Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’

Extreme Makeover – (Travel Weekly Edition)

Friday, January 16th, 2009
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I think it’s save to say that we all like things that are familiar to us. When I go to the grocery store I usually go to the same one because unlike other stores I know exactly where to find my Heinz Ketchup, where Breyers Ice cream can be found, along with my favorite blend of Arabica Premium Ground Coffee. A few months ago, they changed a few of the front isles around from running vertically to horizontally and I must have stood there for 5 minutes just wondering how I was going to find things.

What happened to the way it was?

Part of the reason I struggled with the move from Blogger to WordPress was because I wasn’t comfortable with change. Blogger was familiar, I knew how to drive it, and I liked the template design.

But the template I was using was outdated, and couldn’t take advantage of all the new toys and features that are now available with updated Blogger templates. Plus I knew that this new format here on WordPress would be much more powerful, being able to host many features I knew were important in order to continue to grow and expand my visibility on the World Wide Web.

Logically, I knew the change would be good, and I’ve certainly been extremely pleased with the functionality of my new home. It’s was a simple matter not being familiar with what I was about to dive into.

tw-extreme-makeoverWith technology rapidly changing, with better tools and resources, and the internet becoming more and more of “The Source” for news, entertainment, and socializing, it’s not surprising the Travel Weekly just got an extreme makeover.

Like most everything I come across that I’m familiar with and find that’s changed, my first reaction is “Ack! How do I find what I want?!” But after taking the time to look around I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was all the “stuff” I look for in Travel Weekly was still there, but a lot easier to find. (Again, change is often “good”.)

All the industry news that I like to read is now on the front page. Down at the bottom of the site are all the industry channels that I try to keep up with. I like reading about these different destinations and offers and find I can scan the entire section now and only read what catches my eye. There’s also a ton more content to browse over which I really like, and while Travel Weekly may not be the first to break important news, they have always had a history of reporting on stories I find elsewhere.

The Industry News section has also been expanded on the front page giving me a better idea of what’s going on around the industry. (Found Apple Vacations and Travel Impressions have also terminated it’s relationship with Joystar.)

Something else you may notice at the bottom of these articles is a comment section. Yes, you can now input your own comments and discuss what you think about the news and events that are being reported. However, like here, the comments are moderated. (I can’t imagine why?) If you’d like to get an idea of what Travel Weekly might expect in proper conduct to enable you to add comments on their site, you can find them here.

Other features have been introduced as well, a new multimedia section has been introduced for things such as uploading photos. Photo will be categorized in three areas, “Destination Albums”, “Recommend Trips”, and “Experiencing Cruising”. Readers will also be able to comment on photos that are uploaded. Video’s can also be uploaded for those that like that medium. (Hopefully, it will be a step up from YouTube.)

There is also an expanded area for hotel information, travel deals, and Fam information. (An area that was honestly lacking compared to other sources I read on a regular basis.) The Travel Weekly site is also introducing something called “5 Minute Guides” for key destinations, along with non-destination guides such as car rentals, and technology.

Overall, this is a huge makeover for “The National Newspaper of the Travel Industry”. I’ve seen many changes and upgrades over the years from sites like Travel Weekly. Travel Trade upgraded a few years ago, and Travel Pulse use to me Modern Agent back in the day. One of the best features I like about Travel Weekly however, is that unlike the upgrades I’ve seen in the past, the hundreds of links I’ve used as supporting documentation here on this blog from Travel Weekly, are still in tact.

Thank You – Thank You – Thank You!

Probably the best feature out of all since my goal here is to help educate and provide you with documentation of what’s REALLY going on in this industry.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Book Your Travel & Vacations With


TSO #588629
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10 Blog Traffic Tips

Monday, December 8th, 2008
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I got a couple of e-mails and phone calls after Friday’s post asking me just how this new blog go so much traction so quickly. I owe much of that to the following I already had. You need to realize, I’ve been blogging for years.

But what about those who are just starting out, and wanting to get their own blog up and running? What should you do? How do you get regular readers and traffic coming to you day after day?

Blogging isn’t the same animal it was three years ago, and many of the resources I used back in the day wouldn’t work on today’s internet. A big reason why I switched formats was to keep up with the newest resources and latest trends out here.

If I were to have to do it all over again, there would be two guys, or two formulas I would follow in today’s internet to get the type of readership I would expect. What I like about both of these formulas is a no nonsense approach, step by step instructions, and tips and tricks for even the most seasoned blogger like myself. (I’ve always been the type who likes to learn new things, and look to those more successful than myself to achieve the results I want.)

