In addition to being a writer, I’m also an artist. I’ve got a passion for DIY crafts such as knitting and sewing, I love to cook and I appreciate fine fashion. Now I’ve found a social media site called Pinterest that allows me to indulge in collecting and “pinning’ images of all of my favorite things in one place.

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites. It’s an online pin board where members can collect, organize and share images of things they love.

Users create boards that they can give unique names to. After dragging the bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar, you can just click on the ‘Pin It’ button whenever you see an image on a website that you want to add to a Pinterest board.

Pinterest has great potential for marketing when it’s done discreetly. For businesses and brands that have a visual focus such as fashion, food, art, design, etc., Pinterest has obvious appeal. However, even brands that are not product or visual image based can benefit from using Pinterest to communicate the personality and aesthetic of their brand image and philosophy.

If you are already posting images to Facebook and Twitter, you can easily work Pinterest into your routine, and you can even add a cool Pinterest plugin to your WordPress blog. The Pinterest RSS Widget displays the thumbnail images and titles of your latest Pins on your blog using the Pinterest RSS plugin.

Because Pinterest is still in beta testing, you’ll need an invite in order to join. Send me an @ reply on Twitter, @evelynwrites, with your email address and I’ll send you an invite.
Once you’ve joined, be sure to follow me: http://pinterest.com/evelynwrites/

Are you already on Pinterest? Please add me and I will follow you back.

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• Pinterest: The Power of Images (impressionsthroughmedia.com)
• 3 Simple Ways to Use Pinterest (mediaegg.com)

I have been hearing about Klout.com for awhile, and I’ve been seeing those +K tweets on Twitter and wondering what that was all about. Well, now I have a new social media addiction thanks to my friend, LaShanda Henry of Sistasense.tv. She talked about Klout.com in a the SistaSense Circle group coaching program that I belong to.

Klout is a social media site that measures and identifies your social influence in social media. You can join for free and set up a profile. You give the app permission to link to your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles and then it uses that information to give you a score between 1 and 100. When I first joined Klout back in July I had a score of 38. Today my Klout score is 51–solidly in the middle of the pack.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about Klout yet, but I am learning about how it works and how I can leverage its features to get more exposure online.

One of the fun features is the ability that I mentioned earlier, which is to give people “+K’s,” which is kind of like the “thumbs up,” that the “Like” button on Facebook represents.

You can give people a +K to show your appreciation if they shared some of your content with their network, or if they shared something of someone else’s that you found useful. A +K can serve as a thank you for being helpful to you, or as an encouragement to keep up the good work they’ve been doing, or if they have influenced you in some way. +K is not about boosting your Klout score. It’s just about providing a medium for users to engage and build community around their topics of interest.

• Here’s how to give your peeps a +K on Klout:

• Log in to your Klout.com account

• Type in the Twitter.com username of the person you’d like to give a +K to

• Now you will see their Klout profile. In the area where it lists what that person is influential about, click on the “see all. . .” link. Now you’ll find a list of their topics and you’ll see the “Give +K” button to the right of each topic.

Once you’ve given them a +K you can then Tweet about it, or post a Facebook status update about it.

So far I’m finding Klout to be fun. I guess if and when I manage to boost my score beyond 51 I will see if it does anything to drive more traffic to my site, or increase my social medial following.

If you’re on Klout and want me to +K you, leave a comment. My Twitter username is @evelynwrites if you feel like returning the favor.

A few weeks ago I finally got a much-coveted invite to join Google+, which is Google’s shiny new social media platform that just came out of beta in early July. Now anyone with a Google account can join Google+.  I’ve been having fun playing in this new social media space, getting to know the ‘lay of the land,’ and I’ve been having a great time.

Facebook and Twitter were my first foray into social media marketing, so I am considering Google+ from the perspective of how I use those spaces and what additional benefits it might have to offer me.  What I have observed so far is that Google+ so far has been embraced primarily by early adopters—those of us who geek-out on new tech tools and can’t wait to see what the latest tech gadget has to offer.  So, I have been using it to connect with other business people who are using G+ because, frankly, my peeps—that is my friends and family are not yet on Google+, nor do they show much of an interest in joining.

Here’s a quick overview of what Google+ has to offer, so that you can decide it maybe you want to come on over and check it out.

