Build Your Online Influence with Guest Blogs

GUEST blogs are a great way to promote content and reach new online users.

So, what is guest blogging?

Well, it’s as simple as writing a post for someone else’s blog, or hosting a piece someone else has written. Whether you are the article writer or the host site, guest blogs can be mutually beneficial for both sides.

By participating in a guest post you can target a diverse new audience, expand your reader base, increase your lead generation potential and build backlinks to your own site.

Whether you were invited to write a guest article, or are planning to host one there are some things you should know that will really make guest posts work for you.

Do your research

We all know that reputation is important. Not only in life, but also with blog swaps, and the company you keep… aka the site you’re contributing to.

When considering a guest post, whether you’re the writer or the host, make sure you do your research. Your name is at stake here just as much as theirs.

Take some time and review the content available on the blog you’ll be featured on, or by the blogger you’ll be showcasing. Make sure you’re in good company, so the end result is worthwhile.

For Writers

• Does the site/blog you’ll be featured on have a good reputation?
• Are the posts current?
• Do the articles have functional links?
• Does the blog feature author profiles?
• Are the posts relevant to your niche? (more on that in the next section)
• Does the blog have solid engagement?

Getting published in a low-quality blog or one which barely has any traffic can at best, waste your time and at worst, tarnish your reputation, so beware.

For Hosts

• Does the blogger have a good reputation?
• Are their example posts recent?
• Do their posted articles have functional links?
• Is their author profile professional?
• Are their posts content heavy and well written?
• Is their writing engaging?

Even if the guest post being offered is free, if a writer is not a good fit, don’t be afraid to decline. Publishing a poor quality article or one that flops, again, would be a waste your time and may even alienate readers.

Focus on quality

Once you’ve established that the guest post situation is worthwhile, turn your focus to the quality of the article itself.

For Writers

This is a great opportunity to get your name out there, so you want to capitalize accordingly.

The best way to stand out?

You guessed it: quality.

From presentation to content, quality is super important.

Ask to see the blog’s style guide, learn about their process and make sure you stay on-point.

Before you submit a draft for review, make sure the post is well-researched, has functional links, appropriate citations, great looking images and effective copy.

And don’t forget to proofread. I know it probably sounds obvious, but proofing is extremely important.

Need some help in that department? Click here for a great proofing checklist.

All-in-all, showcasing yourself as a respectable and reliable source of information will really help your post shine when published for a new audience.

P.S. Being easy to work with is a great and easy way to get another opportunity.

For Hosts

The best way to get quality results once you’ve screened a writer? Have clear expectations and instructions.

If you curate a blog, a style guide is a great thing to have. Not really sure where to start? Check out this great reference guide from HubSpot.

Not quite ready to delve into a full style guide? Be sure you least have a set of guidelines to share:

• What is the deadline?
• What is the minimum/maximum number of words?
• What tone, or voice is best for your audience?
• Do you have a competitors list?
• Are there any specific formatting requirements?

Whether you’re a host or a writer, top-quality guest blogs are a great way to build rapport with other bloggers. Which may lead to more guest posts, more followers, more recognition, more guest posts… and even more guest posts…

Plus, creating or featuring an article with relevant content will also increase your chances of growing within your niche. Which leads us to our next topic:

Stick to your niche

For writers and hosts alike, your niche is hugely important. It has a direct influence on your ability to generate traffic.

Think about it this way, you want to guest post an article to promote your content. Then, you’re given the opportunity to do so, but the blog has nothing to do with your topic of choice.

It could be a great opportunity, right?

Well, ask yourself one thing: “Who are you going to reach?”

Say you’re an email marketing blogger. Getting visitors who are interested in fashion won’t help with building your following or obtaining new leads. At the end of the day, they aren’t interested in what you do, despite your article potentially being an absolute hit.

This is why staying true to your niche is crucial to your success. Connect with readers who are genuinely interested in the topic that you are passionate about and you’ll no doubt develop a solid following.

Be sure to include a couple of backlinks to relevant posts you’ve done in the past. Readers are more likely to discover the other content you’ve created within your niche this way.

As an added benefit you’ll continue to build loyalty and credibility within your niche market.

Start making a name for yourself where it counts, and maintain your focus there. Through quality content and niche-targeting, you will gain the respect you deserve as an influencer within your field.

Expert Tip: Use ClickPerfect to add tracking to backlinks and see which blogs are the most popular. From there, you can develop ideas for new posts!

