Blog Engage $650 USD Guest Blogging Qualifying Article

There are many benefits to using or participating in Twitter Chats. Those of you who know me, know that I love people. I also love to talk. My husband is relieved that I have used the skill of talking and applied it somewhere that gives him a break from my 80,000 words per day! Enter, the Twitter Chat.

Admittedly, I didn’t come up with the concept. And, I certainly, by far, was not the first one or early adopter. However, I have seen the value of the Twitter Chat. In many ways, not only socially, but also branding, networking, and attracting traffic to your site or blog. Do these sound like valuable assets to have in your arsenal? And, if you love chatting, it is double blessing!

There are many tips that I could share with you, but I’m going to list three of them, here…

Pick the Topic and Time

Choose a topic that works for your brand. Some topics are obvious. If you run a web site about guest blogging, then a weekly Twitter Chat talking about guest blogging tips makes sense. If you are a bunch of musicians who also get together periodically through the year and love to share music promotion tips for Indie artists. Then, you have a weekly topic, built-in.

For some companies it may be more challenging. If you sell coffee, there may only be so many things that you can discuss about coffee each week. However, that doesn’t stop you from building up a following of like-minded people who want to chat each week, or partnering with another company for a weekly chat topic, or even sponsoring a Twitter Chat and gaining exposure there. It may be a little more challenging to build up that group of like-minded people, but once you accomplish it, you may find that they have actually become more cohesive in their relationships and you benefit because now the participants look forward to getting together, regardless of the topic, and your brand or service may become a subtle “obvious” when it comes to that product (i.e. coffee).

The time is important, as well. You may want to consider your largest target group and pick a time that is conducive to that group. I participate in global Twitter Chats, and they are quite a bit of fun, especially because you can get such a variety of viewpoints and perspectives and it adds to the quality of the interaction. You do not need to be limited or feel constrained when it comes to time zones, as many of us, for the right chat, would change our own sleeping habits! However, you would not want to schedule it for a time that works for one person while 1000 people do not attend the chat because of the time. Simply good business sense, eh?

Get the Buzz Going!

The more that you can talk about the wonderful Twitter Chat that you will be running, the better! Get that buzz going. Tweet it out like there is no tomorrow. Maybe you want to have some Skype calls with some key networkers who could help you get the word out. It always helps to have someone else recommending your Twitter Chat, as well.

And don’t forget to add it to your site, and especially your Twitter profile.

Write blog articles on the Twitter Chat and highlight the benefits of the Twitter Chat for your participants. Give bonuses for people who participate. Give them shout-outs throughout the week on Twitter. For those die-hard participants, write a blog post about how awesome they are and their service. Feature one of their articles or run a banner ad on your site. There are so many ways you can reward people and get them excited about your Twitter Chat even before it occurs. And, even if that first chat is a flop, don’t give up! Ask your associates and friends how you can make it better. Run a contest, or a survey on what people would like to chat about. Keep that momentum and positive energy going!

Summarize and Entice

When you have completed the Twitter Chat for that week, first, remind yourself that it was a success. Keep that “cup half full” mentality going, even if you were the only one who attended. It is still an opportunity to improve. Think how easy it is to improve if you only have one attendee… Add one person and you have doubled your attendance! Seriously, don’t give up! Believe in yourself and it will become contagious.

So now that you are thinking positively about your first Twitter Chat, get that summary going. Write about what was discussed. If there was not a lot of chatter, write about what will be discussed next week. Summarize the key points and post them as soon as you can, to get the word out. This helps to create a feeling of “What did I miss?” so that people want to attend the next Twitter Chat. It also helps those regular attenders to feel like they are still in the loop even if they were unable to attend that week. And, there are many perks that you can throw into those summaries and archives.

For an example of an archive, using Storify, check out #MyBlogGuest Twitter Archive to get an idea of what I am talking about here.

