partner to promote your blog post. You don’t want to turn this into a daily habit because your partner may get annoyed, and your partner will definitely want you to promote something for them in return. Regardless of how you use your joint ventures, they are great to have.

 

#6: Hubs

Hubs are great places to write niche-related content and promote your blog posts at the same time. Normally, I would recommend Squidoo, but since they merged with HubPages, HubPages is now the best place to publish hubs on the web. I occasionally publish hubs related to digital marketing that then point back to some of the blog posts on this blog. You can see some of these hubs in action here and here.

 

#7: Forums

Forums are one of the most underrated ways to get more blog traffic. If you join a forum with like-minded people, you can promote one of your blog posts and then get more traffic that way. Before you jump in and promote one of your blog posts, take some time to see how the people in the forum communicate with one another. See how the community accepts promoted blog posts and what they like to talk about before you jump in. You don’t want to look like the outsider of a forum filled with like-minded people.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1DrfL7e”]Forums are the most underrated ways to get more #blog traffic.[/tweetthis]

#8: Related Articles Section

At the bottom of your blog posts should be a related articles section. In this section, you should display 3-5 articles related to the article your visitor just finished reading. This serves two major benefits:

  1. Your individual blog posts get more traffic
  2. Your bounce rate decreases which is helpful for SEO

If you get people to stay on your blog for a long period of time, chances are those readers will come back to read your new content. This is the most effective way to get more traffic: keep readers on your blog for a long period of time so they frequently return to your blog, and as a result, increase the traffic for individual blog posts.

 

#9: Popular Articles Section

On your blog’s sidebar should be a popular articles section that allows your visitors to see which of your articles are getting the most traffic. Most visitors associate the most popular content with the most valuable content. That means when people see your most popular articles section, they will visit those blog posts expecting to get wowed by valuable content. This is yet another reason to make sure all of your blog posts have the valuable content that could wow your audience.

 

#10: Promote Blog Posts Within Blog Posts

Some of your older blog posts can add value to the newer blog posts that you wrote. Not only can this strategy add value to your content, but your individual blog posts get more traffic, and this strategy will decrease your blog’s bounce rate. Similar to promote your blog posts within guest posts, you want to make sure the blog posts you add relate to the newly written article. If I wrote an article about increasing SEO, I would add a link to an article that explains bounce rate, but I would not add a link to an article about entrepreneurship. Only include links to the older blog posts that provide value to your new content.

 

#11: Fix Big Media Outlets’ 404 Error Pages

Believe it or not, the big media outlets have 404 error pages. While some 404 error pages such as the 4-0-Forbes error page are creative, other simple display 404 error messages. Regardless of what happens when someone encounters a 404 error page, it can be frustrating, and most visitors won’t know what to do from there. Some visitors may simply leave the site.

If you find a 404 error page on a big media outlet’s website (or anywhere for that matter) that relates to your niche, you can offer the solution. You can tell these big media outlets that they have a 404 error page and you know of a blog post that could be used instead (a.k.a. one of your blog posts).

The time it takes to find a 404 error page and make your blog post the solution has very rewarding results. The first benefit is that you can say your content was featured on a big media outlet which adds to your social proof. The second benefit is that blog post will get more traffic when people click on the link, and when these people decide to share it on their social networks. The third benefit is that your blog gets a very valuable backlink which increases the blog’s SEO rank as a whole. This is an underrated way to get more blog traffic, and if you find a 404 error page on a big media outlet that was supposed to lead people to an article about promoting and marketing blog posts, I hope you’ll suggest this one 🙂

 

In Conclusion

Many people focus so much on the big picture that they forget to focus on the smaller parts of the picture. Many people strive to get more blog traffic, but it is a series of blog posts that generate traffic that results in a popular blog. If you can increase the traffic to your blog posts and get your visitors to read multiple blog posts on your blog, then more of those visitors will become returning visitors.

Which method of promoting and marketing blog posts was your favorite? Do you have any additional thoughts or advice on promoting and marketing blog posts? I want to hear from you.

