Category: Marketing

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Won’t You Leave A Comment?

So I am trying a little experiment here. This is a really old blog that I have resurrected. I probably should call it the Lazarus Blog, just for fun!

Except for this post, all the posts are very old and some are completely irrelevant. But for now I am going to leave them all here and see if they get any traction.

So if you happen to stop by, could you please leave a comment? Either on this post, or any post you think is worth a comment. Either because it is so terribly good, or terribly awful. (I suspect most will be in the awful catagory!)

Thank you so much for your time.

If you think this is really weird, feel free to follow me on Twitter. @weirdtrep I follow back!

Kathleen

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Anyone Up For A Challenge?

Recently I have been writing a few hubs(posts) on Hubpages. Hubpages is a site where you can write about just about anything, and they share the page impressions with you. So when someone looks at my hub on getting rid of credit card debt, 60% of the time my adsense ads are showing and 40% of the time the hubpages ads are showing. My clicks go into my account and I don’t have to trust HubPages to pay me. Having recently been burned by another get paid to blog site, I really like the way HubPages pays.

So here is the challenge, Can you write 100 hubs in 30 days? And if you did, what would your income be?
You can join the challenge over at HubPages, but I would like to make it even more fun. Sign up for a HubPages account using this link.
Then join the challenge and start writing hubs. Leave a comment here with a link to your new HubPages profile. Anyone who signs up under my referral link and writes 100 hubs before June 17, 2009 will receive $5 via PayPal! That will be in addition to any Adsense, Amazon, and eBay affiliate earnings you get from your hubs. (That will go direct into your affiliate account.)
If no one writes 100 hubs before June 17, 2009, then I will give one $5 prize to the person who writes at least 25 hubs and has the highest number of hubs written.

Now I have to get busy. The challenge officially starts on Monday and I need to have a few hubs ready to go!

Im in, are you?
I'm in, are you?

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 4

Unfortunately, this is the final part of this series on domain name giveaways. But don’t be sad, my dear readers: before this article comes to an end, you’ll find some practical tips on how to get more comments from your visitors.

Site activity

If you own a blog—or a static site that includes comment forms—you know how important comments are. A lack of reader’s feedback can make your blog look “dead.”  This is where domain name giveaways come in handy.

  • See what Kat has been doing right here at The WebMaster Blog. It’s an excellent idea that you can adapt to your own sites.
  • Before you start giving domain names away to commenters, decide whether you’ll tolerate lame messages like “great post” or not. Make your comment policy clear and easily accessible.
  • If your blog or site displays a list of top commenters (many WordPress blogs do), you can choose to reward only those who make it into said list. Remind them that your comment policy still applies, no matter how many comments they post.

Readers’ attention

Are you a fiction writer, poet or artist looking for more feedback? Or do you have a special article you’d love to get more comments on? Yes, you guessed it: you can use free domain names to “bribe” your readers into paying attention to your pieces.

  • Do not aim at quantity. If you want true, valuable feedback, remember that quality always comes first.
  • Start a review contest. Explain exactly what reviewers should write about. For instance, if you want them to read your novel, have them analyse plot, character development and dialogues. The authors of the best reviews will get free domain names as prizes.
  • Decide whether you want both positive and negative feedback or only the former (or maybe only the latter, if you’re brave enough). In case negative reviews are allowed, make sure you’ll have the strength to recognise a  devastating comment as the best of all if it really is.
  • Some people have the ability to write convincing reviews on things they’ve just skimmed (yes, it is possible, believe it or not). To make sure your piece has been thoroughly read by those who claim to have done so, you can send them one or two very specific questions by email. Don’t make the questions public, otherwise someone could share the answers with people who may never read what you wrote.

And this is the end … of the “giving free domain names” series, not of The WebMaster Blog! Keep on checking back for more site promotion tips and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog now.

Karen Zara is a full-time writer and blogger. You can read more of her articles at Abaminds Entrepreneurs, a blog for business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurship enthusiasts.