+Circles

On Facebook everyone is your friend, on Twitter everyone is a Follower, but with Google+ as soon as you add someone to your network you place them in one of your existing circles, or you can create a new one to add them to.  Here’s an idea of some of my circles:

• Friends—yes, actual friends that I know and have established a real relationship with whether or not we have actually met in real life.

• Business contacts—colleagues, fellow business owners, collaborators

• Blogs to watch—As a blogger I have certain blogs that I keep a close eye on for relationship building. I put those in this circle.

• Clients
• Acquaintances
• Relatives

+Hangouts

Hangout is a video and voice chat application that allows up to ten people to do a video chat on whatever topic they choose. You  must install a little plugin, and your laptop must have video and a mic in order to participate in a hangout. You can either initiate your own, or visit, http://gphangouts.com, to find a public hangout that you can join.

+Sparks

This is a colossal feed engine that contains feeds from across the Internet on any topic you can imagine. Just type in your keywords and up pops all of this content that you can read and share with the people in your circles.

Google’s +1 Button

The +1 button is separate from Google+, but there is also a +1 button along with your posts. You can think of it as the Google version of Facebook’s ‘Like’ button. Clicking the +1 button means that you think that site is kinda awesome and you’re giving it the ‘thumbs-up’ vote. But another cool thing about the +1 button is that all of the sites that you have clicked +1 for are listed on a page on your Google profile making it sort of like your own de facto social bookmarking site. People can peruse your +1 page to see what you like and recommend, but you can also keep your +1 page to yourself by making it private.

+Mobile

As an iPhone user it’s more than a little bit irritating that the mobile app for iOS is not yet available. But if you are an Android user you can take all of Google+’s features with you on the go with the exception of hangouts , but they may be adding that functionality to the mobile app at some point in the future.

Breaking News: The Google+ iOS app for iPhone and iPad is now available in iTunes

http://mashable.com/2011/07/19/google-iphone-app/

My G+ conclusions

So, for the moment, I’m digging Google+. I use if for business networking, and research primarily. One of my business colleagues shared on G+ that she was going to ditch all of the business contacts on her personal Facebook profile and tell them to look for her on Google+ so that she could reclaim her Facebook profile for actual friends and family. I am watching and waiting to see how things shake out with Google+. I was on Facebook for years before anyone I actually knew joined, so maybe in time G+ will gain more mainstream appeal.

What are your thoughts on Google+? Have you joined yet? What do you like or dislike about the new social media platform on the block? Feel free to leave a comment.

What inspired me to write this post today was a meeting I had this week with a prospective client. He found me on social media and while he has been cooking up his project, he has been observing what I’m up to online. He visited my blog, my Facebook profile, Fan Page and Twitter and then he sent me a Facebook Inbox message to ask about working with me. These days I have not been publicizing my consulting services too much because my schedule is full to overflowing with producing lots of content for my fabulous clients. But part of my vision for the life that I intend to create for myself includes doing more consulting, and speaking. In order to achieve success in those endeavors I must continue to build on my online visibility.

Towards that end I am preparing to be a guest on a radio show called, “Being, with Ron Ash,” on Wednesday, January 19 at 9am EST. Ron Ash is an author and Pastoral Counselor. This will be my third radio appearance, and the previous two interviews came about because the hosts found my website and resonated with my vision and mission. Ron also found me on Facebook.

So, I guess what I am trying to say here is that you’ve got to be relentless about your marketing. Get yourself out there! Write about the topics that you are passionate about on your blog. Take a stand for something that you believe in and defend it. There will be haters out there, but there will also be people who are attracted to your authenticity and sincerity. And to that last point, be who you are. The world does not need any more copy-cats. For so long I felt insecure because I was always comparing myself to other people and feeling like I did not measure up. Thank God I have learned to get over myself, let myself off the hook and learn to love myself for who I am–warts and all.

The best way to get discovered is to be everywhere all the time. Participate in social media, work your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. Network with your peers and get on the ‘radar screen’ of those luminaries in your field that you would love to work with. Comment on blogs. Contribute articles to the major publications in your niche or topic. Guest blog for a few of the high profile blogs in your niche. Submit press releases when you are doing something newsworthy, and, oh yeah, do something newsworthy! Submitting press releases is an amazingly effective way to generate buzz, which is what you really want.

While you are getting out there, make sure that your house is in order. Make sure of the following:

• Your blog should look great and has lots of valuable content for your new visitors to consume.

