Freelancers, marketers, even bloggers are taking testimonials seriously. Although some referring it to be purposed for closing sales, truth is testimonial is a critical aspect in brand monitoring.  While I was outsourcing for hosting service, the clients’ reviews are my ‘first impressions’ to the brand. Not solely on the after-use experience, but how the brand is channeling  positive  clients responses to benefit their marketing strategy, creating a sense of urgency for visitors like me to know their service better – that is simply encouraging.

7 Easy Ways to Add Clients Testimonials to your Blog

You don’t need me to tell you how big social media is these days. So if you are hunger for more eyeballs and opportunity for the service (or product) you provide on your site, I will be introducing you some Twitter applications and wordpress plugins to showcase your very own clients’ testimonials. You’ll be surprised how easy it is done:

#1  Twitter Favorites Widget – Web application

It’s not the first time we heard about using Twitter Favorites as a Testimonials-collector for its users. The reason why it is so popular is that Twitter Favorites is public viewable, not only you can retweet it but its RSS feed can be embedded to other social media sites for visibility.

For example, Twitter’s very own Faves Widget allows you to place the testimonial tweets (tweets you’ve starred as favorites) at the sidebar or most visible spot in your blog:

The only downside with twitter favorites is that we won’t be able to keep them forever. The results will update themselves with the most recent tweets been displayed first. If you’re not a consistent twitter user, the old tweets may seem outdated to your visitors. Therefore, if not work-related, quality recommendations concerning your work ethics and personalities may be a good fit too.

#2  Tweetimonials – Web application

This is a much simpler, non-fancy script to import Twitter testimonials to your website. It displays two tweets in one time and auto-refreshes itself after few seconds. No avatars but just texts with status link. You can adjust the colors and width whenever necessary. Sweet and simple.

#3  Tweet-stimonials – WordPress Plugin

The setup is quite easy, just install the plugin and look for it in Appearance -> Widgets. It will then show up at your blog’s sidebar. The maximum tweets can be added up to 20, with a call to action to follow your twitter account right beneath it.

#4  LTW Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

LTW (LessThanWeb) Testimonials enables you to place your client testimonials as a page, equipped with sorting and various configurations available for clients details, visibility for testimonial groups or clients and more. Not only that, you can edit the HTML and CSS code from the admin area to enhance the layout of the testimonial page. An excellent plugin to self-customize based on your clients feedbacks.

#5  Collision Testimonial – Wordperss plugin

Collision Testimonial is slightly different from LTW (LessThanWeb). It does not provide an upload box for clients profile image, but it gives you a form where your clients can submit their testimonial easily to your site. From Pages -> Add New Page, insert these two codes to the HTML content of your Testimonial Page:

<!– collision_testimonials_page –>

<!– collision_testimonials_form –>

You can then review, edit (if needed), keep it on hold (hide it) until you decide to publish it.

#6  Video Testimonials from Clients – New Page

I am impressed by the video testimonial page by Denise Wakeman. She collected the videos from her clients and brilliantly presents the visual effects that speak louder than plain texts. If your clients don’t mind, why not discuss with them for a video feedback? You may be surprised how many of them are willing to help out.

#7  Clients Success Stories

This is another great ‘mutual benefit’ I learned from Denise’s blog.  While sharing her clients’ success stories, not only they were in the spotlight but Denise’s efforts were credited too. I’m sure Denise didn’t ask them to do so, but out of their appreciation to Denise’s work, they are more than willing to mention her. It may be something you’d like to try out, see it more as a relationship building with your clients. Set a special segment for their Success Stories – apart from a little exposure and inspire your readers, your quality work may be highlighted too. Best of both worlds, I’ll say.

These are just some creative ways people can do by integrating Twitter favorites and using wordpress plugins to optimize their brand with Testimonials on blogs. In the coming post, I will be discussing on  how to promote your LinkedIn and facebook page with Testimonials for a similar purpose, stay tuned!

Now is Your Turn…

How would you like to present your Testimonials on blogs? Or any other social platforms for that matter? The comment is all yours!

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This is a guest post by Srinivas Rao, the editor in Chief of Flightser. He writes about personal development at The Skool of Life and is the host of BlogcastFM, a podcast to help you take your blog to the next level.

Two months ago the CEO of our company asked me to take the lead on launching and growing a brand new travel blog. Flightster, is currently functioning only as a blog and will eventually become a fully functional flight booking engine within the next several months. Starting solely as a blog has shown us the tremendous power that a blog can have in building brand awareness.

Objectives:

• Build Brand awareness
• Leverage social media to Connect with the Online Travel Community

Building the Blog

#1  Budget

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen companies make is to assume that the social media is “free.” Social media should be treated just as other marketing channels are. It should have a budget allocated for it. Our industry is heavily driven by extremely high PPC costs that can get up to 6 figures a month. My boss allocated $2500 a month for me to run the Flighster blog, which is an extremely small percentage of the overall marketing budget. However, $2500.00 is a substantial budget to run a blog if you know how to stretch it.

#2  Writers

Putting together a team of writers was my first order of business once I was put in charge of starting the blog. Initially, I reached out to writers from other well established travel blogs in the hopes of getting them to write for Flightster. I got no responses except one letting me know that the writer had been locked into an exclusive with another popular travel blog. After that I decided to tap into my personal network. This is where the power of having my own blog became very apparent. If the person in charge of your corporate blog has his or her own blog and it has a following, put that person in charge of your company blog. The greatest asset that person brings to the table is a network of contacts with an established online presence.

