Become a Blogging Ninja: Triple Your Traffic with Social Media by Heather Neal
How to Increase Blog Traffic
When I first started my blog four years ago, it with the intention to keep better track of the books I have read. Before that, I kept notes in spiral notebooks on books I read and had a hard time finding my notes on specific books. My book blog has been great for that initial purpose but it has become so much more since then.
I had no idea that there was an entire community of supportive book bloggers out there who would actually read my book reviews. All of a sudden people started commenting on my posts, then I got followers, and then the offer for free books rolled in. Now I have over 630 followers and would love to have more. Yes, I have become just as addicted to blogging as I am to reading books.
I recently got an offer to review Become a Blogging Ninja and couldn't pass up the opportunity. I have only been using Facebook and Twitter for about 6 months now and know that there are more efficient ways to use them. I want to know how to use social media to my best advantage. I tried reading blog posts with social media tips and tricks on how to increase blog traffic. However, I really needed someone to sit down with me and explain everything from start to finish.
Become a Blogging Ninja is a short ebook of only 130 epages but it is packed with some very useful information about blogging and social media. It easy to understand, even easier than the books for "Dummies" and "Idiots" series.
First Heather gives mostly common sense tips on blogging such as being sure to proof read every post before you post it, keeping the side bar neat and tidy and not cramped, and using a large enough font size to make it as easy as possible for people to read your content. She also stressed that you should promote other bloggers as well. In return, you will be promoted as well. I have experienced this first hand, so I know it's true!
Social Media
Then she got into Facebook. She explains how to sign up and create a Facebook pages. I would have found this quite helpful when I was setting up my page. She suggested that you upload photos from you blog to Facebook and add a witty caption with a link to the corresponding blog post. I have never done this but can certainly see how it could capture people's attention.
She also talked about the use of the @ sign, which was totally new to me as well.
"If you've reviewed a specific product or featured another blogger, posts for you etc., be sure to tag them when you share your blog post link. You can tag on Facebook by entering the "@" symbol before a name or page. {You have to be friends or "like" them in order to do this.} This automatically puts your post on their Facebook wall. Instant exposure to a new crowd!"
Then Heather talks about Twitter, what it is, how to tweet and follow, and what some of the lingo is. She explains the use of the # hashtag, which I have already been doing. She explains the use of applications for Twitter such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite, which was totally new to me.
"One advantage of using a Twitter application as opposed to the native Twitter website is that you can view multiple streams at once. With one glance at the screen, you can see your Twitter stream, your mentions, your direct messages, and almost anything else you choose."
Heather suggests keeping your Tweets to about 125 characters instead of the 140 characters allowed. This makes it easier for people to retweet your tweets. I'll have to work on this because I have enough trouble getting my Tweets down to the 140 characters. LOL! She also suggests using tools such as Timely or Buffer to schedule your tweets. They help you find the best times for tweets to post. I just recently found out about Buffer but still not quite sure how to use it.
Next, Heather talks about Stumble Upon. Now I've been "kind of" using it for awhile but have been un-sure how to really use it, so I was really looking forward to this part of the book. She explains how to find people to follow. I couldn't figure that out on my own, so that really helped. She also gave a good overview of what kinds of posts to stumble. Once a post is stumbled it's up there forever, so it's good to us stumble for "timeless" posts, not ones that will expire such as giveaways.
It is important to add social media buttons to your post or sidebar where people can easily find them and use them to share your posts.
SEO
Heather then covers Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Before I read this, I didn't even know what SEO stands for. LOL!
"The main thing to understand about SEO is keywords. Keywords are really just search engine terms. The higher your website ranks for a certain keyword, the closer to the top of the search results list you'll be."
Heather explains how to find the correct keywords, including the use of Google AdwordsKeyword tool. Once you figure out the keywords it's time to use them. I had no idea how, but I do now, thanks to Heather. I know it will take practice but I tried to use my new knowledge of using keywords with this post.
Heather really covers a ton of useful information in Become a Blogging Ninja, too much for me to go into in this one post. If you want to learn more on how to use social media and SEO effectively, I highly recommend this book! Hopefully, I'm on my way to becoming a Blogging Ninja.
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