I happened to come upon a great opportunity tonight. Just as I signed into my Twitter account, Darren Rowse of Problogger tweeted that he was doing a live session on UStream that was open to all.

This is a rare opportunity, so, of course, I jumped on the chance to be a part of this.

During the time Darren was live I was able to see a lot of questions being directed towards him and was even able to ask a few questions of my own.

Darren, being the man of connecting with readers that he is, answered these questions with responses reflecting his expert experience in blogging.

I’d like to share with you a few of the questions that arose and a general summary (paraphrasing) of Darren’s responses.

 

Question: “How long was it before you saw a good number of subscribers on your early blogs?”

Darren: “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. There weren’t services like Feedburner or anything available to track RSS subscriptions then. I can say, though, that I didn’t start seeing significant increases until after the 12 month mark. It takes a while to start getting noticed which is why a lot of bloggers quit early.”

 

Question: “What were some of the things that you did in your early blog days to get traffic?”

 

Darren: “I know that this is repeated a lot, but I commented on other blogs. Really connecting and talking with people through comments on other blogs helps a lot.”

 

Question: “Do you think that in the future bloggers will have to have multiple niche blogs for success?”

 

Darren: “There are people who have become successful having different types of niche content blended into one site. But I personally think splitting them up into separate blogs does help a lot.”

 

Again, the questions listed here came directly from myself. I paraphrased Darren’s responses due to the fact that this was a live feed from UStream and I was unable to record the information as it was being presented.

Thanks to Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) for taking the time out of his day to answer these questions and the questions of the other viewers at the time of his live session!

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For years now many have noticed that quite a few people are making a name for themselves via the world of the internet. From teenagers developing success with viral videos on services like YouTube to older generations acheiving full time incomes blogging, the internet has quickly become a vital tool for those seeking renown.

I’ve noticed, during my random web surfing, that tons of people are trying to duplicate that which has brought a few to popularity and mass wealth. But is there success in being a mimmick? I’d have to say no.

I’m writing this particular article to cncourage readers to be creative, fresh, and prosperous. There are solid ways to increas your presence online and I’m going to share a few with you.

First off let’s take a look at a few basic, but CRUCIAL, keys to building a strong online reputation.

These are:

• Being Original
• Being Creative
• Being Consistent
• Being Timely

 

These four points are probably the best rules of thumb to live by online.

Let’s look at each one in more depth.

Being Original

This is by far the most important point of them all. If you don’t remember anything else, remember this.

Being original, or unique, is crucial to success and to viewer/reader interest. Most people know what they are looking for by the time they click your link and if they land on your site and see any cookie cutter content they have seen before, you can bet they’re going to make use of their web browser’s back button!

Before you write a post or article, upload a video, or publicize a photo, go ahead and do a search on the topic it’s related to. Visit the links presented on the first page of the results and see if your content is pretty similar. If if is, go back and edit it and see if you can present it in a unique fashion that you didn’t see within these results.

This leads perfectly into my next point:

Being Creative

Ok, you have your topic or basic content picked out, now what? Jazz it up by BEING CREATIVE.

As I mentioned before, analyze search results on content relevant to your own. Really look at how it’s presented, the mood it sets for you, even how the graphical or textual content is placed. These may seem like small details to pay attention to, but I promise you they all matter. Content placement has a lot to do with the way your readers view your page.

Now that you’ve broken down the content think of ways that you can present yours entirely different. Ask a friend or relative to review it. See if they feel it’s attractive and inviting.

On a side note, don’t tell your friends or relatives that the content you’re showing them is yours! You’ll get a much more honest response when they aren’t looking at it in your favor

Being Consistent

This is another major point to follow. When I first started out blogging and writing articles I fell short in this aspect and this is a lesson I quickly learned and prospered from.

You can post one video or article and get lucky and receive thousands of hits on it, but eventually that inital fame will die down. In order to keep an audience online you have to consistently produce quality, relevant content.

For bloggers this generally means posting articles three to four times a week, sometimes more.

For producers of viral videos or podcasts it can be once or twice a week that will keep readers/viewers coming back for more.

Like I said earlier, I didn’t do this in my beginning stages of blogging. Now that I am I have increased my readership by more than five times. That’s a significant jump for just making a simple change and updating more often.

Consistency is powerful.

Finally, my last point to building an online reputation:

Being Timely

Being timely is something that will have your readers/viewers drooling waiting for your next post or submission.