• If you will be sending our press releases, make sure you’ve got a ‘Press or Media’ page with links to your media kit on your blog.

• Put your email list opt-in box above the fold and in the upper-right hand section of your website.

• Create an engaging intro video about yourself and post it on your blog.

• Create a Facebook Fan Page with a keyword-optimized title and post valuable content there.

• Share your friends’ content and they will reciprocate.

Gaining online visibility takes time and commitment. It will not happen overnight barring your appearing on the evening news for some reason. If you intend to get discovered by prospective clients you’ve got to be willing to lay a strong foundation and put in the work required.

Remember, there is no one else out there like you. No one else can do the genius work that you were sent to this planet to do. If God has given you a vision then it is your responsibility to bring it to fruition. You would not be given the desire without also having been given the means by which to fulfill that desire. It is your job to take the first step in faith. Feel free to contact me if you want to talk about me working with you to boost your online visibility.

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Sue Papadoulis

Please enjoy this guest blog post by Sue Papadoulis, another AES author:

Would you love to be featured on TV or radio, or in newspapers or magazines but feel intimated by the thought of contacting the media?

You’re not alone.  In fact, the number one reason most small and home business owners do not use public relations (PR) for marketing and promotion is because they feel intimated by the media.

As a former journalist and public relations executive with my own PR consultancy, I’m here to tell you that getting free publicity is not difficult, complicated or expensive as PR people might have you believe.  You can do it yourself, you can attract many new clients in the process, and you can still be true to yourself.

Most people are intimidated by the media. Yet there’s nothing special about a journalist.  You must get past the intimidation factor and you do this by establishing relationships in the media.  Once you get to know a journalist you’ll realise they are just average people with a job that’s more public than most.

Most people think PR is just the domain of big businesses and government. The only difference between you and the companies you see profiled in the media is that they have contacted the media and told them something about their business, and you haven’t – yet.

Most people fear negative publicity. Unless you’ve done something bad like stealing money from the elderly, or been involved in a scam, then you won’t see a negative story. A journalist wants to make the story the best it can be because they want to entertain and interest their audience.

Many people fear success. That might sound strange – we all want success, right? But what if deep down you hold a fear of success and all that it might mean?

• What would your friends and family say if you were featured in the media? Would they be supportive, excited and happy for you; or jealous, envious and point out the negatives?
• Do you worry that you don’t deserve to be featured in the media and be very successful? Is there something you’ve done in your life that you’re ashamed of and that you believe makes you undeserving?
• Do you worry that if you have a great media profile and are super successful it will mean a change in the way you live your life and so impact on your partner and family?

These are common worries and the self-talk around these issues holds the majority of people back. Here’s how to overcome your fears:

• Recognise your fear. If you feel yourself resisting something you know would help grow your business, you need to examine the reasons why.  Once you recognise your fears, you can work towards defeating them.
• Recognise what fear is. Fear is the result of uncertainty about a situation and the outcome.  Fear relating to achieving publicity is the result of not knowing how to deal with the media.
• Overcoming fear: The quickest way to overcome fear is to simply figure out what to do in the situation.  The next step is to take action in the direction of your goal.  Take action to learn the necessary skills and your fear will dissipate

Being a star in the media does not mean pretending to be someone you’re not. To have real impact and cut-through to connect with the audience means being your true self and tapping into your infinite power.  A compelling story has the ability to touch lives and create a lasting emotional attachment between the audience and your business.

Sue Papadoulis is a contributing author to Align, Expand and Succeed; Shifting the Paradigm of Entrepreneurial Success. This “just released” book is based on the premise that the world is changing at a very rapid pace. We are starting to see that cooperation brings better results than old style competition. It’s a new era and we need to work together to create success for everyone, not just for a few.

This book is designed to raise the vibration of the planet like never before. Get your copy of Align, Expand and Succeed and enjoy an abundance of gifts with your purchase. http://www.aesbook.com

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Social media marketing can no longer be called a passing fad. If you look at some of the big players such as Intel, Honda, Coca Cola and thousands of other brands both large and small, who are using social media to engage with their audience and increase brand awareness, you’re sure to discover that social media can help you to expand your brand, interact and engage with your target market and grow your presence online.

With social media sites such as youtube.com becoming the second most popular search engine, and Facebook growing larger than the population of some countries it’s time to stop ignoring its impact and start embracing the potential of social media to have a positive impact on your bottom line when done right.

