ProBlogger: Seven Types of Product You Could Sell From Your Blog

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Seven Types of Product You Could Sell From Your Blog Posted: 24 May 2022 11:00 PM PDT The post Seven Types of Product You Could Sell From Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger. Photo by Elizabeth Villalta on Unsplash It took me nearly seven years of blogging to create my first products: two ebooks, one for ProBlogger and one for Digital Photography School. They made me more than $160,000 in 2009 alone and changed my business. Back in 2014, I wrote about the experience, and how it nearly never happened: My big issue was a severe lack of time. Between juggling two growing blogs and a growing family (we had just had our first child), I wasn't sure how I'd ever write an eBook. I also had a long long list of other excuses to put it off. I'd never written, designed, marketed a product of my own before… I didn't have a shopping cart system… I didn't know if my readers would buy… In short – the dream of creating and selling an eBook of my own stayed in my head for two years until 2009. Ironically by that point I'd become even busier (we'd just had our second son and my blogs had continued to grow) but I knew if I didn't bite the bullet and do it that I never would. Does any of that sound familiar to you? Perhaps you're blogging alongside a busy day job, or you've got young children at home, and the whole idea of creating a product seems very daunting. You're definitely not alone. But creating your own product – even a simple one – can bring in money much faster than affiliate sales or advertising. After all, your audience trusts you. And if they like your writing, they'll want more from you. In this post, I'll take you through seven different types of product you could create. Some of these require more time and initial investment, while others you could plausibly create in a weekend. But First, What is a "Product"? What exactly do I mean by a "product"? It could be something virtual (like software or an ebook) or something physical (like a t-shirt or a paperback book). A product might involve an element of ongoing commitment from you, but it isn't only about the hours you put in. So I won't be covering freelancing, virtual assistant roles, or other services here. Seven Types of Product You Could Sell from Your Blog … Which One is Right For You? The seven types of product I'm going to run through in this post are: Ebooks: these might be positioned as "guides" or even self-study courses. Essentially, they're written downloadables, probably in .pdf, .mobi and/or .epub format. Printables: these are designed to be printed out. They might be planners, cheat sheets, party invites, worksheets—anything that someone might buy to print and (probably) fill in. Digital subscriptions: these are normally delivered by email, and are often relatively cheap compared with some other products (making them attractive to first-time buyers). Online courses: these could be text, audio and/or video, although video is increasingly becoming the "default" expectation. Membership of a private website or group: this might be a membership site you host yourself, or something as simple as a closed Facebook group. Software or a phone app: unless you're a developer, this probably isn't the product you'll go for first. But it could be a very lucrative one to try later on. Physical products: these could be almost anything from books to t-shirts to one-off pieces of art. But unless you've already got a business selling them, they aren't the best products to begin with. Let's take a look at each one  in more detail. I'll be giving examples for each one, so you can see how different bloggers are using these different types of product. #1: Ebooks: Are They Right for You? The first two products I created back in 2009 were both ebooks: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (since updated into a course) and The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography (now superseded by a range of portrait photography books) That was almost a decade ago, which is a long time in the ebook world. Amazon had only recently launched the Kindle, and the first iPad didn't appear for another year. These days, there are a lot more ebooks out there. But don't let that put you off. A well-positioned ebook can still be a great starter product. If you're really pushed for time, you might want to compile some of your best blog posts into an ebook (that's what I did with 31 Days to Build a Better Blog), then edit them and add some extra material. Example: Deacon Hayes' You Can Retire Early! Many bloggers sell ebooks via their own platforms, charging premium prices for specialized information. But it may be a better fit for your audience if you sell your ebook through a well-established ebook retailer such as Amazon, especially if: your ebook has a (potentially) large audience they’re unlikely to pay more than $9.99 for it they're a bit wary about buying online. This is what Deacon does with his ebook You Can Retire Early! It's sold through Amazon, but to make it a great deal and to capture his readers' email addresses he offers a free course for readers who email him their receipt. If you'd like to see more examples of ebooks, we now have 23 ebooks on Digital Photography School. #2: Printables Printables are becoming increasingly popular. They differ from ebooks because they're designed to be printed and used/displayed – and they're unlikely to contain a lot of text. Printables could be almost anything: Planner pages Party invites Pieces of art Greetings cards