Marc's Blog

Content Writing and Marketing Services

5 Lessons I Have Learned As A HARO Journalist

by Leave a Comment

I have been working long and hard on my book Lead The Stampede which will be coming out in the summer. A big component of many business books is the examples of others. In order to get examples to add to my book, I decided to use HARO. Ever since submitting my query, I was able to learn a lot about HARO. These are the five lessons I learned from submitting that query. Some apply specifically to HARO while others apply to everyone in any business.

  1. Early bird gets the worm. The first person who submits a response to your query goes on the top of a giant list, and the late person who submits a response to your query goes on the bottom of the giant list. Early people get seen first (but don’t worry, I view all of the applications).
  2. It’s okay to ask for help. Instead of searching for people one by one, I decided to use HARO in order to spread the word. In the end, I got close to 20 qualifying responses in a day!
  3. Include a link to your blog. I choose to identify “www.marcguberti.com” as the media outlet. By doing so, people were able to see the entire URL. Traffic to my blog almost doubled that day, and my blog traffic did not see a one hit wonder. The extra traffic stuck around.
  4. Find multiple avenues for free quality traffic. Using HARO helped me get more examples to add to Lead The Stampede. HARO also increased my blog traffic. HARO just became another avenue for me to get free quality traffic.
  5. Be patient. When I sent out my first query on HARO, I did not know what to expect. My first HARO query was sent out in the morning, and I got 1 response within 30 minutes. Then, it slowed down. I ended up with 5 responses in 4 hours. Once the afternoon came along, I ended up getting more responses and was up to 20 before the end of the day. Patience pays off.

Those are the 5 lessons I learned when I sent out my first query on HARO officially making me a HARO journalist. For those of you who have received many HARO emails, you can find my query in the Business & Finance morning section sent out on March 8, 2014.

Have you used HARO before?

 

7 Reasons You Should Create Your Own Blog

by 2 Comments

Blogging has become big over the years. Ever since Carolyn’s Diary which was created in 1995, blogging has evolved dramatically. There are billions of blogs on the web, and that number will continue to grow. However, not everyone has a blog. In this blog post, I am going to tell you the 7 reasons why you should create your own blog…right…now.

  1. Blogging is growing. There are billions of blogs on the web and over 150,000 blogs are being created every day. Blogging is not a fad. Blogging is something made to stick.
  2. You can write about (almost) anything. Writing can be a lot of fun if you decide what you write about. With blogging, you get to make all of the decisions about what your content is all about.
  3. Blogs will give your brand a boost. A brand with a blog is more professional than a brand without a blog. Think of the last time you encountered a brand that did not have a blog, website, or social networks. It’s hard to think of the last time that happened.
  4. Some blogs provide a full-time income for bloggers. Some people make a full-time income from their blogs. Some people have even gone from rags to riches because of their blogs.
  5. Blogging is a comfortable lifestyle. Imagine being able to call of the shots. Imagine being able to schedule your own day instead of being forced to work from 9 to 5. Blogging gives you a ticket out of the unchangeable schedule. Blogging will give you the flexibility that you never thought was possible.
  6. You can create a list. That list of people can turn into subscribers, followers, and customers. The bigger your lists are, the better the possibilities are.
  7. Blogging gives you responsibility. Remember when the most important thing to do in elementary school was become responsible? Blogging gives you the power of responsibility. Your success as a blogger is dependent on the amount of work you put in. While many jobs have set wages (with the occasional raise for certain individuals), the amount of money a blogger can make can go up dramatically as the months and years go by.

Those are the 7 reasons why you should create your own blog. What are your thoughts about these reasons? Do you have any additional reasons to create a blog? Share your thoughts below.

How To Get Famous People In Your Niche To Talk To You

by 10 Comments

A great way to get more attention on the big web is by getting someone to give you the shoutout…or at least have a conversation with a famous person in your niche. However, having conversations with famous people is not an easy task to complete. While some are impossible to contact, others are more than willing to respond to your tweets. In order to get the famous people in your niche to talk with you on Twitter, follow these steps:

  1. Find out who might talk with you. If you see someone engaging with their followers, that person is very likely to have a conversation with you. Other famous people send out pre-scheduled tweets and never talk with their followers. Contacting those people will not result in a response.
  2. Retweet and favorite some of that person’s tweets. When retweeting and favoriting another person’s tweets, do this on a consistent basis. Retweeting 5 of a famous person’s tweets on one day and forgetting to retweet or favorite any other tweets for the rest of the week will result in that famous person being less likely to see what you did. When I want to get in touch with someone, I am retweeting and favoriting one of that person’s tweets every day. In order to get noticed the most, either tweet old (but still relevant tweets) that were once popular or retweet tweets that few people have engaged on. Only retweeting the new stuff will mix you in with the other people who want the same attention or just love what the person tweets.
  3. Ask a question. If I want to get in touch with a social media expert, I ask a question about social media. Not only does my question get answered, but I get a response from a famous person in my niche.
  4. Respond quickly. Once you have the famous person’s attention, you don’t want to lose it. The quicker you respond, the longer the conversation continues. If the conversation continues long enough, that famous person may decide to engage in your tweets and chat with you regularly.

By following this pattern, you will be able to get famous people in your niche to respond to and engage in your tweets. What do you think of the pattern? Do you have any other suggestions to add? Share your thoughts below.

 

How To Figure Out If You Can Make It Big On Social Media

by 1 Comment

For this question, there is a shirt size that fits all. In order to find out if you can make it, you need to identify why you are Googling terms like “How to get more followers.” The people who Google this phrase so they can end up with a big number are the people who won’t make it. These people will quickly be discouraged when they are only gaining 2 followers every day (in the beginning).

