Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

You may have signed up for a couple different services to monitor your stats like Google Analytics, CrazyEgg, Woopra, and more. However, what can you get from those stats that will allow you to be able to fill the need for your readers, including first time visitors who are looking for something?

If your visitors cannot find what they are looking for, they are going to leave. If you are not tagging and using keywords that accurately fit your articles, you might need to go back with a critical eye and adjust. Remember that people look for things and type in a few words to search. If your article comes up, hopefully it does relate to what they are searching about.

Whether you look this up every week, couple of weeks, or once a month, you will want to know a couple things when looking at your stats:

1. How did your visitors enter your site? Did they come from a search engine or were they referred by another blog? Were they referred from your social network handles?
2. What search terms are coming up about your site? Are they really what you wanted people to look for? If not, as I said, you might need to go through your site and correct the problem.
3. Where are your visitors leaving your site? Sometimes for self-hosted users, you can use your built in server stats. For example, most cPanel users have access to Webalizer. Some outside sites can also tell you where your visitors are leaving from.

Once you have determined the need of your visitors based on the information you got from your stats, you need to put a plan into motion. If one part of your site is receiving attention, obviously you need to emphasize that. However if there is an article you really wanted people to see, you will also need to build a marketing plan around that.

Two features I really recommend on a site are Yet Another Related Post plugin, Featured Post with Thumbnails… at least for WordPress. I know there are components that are equivalent in Joomla and Drupal, but not the name. They are really handy. While you have a post, you can entice your readers to look at other related articles that might delve into more of the topic they had already come to read.

Another great way is to enhance your 404 page. While you might try Joost de Valk’s Practical Guide to 404 Error Pages: What WordPress is Missing, you can also add material to entice visitors to the most popular places on your site besides giving a suggestion of page links.

Last of all, if you do not have what someone is looking for, but it is relevant to your site, create the content – fill that need. This is very simple and even if you were planning on posting about other things, you can always write those articles, and schedule them to post anytime.

The bottom line is that you want to keep your visitors on your website. By solving your visitors need, they will come back and perhaps look for more goodies.

What methods do you use in determining your visitors needs? How have you fulfilled those needs?

Some people have a hard time typing or writing their thoughts into their blogs. However, these same people have no problem talking their mind. These are the people that might do well podcasting.

According to Wikipedia, podcasting is:

Podcasting a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.

If you have a simple microphone, and a recording device, you can podcast. You can podcast all your blog posts instead of writing, or mix up your posts with your podcast recordings. Of course, those who want to have a more professional sound, you will have to invest in great sound equipment, but for those starting out, you might want to try something like Audacity.

I have used the program and it really does a great job for a free and open source audio program. These days, it is really easy to implement audio files into blogs.

Podcasting is a way that makes your website have more depth. While your visitors might not see your face, they can hear you. They can surf the web, while keeping your site open in another browser window and listening to you. You can talk about anything you want your listeners to hear. You can even have your podcasts be downloaded and listened to on phones! Some sites you might consider sharing your podcasts at, in order to gain more visitors/ listeners:

NPR.org – National Public Radio
Podcast Alley
Podcast Pickle
Podcast Directory
Digital Podcast
iTunes
Blog Talk Radio

Have you tried podcasting? What tools do you use? What kind of topics do you podcast about?

There are so many people out there in the world, and even millions upon millions of websites out there. Each person is knowledgeable in their own field. Whether it be novice or an expert, when you begin a site, you should not be telling people you are an expert in your field.

In fact, I discourage it even as you gain followers, traffic, and overall, influence.

Why should you not say that you are an expert?

• Someone else might come along and know more than you. It might a possible battle of egos in the making. Unfortunately, it does happen and you really have to be diplomatic and open minded in handling such an encounter.
• You readers might be turned off from even trying to read your content as soon as they see “expert” or “guru.” You come off as cocky and people really connect better with those who are humble.

Let your followers call you an expert or a guru. They are the ones that are nearly your makers or breakers when you build your site and overall brand online. If you are telling people that you are an expert, they might take your word for it, but when you have so many more saying it rather than you, then they believe it for real.

So, for those who are new to blogging and social media practices, here are some tips to build that relationship with your followers as well as encourage them to leave recommendations.

• Provide a way in your contact form to allow your guest to submit a testimonial about their experience on your site, or about your products or services.
• If you have readers who follow you on LinkedIn, send them a recommendation request in regards to your site or services.
• Reserve a section in your site for testimonials, whether you use a plugin, or manually enter each testimonial. Allow a place to link their site back as a way of saying thank you for leaving a testimonial.
• If someone recommends you on other social network sites, link to those places and bring the comment back to your testimonial page.
• If you have readers who prefer to remain anonymous, put a survey together and allow them to submit it to you knowing it will not be publicly shared.

As a last thought, never pay for testimonials or recommendations and NEVER beg. They normally seem obvious and it cheapens the experience for your readers, even if you are the only one that knows you paid for a testimonial. Even if it is for $5. It is not worth it, and you should be building your authority and brand honestly.

