Side Hustel: Blogging Tips & Tricks

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Smart Distribution Strategies: 11 Authoritative Sites That Want Your Content
For content creators, SEO and Social Media are excellent traffic sources, but these are only two ways to gain traffic. From blog syndication to social bookmarking to manual reposting, there are plenty of tactics you can use to promote your existing content for free across the web.
Here are simple ways YOU can distribute and syndicate your blog posts to get the eyeballs your content deserves.
Reputable Content Aggregators

#1 Business 2 Community

Unlike many content aggregators, Business 2 Community manually vets contributors. With strict guidelines, B2C ensures the contributors it accepts and the content it syndicates is of the utmost quality.
The site’s high quality standard means a large number of readers flock to Business 2 Community to digest great content and accepted contributors have the special privilege of reaching the B2C audience with syndicated posts.
In order to become a contributor, follow these instructions first.
If the B2C team likes what they see, they request three things from you:

1. The site owner’s permission to syndicate (via email response is fine).
2. The names and email addresses for all regular contributors.
3. The RSS feed link, set to display the full text of the post.

After those materials are accepted, you are provided with a username and temporary password (which you should change after your first login).
Fill out your profile so your author bio is complete and readers know who you are and where the content originated.

Two advantages in syndicating your blog to B2C are:

1. Your posts usually go live on Business2Community.com within hours after you hit ‘publish’ on your blog.
2. Posts get further syndicated to 3rd parties such as Yahoo! Small Business Advisor and Google News.

In case you’re worried search engines such as Google may penalize you for duplicate content, Nick Steeves at Wishpond has a unique solution for overcoming this issue.
#2 Social Media Today

Another business-related site that syndicates blog feeds is Social Media Today.
New users need to sign up and fill out their profile. Afterwards, you need to email approvingbloggers@socialmediatoday.com with two things:

1. Three links to published posts you’ve written about social media.
2. Your Social Media Today profile URL.

After receiving approval, you may add your blog’s RSS feed. As a courtesy, Social Media Today alerts you via email when your posts go live on their site. Of course, syndication will only works if your posts are social media related.

You can learn all about their blogger approval process here.
Social Content Sites

#3 BizSugar

BizSugar can be easily understood as a niche social bookmarking site. But unlike sites such as Reddit, which is filled with predatory trolls, BizSugar has a positive and supportive community that is excited to read the articles you submit.
But before you submit an article, be sure to read the submission guidelines.
After creating an account, you are limited to one article submission every 24 hours. You’re only allowed to submit more articles more frequently once your submissions have generated enough votes to qualify you as a strong contributor who submits useful articles to the community.
Within your account, you can view your submitted articles and see how many votes they’ve generated.

Note: It may take a few days before your submissions start getting more than a handful of votes. In some cases, your submissions are “Made Hot” by other users.
Only small business related articles are accepted as submissions and those that are most useful to entrepreneurs tend to get the most votes.
In case you’re interested in other business related social bookmarking communities, you should also check out:
#4 Growth Hackers

Part social bookmarking site, part forum, Growth Hackers is the premier destination for content related to growing businesses. If your submissions meet their guidelines, you’ll reach a highly targeted audience of entrepreneurs, growth hackers and marketers who visit GH to learn from the best and brightest.

#5 Inbound.org

A passion project founded and funded by Rand Fishkin and Dharmesh Shah (an investor in Shareaholic), Inbound.org’s goal “is to enable great content and people from the world of inbound marketing to get noticed.”

Before submitting your articles, be sure to check out their community guidelines.
#6 Hacker News

As the Digg of the startup and business world, Hacker News provides a go-to destination for tech enthusiasts. A coveted front-page placement can drive tens of thousands of visits in a day, so be sure to rack up plenty of karma points and post only if it meets their guidelines.

#7 Quora

A more generalist site, Quora appeals to every kind of reader and boasts a userbase filled with smart and influential individuals from every imaginable industry. Since Quora is a Q&A site, submitting your content isn’t as easy as posting a link and hoping people will read it.
Instead, you need to find questions that relate to posts you’ve already published and answer them. The secret here is responding to a question with relevant highlights from your post and linking to your content so users could read the full article.
Self-Serve Publishing Platforms

#8 LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s soon-to-be open publishing platform is a gold mine for businesses who want to reach a greater audience with their content. When users finally have access to publish, you’ll see a pencil icon in your Status Update box which takes you to LinkedIn’s native CMS.

With access to LinkedIn’s CMS, you have free reign to republish any and all of your posts.

The advantages here are free distribution within the LinkedIn network since popular posts spread like wildfire when recommended to users via Pulse. In general though, your posts will be shared to at least your personal network of professional connections.
#9 Medium

In October 2013, Medium.com finally opened up its blogging platform to the general public. Now, anyone with a Twitter account can log in and publish anything and everything they want.
The self-publishing platform enables you to republish your content days, weeks or even months after the original story was published, thus granting you full control over your content. But what’s special about publishing to Medium is the freedom you have in reformatting and editing the post – revitalizing it for another (hopefully) good run.

Note: Republished posts don’t have to be exact replicas of the original. In fact, it’s recommended you try a different headline, test different images, and lengthen or shorten the original post.
Medium lets you publish your story whenever you’re ready.
The site features your story on the frontpage if your story is “trending” (in other words, your post has been “recommended” by a large number of people), and if it is particularly good, Medium features it in its weekly email blast to users. Additionally, the most recommended stories of the month are honored in Medium’s Top 100 list all throughout the following month.
Though it can prove difficult to have your story “trend” or be selected as an “editor’s pick” for the week, you are able to input CTAs, email capture links, and anything else you care to add in your republished posts because you edit as you please.
#10 Examiner

Alternatively, another site that lets you publish freely is Examiner.com. Although you need to be accepted as an Examiner, applying is easy, and once you’re approved, you have access to another platform that helps you increase the reach of your content.

Plus, you get paid for pageviews those posts generate.
#11 The Huffington Post

Back in 2010, I leveraged a referral from a HuffPo blogger to become a contributor and have been blogging on-and-off for HuffPo ever since.
More recently, I’ve identified posts I’ve published which I believed would be beneficial for the greater HuffPo audience and submitted them to my personal column. Since every article is read, vetted and edited by The Huffington Post’s blog team, I am selective about what I submit to ensure it is useful for their readers and will get approved.

For other bloggers hoping to see their work published on The Huffington Post, the blog team offers a fairly straightforward application process for interested contributors. Send them a blog pitch and if it’s compelling, hopefully you’ll hear back!
Quick Wrap-Up

Setting up syndication to aggregators such as Business 2 Community requires a bit of manual labor, but once it is turned on, all you have to do is sit back and watch the traffic flow in.
Submitting to social bookmarking sites every time can be a tiring, but rewarding when real users give your post an upvote and leave an encouraging comment.
Finally, reposting your content to self-publishing platforms such as Medium is more labor intensive, but it’s a creative and fun process that you control, allowing you to optimize what new readers get to see.
Conclusion

Indeed, the ROI on editing and reposting every piece of content you have may not always be worth the trouble. If you are strapped for time, it is recommended you be selective about what you distribute because you simply do not have the resources to republish all of your articles on other sites and platforms. To make the most out of your content distribution efforts, commit some time each week to promote only your best pieces of content — articles that have shared well and were well-received by readers.
Make sure to always measure and track your performance in order to know which tactics are driving the most pageviews to your content, so you can more effectively allocate your personal resources to doing things that are proven to work.
Try these content distribution and syndication strategies out and see which ones work best in helping you drive more traffic to your site, and then let us know how well they pan out for you!

