This post continues my series exploring Principles of Successful Blogs.

Have you ever seen a snowball rolling down a hill, gathering speed and momentum and growing in size as it rolls until it gets to a size that will destroy anything and anyone in its path???  

Me neither…. not outside of cartoons anyway….

While the image may not be one too many of us have seen in reality – it is a great metaphor for what seems to happen to many successful blogs.

They start small (like any other blog) but gradually (at first) grow (a reader at a time) into blogs with more and more loyal readers. Along the way events (some lucky and some strategic) happen that make the blog grow and roll faster down the slope.

In time momentum grows and it seems that the blog can’t help but grow as it rolls on and gathers new readers, builds its brand, expands with new features…. in time people start referring to it as an A-List blog and what was once a simple blog with no readers has ‘made it’.

How do successful blogs grow?

There are many reasons that successful blogs grow bigger and bigger over time but one principle that I observe in many such blogs is that they use the power of leverage to grow what they have to the next level.

The principle is simple yet it can be applied in many different ways and levels to blogging. It revolves around this question:

“what do you have now that you can use to help you get a step closer to where you want to be?”

Leverage: “the mechanical advantage gained by being in a position to use a lever” (source).

Another way to ask the question – what ‘lever’ do you have at your disposal that might help you to lift your blog to its next level.

Illustrating Leverage – an Example

Most readers of ProBlogger will pretty familiar with my photography site. I call it a site and not a blog because today it has a forum, 3 blog areas, strong Twitter and Facebook presence, 2 E-Books (portraits and Photo Nuts and Bolts) and continues to expand. It is read by 3 million or so visitors a month and generates some decent income.

However it wasn’t always what you see today. In fact when I started it in April 2006 it was a simple blog with a free template design that had 3-4 new posts a week and that made less than a few cents a day.

The last 4 years of building dPS have seen many many points of leverage. Let me highlight a few:

1. My previous photography blog – before dPS I had a small photography blog (now inactive) that aggregated camera reviews from around the web. The traffic wasn’t massive but it was enough that I had a nice little community of readers (mainly Australians as it was on a .au domain). When I launched dPS I was able to kick start it by letting my current readers of my original photography blog know about it. It didn’t generate a rush of traffic, but it meant that in week 1 it had some readers. Similarly i promoted dPS here on ProBlogger in that first week. I don’t think it drove too many new readers directly but know quite a few ProBlogger readers recommended dPS to family and friends. Point of Leverage: traffic/brand from a previous blog to launch a new one.
2. Profile/Network – because I had been blogging in the niche for a while I knew a number of other photography bloggers. I was able to pull in a few favours and get some promotion from these blogs to help drive a little more traffic (the links would have helped with SEO also).  Point of Leverage: relationships from credible people in the industry to help launch the blog.
3. Flickr – I had a very basic presence on Flickr when I started dPS. I used it purely to share photos with my family and friends and to host the occasional image for my blog. As a result I had a network of 40-50 people on Flickr that I was able to promote dPS to. I also started a Flickr ‘group’ on at that time and promoted it to my network of 40-50 people.  Point of Leverage: using a presence on a social media site to drive traffic to a new blog.
4. Flickr Group – the Flickr group grew quite organically. I did promote it to a few people but they invited their friends who invited theirs… it had a life of its own (today it has over 10,000 members). After 6 months I took the energy of that Flickr group and started a forum on the dPS domain. I exclusively invited members of the Flickr group to join the forum.  Point of Leverage: using a presence on a social media site to launch a new feature on a site.
5. Social Media – traffic to the blog and forum continued to grow. I had never really done anything on Twitter or Facebook with dPS until about 18 months ago but decided to test what would happen if we started to promote our Twitter and Facebook pages from the dPS site. Doing so helped us to grow solid followings on those networks. Point of Leverage: using established traffic on a site to recruit followers on social media.
6. Expansion of Topics – when I first started dPS I dreamed of a site that not only did tips on how to use cameras but one that was wider in terms of topics and covered cameras and post production (and more). However I decided not to launch with this wide focus but rather just to focus upon beginner tips. Last year we rolled out two new areas (cameras/gear and post production). I’m glad I waited – having an established audience on related topics enabled us to kick start these new areas. Point of Leverage: using established traffic to launch new areas of the site.
7. E-Books – having built an audience, brand and community I was able to launch E-Books that were guaranteed of at least some level of success. We had traffic (and more importantly credibility, goodwill and trust with our readers), community, multiple ways of connecting with our audience and relationships with other sites – all of this was leveraged to help launch our E-Books. After we had launched the first we also had a database of buyers which helped launch the 2nd E-Book.

Of course there are many other small points of leverage along the way but hopefully you get the point. Each time I’ve launched or grown the site I’ve looked at the arsenal of what I already have and pooled those resources to help build what comes next.

Points of leverage can come in all shapes and sizes. Some might not seem that big but they can lead to things that are. For example my initial Flickr network of 40-50 people led to a Flickr group of over 10,000 which led to a forum of over 80,000!

What do You Have that You Can Leverage?

I’ve raised this topic in a number of presentations over the years and the reaction of many is ‘I don’t have anything to leverage’.

I can relate to that feeling – in 2002 when I started my very first blog I didn’t really have much either. I’d not done much online beyond using hotmail, IRC chat and an occasional search on Netscape. I didn’t have an online network, knew virtually nobody who did and had no idea where to start. I’d not had any experience in building a website or writing copy for the web – I’d only seen my first blog hours before I started my own.

So I started with what I did have – my friends and family. They were my first readers.

Interestingly one of my friends had another friend who was a blogger on a similar topic to me. That generated my first link which generated my first comment from someone I wasn’t related to (a momentous moment in the life of any blogger)!

Homework – Make an Inventory of What You Have

Here’s an exercise that could be helpful. Grab something to write/type with and start making a list of what you have at your disposal. Thing broadly – it could include almost anything:

• Current blogs/sites that you own or are involved in
• Newsletter lists
• Social Media Accounts/Presence
• Real life Relationships and Networks
• Skills
• Experiences
• Memberships in clubs/communities
• Profile
• Customer databases
• Financial resources

This list only scratches the surface – what you have will be unique to you.