I’ll write more about Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Marketing 2.0 latter on in the week, but today I want to give you 10 basic steps from a little known Blogging Expert in Australia, named Yaro Starak. Yaro has a free report called Blog Profits Blueprint and also has a great two great videos on blogging that are very sound.

I would like to warn those of you who have what I like to call “wealth envy”. If the idea of making money from simply blogging offends you, this program is not for you. What most want when they start a blog is traffic and readership, and unless you use the steps outlined in either Blog Profit Blueprint or the videos, you have no shot of making money even if you wanted too because you’ll have no traffic or readership to speak of. (If you do suffer from “wealth envy” you need to read this book.)

Regardless, here are 10 tips I would use today to get traffic to my new blog, and I want to thank Yaro for permission to post this for all of you.

————————————————-

In every bloggers life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else”s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that”s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don”t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that”s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger”s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it”s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it”s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it”s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it”s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it”s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Book Your Travel & Vacations With


TSO #588629
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Blown Away…

Friday, December 5th, 2008
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It’s hard to believe my new home here on JustPictureItNow has been live for one month. I have to steel a line from my Director Tim Dominey when he looks at something that surprises him, “Goodnight!” Not because of what’s been written, but because how this new format and home has exceeded every expectation I had about the power of a Blog.

I’ve told you before about the definition of F-E-A-R, which is nothing more than False Evidence Appearing Real, and my fear at the time was that I would loose my initial readership, basically having to start from scratch building all new links and search engine results so people could find me.

Okay…here goes…

I was wro…

I was wwwr…

I was wrrrrrrrr…. BLASTED WORD!

How ‘bout, “I was merely mistaken”.

If you would have told me last month that I would have had this type of traction this early in this move, I would have told you that you were nuts. I’ve been blogging for a long time, and I watch and read other blogs and track their growth and popularity. I track how much traffic they’re able to get, how they rank on search engines, and who’s talking about them.

Many site owners like to use Alexa to see how well their sites are doing. For those that don’t know anything about Alexa, the easiest way to compare them is Nielson ratings. If you take a look at the Alexa report for this site, you’ll see that it climbed to a spot of 1.2 million, up some 7 million spots in the last three months. (Truth be told, thats in the last month.) I realize that there are some that like to claim they are doing as well, or as relevant as this blog, however this same report shows a decline of nearly 1 million spots to around 2 million in the same 3 month period.

Another report I like to look at is traffic value from SEMrush. I was shocked to see how quickly this site ranked after only a months time. If you compare that with No Mix, it clearly shows a vast difference in organic search engine rankings and value.

So why the vast contrast?

I have to send out a HUGE thank you to many of the loyal readers of the previous blog and my newsletter for getting the word out and putting your own links pointing to my new home. Within days I saw referral links from quite a few readers with a post or comment that I had moved. To have so many of you do this without even asking tells me that you believe that what I have has value.

The newsletter subscriptions also helped during this time. I have several Directors now pointing to my newsletter signup page telling their teams to subscribe. I didn’t host the signup page on Blogger, but do now on JustPicutreItNow. That combined with a 200% to 600% open rate from people forwarding my newsletter to other RTA’s in the company creates a considerable amount of traffic. The average number of monthly subscriptions more than doubled in the month of November.

Lastly, WordPress is simply a more powerful blog format. What was totally unexpected for me was how search engines not only found what I transferred over, but indexed the three years of posts within a matter of days. (I thought it was going to take MONTHS!) A big key in all this was how WordPress was able to transfer everything over, including categories with a simple click, making it very easy for the crawlers, spiders and bots to find and then index year’s worth of content.

So how do YOU keep this new home growing with all of the links to third party documentation that helps verify the truth instead of spin and hype about our fine company? Use the “Share / Save” button at the bottom of every post. With Social Bookmarking as the new way to link and share information, it’s a breeze to link important and relevant content you find here for prospects, clients, and other RTA’s to get accurate and relevant information about the travel industry and our company.

Thanks for making this such an easy and quick transition. I’m completely blown away over how quickly this happened, and I’m thrilled over this realization. It’s an honor and pleasure to be considered a relevant source in this vast and expansive format we call the World Wide Web.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Book Your Travel & Vacations With


TSO #588629
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Our New Home On The Web

Monday, November 3rd, 2008
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Welcome to our new home on the web!

While we’re very excited about our new and improved home, we’re still trying to get acclimated to our new surroundings. There’s a TON of work still waiting, some clutter to clean up, but the work load just got a little less now that I can focus all my blog time here instead of trying maintain the old blog as well.

While I was able to transfer all the old posts over with a couple of clicks, you may notice that the majority of posts aren’t formatted the same way. I’ll get to them eventually and I’ve already reformatted several of the more popular posts. I also need to dig into some “code” to make a few changes and tweaks to make this blog look and feel like I want.