5 Ways to Redistribute and Repurpose Your Content
Smart content marketers know great content — whether it be a blog post, infographic or video — should be “liquid in form” (ht: Alyssa Mattero). Recycle it, repurpose it and reuse it for different channels and mediums.

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Why? Simply because you want to maximize the exposure your content gets, thus extending the reach of your brand, and effectively, improving your ROI because you’ve already done the research and crafted the story. It often takes minimal effort to turn one of your best blog posts into a neat SlideShare presentation.
Not only is this useful for getting more eyeballs, it’s an easier way to engage different readers since some prefer text while others enjoy visual content.
Here are 5 ways to redistribute and repurpose your content:
1. Microblog it

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One of the beauties of excellent content is you don’t necessarily have to keep it in its original form. In fact, you can play around with your content to suit different mediums while still ensuring your message still adds value to readers. Here are two ways you can microblog your existing content:

• To start, you can simply tweet out parts of your content that your audience might enjoy most. For example, if you have a list post, tweet some of its best points.
• Or, you can chop up the post into its individual tips and turn each tip into a funny picture or gif for a post on Tumblr.

2. Repost it

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There’s no shame in reposting your work onto other sites. Doing so may actually help you reach a lot of new readers who have not yet visited your site before. Here are three ways to you can easily repost your content.

• Medium is one place you can easily republish your content. Simply paste your content and add an interesting featured image, and there ya go. Your content is now available to other Medium readers (and if you’re lucky, the editors might recommend it in their weekly newsletter).
• Examiner.com is another place you can repost your stuff. Unlike Medium though (which is now open to everyone), you have to apply to become an Examiner. Fortunately, becoming one is easy. Apply here using my referral link (disclosure: If you’re approved, I get $50 and you get $25 — a win-win).
• Of course, if you manage columns on other websites, you can always review their “contributor guidelines” to see if they’ll accept republished content (but always make sure to disclose that the post originally appeared on your site and link to the original article so everyone knows the content’s source). For example, I am a contributor to The Huffington Post and republish my best articles on my column.

3. Syndicate your blog

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One of the easiest ways to get your content seen by more people is by syndicating your blog’s feed with content aggregators. You set it once and then forget it because your posts are automatically delivered to sites that syndicate your feed, and if the post meets contribution requirements, it’ll go live as soon as it is approved. Two noteworthy examples are:

• Business 2 Community (which accepts contributors and blog syndication for content that would be relevant for their readers who are business professionals).
• Social Media Today (which accepts contributions and blog feeds related to social media).

4. Visualize it

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Some, among us, are visual learners. Therefore, an 800-word blog post with one or two images probably isn’t going to cut it.

• Instead, highlight the article’s key points and add several engaging images to turn it into a fun SlideShare presentation.
• Better yet, create an awesome video and publish that on either Vimeo or YouTube.
• Or turn your content into a shareworthy infographic. If you’re not a designer, but would still love a sweet infographic, start a project on Visual.ly.

5. Make it Downloadable

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Finally, make it downloadable. Convert your content into PDF form with an attractive design and engaging images (oh, and capture some emails while you’re at it). Two ways to make your content downloadable include:

• Creating a whitepaper.
• Writing an e-book (here’s one we’ve published about related content).

 

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Making money from your website isn’t a myth. It’s doable by everyone.

In fact, turning a part-time, hobby blog into an income generating asset is fairly common with a bit of luck and some hard work.

At the very least, you should be able to make enough to cover your basic expenses for a domain and hosting. You might even be able to replace your income (and then some).

Keep in mind that the strategies listed below range from easy and passive, to ones that require a TON of on-going work (so make sure you pick something that suits your site and lifestyle preferences).

There are 33 total tips in this guide, but let’s start with the ten most popular (and predictable) site monetization tips.

P.S. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve started a blog or created a website. Those methods work for both.

10 Most Common Ways to Make Money with Your Website
Making money from your website isn’t easy. But these ten tips are probably your best bet.

1. Affiliate Marketing (.. and affiliate links)

Examples of a successful affiliate sites: Booking.com, TheBestVPN.com
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular (not to mention quickest) ways to make money from your website or blog.

Start by finding a product you like and would recommend. Then on your website, you endorse the product and promote it to your website visitors and email subscribers. If the product or service resonates with these people, they’ll click on your affiliate link, purchasing the product (while you get a split of the sale price).

The commission might be anywhere from 30% of the product or service price, up to as high as 70%. So for example, if the split is 50% and you promote an e-book that costs $100, you’ll get $50 for simply referring the buyer. Pretty sweet deal, huh?!

Where can I find products to promote?

• Commission junction – offers reliable products with on-time payments.
• ShareASale – mostly clothes, accessories, and other offline goods.
• Clickbank – high percentage payouts, but there’s a lack of GOOD products to promote.

2. Pay Per Click Advertising (Google Adsense)
Example of a successful Google Adsense site: Mashable.com
AdWords are the advertisements that show up on the top of Google search result pages.

AdSense is the reverse, allowing publishers (which includes bloggers and other website owners like yourself) to tap into Google’s immense advertising network so that other advertisers can run ads on their website.

The best part about this system is how simple everything is.

Once you sign up, Google will place a simple code on your website that will identify the content of your site and start displaying relevant advertisements. For example, if your site is about pets (dogs & cats), Google AdSense will start showing your visitors ads for cat food, dog training and more.

You get paid each time someone clicks on the ad. (Yes, it’s really that easy!)

Your cut might be anywhere from $0.50 to $5 per click. However, when your site has enough traffic, you can make hundreds (if not thousands of dollars) each month.

How to apply for for Google Adsense?

• Apply for AdSense – Before applying, make sure you keep up with their latest Terms Of Service, though. Google has very strict rules, so it’s hard to get (and stay) approved.

3. Sell Ad Space
In

corporating Google’s AdSense on your website is just one way to make money from online advertisements.

Another is to simply sell your own ad space directly to companies looking to sponsor different blogs. For example, you can come up with a price for each space, like: “Sidebar banner ads will cost $xxx per month”.

You can get paid depending on how many visitors you get. Typically this is quoted as a dollar amount per one thousand impressions (or CPM). So for example, you might see it as: $5 CPM. If the website gets 100,000 visits a month, that ad price translates into $500 bucks.

The good thing about this approach is that if your site gets a ton of traffic from different sources, your simple banner ad pricing can go up to as high as $5000 per month! However, the obvious downside is that if your site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, you can’t expect to earn as much either.

The other common method when selling ad space directly from your website is a simple direct price. Here you simply name a price (based on what you think it’s worth, relative to what the competition might be charging), and get paid upfront at the beginning of each month. This pricing is also generally a simple flat fee, not tied to a Cost Per Click like AdSense.