Another thing you might like to add to your list is things that you don’t have but that you have the ability to have. Next step goals if you like.

• For example many bloggers have the ability to write content and could potentially guest post on other blogs. Guest posting on another blog might not be your ultimate goal as a blogger – but it could take you a step closer.
• Another example might be that you might want to get to know someone that you don’t yet know. I know one blogger who told me that they felt that they didn’t know anyone in the blogosphere so they made a list of 10 bloggers that they wanted to get to know and meet in person over 2009. They achieved their goal and now have a decent relationship with 10 pretty influential people when they need it down the track.

One Last Tip – Build It Before You Need It

As I wrote my 7 point list of points of leverage that I’ve had at dPS above it struck me that what I was writing sounded pretty strategic and as though I knew what I was doing.

The reality is that I’d say that about 20% of that was strategic and 80% of it was not. When I started out I knew I wanted to build a site that helped people grow in their photography and that would hopefully make me a decent income – but I didn’t have much idea of where it was headed. I didn’t see a forum, I had no idea about E-Books and certainly had not considered Twitter or Facebook (I’m not even sure if they existed back then).

My approach instead was to grow the site organically – to try new things and see where there was energy and to keep building upon what worked. I wanted to build a presence in any way that I could and that was relevant to my potential audience and then to see what opportunities opened up to grow things further both in terms of size and financially.

I didn’t really need to have a way to email readers in the early days because I wasn’t selling anything – but I built a newsletter list from day 1. I didn’t really have much to say on Twitter or Facebook when I started with that but decided to build that network early because I knew one day I would.

In a sense a lot of what I did in the early days was to build a network/community knowing that one day I’d need it to do more than make a few dollars from ad revenue. This of course came to be true when I launched our E-books in the last 6 months. I’m glad I didn’t wait until I needed the network to build it but instead built it well in advance.

Further Reading:

• 10 Ways to Find Readers for Your Blog by Leveraging Other Online Presence
• Blogs as Launching Pads
• How to Leverage Your Blog for Bigger Things – Springboard blogging Part II

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Leverage What You Have and Take Your Blog to the Next Level

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Happy New Year (at least it is here in Australia)! I hope that as you read this you’re full of all kinds of inspiration and motivation for the year ahead.

As the last post in our Best of ProBlogger 2009 series I wanted to share a list of 11 more general topic popular posts from ProBlogger. Enjoy!

1. 13 Quick Tips to Make Your Blog Stand Out from the Crowd
2. Let Me Show You Inside a Secret Blogging Alliance
3. How to Create Great First Impression on New Readers and Convert them into Loyal Readers
4. How to Take Your Blog to the Next Level…. Once You’ve got a Start
5. 7 Questions to Ask on Your Blog to Get More Reader Engagement
6. 5 Plugins to Make Your WordPress Blog Blazing Fast
7. 10 Ways to Get Fit While Blogging
8. 13 Things I’ve Learned About Successful Blogging [My 5000th Post on ProBlogger]
9. 8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog
10. 6 Reasons Why You Need to Consider Email as a Communication Strategy on Your Blog
11. Brainstorm 10 Ways to Expand Your Blog: Homework

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

11 More Blog Tips from the Archives: Best of ProBlogger

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Today I want to continue our series of posts looking at principles of building a successful blog by looking at the topic of Trust.

A Quick Definition of The Type Of ‘Successful’ Blog I’m Writing About

It might be worth stating that the type of blog that I’m talking about in this series is a blog that isn’t purely about profit or traffic – but a blog that has influence in its niche.

It is certainly possible to build a profitable and/or well trafficked blog without Trust – in fact I know a few bloggers who blog purely for Search Engine Traffic who don’t really care about influence, brand or loyal readers but who just want traffic that they can convert to cash.

These bloggers are certainly ’successful’ on some levels (I guess ’success’ really comes down to your goals) – but that’s not the style of blogging that I do and is not what this series is on about.

What I’m on about is helping bloggers to not only be profitable and have traffic but to build blogs that have profile, influence, authority, credibility, respect and a brand that opens up opportunities beyond quick profit.

By no means is my approach the only way to make money blogging – but it’s where I’m at and as a result is what I write about.

Why Building Trust is Important

OK – so now we’re on the same page lets talk about Trust.

I’m not sure we need to spend too much time talking about ‘why’ building trust is important as it’s pretty much common sense – but in short – if you’re looking to build influence, to build a brand that is respected and you want a site that is authoritative – you’re going to have a lot better chance if people actually trust you.

Yes with some clever copywriting and good positioning in search engines you can probably convince people to buy certain products – but in order to build lasting influence – trust is going to need to play a part.

On the flip side – many businesses today have seen the way that a lack of trust or even worse, broken trust can hurt a business, destroy reputations and ruin years of hard work.

So building and maintaining trust is paramount for bloggers wanting to build influence – so how does one do it?

One of the best resources on the topic of building influence through trust online is Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. However as it’ll take a day or two for Amazon to ship you a copy (and I recommend you get one) I thought I’d jot down a few principles of building trust online that I’ve gathered over the years both from my own experience of trusting others and building trust with others.

A Quick Exercise Before You Read Any More

Before you read my thoughts on how to build trust – here’s a very quick exercise to do.

On a piece of paper or in a text document – jot down a blogger or blog that you trust. Under the name – list 2-3 reasons why you trust them.

OK – read on.

4 Principles of Building Trust Online

1. It usually takes time to build

I’m a pretty sceptical guy – I don’t really want to be but after years of being bombarded with marketing messages and experiencing disappointment at expectations not being met by people making big promises my guard is up. I suspect I’m not alone.
While I’m sure there are people who are more trusting than others – I’m pretty certain that most people in my generation (and the generations that come before and after mine) are a fairly suspicious lot. We are capable of trust – but it usually takes time to get there.

2. It is Earned

I do have the capability to trust you – but more often than not it’ll only come once I see that you’re worthy of that trust. An example of this principle hit my inbox this morning – it was from a reader who had just bought my 31 days to build a better blog workbook.

