How to Improve Visibility Through Liking Facebook Fan Pages

One of the most important tenets of online business success is traffic generation. If no one is visiting your website, blog or fan page, you are in the digital wilderness. I am speaking from a position of experience. By liking fan pages of people with similar interests, I have had referrals to clients. I recently signed a contract to produce top quality articles for a blog site simply by liking and commenting on someone’s fan page.

Get Fans Involved

Of course, just liking a fan page is not enough.  Constant interaction is necessary to keep current fans coming back and to get new ones. Some proven ways to drive traffic to your website and keep your fan base in the process are:

• Get your fans involved by asking questions or asking them for their opinion. When they respond, you also need to respond to them
• Post relevant content that is unique and interesting
• Post often so there is always something fresh for your fans to read
• Combine your other social networking tools to your fan page. This way, when you update your fan page – Twitter and LinkedIn etc will be updated as well
• Offer them gifts, such as a free ebook, a free session if you are a coach – you are limited here only by your imagination
• Engage your fans, they will be your most valuable assets when it comes to driving traffic and increased business
• Say thank you when you receive new fans! They will remember, take it from me. You can do this by giving a gift or by simply saying, ‘thank you!’

For most of us, the traffic will not start coming right away, but do not give up. Over time, if your content is great and you give your fans what they want - you will see growth. Do not make the mistake many people make, they build a fan page and then just leave it and expect to get fans. You have to work at IT and work at IT constantly.  

If you need some help to grow your fan base or just to get motivated to write content, join April’s Ultimate Blogging Challenge.

One Month of Nonstop Blogging Fun

Once again I’m taking a stab at the "@" Ultimate Blogging Challenge – posting one article per day for the next 30 days. Truth be told I am yet to complete a full month with work and family obligations getting in the way. However, this time around I intend to get to the finish line.

 

The group of people who normally participate are a sharing group who try to motivate each other. I am hoping to use this support as my motivation to post to my blogs at least once per day every day. The focus of my blogging for April will be on my blogs for Superior Web Content and Jamaica For Visitors.

During the times that I have participated in the Challenge I have found that I was inspired to write and the topics just came. Of note is that my traffic also increases during this time, as does my workload as new clients find me due to my increased blogging activities.

You can read more about this adventure by visiting the website. You will find an interesting mix of writers and diverse subjects being covered in the blogs. I know that I have formed friendships as well as grow as a writer and freelancer from this interaction. Whatever your reason for blogging, this is the perfect opportunity to help you achieve your goal.

It is not too late to join the Ultimate Blogging Challenge.  I would love to see you there. 

I Hate Captcha – Yes, I Really Do!

I was just thinking how time consuming and stupid captchas can be. I was thinking that there must be a better way, so imagine my surprise when I did a search and found I wasn’t alone.  There is actually a Facebook page called, you guessed it, I Hate Captcha. It’s bad enough you can’t read the scribbles, but then there are times when symbols and ‘alienese’ are included.

I understand the purpose, but why make it such a frustrating procedure? Sometimes I get so turned off, I don’t bother with the site I was trying to sign up with. Yesterday, after about 10 tries I just gave up on Stumbleupon. Maybe I will give it another try in the not too distant future, but there are other sites that serve the same purpose. 

Yeah, I know you want to differentiate between computers and humans, but this is what you, the designers, have done:

• Give me eyestrain - that's not so nice after you hit 35
• Stop me from commenting on lots of blogs I would to comment on - it's just not worth it after a couple of tries
• It drives people crazy - I'm just this close to tearing my hair out

I hate spam, but I would much rather deal with it than this ‘pain-in-the-butt CAPTCHA.  All I have to do is delete the spam; it takes me less time and does not frustrate me as much. I know some folks get tons of spam on a daily basis, but the captcha is also preventing interaction with clients and visitors. 

There has got to be a better way to spam-proof websites other than captcha. I can remember seeing questions asked such as why not use a simple calculation, which requires human input?

 

What You Can Learn From A Lion: Business Ideas From The Animal Kingdom

This morning as I sat down to write my blog entry for the Ultimate Blogging Challenge, I came up blank. I wanted something fun and useful, but nothing was coming to mind. So, I turned to my favorite source of inspiration, my son Jalen. I asked him to give me a topic to write about. His response was, write about lions.

So here goes my post on lions and what they can teach us in the business world and also about life and living. The first thing that caught my attention is that:

·       They are social animals in their own communities or pride. So how about you – are you social in your community, be it your niche market, work, school, church? Being social doesn’t mean being friends with everyone, but it means putting yourself out there.

How will your business grow if you do not network and interact with people who may be able to recommend you or become a potential client?

·      Have you ever watched a documentary with lions hunting? If you do, you will realize that teamwork is helpful in the hunt. Since they are not the fastest or biggest animals, they need to work together to get their prey. What can you learn from their hunting habits? Have you tried collaborating with others?

Have you been looking for opportunities where your skills could complement that of another professional? As a contentwriter, I have been contacting graphic and website designers to write the content for the sites they create. If you are an indexer, start networking with editors and proofreaders – you just never know when they may have clients who need indexers.