Where can I let others know that my website is selling ad space?

• – The most popular one.
• AdvertiseSpace – I haven’t tried it, but it should be a good alternative.

4. Sell Your Own Digital Product (Ebook for Example)

You have the potential to make the most money on a per sale basis when you can sell your own directly.

That’s because there’s no middle-man or person in between you and the buyer that’s taking a ‘cut’ from the money earned.

This approach seems fairly straightforward because you can simply sell these products directly through your website and get paid immediately. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in reality.

Creating good products that are well made and polished require a ton of time and additional resources (like design, content, etc.). So there’s a lot of ‘hidden costs’ in both time spent or contractors to collaborate with. Selling your own products on your site also bring up problematic issues like payment gateways (how are you going to collect payment?), shipping (how are you going to mail or distribute the products?) and taxes (oh man, don’t get me started).

And if that doesn’t sound like enough work already, you’ll also need a well designed, persuasive landing page to make sure your product has a strong conversion rate.

Additional resources:

How to sell products on your website.

How to set up a PayPal “Buy Now” button on WordPress

5. Accept Donations from visitors

Don’t have a ton of monthly visits, but you do have a strong, engaged community? Simply ask your readers to donate!

Accepting one-off donations isn’t a fast road to wealth, however, it can help you cover expenses in the short-term if people like what you have to say and want to support your journey.

For example, PayPal offers little donation buttons that only take about ten minutes to add to your website, offering you a quick way to recoup what you might be spending on a good web hosting, new product creation, research, and all of the other costs to maintain a healthy, active blog.

For example, web.archive.org makes a lot of money from donations (most likely due to their millions of visitors per month).

How to set up donation buttons?

• How to take donations on your website – The right way.

6. Accept sponsored posts & articles (…but use nofollow tag)

One of the common ways to making more money from your website means getting those visitor numbers UP.

Once you’ve done the hard work of building steady traffic to your site with an engaged community, there are a few different ways to monetize your hard work.

For example, many companies go out of their way to look for blogs that will feature their sponsored content. ‘Native advertising‘ like this works well because it still lines up with your site’s primary content, so it comes across relevant and transparent.

You can also review the products from a company in an ‘advertorial’ that’s part content, part advertisement. For example, if your website is all about the latest iOS games for iPhones and iPads, the creator of one of those ads would LOVE to have you review and feature their app to your fans.

When done right, this can create a win/win scenario. However done poorly, with irrelevant or inauthentic site content, and it can erode all of the reader’s goodwill you’ve worked so hard to create in the first place.

For further reading:

• How to make money through sponsored posts and reviews – About.com

7. Generate ‘leads’ for other companies

Businesses thrive off new leads coming in their door to inquire about their products or services.

It’s no surprise then that they’re always on the lookout, searching for creative ways to find new sources of leads to help them grow.

For example:

Let’s say you have a website about teaching math skills. Your reader’s information (like their email address or phone number) would be of great value to different online schools who’re looking to sell their courses to eager, proactive students.

Basically, you’re connecting the dots; playing the matchmaker by introducing two parties who can benefit one another. While it’s similar to how affiliate marketing works, in this case it doesn’t actually matter if your reader ends up purchasing their product or not. They’re just looking for an introduction at this point.

Where can I find such offers?

• MaxBounty
• Neverblue
• Peerfly

8. Build an ‘Email List’

Spend any amount of time reading blog growth tips, and you’re sure to come across people saying “the money’s in the list“.

They’re referring to your email list, which comprises your most loyal readers. The objective is to convert as many strangers who visit your site for the first time into passionate followers who want to stay up-to-date on your latest work or content.

Admittedly this is a long term strategy (and you definitely won’t get rich overnight). But it’s one of the best, long-term methods to profitably growing your blog into a full-fledged, money making enterprise.

Never lose sight of the importance in creating relationships with your followers, however. Offering great information or free help is a perfect way to start. Spamming people with unsolicited offers is one of the fastest ways to abuse reader’s trust and sabotage your long-term goals.

How exactly does it EXACTLY work?

• Listbuilding 101 – Probably the best introduction on the internet.
• How to build a list with your website
• Best Email Marketing Services for 2017

9. Set up an e-commerce site (hard work is required)

Websites don’t have to be just content. They can be centered around tools or products in an online store.

Be forewarned, though:

There are literally hundreds of thousands of eCommerce websites or online stores. Make sure that yours is filling a unique niche, with a detailed strategy and the latest marketing techniques to stand out from the crowd.

How do I create a successful online store/shop?

• How to Make a WooCommerce Shop (WordPress)
• How to Make Shopify E-commerce Store (Shopify)

10. Flip Your Websites (Create -> Sell -> Reinvest)

Believe it or not, there’s almost always a market out there for your website.

That means if you’ve built up a following (or possibly even sold a few products or included advertising on your site), you might be able to sell it to someone else and make a quick buck.

To be honest, I typically don’t suggest people plan on flipping their website or blog. (I’m a bigger fan of creating something for the long term.)

But you can’t deny how lucrative it can be. For example, if your website is making $500 per/month through selling ad space, you might be able to sell the site for $5,000 – $10,000 (which is about 12x – 22x monthly income).

Another interesting option is to sell ready-made sites, These are MUCH cheaper, but there’s still some money to be made.

Where can I sell my site?

• Flippa – The most popular website market.
• We Buy Websites – Another popular marketplace.
• FEinternational – Mostly for high-end websites.

We’ve counted down some of the most popular ways to earn money from your website.

However, we’re only just scratching the surface.

Below are another 23 ways to make money with your website.

(Keep in mind that some of them are slightly connected with the ones above yet they are little ‘out of the box’.)



Another 23 ways to monetize your website

11. Sell text-link ads (NOT RECOMMENDED) – There’s still a demand for text-links ads (believe it or not). But please keep in mind that these violate Google’s Terms of Service (which means you run the risk of getting penalized).

To avoid it, simply keep the ‘nofollow‘.

12. Set up “infolinks” – Infolinks are a great alternative to AdSense advertisements, that are very easy to setup. However, the downside is that they aren’t high converting, and the payouts (on a per click basis) are also quite small.

13. Use monetization widgets – These are also very similar to Google Adsense, so they’re worth trying out as an alternative.

14. Set up RSS feed ads. – Exactly what they sound like. Ad space for sale in-line with content from an RSS feed.

15. Give away premium content for extra $$$ – If you are producing mind-blowing, awesome content that visitors can’t get enough of… you can always try asking them to pay for some of it! (Crazy concept, huh?!) I’m personally fine with paying for premium content. However, don’t ask people to pay right away. Instead, stay focused on growing an audience and visitors first.

16. Start a private forum or coaching class(es) – Most of us have unique skills that others can benefit from. Setting up a simple forum or classes is an easy way to (a) help others and (b) generate recurring income at the same time.

17. Create a job board – Setting up a job board on your website is another simple, easy way to collect additional money when people accepting different job offers from various companies or individuals.

18. Offer consulting – Offering consulting gigs and providing services can help you bring in decent sums of money while other forms of ‘passive’ revenue take a little time to build up. You can offer these services via email, forum and or even Skype.