Maintain your style

This one is more for blog writers, but hosts take note as well:

When an opportunity arises to participate in a guest blog, you may come across specific requirements in terms of topic, article length, focus, and more. Those requirements are certainly important to adhere to, but keeping your unique style is essential to your overall success. Even though you’re a guest, it doesn’t mean you have to change your style.

If you want to get people interested in what you do, you have to show them who you are and what you have to offer. The best way to achieve this?

Write a genuine post that is up to your own personal standards.

Being consistent allows you to build a strong reputation and gain respect from your online audience, as they’ll know what to expect from you and know you are a person they want to follow.

Expert Tip: Most blogs have an author box which gives guest writers the ability to introduce themselves accordingly. Take advantage of this, and use it as another opportunity to convey your style! Always present guest posts with a short author bio, a professional portrait image and social sharing links.

Focus on social promotion

Speaking of social sharing, guest blogs are a great way to extend your reach to social media users you haven’t connected with before.

When participating in a guest blog, use your social media influence to promote the article.

Create some amazing social media graphics with Social Studio FX and start sharing. Share on all of your social media platforms, whether you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even Medium.

Tag the host/writer you worked with and ask that they do the same. If they do, take advantage of it and connect with as many new users outside of your circle as you possibly can!

Publicly thank the blog host or writer, reply to comments on their posts, and interact genuinely with anyone who shares feedback.

This will in turn, increase your social media influence and therefore generate more traffic for you.

Final Thoughts

Guest posts can be a great way to enhance traffic, develop new relationships and ultimately, expand your online influence.

If you participate in guest blogs with quality, niche-specific content that fits your style, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t see great results.

If you take it one step further and capitalize on the social media component, well, the sky’s the limit!

Speaking of social media, please take a moment to like, share and comment below!

Have you ever written a guest blog? Or hosted one?

What benefits did you see in terms of traffic, lead generation or social media following?

We’d love to hear from you!

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15 Digital Marketing Trends You Should Know About in 2017

Today’s fast-paced, modern world has become increasingly reliant on technology. It feels like we are always looking at a screen!! Since we depend heavily on our laptops and smartphones, etc. to provide us with the latest information of this world, it is important for digital marketers to understand the latest in digital marketing trends. Here are some trends to keep you at the top of your game, and to help you connect with your clients:

1)The usage of the Internet is continuing its exponential growth.

 So over the years, the number of people using the internet has gone up by over 3 billion users (which is about half of the world’s population.) This is a positive sign for us as digital marketers because we can take advantage of this growth and market our products. But there is also more and more competition for our readers attention. So we have to be at our best!

2)Social media usage continues its tremendous climb.

So these statistics for the month of January alone show the extent of social media use. This is a major medium that can be used by digital marketers as it is inexpensive and readily available to anyone who has a working internet connection. I have made extensive use of social media for my digital marketing campaigns and they have proven to be fruitful.

3)The shift from PCs to smartphones.

This shift is of extreme importance as emails are also going mobile as well. This leads to new concerns, such as keeping subject lines short enough to be read on mobile phones. You can use Sendlane™ to create these short, attention grabbing headlines and reach your audience across devices. 

4)Personalization is becoming an increasingly effective marketing method.

It is a proven fact that personalization of emails to include things like a subscribers name or interests can improve your open rates. My subscribers respond more when marketing is personalized, and with the help of Sendlane, any digital marketer can achieve the desired level of personalization easily. 

5)Global Marketing is replacing Local.

So multilingual and globalized digital marketing is making a splash as international internet use and the increasing popularity of smartphones means that the whole world is your potential audience. I have experienced a greater amount of success by creating campaigns which appeal to the global community, instead of just a local one.

6)Influencer marketing is making a greater impact.

Contacting influencers (whether outsourced or in-company) to attract target audiences has the benefit of high efficacy as influencers would know the right way to handle audiences and have built up a large following and trust of their audience.

7)Marketing automation is making it easier for digital marketers.

With Sendlane’s automation services, you can make it easier to automatically handle your marketing content, customers, contacts, posts, etc.

8)Marketing content which is comical and entertaining is attracting the masses.

So making entertaining content is a skill necessary in the digital marketing field. Such content appeals to your target audience and it can make a digital marketing campaign a great success.

9)Marketing investment returns.

As a digital marketer, you need to move away from the classical metrics and on to sales funnels. Sendlane’s sales marketing funnel software is extremely useful in this realm and will help you save your precious time.

10)Ephemeral Marketing strategies are trending.

