Manage subscriptions
You can follow the discussion on 5 Traffic Generation Strategies I Stay Away From without having to leave a comment. Cool, huh? Just enter your email address in the form here below and you’re all set.
Traffic Generation Cafe | Generate Targeted Website Blog Traffic
Increase Blog Traffic Generation & Make Money Blogging
Top 6 Best Sellers
Connect With Ana
You Can Also Find Me At:
I am a wife to a great husband of 13 years (here ya go, now I have to make changes to this sentence once a year), a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
{ 6241 comments }
← Previous Comments
Ana,
Merry Christmas to you and your family! Thanks for the sweet, sweet message.
Hugs,
Heather
Ana, you are beautiful on video - and Merry Xmas to you too….It has been great learning from you here. I am very happy to have found you!!
Thank you so much, Farnoosh - I’ve been enjoying getting to know you as well.
Ana
Hey Ana, I agree completely with your list of wasted time traffic sources. I just discovered your blog, thanks to my good buddy Ray Higdon. Your content is great.
Thanks,
Randy
Welcome to my blog, Randy - and thanks to Ray for introducing us.
Hope to see more of you around.
Ana
Ana;
Thanks so much for the reminder. He is the reason for the season. and we should keep that foremost. I wish you continued success in the coming years, and I thank you for all you have shared. Blessings
Michael Brown
Thank you so much for coming by to wish me a Merry Christmas, Michael; blessings to you as well!
Ana
Hi Anna,
Thank you for the Christmas wishes and I wish you and your the same.
*★Merry★* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★Christmas★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜田田｜門｜ ˚And a Happy New Year•˚ *★…~ ~˚ *★ ˚ *★FROM MY HOUSE TO YOURS~~˚ *★˚ *★˚ *★
Beautifully creative, Deshun!
Thanks for coming by and, once again, Merry Christmas!
Ana
I like checking where you link will be going from those emails. Especially when they say I’ll add your address on one of these pages, you can almost guarantee that the link will apear on the one with the lower pr.
Theoretically, I’d love to see that, but I just hate wasting my time on this, Pippa. It’s much easier for me to just hit my delete button.
Ana
Great Post Sheldon! This is a great reminder of how we should be utilizing twitter to help our business. I’m creating another account for my blog so that there are no confusion.
I have to admit that sometimes the Internet and its vast resources have been a distraction to me too. Nobody’s perfect. But still, you are very right. It’s important to make time for blogging and resist those distractions…even if it isn’t easy.
Ana - Based on some very expensive testing conducted in the past, I’m a bit skeptical about the potential for changes in fonts and colors to really moves the needle significantly. However, what our testing did show was that adding more calls to action, improving the calls to action (great examples in your post) and changing the site navigation are the game changers. However, our testing was conducted on a site selling a complicated service. The simpler your selling proposition is, the more likely changes in fonts and colors are to impact conversion rate. And one of our business partners that had a basic one page site for lead generation had great success changing fonts and colors. Regardless, my experience is that the biggest opportunity for conversion improvements is to focus on testing your calls to action. I recommend a split test of stuffing your site with calls to action. Go overboard in the test, and then pull it back based on what you learn.
Hi Doc,
Excellent tips you are sharing here. Twitter can be hard at first, but with time it gets better. The key is to implement to the right strategies become good at it.
Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your holidays!
Mavis
Hey Ana,
Sorry it has been awhile since I replied, as I was out of town and then pretty much in bed for two days straight, been very sick, but with that said I cannot thank you enough for the thought and consideration that you have given here. I appreciate the in depth analysis and direction I should take to enhance my blog, in which yes I have had issues with for quite awhile. I am hoping with the advice and direction you have given me I can move leaps and bounds forward from where I am currently.
I have done a few changes and have a few questions like:
1. Should I try to go back and optimize all my previous posts? ( I guess I am worried about “pinging” the Search Engines to much and being tagged with spam).
2. Would you stage out the changes over time as to look natural? Or try to get as much done as possible as soon as possible?
I know it is going to be a great deal of work, and I am up to the challenge realizing that Rome was not built in a day and neither will my blog. I am going to further educate myself and partner with great minds and tackle my blog to reach levels it has never seen before.
Ana, I am so grateful for your friendship and look forward to learning more from you well into the new year! May you have a blessed holiday season and Merry Christmas.
I meant to add, it has nothing to do with content really. Personally, I would coment here no matter what…just sayin’.
Ahhh… You actually like me, Dennis? Music to my ear!
Admittedly, I did not read all the comments; my apologies if this was mentioned…
At the very least, I find it highly unethical for a new blog to offer do-follow (or any such perks), allow the community to build them to super-star, then pull it away.
I am far from alone in this thinking as well.
Btw, many of the top blogs that do not offer it, never did.