Kids' activities Calendars Gift tags Adult colouring sheets In fact, it can be whatever you can think of that suits your blog and audience. Unless you're skilled at design, you may need to hire a professional designer to create high-quality printables for you, depending on what you're creating. However, the graphic design software Canva does a great job at making DIY graphic design easier to turn out professional-looking printables. Example: Chelsea Lee Smith' "Printable Pack" Many of Chelsea's printables are available for free on her blog. But this pack adds five exclusive ones, and brings everything together in one place. Most of her printables are simple and straightforward (which could be a bonus to readers not wanting to spend a fortune on ink). She's priced the whole pack at $4.99, making it an appealing purchase for busy parents. #3: Digital Subscriptions A digital subscription is information or a resource you send out to subscribers on a regular basis. Depending on what it is, they might be paying anything from a couple of dollars to a couple of hundred dollars each month. Delivering the subscription could be as simple as adding paying members to an email list (which you can do by linking PayPal with your email provider). You won't need to create all the content up front, although you'll want to get ahead so you always provide your customers with their resources on time. Depending on the type of subscription, you could either: provide all subscribers with all the same content in order (e.g. they start with week 1, then week 2, and so on) send out a weekly or monthly email to everyone at the same time, so they get the same content whether they've been with you for a day or a year. Example: $5 Meal Plan, by Erin Chase   Erin's product solve a problem that many parents have: how do you get a tasty meal on the table each night quickly and cheaply without spending hours every week writing a complicated meal plan? This weekly subscription costs $5/month, with a 14-day free trial. Like Chelsea's printables, it's priced at a point where it's an attractive offer for busy families. We recently had Erin on the ProBlogger podcast, so you can hear more about how she started blogging and went from zero to a six-figure income in two years. #4: Online Courses An online course can take quite a bit of time to put together. And for some bloggers the technology can be daunting. At its simplest, an online course might be essentially the same content as an ebook, only split into "lessons" or “modules” instead of chapters. But many courses include additional features such as: Video content: courses based around videos normally have transcripts (or at least summaries) to help students who prefer not to watch video or who want a recap to refer to. Audio interviews: if you don't have the tools to create high-quality video, audio can be a good alternative (and some students prefer it to, as they can listen while commuting or exercising). Quizzes: depending on what you're teaching, it may be helpful for students to test their knowledge at the end of each lesson or module. Interaction: you might choose to offer feedback to students, or you might have a closed Facebook group for students to join, where they can talk with one another and with you. Certification: this is more appropriate for some topics than others, but offering students some sort of certification at the end of the course can be helpful. Example: ProBlogger's Courses At ProBlogger we've launch a whole suite of courses. We decided on the self-hosted route and use Learndash as our Learning Management System. You don't necessarily have to host your course on your own site, though. There are plenty of online platforms such as Teachable and Udemy that you can provide your course through instead. Learndash (partnered with the Buddyboss-friendly Social Learner theme) allows us to offer all of the features I mentioned with our courses. We have a mix of paid and free courses so that we can use some courses to generate leads and build our audience, whereas we charge for others. For our FREE Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog course and also for our paid 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Course, we trialled having Facebook groups for students to interact as part of the courses. Indeed Facebook has a “Social Learner” format for setting up a course group where you can even publish your course content in learning modules or units. It’s common for bloggers running courses to also run a group for communication, but be wary of the time and attention this requires. #5: Membership of a Private Website or Group For quite a few years now, "membership sites" have been popular. These are essentially closed websites where people have to pay and sign up (almost always for a monthly fee) to view the content. The content might be text-based, or (more often) include audio or video. Sites might offer monthly "seminars" or "workshops", or regular courses that members can take part in. On a smaller scale, some bloggers offer Facebook sites with paid membership. This can be a quick and easy way to set up your product, though it's worth remembering that if you’re banned from Facebook you'll no longer have access to your group! Example: Copyblogger's "Authority" Copyblogger's membership site Authority focuses on the community elements as well as the teaching materials provided. It's a fairly high-end community site aimed at professional copywriters, small business owners, and so on. It also gives members the opportunity for expert coaching, in addition to peer support. Like most membership sites, it has a