19. Add “hire me” page on your website – Your new website or blog is also a perfect place to feature your freelancing services. Showcasing samples or evidence of past work will help greatly increase your chances of getting hired.

20. Sell or rent internal pages – These aren’t very common, however, you might be surprised at what people would be willing to rent or spend money on!

21. Display pop-ups advertisements – Pop-ups can be extremely annoying. However, they’re also another easy way to make some quick money.

22. Use content lockers – ‘Content locking’ is similar to hiding or protecting pieces of content until a visitor takes some action to redeem it. For example, maybe you want them to pay a small amount, or perhaps click on an advertisement.

23. Display audio ads – These are relatively new and are becoming increasingly more common. Personally, I haven’t tried it. But I have read some articles and it definitely looks promising.

24. Sell an e-book – This one is a no-brainer. Many people sell e-books through their site. Some examples: If you have a website about recipes and cooking, you can easily create and sell your own recipe book. The same applies in almost every single other niche.

25. Create a conference around your website – Lots of work, but a huge potential payoff as well.

26. Set up a teaching program – Kinda like a cross between selling your own content and offering consulting or services.

27. Host paid webinars – Similar to the last tip, which is largely a mix of consulting through content.

28. Create a membership site – Yet another tier on the ‘info-business’ model that has the added benefit of bringing in recurring revenue.

29. Offer coupons (with affiliate links) – People are eagerly looking for discount & promo codes for everything from clothes to travel vacations. If you can (find and) offer a valid one, you can also get a cut of the revenue too.

30. Host polls on your website – Hard to believe, but easy to do!

31. Offer writing gigs – You can easily make $20 – $30 per 500-word articles writing for other companies or individuals. There’s also a huge potential for fluent speakers of different languages, as many companies want their websites translated by those who speak the native language.

32. Create a paid directory/business page – You charge people for listing or submissions to the page.

33. Just copy what others are doing – My personal favourite!

 

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18 Tools for Picking the Perfect Domain Name

1. Domainr
Domainr allows you to explore the entire domain name space beyond the obvious .com, .net and .org, and discover new and interesting domain names.

It anonymously logs searches and tracks over 1,700 top-level domains and over 1300 generic TLDs, registrable at one of 219 accredited registrars. There are two external APIs for web services and client-side implementations.

2. Lean Domain Search
Lean Domain Search's domain name generator specializes in showcasing unique and quirky domain names using prefixes and suffixes. It also checks the availability of the exact match domain for your search term.

You can easily sort and filter search results to quickly find a great domain name. You can also mark a search result as a favorite so you can keep track of it.

3. BustAName

BustAName helps you find the perfect domain name by using its word combiner, finding similar words and checking for available domains. You can save domains for review, switch the word order to create new domains and combine up to three words. You can also create groups of words to craft domain names, use hyphens, plurals or even drop the last vowel.

4. Impossibility!
Impossibility! is a domain name generator that takes your keyword and combines it with a carefully selected list of nouns, verbs and adjectives, before searching for unregistered domain names and showing you the results. It uses multiple servers to make the experience as quick as possible.

5. NameBoy
NameBoy is a domain name generator and database allowing you to perform a keyword search with either one or two words, allowing for hyphens and rhyming words.

It's simple to use: Just enter the words that describe the domain name you're looking for, and NameBoy will generate a list of potential domain names, showing which ones are available to purchase.

6. Domain Typer
Domain Typer is a fast, intuitive and easy-to-use domain tool. Simply enter your domain keywords and Domain Typer will show whether that domain name is available, while also generating random domain names.

If your first choice isn't available, you can view a list of suggested domain hacks.

7. Name Mesh

Name Mesh uses synonyms and antonyms paired with real-world intelligence to help you brainstorm unique domain names — using over 20 generators. You can see common short top-level domains, mix words, preserve SEO, and check related and similar words.

If you use spaces between your keywords, you'll receive improved results.

8. Domize
Domize offers speed and security to search domain names in an encrypted environment, as well as checking whether a domain name has been previously registered, is it due to expire or if it can be purchased. As you type the results are immediately shown below, providing instant results.

9. Wordoid
Wordoid creates made-up words, which are unique and sound and look great. Each word is no more than 10 letters long, and you can select from up to five languages, and even mix and match languages to create a unique blend.

Wordoid allows you to change the quality level from low to high — the higher the quality, the more the word resembles the natural words of the selected languages.

10. Dot-o-Mator
Dot-o-Mator lets you create domain name suggestions by selecting a list of words (e.g., colors and shapes) for the beginning and end of the domain. If you see a name you like, you can combine the two and see the result, which can then be moved to the scratchbox to check its availability.

Dot-o-Mator is also available as an iOS app for use on the go.

11. DomainsBot
DomainsBot has been operating since 2004, taking your ideas and turning them into names; showing available domain suggestions; alerting you of expired, expiring and for-sale domains; and providing a Whois search.

It also offers corresponding Twitter and Facebook identity suggestions. Use the accompanying iPhone app to find great domains from the palm of your hand.

12. NameTumbler
NameTumbler gives you domain names by combining a keyword you want with a word from the NameTumbler database. Once you combine words, you can choose your keyword placement (at the beginning or end of the domain). You can use hyphens to separate suggested terms, choose your extension and view the results.

13. NameStall
NameStall offers a suite of domain tools, including a domain name generator using your preferred keywords and prefixes or suffixes from more than 180 word groups. The domain name suggestion tool recommends a combination of two or three words, as well as brandable names in five different domain categories.

14. Panabee

Panabee provides a simple way to search for domain names, app names, and company or personal names. If your perfect name is taken, Panabee offers suggestions inspired by your original domain idea, derived from phonemes, syllables, abbreviations, suffixes, prefixes and popular trends.

15. Domain Puzzler
Domain Puzzler lets you search and discover domain names with "easy," "advanced" and "magic" options. The "magic" option takes your keywords and combines them with popular words, while the "easy" option just lets you check for availability. The advanced option allows you to combine words and choose from your selected extensions.

16. SuggestName
SuggestName is a domain name generator that allows you to enter a prefix and suffix of your choice, combine the two and then check to see if the domain name is available. You can also choose from a list of colors, tech terms, popular Web 2.0 words and more to create your domain.

You can move the resulting words to the scratchboard and then either clear your selection of check their availability.

17. Namestation
The domain name generator feature on Namestation allows you to combine keyword lists, add suffixes, generate phonetic names and alliterative names, and much more.

You can quickly check alternative name variations and receive keyword suggestions, look up definitions and semantically related words for more inspiration, and refine your search criteria to generate more targeted domain names.

18. Bulktopia
Bulktopia provides domain name suggestions based on your keywords, along with research into potential domains, such as age, expiration, page rank, backlinks and social media account availability.

Once you have chosen a suggested domain name, you can click purchase and buy through a variety of domain registrars.

 

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Social Media Made Easy
Engaging on social media is one of the best ways to build brand trust, extend the reach of your content, and even offer customer service. However, it can be time-consuming.