Her email included this:

“I’ve never bought an ebook before, partly because I don’t trust people with my credit card information and partly because I’ve always suspected most ebooks are just fluff…. But after reading your blog for 12 months and being on the receiving end of useful information every day over that time I decided you were probably a credible source of information”.

The sense that I got from her email was that she only made the purchase based upon her previous experience of what I do – something that was earned by providing her with help day by day over a year.

The take home lesson for bloggers is to give value, be useful and prove that you have something worthwhile and authoritative to say on your topic.

Look for ways to genuinely and generously improve the lives of your readers – do this over the long haul and your deposit in the trust bank with readers grows over time.

3. The recommendations of others are important

I still remember (but can’t find a link to) a post by Seth Godin a year or so back where he talks about how he sells a lot more books through a blog post when he’s talking about someone else’s book than his own.

It was the perfect illustration of how the words and recommendations of other people promotion you carry a lot more weight than you promoting yourself.

We’re social beings – we make decisions together – we buy things that others recommend – we trust those that others trust….

This means you have a couple of tasks to do:

1. Build relationships with others. Some bloggers take the attitude that other bloggers are potential competition and as a result they stay clear of them. However a recommendation from someone else in your industry could be gold – build relationships.
2. Find Ways to use this social proof. If someone does recommend you it doesn’t hurt to highlight it to others. You don’t need to do it in an ego driven or big headed way – but do find subtle and relevant ways to share it with those in your network.

4. Be Yourself

One of the fastest ways to destroy trust is to be caught trying to be something that you’re not.

• Make a promise that you can’t fulfil
• Present yourself as someone that you’re unable to be
• Make a claim that’s not true

All of these things set up expectations in the eyes of others that can’t be met which will lead to disappointment, anger, disillusionment and as a result – broken trust.

Not only that – I find that people are pretty good these days at picking people who are presenting themselves as something that they’re not. You might not even have to get caught out to have people suspicious (and untrusting) of you.

• As a result it’s best to be yourself.
• Let people know what you do and don’t know.
• Be transparent about your motives.
• Share your stories of failure as well as your successes.
• Admit your mistakes.

All of these things make you more human, relatable and help to build trust.

What Would You Add?

I’ve only scratched the surface on Trust with this post – there’s so much more to say and I’d love to hear what you’ve got to say on the topic.

• What bloggers do you trust (who did you write down in the exercise above)? Why do you trust them?
• How do you build trust with your readers?
• What stories and experiences do you have to help illustrate these principles of building trust?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Trust – Principles of Successful Blogging #2

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In this guest post Celestine Chua shares tips on how to get your blog some press coverage.

Getting featured in press and media is probably like a dream come through for many bloggers. If you are thinking that you need to be an accomplished name online like Darren Rowse or John Chow who gets a six-figure annual paycheck before you are in any position to get media coverage, think again.

In 2008 last year, I left my day job at the age of 24 to pursue my fierce passion to help others be their best self and live their best life. I started my personal development blog CelestineChua.com, intending it to be the cornerstone of my business. I had no experience in Web 2.0 web development/internet marketing (The last time I had a proper site was 6-years ago and the landscape had totally changed then) .

In less than 4 months, I got my first media coverage in a popular local newspaper, with circulation of 300,000. My second media coverage came the next month. Then came the third. And the fourth. And more.

To date, I’ve been featured in press and media at least 6 times, which have resulted in a new flock of loyal readers, huge flood of life coaching sign ups, increased awareness levels of my business/blog, heightened credibility, multiple collaboration proposals by interested parties, numerous speaking engagements, just to name a few. So many people who have registered for my services that I have to put up a waiting list, which is stretching till Nov ‘09 at the moment (that’s 4 months away). At the rate it is going, the waiting list isn’t showing any signs of shortening. And this is definitely not the last of it.

If I were to look at the trigger point for my results today, it was the first media coverage which helped put me on the map. The amazing thing is, none of these came about due to any personal relationships or media contacts. Media coverage is something that you can get, whether you are a newbie blogger or a seasoned veteran. In this article, I’ll openly share the strategies I used to secure my media coverage.

Benefits of Being Featured in Press

So why should you seek media coverage? Here’s four key benefits:

1. Distinctiveness.

Let’s face it – Online marketing channels are exhausted to death by right about every blogger out there. Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, forums, commenting, article directories, guest posting, writing list posts, writing pillar articles – You name it, everyone’s doing it.

While these were probably the key success strategies of the past right at the time when Yaro Starak first wrote the Blogging Profits Blueprint, they have since dwindled to become steps to putting yourself at parity level with the rest. I’m not saying that these steps aren’t important – They certainly are, and you should continue putting efforts into them. The question is what, then, sets you apart from the others?

Press isn’t going to be the one thing that sets you apart from the rest, but it is one of the best ways to do that today, especially since getting a press/media feature is totally underutilized by bloggers. Just because you are operating a blog doesn’t mean you should stay clear from traditional marketing vehicles. In fact, you should leverage on as many mediums as you can to gain the maximum exposure. If you get a press coverage, it’s certainly going to put you in a totally different position in your readers’ minds.

When I first started CelestineChua.com in Dec ‘08, I realized that there were about thousands of personal development blogs out there, and I had to do something big to set myself apart from all other blogs. Press instantly stood out as one of the ways I could use to do that, and it proved itself to be an immense tool to my results.

2. Exposure to new audience.

The people who check out the press regularly are quite distinct from blog readers, so being featured in press gives you access to a new audience group. The media I’ve been featured in so far have a circulation of about 200k~300k on average. A good number of them have turned into loyal readers on my site; and many have gone on to share my site with their own networks. Within this large base of audience you can reach, there will be a good handful who are interested in what you have to offer and become loyal readers/users of your service. This is going to be especially critical when you are first starting out.

3. New opportunities.

With each media coverage I get, what’s hot on the trails are new readers, new people interested in my coaching services, new collaboration proposals by people in the industry and new speaking engagements. In fact, it was my first media coverage which put me officially on the map – everything just took off by itself afterward.