monthly subscription ($55/month). But there's also the option to purchase a year's membership for $550. #6: Software or a Phone App Unless you're a developer, this probably won’t be an option for your first product. But creating a piece of software or a phone app can be very lucrative. There are a lot of options here. Your software/app might be anything from a business tool to something that relates to your readers' hobby. You might have a one-time price (especially if it's a relatively simple tool), or pricing on a monthly basis (the "Software as a Service" or SaaS model, where you host the software for customers to log in to). Example: Fat Mum Slim's Little Moments App Long-time blogger Chantelle Ellem created her fun photo editing app on the back of her viral Instagram hashtag challenge #photoaday. When she released Little Moments in 2014, it went to number one in Australia and number seven in the USA. It was picked as the App Store's best app for 2014 and has been Editor's Choice {selected by the App Store worldwide}. While it's a free app, it has in-app purchases where you can purchase packs of designs to use in the editor – either per pack or an offer to unlock everything and get all the packs. Chantelle shares some insights here about creating the app, including being prepared for the feedback from customers and creating a community around your app. #7: Physical Products Finally, even though blogging life revolves around the online world,  nothing stopping you creating a physical product. This could be almost anything you can imagine: bloggers have created board games, comic books, merchandise, artworks, and far more. Physical products need to be created, stored and shipped (all of which takes time and money), so this probably won't be the first product you'll want to experiment with. You can sell directly from your own blog, or you can use an appropriate online marketplace: Etsy for handmade goods, for instance, or Amazon or eBay for almost any product. Example: Kirsten and Co's Skin Boss Personal and lifestyle blogger Kirsten Smith recently developed and launched Skin Boss, a range of facial oils in response to an issue she was experiencing with her skin. You can read the backstory on why and how it was developed. When you create something in response to a real need and have a strong connection with your readers and other bloggers, it's an excellent platform for the success of a new product. Kirsten was able to reach out to her network of blogging friends to get media coverage for her new product. I know there's a lot to take in here. But all bloggers, no matter fancy and complex their products are now, started somewhere – often with an ebook, printables, or a simple online course. Even if you're pressed for time, could you set aside 15 minutes a day or maybe block out a weekend to create your first product? It might just change your life. If you do want to build a profitable blog and transform your blogging hobby into an income-generating business, check out Problogger's Make Money Course (one of the Four Pillars of Blogging).   This article was originally published on Jan 15, 2018  and updated May 25, 2022.1600 The post Seven Types of Product You Could Sell From Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: How to Go Beyond Blogging and Harness Multi-Channel Marketing

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How to Go Beyond Blogging and Harness Multi-Channel Marketing Posted: 19 May 2022 12:00 AM PDT The post How to Go Beyond Blogging and Harness Multi-Channel Marketing appeared first on ProBlogger. Photo by Timo Volz on Unsplash Scrupulous readers should have noticed that blogging is not just about writing and getting their opinions, rants and random stuff online. In fact, a blog is just a tool for publishing and conversing online. Every opportunity to enhance communication and reach out through various media should not be taken lightly. As part of the online marketing mix, blogging plays a significant role because right now much of the marketing effort still revolves around driving people to your web site. When you want your prospects to buy something, you want them to visit your site and proceed to the order / payment page. If you want them to find information or read content, a web site is still the most ideal place for this. Among those, audio and video content consumptions have shifted from computer to portable devices and TV screens. However, at the end of the process, you still need to take the audience back to the Web to increase ad views or complete the purchase. (Driving people to offline store is out of the scope of this post.) A blog is no longer used to merely publish blog type content. Modern blog software allows you to format the layout to resemble magazines, corporate web sites or for syndicating videos. Taking advantage of this has become more important than ever in order to grow your business. Quick advice: combine web publishing and other media to reach your audience. Not only they are cost effective but you are providing richer content experience across multiple platforms and that can bring good things to your business. Even just for online media, you can implement multi-channel marketing. Email newsletter. If you haven’t developed a way to reach your prospects or customers without having them to visit your site, you are far from getting the most out of your content and traffic. Despite many claims about email digging its own grave, email marketing remains a top marketing priority simply because it is still effective in drive prospects and customers back and to engage them regularly. Blog RSS feeds. Many