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 3

Today you’ll see that offering domain names for free is a good way to get more backlinks for your sites and/or make people subscribe to your content.

Link building

Since building links is a major concern for many webmasters nowadays, I chose to start with this topic. Here’s how you can use domain giveaways for link building purposes:

  • Create a contest (e. g., “write a blog post about my site”). Domain names will be the prizes.
  • Have contestants link to your site or blog. Make sure they use your desired anchor text. If I were you, I’d offer various anchor text options and let each contestant pick their favourite one.
  • It may be a good idea to limit participation to webmasters who own sites related to your niche.
  • If your contest is a one-shot event, those who don’t get any prizes may simply remove your links or add a no-follow tag to them afterwards. To avoid this, you could run periodic contests, so contestants feel encouraged to keep your links on their sites for longer.

Subscribers and members

Do you want to get more subscribers to your newsletter or RSS feed? Or more members for your forums and membership sites? Domain giveaways can help you a lot:

  • Offer free domain names to your most active forum members. Make it clear that only those who write quality posts will be awarded. Unless you really don’t mind having lots of “me too” messages on your boards.
  • Ask your blog readers to subscribe to your RSS feed by email. Then compile a subscriber email list and run a draw. The owner of the drawn address will be given a free domain.
  • The idea above also applies to newsletters. To ensure that your subscribers will actually open and read your emails, you could have them answer questions about each issue. Only those who sent you correct answers would be entered in your free domain draw.

These tips are enough to keep you busy until I publish the final post in this series. It will show you how free domain name offers can be used to generate more visitor activity on your site. Remember, you won’t miss my future suggestions if you subscribe to The WebMaster Blog.

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 2

I’m finally back and resuming this series on domain name giveaways. As promised in the first part, today I’m going to offer some suggestions regarding niches to which this tactic would be appropriate.

Audiences interested in domain give aways

If you own a blog, website or forum in any of the niches below, you’re guaranteed to catch your visitors’ attention whenever you offer free domains:

  • General Internet marketing
  • Make money online
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Article marketing
  • Ebook writing and selling
  • Blogging
  • SEO and SEM
  • Web hosting
  • Domains (duh!)
  • Webmaster tips and resources

This should go without saying, but just in case you’re wondering, the reason why domain name giveaways are successful in such niches is the fact that their typical audience already knows the value of a good domain name. So you won’t have to educate anyone. You won’t have to explain why your visitors should care for your offer.

Audiences that may or may not be interested in free domain names

Here are niches whose typical audience isn’t always aware of the importance of domains:

  • Small business
  • Work-at-Home Moms/Dads
  • Anime/Manga

If your site belongs to any of these categories, should you offer free domain names to your visitors? It depends on how educated they are. For instance, some small business owners don’t even realise the importance of a website for their companies. Others are partially or fully engaged in online marketing practices such as SEO and social media. If your typical visitors fall into the latter group, your domain giveaway will likely be successful. So the first step you must take is knowing your audience, really.

Subscribe to The WebMaster Blog so you don’t miss the next post in this series. It will contain some concrete examples of benefits you can obtain when you distribute free domain names.

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 1

Kat’s recent domain give away made me realize the potential hidden in this kind of offer.

After some brainstorming, I came up with a set of tips to help you use domain names as gifts for both your visitors and yourself.

Why would I want to give domain names away?

Your domains cost you money. Your hard earned money. Why wouldn’t you save them for yourself?

Of course you’re entitled—and encouraged—to invest some money in the purchase of domains for your own use. But make no mistake: when you offer domain names as gifts to your readers, they won’t be the only benefited ones. You’ll reap rewards too:

– Traffic (people must visit your site to learn about your offer).

– Increased site activity (depending on what you ask interested visitors to do).

– A good reputation (you’ll be seen as a nice guy/gal).

Remember that site activity and a good reputation lead to more traffic. The 3 items together can help you make more money.

Why would my visitors be interested in getting free domain names?