How To Turn One Piece Of Content Into Five Pieces Of Content

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Content Creation Tips

The web has made it extremely easy for us to provide a variety of information. Billions of blog posts and videos are on the web. It is fair to say that we are in the Information Age. Millions of people realize the power of content on the web, and many of these people scramble to add content to their social networks, blogs, YouTube videos, and products.

Most people have the belief that the content needs to be different on each blog and social network you have. However, there can be repeats. In fact, many entrepreneurs and bloggers repeat themselves. Take, for instance, the New York Times bestselling author who goes around the country talking about her book. Some public speakers have been using the same speeches for decades. The reason so many public speakers make the same speeches is because the message still works, and not everyone has heard it yet.

The same idea can be applied to content on the web. Believe it or not, there is a way to turn one piece of content into multiple pieces of content, even if the message is the same. Below are five pieces of content you have at your disposal. The next time you write something, know that it can become one of these five things, or even all five of these things.

 

#1: Blog Post

Most people who think of putting content on the web think of blog posts. The advantage of writing your own blog and publishing blog posts there is that your blog is your home on the web. While social networks contain distractions (i.e. someone else’s Facebook post may be more interesting, a trending topic on Twitter must get clicked on), your blog only contains your content. With that said, putting advertisements on a blog would be a big mistake, but before I go too far off tangent, I’ll come back to the point of this article.

If you optimize your blog to make people stay on it longer, and you have it optimized to get more subscribers, your email list will grow. Your email list is a crucial element of your online success, and some marketers go as far to say that the money is in the list. Valuable blog posts will provide as a strong incentive to get more subscribers, and if you write blog posts every day, they will become fun to write, regardless of what type of a writer you are. I used to hate writing, but now I can’t imagine a day when I didn’t write something.

 

#2: YouTube Video

After you write a blog post, you can create a YouTube video about that exact blog post. The best part is that the script is already written for you. You can simply read your blog post word for word or make slight changes that let people know they are still watching a video (if your blog post says, “in this post,” say “in this video” instead).

Since you have all of the scripts in front of you, creating your own YouTube videos will get easier. If you write a great blog post, then all you have to do is read that blog post, have a professional picture of yourself that people see for the entire video, and then you have a YouTube video.

Your YouTube channel can lead to more blog traffic. Promoting your blog on YouTube is a great way to boost that blog’s SEO, and if you include your blog’s link in every video description, some of your viewers will click on the link and read your blog’s content.

 

#3: Podcast

In the scenario of turning one piece of content into multiple pieces of content, podcasting is very similar to creating a YouTube video. All you do is read the blog post you wrote and then put the recording on your podcast. As you add more recordings to your podcast and start to turn it into an authority, you can interview experts in your niche. That way, your podcast will be associated with the most successful influencers in your niche, and you get to learn more about your niche at the same time.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1KWdNw2″]Podcasting allows you to build an authority and learn from the top experts at the same time![/tweetthis]

#4: Book

If you already wrote numerous blog posts, you can turn a collection of those blog posts into your own book. That way, instead of writing a new book, you can use your old content, have another book for the world to see, and then you will make more revenue.

The tricky process of using blog posts to write your own book is to make sure the dedicated readers of your blog don’t feel cheated. It is hard to make someone not feel cheated if they have to pay for content that they can legally access for free on the web. Luckily, there are ways to give your readers value even if the content is already available on your blog for free.

The first way to make your readers happy to buy your book with your blog posts is by making your book organized. Most blogs, even the ones that are high value and focus on a specific niche, are knots of information. Sure, there are categories, but on most blogs, it is difficult for a visitor to find  a series of blog posts that all have the exact information that visitor wants. When you write your book, you can arrange your blog posts in a way that allows one blog post to lead into the next blog post.

The second way to increase your book’s value is by providing content that can’t be found anywhere else. You can call these the bonuses or the lost blog posts that never got published (and were then found). Your most loyal readers may buy your book just to get access to the lost blog posts. My recommendation is to have a few thousand words of content exclusive to the book itself.

 

#5: Training Course

In a training course, you have the option to include PDFs and videos. That means in a training course, you have the option of using pre-published content from your blog, YouTube channel, podcast, book, or any other content that you have pre-published. My recommendation is to make anywhere from 5-20% of your training course consist of pre-published content. Since training courses are priced far above books (the $10 book vs the $100 training course), most of the content you put on your training course needs to be new content.