people prefer to receive content only when they want to. RSS feeds provide them with fresh content without having them to give away their information. Consumers should have control and RSS feeds fit perfectly into this strategy. The good news is, all blog software automatically provide this feature out of the box. Podcast feed. Podcast feed is a convenient way to deliver audio, video and other content formats to subscribers. Social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok… Create a publishing strategy to get people into consuming content and engage with you repeatedly. Webinars and teleseminars. Telephone and video seminars are capable of providing training in every topic you can possibly imagine. E-books. Free e-books have higher perceived value than articles. Content in this format tends to establish your expert status faster than anything else. A collection of your best blog posts can be turned into e-book. That’s just one simple example to re-purpose content. How to Get the Words Out with Content Marketing When I first used the term content marketing, almost no one was talking about it. Not that people didn’t do it but Larry Chase was one of the first to use the phrase. Other marketers refer to it as educational marketing. Just recently, it becomes the buzz word. Marketing suddenly becomes fun once you approach it from the content angle. Rather than calling out to random people who are more likely not interested in what you have to offer, content marketing attracts people in. People come (call, contact, or ask) you about your product or service instead of you selling them aggressively. And when the approach you, often they feel as if they’ve known you for a long time. It all starts with superb content. Content marketing is effective but at the same time doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket. Sure, there are expensive ways to create and distribute content. More power to those who can afford them. But for most of us, here are some cost effective tips and strategies for content distribution and promotion. (See above for tips on affordable content creation strategies.) Don’t underestimate any one of them, as they can be far more powerful than the costly methods: Optimize your content for search engines. Learn basic SEO. If you don’t have the budget to spend, you can do this yourself and still get good results. Many web users refer to search engines to find information. I’m not surprised if bloggers claim that 40-60 percent of their traffic come from search engines. So like it or not, a lot of the following strategies will help you get more traffic from search engines. Break news. This is possible if you have insider access to news, but if you don’t, being one of the first to blog about a story may result in links from A-list blogs and news outlets. I’ve written about content filtering and keeping up with industry news in previous post. Send out press releases. They have to be news-worthy. If done right, you may get a lot of publicity in additional to links from authority web sites that will strengthen your positions in search engines. Media coverage may bring in a surge of traffic to your blog. Read Darren’s post on how to get media coverage for tips on how to do it. Hold a contest. Contest is an effective way to generate buzz around the blogosphere, especially if you are able to have other bloggers and influencers blog about it. Participate in contests. Bloggers often hold contests or group projects to encourage others to blog about certain topics. This may result in both links and referral traffic for your blog. Participate in blog carnivals. Even though you have great content, it can be hard to get links from other bloggers when you are getting started. By participating in blog carnivals, you are able to kick start your inbound link strategy quite easily. Linkbait. Certainly it is not the best word to describe what it does. Linkbaiting is simply the act of creating solid piece of information that catches people’s attention. It has nothing to do with baiting people into fads. Being remarkable is the idea behind linkbaiting. With great content and a bit of promotion, others will notice and start linking back to your blog. Write and promote your free e-books. A free promotion in one forum may bring hundreds or even thousands of downloads, which distribute your message to more audience. A freemium — to steal the term from direct marketing — is effective to get visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter. Become a guest blogger. Like what I am doing right now. Everyone should like the idea of stealing traffic from other bloggers ethically. Provide great content and help out other bloggers. In return, they will be more than happy to let you communicate with their readers. This in turn will drive traffic back to your blog. Contribute to article directories. Article directories are still good sources of targeted traffic, mainly because of their authority in a lot of topics. I regularly get 5-10 new subscribers to my e-course every day from this source. Focus on high-traffic sites to save your time. Visit forums regularly. Discussion boards are places where people with the same interest hang out, discuss and share opinions. By being a forum regular, and by contributing back, you will be able to establish your expertise and drive traffic back to your site. Some forums also accept on-topic articles. Use social media as micro-blogging platforms. Twitter is by far the most outstanding micro-blogging tool, but you’ve also got Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and now TikTok to drive traffic and