So, what is social media optimization? It’s all about optimizing your online presence to take advantage of social media’s potential to grow your business and expand your brand. Just as SEO optimizes your website to attract organic traffic from the search engines, SMO seeks to optimize your site to receive targeted traffic from social media sites. In this article we’re going to look at some ways in which you can optimize your sites and your profiles to boost both your search engine rankings and expand your reach and influence online.

1. Your Website

If you don’t already have one, create a blog which is optimized for your primary keywords.

Provide an email list opt-in form where visitors can sign up and learn more about who you are and what you have to offer.

Make it effortless for your visitors to share your content on social media by providing sharing buttons, Twitter apps, and Fan Page ‘Like’ boxes.

Provide an RSS feed so that visitors can keep up with your new content.

Use video to educate, entertain and inform your visitors.

2. Your Social Media Profiles

Make sure that all of your profiles are 100% complete. LinkedIn profiles that are complete rank higher than those that are incomplete.

Post a good, clear photo of yourself in your profiles (people don’t create relationships with a logo).

Create compelling content that your visitors will want to share.

Focus more energy on giving and providing value than you do on advertising your wares.

Present yourself as a trusted authority, and people will be attracted to what you have to offer.

3. What is your plan of action for social media?

Clearly articulate what you specifically hope to gain by being involved in social media.

Do you want more traffic to your website?

Are you trying to engage with your audience and create relationships?

Do you want to build a community around your ideas?

Are you trying to provide customer service?

After you establish those goals you can determine how you will measure success.

Go over these items and take an assessment of where you are right now with social media optimization and take a few actions today that will move you one step closer to having an online presence that is optimized to make the most of your connections on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube.com.  Use these ideas to come up with a single goal to start with and then work towards achieving that goal as you expand your vision.

Social media marketing is an effective way to get your brand out there, get found and grow your online presence and your business. Are you making the most of this golden opportunity?

Want to get more involved with social media, but you don’t have the time, or the expertise to do it right? Ask about our social media management services. Contact me at ebb567 [at] gmail [dot] com.

There were ten women in this first circle and we got to know each other over the series of telephone coaching sessions and the online forum. I really enjoyed the focused attention that was made possible because the group was so small. I learned so much and I was inspired both by LaShanda and by the other amazing women in our group.

Here are a few of the little ‘nuggets’ that I learned that I  will share in order to inspire you to invest in some coaching:

The importance of sharing our stories
When we visit someone’s website and everything seems perfect and it looks like they’ve got it going on it can never reveal the depth of the struggles that they went through to achieve what they have today. Sharing the story of how you started your business, what struggles you were able to overcome, the lessons learned and the victories won makes your readers catch a glimpse of your humanity. They will find some aspect of your story that they can relate to and they might say to themselves, “If she did it then maybe I can, too.”

‘Marketing moments’ & business blogging
I learned that I have been giving far too much away on my blog and then not tying the content back into sharing about what I do. She taught us about a certain approach to business blogging that balances content marketing with lead generation, and I’ll tell you the very first time I put her advice into practice I got a new client.

Social media conversion
As someone who uses social media daily to market my business, and as a social media manager for my private clients, what I learned from LaShanda about how to bring more of my social media audience to my blog and convert them to clients paid off because right away becuase I signed a new client that first found me on Facebook.

So, if you’re feeling a bit stuck you might consider a group coaching program like the SistaSense Circle where you can learn and grow and stretch yourself as you gain the skills and support to grow your business or coaching practice in a safe, encouraging environment.

If you are just starting out in online business and you could use some guidance, I recommend LaShanda’s, The Beginner’s Guide to Building Your Money Making Business Online, which is a bundle of ebooks, a 7-day course and 15 ‘how-to’ videos.

While the SistaSense Circle has officially ended, I plan to keep in touch with the members of the class so that we can
continue to inspire one another and learn from each other.

Do you work with a stellar coach who has helped you to break through some barriers and achieve new levels of success? Brag about them here in the comments.

If you learn how to work it effectively, Twitter can send lots of free, targeted traffic to your blog. One of the secrets is to make sure that your Twitter stream is populated by tweeps (Twitter users) who might have an interest in your blog’s topic.

So, in this post we’re going to take a quick look at some strategies for finding cool tweeps to follow with the hope that they follow you back providing you with a targeted Twitter following.