My boss gave me the go ahead to allocate $75-100 per post for contributions, so I reached out to the best writers I could find in my network. I looked at people who I had interviewed for my podcast and those whose blogs I read on a daily basis. Below are the main criteria I looked for in a team of writers:

• Good writers with established audiences who loved them
• Blogs with Roughly 1000 Subscribers
• Bloggers who were very active on Twitter

I reached out to a popular location independent blogger as my first step and I recruited the remaining writers based on his referrals, with only one exception who I hand picked after reading his blog. One simple way to look at this was “If I wouldn’t subscribe to their blog myself, then I wouldn’t hire them as a writer.”

#3  Editorial Policy

Prior to the launch of Flighster, I spent several months looking at many corporate blogs. When I compared them to the individual blogs I read on almost a daily basis, I noticed a major difference. Individual blogs had an interesting voice and sounded human. They were filled with comments and they kept readers coming back for more. Most company blogs sounded like a marketing brochure and they were incredibly boring. My solution was simple, a very loose editorial policy. If what made my writers popular on their own blogs was their writing, then I saw no reason to place many restrictions on them. I knew this would allow them to write the most interesting content possible.

#4  Timeless Content

I was given only one restriction from our CEO and that was to produce content that was timeless. You’ve heard this phrase “content is king” over and over again. By producing content that is “timeless” we could significantly increase the amount of time people spent on the site looking at our content. Timeless content is what gets shared over and over again. For many bloggers it’s not uncommon to have something popular they wrote over a year ago shared on twitter or Facebook, so I recommend companies take this same approach to content.

Marketing the Blog

After assembling the writing team, I started to think about the most efficient ways to market a blog. Growing my personal blog had taken over a year before it was really on anybody’s radar. With Flightster, I was determined to do this much faster so I decided to narrow my efforts down to 3 channels.

Channel 1 : The Audiences of the Writers

When I started the blog, I assumed that the audience that the writers brought with them would my greatest source of traffic. Part of my thought process in hiring them was that the marketing was already built into the content since I assumed their audience would follow them. As a result, we decided to sponsor the Way Below Status Quo Tour, a road trip across America where 3 bloggers were going to meet all of their readers in person. In exchange for the sponsorship, we asked for 3 posts a week on the Flightster Blog about the various destinations they were visiting. The cost was $100 per post. Given that their readers that they were meeting were also bloggers and people with an active online presence it provided yet another way for our message to spread. While it did give us a, nice initial kickstart, I knew that it was going to take a bit more to make the blog grow.

Channel 2: Facebook

With a budget of $2500 a month, the cost of a Facebook ad would go up very quickly and I wasn’t convinced that it would provide the most effective ROI. But I knew that a Facebook fan page would be essential at some point. So, I set up the fan page and allowed it to grow somewhat organically. The Facebook page is still a bit of a work in progress.

Channel 3: Twitter/My Personal Network

Given the budget I would require to get the most out of Facebook I decided to focus my efforts on Twitter. As a blogger, I noticed something about the audiences of Twitter and Facebook. They didn’t seem to have much overlap when it came to the everyday internet user. However, anybody who was a blogger seemed to be extremely active on Twitter. This was the group of people who could make a message spread. Additionally, I had my personal network of bloggers on Twitter who I have interacted with almost daily over the past several months.

A Campaign to Hire a New Writer

After staffing the blog with 4 writers, I decided to hire another writer. Rather than ask for writing samples and picking the one I liked best, I wanted to use the hiring process as a viral marketing tool. I asked the potential writers to do the following:

• Write a Blog Post About Anything Travel Related on their own blog: I asked them to write on their own blogs because I knew it was something they would already be doing at least a few times a week. The thought process was to make it as as easy as possible for people to participate.
• Link to Flighster in the Post: The goal behind this was simply to generate relevant inbound links from other travel blogs. My SEO knowledge is pretty limited to what I’ve read on various blogs, but I felt that this would also help get the word out about Fligtster among other travel bloggers.
• Tweet the blog Post with the hashtag #FLIGHTSTER and follow us on Twitter: This allowed me to not only build a following amongst travel bloggers, but also stay engaged with all the participants throughout the course of the competition. Additionally, it proved to be a great tool for building awareness of the Flightster brand.
• Get our Attention: In an effort to keep the engagement level with participants up, I gave them freedom to get our attention in any way they felt they could. The result was video submissions and a consistent sharing of their own content with the hashtag #Flightster.
• Voting for the Next Fligthster: After allowing the contest to run for two weeks, we narrowed it down to 10 finalists. We then setup a poll enabling the readers to vote on their favorite writer, and encouraged the contest participants to promote their participation in the contest in order to get as many votes as possible. The result was a signficant jump in traffic.

The thought process behind the campaign had a few components. First I wanted to kill as many birds with one stone as possible. That is why I made connecting with us in all of our channels a component of the contest. Another thing that we wanted to do was to give the participants a sense of control over their participation in the contest. Many of the various contests have winners that are chose at random, thus reducing the incentive for people to participate. The result of this kind of contest is a “what are my chances” mind set. By allowing people to gather votes to become our next writer, we put them in control. Another interesting byproduct of the contest was that we facilitated an ongoing conversation between participants. Contestants commented on each other’s blogs and followed each other on twitter. We served as a connector.

The Results:

Bloggers Who Participated: 24

Finalists in the Contest: 8

Traffic During the Contest

Traffic During the First 2 Months of Flightster

As you’ll see above, the results were decent for a brand new blog that nobody had heard of prior to its launch in early July. Without a doubt the campaign to hire a writer was the most effective tool we had in our arsenal which is what caused the biggest spike in traffic. The cost of running this campaign: ZERO DOLLARS.