use for networking. More about this in the next section. Connect and Build Relationships with Others (It’s Social!) Blogging requires you to reach out and connect with your readers and other bloggers. Relationship is an important part of it. “It is who you know.” Building relationships with other influencers should be on everyone’s agenda. Over time, you will need bloggers to help you spread your content, product or service. By the time you need them, it is usually too late to start networking. While certainly there’s more things to consider than just “who you know,” influencers are people who have the capability to generate buzz and bring you traffic and business. Average content can become outstanding with the right people endorsing it, but superb content remains unnoticed without proper promotion. With the word “social” everywhere, “where to network” is no longer the right question to ask. It is more about prioritizing your time to get the most out of social sites and activities. Here are some useful online networking tips that I hope I’ve learned years ago when I got started: Leave comments on other blogs Comments with nofollow attribute is still valuable because what you seek for is connecting with the blogger. I know some bloggers who leave comment in 50-100 blogs every day. If that sounds too aggressive a goal because of time limitation and others, aim for 5-10 authority blogs to start with. A tip: If you are able to grab the blogger’s attention, you will increase the chance of getting them to reply to your tweets or emails later. Help other bloggers. Guest blogging, as mentioned above, is just an example. Do whatever you could to help out bloggers. They will certainly pay attention to you more than to people who blatantly ask for links. Find the right timing. Don’t spam tens of bloggers with the similar messages. You need to personalize email and get in touch with the right blogger at the right time. A tip I learned from Maki of Dosh Dosh is to create a prospect list using your news reader. It is a neat way to track your network even if you have hundreds of them. Don’t overlook mailing lists and groups. People are still exchanging hundreds of messages in popular mailing lists and virtual groups such as Yahoo Groups or Google Groups. As with other strategies, the key is always in providing value. Don’t self-promote in your first message unless you want to be kicked out of the circle. Connect with a purpose in social networking sites. You can certainly befriend your family members or school mates, but if you are to grow your business, look for like-minded people and build relationships with them through those social networking sites. Use Twitter. Twitter is all the rage nowadays. While people may visit Facebook or MySpace once a week, they regularly use Twitter several times a day. This may be a more effective way to get in touch with influencers, even better than email and perhaps phone (for some people). At least warm up first and avoid cold calling. Meet bloggers in person. Industry events and seminars are great places to meet people besides getting cutting edge information, of course. When meeting others in person, it often results in closer relationship and joint projects. After all, people who visit those events are also interested in business. Although social networking sites allow you to syndicate your blog’s RSS feeds and post links to your blog posts, several social sites are created just for the purpose of finding new and interesting content. Here are some ways that will help you leverage your content and drive traffic through social sites: Disseminate your content through social sites. Medium and HubPages are just two examples of social sites that allow everyone to publish their own content and knowledge. This will increase your visibility as people start finding your content and blogs through various places. Provide value and steal more traffic! Reddit, Digg, and Mix (previously Stumble Upon) are just several huge players out there. You can find niche specific social news sites and drive tons of traffic to your blog if you really work on it. Care should be taken that traffic from these sites may not be sticky, but they can still be made effective. When using such sites, remember that networking is also important to get your content noticed and endorsed. Help others find answers. Quora and Answers.com are just two examples where you can help others with your knowledge. Others will notice what you have to say, which in turn may drive business to you. Closing Words If you look at the list above, you should agree that it can be overwhelming even for most productive bloggers. If you only get one advice from this article, it should be that you should not attempt to do them all at once by yourself. Instead, prioritize. Successful bloggers focus on what they know best and exploit a handful of different marketing channels to the maximum, systemize them, and whenever they are able to offload some of the stuff, pick another channel to explore. You will be surprised that even if you do one thing well, you will see significant improve in traffic and revenue to your site. Final recommendation: spend a weekend to plan out your blogging business. It will be time worth spending. Next post, which is the last post in the series, talks about the metrics you should be tracking so you know which strategy brings you result and which needs a fix. Not knowing your numbers is like shooting in the dark and hoping you will hit the bull’s eye. It isn’t going to happen. Driving traffic and growing a blogging business need a strategy, and based on the feedback you adjust things and take even more actions. So… stay tuned. Hendry Lee helps bloggers overcome strategic and technological challenges in starting and growing their blogs.  This post is the 5th in a series of posts by Hendry Lee. Check out part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. This article was first published on January 29, 2009 and updated May 19, 2021. The post How to Go Beyond Blogging and Harness Multi-Channel Marketing appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success