Due to its stunningly growing popularity, Snapchat has become a marketing platform unlike any other. From personal experience, connecting with Snapchat users is easy and simple using this social media service and this is why short and concise marketing content is gaining increasing appreciation.

11)Marketing based on engaging relationships.

Marketing has shifted from its short-term relationships with customers and clients to developing loyal long term customer bases. Strategies need to focus on developing a relational bond with the customers instead of just getting the one time sale.

12)The era of data sciences.

“Big technology” is available to the general population now and even medium and small-sized businesses are using data science to gain knowledge about their futures that they never thought was possible before.

13)Virtual reality and wearable technology.

From the Apple Watch to the upcoming release of the virtually realistic “Oculus Rift”, digital marketers will get the opportunity to provide their customers and clients with an unforgettable interactive experience.

14)The ever-growing popularity of blogs.

The detailed content marketing domain has gained a considerable amount of popularity over the last decade. People have started showing a preference for content marketing. So take this blog post as an example. You are reading this right now to gain knowledge on the latest trends in digital marketing. Hence, informed and interesting blogs should be used to pitch the product to the audience.

15)Paying for space on social media.

So keep in mind this one important detail: if you want to attract the audience, you will usually have to pay for advertisement and marketing space on social media. Gone are the days of free marketing, it is the era of “bigger is better” and bigger means spending cash to create a digital marketing campaign that would blow the minds of potential customers.

Also, comment below about any other digital trends we may have missed!

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Twitter Tutorial (2015)

How to use Twitter! In this video I’ll show you how to use Twitter to build authentic relationships. From content to influencer outreach, I’ll explain the simple tactics that make a big difference. Get your Twitter Checklist to start building your community today: http://eepurl.com/blwUe1

5 Small Business Marketing Schemes That Will Waste Your Money

Marketing is no easy task. Whole businesses exist devoted to marketing other businesses. Some companies have their own marketing departments. Small businesses often rely on the DIY approach to marketing. When developing your own marketing strategy, take care to avoid wasting your time and money.

Marketing Schemes That Waste Money

Mistake 1: Too Many Social Channels

Judging by some of the marketing advice you’ll come across on the web, you may think you need to be everywhere, all the time.

What a colossal waste.

When it comes to marketing via social networks, the most important thing is for you to be where your target audience is already spending their time. Do your customers spend lots of time on Instagram? Then don’t waste your time Tweeting.

Focus your marketing and engagement efforts on Instagram. This frees up your time to engage directly with your customers even more on their favorite channels. You can find out which social networks your customers prefer by simply asking, or by using a CRM with social media integration built in.

Mistake 2: Creating New Content

You’ve heard you need fresh content all the time. New blog post every day, right? Nope.

Your customers want a relationship with your business. They want to know you value them. They don’t want to get buried in your posts. Trying to create new content about your business or related to your business gets old fast — for you and your customers.

Try a better approach. Use some of your marketing budget to hire a content developer to create high quality content optimized for your business. Remember quality over quantity.

An interesting, professionally crafted infographic will get you much more customer engagement than a rambling post on your biz blog about industry minutiae.

Sharing content is important for engagement and variety. Choose carefully. Share only things that your audience will find value in. Save those 50 cat memes for your personal accounts.

Mistake 3: Casting a Wide Net

Your marketing efforts will work better if you target your audience effectively. Casting a wide net may seem like a simpler method, especially for DIYers, but you’ll end up wasting time and money marketing to the wrong people in the wrong places.

Ask current customers where they spend time online, what encourages them to make a purchase, and how they found you.

Create a Buyer Persona, this is a sort of bio of your ideal customer. Use the persona and any data you collect from customers to identify where best to apply your marketing efforts.

Mistake 4: Influencer Marketing

Everywhere you look, someone is advising you to find influencers to promote your business. This trend in marketing is taking off.

First, decide whether it’s right for your business. If you’re in an obscure industry or create products for a small niche market, influencers are probably not going to be much help to you.

If you decide this is the right path for you, be sure you have compelling things for an influencer to share about you in the first place. An interesting narrative can make all the difference. It’s imperative you identify key influencers in your industry with whom to build relationships.

Avoid wasting your time and money on a low impact influencer or one in the wrong industry.

Mistake 5: Video Marketing

Before you shell out beaucoup bucks hiring a video production company to create the perfect marketing video, consider a few important things. Chances are very good that your customers are watching video online, but where?

It’s important to know what platform your videos would be viewed on before you create one. Marketing videos on Instagram will be consumed a bit differently than on Facebook, for example. What kind of value will video give your customers?