Lessons Learned:

Engagement vs. Numbers:

One of the things that might surprise some people is that this was all done with roughly 300 followers on twitter and only 130 Facebook fans. If you have thousands of followers who don’t interact with your brand, then you are really missing the point of being on Twitter. Out of the 300 followers, our engagement was focused primarily on the participants in our contest. You need followers who are actually engaged and interacting with your brand. Otherwise it’s like standing on top of a table in a crowded restaurant, wearing a ridiculous outfit and hoping people will want to talk to you. This might seem the like the slower way to grow on twitter, but it’s just slower when you start out. In the long run this approach will make you grow much, much faster. Just ask Scott Stratten, a guy who nobody knew last year and is now this years keynote speaker for Blogworld.

The Power is in a Network:

I can’t underscore how much my personal network played a role in this. Given that I have my own blog and a personal network, getting the word out about this contest was simply a matter of emailing all the bloggers who I had relationships with and asking them to share our post about our contest with their followers. Given that the post was about getting paid to write for a blog, it made complete sense for them to share it with their networks and I got no resistance at all. So, my advice is find out who in your company already has a network in place.

The Tipping Point and The Rule of 150:

A few weeks back I was listening to Malcom Gladwell’s book, the Tipping point for the second time and I came across a concept known as “The Rule of 150.” The basic idea behind this rule is simple. The highest number of social relationships we can effectively manage is 150 and it takes roughly 150 people to make an idea spread. This was the driver behind how I decided to approach building the Flightster following on Twitter and in my own personal brand. With my personal brand I have seen a significant jump in traffic and subscribers to my blog. What this all comes down to is one simple fact: Social media is building a “social” relationship with your brand.

Now Is Your Turn…

How do you build your blog from scratch? Does Social Media plays a big role in your blog-building plan? Share with us your story or if you have anything to ask Srinivas, do so in the comments below.

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Online content theft is not a new problem. We are so used to it that sometimes we chose to be ignorant of it. Can you imagine the time and effort we could spend on dealing with scrappers? Endless. Even so, does that mean it’s ‘okay’ to let it happen?

So obviously I have a good reason to blog about it again. It’s not the first time my article was scrapped by someone or autoblogs, but this time it has gone a little too far! I’ll explain why in a minute.

How Did I Found Out About the Content Theft?

Two ways, basically. Coincidentally I was running a duplicate-content-check of my post about 16 Facebook Applications to Boost Popularity of Facebook Fan Page, interesting finding:

1. Google Search


- I posted a random paragraph on Google Search and found out a site that ranks higher than mine in the results (possible more popular too):

2. Copyscape


- Copyscape is a free duplicate content detection software that helps to monitor and check for duplicate entries. I double-checked the results and they matched, of course.

More Detection Software to choose from: Detecting & Dealing with duplicate content

Now How is This Particular Case Upsetting?

It is not an autoblog and particularly ‘well-planned’. Despite the fact that I had spent the entire week working on the post, what upsets me the most is the lack of ethics from this scrapper – he sent in the stolen content as a Guest Post! This is serious, not only he jeopardizing his very own image but threatening the other site’s reputation as well! He modified the title, relocated the facebook app sequence and replaced my graphics with his. He removed all the backlinks to my site which is why I was unable to found out earlier. After all the ‘effort’ he left the sentences as they are, word for word. So, need I say more:

• No notification to re-use the content
• No link back or credit given to the original content
• Assuming the article belongs to him based on the way he responded to comments
• Getting link love and credit for his own site and service with stolen content
• Hurting another site’s reputation that published the stolen content

What to Do After Found Out about the Content Theft?

1. Inform/write to the site owner who published the content

Several ways to reach :

a. Email
b. Contact Form
c. Comment Section
d. Social Media Profiles

I wrote an email to the site owner reporting the case and requested for post removal. I had a good look at the site and the services it is using, so just in case the site admin decides to ignore me, I will know whom shall I report to.

2. Request for Opinions from Friends

I had requested opinions from fellow bloggers and friends, most of them agreed on reporting this and standing up for justice. I’m on their side 100%, and it’s a relief to see people are still valuing original content in the internet. Some suggested to request for credit instead of removal, that has to depend on how the discussion goes afterward.

Join us for the discussion at the fan page if interested, we’ll be happy to see you there too.

3. Write to Google and Inform about the Duplicate Content

a. Spam Report – Google Search Results
Request Google to remove the specific web page from appearing on the Google Search results with the keywords used. Stating your content is the original.

If you own a Webmaster account, you will receive a sent report to be followed up if needed.

b. Google AdSense DMCA Complaint Form

This is particularly useful if the site is using Google Adsense. By filling up this form Google Adsense will be notified about the suspicious act and review the troubled site whether their account should be blocked or fail to meet the requirement as a trusted site for publishers’ ads.

4. Other DMCA complaint form/methods for your reference:

Search Engines:
Yahoo: http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html
Bing: http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyrtInfrg.htm

Blogging Platform: Blogger

More DMCA Contacts: Hostings, Social Media Sites, Hostings etc (some info may require updating)

What is the Situation Now?

From the Site Owner:
I received a response from them, requesting to grant a few days to sort things out. No specific date given but I hope they will look into this matter seriously and asap.