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15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success Posted: 12 May 2022 12:14 AM PDT The post 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success appeared first on ProBlogger. Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash While it’s not new, I’m often surprised by the way bloggers use—and mis-use—social media. Each of us has our own blogging journey, and we use different tools in our own unique ways. Yet there are still quite a few very common errors that I continue to see bloggers making as they work with social media. These mistakes have the potential to make your social media experience a struggle—if not put you off it completely. But if you persist with them over time, they have the potential to do significant harm to your brand and your blog. Think about it: social media is a very public space, perhaps even more public than your blog. Although we might not be conscious of it, every time we make a status update on a social network, we have the potential to reach a huge audience of people we don’t know through others sharing our messages. That can happen whether the messages are good or bad, for better or for worse. Take a look at these 15 mistakes, which definitely send the wrong message. Then, let me know in the comments if you’re making any of these errors. 1. Using social media as broadcast media We all know that social media is an engagement tool, but how many of us treat it that way? What’s your ratio of “broadcast” updates to direct, personal updates that address other users individually? And who are those direct updates to—friends and family and people you feel “safe” with, or are you reaching out to new contacts, readers, and others in your niche? Make sure you know How to Socialize Your Posts for Maximum Effect AND The 10 Rules of Social Media Engagement. 2. Not responding to contacts While you may not want to connect with everyone on every social network, the blogger looking to build an online presence should focus on responding to contacts from others on social media. Avoiding one-word responses is ideal—look for ways to connect naturally and easily with every person who approaches you, and you’ll see real benefits from social media. 3. Not joining your readers on the networks they use Where are your users congregating online? Which networks do they use? Are you on those networks, or are you holding off because you think you don’t have enough time or energy to tackle a new network? Not long ago, I started developing the dPS presence on Pinterest, and I’ve never looked back. While there’s no perfect time for anything, leaving yourself out of a social network where your audience is active could mean you’re leaving money on the table—or readers out of the loop! Here’s how I use social media in my blogging as ‘outposts’. 4. Not offering follow and share buttons on your content On your post pages, do you offer readers the option to share the post on social networks and the opportunity to follow you on those networks? Offering one or the other is better than nothing, but it’s important to offer both. Of course, your follow buttons might appear in a location that’s globally available throughout your blog—like in the header or sidebar. But do make sure users have both options. Here’s The Step-by-Step Method to Making Your Content Shareable on Social Media. 5. Not following or friending your readers If a reader contacts you on social media, do you follow them? While following massive numbers of people can be overwhelming, if you’re just starting out on a new network, connecting with those who contact you is a great way to make the most of the medium and get a feel for what your readers are doing on that network. 6. Not following or friending industry contacts Connecting with people from your broader niche is an excellent way to stay abreast of news and get on the radars of others you haven’t met, but whose work you admire. Who knows? They might follow you back—and share your updates with their followers. But even if they don’t, you have the potential to get a sound perspective of the players in your niche, and their work, on social media. Here’s some more benefits of networking and collaboration. 7. Not presenting your brand consistently on a network Every blogger and blog brand has a range of facets, but these need to be carefully managed—even curated—if you want to give your followers a clear idea of who you are and what you’re about. Chop and change in the way you approach a given network or your followers, or present your brand, and you might do more harm than good. If you’re not sure about your brand, you need to know How to Define Your Blog's Brand. 8. Not presenting your brand consistently across different networks Following on from the previous point, you will have readers who follow you on multiple networks, so it’s important to present yourself and behave consistently in all your dealings, whatever the network. Your blog’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts should share brand characteristics, even if you target the information you share with each network individually. 