There are so many ideas on how weekly Twitter Chats can help you and how you can facilitate successful Twitter Chat hook-ups that will benefit your brand, blogs, and web sites. It just doesn’t all fit into one article, so it will have to wait for the next article, or a Twitter Chat on Twitter Chats!

1000 USD 2011 Best Guest Blogger Contest Article Approved

I have started Makewebworld some time back and it started with a PR0 (each blog starts with that). In the latest update my 3 months of effort has been rewarded with a page rank of 3.

Once I was over with the feeling of achievement, I started to analyze which things have worked in favor to make this happen.

Here are few things which I think has worked in the favor and I would like to repeat them for my other blogs. I will not be including things like good content, user interface etc. These are basics and should be there to start the blog.

A Helpful Act

An unselfish helpful act can take you long way in terms of establishing you in the market. My first post which has ranked and reached to Google’s first page was because of this only.

I had a malware attack on my blog which has brought the blog down for some time. I cleaned it and it took almost 7 hours to restore everything as there was not much information available on the internet about it.

I could have taken a rest after that but instead I decided to write a guide on how to clean the malware, so other people does not suffer like me. I did spend 1 more hour on writing that post and publish it. So it was an 8 hour effort on the whole thing.

And instantly this post was ranking no 3 in Google, and started to get people on the blog. On that day I got 500 new visitors on my blog.

Many people like the help provided by that guide and decided to link back to it, while they were writing about the malware removal process. I got many one side in content valuable links for that post.

After a week I decided to share this inspirational story through guest post on Problogger (What You can take from your blog’s worst day). They liked it and guess what – another chain of good traffic and backlink from a high PR site.

I have not done any promotion for that guide and still it is a PR2 page on my blog.

We always work for looking keywords, generating posts and backlinks to rank higher but sometime just going out of that mindset and a simple act can give a lot more than hours of work. You just need to keep your eyes open for the opportunities.

Guest Post

This is one of the known methods of generating traffic and links for new blogs. I have also used it to some extents. I am not doing a lot of guest posting for Makewebworld, but I do make sure that I send 2-3 posts in a month.

Key is to track and promote your guest posts. I do track all my guest posts and do promotion for them. Posting on a good PR blog is not enough because the backlink will not be from that blog, it will be from the guest post.

So you need to know the PR of your own guest post and should try to increase it. Yes, it is easy to rank with good traffic blog rather than a new blog. So posting on a good PR blog will help but you may want to get all you can from your efforts.

The only restriction is that we should always send a high quality post. I always know deep inside that a post will be accepted or not and I am sure everybody will know this if they are sending a post. If a post can’t be published on your blog, it can’t be on any other too.

Blogging Community

If you are new to blogging sphere than you will find it hard to meet new people and make a space for yourself. Blogging Communities are a good way to make new friends.

There are many communities around but I like Blogengage and blokube. I am mostly active on Blogengage. These communities are a good way to generate some backlinks and get some new readers for your blog.

If you become part of these communities, than you need to engage. I have seen many people joining these with the mindset of getting links. Yes, you will get links but there is much more on offer.

“Once you have made an effort, you should get all the benefits you can take from it” – I always like to get whatever I can from my efforts.

Commenting

Blog Commenting is another way to increase backlinks and generate traffic. I do visit lots of blog and comment on posts, if I like them.

There is lots of debate about a dofollow or nofollow links, I never worried about the type of link. If I like the post and have something to add, I will post a comment.

I also make sure to visit one or two new blogs and check the posts there, if we do not make it a habit than most of the time we end up with one set of blogs to comment on. Going to one or two new blogs daily gives an extra bit of visibility to your blog.

There can be many ways to find new blogs, Stumbleupon is one of the great way to do that or if you do guest posts than you can look at the comments you have on the posts.

I also installed commentluv plugin on my blog to rewards the commenter’s and as soon as commentluv premium came out in the market I upgraded to that. This plugin helps in gaining some extra traffic as many people come by searching for commentluv premium enabled blog. Also it gives extra visibility on other blogs along with the addition of links.