A boring product demo is probably not going to inspire much engagement. A sneak peek of a new product that leaves some features to the imagination can be exciting. Video that makes an emotional impact inspires engagement well.

Before hitching your wagon to a new marketing technique, be sure it’s right for your business. It must be a way to provide your customers something of value. It must be shared where they are most likely to engage. Develop a detailed strategy with clear goals. Always measure your results, so you can make adjustments as necessary.

Throwing Money in Trash Photo via Shutterstock

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3 Ways to Sell On Social You Aren't Using Yet

When most emerging e-commerce brands turn to digital marketing to increase sales, many think of SEO, display advertising, and paid search. If you’re one of those companies, then not only are you leaving money on the table by not testing less expensive options, but you are missing a wave of new consumers that are not yet ad blind on those next new things.

Here are three ways to sell on social media that you aren't using yet:

1. AI customer support chat bot.

The promise of AI is finally here, at least as far as sales support is concerned. What’s worse than a potentially interested customer reaching out to you at 1 am with credit card in hand, only to lose interest when the support team finally gets around to answering questions at 2 pm the following day?

With the emergence of tools like Thezboy, customers can be captured at a higher rate since support is instantaneous and can be designed to carry a prospect from basic question and answering, directly into an order, all within the confines of the Facebook support channel on messenger.

Further, with AI customer support where bots employ machine learning and understand word variance, the support actually gets better over time as it begins to predict next possible questions and provides suggestions to management on everyday items to address that would negate the need to use support at all.

Thus, not only is AI expected to initially augment and then eventually replace the majority of support tickets that occur on the internet, but also the basic ping-pong conversations that take place between prospects and most customer service desk-centric sales departments. The future is very bright here, both from a sales perspective and labour cost savings.

Related: Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business

2.  Peer-level influencer marketing.

When social media first started its ascension into our hearts and minds, as a business community, we were quick to latch on, even though there was little way to relate activity performed on social to sales made offline. In time, however, tracking has become more sophisticated, and it is now possible to equate the slightest activities to downstream outcomes via Google Analytics, UTM tracking, specialised coupon codes, and custom phone numbers.

With those expanded tools, another boom started: word-of-mouth marketing presently referred to as influencer marketing. When most people think of influencer marketing, they might think of Kim Kardashian, or perhaps me, and Tyra Banks? There’s a lot more to it than that.

Peer-level influence as exemplified by services like Intellifluence is specific and more personal. Are you more likely to trust the recommendation of a reality TV show celebrity selling running shoes or your friend that runs a marathon every weekend? Even though your friend almost certainly has a smaller audience, you know her to be authoritative and knowledgeable on that subject, and thus more likely to trust her opinion vs. someone probably being paid millions to endorse the product-of-the-week.

Now that tracking allows brands to very quickly and easily utilise thousands of smaller individuals in the same way that they might have previously employed an untargeted display ad campaign, and iterate faster on which influencers are producing an ROI for the campaign, it is no wonder that this concept is the breakout marketing practice of 2017.

Related: Influencers vs. Ambassadors vs. Advocates: Stop the Confusion!

3. Psychographic ad targeting.

Psychographic segmentation, as a practice, is rapidly becoming a staple both by major brands and political pundits alike. The concept is by segmenting users by their stated or implied activities, interests, and opinions (AIOs), along with values they hold, behaviours they exhibit, and general attitudes, one can develop a significantly more targeted ad campaign. Companies like Aimclear explain how psychographics are expected to eat the traditional display ad budget by showing how much of typical display ad spend is wasted attempting to reach the wrong people and how much less can be spent with Facebook’s detailed behaviour targeting.

I wanted to mention psychographics last because as a targeting and segmentation practice, it can also be used to define the approach on the AI customer support chat bots. Imagine the power of being able to customise a support bot based on past chat behaviours and sentiment so as to more ideally mirror the prospects’ values within the support channel. Reaching common ground is a common sales technique, but has never been automated in such a way before.

Related: The 6 Best Advertising Strategies For Small Business

Finally, psychographics can also play a significant role in peer-level influencer marketing. The more nuanced and better understanding of a buyer persona, the more targeted an influence campaign can be, selecting those individuals that closest match your intended buyers. Now, imagine running such a campaign and using the chat bot to close the sale for you. Wow.

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How to boost the effectiveness of your blog in 2017

Creating a Bigger and Better Blog for 2017

It’s no secret that the most, if not all, profitable niches in online marketing are already highly saturated. If you think you have an idea for a new blog topic, there are probably a thousand blogs that already published the same post. And in time, there'll be more content than humans can consume – resulting in “Content Shock."