The great thing about putting pre-published content on your training course is that you can promote yourself. Several marketers throw in some of their YouTube videos in the bonus section because the people who like the YouTube video may decide to take a look at the marketer’s channel, and some people will even subscribe to that channel. The same can happen if you choose to promote your blog posts, podcasts, and a free sample of your book.

Your customer will also feel as if you over delivered because if the customer subscribes to your YouTube channel that gets updated weekly, then your customers will see all of your YouTube uploads as bonuses. They may have went to your YouTube channel after watching one YouTube video, and then, there are 50 videos for your customers to watch. I consider these as bonus videos for the public. You will even make additional revenue when someone clicks on an Adsense ad in your video or waits for the five second ad to go away.

 

In Conclusion

Just because you publish a piece of content somewhere on the web does not mean you can repackage that content somewhere else. I turn several of my blog posts into YouTube videos, include 1-2 of my blog posts in some of my books, offer free samples of one of my books in my training course, and when I start my podcast someday, I imagine the same process trickling into that area.

What are your thoughts on repackaging your content into other areas? Do you already repackage your content into other areas on the web? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Are You Making These 11 Blogging Mistakes?

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Common Blogging Mistakes To Avoid

Do you know if you are making any mistakes as a blogger? If your blog is not improving and doing better than it was last month, then you are making some mistakes. These mistakes are hurting your blog and preventing it from growing into something greater than it already is. One of the best ways to combat mistakes is by becoming aware of the mistakes you are making. These are the 11 mistakes that you may be making with your blog:

 

#1: Not Learning More About Blogging

No blogger knows everything there is to know about blogging. Even the most experienced bloggers are still looking for more blogging tips, tricks, and tools they can use to amplify their authority on the web. You should read at least three articles about blogging every day. You can skim through some articles and just absorb the key takeaways. Regardless of how much of the articles you actually read, you need to read more articles about blogging and absorb the key takeaways.

 

#2: Not Growing On Social Media

Social media growth is one of the biggest aids towards more blog traffic. Social media provides direct traffic (you tweet one of your blog posts and people click the link) and indirect traffic (social media traffic helps out with SEO traffic). If you are not growing on social media, then you are missing out on one of the biggest streams of blog traffic.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1ApibCx”]If you are not growing on #SocialMedia, then you are missing out on one of the biggest streams of #blog traffic.[/tweetthis]

#3: Not Building Your Email List

Your email list is where the money and returning visitors are. People love to check their email, so that’s exactly where your content need to be—in the inbox. If you are not building your email list, you must stop what you are doing and optimize your blog to get more subscribers. You could get thousands of visitors every day, but if none of those visitors are subscribing, then those visitors may neither come back to your blog nor buy your products.

 

#4: Poorly Communicating With Your Email List 

Once you have an email list, it is important to properly communicate with the people on that list. An email list, regardless of its size, means nothing if you don’t interact with that email list. When you interact with your email list, don’t simply tell people that you wrote a new blog post or launched a new product. Let your subscribers know what the product or blog post is about by providing a summary. Then provide the link so your subscribers can either read the rest of the article or see the sales page for your product.

 

#5: Not Building Relationships With Readers

Building relationships with your readers is the most crucial step towards getting returning visitors. Building relationships does mean interacting with them through emails (when they join your email list), but that also means responding to comments and making the readers feel welcomed on your blog. I use the WWSGD plugin on my blog to display a welcome message to all of my first-time visitors and a different message for returning visitors. Welcoming your visitors to your blog allows you to build the relationship you have with them.

Perhaps the best way to build relationships with your visitors is to respond to their comments. Some visitors will be encouraged to return to a specific blog post just to see if you responded to their comment. In order to make this work, you need a good reputation for responding to other people’s comments. In some of your blog posts, let your visitors know that you respond to other people’s comments. That way, visitors who have read enough of your blog posts will know that you respond to other people’s comments.