These are the few things which I think made my journey easy.

Is there any other ways we can make this process smoother, share with us through the comments?

The general idea of Blog Engage in to build backlinks and create blog traffic. This has always been my goal in mind when developing and creating the community.

I wanted to create a blogging community that could deliver quality traffic to our blogs. I wanted traffic that converted into newsletter subscriptions and blog comments.

Creating a quality stream of traffic wasn’t easy for me and took a lot of time. I had to ensure all the members joining the community had good intentions to help one another and not just their self like the majority of blogging communities out there.

To this day I believe I have accomplished this and as you can see from the quality of traffic Blog Engage delivers my hard work has paid off and we now have one of the best blogging communities online.

In today’s article I want to share with you some steps that must be taken to ensure you get the quality traffic I worked so hard to deliver. You don’t have to follow these guidelines but if you do I can ensure you will have success in our community.

Creating your profile

By far this is the most important aspect of the Blog Engage community. Your profile page is like your brand and must be completed as much as possible. Make sure to update your profile with your blog links, profile image and information you think would interest your followers and friends.

Creating a Blog Group

This is a great way to get friends engaged with your articles. If you create a group for your blog you can invite all your friends to join it. This is also a great way to follow targeted articles such as SEO, blogging, Photography and more. When your friends join the group they will have the ability to group share articles with similar interests.

Adding Friends

When you see a familiar face on Blog Engage make sure to visit their profile and add them ad a friend. This is a great way to keep updated on all their submitted article ensuring you vote and engage with them. Building your relationship on blog engage is the start to your online success.

Guest Blogging

A great way to hit it off well on Blog engage is by writing a smashing guest article about yourself, your blog and intentions with the Blog Engage community. Let people know who you are, what your blogs about and invite our members to build that key relationship with you.

These are just some of the things I wanted to share with you our members. Get involved with the community and use it to your advantage. Blog Engage provides an amazing opportunity to build your brand and increase traffic. Follow my tips and ensure your success.

If you have any other suggestion or question please share them below and let me know your thoughts. Thanks everyone and have a great day.

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

Developing our blog takes time and dedication. Understanding how to grow an online relationship is a unique and interesting task. When we initially meet a new blogger, like in real life we’re automatically being judged.

Instead of it being our physical appearance and our attire it’s the look and feel of our blog and public profile. Joining Blog Engage will allow you to develop your brand and increase your blog traffic. Our community will get you prepared for a successful online blog marketing campaign.

Blog Engage is the foundation to your online blog marketing strategy. Don’t start alone like I did! Join the Blog Engage community, start meeting new bloggers. Once your relationships on Blog Engage start growing move to other networks searching out the same network of friends.

Once you start this method of marketing you will continue to branch out and reach more people. Assuming you have a good blog with great content you can almost guarantee success. Remember blog engage is the “Key” to this online marketing success!

Join a Blog Engage group and share niche specific topics with the members of those groups. Add them as friends and get to know them and what they like reading. Visit their blog and make sure to connect on Facebook and Twitter. Remember to build your network connections at all time.

Engage with our members and earn points. Set your goal on becoming a Top User! Your image is displayed in the sidebar linking to your profile along with the top results on the Top Users page.

Join Blog Engage today!

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

Are you looking at building quality backlinks to your blog? Are you looking at increasing your blog traffic? If your a business or personal blogger please continue reading.

If your looking at increasing brand awareness, building backlinks and ranking higher in the search engines then the Blog Engage RSS Contest Sponsorship Services are perfect for you.

For your information our next contest starts June 01 2011 just days away so get involved!

Content Syndication

With our service we will automatically syndicate your blogging content to the Blog Engage community. Your content will also be syndicated into our portfolio of social media websites such as Blog Serp, Top Blogged, RSS Leak, Blogger Ink, Tag Serp and Blogger Tag.

