How Are You Building A Comminty Around Your Blog?

Your blog posts are great, but are you building a loyal readership by adding community aspects to your blog.  I have the availability for my readers to consume my posts in a variety of formats.  RSS Subscriptions, Email Subscriptions, and of course direct traffic.  But in order to really establish a loyal user base, you need to be able to connect with your readers.

Blog posts are static, they are information I distribute and push out.  Blog posts are not personal, they cannot interact, they do not engage.  But just because a blog post is limited in forms of engagement, it doesn’t mean that your blog “Brand” has to be.

Create a community around your blog to really take it to the next level.

When I speak in terms of “Community” I specifically mean an opportunity to offer readers additional places to connect and interact with you, but also an opportunity for your readers to interact with other readers.

Participation Projects

I created the 28 Day Challenge out of spontaneous reactions from readers.  Great folks like Tyler Hurst , Ross Simmonds, Matt Stratton, and many many others jumped on board, and off we went.  It was and because it’s ongoing, still is a great chance for people to participate in a common goal or project.

The 28 Day Challenge has definitely added a great sense of community for me and brought together some great connections with people I wouldn’t have otherwise met.  I’m excited to see where this takes me and the participants.

Another great example of Participation Projects is Matt Cheuvront’s Inconvenience of Change project.  Eventually he offered an ebook about what transpired and it’s a solid source of content.

You don’t need a monumental idea.  You just need something that brings good folks together.

Facebook Page

Many blogs also have a Facebook Page dedicated to them…I do not.  If you do decide to create a Facebook Page, or already have one for your blog, make sure you’re adding new content and creating engagement opportunities that do not happen on the original blog.

A Facebook Page doesn’t add value if you’re simply posting articles from the blog.

You need to create extra content specific to Facebook Fans, or at least generate dialogues you can’t have at your blog.  I am a fan of a few different blogs on Facebook…but I don’t think I’ve seen 90% of their updates in my feed.  Not because I’m not interested, but because they just don’t show up.  Is that because they’re not updating the Page?  No, it means that the interaction of fans is small.

Because of Facebook’s new updated algorithm, if you don’t have several people engaging on your posts…very few of your fans will see the updates.  Have a different dialogue on your page to give some real value.

Email Lists

Build a sense of community through content you distribute via email.  Tim Jahn of Beyond the Pedway sends me and his other subscribers a weekly newsletter regarding the state of video content and video marketing tips.

This information is only available via his newsletter.  His blog is strictly video interviews, so his newsletter is valuable to his viewers because it offers new content that’s not available any other way.

This is an option I am in the process of creating.  You can currently get my updates via email, but I didn’t want to offer a newsletter without the proper thought into what new and different content I would distribute.  If you do have a newsletter, make sure it’s original content not found in any other place on your blog.

I use Aweber because it’s very inexpensive and I can use it across multiple websites and clients to manage different lists.  If you just use your own blog, Mail Chimp is FREE for the first 500 subscribers.

LinkedIn Group

LinkedIn Groups are a great place to gather like minded folks interested in a similar topic.  If you decide to create your own group, I strongly recommend revolving it around your topic / industry and not your individual blog name.

Unless you’re Mashable or Techcrunch, you’re going to have a difficult time making people care enough about your specific blog to join up and participate.  I manage Chicago Twitter & Social Media, but do not have a group revolved around this blog.  I’m looking into that option but currently investing time in other areas like an email list group. (see above).

LinkedIn groups are fantastic for generating discussions and distributing other sources of news content.  If you are not 100% invested in managing your own group, join a similar group and become a valued member.

Comments

The fastest and easiest place to connect with your blog readers is through comments.  Blog post comments are a terrific place for your readers to engage with you, but also with other readers.

I use Disqus to manage comments on my blog.  I’ve found it very useful and and easy to manage.  There are several other plugins or options for comments, but Disqus works fine for me…so I’ll stick with them for a while.

Getting readers to actually post comments is a challenge in itself, and we’ll talk about that in another post.  But making comments easy to post and well structured is where you start.

Connect with readers beyond your posts.  Create a dynamic and engaging atmosphere for your blog.  Not only will you gain more loyal readers, but you’ll also become a better writer.

A community allows a look into your readers and a sense of what information they’re hungry for.  Your readers are anxious to tell you what they like and offer opinions, but it’s up to you to provide the right atmosphere.