 

#6: Not Optimizing Your Blog For SEO

SEO is another major traffic outlet. Even though billions of people visit Google every month, few people are taking the time to learn SEO and optimize their blogs for the search engines. Some people get hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors from SEO alone, but even if you utilize SEO properly, it is important to not rely on SEO. If Google comes out with another big update that becomes famous minutes after it comes out, the rules of SEO could possibly be redefined. However, it is still necessary to optimize your blog for SEO in order to get more traffic which leads to social media followers and email subscribers. Here are some tips for optimizing your blog’s SEO that work.

 

#7: Not Putting In Enough Time Towards Writing Good Content

No matter how much traffic your blog gets, its success comes down to content. The value of your blog’s content is a critical factor that determines how long visitors stay on your blog. If people appreciate the value of your content, they will subscribe to your blog to receive more updates and become returning visitors. Some of these people may even become returning visitors.

 

#8: Thinking That The People Will Come

One of the biggest misconceptions in blogging, marketing, product creation, and business is that the people will come. There are dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of opportunities similar to the one you provide. There are numerous books about making money and become successful. People won’t buy your book just because it is on Amazon. If that were the case, every self-published author would be making a six-figure income regardless of a book’s actual value.

You need to differentiate your blog from the crowd. A good design, valuable content, and an interactive section are three of the various ways you can differentiate your blog from the other blogs on the web that are related to yours.

 

#9: Settling With Where You Are

If you settle, then you cannot move forward. No matter how successful your blog is, it can always move forward. If your blog is getting 100 daily visitors, it can get 200 daily visitors. If your blog is getting 1,000 daily visitors, it can get 2,000 daily visitors. Even if your blog is getting 10,000 daily visitors, your blog could end up getting 20,000 daily visitors. If you refuse to settle with where you are, you will find a way to amplify your authority and spread your message and content farther.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1ApibCx”]Never settle with where you are. You’re better than that![/tweetthis]

#10: Not Thinking About Joint Ventures

In a joint venture, you and another blogger occasionally promote each other to the other person’s email list. You can go on joint ventures with other bloggers in your niche who would then occasionally promote your content and products. The most successful marketers are constantly promoting each other’s products and services. Ian Cleary and Kim Garst promote each other just as Brendon Burchard and Jeff Walker promote each other. The leaders promote each other and all elevate together.

 

#11: You Don’t Take Social Shares Seriously

Social shares are one of the most overlooked parts of blogging. The more social shares your blog posts get, the more traffic your blog posts will get from social media. In addition, getting more social shares also has a positive impact on SEO. Out of all of the social shares, +1’s for obvious reasons (+1’s are from Google+) have the greatest significance on Google. Include social sharing buttons at the bottom of your blog posts so they get shared more often

 

In Conclusion

If your blog’s progress has hit a ceiling, that does not mean progress has come to an end. The ceiling just means mistakes are being made. By identifying the mistakes you are making with your blog and doing something about those mistakes, you will break through the ceiling that is holding you back. These 11 common mistakes plague many bloggers. All of these mistakes can be avoided or corrected so your blog sees an increase in traffic.

StumbleUpon Case Study: How I More Than Tripled My Blog Traffic In One Day

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Use StumbleUpon To Get More Blog Traffic

Even though this blog is popular, one of my big goals is to get more blog traffic. My logic was that a little more of something beneficial wouldn’t hurt. I read various articles and blogging books. I knew several methods in other people’s articles and books, but one method that was repeatedly talked about was a method I never dared to try: submit your blog to StumbleUpon. Reddit and Digg were also mentioned, but I decided to focus my time on StumbleUpon.

I had created an account a few years ago, was barely active, and then just left it behind. When I logged into my StumbleUpon account for the first time in a few years, I had 125 followers. Not bad for a few years of inactivity!

I decided to promote my latest articles on StumbleUpon, but to no avail. Most of them got a few visitors, and the most amount of visitors I got for one blog post I shared on StumbleUpon was a little under 50 visitors. I knew StumbleUpon could produce big results because I saw the spike in traffic it gave other bloggers, so I wondered, “Why not me?”

I finally struck gold with my blog post 20 Thoughts To Live By. Unlike all of the other blog posts I shared on StumbleUpon, this was a very concise blog post. The other blog posts I shared were in-depth. My in-depth blog posts were not getting as much attention on StumbleUpon because people simply use StumbleUpon to surf the web and interact at the same time.