From the Scrapper:
Just out of curiosity, I ‘visited’ the scrapper’s site and after I ran a check on Google, no surprise he also scrapped from other sites for his own posts as well. Unsure if he is aware that scrapping is harmful to both his site and his service, which brought me to another major concern about:

Autoblogging: NO WAY to Build Brands & Provide Value

If you’re a new blogger, avoid automated blogging at all costs. Blogging is not a get rich scheme where you can trash other people’s work for own benefits and it will eventually hurt your site and own reputation in long term. If you cannot respect people’s work, how do you expect people to put trust in your service as well? Same as in real life, why would you steal to gain publicity at all? That’s not right and not worth to risk for it. Hesham has very good points stated in his post about Automated Blogging Plugins are no way to create a successful blog, and how it will destroy the value of internet. If you need more confirmation, kindly refer to these 6 reasons why you should avoid automated blogging tools.

Do Not Stop Caring about Content Theft

Yes, there is no way we can stop our content from being scrapped/stolen, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore this completely. Continue to report, inform your blogger buddies if you ever came across their work on other sites. If you decide to let them be, at least request for a link back with a mention to the original author. People say there is no more originality in this world wide web, but I do think it’s necessary to respect other people’s work after all. It’s about ethics, asking for permissions, respect and care about Copyright Infringement issues.

Also, always be careful with guest posts from unfamiliar senders. Check them thoroughly to avoid becoming the victim.

Now Is Your Turn…

Did you ever encounter content theft? How do you normally deal with such issues? Kindly share in your comments below.

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m delighted to present you an honorable guest here today – Hesham, the founder of Famous Blogger & MMOSocialNetwork to share some advises on managing busy social networking life. Without further ado, let’s roll out the red carpet:

First of all I would like to thank Ching Ya for inviting me to post on her blog today, it’s a great opportunity for me. I have titled this post close to the question she was asking and wondering about how I/we can manage our busy Social Networking life and still handling multiple projects/sites “wonderfully”!

OK, it’s a sunny day, so let me go to my backyard next to the swimming pool to get some inspiration while writing

Ok, that’s MUCH better!

How I Manage My Busy Social Networking Life

I really have lots of accounts on several social networks, I even run my own social bookmarks site at the same time, and also working on developing a new site called DesignGizer. Hopefully it will be ready by the end of the month, and in all cases I am trying to keep up with all my accounts and projects all together in one place, but this is not possible as each of my projects has a different type of back-end report system that I have to monitor separately, and at the same time each of these projects has it’s own accounts on social media sites, for example I have to create a Twitter account for each project, a Facebook Fan Page for each project, and so on.

So, talking about how I manage those several social networking accounts and projects and still can manage my person and offline life as well, I must say that there is no big secret or any hidden tools from any kind, until now I didn’t fall in love with a management tool better than HootSuite , Google Reader and my simple normal email account which keeping me updated with almost everything I want to know about!

Of course I had to used a powerful machine (laptop) to get all these working smoothly without problem and all at the same time.

My Laptop as a Tool

Maybe you know that before I became a bloggers I was working on the web-design field, and this is why I am used to powerful laptops, with big wide screens, I cannot survive with a 14” laptop anymore, so my Toshiba Qosmio laptop. I am using right now is a a very powerful one, it’s really helping me to do my work in a very easy and effective way, and also to keep up with all my social networks accounts as the big wide screen allows me to set more tabs on HootSuite to display them all together at the same time, which it’s impossible to be done with a small monitor laptop.

I remember you have commented on that post on My Life Thinking blog, that was so nice of you! I cannot deny that I was going for a Mac, but at the last moment I changed my mind because the Qosmio has 4 processors which is not available on Mac laptops yet, and to understand what I exactly do I have to mention that I never shutdown my laptop!

Actually, I am used to work on several projects at the same time since the beginning of my career, and what I mean by working on several projects at the same time is the ability to set priorities of tasks while you are opening each of your projects, so my powerful laptop allows me to open all applications I use at the same time without crashing, so let me tell you exactly what applications are running now on my laptop:

• Firefox browser with 2 open windows and 66 open tabs
• Google Chrome browser with 2 windows and 27 open tabs
• Internet Explorer browser with 5 tabs
• Notepad with 7 windows
• Open Office with 11 window
• Photoshop with 8 working projects
• Dreamweaver with 11 working pages
• Core FTP application

and some other applications that I use or I forgot to close them!

So, do you think I still need any other applications to give me extra information? I don’t know but I just have the feeling that everything is under my hands and control all the time while I am on my laptop, I can monitor all my social network pages, blogs, blog dashboards, and all other pages just by one click to the refresh all tabs button of a browser, and maybe now you got the idea and have a full picture of how I can do it without needing any extra applications, I even keep some blogs open on my browsers for days until I read interesting post before I close it, and the really beauty here is I save all my accounts passwords to the browser, and make use of the “Restore previous tabs” feature in case I have to restart my laptop for any reason.

In addition to what I mentioned above, I use some services like SocialOomph. Keeps me informed with who is retweeting me just in case if I missed something, and Tweepi is what I use to manage my Twitter accounts, and also a few Firefox add-ons like Google Wave Add-on to keep me informed with new waves I am part of. And of course I don’t want to forget that subscribing by emails to blogs RSS feeds and news letters is a very important thing because it’s easy way to get news early and ideas for my new blog posts.