First, tweak your Twitter profile

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for you to use a picture of yourself rather than your brand as your Twitter avatar. People are tweeting with you as a person not your brand.

Make sure that you utilize your bio to your advantage. You’ve got 160 characters to share a bit about who you are with 100 million twitter users, and the rest of the Internet now that Tweets can show up in the search engines. Use your primary keywords, but don’t forget the human touch. If you can squeeze in some funny more’s the better if that suits your personality. Just be your authentic self and that will attract compatible people.

Include a link to your blog, and make sure that you make it easy for your visitors to re-tweet your blog posts.

Twitter is making it easy to find cool tweeps to follow

If you notice when you are on your ‘Home’ page in your Twitter profile, you’ll see a snippet of text that says, “Who to follow, and then you’ll see two little avatars of some tweeps that Twitter thinks you might want to follow based on your keywords and the kinds of people you are already following. You can click the ‘View All’ link and see a list of tweeps that twitter is suggesting you might want to follow.

Also, when you are visiting someone’s profile, you’ll see three avatars of tweeps you might also like to follow. If you don’t want to follow a particular tweep you can select ‘Hide’ and you’ll never see that one again.

Use Twellow.com, the Twitter yellow pages to find tweeps to follow

With over 24 million twitter profiels, twellow.com is an excellent resource for searching for tweeps to follow. You can do searches on topics and keywords, geographic locations, industries, etc.

You can simply sign up for a free account and start searching for people using whatever criteria you choose. What I like is that you can click ‘follow’ right from the search page without the need to click back over to Twitter each time. This is a fast way to add lots of targeted tweeps to your twitter stream.

Follow the tweeps that the leaders in your industry or niche are following

Visit the profile of the tweeps that you admire–the movers and shakers and prominent peeps with thousands of followers. Click on ‘View All’ under the tiny thumbnails of some of the people they are following and follow some that look interesting to you.

The key to getting a good response when you send tweets is to make sure that you are tweeting to people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to say. Purposefully selecting your twitter stream is a vital step in making sure that you get the most targeted traffic from twitter to your blog.

Oh! Don’t forget to follow me, if you aren’t already: @evelynwrites. Please feel free to share your favorite tips for adding Twitter followers.

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Blogging is a personal publishing format that allows you to be able to have your own platform for sharing your ideas with the world. Reading feedback from visitors is quite rewarding and makes it worth all of the work and effort that goes into producing a quality blog.

But sometimes there are those days that your Mamma warned you about. There are days when life gets to be overwhelming, you’re exhausted and beaten down and the baby needs a new pair of shoes.  Sometimes you wonder what the heck you were thinking when you started that blog. What made you think you’d have time to post every day or least every week?

Well, gentle reader, I’ve got some fabulous news for you. I find myself in the same boat as you. I’m a blogger, a mom, and I’m running a business from home. My days are full to the brim, so if I am not strategic with my time, my blogs can slip off the radar and languish for days while I’m scrambling around after my girls, or knee-deep in a client project.

Since we all face the challenge of how to fit our blogging tasks into an already gloriously full day, I’ve come up with some tricks and strategies that you can use to develop productive habits, which will allow you to make the most of those little snippets of time in your day to get your blogging done.

I’ve heard it said that we teach what we most need to learn, and that is indeed the case with me because one of my biggest challenges has been keeping fresh posts on my blog. So, here are some tips and for writing and blog posting that I try to follow:

1. Keep a notebook handy

Here’s a perfect example of this tip. As I write this, I am sitting in the laundry room doing laundry. Because right now I live in an apartment that does not have a washer and dryer, I have to schlep my clothes to the local laundry. But, while I sit here waiting for the wash cycle to finish, I’m getting this blog post written because I brought my little mini-Netbook with me.

Get a small notebook, use the notes feature on your phone, or like me, keep your mini-laptop handy and jot down ideas as they come to you.

2. Stay in ‘Idea seeking’ mode

Keep your eyes and ears open for what is going on around you. How can you incorporate the events of your life into your blog posts? Just this week I got my first complaint on my email subscriber list. It threw me for a minute, but I got back on track quickly and turned it into a blog post.

Are you facing a challenge in your life? Find a way to share what you are learning without sharing too many of the personal, gory details. When there are big stories in the news either in your local area or nationally find a way to weave larger story into your blog posts if it’s appropriate.