Domains are very affordable these days. Your visitors wouldn’t be interested in your domain name give away because they can buy URLs for themselves, right?

Wrong!

A minute ago you objected to offering for free the domain names that had cost you (little) money. But if you could grab some free domains for your own use, you’d be very happy, wouldn’t you? Now why would your visitors be any different? Everyone likes freebies, especially when such freebies can help them make more money, as is the case with domains.

You may have guessed that domain name give aways don’t necessarily appeal to all types of audience. In the next installment, I’ll tell you one or two things about adapting free domain offers to various niches. Stay tuned and subscribe to The WebMaster Blog!

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I’ll Show You the Best Way to Turn Entrecard Users Into Loyal Readers

Most Entrecard users are selfish.

They just access a blog, drop a card on the Entrecard widget and move on to the next blog, where they’ll repeat the process. They couldn’t care less for the bloggers behind the pages they visit. They don’t pay attention to the posts. All they want is to accumulate Entrecard credits as fast as possible. However, when other Entrecard users behave the same way, they complain a lot: “How come all those people come here, drop a card and go away? Why don’t they take the time to click on my wonderful headlines and read my precious articles? How can they be so evil to me?” Talk about incoherence!

But do you know what? There’s an easy way to take advantage of this situation.

It’s very easy to beat selfish Entrecard users

If you’re surrounded by a selfish crowd, what’s the best way to stand out and make a difference? That’s an easy one: do not be selfish. Be generous and friendly. Offer the others exactly what you’d like to be offered.

Do you want interested visitors? Subscribers? More comments? You can get it all if you do one simple thing: whenever you visit a blog owned by a fellow Entrecarder, drop your card and leave a meaningful comment on a post.

By doing this you’ll show good-will towards the blogger, whom on his/her turn will likely return the favour. This could be the beginning of a promising relationship. In the end the blogger may become a regular visitor and/or subscriber to your blog. Of course, I highly recommend that you reciprocate.

“This is too time-consuming,” you might argue.

Let me tell you something that shouldn’t be a secret for anyone: there’s no magic way to generate repeat visits for a blog or site. If a traffic generation method looks too good to be true… you know. All effective promotion techniques require time, effort and persistence. This one couldn’t be different.

Besides, it’s about giving people what they want, as opposed to sitting down and waiting for everyone to serve you as if they were your slaves. Be nice to others and many will be nice to you too. It’s that simple.

How the Entrecard-drop-and-comment scheme works

1. You visit a blog containing the Entrecard widget. Ideally, you want to access blogs whose topics you’re familiar with.

2. You drop your Entrecard, as usual.

3. Instead of leaving the blog right away, you choose a post that catches your attention and read it.

4. Finally, you leave a relevant comment on the article you’ve just read. Since you’re familiar with the blog’s topic, it shouldn’t be difficult to come up with a nice message.

Special tip: let the blogger know you’ve found his/her blog via Entrecard. The reason why you want to do this is to show the blogger you aren’t one of those selfish quick droppers. You use Entrecard as a networking tool and you’re genuinely interested in building relationships.

There you have it: you’ve just made a blogger happier–who doesn’t like comments?–and encouraged him/her to not only reciprocate your Entrecard drop, but also pay attention to your posts. There’s no way a quick dropper can cause a better impression than you.

For more Entrecard tips and blogging advice, subscribe to our feed and read the new posts as soon as they’re published.

Your feedback is welcome. Leave a comment and share your Entrecard experiences with our readers.

Karen Zara is a writer who favours relationship building over selfish promotional actions. You can click here to contact her and/or learn more about her SEO writing services.

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Generating Traffic Offline

There are a lot of articles and reports about generating site traffic online. On the other hand, I’ve seen only a few that discussed ways to generate traffic offline. So here are some ideas I’ve picked up here and there, and some of my own.

Give away “branded” stuff. Brand things you give away with your site address; t-shirts, caps, pins, stickers, anything. You can sell them, but it’s better to just give them away. The reward you get is much more fulfilling (you get a walking billboard), not to mention socially responsible (you clothe someone).