It will come together in due time, and after only a weeks worth of work starting from scratch, I felt it was at least a good foundation to work from.

I didn’t mention this on Friday, but honestly feel that WordPress absolutely smokes Blogger. With what I’ve been able to uncover thus far, it makes Blogger look like child’s play. There are far more features and add-ons with this current format that you just can’t get with Blogger.

When I first saw the WordPress developer site, (WordPress.org) I caught a phrase down on the bottom right hand corner that read “Code Is Poetry”. For someone who enjoys playing with code, although a novice compared to some, I’ve really enjoyed learning and playing with these new CSS and PHP type files. This type of structure, and how all the pieces work in unison fascinates me.

Don’t let this intimidate you if you’re thinking about using WordPress however. They make it very easy to add widgets and plugins for anyone who can follow simple directions. WordPress can be very much a “plug and play” type application. However, you can get as intricate and complex as you’d like for anyone who has desire to dive in and create something truly unique.

 

The biggest advantage of using WordPress is that I manage the site and the content on my own server. I initially wanted to host this with my current domain service (GoDaddy.com), but while doing some research I found unlimited bandwith and storage with a company called BlueHost that I’ve been very pleased with. (BlueHost claims they’ve been rated best customer service 2004 thru 2008 and I can certainly see why.)

 

I did run into a small bug when transferring all the content over from Blogger, and you may notice that the vast majority of the comments did not make it to the new home. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve unpacked from a move and think to myself, why did even bother packing this? Either Blogger or WordPress didn’t feel the comments were worth packing, so I took it as a sign. The way I see it, I brought only the best with me, and left the rest of the crap at the old domain.

 

Speaking of comments, you may notice that they have been enabled once again. Now that I have the type of control that will allow me to manage some of the loudest and most obnoxious commenter’s that frequented the old blog, I’ve decided to enable them again. In order to comment you will need to register and you will also notice that I have a “rules” section on the blog that everyone needs to follow in order to participate here.

 

Here’s the beauty about all this. I can block any user name that doesn’t follow the rules. If they decide they want to sign up under a different user name and continue to ignore the rules and annoy others, the IP address can be blocked.

 

Another nice feature that I’ve wanted for some time, but couldn’t because of the antiquated template I used, (not Bloggers fault) is the “Add To Any” button to link you to me when you find something you like. Dislike also works well, and from what I’ve seen, I’d rather people actually link back here, so they can get the real scoop instead of some of the mouthing off I’ve seen.

 

The RSS Feed has been updated as well. While I couldn’t transfer you’re old subscription from Blogger to here, I have upgraded the FeedBurner account and feed for this blog to enable e-mailing to your in box when I post something new here.

There are other tricks I have up my sleeve, and based on all the research I’ve been doing and what I’ve been learning along the way I’m willing to bet I haven’t even begun to figure out what I can do with this puppy. Now that I’ve moved in, every time I open a door, there is a new feature that will benefit how I communicate with you.

Buckle Up folks, it’s going to be a fun, fun ride!

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Book Your Travel & Vacations With


TSO #588629
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Trick Or Treat

Friday, October 31st, 2008
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This will be my last post on Blogger.

Oh, don’t get your hair all up in a bun just yet. I’m moving, not going away completely.

Now for some this may be either a trick or a treat depending on which side of the fence you sit on. I’ve been wanting to make a change for some time, with either a different look, more flexibility, more customization, and feature rich controls.

On Monday, I will be making the switch to my own domain and server at my new home www.justpictureitnow.com. You’ll still be able to find all your favorite posts over there, (given time, there are 226 posts that need to be reformatted) and we will still be giving you the hard hitting documentation and links you’ve only been able to find here concerning the industry we’re all so fired up about, travel.


Truth is; I’ve outgrown this blog long ago. I started this blog back in December of 2005, and in computer years, that’s ancient. (I don’t know if there is any equivalent for web sites and computer technology like there is for dog years.) This particular template I’m using here, while very comfortable and familiar is a 1.0 template. If I wanted to make the switch to 2.0 which does have some of the controls I wanted I’d have to change the entire look and end up reformating everything anyway.


At the beginning of the year, I did consider and actually wanted to upgrade the look and feel of this blog. The problem was, I just couldn’t find anything I wanted or that looked right, and I’d still have to reformat every post to make it readable for those that found me via organic searches. So I just dropped it and continued on with the old template.


A good friend of mine, who happens to be my very first team member in YTB finally convinced me to take a look at a format I almost went to back in 2005 and after looking at what it had to offer, I’ve decided to make the switch on an entirely different platform.