My Nokia 5800 Cell Phone

By the way I am using the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone, it’s has kind of limited available applications compared to the iPhone, but like any other touch screen cellphones it’s a lot of fun to deal with, but not good as the iPhone of course but it does the work, I am using some nice applications on it like:

• Tweets60 to check my Tweets on the go
• Gmail application from Google
• Fring for Skype calls

Social Media Key of Success

The real key to success on Social Media in my opinion is to organize your networks accounts, email accounts and web-browser in folders, so there is a folder for everything and anything you can imagine on my email accounts and on the top of my FireFox browser toolbar, and it’s very important to check your emails regularly, and never leave some emails without a reply since you have opened it and read it, and what I mean by that is to check your emails more than once a day, and if you are on the road or a way from your laptop, simply connect via your cell internet service and check emails/reply to them if there is a need, and if it need some work to be done on your laptop then do it when you arrive to your small home office immediately, it’s not good to do the work “latter”, chances will not wait for latter.

Tools I Use to Manage My Projects

Talking about dealing with several projects, some of them are running, some other are under development, so it’s a little bit hard to keep myself motivated and concentrating on all projects if I am not using the old fashion way, I have tried every other possible way as a technology fan, but believe it or not, a simple paper or notebook and a pen is all what I really need!

I am sorry to disappoint you if you was waiting for me to list a great or a fancy tools and applications I am using, but I discovered that all these mind mapping software and other cellphone applications that reminds you on time that you need to do something important you set before is not working for me, I just find my self neglecting notifications all the time like if they don’t exists!

And this remind me with my manager at a company I worked for a few years back, he taught me this once, and told how to use a very simple technique to keep up with his daily/weekly tasks, and told me that he cannot work without his little piece of paper and whatever pen. I use the paper to write down main title of my projects, and I list all possible daily/weekly tasks under each title, when I finish a task I just mark it as done and forget about it, and so one, at least it’s the only way for me to see all of my projects going in one place, which is the paper!

One very important benefit of “pen and paper” way is it helps a lot on writing down ideas for new blog posts as well, or draw some charts, and basic layout of a design for example, I believe you know that Ching Ya because you are a designer, so probably you cannot live without a pen and a paper like me.

Hesham is a good friend, a hardworking blogger and designer that I’m sure you’re all familiar with his omnipresence in the blogosphere. He’s always commenting, supporting & setting up projects – I’m amazed with his ability to cope with so many things in one time! So I ‘drag’ him here to share his secrets of success regardless how busy he is. Thank you my friend! Don’t forget to follow him @famousbloggers.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This week I feel an urge to do something different. It is only first quarter of 2010 but a lot of changes going on and I have so many people to thank that I hardly get to. I’m writing this with a heart of gratitude, appreciating everyone who has blessed me with consistent support and friendship, regardless which networks we are on.

1. The Commenters

Some of you I get to know quite well, while some we just met for a couple of weeks. Many times I have inspired by your motivations and superb ideas! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you micro-blogging in the comment section, showing me a whole new perspective about a discussed topic. Here are some link loves for these talented bloggers:

Blogging
5 Tips to Increase Productivity while Blogging
5 WordPress Plugins to Add Google Buzz Button on Blogs
How to Add Your Google Reader Feeds as a Blogroll on Your Site
25 Basic Tips to Get Google Sitelinks
Imagine your Blog turning out into a Hardcopy Bestseller !
What Is The True Power Of The Blog?
How To Add A ‘Share This’ Button To Your New Blog

Social Media
10 Positive Social Media Experience Commandments
How to Edit and Delete a List on Facebook
You have done a lot of Social Media Marketing Mistakes! Now Stop Repeating those..

Plugin & Application Tips
Firefox 3.6; Now That’s What I’m Talking About!
2 Free Email Tracking Technique To Get Notified When Recipient Read Your Email
Google Pagerank Calculation
Diigo Extension for Google Chrome Browser
How To: iCal Birthday Reminders With Alarm (iCalBirthdays 2.0)
Friday Mashup: 10 Awesome Free WordPress Themes

Self Development
12 Kickass Ways to Love your Job and Life
How To Make A Quantum Leap
The “Should” Show: Give Your Shoulders A Rest
7 Steps to Overcoming Giants in Our Lives

Branding
Build Your Brand or Fold Your Tent
The Ultimate Online Brand Idea

SEO
Site Speed: An Important SEO Ranking Factor?
On-Page SEO Tips to Help Drive Organic Traffic to Your Site
How Do You Cover SEO *Per Post*?

Art & Designs
Designing For The Future
11+ Tutorial Sites For Adobe Photoshop CS4
Visualizing Psychology Canadian Edition

Breaking News
Facebook Blasts Ahead of Google Today!
Here’s Why I Unfriended Darren Rowse in Facebook

Fun & Leisure
PetLvr Guide – Pet Adoption and Rescue (free download)
Say It Quick
More Funny Typos! “Like A Bord On A Wire” — 15
Ten Questions to Ask Before Going to the Store

2. Social Voting Communities

My gratitude goes to these wonderful voting communities for their consistent support & link loves: Blogengage, Bizsugar, MMOSocialNetwork and Twitter friends/supporters who never ceased to help out whenever a new post is shared. I dedicate my thanks to P5o Allied Bloggers and Authority Blogger members for your friendship, uplifting messages that I deeply treasured; selfless recommendations I hardly deserve to receive.

3. Facebook Fan Page Supporters (a.k.a Fans)

I’m so grateful that Social @ Blogging Tracker fan page had passed the 300 mark in March. I owed my thanks to blogger friends who supported the page in the beginning and members who joined with the intention to network and learn from one another. I would love to make this fan page a mutually-beneficial community, where we get to assist one another in network visibility. Starting 1st March I have created some threads that will benefit the supporters by showcasing their newest posts & social profiles. Including Weekly Post Selection and Member of the Month which we’ll be acknowledging our active supporters for their continuous participation. We will be announcing our first Member of the Month soon so do stay tuned!