4. Credibility.

Features in traditional media automatically instill “credibility” in the subject that is featured (I’m not talking about paid advertising, of course). This is unless the article is writing you in a bad light, which isn’t likely to happen if you follow the steps in the 2nd half of the article. Most reporters are really nice people – if you work hand-in-hand with them and help them to your best ability, they will reciprocate this kindness too.

My media features have been incredibly helpful in establishing credibility in what I do. I’m in the personal development/life coaching industry, where age of the person is often used as a measure of his/her skill as a coach even though it isn’t an accurate measure. Prior to starting my blog, I had already spent many years intensely growing and helping others and had amassed a huge array of personal winning strategies and learnings. Not only that, growth is a continuous journey and I’m constantly developing myself to self-improve and better help others. With the multiple media coverages, I was able to get strong endorsement on my credibility and expertise. It has since brought me a whole list of coachees who in their 20s, 30s, 40s and even late 50s, who go on to provide great testimonials. Age is clearly no longer the issue.

So, How Do I Get Featured in Press?

Now the magic question comes – “So how exactly do I get featured in media?” I’ve lined this out into a simple, easy to follow 3 step formula. Let’s explore each step.

1. Create an absolutely enticing news story.

This is the most important step out of the 3 steps. The newsworthiness of your news angle is going to pretty much determine if your story gets featured or not. Newsworthiness means how intriguing your story is to others. Reporters are always on the lookout on what’s the latest and most exciting in the world now. If you can offer them a news story that’s absolutely irresistible and “breakthrough”, they will want to cover it.

To do that, it doesn’t mean that you have to be elected into the White House, win the Oscar or invent the vaccine for H1N1. Coming up with a good news angle just takes some element of creativity. Think about what the readers of the particular press are interested in. Your message should be one that appeals to the readers. Check out the previous editions to get a sense of the kind of stories they like to run. Coming up with an excellent news angle may mean creating a story or a movement out of nothing. (i.e., launching a new book which the world has never been seen before, doing something really viral and unique). Checkout 25 Brainstorming Techniques for 25 different ways to brainstorm for out-of-the-box ideas.

Think about these questions – What is so unique about you and what you are doing? What sets you apart from everyone else in your industry? Why should everyone know about you/your business? These should be related to your Unique Selling Proposition, which is a fundamental strategy for anyone who wants to succeed in their business/blog. (If you don’t have a USP defined yet, spend some time to craft it out first!)

I’ve learned from my media coverage that one of the best ways to create a newsworthy story is to use your personal story. Everyone has their story to tell. What’s unique about yours? My personal story was that I ditched my USD $50K/year Fortune 100 career to pursue my passionto help others live their best life, all at the age of 24. There were 3 big reasons how this was newsworthy:

1) I completely went against all types of social norms in my country (I live in Singapore which has an Asian culture and largely conformist tendencies). The most common values among Asians are financial stability and job security. Many people typically put money first and see the pursuit of passion as a luxury. Yet, I did the compete opposite – I put my passion before money. To many around me, what I did was deemed as bold, courageous, vivacious, somewhat defiant, possibly crazy, or inspiring even. Whatever it was, it was definitely not ordinary.

2) What made the story even more unconventional was I had a highly coveted career in a Fortune 100 company. Companies on the Fortune 100 list are highly prestigious and sought after by employees. I tossed away what society considered to be a conventional, golden path – right when the recession was kicking into full gear, no less! – for my passion.

3) My previous salary of USD $50K/year was considered to be high in my country, especially at my age. The average paycheck of my peers would be around half of that. People typically look upon one’s salary as an indication of one’s worth and have a habit of comparing earnings with others, especially in Asia. By very transparently and openly putting my salary right smack in my press release title, it was a great way to catch the eye of editors.

How about you? What’s your story and what makes it newsworthy? Here are some helpful articles on how to create a newsworthy story:

Get Your Message Out: Pitch Your Story

What Makes Something Newsworthy

How to Find a Newsworthy Story Angle

Spend some time to get your news angle right, and don’t even proceed to the next step unless you are absolutely sure that you have a totally irresistible news angle to pitch.It was after some brainstorming that I finally arrived at my final idea. Before that, I just refused to move to the next step because I didn’t think the ideas were strong enough. If you don’t have a highly newsworthy story to begin with, you will just be wasting your time with the next 2 steps.

Note: As you create a newsworthy story, remember to stay true to the core message and theme of your blog. While the thought of getting coverage is definitely very enticing, don’t become so eager that you lose sight of the original intent of your blog. You can certainly get featured on the press if you do something totally out of the world like running around naked in the middle of the expressway during peak hours, but that isn’t going to get you the kind of coverage you want.

2) Write Your Press Release.

After you have come up with an absolutely enticing news story, the next step is to write the actual press release. If you don’t have the luxury of a PR team (which would include me and probably most bloggers), you need to get down and dirty and write the release yourself. It’s not such a bad thing since you have complete control of how it’s written. Here are some links to check out on how to write a press release, complete with template samples:

How to Write a Press Release (PR Web Direct)

How to Write a Press Release (Publicity Insider)

Be sure that the press release you write is your absolute best and vet it repeatedly for mistakes before you move to the next step.

3) Send it to everyone u can reach

After writing the press release, it’s now time to send it to all the editors. Some people probably prefer to select a few key channels and send to those. My personal motto is to just use the shotgun approach of Ready – Fire – Aim. Since you have already taken some time out to write the release, might as well just send it to as many (relevant) channels as possible and let them decide if they want to run the story. This includes newspapers, magazines, online portals, or even radios and TV if you are interested. You can easily get the contacts from their websites or just by looking through the papers and magazines for the email addresses.

After Sending the Press Release

At this point, there’s nothing you can do but wait. You might want to get the phone number and give a call to just check if they received your press release. Depending on how popular the media channel is, the editors can receive anywhere from tens to even thousands of press releases every day, so a follow-up call might be good just to bring their attention to your release. Personally, I never did any follow-up since I got their repsonses quite promptly.