Want to learn more about how social medias has evolved in the past few years? Listen to this episode of Marketing Nerds with Caitlin Rulien and Boz Boschen, Digital Media Director for ndp.

Crowdbooster[/paste:font]

Image Source: Crowdbooster

Unlike other selections on this list, Crowdbooster focuses on gathering data from your Facebook and Twitter feeds. While it will not compile different social media accounts into one convenient location, it will give you some vital information regarding your social media strategy, such as when people are most likely to view your latest images or video uploads.

Other features include being able to analyze impressions, total reach, and engagement. This will allow you to modify and improve your strategy by knowing what is working and what is not. Another cool feature is alerts about new Twitter members who may be interested in you or your brand.

Unfortunately, Crowdbooster does not offer a free option, but the lowest plan will only set you back $9 a month and allows up to 50,000 followers. It may be worth the investment if you run a business.

9. SocialFlow

Image Source: SocialFlow

If you run a business or an online marketing campaign, you already know how important it is to share content on social media. By utilizing its unique optimization algorithm that taps into your Twitter and Facebook data, SocialFlow takes into consideration three factors: “relevant message (which of your messages is most likely to connect), right audience (who’s online now), and right time (when’s the perfect moment to publish this content).” In short, SocialFlow makes sure your message is sent out during the optimum time.

SocialFlow is another service you’ll have to pay for, but they offer flexible plans that begin around $99 a month.

8. Bitly

Image Source: Bitly

Bitly does a lot more than just shortening links to post on your social media accounts, which keeps them neat and clean. It also features real-time-analytics, bookmarking your favorite sites and pages, and the ability to track clicks.

Bitly works across multiple platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, and is free. Yep. Free.

7. Everypost

Image Source: App Store

Everypost is a handy app that allows you to post all of your updates onto the major social networks from one place at one time. Simply write your message, add photos or videos, and hashtags then send off to Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, or via e-mail (even all at the same time, if you want). Another cool feature is the Twitter text shortener. This will automatically shorten tweets so they are under 140 characters. While there may be some glitches to correct, this is a useful, and free, app.

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6. Sprout Social

Image Source: Social Sprout

Sprout Social is another nifty tool that can manage, post, monitor, and analyze multiple social media accounts from one location. For example, you could search for content within its Feedly integration, schedule posts, and reply to messages on Facebook and Twitter. You can also monitor messages across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn personal profiles all through on streaming inbox. But, that’s not all. Sprout Social also offers analytics so that you can visualize important metrics.

You can sign up for a free trial, but after that you’ll have to select one of three packages that range from $39, $59, and $99 per month. It costs a bit more than other tools, but it can be a great investment for businesses that are super social.

5. Buffer

Image Source: Google Play

Buffer is one of the most popular social media message scheduling and sharing applications available. With one easy click you’ll be able to share content and schedule posts via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. Basically, it allows you to stagger content throughout the day so that social media feeds have consistent updates – plus you can schedule ahead of time, which is really handy. And, there’s analytics about engagement and reach of your posts.

Buffer offers a short free trial period. After that, for just $10 a month you can schedule as many posts as you want, use up to 12 social profiles, and have two team members assigned to one account.

4. Spredfast

Image Source: Spredfast

Spredfast is an outstanding tool if you’re looking to measure data gathered from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, such as being able to see how many people you’ve reached and whether or not your target audience is engaging with you. The data is clearly presented in formatted graphs. Besides the advanced analytics tools, there are other useful features, like a calendar that informs you of optimal tweeting times.

3. Tweepi

Image Source: Tweepi

Of all the social media platforms, Twitter can be the most daunting. If that’s the case for you, Tweepi is just what you have been looking for. There’s a quick management tool which will allow to flush unfollowers, cleanup inactive, reciprocate by following, and follow new interesting tweets. A simple, and sometimes brutal, way to keep your Twitter account tidy.

There are Silver ($7.49 a month) and Platinum ($14.99 a month) levels to choose from. However, if you purchase Tweepi annually, it’s 17% cheaper.

2. SocialOomph

Screenshot of SocialOomph on 1/28/14

SocialOomph has the ability to schedule tweets for the entire day and auto-follow your new followers. You can also use the dashboard to combine Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plurk, and your blog into one spot to schedule posts or monitor social media activity.

While the app has a free version, there’s a paid “professional” option that features a ton of helpful tools to boost your social media productivity.

1. HootSuite

Image Source: Google Play

If you’re looking for the best, this is likely your top choice. HootSuite is the most popular social media management tool for a reason. Besides being able to execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one web-based dashboard, you can also manage social media, track conversations, and measure campaign results. HootSuite also offers a custom built-in analytics system and the capability to schedule posts on all platforms.

Hootsuite offers a free, pro ($8.99 per month), and enterprise options to suit the needs of individuals, small businesses, and large organizations.

 

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YouTube 101: How to Get Your Video Found, Watched and Shared

YouTube has become one of the most popular social sharing platforms on the Internet. It is a focal point that people either aspire to be like or try to emulate. You will more often than not hear, “How do I make my video popular on YouTube?” rather than, “How do I make my video popular online?” YouTube has become the online platform for videos of all shapes and sizes.

It’s important to keep in mind that although YouTube is popular, not all its videos hit 1 million users in 24 hours. However, in order to have your video watched by thousands, hundreds or millions, it doesn’t need to be “Dance Dare,” submitted to and viewed by Ellen Degeneres.

Your video just has to be ‘cool.’ Sounds easy enough, right? Well, here are some tips on how to do it.

How does YouTube make videos so popular?

With the purchase of YouTube, Google tends to favor videos pushed to YouTube and as a result, those same videos show better on search results.

Although the friendship between YouTube and Google is pretty strong, your videos still need to be SEO or VSEO (Video Search Engine Optimization) enhanced so Google has something to crawl. There are 4 simple ways you can go about doing this:

Title
Include keywords related to your video’s content

Description
Describe your video using at least 2-3 keywords (also found in your title) that adequately represent what your video is about.

Tags
Just as you would tag your blogs, highlight those common keywords you utilized in your title and description.

Closed Captions
By including captions or subtitles (captions in a different language), your video becomes more accessible to others. Not only will this help increase your audience base, but you are also adding to your SEO rankings by associating your keywords and terms with your video.

Does YouTube make it easy for me to share my videos with my social networks?

YouTube does make it easy for people to share the videos they love through email, Facebook, Twitter and, of course, Google+. You can even add a video directly to a Google+ Hangout. If you want to include a video in a blog, you can easily embed your video with the source code.

The social media buttons automate a message for you, so all you need to do is click ‘send,’ ‘share,’ etc.

If you are embedding your video in a social media platform that relies on or includes a heavy dose of visual aspects, ensure the splash screen you use represents the video content and will generate interest. A logo, for instance, is not as enticing as a snapshot of people/characters in your video. On the other hand, a snapshot of people/characters in your video is not as enticing as an image of those people actively involved in a scenario.

One of YouTube’s greatest features is the ability to comment on videos. This is the ideal platform to receive qualitative feedback on your video, in conjunction with quantitative data (i.e. number of views). Pushing your video through social media platforms and allowing people to comment on them, will help to increase the online visibility you’ve been striving for.