And begging, you do not want to be desperate. If you are doing a good job, in time people will speak. You can definitely ask for feedback, but never beg.

How do you let someone know they are an expert? What other sites are great for building authority and gaining recommendations from your followers. What are your thoughts on this?

It takes work to get your content out there for others to see. Whether by social networks, social bookmarking, message boards, and more, it all is based on how you deliver your message. That is how social media works. If you have people who are visiting, you will retain a few, but possibly have some that come one time and never glance back.

What do you do to keep them coming back?

Well, if your site has valuable information, you may need to make sure you are delivering it in an understandable way. Not everyone thinks and understands as you do. That is why there are so many tutorials out there for doing one particular thing. That is why there are so many articles out there that seem similar, but somehow have told the message differently and have include information that another place may not have covered.

Here are some ways to reach out to your visitors and hopefully have them coming back.

- If you have a graphic and web design site, perhaps reach out to the community and feature artists from time-to-time. Be varied and specific about the different types of artists as not all are the same, and you can play with this by featuring artists by their particular genre of graphic or web design.

- Have a auto-responder type script built into your comment system or something like the Thank Me Later plugin for WordPress blogs that literally send a thank you to your visitors for commenting and invite them back to your website or to subscribe to your rss feed.

- Readily leave a contact or some type of feedback form for visitors. Encourage them to give suggestions for future topics to cover. Also, for a little ‘pay it forward’ type action, give credit to those who send topic suggestions that you end up blogging.

- Make sure to not be afraid about mentioning your blog topics when a conversation comes up in your social network streams and message boards that are relevant to what is being discussed. It is on-topic. However, do not make it seem as if you are pressing your opinion upon them. Just make sure to say why you are including the link, especially how it connects to the current topic.

- Have a visible RSS feed or some type of opt-in form easily available for your visitors to be able to subscribe to your blog.

- Include a related post script like Yet Another Related Posts Plugin for WordPress users so you can keep your visitors enthralled with related topics if they are needing more information.

- Encourage visitors to give feedback within your articles by commenting. This extends the conversation so both you, and your visitors can learn from each other.

These are just a few suggestions I am listing off the top of my head. What other ones can you think of to reach out to your visitors and have them keep coming back?

If you do not have a contact form, people probably tell you that you need one or you have been reading that you need one. Something to generate a lead will help your site greatly.

Your form could be for general inquiries or perhaps a form for visitors to ask questions as prompts for possible future posts. You might even have several different forms for different business services.

Your visitors arrive at your site because there is something there that they are interesting in at least seeing. In the case you do not have it, that form can help you fill that need.

What type of sites need a contact form or some type of lead form?

Answer: EVERY SITE!!!

It does not matter if you have a mommy blog or a regular journal. You never know when you might get questions asking for advice or even inquiries to advertise on your website. It could also mean other types of opportunities like products given in exchange for a review.

Not all inquiries are suited or are on topic for your blog entries, so the form is a great place to make sure you have a door open for your visitors.

In regards to your contact form, you should at least have the following fields:

• Name
• Email
• Website
• Subject
• Message
• Captcha or Re-captcha type verification to prevent spam

If you have special questions you want visitors to answer in your form, like asking them if they want to subscribe to your site’s newsletter, you can add that.

There are many types of forms available to bloggers and site owners for most content management systems. There are quite a few contact form plugins available for WordPress alone.

I personally install Gravity Forms on my clients’s sites and use it on my own. It is very user-friendly and allows you to drag and drop fields in to create your own form. The plugin does cost, but is is well worth it.

Click here to visit Gravity forms. I will be sure to follow up with a thorough review of Gravity Forms as well.

Do you have a contact form? How long did you have your website open until you put up some sort of lead generation? Is your form standard or do you have any special questions that you ask visitors to answer?

What is digital distinction? Well, digital distinction in regards to social media, though it has no official meaning, is describe as:

Digital Distinction(in my own words): It is a description in the development your own internet branding or your internet reputation. It is how you brand yourself online to be unique and how people can find you.

Why is it important to be digitally distinct? The internet is a huge place with a lot of people in it. Many people have similar interests and may even have the same name. You can have a negative or positive distinction. People will look you up in search engines like Google and can get the gist of what type of person you are online or even perhaps, in real life.

If you have a bunch of negative against you, then you could be hurting your reputation and deterring people from your site. You should try looking up your name in Google and seeing what comes up about you. If it is hateful, the beauty is that you can give a rebuttle if the information found is false. However, if you do, it can a risk depending on how you respond, and you should be as diplomatic as possible.

If you do not have any negative marks against you in the search engines, then that is great! You are literally on your way to successfully making yourself unique online. If you have found that you have no negative commentary, try social bookmarking sites like Digg, and StumbleUpon. There are quite a few social bookmarking sites, but remember, a social bookmarking site helps spread the word about your blogging, and thusly, spreading your digital distinction.