Usually, if your story has been picked for publishing, you will be notified anywhere from within the day to maximum 1 week. It depends on the type of stories they have planned for their papers and when they are running those stories. Beyond 1 week, it’s safe to assume that your press release has not been picked.

If You Are Called For An Interview

If you are contacted for an interview, congratulations! The reporter will either interview you over the phone or schedule a time/date for a face-to-face interview. If you are getting a decent feature, they will probably arrange for a photo shoot. I had done a series of phone interviews, face-to-face interviews and photo shoots where the photographers come down to my house, since my room is pretty much my ‘office’ where I write my blog.

Throughout the interview, be clear on your message you want to drive home (whether it’s on publicizing your blog/business, establishing your expertise, etc), and articulate it clearly and concisely. You can’t control how the story is being written, but you can increase chances of your message being featured by being singly-focused in your delivery during the interview. Be professional, open and personable as you share your thoughts.

At the end of the interview, check with the reporter on when the feature is coming out and whether they will be featuring the URL. The caveat is most press don’t feature web addresses as it is seen as a form of advertising. Try to rope their help in publishing the URL. Even if it can’t be published, the world doesn’t end there. People are smart – Many people went online to search for my name in Google or Facebook after reading about my coverage and eventually found me and my personal development blog. Bottomline is, if the coverage resonates with the reader, the reader will find ways to find you.

Getting the Coverage!

Of course, things don’t end after the interview is out. Here are some things to do after that:

• 1 day before the coverage is out, do an mass announcement on your blog and to all your friends. Let them know that your feature is coming out and prep them up. This helps create hype and excitement!
• Enjoy the new stream of traffic and opportunities you will get on the day of the feature. I remember I was getting new emails by the minute when my first feature was out.
• With the article out, leverage on it. Create a media section and use it as an archive for your media features. Share it with your readers through an announcement. Include it as part of your elevator pitch if you want. I put a reference to my press/media features in a corner of my header, so new visitors can immediately see that.
• Maintain good connections with the reporters and media houses for future collaborations
• Continue to create new stories for coverage in the future. Be on the lookout for newsworthy things you can do to get ongoing coverage. The good thing is, once the first coverage is in, subsequent ones will typically get easier. Out of all my coverages, some of them were solicited, and some were initiated by the reporters who read about me either through the existing coverage or other channels.

What to do if you didn’t get any coverage?

If you didn’t get any responses in your first attempt, don’t feel dismayed. Go back and review the 3 steps above. Was your news story enticing? Was your press release well-written? Did you send the release to as many different media as you can find? Check against the stories that have been running in the particular news channel for the past 1-2 weeks and try to spot the differences between those stories and your stories. Why were those stories being run and not yours? How can you create a story that’s more newsworthy than any of those? From there, refine your story. There’s some possible reasons. Sometimes, it might be the theme of your story wasn’t aligned with the type of topics the press wanted to run at the time.

Whatever it is, work on improving your news angle and your press release. You might want to improvise on what you have now, or totally work on a new angle (which might be needed if your original news angle was time-sensitive, which meant it would be outdated in due course). Then, wait for about 2-months before you send your new press release to send to the editors. The reason for 2-months is because you don’t want to overwhelm the editors with your submissions. You don’t want to get to end up having your email blacklisted in their address books.

Don’t give up – as long as you keep trying and doing, you are bound to get better and better. Here’s a favorite quote on mine on success: ìSuccess is not built on success. Itís built on failure. Itís built on frustration. Sometimes itís built on catastrophe.î – Sumner Redstone Chairman. As long as you keep working on it, you will reap the fruits of your labor in time to come.

Hope this article has been helpful to you in getting your press release . I’ll love to connect with you, so please let me know what you think!

Celestine Chua chose her passion over money when she left her high paying Fortune 100 career in 2008. she dedicates herself to helping others others achieve their goals and dreams through her popular personal development blog CelestineChua.com and 1-1 life coaching.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How To Get Featured By the Press (Repeatedly) Even If Your Blog is New

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“What is the main thing that you’re trying to get readers to do when they visit your blog?”

Last week during a conversation with an ad network executive I was asked this question as it pertains to my photography site. It was a good question to be asked because it made me stop and think a little about the priorities that I had for the site.

The first thing that I was tempted to answer with was ‘clicking ads’ or ‘buying affiliate products’ – perhaps it was because I was talking with an ad network representative that my mind automatically went to that conclusion…. however the more I thought about it the more I realized that my focus has changed over the last year or two away from having earnings as the primary focus for that site.

I realized that these days I spend a lot more time focusing my energies upon creating engaged and loyal readers.

The main calls to action on the blog and forum areas these days at DPS are to get people to ’subscribe’ or ‘join’ rather than to ‘buy’ or ‘click’ ads.

I know this hasn’t always been the case – on previous blogs I was much more interested on making the blogs profitable, but these days while I want the site to earn an income I guess I’ve realized that it will only increase in profitability if I work on other aspects of the site.

So my priorities are these days more about ‘creating engaged and loyal readers’ – how am I doing that?

There are many ways that I’ve tried to do this of late with DPS but the main 3 things have been:

1. Content

I’ve always attempted to make DPS as useful as possible but since redesigning the site earlier in the year and expanding it in terms of topics covered (we added a post production tips area and a cameras and equipment area to our previous photography tips and tutorials section) I’ve attempted to increase both the quality and quantity of content.

Quantity – Instead of one post per day we now have two per day. This has definitely boosted traffic but more importantly it seems to have increased reader engagement a little. It’s hard to track it but I’ve had quite a few readers email me over the last few months commenting that they were a little dubious about the increase in posts when it first happened but that they have come to appreciate us widening our topics to cover the new areas of the site.

Quality – I’ve always wanted to keep quality high but in the last few months I’ve made particular effort to create content that is more interactive. On a weekly basis I now try to include either a poll, a reader discussion question or some kind of ‘challenge‘ for people to go away and do. More often than not there’s two of these types of posts in the week. I’ve found that since doing more of these types of posts that reader engagement has increased, comment levels has been on the rise (in all types of posts, not just the ‘reader engagement’ ones).