When is the best time to upload my videos?

YouTube is open and available 24/7 for viewing, uploading, sharing, etc. You can also upload any number of videos over any amount of time. However, there is a strategy behind making your videos ‘cool’ beyond simply uploading them.

First, what is the best time for me to upload my video? To do this, align the subject matter of your video with searches relevant to your content. For example, are searches on ‘auto repairs’ done more at 7am or 7pm? You can easily find this information by using Google Keyword Tool.

You will also need to align this information with the most popular days/times for YouTube searches. This graph, courtesy of ReelSEO, gives an example of the most popular days and hours spent on YouTube:

Once you have chosen the day and time to post your video(s), you need to establish a strategy for further posting. The following steps are to help you develop that strategy:

Step 1: Identify how many videos will be a part of the same ‘player.’ Is your video part 1 of a 3-part series or will it stand-alone? If you have more than one video, create a schedule — such as once a week — to post your videos. You want to give people enough time to watch and also create a hook so they want to watch the next one.

Step 2: Where will you push your videos? Identify the social media platforms you will use to promote your video. How you will position your messaging on each platform?

Step 3: How are you going to track your qualitative and quantitative data? Assign someone to manage your videos to ensure you are reaching your goals, i.e. number of views, demographics and conversions.

From the outside, YouTube does look like a fairly easy platform to upload and share videos. However, there is a strategy behind pushing a video to YouTube and having it watched by millions. The process is not black and white. You cannot upload a video and expect to see 3 million views within one week just because you uploaded it at the right time and with a strategy.

Your content has to stand out. Videos need to do something for your viewers in order for them to watch it; this can be anything from providing a solution to simply making them laugh.

 

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Syndicated Content: Why, When & How
Eric Enge on April 28, 2014 at 9:08 am

• MORE

Done correctly, syndication can be a very effective way to help develop your reputation and visibility online. To many, this is a controversial topic, but it really shouldn’t be. You just need to know why it can help you, when to do it and how to do it the right way.

And that’s what I am going to take on today in this column. Yes, there are potential SEO issues with this, and we will discuss that later on in this post.

Content Syndication Vs. Guest Posting
First, let’s get clear on the difference between content syndication and guest posting, as they are not the same thing at all.

1. Guest Posting is creating content for publication on a third-party website. We call it guest posting when you do not publish that content on more than one site, including your own site.
2. Syndication is when you take content which is already published on your own site, and you give one or more other parties permission to post a copy of that content on their site. Note that the syndicated content can be a complete copy of the content on your site, or only a part of it.

Why Syndicate?
The reason you should consider syndication is that it gets you exposure to another website’s audience — I refer to this as “Other People’s Audiences” (OPA). Wherever you are in growing your business, exposure to OPA should be of interest to you. A key point here, however, is that you should only syndicate to sites that have an audience (or audience segment) that is relevant to your business.

You should also only syndicate to sites that are of higher authority than your site. Exposure to their audience brings obvious reputation and visibility benefits; and if the site is a respected authority, then some of the luster of that authority will reflect back on you. That’s a good thing!



When To Syndicate
You probably don’t want to syndicate every piece of content from your site. That will create a situation where there is nothing unique left for users to find when they visit. (You may also be worried about duplicate content issues, but we discuss that more below.)

This means you need to decide on the right time and place to do it. Here are some questions to consider when evaluating when and whether to syndicate a piece of content:

1. What Content Do You Syndicate?

In general, the rule of thumb here is that the content must be of interest to the site’s audience — so make sure that you are selecting topically relevant content for syndication. Additionally, you don’t want to waste the opportunity to build your reputation on a high authority site — so, scary as it may seem, you want to syndicate some of your best stuff.

2. How Much Of Your Content Do You Syndicate?

There is no clean formula for how much of your content to syndicate. It’s all about finding a balance. As mentioned above, you want to syndicate some of your best stuff so that you can build a good reputation with a larger audience — however, you’ll also want to ensure that there is a lot of high quality content which is unique to your site because the reputation-building benefit of syndication will give you the best results if people have an incentive to visit your site for more.

How much content to syndicate may also depend on your circumstances. If you are just starting out, you might be more aggressive with syndication in the near term just to get your name out there — especially if an opportunity presents itself to syndicate your content to a very high-authority site. If your reputation is more established, you might be more selective and sparing about content syndication.

How To Syndicate Safely
No doubt, many of you have been thinking that syndicating content creates duplicate content, and it does — but, if handled correctly, the search engines will have no problem with this at all. Here are the four best ways for dealing with that problem:

1. rel=canonical: The best solution is to have the site syndicating your content place a rel=canonical tag on the page with your article, and have that tag point back to the original article on your site. This tells the search engines that the syndicated copy is in fact just a copy, and that you are the original publisher. Better still, any links to the syndicated copy will accrue to the benefit of the original article.

2. NoIndex: The second best choice is to have them NoIndex their copy of the article. By telling the search engines to keep the syndicated copy out of the index, the duplicate content is also solved. In addition, links from the syndicated article copy back to your site will still pass PageRank.

However, this solution is not as good as the rel=canonical tag; with NoIndex, it is likely that much of that PageRank will be passed out of the copy of the article to sites other than yours, and the rel=canonical passes nearly all of it back to the original.

3. Direct Attribution Link: You should only use the third best choice when you are not able to get the publishing site to accept one of the first two. If that happens, make sure you get a link directly from the syndicated copy to the original article (not to your home page).

Most of the time, this is still a good enough signal for the search engines to figure out which version is the original. There is some risk that they will not get this right, but that risk is low.

4. Screw It, Do It Anyway: There are times where you might want to syndicate content, but the publisher is not willing to implement any of the above three solutions. For example, they may only want to link back to your home page as attribution. This scenario can lead to the higher authority site being seen as the original publisher, with your copy seen as a duplicate. If this happens, the other site will rank for your content and not you.

While that may sound pretty harsh, sometimes it still makes sense to do it anyway. When the exposure and reputation-building benefits are high enough, syndication without ideal attribution could still be a good move. Unless traffic to your own site simply does not matter, you should only do this very rarely (if ever).

Let’s take a look at all our options in a simple chart:

Summary
There are definitely times when syndication makes sense. It is all about understanding the reputation and visibility benefits, and also assessing how it fits into your long-term plans for your own website and business. There is no one formula here, and you will need to apply your own critical thinking to make decisions as to how this might fit into your longer-term strategy.

Syndication is not for everyone, and for many that use it, it will be done rarely. I did syndicate one piece of content last year, for example. When I released the results of my study on the impact of Google Plus on SEO, I published a shorter summary of that same study here on Search Engine Land.

The SEL copy garnered more than 1,200 social signals, which is pretty good visibility. The version on the Stone Temple (STC) website obtained over 600 more. What attribution method was used? The third one, a direct link from the SEL version to the one on the STC website. I’d do the same thing again.

 

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Use your Facebook page
You should always start growing your email list with converting your current fanbase on Facebook.

Call-To-Action button to subscribe page – the Facebook page of The Marketing Tech Blog utilizes the call-to-action button to generate a massive email list.


