What are your metrics for success? Is it traffic, page views, user engagement, links, comments, rss subscribers? It’s ok if one or two of them flatlines or drops, but if most of them have turned south, you have a problem.

What are you writing about? Are you writing about topics that are of interest to your community and staying on topic?

Are you engaging the community? Are you interacting with other people in comments? Are you engaging people on twitter, not just looking for retweets?

Are you being helpful? Are you writing tutorials teaching people how to do something? Are you taking questions from your community and paying it forward?

Are you publishing regularly? You don’t have to publish daily but you do have to publish often enough that people don’t forget you exist. Are you publishing at the right time of day when most of your community is in front of their computers to read it, or are you publishing today’s news at 9PM Pacific Standard time, when most of your community is long gone. That’s not news that’s ancient history.

Are you stepping outside of your comfort zone? Are you challenging the authorities in your space who are you think are wrong? Are you willing to take responsibility for those actions, realizing not everyone will agree with you?

Are you visually interesting? Are you using pictures? Not just for the sake of meeting a visual quota but good images that make a post better.

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Are you Innovating? Are you evolving and improving how you do business, and are you trying new methods and techniques?

To put a fine point on it what are you doing to be interesting and worth reading?

Original Post on www.wolf-howl.com

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1. Get T-Shirts printed with your URL on it

and give them out to friends and family. This can be a somewhat expensive blog promotion idea but it carries a lot of weight. The amount of people that will see your url on a t-shirt during the life of that t-shirt could be thousands and thousands. Just about everyone wears t-shirts so they are a easy giveaway and they need no talking into to get someone to accept your freebee. It is easy to get t-shirts printed online from many t-shirt business‘s. If you live in a big city you can get them done at a t-shirt shop, the more you buy the cheaper the per unit cost. Humans are curious by nature and people will visit your url if they see it on a t-shirt.

2.Blog Promotion on Billboards and Bus stop benches

This can be a reach for some startup blogs budgets. But the old saying goes it takes money to make money holds true to this day. In every town in America their are billboards for rent that you can have your url and tag line on. These can be seen by millions if you get one by a busy highway in a big city. If you live in the country it might not be the best idea for you. Billboards are a very good way to advertise and are not to be overlooked it you are serious about promoting your blog. It can be a expensive way to advertise. But if you think big you will become big if you think small you will stay small.

3. Laptop Skins for Blog Promotion

I love this idea as it is the least expensive idea for today and it can pay off in dividends. Their are many Laptop skins business’s that you can design and have a laptop skin made for your computer. This is only a good idea if you use your laptop in coffeshops and airports and places where people are around. If you never leave your house with your laptop then revert back to Idea 1 or 2.

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Im sure I will have some who disagree with me but this is a blog promotion site and I dont want to steer you wrong with a bunch of fluff and B.S. like some of the bigger sites will. First and foremost do not ever pay someone to promote your site thru Youtube this is a guaranteed scam.

It wouldn’t be profitable for the business that claims it can because the time and effort would outweigh their profit.Steer clear of these scams. But if you are a avid Youtube visitor like I am, I use Youtube videos on some of my other sites there is one fast way to drive traffic to your site using Youtube. It is leaving a comment on any video page that you watch.

The comment will not create a link back but it can lead to visitors and usually the person who posted the video will come for a visit as well, because they always come back to check their video comments out. If your niche is celebrity news then search for celebrity news videos and be specific and search only for today. Videos will show up about celebrity news and some will show up not related to your search , you will have to sift thru these videos.

If your site is called celebritynewsbuzz  then leave a comment on the site that says we used your video on our site celebritynewsbuzz it is on the front page. If you use videos in your blog then post the Youtube video you have found on your blog, readers love videos.

If you dont post videos then leave the comment we are thinking about using your video on our site celebritynewsbuzz. You can not leave a .com at the end of your comment as it will be filtered out by youtube. And if your site is not a .com then you are out of luck because 99% of the people who are nosy and the video poster will type in celebritynewsbuzz.com.