I put the blog post on StumbleUpon late at night. I got about 150 views from StumbleUpon that night. As I went to bed, I thought of StumbleUpon as a simple experiment that panned out nicely.

When I woke up, it was easy to see that my blog post went viral on StumbleUpon. On the day it went viral on StumbleUpon, that one blog post brought in over 66% of my blog’s traffic. At the time, my blog averaged 800 daily visitors and 1,100 daily views. On that day, my blog got over 2,879 visitors and 3,429 views. My blog’s traffic tripled overnight all because of one StumbleUpon post.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1EXMGlG”]Learn how one blog got over 2,500 extra visitors in one day from #StumbleUpon.[/tweetthis]

A few days after the blog post went viral on StumbleUpon, I decided to assess the experiment to see whether StumbleUpon was worth it or not. One of the most commonly discussed disadvantages is that virtually every StumbleUpon visitor only counted as one pageview. Most of the people who came to my blog from StumbleUpon only viewed that blog post and stumbled to the next page on StumbleUpon. Even though I saw record-breaking traffic, I only got 13 subscribers which is the same daily number of subscribers I already got prior to the blog post.

There was some good news about going viral on StumbleUpon. The first reason is that I now have massive social proof. The social proof of your blog post being shared by thousands of people shows that your blog post is valuable enough to have been shared by thousands of people.

Social media still plays a big role in the search engines, and StumbleUpon is a social network. A few days after the blog post went viral on StumbleUpon, I noticed that blog post getting more traffic than usual. My belief is also that when visitors scroll down to the end and see the blog post has been shared thousands of times, some of them will be more likely to share that blog post. People like to share what is popular.

 

In Conclusion

My opinion about StumbleUpon is that in the short-term, it just produces a big number with no dramatic change. The only short-term change is the social proof at the bottom of your blog posts if you have the StumbleUpon button enabled. In the long-term, people who visit your blog on StumbleUpon multiple times may decide to return. All of this StumbleUpon traffic results in more attention from the search engines. When people see the blog post is popular on StumbleUpon, they may decide to share it on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, thus increasing your blog post’s search rank (therefore, it increases your blog’s search rank).

What are your thoughts on StumbleUpon? Do you have any advice for going viral on StumbleUpon? Please share your thoughts and advice about StumbleUpon below.

10 Ways To Continue A Conversation With Someone On Social Media

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Continue Social Media Conversation

Social media is commonly used as a platform for marketers to promote their content and products. Millions of businesses use social media to communicate with their customers every day. These conversations are typically one-sided. Business accounts send out tweets but don’t bother responding to their customers.

Businesses and individuals need to have more conversations with their audiences. It is conversations that allow the strongest relationships to occur. You don’t get long-lasting friends that matter by having one-sided conversations with them. You need to have a conversation with someone if you want to build a strong relationship with that person.

However, the conversations that create friendships are more than the wave, the greeting, and then the departure. Conversations that build strong relationships need to last for a long period of time. In order to continue a conversation with someone on social media that turns into a strong relationship, follow these 10 tips.

 

#1: Wish Your Followers A Wonderful Week/Weekend

At the end of many of my conversations, I wish people a wonderful week or weekend depending on the day of the week. I do this for two reasons. The first reason is that I do want these people to enjoy their weeks and weekends. We have the right to enjoy our lives. The second reason is that this ending encourages the conversation to develop. Many of my followers also wish me a wonderful week/weekend depending on the day of the week.

 

#2: Ask A Question  

Questions are great ways to continue a conversation. After one of my followers wishes me a wonderful week/weekend, I ask that followers what he/she has planned for the week/weekend. Many people respond telling me all of the things they have to do for the week/weekend. I follow up with a list of things I have to do as well. Asking this question allows me to learn what my followers do. If I find a pattern, I may create a product around that pattern.

On a simpler scale, you can start a conversation by asking what your followers’ favorite books are. Asking these types of questions to all of your followers will start up multiple conversations.

 

#3: Have Multiple Conversations With The Same Person

Just because a conversation ends does not mean you and the person you were talking to will never have another conversation together. You can talk to the same person again and again, just like a real-life friendship.

