In continuation with the Niche Affiliate Blog income series, one of the first things I have done is registered a Twitter account for the domain. I wanted to make sure I was able to brand the site right away. I also created a Facebook Fanpage for it as well. I was going to use KnowEm to register all the other sites such as Youtube, tumblr, etc - but I feel Twitter and Facebook are one of the two biggest that I can stick to them.
Once I have created their pages and account, I decided to start getting followers to my Twitter account. For this I use Social Snipe to leverage users who are in need of help in the niche I am in. This makes a big difference finding users who are in need of help instead of just a generic term.
Utilizing such a program helps me find users who are already in need of something and want to be helped. If I find these specific users I can easily bring in traffic to my new affiliate blog site.
Facebook Fanpage
The Facebook Fanpage is just an extension where users can find the feeds of any new blog post that I write on the site. The Fanpage also allows me to communicate with the fans appearing on their walls etc. The only problem I found that was hard was to actually get fans to the fanpage. BUT...
...the best part about the fanpage is I get weekly emails on the summary of people that has interacted and joined the fanpage. I can also see conversions from the amount of facebook users that visit the fan page and how many of them converted into a fan. It is some neat stats. For every 100 people that visit the fan page just 1 converts - so I got to figure out a way to see why they are not converting into fans.
I think it is essential to use the Facebook Fanpage since it is just another extension to gain and find users.
Keep in Communication with Twitter Followers
Once I had about 100 users I started tweeting and letting my friend also tweet on my account. This way it creates some vibe feedback to the users. I also use Social Snipe to auto tweet certain messages during the day. Now I don't even publish meaningful things - simple stuff on what I am doing related to the niche I am in.
I also use TwitterFeed to auto tweet new blog posts to my time line. So everyone is in the loop of what I am posting. Since it is a blog, the blog itself is a presence.
Blogging is Creating a Presence
The blog itself is something I am into and so I can easily talk and write about what I want base on the niche. I also use the blog to draw in users. The blog is not about just always banging out information. For example this specific blog is about my online marketing experience. But I do posts trips and vacations related to online marketing.
It is the same concept with the niche blog. I write about information but I also break it up and write about random comedic things related to the niche. The blog shouldn't always be filled with information - it is a portal to share thoughts and ideas. Keeping it as you are a person helps a lot because the internet is filled with so many news, everyone needs a break from information.
Creating a Social Atmosphere
I also try to create and reply to tweets and facebook comments to engage interactivity. This creates a sense of trust to the readers and people who want to interact. I also reply to comments to ease the trust of the site. Engaging with the reader is important but also it is time consuming. I have one of my friends do easy response via twitter and the comment forms of the site.
Giving a Forum Presence
When I started in internet marketing, I did what everyone calls forum marketing. It is basically being in a forum and just interacting with everyone. The reason why this is important is because your signature is free backlinks to your site or topic. Also it is branding because the text of your site will be repeatedly shown within the forum.
Offline marketers say repetition of a commercial for a product is important because it will create them to buy later. It is a reason why Google came out with Ad Innovations. The repetition of an ad will lead people to click on your link/ad.
So I have registered the username in several forums to communicate and put my input on certain topics. I also have someone doing this for me as well. This will help ease of sometime for me and create other aspects of the site.
Now I can actually create a bigger presence if I need to by just registering all the accounts in KnowEm and syncing twitter account and facebook account to them. But I think since Twitter and Facebook are big in itself - I feel they are just enough to get a good presence out there.
[SERIES Contents]
Introduction to Niche Affiliate Blogging