WordPress.


After doing some research and taking a good hard look at the WordPress platform, everything seemed to fall into place and I now have living, breathing blog that can grow and expand like I want it to.


Although I’m kicking myself for not making this switch at the beginning of the year, (I have close to 100 more posts to switch over) the customization, plugins, and widgets along with constant upgrades to keep current with the latest technology was key. It’s a computer geek’s playground, and for someone like me who should be wearing inch thick glasses and a pocket protector, I’m in heaven.


Yes, there will be some down time as I make this switch as the spiders that crawl the world wide web figure out what has transpired. By doing this now however, by the first of the year, the new blog should be even more powerful than ever. (I learned a few new SEO tricks along the way.)


In closing, I wanted to thank both Blogger and Google for making this format available to the average person. Without it, I never would have figured out that I have a real gift for writing. For that I am grateful, and Blogger has served me well over the years.


For me however, I want to take my blogging to new levels and help even more people. Think big. That’s what every mentor and teacher I’ve read or heard over the past three years has taught me. I’ve never been one to hide out and it’s time to step out even further to make an even bigger impact.


I hope to see you Monday over in my new digs.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Book Your Travel & Vacations With


TSO #588629
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5 Keys To Marketing On-Line

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
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The goal of working online is the same as traditional networking: you’re trying to form a relationship with somebody you trust and that trusts you. People have formed relationships online for years, through message boards, instant messaging and e-mail. This relationship however only begins online.

Sales 101: People buy from people they like. Online marketing does not replace the human element of developing, maintaining, and nurturing any relationship. Real trust in any relationship only comes from personal contact, either in person, or over the phone.

Finding your way into the online networking realm, and using your visits there effectively can be helped by applying traditional referral networking thinking. With online networking, there are several ways to develop your word-of-mouth marketing, but it’s important to understand that the foundation of making online networking work for you is the same as with any kind of networking–you’ve got to develop relationships with trusted business associates.

I’ve been able to start many a friendship online and quite honestly, two of the best team members I have on my team came from online marketing. The question is how was I able to start these relationships, and get them to join MY team? How in all the millions of e-mails and posts that generate online every day, did these two people single me out of cyber space?

The answer is simple: Apply good networking fundamentals online. I believe there are five keys for networking success online:

  1. Join one or more online networking communities – Actively participate. No matter which community you choose, however, after joining, you need to participate. Take a genuine interest the people on the board and talk about what they have posted in a positive, informative matter. After they get to know you, and if you are able to contribute something meaningful to the board, they will be the ones who contact you. Those two team members I told you about earlier, came from the same message board I contribute to regularly.
  2. Start a Blog or write a regular column for a website or e-newsletter. You can start a Blog (basically an online diary just like this one) on one of the larger blogger sites or online communities; you’ll create more buzz for yourself. Talk about your industry, either in general or be more specific to you particular market. It doesn’t matter as long as you make the reading informative.
  3. Develop an e-mail newsletter for your own company. Create an e-mail database of clients, customers and friends, and send them regular content that drives them to your own website. A good rule of thumb for something like this would be once a month. A monthly newsletter gives you plenty of time to come up with a number of stories and articles to share. Keep a folder of ideas you would like to talk about and work on the project over the entire month. It’s also important to set a specific date and time, and then stick to that date. I’ve been getting a monthly newsletter from a company call “Home Toys” for years. I know to expect that newsletter on the first of every month without fail. Others are sent twice each month, and some even every week.
  4. Never forget that online networking is still about developing trust. In order to drive business to your company by word of mouth, you must focus on developing real, personal relationships with people. Do not use these boards, blogs or newsletters as a platform to actively pitch and promote your business. A subtle signature with a link to your web site is all that is needed. Making you signature BIGGER or LOUDER will not drive people to your site. What you have to say and contribute is far more important and makes a much better impression than any banner ad or signature could ever do.
  5. Understand that online networking has its own cultural norms. Many cultural pretenses don’t exist online, however, and people tend to be much blunter when responding online than in a face-to-face meeting. With online networking, people feel it’s easier to be more direct.

I want you to pay particular attention to what is NOT on this list: Sending out thousands of unsolicited e-mails from a mailing list. This is not an effective marketing tool when it comes to developing relationships. When was the last time you opened an e-mail from someone you didn’t know and read all the way through? (And why are most of these e-mails mile and miles long and still never really tell you anything about the product or opportunity?) More importantly, when was the last time you wanted to develop a relationship with the sender of that e-mail? Once a relationship is formed and they trust the sender of that e-mail, then it’s from a trusted friend.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Book Your Travel & Vacations With


TSO #588629
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