This is DAY 27 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“

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Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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Are You Only Writing For The Search Engines?

Read anything about blogging advice and SEO is bound to enter an early chapter.  I say throw out any thoughts of writing for SEO traffic.  Your readers are your top priorities, not Google.

Drop the SEO mindset…at least at first.

Yes, organic traffic is great.  I track mine on a daily basis about what is drawing in new readers and what’s not.  But I DO NOT let SEO control my posts.  I admit, my traffic from search engines is small, very small.  Right now I only have about 8% of this blog’s traffic coming from Google and other search engines.  Any blogging expert evaluating that stat would say that this blog is a miserable failure.  But it’s obviously not or you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

You most likely came across this post because you are one of the 761 readers who subscribe to this blog, follow me on Twitter, or saw someone who did that passed it to their networks.

I write for my readers…not Google

Yes, I have no doubt my traffic could be higher if I wrote topics for SEO.  But I’d rather have an engaged community of readers that are loyal, active, and interested in my content post after post.

When you’re thinking about a post only in terms of SEO, you’re putting content on the back burner.  Don’t.  When you’re starting out your blog you need to be focused on content.  Build up a base of readers by having interesting and engageing topics.

The trouble with the SEO mindset is that the topics you write about aren’t based on your readers interest.  Your posts are based on what you think will get the most traffic from Google.  Your creativity is at the mercy of the search engine.  How boring is that!

I’m not the guy that’s trying to teach you how to make $10 a month from your blog.

I am the guy who will do everything he can to offer suggestions and information to build a brand…a real brand.  Something that conjures up real emotions when your targeted prospects think of it.  If that’s what you want, write content with your readers in mind.

Focus on building a community of readers that will come back to your blog time and time again because you’re a trusted source of information.  You should optimize each post to the best you can, just make sure that this mindset doesn’t invade your creative thinking.  There are still certain techniques you can use or WordPress plugins that optimize your posts that I use.  But I’m not writing post topics because they got 2400 searches each month.

Build your base of loyal traffic first.  Write such fantastic content that your base spreads the word for you to gain even more traffic.

Communities and social media empires are built from loyal relationships…not from search engines.

This is DAY 22 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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Ugh...What Do I Write About?

This week I’ve talked with a few friends who have taken the 28 Day Challenge and a few are having trouble coming up with ideas for blog posts.  If you update your blog with any consistency, topics for posts will inevitably cause you trouble from time to time.  So you can imagine the challenge with 28 topics in 28 days.

Regardless if your blog is laser focused on a particular niche, or if you cast a wider net about life or random thoughts…it’s still tough to try and create new topics that haven’t been blogged about to death.

I don’t advise only writing for Keywords that you think will get you Google search results. I’m a believer in writing for content and not SEO.

Give Your Readers What They Want

What information have your readers really liked?  Have there been particular topics that received a wave of comments or Retweets or backlinks?  Find what information created a greater amount of engagement than others.  If a set of information has become popular among your audience, why would you deny them more content they crave?  Don’t make it harder than it has to be, write what your readers want to read.

Ask

If you’ve ever found yourself completely frozen with what to write about, take advantage of all of the real-time web tools.  Ask your followers on Twitter, posts a few questions on Facebook and see if any great ideas come from that.  The tools to receive instant feedback are plentiful, take advantage of them.

Add New Insights To Industry News

If you’ve been writing for a while, a good chunk of your readers look at you as a knowledge source for your niche.  Provide information and opinions with news about your particular niche.  Are there new products or tools that just came out?  Is there a new study you can comment on?    Just make sure you actually add either a new prospective or new ideas to the topic.

I recently wrote about Ford’s new “tweeting car”.  Rather than just simply comment if i liked the idea or not, I added new insights and ideas I thought were worthwhile.  Become opinionated and write your thoughts out loud.  If you’re lucky, your readers will provide additional insight and in some cases make you reconsider or even change your mind on a particular topic.

What Are You Working On?

What better place to let folks know about projects you’re working on than your readers.  If you’ve had a new opportunity, or exciting new client, or really excited about what you have going on…why not write about it.  Don’t use it as a direct sale pitch, focus on challenges and insights.  If you have people following your blog, they’re going to want to know about the person behind the writing too.  Everyone can relate to struggles and success.  Why not share a little about your own journey.