Contest Sponsorship

All Business, Platinum and Gold Membership Customers are included as a “Contest Sponsor” in all our Guest Blogging Contests. Our contestants are given bonus points for writing individualized sponsor reviews, these would be reviews of your blog and or service. As our contests grow so do the contestants entering and participating. This year in 2011 we will be giving away a total of 3000 USD.

Business customers (19.99 per month) receive top sponsorship placement in our guest blogging contests. In addition our contestants are given 150 points for each individual review they do of your blogs and or services. This points are used towards gaining the lead in our guest blogging contests.

Platinum customers (9.99 per month) receive second top sponsorship placement in our guest blogging contests. In addition our contestants are given 100 points for each individual review they do of your blogs and or services. This points are used towards gaining the lead in our guest blogging contests.

Gold customers (4.99 per month) receive third top sponsorship placement in our guest blogging contests. In addition our contestants are given 50 points for each individual review they do of your blogs and or services. This points are used towards gaining the lead in our guest blogging contests.

Review Rules!

1. The content about our sponsors must be unique
2. The article must contain targeted keyword links
3. The links must be do follow

SEO and Backlinks

When you market using the Blog Engage RSS Service your blog will start generating backlinks to all individual articles. Our portfolio of social media websites are all do follow and help you build up your page rankings. When our blogging contestants write reviews you will also be rewarded with dedicated backlinks that will help you stand out against the competition for targeted keywords.

Facebook and Twitter Marketing

The Blog Engage RSS Service also automatically tweets your published articles to all of @bbrian017′s 2500 followers. Your Published content will also be shared with our facebook fan group Blog Engage with over 530 friends.

Google Adsense

With the Blog Engage RSS Membership you get the opportunity to earn with all your blog article submissions to Blog Engage as we are a Google Adsense Revenue Sharing Community. On all your syndicated story pages at Blog Engage your Google Ads will be displayed when visited from any Blog Engage member or search engine traffic.

So what are you waiting for? For as low as 19.99/month your business can start growing online with our community and real members! Engage your business with Blog Engage RSS Service

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

I find one of the biggest benefits of joining the Blog Engage RSS Service is the time you will save when it comes to submitting your links into our community.

When visiting as a customer you simply vote on your article and start engaging with other members. Blog Engage offers a great way to market and promote your blog for an amazing value of cost.

We have packages that can meet the needs of almost all bloggers, larger to small.

Building Backlinks

While your engaging with other bloggers by Tweeting, Voting and Commenting etc.. were still busy marketing your latest posts as we submit your articles into our portfolio of social media websites. We submit your content into the following websites, Blog Serp, Top Blogged, RSS Leak, Blogger Ink, Tag Serp and Blogger Tag.

Contest Sponsorship

All Business, Platinum and Gold Membership Customers are included as a “Sponsor” in all our Guest Blogging Contests. Our contestants are given bonus points for writing individualized sponsor reviews, these would be reviews of you our RSS Customers. As our contests grow so do the contestants entering and participating. This year in 2011 we will be giving away a total of 3000 USD.

Earn With Google

With the Blog Engage RSS Membership you get the opportunity to earn with all your blog article submissions to Blog Engage as we are a Google Adsense Revenue Sharing Community. On all your syndicated story pages at Blog Engage your Google Ads will be displayed when visited from any Blog Engage member or search engine traffic.

Facebook and Twitter Marketing

The Blog Engage RSS Service also automatically tweets your published articles to all of @bbrian017′s 2500 followers. Your Published content will also be shared with our facebook fan group Blog Engage with over 450 friends.

Feedback and Discussions

I’m always open to new ideas and suggestion on how I can better the service for our customer! Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. I’m looking for some ideas on how to grow our business and would love to hear your ideas.

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

When I first started online in 2008 I owned a website that was for sharing information. It seems the site is down now and no longer exists but back in 2008 it was directory of open source software scripts.

I didn’t even know what a blog was I simply enjoyed making free websites using free software. I eventually came across a free software script that allowed anyone to submit links into it and used this to keep track of all the open source scripts.