 

#4: Thank Your Followers For Sharing Your Content

One of the best ways to start a conversation is with an act of gratitude. I constantly thank the people who share my content with their audiences. I have thanked the same people multiple times. Many of the people who I thank either say something like, “You’re welcome,” or “Thank you for putting up the content so I could share it.” If you get one of these two responses, you should continue the conversation with that person.

Most marketers are so focused on sharing and creating content that they forget to thank the people who appreciate them. Some of the people who share your articles will feel so grateful that you thanked them that these people will continue sharing your content. When you do this, it is important to avoid abusing this power (don’t use this to manipulate your followers), and in the end, your followers will only share your content if it is valuable.

 

#5: Include Pictures In Your Posts

Social media posts with pictures have been proven to get more engagement than social media posts without pictures. If you include pictures in more of your posts, you will start more conversations with your followers. Some of the people who engage with your pictures will be people who have had conversations with you in the past. You can continue interacting with these people to strengthen the relationships and interact with other people for the first time to start new relationships.

 

#6: Only Talk To The Right People

Not every social media user is created equal. Ideally, you want to talk to the people who are interested in the content you share on your social networks. These are the people who would be more likely to share your content and be grateful for your insights. You want to build an audience of like-minded people so that, when the conversations do take place, you are talking to the right people. In addition, when you hop onto a conversation, make sure the people in that conversation are the right people to talk with (like-minded people who share an interest in your niche).

 

#7: Respond Quicker

You can’t have much of a conversation with someone else unless you respond. The longest conversations that take place are the ones where people quickly respond to each other. Most of these conversations are real human interaction without any technology involved. On social media, you need technology to communicate with your followers. However, you can make those conversations last longer by responding quicker as if you were in a real conversation.

I make it a policy to get back to my followers within a day. Depending on when the conversation starts and when I log in, I may get back to some people within a few seconds or close to 24 hours. By responding quicker, your followers will be more likely to remember the conversation when they see your response.

 

#8: Quiz Your Followers

Quizzing your followers is a great way to start more conversations. You can quiz your followers by giving them a clue to identify someone, something, or an event such as, “Who was the 33rd President of the United States?” The answer to that question is Harry S. Truman. Of course, some followers may choose to look that up, but you get more interaction.

The best quiz questions are the ones that require a guess. Think “How many pieces of candy are in the box” type of questions. You can offer a free prize to the first person who guesses the right answer or is the closest to the right answer.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1Kgb4xg”]Quizzing your followers is a great way to educate them and have more conversations with them at the same time.[/tweetthis]

#9: Poll

Polls are another way to start conversations. Facebook has an especially great feature that makes poll creation easier. For any social network though, you can simply list poll choices like this:

What should my next product be about?

A. Pinterest

B. Twitter

C. Facebook

D. Blogging

E. Productivity

In less than a minute, I just created a poll that could be put on any social network, including Twitter with its 140 character limit. This type of poll would allow me to know what products my followers want. Having this knowledge would allow me to make better decisions when I create my future products. You can ask any poll question such as, “Which social network do you like the most…” Not all of them have to be related to your products or expertise.

 

#10: Thoughtfully Contribute To The Conversation 

When you contribute to a conversation, you need to thoughtfully contribute to that conversation. In human interaction, we don’t have as much time to think about what we say. We say what we think of. Sometimes, we say thoughtful things while at other times, we say things that we should have thought about before saying. On social media, you have time to think about what you say. Utilize the extra time to think before you post something on social media. Then, you will have a better reply to a conversation that makes the conversation build.

 

In Conclusion

Conversations are important on social media because they allow relationships to build. Some of these relationships may turn into sales, subscribers, and people who promote you for a long time. However, most conversations on social media are either one-sided or do not last for a long period of time. Everything you post is the start of a conversation. It is up to you to post the type of content your followers would be encouraged to engage with. Then it is up to you to keep those conversations going so you can build stronger relationships with your followers.

What are your thoughts on having conversations on social media? Do you have any other tips for making a conversation continue for a longer period of time? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Find More Time To Do What Is Important

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Prioritizing Your Goals

We do many things throughout our lives. We go to the grocery store, exercise, browse through social media, and do our work, just to name a few activities we participate in. However, we live such busy lives that we forget to do the important things—the activities that bring forth the biggest impact in desired parts of our lives.