What does it mean to be timely?

Being timely means being one of the first to produce content on a particular subject within your niche.

This isn’t an easy task, of course. It requires time and effort. One thing I’ve found to be very helpful in this is to keep up with current news that is relevant to your niche, or topic.

So if you write a blog about dancing, keep up with “hot”, relevant news such as who the current top dancers in the t.v. series “So You Think You Can Dance” are. Being one of the first to present breaking or current news in your niche can drastically improve your website traffic and get your name to places you can’t even imagine!

KEEP UP WITH YOUR TOPIC.

BE TIMELY.

Well, that’s all I have to write about this subject for now. I really hope you will take this information and run with it. I’m personally sick of going through several websites that contain the exact same content!

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With so many millions of blogs out there it’s hard to stand out and get noticed by the people you want to see your blog. Not to mention of those millions of blogs it’s a given that thousands of those will be on topics similar to yours, if not identical. So how can you get your blog seen by the people you are trying to target? How can you get viewers that are genuinely interested in what you have to say?

Unfortunately, no matter what you’ve been told or read, there are no “fast and easy” solutions to these questions. But there are methods of maximizing your blog’s viewing potential and I’m going to show you a few ways to do that right now. So congrats, you just found a free guide to exposing your blog. Consider yourself lucky ;-).

Now, for the meat.

First off I’m going to reveal the absoultely FREE methods of getting your blog recognized. There are no start up costs, no fees to be paid, not a penny has to leave your pocket.

BUT…
These methods DO take TIME and EFFORT. They are simple tasks, but they are time consuming. However, they WILL get more traffic and TARGETED viewers to your blog! So listen up!

These are the things that you can do to increase your blog views substaintially (listed in the order you should do them!):

1. Submit your blog to ALL search engines - This includes everything. Google being the giant, of course, but also submit to Yahoo!, MSN, WebCrawler, Bing, any search engine you can think of.
2. Submit your posts to article directories - This can help a lot. You may not think directing people to specific posts is important, but it is. Most people who click a link and are taken to your website judge your site in 30 seconds. If they don’t see what they want or like in those 30 seconds, they leave, and most never return. Directing people to articles is better because they are already looking for information that is (hopefully) already outlined in your post titles.
3. Use social media networking sites - Post your blog URL anywhere and everywhere you can. This includes Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. You’d be surprised how many hits you can get this way. Just do us all a favor, DON’T SPAM. This is key. Spam your link too much and people will just get annoyed with you and not want to visit your site.
4. Email Signatures - An effective email signature lures your contacts to your site. Make sure it’s clean and to the point. Don’t just put your link. Use a catch phrase based on your sites topic. Don’t make it flashy or sound like hype, though. Simple, clean, and to the point.
5. Forum Signatures - These are important, especially if you have a blog centered around a particular niche. Find forum communities relating to your blog topic and become a part of them. Don’t spam your link throughout posts, just participate in conversations. If you have a well structured forum signature, just as with email signatures, traffic will come your way.
6. Blog Comments - This includes two main concepts: engaging readers that comment your blog AND commenting on other blogs. Always respond to comments left on your blog every so often and engage in converstaion with your readers. Also leave comments on blogs that are relevant to your blog’s content. Again, don’t spam your link. Simply leave feedback about their posts.
7. Word of Mouth - Tell your friends, family, co-workers, etc. They may want to get involved to. And they are very likely to mention your blog to others!

These are all key ways to promote your blog for free. The next few are all options that require a bit of money, but are worth the investment.

1. Google AdWords - Set up an ad that focuses on your main topic of content. Make sure it has major keywords that define your blog, but don’t over do it. AdWords is a marketing giant. If you can master building an ad that will attract viewers, this will be a massive asset to you.
2. Other Blog/Site Ads - Browse the web and find websites and blogs that are of similar content as yours. A lot of them offer ad positions on their sites that you can purchase and receive hits from. NOTE: The more visitors these sites receive, the more you’re likely to pay for a position on their site.

There are a few others, but these are the main methods you should familiarize yourself with and use to your advantage!

I have never paid a dime for advertising myself. I constantly submit my articles and promote my blog through social media and various other forms of free advertising. This blog has only been up a few months and it’s viewers are growing rapidly!

I hope you guys can put these ideas to use and reap the benefits!

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