Write About How Hard Writing About Blog Posts Is

What better way to use a post than to write about posts.  I’m using this extremely amazing tactic right now as I type.

Don’t over complicate writing a blog.  It’s actually supposed to be fun and provide some enjoyment for you.  Every post isn’t going to be a grand slam, although you should try and add new value with each post.  If you ever find your brain frozen with topic ideas, or if you need to write 28 posts in 28 days…try a few of these ideas.  I hope they help.

This is DAY 13 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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Are You Committed To Your Social Media Efforts? Are Both Your Feet In?

I’m coming up on the half way mark of the 28 Day Blogging Challenge.  I’ll reveal my complete results at the end of this experiment but so far this little challenge has proven to me once again that going half way will produce zero results.  Both Feet have to be in.

I’ve always done ok here at RTM.  My posts were usually well received, when I wrote them.  But the activity was to scattered to build a true following.  I’ve always been very active on Twitter and because of that, that’s where I’ve had the most success.

This month I’ve taken a head first dive into this blog and regardless of the final tally for web traffic and subscribers, I’ve already won.  In the last 12 days I have seen a great boost in my numbers, but even more importantly I’ve been reminded over and over about how much I love doing it.

Social media is not the hokey pokey.  Both feet are in, or they aren’t.

Either you are going to decide to have a presence or you’re not.  Either you are going to maintain a blog or you’re not.  Much of the success is determined by just being active and engaged.  You can always tweak to optimize results.  I’ve stated an many occasions that an inactive Twitter account is the same if not worse than having one at all.  Same goes for your blog or any other prescience you have online.  If your blog is strictly for venting and your twitter account is purely for personal reasons then you can get away with spotty activity.

But if your brand or business has jumped into the social media space, either you’re a player or your not.

This is not a time to dip your toes in the water to see if it’s safe.  Do your research and focus intensely on a strategy.  The social media waters run fast…but if your strategy is solid then the water may be rough at first, but at least you know you’re going in the right direction.

Not every channel is going to make sense for your brand, but do your research and select the channels that lead to the most opportunities.  Then make the commitment to dominate it and just go for it.  You don’t need to be the most watched YouTube video of all time…but as long as you’re passionate and putting our great content for your network, you’re making waves and pushing forward as best you can.

Working out 4 days a month will not get you in shape.

Watering a garden every other week won’t grow plants.

2 Amazing blog posts a month don’t gain momentum for your blog…

…it just reminds people of all of your potential you’re not utilizing.

(note: Based on the marketing wisdom of Tyler Hurst, I’ve changed this blog title to it’s current name as well as a complementing pic.  The previous title was ok, but not great.  It’s always great to have smart friends who push you to a higher level.)

This is DAY 12 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“

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Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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Follow the 28 Day Challenge @ #28DayChallenge on Twitter

Yesterday, I posted 28 Days of Blogging.  Basically it was a simple and short post about how I plan on blogging everyday for the month of February.  It was a pure test and challenge to myself to keep the Real Time Marketer blog up and active every single day for the month.  I wasn’t expecting much from this simple post, certainly not in the form of ReTweets, blog comments, or reactions.

I was wrong.

Although the post was a personal test to myself, others have jumped onto the idea and dove in head first to ignite their own blogs.  After a few minutes from publishing the post, my friend and social media shaker, Tyler Hurst set a friendly challenge.

So, after several other enthusiastic bloggers have jumped on and agreed to also post each day for 28 days…it’s time to ignite some inspirational fire.

The 28 Day Blogging Challenge

-

What: Very simple, blog for 28 days in a row.

When: For 28 Days in a row (I’m blogging the month of February but as long as its 28 days, it doesn’t matter when you start)

Report Your Results: This is key.  You need to know your base, so you can evaluate how you’re doing.  After your 28 days we want to know how much you increased traffic, subscribers, or whatever else your goals were.

Why 28 Days? The 28 days is important.  We’re not trying to form a habit, who wants to blog every day?  Not me.  Besides, according to Clinical Psychologist, Peter Brown, it takes about 66 days to form a habit (on average).  But there are specific goals I want to achieve.