2. Building a network on Twitter

I’ve put quite a bit more time into both promoting the site’s Twitter account and using it more effectively. I’m not completely satisfied with how I’m doing it yet but am seeing some real benefits of doing so in two ways.

1. Firstly follower numbers have risen quite a bit of late:

The early rise back in May was when I did a post on the blog promoting the fact that we were on Twitter. I’ve also added a Twitter icon to the ’subscribe’ area of the site (top right hand corner), have promoted it in weekly newsletters and have mentioned it in numerous articles on the site over the last few months.

2. The second aspect of Twitter has been the amount of traffic that it has been driving to the site’s two main areas, the blog and forum.

The Blog – When I started renewing my efforts with Twitter I spent most of the time promoting new articles on the blog. Here’s a chart of traffic coming from Twitter.com to DPS since the beginning of the year (click to enlarge):

You can see that even back before I started promoting the account more heavily back in May it was driving some traffic to the site. This was because we were tweeting new posts on the blog to those few followers that we had and because occasionally others were sharing links.

However lately (particularly in the last couple of months) I’ve started Tweeting not just the automated posts alerting followers to new posts but also the occasional ‘Earlier on DPS Tweet’ later in the day to catch other time zones but also links to popular archived posts. This has helped bring about a marked increase in blog traffic.

The Forum – I’m not sure why, but until a few weeks ago I had rarely shared a link on Twitter to any page in the DPS forum. Why I’d not done this I have no idea but it struck me a couple of weeks ago just how short sighted I’d been. So I began to Tweet links to ‘hot threads’ and cool photos and latest assignments in the forum area. Here’s what happened:

Do I wish I’d been doing this earlier? You bet I do!

All in all a renewed effort and focus upon Twitter has helped to drive traffic to the blog but also it is giving us an extra point of contact with readers – many of whom had not ever used one of our other subscription methods.

Note: keep in mind that the traffic above is just that traffic coming in from Twitter.com and does not include traffic being driven from Twitter clients like TweetDeck.

3. Building Newsletter Subscribers

This continues to be the ultimate goal for me on the blog. I push people to subscribe to the newsletter wherever I can because I know it’s so powerful at increasing reader engagement, driving significant traffic and as a result increasing earnings.

The guys who operate the servers behind b5media hate the days I send newsletters – it sends as much, if not more, traffic as a front page on Digg. My ad network partners always ask me why revenue increases so much on Thursdays – the earnings are so good.

Another chart – firstly daily direct traffic (ie it doesn’t include referring site traffic or search engine traffic) on the blog over the last month. You can see the days the newsletters go out pretty clearly – direct traffic doubles (at least) those days. Page views go up by even more because visitors from the newsletter typically view multiple pages.

The forum has similar peaks on newsletter days.

The next chart shows the shape of AdSense earnings on the blog (with the actual numbers removed) over the last month. Again you can see a similar pattern.

If I were to chart affiliate earnings the pattern is even more pronounced as I find my newsletter subscribers respond well to affiliate promotions.

I really can’t stress enough the power of this email newsletter that I’ve been running and promoting heavily – it’s certainly been a cornerstone in everything that I do on that blog of late.

Summing it Up

Three years ago if you’d asked me what strategies I’d been implementing on my blogs it probably would have been more about optimizing advertising and affiliate promotions. While I still do work on these things I guess I’ve realized that making money from a blog tends to look after itself a little more when you have an engaged and growing readership.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How I’m Increasing Reader Engagement on my Blog

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Compelling – “having a powerful and irresistible effect; requiring acute admiration, attention, or respect”

Image by margolove

Compelling content is a cornerstone of all great blogs. But what is it? How do you write it? Why do some blogs have it and others don’t?

Over the next week at ProBlogger I’ll be exploring a number of important principles (I have 7 so far) of producing compelling blog content. Not all of the principles covered will be relevant for every post you write or even for every type of blog but hopefully in these principles you’ll find something that helps to take your own content to the next level.

Make sure you’re subscribed to ProBlogger to get updates of each post in this series.

Principle #1 – Being In Tune with Your Readers Needs

For content to be compelling it needs to connect with needs of those consuming it.

Whether those needs are for entertainment, news, inspiration, community, instruction, intellectual stimulation, a laugh/or a cry etc – if your content meets the need it goes a long long way to being compelling – after-all, who pays attention to something that has little relevance to them?

Staying in tune with these needs can be done in a variety of ways including:

• watching the comments section of your blog for questions and problems
• watching your metrics to see what words people are searching for in search engines to arrive on your blog
• watching what people are searching for when they are on your blog using your internal search tool
• running focus groups with loyal readers (something I’ve done a few times with real success)
• keeping an eye on what questions are being asked on other blogs, forums and on social media sites
• writing a post asking your readers for their questions or giving them an opportunity to share their needs

3 Hot Tips For Connecting with Reader Needs

Hot Tip #1 – Best and Worst Posts

I’ve recently asked my readers to share their ‘best and worst’ aspects of blogging at the end of a week. One of the benefits of doing this (and one I didn’t anticipate) was that it identified some common and recurring problems that my readers were having. The comments on these posts have led to me writing numerous posts that directly seek to solve their problems.

Ultimately your goal as a blogger should be to produce content that adds value to people’s lives. Produce this and you’ve got a great foundation to build a successful blog upon.

Hot Tip #2 – Ask So What?

I love the question that Chris Garrett (the co-author of the ProBlogger book) encourages bloggers to ask every time they write a blog post.

The question is – ‘So What?’

This question is all about asking yourself whether a post actually matters – does it have any point? Will it help people in some way?

Write it out in bold lettering and put it somewhere prominent in the place that you blog. Before your hit ‘publish’ on any post ask it to yourself – ‘SO WHAT’? Does your point have a point? Does it meet a need? Who will it help?

Hot Tip #3 – Solve your Own Problems

One of the best ways to ensure that your content is meeting real needs that people have is to Solve Your OWN Needs and Problems.