Remember that the fundamental law of supply and demand affects everything. The price for any commodity falls when supply exceeds demand. But when it comes to content marketing, you end up paying your audience to consume your content because there’s no price for them to begin with.

In addition to time, thriving bloggers now need to invest in tools and resources that help with content creation. It’s also common for bloggers to bribe their audience into subscribing with free eBooks, discount coupons, and free trial periods.

Whether you feel that your blog is better than others is immaterial. If you want your blog to stay relevant for the upcoming years, you need a solid strategy that efficiently produces and delivers great content to your target audience.

1. Review and Refine Your Content Plan

A blog that stands the test of time is built correctly from the ground up. The first thing you need to look at is your content plan. Start by getting to know your target audience from the inside and out. If you want to build readership, you need to write for them – not for yourself and see who’ll be interested in your stuff.

The online audience is attracted to value. If you consistently provide content that educates, entertains, or encourages action, then people will be naturally drawn to your blog.

To determine what topics matter to them, one strategy is to use Alexa to profile your competitors’ readers. Simply key in your top competitor’s URL to learn information about the audience such as gender, browsing location, and popular search keywords. You can also use Google Keyword Planner for more search keyword ideas.

Next, you can gain an idea of your audience's content preferences using a content research tool like BuzzSumo. Not only will it help you determine the topics and content types that get the most engagement, but it will also help you identify key influencers that can help promote your blog.

To put everything together, make sure you define your blogging milestones that will help you track your progress and tweak your strategy over time. There’s no specific rule for this, so feel free to write anything like the following:

• Reach 1,000 subscribers in your email list
• Make your first $1,000 through ad revenue
• Reach 10,000 visitors per month

Now that you have a good idea on what you want to achieve with your blog, it’s time to develop a content plan for your blog to ensure that your goals will be reached.

The Smart Insights Content Marketing Matrix above should help you determine the main goals that you need to accomplish for your blog this year. Developing a content marketing strategy around your goals will make for an organised plan so you can engage and captivate your audience by producing the right content types.

Below are practical tips for each quadrant that you can use on your blog.

• Entertain (awareness and emotion) - Use memes on social media or your content to engage your younger audience, assuming that you are targeting that demographic. If humour is not part of your blog’s core values, you can launch fun quizzes and games similar to Buzzfeed’s that reveals information about themselves.
• Educate (awareness and rational) - Publishing how-to posts and guides about topics related to your niche will keep your audience informed with accurate data. It would be best that you apply the educational aspect of the matrix to your evergreen content, which will be discussed later.
• Inspire (emotional and purchase) - Your audience wouldn’t want to read a ghost town of a blog. Therefore, you need to learn how to drive comments or increase the social shares of your blog posts so they will know that you have an established readership. Also, you can make use of user-generated content like guest posting and reviews about your writing to increase your profile in their eyes.
• Convince (rational and purchase) - You need to beef up your blog with authoritative content to impose your knowledge to your audience who will view you as a thought leader in your niche. Developing ebooks, white papers, and checklists allow you to put your skills to good use. For maximum effect, you can use your exclusive content as an opt-in bribe if you are building an email list.

2. Set up Your Landing Pages

To build your blog readership, you need a lead generation strategy that can turn visitors into subscribers and potential customers. A key component for this would be your landing pages where most conversions happen.

To be efficient in converting your audience, a landing page must be well-designed. It must include all the right elements that will draw your audience’s attention and eventually lead them to the subscribe button:

1. Headline – There are several approaches to writing an intriguing headline. A good strategy is to be specific and uses exact numbers such as "Grow Your Traffic by 200%” or “Attract 100,000 Visitors in One Month”. Also, keep your headline short and focus on the first and last three words.
2. Description – Remember to be concise and straightforward with your description. Don’t oversell and stop after you’re done highlighting the key benefits of signing up.
3. CTA – The call-to-action is usually embedded within the opt-in button itself. Again, be straightforward and focus on the benefits. Rather than using "Sign Up Now," try something like "Get Free Access Now" or "Download the Full Report Now."

Darren Rowse is one of the most popular bloggers in the world. The homepage of Problogger.net reflects this.

Looking at the above the fold section, you will easily read a short and clear description of what the blog is all about presented as a series of tasks. It cuts right to the chase and gives visitors a quick taste of what to expect when reading through its content.