Use your notebook and capture those ideas. You may not use all of them right away, but at some point you’ll be stumped for something to write about, and you can consult your notebook for some new ideas to write about.

3. Schedule specific blogging tasks

As a blogger you’ve got to do the following tasks over the course of a week:

• Write blog posts

• Share blog posts

• Market your blog

-social media marketing

-blog directories/communities

• Research

• Blog maintenance

- install, update plugins

-stats reports

-comment moderation

-database backups

• Network/build community with other bloggers

I’m certain that there are more tasks, but this is all that came to my mind. All of these things need to be done in order for your blog to run smoothly, so plug each of the tasks into your calendar and designate how many minutes you will set aside to complete it.

4. Write titles and outline posts in batches

In your research time, come up with some working titles of blog posts that you plan to write over the course of the coming week. Now, when you sit down to write, you will not be facing the dreaded blank page or screen. If you don’t have a hot topic to write about at the moment, look at your batch of working titles and start from there.

5. Write posts in batches

Take your list of titles and post outlines and write up a few posts in advance. Set them aside and come back and edit, proofread and format them in batches and, if you are running WordPress, you can publish them all at once scheduling the exact days and times you want each one to go live.

6. Utilize guest bloggers

Do you ever need a break from blogging, say for a vacation? Wouldn’t it be cool if someone else would write a blog post for you every now and then? Well, in exchange for a link back to their blog, guest bloggers will write a unique blog post for your blog. Is there a particular fan of your blog who always writes thoughtful, cogent comments, and who has a blog on a related topic to yours? You might send them a quick email and see if they might be interested in a guest blogging gig.

There are also several forums where bloggers seeking guest bloggers, and bloggers seeking blogs to guest post with hang out and help each other out. Here are two that I use:

http://BloggerLinkUp.com/

http://myblogguest.com/

7. Find ways to make it fun

Do you remember why you started blogging in the first place? Try to stay in touch with that initial excitement and use that energy to make your blogging tasks something you get to do rather than so much drudgery. Challenge yourself to a solid week of daily posting. Join a 30 day blogging challenge or start your own. Set specific goals for how often you will publish posts, and then create little rewards for yourself when you meet those goals. You know what motivates you, so use that to your advantage.

I’m in the 31DBBB challenge right now, and one of our tasks for the challenge is to find a blogging buddy. Develop a collaborative relationship with another blogger and challenge, encourage and support each other to make your blogs the best that they can be.

I recommend being patient with yourself as you develop these new habits. See which ones work for you and go with those for awhile and see if your blogging productivity improves. Number seven is the most important here because if you view your blogging responsibilities as chores or another “must do” task it will feel like drudgery.

When you come to view blogging as something fun and exciting that you get to do, you will be more likely to put all of your positive energy and enthusiasm into the task. Your passion for your topic will be apparent to your visitors and attract more visitors to your blog.

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Increase blog traffic

1. Establish a consistent publishing schedule and stick to it. At least three posts a week is ideal.

2. Add an opt-in subscription box ‘above the fold‘ close to the upper, right-hand corner of your blog. Offer a valuable free product in exchange for their contact information.

3. Send weekly updates to your email list with a link back to your blog.

4. Make it easy for your visitors to share your blog posts on social media sites. Add plugins such as ShareThis and Wibiya to allow visitors to quickly share your content.

5. Brand your site along with your social media profiles so that your visitors recognize you on those sites and
click on your links.

6. Include a ‘Contact’ link on your blog.

7. Create a ‘Privacy Policy,’ and ‘Disclaimer,’ links if you offer affiliate sales on your blog. Providing up-front, full disclosure is now a requirement by the FCC, and it puts your visitor’s minds at ease when they are clear on exactly how you will be using any information that you gather about them.

8. Include a ‘FAQ,’ or ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page to answer questions for your visitors and provide them with everything they need to know when it comes to doing business with you.

9. Use your email subscriber list responsibly. Your visitors did not sign up for your newsletter to be spammed with ads. Offer them ‘susbscriber only’ specials and send them free ‘subscriber appreciation’ gifts to remind them of how valuable they are to you.

These are just a few tips and strategies you can use to keep your reader’s interest and keep them coming back to your blog. The main draw to your blog, of course, is your stellar content. Writing sparkling prose that is keyword rich, relevant and useful to your readers is the best way to keep them coming back for more.