I guess it was about a month or two after I decided to start a community where the members could benefit from submitting links as opposed to me simply collecting links to free software script demo’s. I know many of you want to hear this amazing story about how I invented Blog Engage when in fact it was by luck.

For some reason I decided to create a social community for bloggers. I was hoping you would all come to share your links with us. At this time I was not a blogger, go figure the site would become a success. I seen all the other places bloggers had to market and I’ll be the first to admit they were either poor quality or the community was a bunch of not so friendly people. Ironically they also frowned on self promotion which as a marketer I thought wtf?

One of the largest issues I seen from all these communities was the inability to share links and share recent articles. If you did such an actions people would call you a spammer or other not so nice names. What I wanted to do was create a community that encouraged this type social sharing behavior and credit the bloggers with a points system based on how much they actually shared with one another. Little did I know I was about to embark on a three year Social Media Marketing and Branding career lol.

Three years later, 3500 (REAL) twitter followers and over 5000 registered members Blog Engage is one of the most successful online blogging communities in the blogosphere. Creating this community involved hard work, long nights and tons of mistakes. In fact I was one of the first you know! I took a niche market of digg and made it popular! Actually no, I took the niche market, you made it popular!

Many things have to be taken into consideration when launching a website and I wanted to touch base on some of these aspects today in this article.

Branding

It always amazes me when little or no effort is put into creating a strong brand for a website. What’s even more surprising is how many people are not providing any sort of consistency when selecting their social media profile image and user name.

Branding your website or profile is the most important part to starting and maintaining a successful website. The reason I say both is because people will be judging you from both. Many people know Blog Engage but on the same note many people know me as bbrian017. This is a special case and what I have managed to do is create a brand name for myself while at the same time marketing and promoting the Blog Engage community.

Something that was once unique

When I started blog engage I knew right away the difference between me and the other networks was the ability for blogger to market and promote their own articles without having a negative affect. I also wanted to create a community for social sharing. A community where members would vote, tweet, digg and stumble one another content assuming they found it helpful or interesting. This is when your blog article is Engaged!

Social Media

Without the idea of social media marketing I don’t think Blog Engage would exist. The fundamental strategy for making Blog Engage a success was from meeting and adding new online friends.

Building Relationships

I add friends to my social network all the time. I’m very active on Blog Engage twitter, Stumble, facebook and so much more. Adding friends on these communities is key to the success of Blog Engage. I’ve always been lucky enough to have some great and amazing online friends that help me market and promote the community.

Generating Profits

I knew in order to continue my online activities I had to start generating a steady source of income. Coming up with this idea is not easy you all know that! I eventually came up with the idea to syndicate our members content for a monthly fee. I’ve also added other features and benefits into our marketing program and it’s been a huge success! Contest Sponsorship, Multiple Social Website Submissions, Adsense Revenue Sharing and more.

The customer comes first

I strongly believe customer service is key to the success of any online small business. I try my hardest to provide the best quality of service and support at all times to all paid and non paid members. This is by far the most important aspect of my business. I take great pride in our members.

Share your story…

If you want you can leave a comment and share your story! Who knows, if the article gets big enough I’ll add it a few places where it can become a special post and shared by many bloggers. So share your story! Tell us why you started blogging and where you came from.

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

Official 2011 Second Guest Blogging Contest Post #9
Contest Article

Many brands or businesses today are wanting to be ‘social’. They hit the “sign-up” button on popular social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, followed all the design tips they can find to put together an excellent profile and tadaaa, they are now social… or are they not?

How do you differentiate a brand that is social from another? What are the things to have for a social brand?

Here are 10 signs to look out for.

#1. Look at your internal processes.

Coming from a branding background, I can safely say that most companies have a rigid control over their brands. While I agree with the need of maintaining a consistent brand image, your company must make allowances for the brand to be mentioned and referred to without being tied to an overly controlling rule.