• I want to increase traffic to this blog
• I want to increase RSS Subscribers
• I want to create some momentum for this blog
• I want to reach a new audience that is unfamiliar with this blog
• I want to be a better writer

The 28 days is important because it’s simple.  Exactly 4 full weeks.  It’s not a month or 30 days that can start and end on random days.  It’s 4 full weeks.  I started on a Monday, I’ll end in 4 weeks on a Sunday.  Pretty simple to grasp.  It’s also long enough to produce real results.  28 days in a row is room to write a considerable amount of new content.  Even if you average 2 posts per week, it would take 14 weeks to produce what you now will in 4.

We Learn From Each Other

The best thing about involving others is that you can push each other when you’re not feeling productive or inspired.  Blogging can be a pretty lonely task.  The thoughts of “Is anyone really reading this” certainly creep in from time to time.  It’s also nice to see real results from regular people.  Not that I don’t enjoy following the careers and thoughts of the “gurus” like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse , but…it’s hard to relate.  The nice thing about this is that I am you.  Just a regular guy with a handful or readers and interest trying to share some ideas with others.

Throughout this process you need to identify 3-5 ways you’re going to increase traffic, subscribers, post comments, and whatever else your goals happen to be.  Over time, just report how it’s working.  We all learn from this process.

Here’s the 5 I will start with (I may adjust over the process)

1. Earlier Publishing Time: I am a night owl by nature and usually save time for writing at night.  This poses a problem because blog posts are often immediate.  If you publish at 10pm, most RSS subscribers won’t look at the previous night.  They look for what publishes that day and will completely miss most of what you publish.  I will publish earlier to open exposure to a larger demographic.
2. Change My URL Shortener: Because I focus on content and not at all on SEO, the large majority of my traffic comes from social networks and not Google.  The problem with this is that most URL Shorteners like bit.ly and SU.pr rarely show as traffic on Google Analytics.  I have had several posts reach more hits by themselves than Google Analytics gives me credit for the entire month.  So I will change what I use to try and get more accurate results.
3. Post To More LinkedIn Groups: In addition to the Group I manage on LinkedIn, I am a member of a lot more.  Yet rarely to I market my content to these groups.  I will change that.
4. Sheer amount of new posts: Kinda a cop out I know, being that the challenge auto creates more posts.  But this def will bring more traffic.
5. New Content Format: Up till now, I have only provided written content.  I will incorporate videos here and there to offer a different content angle as well as to add some personality into my posts.

28 Days of Blogging List: (join the 37 blogs)

(Want to be on the list?  Add a comment with your Blog and you’re in)

• Real Time Marketer – Scott Bishop

• Tyler Says… - Tyler Hurst

• Little Tech Girl – Kris Cain

• College Caffeinated – Colby Gergen

• The Cool Perspective - Ross Simmonds

• That Girl Nena – Nena Cabasan

• Good Old Rock – Matt Stratton

• Rock Band Aide – Tommy Wall

• Living Life – Jenn

• Rockhopper – Benjamin Zalasky

• Champagne Mom

• Mitchell Hislop – Mitchell Hislop

• SMC Pros

• TC Gadget Geeks

• The 20% Challenge

• From The Trenches – John LeMay

• Sydney Unfiltered – Sydney Owen

• Ellle La Mode – Ellen Nordahl

• A Work in Progress – Leia Ferrari

• Extraordinary Mommy – Danielle Smith

• The Adventures of Reddsmitty – Kim Redd

• Country Mouse in the City – Claire

• Ray’s Wealth Wisdon – Ray Buckner

• Wes Novack – Wes Novack

• Musings of a Punk Rock Father – Andrew

• Going Green Science – Steve Johnson

• Climb The SEO Mountain – Clark Schultz

• Defying Gravity – Jackie Dreyer

• Sunday Morning Soliloquy – Leyla Arsan

• Blonde by Design – Sprite

• Yuri Artibise – Yuri Artibise

• Nouveau Geek – Pia Simeoni

• Fred Cadena – Fred Cadena

• The Universe Is Between Your Ears – Joe Winnet

• A Long Way From The Judith Basin – W. Kelly Oja

• Random Thoughts By Rebecca – Rebecca Hession

• A Blah Blah Blawg – Desiree Koh

• Shopping Cart Strategies – Dave Beck

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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Build Your Online Community By Doing Some Good

I won’t sugarcoat it, it’s not easy gaining new readers.  In fact, it’s extremely difficult and takes a tremendous amount of time.