4. Last but not least… YOU!

Yes, YOU! There are some people who I carved their names in my heart, while some I didn’t get to know what their real names are! The visitors who came and left without leaving your mark, I thank you for visiting. To those who voted but never told me about your gracious act, you are an angel. Thanks to the rejections and obstacles in life, I met some good willed, compassionate people who relentlessly reminding me failure is a part of life that will only make us stronger, smarter. I constantly remind myself to never judge others based on ‘what we think’ how a good-will should be done; but when someone do, never take them for granted. Your kindness will be remembered all through my blogging career.

Thank You, my dearest blogger buddies & supporters, you are my angels. *HUGS*

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Ahh.. one of those dreaded moments for the guys.

We all know the pressure here. Oh yes, we’re tricky. But you know what? A little wisdom can definitely save you off the hook. But first, you need to know your partner better- the ground rule before all tips and tricks.

How does this have anything to do with social media? Every bit of it – urgency and the consequences of a reckless response. Regardless celebrities or politicians, even us normal people are responsible for the words we blurted out in the open. You’ll be surprised a simple joke can either build you or crush you, especially when we’re networking with users from different cultural backgrounds and status.

Art Of Communicating in Social Networks

In order to interact better with people from various social networks, identify:

• Who are they – readers, followers, business partners, potential customers, random chatters ?

• What are their backgrounds ?

• Where is the boundary; When shall the line be drawn ?

• What’s the amount of ‘Trust’ built or given to both sides ?

• What are the possible conflicts that may be or had already existed? If none, will you continue to avoid it ?

• What is your personal branding in the public eye ?

Cautiousness in social networking does not forbid you to express freely, but the courtesy to think twice before responding. Our mind reacts quick to disagreements, fast to defend and attack. Self-protect instinct like this can easily blur our judgments. Ask yourself,

“Is building credibility important to me? Am I encouraging it or another way around?”

Let’s brainstorm based on some possible answer(s) for your partner below:

1. Silence : “… …”

In Social Networking:

Social networking does not tolerate silence. If you’ve spent 5-10 minutes on a post surely there’s something about it that triggers your interest. Share your thoughts in the blog comment and create continuous conversations with other commenters. Hitting that ‘close’ button is easy but not if you wish to make all your blog visits worthwhile. Do SOMETHING.

For the guys:

Silence does not always mean safety. Advisable to have the ‘response’ ready if you are not prepared with the answer. Prevention is better than cure. Appear doubtful and troubled may sell you out at that instant.

2. Diversion: “Ah, It’s late! I’ll tuck the kids in bed. KIDDSS.. !! ”

In Social Networking:

Diverting people’s attention to our network seems logical, but not always welcoming if you hard push it. If you think people shall read your work, state out why and be convincing. Never flood people’s Facebook Wall and inbox with self-promoting post links for it is rude. You can easily jeopardize the friendship and trust people have in you.

Another kind of diversion is to run away from problems. I remember there were times I had trouble with the comment form in Blogger platform. Never occurred to me in trying out other commenting systems before I finally decided to move to WordPress from Blogger. Now I only regret for not doing it sooner, same thing with DoFollow.

For the guys:

Yes, temporarily this may solve your problem but don’t grumble if the question pops up in some most unlikely moments. The earlier to deal with it the better.

.

3. Honesty: “Then mood swing it is !”

In Social Networking:

There’s nothing wrong with honesty but mind that virtue involves. It is one of those ironies that got people wondering why it sounds much better in theory but not in practical. Going through the questions again and weigh in the consequences of each possible actions. We are not talking about your family members or closed friends who have known you for years but acquaintances who just shared a few conversations with you. Take into considerations all factors and risks involved. Shall this be done in private emailing or out in the open? The impact may cost your digital footprints and branding so you need to think twice.

For the guys:

Gals dig that, Right? For some lady friends I know, this can both be a straight forward question or a tricky one. Sometimes it is not just about the honesty alone, but the way you respond to the question. For some who can accept honest feedback, a little tip: no ‘must be’ or ‘it’s KILLING me’. Don’t forget you are being honest to help her, not trashing her self-esteem.

4. Skillful: “I love you just the way you are!”

In Social Networking:

Be thoughtful. You don’t add burden to an already troubled-mind. If you’re commenting on a site which the author talks about bankruptcy out of a poor judgment, don’t say ‘Stupid! I wouldn’t do that if I were you’ but be compassionate. There’s a line between hypocrisy and skilled communication, so make sure you know where to stand.

For the guys:

So far this has been chosen as the best response according to my female friends. Safe, they say, and can be the honest truth. You can’t really change anything, can you?

How To Deal With Tricky Questions?

There’s no definite answers on how to deal with tricky questions. It’s all about the art of communicating, how you willing to give and take in different situations. Perhaps it’s not common for us to face tough questions but someday when you do,

• Understand the question thoroughly. It’s easy to ‘assume’ and misinterpret so always be SURE you know what exactly is in demand here.

• Test the water with a brief remark; or provide scenarios (if needed) to understand the motive.

• Be thoughtful. You can’t please everyone but don’t blind yourself with self-absorption.

• Try to know your readers/followers personality through their writings or on social media connections.

• Listen more.

• Consider the consequences of each action.

Now It’s Your Turn…

Have you ever encountered any tricky questions? How do you deal with it? Kindly share YOUR art of communicating in the comments below.