Social brands on the other hand are happy to put aside rigid control of their brand to involve people – which is the heartbeat of being social. Social brands are real, compelling, human, and relates well to the emotions of the people.

What can you do? Set boundaries, not rules. Provide examples of what is within the boundary and what’s not. Encourage a flatter control over your brand.

#2. Look at your content.

Content is queen on social media and content is not to be mistaken for messages. Brand sends messages (like a corporate objective) but social brands go beyond that – they create value for people. Brands think sales and ROI, social brands think information, entertainment, rewards, incentives and everything else that focuses on the people – both emotional and physical needs.

What can you do? If you’re intending to sell before starting off, don’t. Focus on how you can benefit your audience first. Give and you shall receive. Give value and you’ll receive value in return. Give rubbish and… you’ll know what you’ll be getting in return.

#3. Look at your updates and posts.

Which attracts you more? A corporate welcome or a personalized (human) one? Not only the latter is attractive, it is better in many other ways! One great example is the Four Seasons Hotel where they took the ‘social’ aspect of social media to offline interaction – simply amazing!

Social brands are often more human than corporate. They tend to do away with formality and corporate tones, replacing them with passion, purpose and at times, empathy – LIVING what the brand is actually like.

What can you do? Live your brand! Nobody likes a consumer brand that is all corporate and stiff. If your brand supposed to spell fun, be fun! If it spells expert, give professional yet human advice and solutions. Nobody likes talking to robots.

#4. Look at how fast you respond.

When snail mail ruled the world, people expect a response in a couple of days.

With emails, people expect a response in 24 – 48 hours.

With social networks, people expect a response within minutes.

Looking at how timely your response is also determines a social brand. Social brands are often responsive and actively listening, taking every opportunity to engage.

What can you do? Do not wait to reply. Reply to messages or posts as soon as you see them! Use tools such as research.ly to help you listen to conversations on Twitter. Search for specific keywords related to your industry and see what are people talking about it. Share your thoughts, comments, insights and get the conversation going.

#5. Look at the medium in which you engage and connect.

Being on 20 different social networks does not make your brand more special. It is how your brand is utilizing them and whether it is relevant for your target audience. Selling fashion apparels at a car enthusiast site is a waste of resources and time (unless you’ve got them). Remember, social media is NOT like a game of monopoly where all you need is to get as many titles as possible – it is about being relevant.

What can you do? Identify where your target audience are at and how you can reach out to them effectively. If they are only found on Twitter, then Twitter it is.

#6. Look at how you handle and acknowledge rejections

You’re bound to receive negative response or rejections in the course of your conversations on social media. A social brand is upfront and transparent and they acknowledge their flaws and mistakes without blowing their own horns. This can be difficult as the most ‘rational’ thing to do is to defend your stand / decision.

What can you do? Think before responding to a negative comment especially when you’re all fired up. How can you address the issue appropriately? Should it be in private or public? What else can you offer?

#7. Look at how your followers respond to you.

In other words, their response towards your approach. Are they actively participating or sharing? Social brands have the tendency to meet the expectations of their followers (and go beyond that) simply because they know how to generate response and to keep their community active. This is a tough one for many – it takes patience to test out different methods as different people and communities have different expectations.

What can you do? Take some time off to explore and to figure out what your audience are looking for. Make room for conversations and create opportunities that they can participate in.

#8. Look at your intent.

If you’re intending to simply make sales out of your social media networks, it is no wonder that is reflected in your messages and content sent to your audience – no matter how you’re trying to disguise it. I’m not saying that making sales is wrong, but the intention has to be to provide value, first. A simple search will reveal that the biggest value givers are have the biggest sales figures. How so? It is as simple as people seeing the value in you.

What you can do? Make your intent known! Your intent has to be received, understood and believed by those that represent your brand on social media.

What’s Next?

The 8 signs above may just be a very surface indication of a social brand. There can be a whole lot of other factors but I would think that these are the most noticeable.

What about you? Is your brand social? What do you think defines a social brand? I would love to hear your thoughts