An exercise that I do every time I start a new blog is to not only brainstorm a list of topics I have expertise on and things that I can help others with – but I also create a list of things that I need to learn for myself on the topic. What don’t I know yet? What challenges do I currently face? What aspects of this topic do I ask others about?

Once you’ve got that kind of list you have a list of real needs that people have and your goal needs to be to learn more in order to be able to answer them or to find someone else to help you write content on those topics.

Another useful list to create is a list of problems that you have previously had and have overcome. Think back to when you were just first exploring your topic (or if you can’t remember put yourself in the shoes of a complete newbie who has just started out). What questions did you have? What mistakes did you make? What challenges did you not know how to overcome. These beginner questions and needs are GOLD – write them down and write posts that answer them.

Homework – Go Do This!

Take 15 minutes to go on a Reader Need Hunt

Your goal is to spend the next 15 minutes compiling a list of needs that your current readers and/or potential readers might have.

Start in your blog’s own comment section and hunt for questions and then proceed through the list mentioned above. If you don’t have any readers or those you have are not verbalizing their needs yet – focus upon the last two items on the list.

You can’t find enough of these types of problems and needs. Compile them all in a list and keep it somewhere that you can begin to work through.

What You Said on the Topic

When I asked you what compelling content was to you the themes I’ve explored above came up a lot – here’s some of what you said on the topic:

• “Content that teaches you something that you can walk away and hold onto. Any bit of information that you can apply to your life.” Mitch
• “It helps me solve a problem that I have” – Jan
• ” it needs to be a useful or helpful to the targeted audience. People likes to learn something useful or helpful” – Bash Bosh
• “Helps me solve a problem that I have” – Dave
• “The important of audience is pretty obvious – write what appeals to your readership.” – Jeffrey
• “I enjoy content that logically lays out a problem and then shows me how to solve it.” – Jarie
• “To me, compelling content is content which falls into one of – 1) Educates me on something I am interested in. 2) Provides insight into something I am interested in. 3) Helps me solve a problem” – Wesley
• “Helps me to solve an issue or makes something easier to deal with, whether professional or personal. Sometimes its even straight forward advice you read and then think, this is it – this will work – this is my answer! These are often called my “Lightbulb Moments.”” – Denise
• “For me, compelling content answers a question, solves a problem, or teaches me something I need to know.” – Judy

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I’ll feature more in coming days as we explore more on the topic of how to create compelling content.

Make sure you’re subscribed to ProBlogger to get updates of each post in this series.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Get In Tune with Your Readers Needs [and Produce Compelling Content]

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“What’s the most common mistake made by new bloggers? How can we avoid it?“ – asked on Twitter by @alisonkerr.

Here are a few quick mistakes that I see new bloggers making (some of which mistakes I made myself). They’re listed in no particular order and I’d love for you to continue the list in comments below:

1. Giving up too early – blogs take time to take off
2. Putting off starting a blog – waiting until everything is just right before launching can mean you never do it
3. Echoing what everyone else is talking about – say something unique and share your opinion
4. Not blogging on your own domain – I know some swear by using hosted blogs but if you want ultimate control of your blog it is best to do it on your own domain and hosting.
5. Irregular Posting – you don’t have to post every day but try to establish a regular rhythm of posting
6. Being too apologetic – ’sorry I haven’t written for a while’ can end up being the most common type of post on a blog – yes apologize if you’ve messed up but don’t be too hard on yourself – keep investing your time into building your blog up rather than highlighting it’s problems.
7. Focusing more upon Quick Traffic than Loyal Readers – there’s nothing wrong with a big rush of traffic from social media or another blog – but just as important as that is building reader loyalty. Sometimes growing one reader at a time is more fruitful than getting spikes of traffic that never returns.
8. Clutter – too many buttons, widgets, navigation elements
9. Great Posts but Terrible Titles – don’t short change yourself by investing hours into writing great content only to slap a mediocre headline/title onto it.
10. Not Defining a Topic – the most successful blogs have a well defined topic/niche (or they target a certain demographic)
11. Choosing a Topic you have no Interest in – for your blog to be successful you’ll need to blog regularly on your topic for years – if you want to sustain it choose something you have an interest in or love for or you’ll run out of steam.
12. Too many Ads – I don’t have a problem with ads on a blog from Day #1 but when they overpower the content and push it down the page too far they hurt your chances of building a loyal readership.
13. Being too Insular/Expecting Readers to come to You – many bloggers starting out fail to realize that the more you put yourself out there and interact with other bloggers the more chance you have of being read.
14. Blogging about Making Money Blogging (as a first blog) – I’ve lost count of how many bloggers I’ve seen start blogs on the topic of blogging for money when they’ve never made money blogging. Start with something you know.
15. Not Being Useful – blogs that meet needs and solve problems are blogs that people will keep coming back to and which they’ll spread news of to their network.
16. Writing for Search Engines Before Humans – you can always tell when a blogger discovers Search Engine Optimization for the first time. Suddenly titles don’t make sense, keywords appear in posts for no real reason, links to other pages on the blog that are irrelevant to the post keep being used. Learn SEO – but keep your readers as your #1 priority.
17. Becoming a Stats-a-holic - the lure of checking your stats is understandable and common to new (and older) bloggers – but it can become an unhealthy obsession that leads to distraction and depression.
18. Link Baiting with Personal Attack – taking pot shots at other bloggers might get you some quick traffic – but hate breeds hate and the type of readers you attract and the culture it’ll breed on your blog could come back to bite you. Plus you’ll get a reputation that you might not want to live with.
19. Not Knowing Why You’re Blogging – while most of us don’t really know what we’re doing at the start – the faster you can work out what the purpose of your blog is the sooner you’ll start moving toward achieving that purpose.
20. Not Selling Yourself – one thing I don’t think many bloggers get is the power of blogs to sell yourself as a blogger. There’s nothing wrong with monetizing a blog with ads – but maybe a better long term strategy is to use a blog to advertise who you are and what you can offer readers.
21. Thinking You Have to Know it All – one of the best things about blogs is that they’re a great medium for involving your readers in the process of learning. Leave space for others to interact, share what they know and contribute.