·      Lions are courageous and strong and usually dominate the food chain. Are you strong and courageous enough to take risks and make hard decisions so as to improve your business, financial health or life in general? 

So there you have it. I never thought of learning anything worthwhile from the animal kingdom to apply to business. I guess I was wrong.

                                         From Free FreeDigitalPhotos.Net

Out of the Mouth of Babes

My son will be 8-years old on August 10, and I feel as if he’s the parent some of the time. The statements coming out of his mouth constantly amaze me. Yesterday, I was feeling overwhelmed and he said something that resonated with me. It wasn’t the first time he has done that and it certainly won’t be the last I wager. 

“Mom, no matter what, just remember that at the end of the day, you will be with us, your family. It’s never as bad as you think, you know.” Wow, literally out of the mouth of babes, but it sure did something for me. It got me thinking about business and life. 

Children by Free Digital Photos.net

Interestingly, that statement yesterday gave me the courage to turn down a project that I thought I needed to do. I was really struggling to come up with a decision…but I realized after that little talk, that it wasn’t the end of the world. So going forward, while it will be difficult sometimes, I need to remember, “It’s never as bad as I think.” In fact, I will be printing that statement and putting it above my computer for inspiration. 

So, I made a business decision after talking to my son – a child. Anyone who has to make a living from writing content or from offering freelance services, knows that some clients need to be fired. They also know that it is a good idea to follow their gut feeling and turn some jobs down.

I survived yesterday and I survived today, and you know what - He is right, it’s never as bad as it seems. So, do you ever get words of wisdom from unexpected sources?

For Business Success: Stand Out From the Crowd

Sometimes standing out from the crowd is the only way to succeed. In many types of businesses such as article writing, standing out is a MUST! Competition is tough in this business. Even before high unemployment started forcing people to find other ways to earn an income, this business was competitive. To make clients take notice, and more importantly choose you, you have to be different. It’s not enough to be a great writer.  

So how do you stand out from the crowd? These four simple steps are a start:

1. Make an impact: Make prospective clients take notice when you apply for a job. If you are responding to a request for a quote – make your response stand out. Show that you put some thought into it by making your proposal one that someone will remember. Even if you don’t get that job, you may get another.  
    
2. Offer more:  So someone wants you to write an article for them, try to make it SEO heavy or localize the content. One long-term client has been with me for over 6 years simply because I gave him more. I explained what I was doing and the benefits, and I’m now his go-to writer for many projects.                                                                                                           
3. Be an expert:  Guess what, clients will pay for expertise. Many great writers do not make it in this business. Why? They refuse to learn the technical aspects. They have no idea what SEO or Google Panda are. Never stop learning, it’s as simple as that.                                                     
4. Be Nice! Yep, this really does work. Say thank you to clients, even when they may not be the nicest. Send a thank you email for a new project you received. Even when clients move on, thank them for the opportunity of working with or for them. They will remember you.  I’ve had clients come back to me years later when they need something done and done right. 

Ultimately, if you love what you do and you are passionate about it, then it will show. Making your business different is possible – so what’s stopping you from starting NOW!

Blogging: Is There Is An App for That?

It is no longer a cliché to say, ‘there’s an app for that.’ There seem to be an app for just about anything. If you area a blogger, did you know that there are lots of apps, some free, that can make blogging fun and easy. Many bloggers are constantly on the go, and having an app that is as mobile as you make life so much easier. 

Four apps to consider if you blog are:

1.       Awesome Note (+ ToDo)        

One of the reasons bloggers will love this app for the iPhone is that it is a nifty tool for making and organizing list and notes. If you have an idea for a blog entry, you can easily make a note so you can keep track of what you want to follow-up on. This app can be integrated with Google docs, making it easy to write or edit your blog article wherever you have Internet access. The beauty of the app, it’s vibrant colors and graphical calendar, is worth the small one-time price. 

2.       EverNote  

It is hard to believe that this app is free.  EverNote delivers in a big way, enabling great note taking for use later on. It enables the recording of videos and taking of pictures as well. This is one of the easiest productivity tools out there and can help anyone who wants to step up efficiency a notch. With this app, you can store your documents and sync them to different devices such as PC and Smartphones. For even more power, there is a Premium version available, but the free version is adequate for most users. 

3.       SwiftKey X

This versatile app works across platforms. The touchscreen keyboard help make typing a breeze. It analyzes the words you use and can predict what you intend to type and correct misspellings quickly. The intuitive nature of this app helps to save time, especially if you type quickly. The size of the keys also makes it a lot easier to type, which is boon to bloggers on the move. For under $5.00, this app is worth the download price. 

4.       Vigo  

This app is great for bloggers who need to keep abreast of new information whether for inspiration or just to know. This app for the Blackberry is a great new tool for getting RSS feeds for the information and news junkie.  

There are lots of other blogging apps that you can explore to make the blogging process a lot easier. Some are specific to some operating systems or platform while other work great across networks. A comprehensive list of apps of interest to bloggers who use blogger is here.