To give an example and in-depth look, if anyone were to look up ‘Nile Flores’ in Google, not only is my blog listed first, but about every site I have maintained, or important aspects of my professional life, home life, and online life come up in the search engine. This goes on for the first three pages of results, before even starting to pan out.

The general key to making yourself digitally distinct is being yourself. If you are a bitch or an asshole, then you are, and if you are a somewhat of a sweetie, then go on with your bad self. Make your site reflect you and connect with people who you will fit in. Being digitally distinct is like being unique in real life. If you truly want to be unique, then you will make it happen. No one else can do that for you and it really shows when you do a search about yourself in the search engines.

Here is a fun related link on calculating your digital distinctiveness: Online Identity Calculator.

No matter how experienced or capable a freelancer you are, you will never get new work if nobody knows you exist. Promoting your freelancing skills online is the best way to attract new clients and can even help you keep the ones you already have. What’s more— online promotion these days isn’t expensive.

Having a fantastic website showcasing your freelance services is definitely the first step. But that’s only part of the battle won. You still have to get people to view your site, and once they’re there, they still need to actually make use of your services.

Getting people to know what services you offer is a lot easier than you might think. Effectively reaching out to new clients online involves both diligent homework and research – and can even demand an initial outlay of cash. But when you look at your bank balance at the end of the month, you’ll realize that the dividends are worth it.

Ways to Promote Yourself Online

Here are some simple ways to promote yourself and your freelance business that cost almost nothing. Some ideas are so simple you’ll be surprised that you didn’t think of them yourself!

Build a great website. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. An easy rule to follow is that your website must clearly explain your freelance business in fewer than 10 seconds. Keep it simple, and make it visually compelling as well as a good read.

Write your own blog. Make it informative and interesting, but also make it personal—use this opportunity to give your product a personality! Content should be frequently updated (at least once every two weeks) and relevant to your own freelance business to attract potential clients. Create content other than text for your blog as well. Incorporate podcasts or YouTube clips that will distinguish your freelance business from the rest. Sometimes it’s that little personal touch that can really make a difference.

Update your Twitter and LinkedIn profile regularly. Make sure your Twitter profile says all the important things about your freelance business, and ensure that your LinkedIn profile is sprinkled with industry-relevant keywords. Get in some testimonials and recommendations from friends, too.

Advertise yourself for free by offering content related to your business to other sites. Target businesses in a related field that would have a genuine interest in the types of content you can offer. For example, if you are a freelance writer, create an article about writing tips and link your bio to your site. Offer your article to writing communities.

Make sure every email you send goes out with this a signature that includes a link to your website.

Optimize your site for search engines by using SEO best practices. You can read about SEO online or hire someone to help you.

Put yourself on Yahoo Local and other similar directories that offer free listings, then ask satisfied customers or partners to recommend you.

Syndicate your content. Take advantage of organizations that will syndicate your content for free, such as ISnare and EZineArticles. Make sure your bio discusses your freelance business, and that your URL is always included.

Post in business directories that promote services similar to yours – just do an online search to find out what’s on offer. Most of them are free.

Try PPC – or Pay per Click Advertising. This costs money, but if executed correctly, it can drive many qualified visitors to your site.

Offer to give a presentation be a (free) guest speaker at a convention or marketing meeting. Order business cards from an online printing company to pass out after your presentation.

Getting your freelance business off the ground doesn’t have to be difficult, but creating a niche for yourself in today’s competitive market can take a lot of forethought, time and effort.

Freelancers who know how to effectively and affordably promote their business online are well on their way to creating a successful niche for their own freelance business. These ideas are just some ways you can promote yourself without breaking the bank – give them a try!

I love polls, but not every poll taken is going to exactly reflect the whole of a target audience. Every opinion has its nook and cranny to observe. TechCrunch wrote on The Death Of The Impulse Shopper saying that more shoppers are prepared when shopping these days due to technology allowing the consumer to find out information quickly from tools like smartphones and in general, the Internet.

The problem is impulse shopping is different from informed shopping. This is where you still are aware of a products information, but make a last minute choice to actually purchase it. For example, my son loves Pac Man and even though it is not his birthday yet, I saw an offbrand Pac Man snuggie. I have seen it online, but never planned to get it at first. It was not based on price or the product’s general information. When I was in the store, on impulse, I snatched it up from the shelf and paid for it.

My son’s surprise and happiness was the fuel for getting the item on impulse, not the Internet.

I think the best way to title such a post is to “The Death of Uniformed Shopping.” The Internet has been an awesome wealth of information for consumers. You can really get just about anything online, including groceries and medication delivered to your door.

However, the products are inserted by real people, just like the real people that price and stock the shelves or racks at any type of store. If I want a Pepsi right this second, I will go get one, not consult the information and price on a smartphone or on my computer.

TechCrunch, please be a little more conscientious of how you title your articles.