If you like this post, a little sharing would be nice.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It has been several days now since I’m out of internet service at home. The area seems to go static with no connection whatsoever while some areas in town are not affected. As a fulltime blogger I find that a little devastating to start my new week. Negative thoughts crept in but I knew my foremost task is to eliminate them for good — by being practical!

Yaro said it, nothing goes right all the time. Funny how pressure can lead you into believing everything is doomed, but it’s not. Just several hours ago I did 7 productive things that put me in an uplifting mood. Here are some friendly references to some of you who are unable to sit quietly through the crisis:

1. Accept Reality and Fine Tune Your Mindset

You are probably worrying over all the pending tasks and the eagerness to get in touch with your contacts online. “Time is money, chances may pass you by; somebody is waiting for your reply at this very instant!” I’ll say these negative thoughts will eat you up alive before you know it! Those words were in my head on the very first day. We have deadline, urge, that’s true. However, never ever push yourself over the edge before dealing with it. There ARE always plans installed for you no matter how tough the challenge may seem. ADSL not working? Use dial up if you must. Phone someone or go to a cyber cafe or hotel lobby that has the connection. If not, then.. read along.

2. Brainstorm Ideas for Future Posts

Let me introduce you to my Blogger First Aid Folder – the inspirational articles I stored over the months from self-development to blogging tips and handy references. As I was having the disconnection crisis, I ran through the First Aid folder and came out with at least 10 new topics that I like to cover for the next few months. Bloggers are thinkers, don’t say you can’t think of anything because you CAN. Kindly refer to the topic of this post.

3. Transform Your Rants into Helpful Solutions

One of the best inspirational moments is to live through challenging circumstances while discovering solutions to the problem. As myself at this very state of mind, I know exactly how people with similar experience would feel. Of course, they won’t be googling about this right now but it’ll help before it drives you up the wall when occurred. Who says ranting cannot be a post? Sure it can but do remember the ‘WIIFM’ (What’s In It For Me) factor. It applies in all types of writings, especially when the blog isn’t all about your personal stories.

4. Write Off Topic Articles to Other Directories

It’s not easy to get my attention off the screen. Sometimes I still like to make up to the time I lost in writing, even if I did all I can, drafted what can possibly be done offline for my social media posts. Whenever I feel like that, I continue to write but off topic articles to other directories or local newspapers instead. For the latter, they have a column for readers where we get to write in and share our thoughts in various topics. I like to do that as an interest and it gives me satisfaction when I get to use my time for a similar activity yet different prospect! Movies? Music? Life stories? Anything I feel like writing. The more expressive I become the more energy I accumulate to deal with negativity.

5. Clean Up & Check Your OS, Backups

I’m keen in making folders. They are easily misplaced and I can find duplicates in different drives sometimes! Those are not intentioned but they really cramped up my memories. I do month-end backups but why can’t I do it now? Ended up clearing 5GB of free spaces, transferring unneccesary files off my working PC. Doubled my backup discs just in case. Feels good when all the tiresome yet important tasks are off my mind.

6. Working on OFFLINE Pending Tasks

Don’t have any? Good for you.

Sadly for me it’s easy to leave offline work piled up unintentionally when you’re working more than 10 hours a day. I went through my closet and tidied up the wardrobe, gave my toilet a cleanup which I was thinking of doing a week ago, sent out greeting cards for the coming Chinese New Year occasion in February. It put me at ease knowing I won’t have to be nagged about those things again. *YAY!*

7. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

I know you’re not in the mood for exercise now, but you got to get your negative energy out somewhere! ‘Swearing’ won’t make you healthier or slimmer but ‘Sweating’ will. I got on my bike and paddled for about 20 minutes and it felt good! I know my muscle is going to ache the next day but I’m cool with that.



So Now It Comes to This…
Here I am, sipping my coffee while preparing to give this post a happy ending (at internet covered town area). Maybe it’s another life lesson to break through pressure. Jim seems to be handling that very well even surrounded by cops! I could use some rhumba right now. LOL !

I believe once in a while we all need a little inspiring input. If none of the above helps, maybe these 50 Simple Ways To Stay Productive will. Do share with us how did you overcome downturns and pressuring moments when you can’t blog? We could all use some ideas from one another.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A lot of resolutions been talked about lately. How many of you have set up goals based on what you’ve learned in the past? Now I must admit, initially I have no intention to do a blog review based on performances in 2009. To dig up old archive seem troublesome and it’s much better to save effort for a much productive work, right? Wrong.

Measuring blog success isn’t just about bragging how good you are, but identify how much you could or should have done to improve blog traffic. Bottom line, if you are serious to increase blog traffic, a review is needed for:

• Periodic goal-settings

• Understanding own potentials and ability

• Measuring current blog status and progress

• Knowing parts to improve and avoiding repeated mistakes

• Following up on lost comments & connections

Based on these 6 ways to track blog success, I can have a general idea how my blog survived all the way from March, 2009 (1st post about social media). During the process, I immediately realized the first and utmost lesson is to involve Analytics and Feedburner more in my planning instead of just a casual check monthly.

Popularity and Blog Traffic Review

Results are ranging from 17th March, 2009 to 6th January 2010 (my 1st day of work in 2010):

What I love about tracking comments is to find out which post type attracts the most discussions; what matters to the readers when they visit and the content that stands out from the rest. Engagement is a big deal here therefore I’m blessed to have a group of loyal readers who are taking comments very seriously! May the spirit continues in 2010. Of course, in order to obtain more accurate results, social media strategies and time factor are to be taken into considerations as well.