One of the most effective strategies for traffic building is by creating sense of community around your blog or website.  Unfortunately, this is also one of the most difficult.

With the holidays here, I thought I’d share a marketing strategy that builds your online communities and also does some societal good.

Build Your Online Community By Helping Your Favorite Charity

(Note: this can also be done for specific events but since it’s the season to be giving…I’ve decided to focus on charities)

Step 1:  Pick A Worthwhile Personal Cause

All of us have been affected by something.  Not one single person hasn’t had to deal with a friend, family member, or personally struggled with disease or hardships.  Pick a charity or cause that’s close to your heart that you’ve been touched with or means a lot to you.

If you write a geographically based blog or have a business in the local community, then choose a local charity or local affiliate to work with.  (If you are from Mars and can’t think of anything, then support the troops fighting overseas and their families.  Puppies in shelters could always use some help too…but I vote for the troops)

Step 2:  Make it Personal

Why do you care?  If you don’t care…or its perceived you don’t care then no one else will.  Actually, let me rephrase that…why are you passionate about it?

Write a post or make a video about why this cause it important to you and why it’s personal.  You don’t necessarily need to give intimate details you’re not comfortable discussing to the world, but it does need to be a personal experience.

If you’re wanting people to donate to starving countries in distant impoverished lands, you don’t need to have gone and seen the devastation…but people want to know why you’re passionate about it.  Tell them.

Step 3:  Change Your Site & Profile Pics

Most charities or causes have a color pattern associated with them.  Breast cancer is pink, Red Cross is red, Yellow is for deployed soldiers. (for a full list colors and associated caused, CLICK HERE )

If your site is extensive or if your design skills are poor, then just change the header, maybe the logo, and links.

Twitter was Red on Dec 1, for World Aids Day. 

Google has become famous for changing their logo to coincide with certain events.  So why can’t you?

Step 4:  Create An Action Step – With a Goal

Creating awareness is great, but an action step is better.  An action step with a goal attached is the coup de gras.  People like helping people…especially when they see you’re passionate about it, but you need to tell them how you want their help.

Give your readers an action step to do and how they can help out.  Twitter’s actions step was ” Follow @JoinRED to find out how” people can help with Aids Day.

A page or link where folks can donate is great…or simply tell them to pass along the information on their social networks.  Provide contact information and ways for them to get involved if they want to help.  But you need to tell people specific steps with what they should do.

The goal builds a sense of urgency and more people are willing to get on board faster and help you reach your goals.  Keep an active scoreboard on your site to let people know where you are at and how far or close you have to go.

Step 5:  Inform Your Readers

If people are used to seeing your site a certain color…and all of the sudden that has changed and you have a ribbon attached to your logo…they need to know why.

Let people aware of the cause you are supporting and why your site has changed and for how long.  I would send an email to your list and a post to your blog informing them exactly what you are doing and why.  This is where you tell them why you’re passionate and what your goals and intentions are.

Step 6:  Create Awareness

After you have let your readers know exactly what’s going on…it’s time to tell the rest of the world.  Start tweeting your links and informing your social networks.  Add a banner on your social profile pics so new followers can immediately see what you are doing.  Adding to your social profiles pics also adds interest because when I’m quickly scanning the several thousand people in my network…a giant pink ribbon or mustache over the face quickly gets my attention.

Step 7:  Join Forces With Others

Unless this is the “Help Scott Bishop” cause (which I do not endorse)…others will find what you’re doing interesting and important.  Contact the local charity or chapter and tell them what you’re doing.  Search for others on Twitter and Facebook who have done the same thing and join forces to spread the word.  Post to the charities wall or blog.  Contact other blogs or your friends and ask them to join forces with you.

The internet is too big and the world too small to go at it alone.

The Win / Win

It’s an absolute win / win.  The charities win with added awareness and hopefully donations or whatever your action step is…and you win with a new community around your blog / website.  So good luck out there helping to make the world a better place.

If any of you decide to take this on…don’t hesitate to let me know what you’re up to and how I can help.

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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This is a continuing post from How To Add Email Opt-in Options to Your Facebook Page

In the previous post, I went through exactly how and why to add an email Opt-In “Tab” to your Facebook Page.  The “Tab” is important for Page because it’s an easy way to let your fans know that you have an email list that you would like them to sign-up for.