An important thing for a parent is to be with the children. An important thing for the product creators, bloggers, and anyone else in business is to get better results. This is where most people start writing a few things that they want to get better at and then get started. You write down all of the areas that you want better results in (sales, subscribers, etc). The only problem is that this actual practice is difficult. Few people write down their objectives to begin with, but even fewer people get the process right.

Many people who strive for better results simply write down all of the things they want better results in without giving it much thought. Many of these people write down lists with dozens of different areas to improve in. First off, a large list like that is unlikely to get accomplished. You need to simplify the list so each objective gets more attention. Secondly, how do all of these results align with your critical objective?

Maybe I threw some people off with the critical objective. For a very long time, I wrote down goals to get better results but never thought of the critical objective. The critical objective is a definitive goal you strive to accomplish, and all of the other important goals you plan support the critical objective.

Let’s say your critical objective is to make $250,000 every year. Now you have to focus on goals that bring in revenue, but not just any revenue. These goals, when accomplished, need to bring in revenue that adds up to at least $250,000 every year. Surveys are not going to cut it. Consultation sessions are good but not good enough. Reaching that income eventually comes down to product creation and growing your authority on the web.

Knowing the critical objective will allow you to eliminate all of the other goals that don’t matter. Anything that does not help you achieve your critical objective (other than family and important family events) is a distraction. If something does not bring in more money, then it is distracting you from your goal of making $250,000 every year. Sometimes the most powerful statements are the ones that make the most sense.

However, knowing your critical objective is not enough to find more time to be productive and do work that matters. Another piece of the puzzle is how early you wake up. They say that the average person needs about eight hours of sleep, and that is one of the most common misconception’s of today’s world. The actual length is anywhere from 6.5 to 7.5 hours (I am typically closer to the 7.5 hour range).

Think about how much extra time you get by waking up earlier. If you are someone who sleeps for 10 hours every day, and you suddenly decide to only get seven hours of sleep every night (which is okay), you are giving yourself three extra hours in your day. I find it shameful that one-third of our lives is spent sleeping. We could do so much more in that time. Of course, we need the sleep, but most people sleep for too long. Sleeping too much causes the same level of depression as not getting enough sleep, so waking up earlier also result in a happier life (people who wake up earlier in the morning are typically happier than those who don’t. Many articles talk about this topic. Here’s an example).

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1637SHO”]Do you want to live a happier life? Just wake up earlier.[/tweetthis]

 

If you want to wake up earlier, here are the steps you should take:

Step #1: Get to bed before midnight

Step #2: Set an alarm clock by your bed to go off 6.5 to 7.5 hours from now

Step #3: Move the alarm clock out of reach before going to bed

Step #4: When you hear the alarm clock, get out of bed and turn it off

Step #5: You are out of bed. Why go back in?

This is the five step process I use to wake up 6.5 to 7.5 hours after I go to bed. Sometimes, I even set the alarm clock to go off in seven hours and 45 minutes because I know that being on my computer a few hours before going to bed makes it more difficult for me to fall asleep (this is a scientifically proven fact for people like you and me). I never go over eight hours of sleep at one time.

If you find this part of the process difficult to follow, I still urge you to follow it, but you can also take a nap in between. When I am extremely tired, I take a 20-30 minute nap and follow the same procedure I would follow from Steps 2-5 of waking up earlier. When I wake up, I experience a level of productivity close to the one I had when I started the day.

 

In Conclusion

Becoming successful only requires two things: knowing what you want to do (your critical objective) and finding the time to make it happen. By identifying your critical objective, you will also know which goals support your critical objective and which ones are the distractions.

Before you put in any more work for your business, ask yourself what the critical objective is. What are you trying to accomplish? What is your #1 goal for the year? What is the mission of your business? Once you choose your critical objective, only do the things that support that critical objective. Understandably, there will be other things that come up (other than family, family events, or important events in general). Those things that come up should get the back burner of your time.

What are your thoughts on this approach to becoming successful? Do you have any other suggestions for finding more time to do what is important? Please share your thoughts and advice below.