When you click on the Sign up button, you’re taken to a special subscribe page where you can opt-in to become an email subscriber.


To set this up, go to your page and click on the drop-down menu of the button and choose Edit call to action.


Choose Sign up as your button type and enter the URL for your subscriber page:


Get the ‘Subscribe to our Newsletter’ tab on your Facebook page – additionally to the sign up button. You can add a special Subscribe to newsletter tab, just like Litmus did.


When you click it, there is a form so that people can easily opt-in to your email list without leaving your Facebook page.


Offer content upgrade for each post you share – people that are following you on social media are already interested in what you have to offer. So why not provide them with valuable information that they want in the form of a lead magnet?

Zak Khan from Panduanim ran a test and found out that when he combines lead magnets and even content upgrades to certain information-based Facebook posts, people tend to subscribe more to email lists rather than random tidbits of personal opinions one usually shares.

Frank Kern usually shares some great educational free videos on his Facebook page. And within the description of them, there is a call-to-action to attend a more advanced, free training that is gated behind an opt-in.




You can also upload a part of the video training on your Facebook page and offer people to sign up to watch the rest.

This is what Frank Kern is doing on his page.


After the video is over, you can click on “Watch more: Here’s a sneak preview of…” and you’re taken to the following opt-in page:


You can also include a link to your opt-in page in the description of the video or in the comments (if you have forgotten to do that early).


You can do this not only with videos but with every other type of content you share on your page – images, blog posts, etc.

For blog posts, it’s best if you offer the content upgrade when people click and go to your website.

You can do this using:

• Yellow boxes
• Exit-intent popups
• Side-bars or embedded forms
• Slide bar
• Top bar

Feel free to use MailMunch to create all of these forms to maximize your conversions and grow your email list.

In case you have a podcast, remember to post an update linking to your new episodes when you publish them. Each podcast should have an opt-in as a content upgrade (such as a transcription for example).

According to James Schramko from Superfast business, content upgrades can get 85% of the people who click on the button to get a PDF.

Across a blog you would see 2-5% conversions of Facebook traffic to an email list (assuming you have 50% repeat traffic).

Do Facebook live – Facebook live is a new function that allows you to Livestream video content to your audience.

Marketers use it to interact live with people where they usually share great tips and answer questions.

After the livestream is over, it will be stored on your Facebook profile as a normal video.

Here’s an example by Guy Kawasaki who occasionally uses live videos to engage with his audience.


Additionally, it can also be used to promote opt-in offers in order to convert people into email subscribers.

You can offer everything from a free pdf, audiobook, or you can speak about future webinars you’re hosting, etc.

Use simple URLs that you can pronounce while you speak (yourdomain.com/webinar) or simply share the link to your opt-in offer as a comment on the livestream.

To broadcast a live video you should go to your Facebook app either on iOS or Android.

Then you should tap on your timeline and the ‘tap this’ button:


You can write additional descriptions for your Livestream and then type Go Live to start broadcasting.

Use Facebook groups
Why use Facebook groups instead of Facebook pages?

Facebook groups tend to receive higher click-through rates and subscribers in comparison to Facebook pages according to Zak Khan from Panduanim.

Spy on other groups to find out what people need – the first step is to check out other Facebook groups.

Make a list of the most common questions people ask and find out what people are not getting answers for – or they’re getting the same answers for over and over again.

This gives you a good idea of what people are needing help with, and if your email list can help them get that information.

For example: when you go to BigCommerce Community Group you see the following:


Apparently, this person owns an eCommerce store and has a big problem with people using stolen credit cards with GC sales (90% of them).

This is someone with a strong demand looking for a solution. So if you have content explaining a possible solution, why not share it with him?

Your best option is to share a link to a blog post offering a content upgrade as an opt-in offer explaining things in further details.

Create and optimize your group – Last year I created my very own Facebook group called Productivity hacks and inside I shared tips about productivity and time management for entrepreneurs.

Surprisingly, the group grew organically by 66% in the last 4 months without me doing anything. Just because it was well optimized for people to find it.

When you type the name keyword “Productivity” in the search bar you can see that the group is easily findable.


But how do you optimize a Facebook group for search?

Very easily – include your main keyword in the name of the group – in this case “Productivity” is part of “Productivity hacks”.

Another thing you can do is include your main keyword in your description. You can see what I did with my group:


I also included “Productivity” as a tag so Facebook knows what the group is all about.

For more ideas on how to promote your Facebook group, check the blog post How to Market and Fill your Facebook groups by Sarkemedia.

Include a link to your opt-in page in the description – Besides including your main keywords, your description should have these 2 main purposes – state who is the group for and include a link to an opt-in page so people can subscribe to your list.

Spend the time to explain how this group will be of value for your target persona. What are you offering so that he will want to become a member?

Many marketers and business owners fill this section with “rules.” This section is eminently searchable so don’t “waste” it on the rules, instead share who would love this group.

In the top of your description, include a link to your website, preferably to your main opt-in offer.

Make the group free and open to bring more people – if you want to get as many people as possible to your group then you should make it public. That way everybody will be able to see the group, who’s inside and their posts.

Closed groups are excellent for support groups for your products, but don’t increase your influence or visibility in order for you to grow your email lists significantly.

To make it public go to Edit Group Settings.


Then click on Change Privacy Settings


And finally, make sure to choose Public and click confirm.


For membership approval, it’s also good to choose “Any member can add members, but an admin must approve them”.

That way if people like that content that you share within the group they will be able to easily invite others and that will allow you to grow your members even more.

Utilize the pinned post – pinned posts are the ones that are always on the top of the group so they can be seen by everybody.

That’s why this is a great opportunity to include another link to your opt-in page here.

Make sure the opt-in page has an attractive, eye-catching featured image that’s pulled through to Facebook. If it doesn’t pull through an image or the right image then use a photo.

Welcome members and direct them to the opt-in offers – when new members join your group, welcome them with a message and direct them to the pinned post.

When you welcome members you’re giving them some of your personal attention and this makes them feel special.

According to Sarah Arrow from Sarkemedia, welcomed members are also more engaged group members and they will be more likely to subscribe to your list.

Be sure to let them know the email list has additional bonuses for them like any type of premium content that you don’t share in the group – like video trainings, webinars, blog posts, etc.

Promote content with paid ads
Facebook provides you with one of the most cost-effective advertising solution on the planet. That also convert really well.

When experimenting with ads our friends from Litmus found that their cost per conversion is much lower on Facebook than on Twitter.

Target the right audience – it doesn’t matter how good your offers are if you’re targeting the wrong people.

The first step to this is to have a super clear buyer persona so you know how to target your ads. To do that, ask yourself the following questions:

• Where does your target customer live? What is his gender and age?
• What’s her job?
• What languages does he speak?
• What are her interests? What kind of pages would she like?
• What are his demographics – education, ethnic group, single or married, with kids or without

The targeting options of Facebook are so powerful that you can target people based on their behavior and life events – such as having a new job, being a parent of a baby or recently moving to a new city.

Run ads on various lead magnet ideas BEFORE you actually create them – this is the best strategy that Karl Kangur from MonetizePros uses to maximize the success of his Facebook ads.