Other criteria that helped in commenting: Do-Follow, CommentLuv (Reasons To Love), Blog Promoting via Social Media

Top 5 Famous Posts via Google Analytics:

13 Facebook Applications to Promote Your Blog
How To Pick Up From Your Blogging Downturns
How Seriously Do You Take Blog Comments?
16 Social Bookmarking Plugins to Promote Your Posts
16 Misconceptions About ‘Serious’ Blogging

The results are slightly different but undeniably, Facebook is a hot topic here. The post was only written in October, 2009 but it overtook other posts and came first in Analytics. Also, it made me realized which type of posts are search-worthy; which are favored in social bookmarking sites and so on.

My Top 5 Traffic Source in 2009

I’m only active in Stumbleupon after migrating to wordpress in July. SU brought me a lot of new visitors but its bounce rate was still among the highest comparing to other traffic source. In order to capture the right audience in StumbleUpon, do make sure the submitted post is tagged correctly. Here’s a great post of 5 Tactis to drive in traffic from StumbleUpon, old tricks but good tips. As for Google Search that improves to rank #3 out of no where, no doubt that WordPress plugins such as All In One SEO helped me a great deal.

I believe migrating to WordPress from Blogger is the smartest decision I made in 2009 to increase blog traffic.

Power of Twitter & StumbleUpon in Promoting Blog Posts

Even though I started to blog in August, 2008, I only switched to social media blogging in March, 2009. Between my first and last social media post in 2009, I found 2 spikes happened in May and September respectively. It was during the time when these 2 posts were published:

a) The Best of Twitter Desktop Clients – Secrets Revealed!

- (61% direct traffic while 21% Twitter.com)

I remembered clearly it was the magic of Twitter that drove in the traffic. Loic from Seesmic tweeted about this post and soon the tweet went viral! You may be surprised why Analytics showed most of the visits are from ‘direct traffic’ instead of Twitter.com, this is because some clicks from Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck, Twhirl etc will not be counted in Twitter.com but as ‘direct traffic’ to your blog.

b) How To Pick Up From Your Blogging Downturns – ( 85% stumbleupon)

I was very surprised with this result but I think part of the reasons is the kind support given by my blogger friends. Could it be due to the Su.pr evolution and easy-to-adapt toolbar for browsers which made stumbling quick and easy? I think so too since I’m also an active stumbler in the same way. Everyone can easily participate in more than one social media sites nowadays so it will definitely help if we manage to assist one another in post-promoting. That’s the beauty of integration and networking.

Now It’s Your Turn…

What is your most popular post and which social media site has been your main traffic source so far? Share your post link and ideas in the comment below.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Are you a prolific blogger who owns multiple blogs and eager to share everything on your Facebook Fan Page? If yes, congratulations! This post is dedicated to you.

We all are aware of how easy it is to autopost from A BLOG to facebook account. You can have plenty of app choices even among the 13 Facebook Applications to Promote Your Blog. However when it comes to multiple blogs, sometimes we are forced to input them manually or rely on combination of apps such as Notes, Social RSS to make it happen. Actually there’s an easier way!

Here’s a request earlier from a blogger friend who posted on my blog’s fan page :

As much Wordbook sounds promising, we know it is not capable enough to post for multiple blogs and to Facebook Fan Pages. Truth is, you don’t have to add any WordPress plugins. The answer lies in the hand of NetworkedBlogs and I’m gonna show you how:

Register Your Blogs to NetworkedBlogs

First requirement is you need to make sure all your blogs are registered to NetworkedBlogs and you’re following them individually (skip this section if you’ve done that already):

1.  Add NetworkedBlogs to your Facebook application.

2.  Then click ‘Register a new blog’. Fill up the details required.

3.  At ‘Blog Feed’ section, click ‘Pull Now’ to import all posts from your blog. Refresh the page if needed.

4.  Verify your account for each blog (either way) following the instructions given (Repeat step 2 – 4 for your multiple blogs) :

Configure Your Facebook Fan Page For Autoposting

1.  Go to your Facebook Fan Page. Click ‘Edit Page’ to enter management page.

2.  Scroll all the way down to locate ‘Networkedblogs’ and hit ‘Edit’.

3.  All the blogs you’re currently following will be displayed in the Page Settings. Select the blogs you wish to import to your Facebook page.

4.  Grant permission and Save your settings.

Done. Now whenever your blogs are updated with new posts, they will be published on both Facebook page and personal account.

But, what if you wish to prevent personal account from receiving blog updates?

Some people may not like to harass their real life friends with business related info, here’s what you can do:

1.  In NetworkedBlog, look for ‘Feed Settings’ at the right sidebar to change your feed-posting preferences.

2.  At ‘Fan Pages’ section, click ‘Configure’ and mark the ‘Auto-Publish blog posts to Page Wall’ ; whereas for Personal Profile remained un-ticked.

That’s it! All can be done within Facebook Fan Page! Import as many entries you need to enhance blog traffic.

Recommended Read: How to Import Twitter Favorites to Facebook Page
(More ways to import blog posts to your facebook Page with RSS feed)

Here’s A Great News…

We reached 100 members today so we got ourselves a custom URL ~ facebook.com/SocialBloggingTracker ! YAY! You guys rock and can’t thank you all enough for the participation. If you haven’t join us, by all means! It’s a perfect place for all readers/social media enthusiasts to meet and get inspired!

Do you find the tutorial useful? If you know a better way to autopost from multiple blogs to Facebook Fan Pages, do share with us in your comment.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.