You are actually the first one to bring it up, Dennis.
I agree with you: Do or NoFollow is like your niche - once you pick it, you stick with it.
Personally, I am not really planning on ever changing from DoFollow; I was just trying to modify it in a way that would potentially keep everyone happy.
I haven’t heard many complaints untill this one, so I think my commentators are still happy with me and I will stick with this strategy.
Ana
PS I am sure you are right about the “big” blogs. I do know many “big gurus” who suggest to start a blog with DoFollow and close it off at a later date.
Of course there are do follow plugins that allow you to pick a number; once that number of comments is reached by a certain commenter, all their comments become do follow.
Definitely another way of doing it, Dennis.
Excellent tips Sheldon; I’d like to flip the coin on mixing it up, if I may….
Yes indeed you must tweet others and not just yourself, but I learned first hand, it’s not all them them them either.
I went through a phase in 2010, I tweeted everyone. 1200+ tweets with only a handful, maybe two of them being ME…i was told in so many words, that ain’t good either.
Hey Sheldon,
Knowing how to manage your Twitter account can definitely make an impact on that site’s quality as a traffic source. A few months ago when I had absolutely no clue on the workings of the micro-blogging platform, I was struggling to get a single visit to my blog via the links I was tweeting. Although one of the setbacks was in the small amount of followers I had, the other thing was too much self promotion. Even though tweeting your own stuff regularly might seem like the best way to squeeze the most out of Twitter, this isn’t exactly true. Being generous and retweeting other’s tweets is in my opinion the key component. It is good to add a few non-link tweets from time to time as well. Interaction is yet another important factor, being disregarded by many. Building relationships with your followers is a must.
Great work mate! Happy holidays!
Hi Ana,
Another interesting topic. I didn’t know about DoFollow or NoFollow until a few months ago. And my knowledge doesn’t influence my decision to comment or not.
I’m all about showing appreciation, sharing my opinion and giving credit where it’s due. I don’t even have the time to check whether a blog is a DoFollow or NoFollow. If I like what I read, I leave a comment. Period.
I will always comment on your blog, whether it’s a DoFollow or NoFollow. You share awesome content and you go an extra mile to help your readers and keep them happy
Great to hear about your decision to keep your blog a DoFollow. Keep up the good work!
Happy holidays!
Mavis
Thanks, Mavis.
I think it’s bloggers like you with the mentality of “I don’t even check if a blog is Do or NoFollow” who will succeed in the end.
When will people get that blogging is all about relationships and not links?
The more you spread your influence by commenting on other blogs, the more of it will definitely return back to you.
Hey Ana,
Great list. It’s all about finding what works for you, what resonates with your personality, skills, time and budget.
Trying to implement all strategies available is not smart at all - you’ll become jack of all trades, master of none! If you identify those that don’t work, then stay away from them as you have shown in this post.
I get incredible results from Google Adwords but it’s becoming increasingly difficult these days. This is one strategy that one needs to master before diving into it. Once the budget is depleted, the ads stop, you are back to square one
Thanks for sharing.
Mavis
Wow, I’m amazed the you have built up such a huge following sofast. You’ve hit on a great combination of valuable content, effective relationship building, and effective use of blog audience building strategies. Congrats.
Hi Doc,
Thanks for sharing your twitter insight.
Engaging is a key to successful tweeting. Fellow tweeters connect with people, not profiles. Don’ hesitate to let your personality out too. When I began to chat a little bit more about stuff outside of my niche I noticed an instant increase in followers. Lighten up to gain a more responsive following.
Have a powerful day!
RB
“Fellow tweeters connect with people, not profiles.” Couldn’t say it better, Ryan!
Thanks for chiming in with that. I think it’s the key to successful reputation management.
Doc,
Great Twitter advice… my favorite is “Don’t Change”. Being yourself is a big part of social media and Twitter is no different. Building a Twitter community can be fun a lot of fun.
Hi, Sheila- thanks for ringing in!
A lot of people forget that Twitter is a microblogging platform, which implies that many of the same rules we follow on our blogs apply equally on Twitter. I think “being yourself” is a biggie!
And you’re absolutely right… it can be a lot of fun building both your reputation and a community on Twitter.
I think it was at least 6 months into blogging that I found out there was even such a thing as do-follow and no-follow. Honestly, the whole thing came as kind of a surprise. Knowing what I know now, it still has no effect on whether or not I comment on a blog. If anyone doesn’t comment on a blog because it’s not giving them enough ‘love’ or ‘seo juice’ then I think that person is, well, messed up. After all, aren’t we here to build community? I see a comment as a simple ‘Thank You’ to the blogger- pure and simple.
Thanks for the interesting read Ana.
Hi Marcus,
That’s very nice of you. You are right, we are here to build community so leaving a comment for the sake of building relationship is absolutely great.