The only other way you can get traffic from Youtube is to make your own videos and post them up on Youtube , but once again this is a lot of trouble and you dont want to do this as very few will leave Youtube to check out your site. Posting comments is the way to go , I know I do it everyday for my site that I use videos on.

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Using Twitter to Promote your Blog

1. Sending Blog Posts Straight to Twitter

I use a wordpress plugin called twittertools on all my other Blog sites to post straight to twitter and to put a post on twitter every time I publish a article. I was a genuine twitter hater at first but my partner is a twitter junkie and she has shown me the error of my ways. Twitter is a great way to get unique visitors to visit your blog.

2. Add Follow me on Twitter badges

Twitter is in its early stages and it is a good time now to get a lot of followers. Every follower is a potential everyday reader for your blog. Users of Twitter do not follow everyone, they pick and choose who they follow. Twitter has grown and morphed into a “whoever has the most followers has the power” type of site. Gaining a lot of followers is the key to using twitter to its full potential. To accomplish this I would add twitter follow me badges on every blog page and post you make.

3. Comment on other Twitter users Posts

Make your twitter followers believe whatever they are tweeting about interests you. People love to have their ego stroked and commenting positively about other tweets is a good start to gaining positive responses on your own tweets.

4. Re Tweet your followers tweets

This is very important point I must emphasize, always Re Tweet your followers tweets. This is what everyone on twitter wants to happen to their tweets. Re tweeting someone else’s post shows you are interested in what they have to say and helps them gain new followers. The old saying one hand washes the other will then begin to happen for your own blog posts your followers that you have retweeted will start re tweeting your tweets which in turn will lead to more followers for you.

If you have followers that never re tweet your posts send them a personal message asking them to re tweet your posts and you will do the same for them. This form of direct communication should be used sparingly as I presume in the future twitter will crack down on this and it will result in a ban. But for now the wild wild twitter mania is wide open so use it for your benefit.

5. Ask your followers to critique your blog posts

Ask your twitter followers to critique your current blog post. Post a link to your new blog post and ask your readers to look over your grammar or your overall article.  Make a list for your blog, for instance if your blog is about movie lovers, you would make the list the top 100 horror movies of all time and ask your followers to look over the list and see if there are any good movies that you have left off the list. This will lead to instant traffic to your blog by your followers and also if you ask them to re tweet it for you it could lead to a spike in traffic in one day. I hated to give that secret away but I have decided that I will not hold back any blog promotion tips on this blog. You can take that one and run with it.

Asking followers for input should be used sparingly, over use will put off your followers your responses will drop off.

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Myth 1: Blog Marketing is Easy

This is one of the biggest myth’s of all,and gets harder everyday. The internet gets more and more crowded and the success stories are fewer and fewer. One thing that I have learned is that internet or blog marketing is not easy. It take alot of time and hard work and many hours in front of a computer while your life passes you by. I know first hand the ups and downs of internet marketing and I can tell you it is not easy. It is simple to register a url and get a blog online, but marketing it and promoting it is not easy. There are many blogs in my niche that are full of fluff but no substance and yet they are still successful. The reason is that they put a lot of work into promoting and paying for advertising to drive traffic to there Blogs. Blog Marketing is easy is a myth.

Myth 2: Anyone Can get Rich and Make Money Online with a blog or website

This has very little truth to it unless you call selling something on ebay as making money online and even then the waters are very crowded. The only people making money off of ebay these days is ebay. Making money running a website is  very hard for a veteran blogger or internet expert, let alone a first timer. A few first timers stumble into a niche that has not been attemped but that in itself is like hitting the lottery these days. You can make some money online if you have a 10,000 or less Alexa ranked site but that is not a easy task to accomplish. All the scammers out there with the I make $5000 a day posting links for google on my site are just that scams. Barnum Bailey once said theres a sucker born every minute. Anyone can make money online is a total myth.