The problem however, is that there is an extra step involed for them to do so.  Because your Opt-In box is located on a separate tab, people will need to click on the tab to locate it.

While this extra click may seem insignificant to you…it is a problem.  Any extra effort or steps what so ever…will create a barrier for some people.  Anytime you can eliminate steps for people, you’re in better shape.  Here’s how to eliniate that extra step.

Here I’ll be going through how to ad an opt-in “box”.  This box will be located on your Facebook page “Wall,” and for all fans to see when they’re on your page.  No extra effort required, no extra steps needed.

Luckily, this step is very easy to install and basically all of the hard work was completed in Part 1.

Step by Step Instructions – Facebook Email Opt-In Box

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Bring up your Facebook page.  On the bottom left of the Facebook interface you’ll see several options, and next to “application” you should see a picture of an “f” with what looks like a door.  That’s the “Ads and Pages” icon, click it.
3. A new page will appear.  Towards the top you should see “Ads Manager”, “Pages”, and “Help”.  Click the “Pages” link.
4. Locate the “Boxes” Tab and click it.
5. Scroll until you find the email opt-in box which you created.  Mine has been labeled “Get Discounts Via Email”.  Directly to the right is a pencil icon, click it.
6. Select “Move to Wall Tab”.
7. Click the “Wall” tab.  Scroll down till you find the box you’ve created.

And Boom, you’ve got yourself a new Email Opt-In box on your Wall.

Bonus:

If you have a personal blog or are a small business you may also want to include an opt-in box on your personal Facebook profile.

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Once you’ve logged in, go to the search box in the upper right hand corner and type in “Profile Box”.
3. Locate the application labeled “Profile Box” app and click on it.
4. Locate “Add to My Page” on the left side and click it.
5. A new window will open containing a full list of all of your Facebook pages.  Select which page you would like to add and click the “Add to Page” button.
6. After you’ve added the app, it’s time to add your code.  You’ll see a large space available for your HTML, copy the exact same code you used for your Facebook Page.
7. Select “Submit”.  If you wish to see a preview you can click that too.
8. Now it’s time to go to your profile, select “Profile” at the top of the page.
9. Once your on your own profile page, find the tab that says “Boxes”.  Click it.
10. Scroll until you find the box which you created.  Mine has been labeled “Get Discounts Via Email”.  Directly to the right is a pencil icon, click it.
11. Select “Move to Wall Tab”.

Done.  You’ve successfully added an email opt-in to your personal profile.

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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How Are You Making Your Blog Succeed?

There are many factors that will help create a successful blog:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Quality of Content
• Intriguing Headlines
• Number of Comments
• Blog Design
• And many others…

But I believe that the #1 factor for blog success, is the frequency of your posts.  Mashable and TechCrunch, are respectably the #1 and #2 most popular social media blogs.  They average over 20 posts per day.  I understand they both have teams of paid writers to continuously spit out post after post…but I am constantly checking out their sites because I know they have good quality, and I know that information will be new and constant.

It is not realistic and probably not appropriate for you to be writing 20 articles per day, but you do need to consistently be writing new content.  Social Media, more than ever, is truly an out of sight out of mind medium.  If you aren’t continuously contributing content, or posts, or tweets…you do not exist.

If you write the absolute most interesting blog posts ever, but only write one once a month…it won’t matter.  You can not gain new readers without continuously writing new content.  This blog is a perfect example.  Up until now, I have gained a respectable amount of readers per post average.  But I am not gaining new readers.  Most of my traffic up till this point has been from posting to Twitter.  That strategy does work, but it is inconsistent.  Without a constant publishing schedule, your blog will plateau.  It’s hard to say just how soon that may happen, but it will happen.

Your viewers will drop of like a rock and it is very, very hard to get them back.  There are currently more than 70 Million blogs…so if you are not taking yours seriously, and continuously and consistnetly adding content, there are literally millions to take your place.

What Do I Write?
Honestly, to some degree…it doesn’t matter.  As long as you are on topic with the theme of your blog, you can really write about anything.  Not every post needs to be a home run.  Not every post needs to be groundbreaking.  Not every post needs to receive tons of comments.  But in order to build an audience and fan base, you need posts… Period.