Harness the power of traditional media. Advertise on newspapers, on television, or on-air radio. Certainly it isn’t cheap, but well worth the money. Then again you can always try to do what people from my part of the world do when they want some press attention for free. Climb up on top of a really high place and make as if you’re about to jump (don’t do this at home kids). That’ll get you some looks from the media. Just don’t forget to wear your site-branded shirt.

Get the word out. Word-of-mouth promotion is free. Use it! Tell your family and friends that you have a new site or blog. Better yet, tell everyone. This is easy. Go to social events (parties, etc.) and try to subtly include your site in every conversation you make. This may offend some people’s sense of propriety, but it beats the alternative: telling complete strangers to visit your site as you pass them on the street.

Sponsor Events. Offer to contribute something to a community affair in return for a plug. You can do this with dances, league games, and other celebrations/programs. Or create an event of your own; a contest, for example. A word to the wise: beware the snowball effect. One must always be prepared (financially) for everything that can happen when conducting a contest-else he may find himself running from an avalanche of winners because he didn’t expect such enthusiastic participation and didn’t prepare enough prizes.

Involve others. Look for other webmasters who promote their sites offline. This way you can try the more outrageous promotion methods (these methods warrant a separate article) with safety in numbers. Also, try to make tie-ups with small businesses using a “You-promote-me-I-promote-you” approach. One that is related to your site’s niche is best. You wouldn’t want your “All about dogs” site to be promoted by an adult specialties shop, and vice versa, would you? Not only is it illogical, it’s also a bit of not downright disturbing.

So there. Good Luck!

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What All Entrecard Users Have in Common?

In a previous article I mentioned some of the most popular niches among Entrecard users. However, this time I’d like to bring to your attention another aspect of the Entrecard community: something that all users have in common.

I know that trying to analyse thousands of people as a whole may be complicated. Anyone slightly familiar with Internet marketing concepts knows that we should preferably target niches. Still, I insist: despite the several divisions, niches and subniches that you can identify on the Entrecard directory, there is one way to address the entire community’s need at once.

All Entrecard users want traffic

Regardless of niche and personal preferences, what all Entrecarders want is traffic, above all else. It doesn’t matter what they want this traffic for. It may be for money making purposes, or for fame, or just to find more people to exchange views… Whatever they want, doesn’t change the fact that traffic is the way to achieve it.

Entrecard is such a successful site exactly because it meets its users’ expectations. Moreover, it’s reliable, unlike many other suspicious traffic generating offers that you may find all over the Internet.

What can you do about this simple lesson?

1. Use this as a model when you need to analyze large groups of consumers. See what needs they have in common. While smaller groups are easier to understand, it’s always possible to look at the big picture.

2. Leverage Entrecard’s userbase. One site that has been successfully doing it is BlogEngage. It would have taken me much longer to find this site if it wasn’t for all the Entrecard spots that it buys on several blogs. And note that BlogEngage is also another traffic generating site. It’s a perfect match for Entrecarders.

3. Create your own traffic generating service. There are thousands of webmasters and bloggers out there waiting for good promotional tools. Entrecard does have some competitors, but none of them has managed to become as popular. Can you take this challenge and create a better solution?

I have more Entrecard-related tips to share with you. Subscribe to The WebMaster Blog so you don’t miss any future post. And remember that by subscribing you’ll have the chance to win several prizes in our contest. Click here to learn more about it.

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Free E-Book with Full Rights

I managed to get my hands on some very nice e books with full rights. You can do anything you want with them. Sell them, give them away, publish them on your website. Here is all you need to do to get your free e book.

1. Subscribe to our feed. Very, very important!
2. Comment on this post and tell me which e book you would like. I’ll send it to you by email.

You can choose from:
The Affiliate Marketers Handbook
Internet Entrepreneurial Success
Cashing In On eBay

Thanks for reading The WebMaster Blog!