Myth 3: It’s Too Late to Start a Successful Blog

The old saying is very true the early bird gets the worm.

Don’t you wish you were the blogger who started Digg or Myspace ? Of course you do, it is every bloggers dream to start a new site that becomes a household name. Well that dream can still be achieved all it takes is timing and luck and a lot of hardwork. It is never too late to jump into the blogging world with a idea and grow it into the next big niche. The internet is here to stay and the competition is fierce,but not impossible. If you are stumped about how or what to blog about then look at the successful blogs that you admire and give them some competition in the same niche. Improve upon what they started and give the world some choices, for every myspace there is a facebook. Its to late too start a successful blog is a huge myth.

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If nobody knows your blog exists, who is going to read it?

There are a numerous things you can do to get readers to your blog. Do them consistently while you’re writing good, interesting content and your readership might grow.

You will want to bring your blog to the attention of people who might be interested without making it clear that’s all you want to do so find places these people hang out, and get the word out. Let’s say your blog is about rating movies. You need to frequent forums and places that other people who rate movies go to and post comments and engage in the topic.

Make some blog posts about the topic or reply to some other posts and include a link to your blog. This isn’t allowed on every forum, so know the rules,but never support a forum that doesnt allow signature links or any links , it is a waste of your time. Also always view page source if it is a no follow site or forum dont waste your time going there, I am all for boycotting these type of sites that want your readership but give nothing in return.

Another top way to get blog readers is by writing articles about your topic and submitting them to article directories with a link back to your site. There are endless places you can publish your articles and blog posts that will drive traffic to your blog. You have to put in work to reach your traffic goal.

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More than 168 Million U.S. viewers watched online video during that month, accumulating nearly 26 Billion total views.

ComScore gives us information of the most popular sources for online video, and there are virtually no surprises. Google still has a chokehold on the competition, with a dominating 40.2% market share. Second place goes to Hulu, with a paltry 2.2% of the market.

The average Hulu viewer watched 15.1 videos in September, totaling 1.5 hours of viewing per person. Of course, that pales when compared to YouTube’s staggering 82 videos viewed per person.

There some really interesting data on online video in general too. For instance, did you know the average video watched is now 3.8 minutes in length? I was shocked at that. I know three minutes doesn’t sound like much, especially when compared to the length of a TV show or movie. But think about it in terms of the web. Go open up your analytics program and tell me the average length of time spent on site is for your visitors. If it’s anywhere near 3.8 minutes, I’ll buy you a coffee the next time we see each other.

In terms of web visitors, 3.8 minutes is an eternity, and most webmasters would kill for an attention span like that. If everything else we’ve said before today hasn’t already convinced you to jump into online video, then zero in and focus on just this metric. What would it be worth to you to hold your visitors’ attention for four minutes? Because I can’t remember the last time I saw a simple text-based blog post average anything close to that.

Among the rest of the findings: 84% of Americans online watched videos. 84%. As I continue to try and convince all my clients to jump fully into online video, I’m going to stop using that statistic about how many searches are performed on YouTube every month… and I’m going to start using this stat. 84% of people online are watching online video.They’re watching an average of about 10 hours of video every month.

If you have a blog and you want to increase your average time on the site for advertisers and google analytics, you need to incorporate videos on your blog.

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1. All Traffic Is Not the Same

No two sources of traffic are quite the same. I get a good percentage of the traffic at my blog through social media, and I can attest to the fact that social media traffic is generally less responsive and less likely to stick around than visitors from most other sources. Focusing on stats without looking at the true results can cause a bit of an illusion. Sure, visitors are great, but are they leaving after being on the blog for 30 seconds and never returning?

Search engine traffic is highly sought after because these visitors are actively looking for what you have to offer. But other types of traffic have strong points too. Visitors who are referred from another blog will generally be more responsive since they have been recommended by someone they trust. Every source of traffic has pros and cons, so try to take these things into consideration when you are promoting your blog.