I am much more likely to subscribe to a blog’s RSS if they are consistently posting.  Very few people will agree to subscribe to your email list or RSSif they think the blog is inactive.  Eventually you will have enough articles where you can begin to market some of your previous posts.   Seth Godin, whom I would consider a Social Media Expert, explains this in more detail HERE.

How Often do I Post?
There is no statistic determining how many posts you need in a given time frame to be successful, but I say…the more the merrier.  People often disagree with this number but  I personally think the sweet-spot is around one per week, published the same day each week.

The one post per week at the same time each week will get people used to your posting schedule and they will eventually begin to look for them.  Tim Jahn’s video blog Beyond The Pedway does this brilliantly.  Each Friday, I know to look for a new video post, and each and every Friday I do.

I do think there is room to post more than once per week if you have time.  Darren Rowse of ProBlogger does offer a good warning of “Reader Fatigue” but for most bloggers just starting out, you do not have enough readers to cause fatigue.  Maybe someday I can get to that point, but I am definitely not there yet.

My New Publishing Commitment:
As someone who feels you can only gain credibility by practicing what you preach, I’ve committed to a new posting schedule.  Real Time Marketer will soon be publishing about 3 posts per week.  My posts will consist of different themes so readers can get used to a consistent schedule and theme.  I will have a Tuesday Tool (offering a new social media tool and review each Tuesday), a regular post, and a Follow Friday post.  Although posting 3 times per week may seem excessive, the Tuesday Tool and Follow Friday posts have there own theme and vibe to break apart reader fatigue.

So, I have laid my case for Consistent Frequency of Posts as the #1 factor to a successful blog.  Agree?  Disagree?  Please leave your comments, I am very interested in your opinion.

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Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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We all want to boost and increase our blog traffic, no matter what we’re currently tracking.  Real Time Marketer is a very new blog and so far I am happy with the results.  After about a week, I have 100 people subscribing via Feedburner and for only a few posts, that’s not bad.  However, you can always do more.  I have no intention of making money from this blog so pure traffic, although tracked, is not an immediate goal.

I am much more concerned with reaching and influencing more people outside of my current circle and networks.  A creative way to do that, is to rank higher on the social networks Digg and StumbleUpon.  Although Digg is a wonderful and worthwhile network, StumbleUpon is what I will focus on right now.

So I’m creating a twitter hashtag experiment called #StumbleMe . Here’s how I envision it to work:
When you write a new post from your blog and tweet the link, attach #stumbleme to the end of your tweet.  When I and others see the #stumbleme hashtag on Twitter, we’ll use the StumbleUpon tool bar to rate your post.  That’s it.  I’ll stumble your posts, you stumble mine, we all stumble each other.

How #StumbleMe Will Help Your Blog:

• Your website / blog will be listed on StumbleUpon.com

• Once your website gets stumbled, they’ll often receive visitors from all over the world.  The more people who are participating in #StumbleMe rating your posts, the more people who will potentially see it on StumbleUpon, thus increasing your audience and influence.

• Establish a new reader base for your blog very quickly.

• Gain backlinks from StumbleUpon visitors with websites.

Challenges:

1. You’ll Need a StumbleUpon Account: Sign Up for an account at StumbleUpon here (this should take about 90 sec).  Use the Internet Explorer or Firefox addon located in the upper right hand corner of the homepage (this is the easiest way and how I will use the experiment)
2. You’ll Need To See The Hashtag #StumbleMe: You can either keep a look out for it during the day while you’re on Twitter.  Search the hashtag using Twitter Search . Search the hashtag on Hashtag.org
3. People need to know the hashtag exists: This can only be done by spreading the word.  So either RT this post, or tell others about it, and let folks know you’re participating.
4. People need to act:  Changing other peoples behavior is often the most difficult task to do, just ask any dietitian.  But I’m hoping this experiment is easy and helps others enough where they will participate.  I will do a daily search for the Hashtag and stumble on any post that uses the hashtag, I am hoping others will as well.  When the community participates, we all win.

Will this hashtag experiment prove to be a success?  Only time will tell, but its certainly worth a shot and I think it will be fun to track.

Do you have any ideas to make this experiment better?  Thoughts?  Leave a comment below.

Happy Stumbling

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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