Have a wonderful time,
Ana
I guess Sheldon did a guest blog entry on this one and I must say these are great tips.
I’ve already been picking up these methods lately and started to unfollow a ton of people. It used to be a competition about who has the most people following you… and then you suffer the effects of it! Everyone’s just flooding your twitter with messages on some affiliate product or something about them. I rarely see stuff that seems to be of great value, so VALUE content definitely catches my eye.
I’m also starting to get rid of people who are not within my niche and concentrating on following people who are in my niche. It definitely makes a lot of difference to whom you’re following. I get very surprised myself when people outside my niche follow me, I believe it’s a bot or something though.
Loved this post Sheldon.. and thanks Ana for inviting Sheldon to do a guest entry.
Regards,
Darren Spruyt
Hi Ana,
Wow, I was just expecting to pop in and see what’s new and here I see such a fascinating post, I’m still here long after I planned.
Not only was the post extremely interesting, but these comments have been educational as well. I have to say a big Thank You to both you and many of your commenters!
I wouldn’t say that I “expect” anything, although knowing I’m getting a link back does inspire to me leave a comment on posts I may not otherwise.
Yes, if yours became a nofollow I’d still comment because you always share so much value in every single post. On top of that, I like YOU and I like to say hi when I stop by.
Thank you for maintaining your “dofollow” status, and for keeping your standards so high. I appreciate all you do.
Susanna
Hello Susanna,
Nice to have you around. Knowing that a site is a dofollow can definitely inspire anybody to leave a comment, but it’s really up to the blogger. If I think that the blog is worth my comment then I go for it even if its NoFollow.
Happy Holidays,
Ana
don’t forget that your followers helped you get there
That’s what makes the difference between short and long term success.
Ivan
I am going to try there tips today!
I read through several of Ana’s posts about Twitter and I am going to try to follow all of the ideas next few weeks. I hope it will work for me
Also, as I type I am checking Harris’ tweets and I see he engages with his followers a lot. I love people that have great communication skills so I am sure going to follow him and learn more.
Thanks
Doc:
Great information. I can’t agree more with your statement about separating the personal account from the business account. In the bricks and mortar world, we have a business persona and a personal one, so it should carry right on over to our virtual world.
Lisa
Hello, Lisa-
I think that using one account for both can work for some businesses, but not for the majority. Typically, I think it’s better to separate the two accounts, even if the connection is obvious. It allows you to establish more “personal” connections with your personal account, and some of that benefit will carry over to the business account. Yet some users just aren’t comfortable with the notion of a business account having a “personality”. It can be a tough call for some of us, I think.
Thanks a lot for your comment, Lisa!
Hi, Robin-
I think consistency is important, whether you post 100 times per day or only 5. If you skip two or three days, it can be felt and seen in your tracking. More important, though, is the quality of your tweets, in my opinion. I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and I find myself consciously ignoring the tweets of some folks that tend to pop in with 6 or 7 news tweets, clustered together, and then disappear until the next day. I find no value-added in that. Pointing out something important, like breaking news is one thing, but trying to be a news-aggregator is something else.
Thanks for your comment, Robin.
Great article and increasing brand and authority is even more important in 2011 since google and bing are using retweets and likes as part of their real time results ranking algo.
Hello, Andreas-
Absolutely! We can’t be sure how much yet, but it’s certain that brand/authority in the social media area have taken on more importance. I think it’s important to note that that’s not the case only in real-time results, either.
It should be interesting to see this more clearly defined in the year to come.
Thanks a lot for your comment, Andreas.
I think I have been trying to do the same since I have become active on Twitter. I ti s hard to establish the first connections but after that, with the right approach, it gets much easier.
I don’t ask people to RT my tweets and I am happy when they do.
But I do RT best articles I read, and I consider that a part of “being a good twitter user”.
It gives a bit back to the person that wrote a great article and it helps my followers to pay attention to really good blog, as I never RT something I don’t think is of great value.
Hello, Brankica- thanks for commenting.
I think you’re on the right track, in tweeting interesting content that you come across. Re-tweeting the tweets of others is an important part of establishing connections, too. I wouldn’t be hesitant to occasionally ask folks to RT, but personally, I try to keep it to a minimum. I see some users that add “Pls RT” to nearly every post, and as a result, I think that gets “lost”.
Re-tweeting, to me, is somewhat like a “vote”, so I’m very careful to RT only things that I think are really interesting.
Thanks for stopping in, Brankica.
Hey Ana,
I have a suggestion for you. You should place your Twitter button within the post. This will allow individuals to tweet your content that read it on their mobile devices… Like me
This is a segment that is highly increasing. That is why we are seeing more and more mobile devices applications.
Thanks,
Josh
← Previous Comments
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 387 trackbacks }