2. Daily Posting Is a Must

Most bloggers need to keep publishing new posts in order to keep traffic at a certain level. Some bloggers are able to generate large amounts of search engine traffic to older posts to the point that traffic will be fairly sustained without new posts, but this is pretty rare. New posts keep readers coming back, they keep social media votes coming, and they keep adding new pages to search engine indexes.

Posting consistently doesn’t mean that you have to post every day, but I will say the most successful blogs post daily and sometimes all day.

3. Consistent Traffic Is Almost Impossible

Although posting needs to be daily to keep traffic levels up, that doesn’t mean that it will keep traffic levels consistent. Every blog has ups and downs and two days are rarely the same. This is a natural occurrence and it should be embraced or else it can become very frustrating. Make sure that you enjoy the times when traffic is high, and keep on plugging away to get through the slower times. Keep your nose to the grindstone and it will pay dividends.

4. Repeat Visitors Should Be the Goal

Yes, it’s great to see an impressive number of unique visitors arriving at your blog, but how many of them will be back? Repeat visitors are the lifeblood of blogs.

Repeat visitors will not only help to improve your overall traffic flow and stats, more importantly they will be your most responsive visitors in terms of comments, social media votes, sales, and just about anything else. As they keep coming back and reading your blog, you will be earning more of their trust and your network will grow.

5. Links Help In Several Ways

Building inbound links is a priority for most bloggers, and for good reason. They drive click-through traffic from other blogs, they increase your exposure around the blogosphere, and they help to boost your search engine rankings. Link building is often prioritized because of search engine rankings, but the other factors should not be overlooked. If you blog in a competitive niche, recognition and exposure will be critical in convincing visitors that they should pay attention to you. Getting a few links from respected blogs can help with search engine traffic, but the added credibility that you get can be just as important, especially for newer bloggers.

6. Diversity Is Important

Diversity in traffic will help you to avoid losing a huge percentage of your visitors if something unforeseen happens. Search engine rankings are not permanent, especially with Google being so ready and willing to penalize blogs who they feel have violated their guidelines. If you rely too heavily on search engine traffic you could find yourself losing a big portion of your traffic at any given time.

Also, social media traffic is extremely inconsistent, so just because you have been getting decent traffic doesn’t mean it will continue. The best approach is to spread things out and focus on growing traffic from several sources rather than just one.

7. Smaller Sources of Traffic Should Not Be Ignored

Not all sources of traffic will send thousands of visitors, but that doesn’t mean that they are not valuable. For example, participating in forums is likely to drive some traffic to your blog, but not tons. However, those visitors can be very valuable because they have met you or learned from you through the forum and they’ll be more likely to become a loyal reader.

Leaving comments on other blogs will bring some traffic, but it is rare that any one comment will bring a lot of visitors. Still, this traffic is valuable because many times they have clicked through due to something that you said catching their attention.

Don’t assume that traffic is measured only in terms of numbers. Smaller sources of traffic have been instrumental in building many successful blogs.

8. Networking With Other Sites Is Critical

All successful bloggers are surrounded by a strong network of other successful bloggers. This is something that I didn’t really think much about before I started blogging, but I quickly came to realize the importance of networking.

A strong network will provide you with friends and colleagues that can be a help when you need some advice, they can provide links to your blog, they can give you social media votes, they can be an inspiration and encouragement to you, and they can even wind up being your partners in future projects. Being a strong networker is all about being willing to help others and being proactive in meeting others.

9. Building Search Engine Traffic Will Take some Time

New blogs generally take several months, at least, before they gain enough trust from search engines to produce any type of significant flow of traffic. If you are planning to focus on search engines as your primary source of traffic, you would be well advised to also focus on some other sources of traffic, especially in the early months.

Building a blog that is search engine-friendly is critical if you want to maximize search traffic, so take care of that from the start and focus on creating great content that others will talk about and link to and Copy.

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