9. Only doing the basics on each network Social networks have come a long way since they were first launched. Even the more recent arrivals to this industry are evolving new features all the time. Yet many of us ignore these developments, and just keep posting the same stuff, day in, day out. Are you aware of the features of each of the networks you’re using? Are you up-to-date with what each network offers your blog? If you’re not, you could be missing valuable opportunities to promote your blog, to meet potential readers, and eventually, to make sales. 10. Not tracking social media traffic At the most basic level, it’s worth knowing what portion of your blog’s traffic comes from social media, and from which networks. This knowledge can help you focus your efforts, prioritize your work, and manage your time to best effect. It can also help you to respond to one-off traffic events arising from particular networks. 11. Not tracking how much your content is shared On the other side of the coin, it’s also important to keep an eye on how much your content is shared. I’ve found this particularly useful when I’ve joined a new network, as it helps me to understand what works in that space and what doesn’t. Looking at what’s shared—in terms of blog content and my own social media updates—is an essential step in making the most of a social network. 12. Not listening to discussions about your brand and niche Similarly, it’s important to track not just what people on a given social network are saying about your blog and brand, but also about your niche itself. Social listening is the answer. This can give you post ideas, opportunities to connect with readers on topical issues that they care about—even ideas for updating your blog’s layout or post categorisation. Social media listening is a great way to get to know what your audience is thinking and feeling. 13. Not listening to your main competitors The listening doesn’t stop there, though. you can also set up searches for social media discussions of your main competitors, or key players in your niche, and find out what the audience has to say about them. This can help you find gaps in your market for information and commentary, give you prodict ideas, and a lot more. 14. Not posting at high-sharing, high-visibility times of day This is a big one. Even if your social media followers are in your timezone, there are going to be better and worse times to share on social media. If you’re listening to find out the way your niche works on social media, you should have an idea of when its players—organizations and audience members—are most active. By tying that information to the traffic and sharing tracking mentioned above, you should be able to piece together a picture of the best times to get traction from social media among your target readership. 15. Not realising that promotion doesn’t stop with social media Social media has its place, but it’s only one way to reach the people you want to read your blog. It’s one piece in a big promotional puzzle, and it’s one that’s actually independent of a digital presence that you own. That presence is on your blog itself. But if you only ever use social media to try to get people to your site, you’ll soon kill off any goodwill you’d established. This is why social media really should be used as part of a broader promotional toolkit that lets you attract some of the other kinds of readers we mention in this article. Are you making any of these 15 mistakes? They could be slowly strangling your blog’s authority, brand, and ability to attract new readers! Share your thoughts—and tips for social media success—with us in the comments.   This article was first published on December 16, 2012 and updated May 12, 2022 The post 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: Giving Underperforming Posts a Second Chance with Updates

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Giving Underperforming Posts a Second Chance with Updates Posted: 05 May 2022 01:37 PM PDT The post Giving Underperforming Posts a Second Chance with Updates appeared first on ProBlogger. Photo by Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…. Have you ever written a post that you thought would hit the spot with your readers, generate lots of interest and/or stimulate a great conversation and then find it fell flat on it’s face? I have – in fact it happens all the time for a variety of reasons: Sometimes your posts fall over because other stories break in the blogosphere and hog all the attention Perhaps you just had some bad luck and the right influential blogger didn’t happen to see your post (and spread the word) At other times its because you posted on the wrong day of the week Or perhaps you wrote the post in the early days of your blog before you really had any readers to read it Alternatively it can be simply that your post wasn’t good enough Many of these unsuccessful posts slide off the front page of a blog never to be seen or thought about again (by your readers or by you) – however, perhaps in time, they deserve a second chance. After all, you’ve put work into researching and writing them and with a second chance in the spotlight they could actually reach their potential and become more fruitful and rewarding to you as a blogger. Over the last few weeks I’ve experimented on a number of occasions with giving old posts that I felt hadn’t lived up to their potential a second chance. I’ve done this in a few different ways with varying degrees of success but wanted to share the method that was most successful for me (as well as a few others at the end