There’s ALOT more to be said on this topic – what mistakes do you see new (and older) bloggers making?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Warning: Do You Recognize These 21 Blogging Mistakes?

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Chitika (the #2 way that I make money blogging) have come out with a handy new ad unit option for publishers wanting to monetize traffic arriving on their blog from search engines – the ‘mega unit’ premium ad unit.

This ad unit is a 550×255 pixel sized ad – it’s not small but their testing has shown some pretty impressive results with publishers reporting big increases in earnings as a result of using this rather than their smaller ad units.

Here’s how the mega ad unit looks:

How do Chitika Premium Ad Units Work?

• As with all of Chitika’s ‘Premium’ ad unit range these ads only show to US/Canadian readers arriving on your site as a result of a search on Google or one of the other search engines.
• If the reader is a loyal reader that is coming from your RSS feed or another site OR they are a reader from outside the US/Canada they won’t see them (note: there is an option to have an alternative ad shown for non search traffic if you wish but I don’t choose this option and have the ad collapse and not show at all).
• The ads showing on the unit relate to the search that the person arriving on your site is doing – this significantly increases the chance that they’ll find the ad relevant to them and click the ad.
• The ads can be customized to have different colors and fonts.
• Chitika’s testing finds that this ad unit is converting best if you slot it above your content (as you’d expect) or below content (above or below comments would work). Remember this is only showing to search engine visitors so an aggressive ad placement won’t annoy loyal readers.
• If this mega ad unit is too big or the wrong shape for you – Chitika’s premium ad units come in a large range of other sizes. You can see the add unit size options here (you can also check out what kinds of ads will show for different search terms on that page also).

How do they perform?

I have only started testing this new mega unit sized ad on my blog but have had a lot of success with other sizes of premium ad units for a long time now – I fully expect to see some great results with the larger ad unit.

I have a smaller ad unit showing on my photography blog above posts and have added a mega unit below posts to see how they perform.

What I particularly like about the premium ad units is that unlike previous Chitika ad units these convert on sites of all kinds of topics. Their previous ad units were very much suited to product/gadget related sites – but these ad units are converting for all kinds of sites and topics.

In a newsletter that Chitika sent to their publishers today they are reporting some fairly amazing results from other publishers who have been testing this ad unit. Here’s a screenshot (my highlighting):

I’m sure results will vary from site to site but at the very least I think they’re an option to be testing if you’re looking to make money from your blog.

If you’re not a part of the Chitika ad network yet – sign up here today and give them a go for yourself.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Chitika Mega Units – Publishers Reporting Massive Increases in Earnings

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In this post >Alyssa Gregory from avertua, LLC shares some tips for business bloggers wanting to become more engaging with readers.

People are busy, and in order to gain and keep readership as a blogger, you need to provide your readers with information that makes their lives better, easier, and less stressful. Business blogs are a unique case because the general subject matter tends to be a bit dry. It’s up to you as the blogger to overcome that obstacle and provide the business information you are offering in a quick and easily digestible way.

How do you do that? Here are seven ways you can engage readers of your business blog and keep them coming back.

1. Offer Advice

You’re likely blogging about business because you have business experience. One way to gain loyal readers is by sharing your knowledge and giving them practical information they can use in their own businesses. You can give your readers an instant benefit by avoiding abstract ideas and providing specific tips, advice and tools they can use right away.

2. Talk to the Audience

You’re already ahead of the game with this one, because the readers of your blog have interests that are common to yours, otherwise they wouldn’t be reading your blog. Get to know them by keeping an eye on comments, watching for trackbacks and listening to feedback in other forums. All of this input can be material you can use to make your posts resonate with your individual readers.

3. Share a Personal Story

Business is business and personal is personal, right? Not anymore. Today there is an increasing amount of overlap between the two, and people want to know a little more about the person behind the blog, beyond that they are an expert in business. So give a little of yourself to create a stronger relationship with your readers.

4. Go Off-Topic

Throw in an occasional post that’s not exactly business-related. If it bombs, it bombs and you know to go a different route next time. But if it is successful, you can insert some comic relief, mindless banter and maybe even a personal story as listed above to give your readers a brief change of pace.

5. Keep It Short and Sweet

You could probably write some very long posts when you’re discussing your latest business endeavor or what it took to have your website redesigned. If that much information is necessary, split it up into a multi-part series. Use lists, subheads and images to break up heavy content whenever possible.

6. Give Up the Wheel

Ask directed and specific questions at the end of your posts to encourage reader commentary. For every few posts where you provide advice, throw in a post that asks for the answer. Involving your readers will give them an opportunity to take an active role in your blog.

7. Give readers what they want

Carefully read the comments provided by your readers. They are invaluable because they allow you to tailor your posts to the information your readers are asking you to provide. Acknowledge the comments, answer the questions, and address the requests and you’re on your way to building great relationships with your readers.

What are some other ways you engage your readers when you’re blogging about subject matter that may not be the most exciting subject matter?

Alyssa Gregory is the owner of avertua, LLC, a full-service virtual assistant firm. She has been designing websites since 1995, and has a passion for supporting small businesses. Alyssa provides business tips, advice and news through her Small Business Idea Generator blog. Alyssa is also a regular contributor on SitePoint.

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Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been running a series of posts here on ProBlogger about how to grow a blog to the next level once it has moved past its launch phase.

If you missed some of the posts – here’s a full listing of them:

1. Building Upon Your Strengths
2. Converting First Time Readers to Loyal Readers
3. Keeping Fresh Content Flowing
4. Growing Traffic to the Next Level With Search Engine Optimization
5. Building Community a sense of Community on Your Blog
6. Shaping Your Brand
7. Expanding Connecting Points With Readers
8. Extending Your Blog Audience Beyond Your Current Network
9. Making Money – Moving Beyond AdSense

I hope you enjoyed this recent series on a topic that many bloggers struggle with.

A number of readers have asked for some more ‘beginner’ level tips on how to launch a blog – for those wanting this I’d recommend checking out the Blogging Tips for Beginners Series that we previously ran with a whole lot of tips more focused upon the launch phase.

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