There are other people who search the phrase because they want to build a following for the sake of interaction and engagement. These are the people who are more likely to make it big on social media. These are the people who understand that interacting with your followers and having good engagement is better than having a big number.

The big number is something that everyone wants. The big difference between the successful and unsuccessful on social media is that the unsuccessful people focused on the number while the successful people focused on interaction. The successful people are able to interact with their followers and gradually build a targeted, quality following. Other people prefer to buy followers to make the number bigger which is the worst mistake anyone on Twitter can make.

If you want to figure out if you can make the cut, ask yourself how you view your followers. Do you view a follower as a number, or do you view a follower as someone you can engage with in a conversation?

 

10 Ways To Double Your Pinterest Followers

by 6 Comments

Some people are gaining hundreds of Pinterest followers every day while other people struggle to gain 5 followers every day on Pinterest. Although this is not a proven statistic, it is possible that 10% of the people on Pinterest have 90% of the followers (or some cool statistic like that). The difference is that the top pinners have implemented several tactics to double their following. In fact, there are 10 different ways to double your Pinterest following. Here they are:

  1. Be active on Pinterest every day. Being active on Pinterest means sending out at least 15 pins every day, commenting on at least 3 pins every day, and liking/repinning other people’s pins. By being active on Pinterest, more people will see you on their timelines. This will result in an increase in repins, and as you gain repins, you will also gain followers.
  2. Verify your blog. People with the big checkmark are verified, and as you build your following, that checkmark will have a greater significance and bring in more followers. Having the checkmark on your Pinterest account shows your authenticity, and people love authenticity.
  3. Have a strong bio. This is not your English class. You can use sentence fragments and run-ons in order to tell more people about your hobbies and credentials. The more you say in your bio, the better.
  4. Follow targeted people. Even if the ratio gets out of hand, you will end up gaining more followers by following other people. When you follow other people, be sure to follow the people with less than 1,000 followers. The people with less than 1,000 followers are the ones who are most likely to follow you back. In addition, follow the people who are following boards with content similar to yours so you can build a targeted following. Following targeted people alone will contribute to a noticeable change in the amount of people you follow, but it will also result in a noticeable change in the number of repins you get.
  5. Have a profile picture. Adding a profile picture is simple to do. However, having a profile picture of you will make people trust you enough to click the follow button. People prefer to follow someone who they can see than someone hidden by Pinterest’s default picture or a picture of beautiful scenery that you found on Google.
  6. Connect other social networks with Pinterest and vice-versa. Get the followers you have already gained to follow you on Pinterest. This is an easy way to boost your following on one social network from your fan base on another social network.
  7. Have a wide variety of boards. Pinterest is not the place to focus on one niche. On Pinterest, create boards for all of your hobbies and niches you are in. I have several boards on my Pinterest account that have nothing to do with business, blogging, or social media. The result is that I am able to attract a larger audience.
  8. Have a lot of pins. The more pins an account has, the better. Would you rather follow the person on Twitter who sent out 100 tweets or the person who sent out 10,000 tweets. Sending out 10,000 tweets identifies that person as an influential expert, and (in some cases), has a lot of good things and interesting articles to share. As the number of pins go up, more people will be inclined to follow you. Big numbers rule yet again.
  9. Turn your blog into something powerful. If you provide your visitors quality content, they are very likely to follow you on your social networks. If your blog was getting 10,000 daily visitors, imagine how many daily Pinterest followers that would be.
  10. Stick with it. In order to see a big increase in followers, you need to stick with it. Giving up on Pinterest too early will prevent you from seeing the true potential of a powerful social network.

Those are 10 ways to double your Pinterest following. If you have any thoughts about this blog post or additional tips, please share them below.

 

Creating The Free Prize For Subscribers

by Leave a Comment

One of the best ways to get more subscribers is by offering them a free prize. The free prize that I offer my subscribers is the Pinterest Mastery Video Tutorial. Social Media Examiner offers a free video about Facebook, and many other bloggers either offer a free video or a free report.

This free prize will serve as an incentive towards getting someone to subscribe to your blog. The thought of getting something makes people more likely to enter in their details. If you knew you could win a giveaway by subscribing to someone’s blog, would you subscribe to that blog? The free prize allows everyone to be a winner…that is everyone who decides to subscribe to your blog.

The free prize will do a good job at getting people to subscribe to your blog just like a Christmas present attracts attention. Once you get the visitor’s attention, and that visitor becomes the subscriber, they are opening the present you gave them. If the present you gave them (the free prize) is bad, the people who receive the free prize may decide to unsubscribe to your blog. If the present is a good one, the people who receive it are more likely to stick around.

When you create the free prize, you need to create a product that you could charge for. An empty box of cookies is technically a free prize, but it is not necessarily the free prize that consumers want. 30 second videos with bad content and lighting are not the things that people want. 30 minute videos with quality content and lighting are the things that people want. The 5 page report does not keep as many subscribers as the 50 page report. The more time and effort you put into creating the free prize, the more likely your subscribers will stick around and engage with your content.

The free prize is a simple, easy to implement concept with numerous benefits. Before I distributed the Pinterest Mastery Video Tutorial to my subscribers, I was stuck at 10 subscribers. Immediately when I introduced the free prize, I was getting subscribers every day. In addition, some of those subscribers leave comments on my blog posts to this day. Introduce the free prize to your visitors and see what the free prize can do for you.

If you have any thoughts about the free prize or any additional tips, please share them below.