Speaking of the content, browsing down the homepage will reveal to you a section of topics covered by the blog. The heading “I need help to…” speaks from the position of the visitor, which is a perfect way to cue them into the categories found in the blog. Clicking on any of the topics will bring them to the page that contains the posts about the topic.

3. Build Evergreen Content

You can’t count on new content to bring steady traffic to your website. That’s why you need evergreen content as the foundation where your blog rests on.

Simply put, evergreen content offers information that has relevance and value for the long-term. To write them, focus on fundamental knowledge, actionable tips, time-tested strategies, or the history behind something.

Below are other tactics that you must implement to ensure that your content stands up to the test of time.

• Choose the best keyword possible - To help make the most out of your evergreen content, you need to determine a target keyword that is the easiest to rank for. Find one that has a relatively sizable monthly search volume and has the lowest competition. Using tools like SEMrush and LongTailPro should make the job much easier for you since both feature keyword competitiveness for every search phrase you enter.
• Be exhaustive as possible - That means you’ll have to write content that’s at least 2,000 words long. Cramming in as much relevant information as possible will only benefit the intended audience in their pursuit of knowledge. Just as important, longer content increases your chances of ranking on the first page of search results, which should help your post to receive more visitors.
• Regularly update your content - Since information tends to change over time, you need to keep your evergreen content updated as well to provide accurate data to your readers. By updating your content, you also keep it fresh so search engine spiders can reindex your page and possible rank it at a higher position.

Looking at WHSR's SiteGround review as an example, you will easily see how this post will be very informative for its target readers. The way the review breaks down SiteGround into its most important elements and distinguish each as pros and cons make it easier for visitors to see what makes the tool good. Also, the screenshots featured all over the page showing how fast and reliable SiteGround serves as social proof to readers.

All these elements in the content not only helps readers understand how SiteGround operates, but also allows them to make an informed decision on whether to purchase it as their web hosting or not. These are the reasons why this type of content can be described as evergreen.

 4. Learn Where to Promote Your Content

Bringing people to your blog isn’t about who has the best content anymore. It’s all about positioning and promoting your website for better discoverability.

While well-established blogs have the upper hand when it comes to the resources and connections that bring exposure, you can still keep up with them by making an effort in optimising sharing and distribution channels for your content. Social media is a great example since it is used by billions of users with different preferences.

You can also leverage the online reach of influencers by launching a blogger outreach campaign. This involves associating yourself with the main influencers who can write or share posts about your brand.

Below are other tools you can use to look for influencers:

• Ninja Outreach - If you want a simple solution for your blogger outreach/influencer marketing needs, then this email outreach ought to do the trick. You can search for influential bloggers from the platform itself and send customised emails to each to simplify the process of reaching out to your audience with the help of publishers.
• Traackr - The premiere influencer marketing platform connects you with the best publishers from your respective fields. You can ask for their help to promote your content and spread the word about your blog.
• FollowerWonk - This tool can help you determine which Twitter influencers related to your industry you need to follow. It lets you analyse their followers as well so you can get a better idea on how they engage with their audience on this social media platform.
• PeerIndex - Aside from influencer marketing, PeerIdex (formerly Brandwatch) can help you with your PR, reputation, and advertising needs. The tool also lets you gather consumer insights so you can better feel the pulse of your audience and help you come up with engaging topics to discuss with them.

You can refer to this post to learn more about promoting your blog through social media and blogger outreach.

5. Track and Measure

If you want your blog to proliferate, you need to treat it like a business that requires constant attention. Aside from using your blogging milestones as a guide, you should also specify key performance indicators or KPIs that can help you check what’s working and what isn’t.

For most blogs, below are the KPIs you need to look at:

• Page Traffic and Traffic Sources – How many visitors do you get and where are they coming from?
• Bounce Rate – What is the likelihood of someone exiting your blog before clicking anything else?
• Social Media Shares – How much social media shares does your content generate?
• Click-Through Rate – Are your headlines effective in capturing your audience’s interest?
• SEO Rankings – Where is your site positioned in search engine results pages?
• Email Subscribers – How many leads do you have on your email list?
• Conversion Rate – How optimised are your landing pages in securing conversions?

One of the best tools that can help you with your tracking needs is Google Analytics, but you’ll also need analytics platforms for SEO, social media, and email marketing. You can refer to this post for a long list of the best tools you can use.

Final Thoughts

If you want to succeed as a blogger, you need to up your game and settle for anything less than your best job. The things outlined above are only guidelines on what you can do to improve. Ultimately, it’s up to you if you’re willing to put in the extra work for making your blog grow and shine through the content noise.

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