of this post). Reposted Update The most successful of my experiments with giving old posts a second chance have been reposting them on the front page of a blog with updates. I did this a few days back with a post on DPS on Slow Sync Flash. The previous version of the post had been posted back in January when my readership was considerably smaller than it currently is (ie most of my current readers wouldn’t have seen it before) and while it had been moderately successful in terms of generating comments I was never completely satisfied with the post (in terms of what I’d written and/or the traffic it got). So I updated the post with a few tweaks that made it more useful, attractive and relevant and reposted it at the top of my blog (simply by changing the posting date in WordPress). I also included a note that it was an updated post at the end of the post. IMPORTANT NOTE – I am able to do this at DPS because I have a permalink structure that does not include dates (ie it is just the BlogName/PostName not BlogName/Date/PostName as it is here at ProBlogger. if you have dates in your permalink structure you shouldn’t use this method as you’ll end up with a new URL for the post which can mean you lose any SEO ranking your previous version of the post had. The results of this updated repost were significant with a front page appearance on Digg, large StumbleUpon traffic, being featured on the front page of Delicious and link ups from many blogs including a few authoritative ones. The advantage of this method is that the post not only gets a second chance in the spotlight – but because it’s an established post with some Search Engine Ranking – the combination of the content being updated and new comments being added (Search Engines like fresh content), the appearance on your front page and the extra links that the post might generate means that the post will build it’s SEO authority. The danger of this approach is that if you do it too often with posts that most of your readers will have seen before you run the risk of them becoming disillusioned with you. I don’t have a problem with updating old posts to make them more relevant and useful – but some of your readers might get a bit sick of reading the same old stuff if you do it too often. This approach works best on evergreen or timeless posts – particularly ‘how to’ or ‘tips’ posts. Other ways of updating content and giving it a second chance The reposted update is something that has worked very well for me on a number of occasions. However there are other ways to give an older post a second chance including: Complete Rewrite as a new post – in this approach you simply take the concepts from your previous post and rewrite it from scratch as a new post on the blog. You might make the same posts, update some of your thoughts, add new points etc but end up with two posts on the same topic. I’ve used this approach with some success also. I would generally link back to the previous version so readers can see the progression of my ideas. Update Posts and Link to them – another approach is to update an older post and then write a new post announcing the update with a link to it. This doesn’t tend to work quite as well for some reason – perhaps because the old post still has your old date on it and can be seen as ‘dated’ by many (it’s amazing how people write off old material as being not current or old for just being written a few months back). Archive Compilations – posts that look back at a year gone by and that link to old posts can also be another way of driving people back into your archives for a second look. I tend to do this on special occasions (blog anniversaries, the end of the year etc). It is a gentle way of reminding new readers that there is more to your blog than what they might have seen. Prominent Links to Key Posts – linking to old key posts in side bars, headers, posts or even as ‘related posts’ under your posts can be ways of giving old posts a second breath of life. This is by no means as radical as reposting an old post – but over time this can drive significant traffic back to an older underperforming post. Promoting Old Posts to Other Sites – this is something I’ve had some success with also – but quite accidentally. A month back I noticed a spike in the traffic coming to DPS from Digg. I immediately thought that one of my most recent posts was the one bringing in the traffic – however when I checked out where the traffic was heading I realized it was to a post that was 9 months old. One of my readers had stumbled across it and had thought it digg worthy. Others had jumped on board and as a stroke of luck and with no work on my part I had a hit on my hands as it went to the front page. It struck me at this point that perhaps my archives held other old posts that had not been promoted to other larger sites. As a result I submitted a couple of older posts to a couple of large blogs and to my amazement they were picked up and linked to. I should note that one of the main reasons that I suspect this works on DPS is that I don’t time stamp my posts. I’ve written more on this practice previously (it’s something that will again suit evergreen timeless content more than blogs that are newsy and whose posts need the context of a date to be useful to readers). So do you update posts? If so how do you do it and have you had any success with doing so? This post itself is an update from the original article published May 11, 2007 and updated May 5, 2022. The post Giving Underperforming Posts a Second Chance with Updates appeared first on ProBlogger.

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