By testing different lead magnets ideas, you will tend to find out which one your target audience will be most likely to have an interest in. And then you can spend the time to actually create it.

If a certain lead magnet idea doesn’t convert well – there is no point spending resources to make it. Better invest them in something that people actually want.

As a result, find what people want the most and your engagement rate with the ads will increase and your cost per click will drop. That way in the long term you will spend less to acquire an email subscriber.

Upload your list and target lookalike people – a great option that Facebook provides isto upload your current email list and choose as an option to target lookalike people.

That way you can reach a new audience that is very similar to yours – which will improve your conversion rates and decrease your advertising costs.

To do that, go to Audiences, click Create audience in the top left and from the dropdown menu select Lookalike Audience.


Then choose your Source (current custom audience) and the audience size. It ranges from 1% to 10% of the total population in the country you choose, with 1% being those who most closely match your source.


Facebook Lead Ads – this is a new solution that Facebook created a few months ago to make it easy for you to convert mobile users into email subscribers.

You can target them with normal ads with the difference that when people are interested in your offer they opt-in straight from Facebook (without the need to go to your website).

LeadAd Forms are highly customizable so you can create all the info that’s important to your business.

When someone clicks on your ad they will see the form that is already filled with the info they shared with Facebook – like email addresses or phone numbers.

Which makes it easy to subscribe and increases conversion rates.

Sendloop created a great guide on using Facebook Lead Ads to grow your email list.

Retargeting – be sure to install Facebook tracking pixels or use retargeting solutions like AdRoll or Perfect Audience to be able to reach people who have visited your website.

With more advanced strategies you can even segment people who haven’t opted in to your email list yet.

To do that simply target the people who have visited your webpage but haven’t reached the ‘thank you’ page.

Check out our guide on increasing your conversion rates with behavioral targeting to learn how to maximize your results from retargeting.

Jordie van Rijn from Email Monday suggests you try retargeting the people that you know through Facebook custom audiences.

Final words
Facebook provides you with limitless options to drive traffic to your opt-in offers and grow your email list.

You can use your page, your group or simply use ads to reach the people that will be interested in what you have to offer.

How you use it – it’s up to you.

Do you currently use Facebook to grow your email list? What are the strategies that you’re using? What would you use from now on?

 

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24 Must-Have Social Media Marketing Tools

Are you looking for ways to enhance your social media marketing?

Do you want new tools to simplify your job?

We asked a group of social media pros for the hottest social media tools they use today.

Check them out to see if these social media tools are a good fit for you!

#1: Unlock to Share Plugin
My favorite social marketing tool of all time is the unlock to share plugin. What is it? It’s a simple plugin that “unlocks” additional content when your web visitors share your stuff on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

Make your site go viral by requiring the user to share your link to unlock content.


Why is this so valuable? Well, today everyone has a Like button on their site. But if you want your audience to share your stuff, you need to give them a little incentive! That’s exactly what this plugin does.

In my most recent experiment, I had 452 people land on a page where they had access to royalty-free music they could use in their videos. If you shared the post, I gave you an additional five music tracks. Out of those 452 visitors, 379 shared to unlock those five extra songs! That’s 84%!

These unlock to share plugins are everywhere. The one I used was found over on CodeCanyon.

James Wedmore, co-founder of Video Traffic Academy and founder of Video Sales Magic and Video Copy Pro.

#2: SlideShare
This isn’t a “new” tool, but I’m amazed by the number of marketers who still don’t use SlideShare as a main staple in their social media distribution. According to the latest research from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, just 23% of B2B marketers and only 7% of B2C marketers leverage SlideShare (which now sees approximately 60 million users per month).

SlideShare is a great tool to use as part of your company's storytelling process.

We continue to integrate SlideShare into our visual storytelling, and it’s now a key part of our lead generation process. It’s a true sleeping giant.

Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and author of Managing Content Marketing and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers.

#3: Commun.it
I use Commun.it to help build and nurture relationships with supporters, influencers and potential customers on Twitter.

The basic service, which is free, keeps track of your most valuable followers and interactions, rolling up the data into an action-driven dashboard. One glance and you’ll know whom to follow, whom to thank and to whom you need to respond—all of which you can do directly within the tool.

Another big plus: You can quickly spot your most active conversation buddies. Commun.it tallies up the number of exchanges between you and other Tweeters, indicating whether or not you’re following each other.

Commun.it rolls up your data into an action-driven dashboard.

In addition to the dashboard, Commun.it has reporting functionality. I love the way it lists hard-to-find stats in one handy place, including new followers, the handles of who stopped following you, RTs of your content, direct messages and total reach.

Commun.it also records this social activity for your Twitter handle, so you can keep tabs on your own contributions and connections in the Twitterverse.

Shelly Lucas, senior marketing manager and leader of social media at Dun & Bradstreet.

#4: YouTube’s Audience Retention Report
You’ve probably read that YouTube search is now optimized for time watched. Effective YouTube marketing demands that we understand (and create better videos based on) how our videos are watched, at least as much as we “optimize” them for SEO, etc. Those “gurus” who tell you to buy thousands of 5-second views to bump up your view count … yes, that does the search damage you always knew it would.

This is why audience retention is the new view count.

The new Audience Retention Report in YouTube is, without a doubt, the most important social media marketing tool to come around in a long time. You can now see what kind of retention you’re getting from your videos and how it compares to everyone else’s. Want to get to the top of the results? Study this Audience Retention Report like a hawk and update your video making strategies accordingly.

The following video walks you through a couple of reports and offers some insights on how to respond.

Paul Colligan, education czar for Traffic Geyser Inc. and CEO of Colligan.com.

#5: Cyfe
While there are a number of enterprise-level listening and monitoring tools available to assist brands, a new tool that I’ve been a fan of is Cyfe. It provides visibility into social channel and search metrics that typically only admins of those channels/tools have access to.

Cyfe is an all-in-one dashboard that helps you monitor and analyze data scattered across all of your online services.

For example, we’re able to set up a visual real-time dashboard for GoToMeeting, which provides brand-specific Facebook Insights data, YouTube Analytics, Twitter and Twitter Search information, SEOMoz, Google Trends, Google Analytics and a number of other social or search data points.

As a social media team, we’re often asked for such information from team members who are curious about the community, channel interactions and other related questions. Cyfe has enabled to us to make that data easily accessible to our team members.

Going one step beyond social and search, Cyfe also enables you to bring in your CRM, email marketing and blog data, with new integrations shipping on a regular basis.

Justin Levy, strategic advisor on all social media activities at Citrix Online and editor-in-chief of Workshifting.com.

#6: Cloze
The newest tool that I’m most excited about is Cloze, recommended to me by Jascha Kaykas-Wolff of Mindjet.

Imagine an aggregation and curation system for your social network and that’s what Cloze provides. I’m able to view the activity of people by date in my network and then check them off, respond to them, like them or retweet them directly from the Cloze interface.

Cloze helps you increase your interaction with those most important to you.

It’s absolutely genius and is already saving me tons of time, increasing my interaction with those most important to me and reducing the clutter and wasted time of having five channels open that I’m constantly trying to stay abreast of. This is the inbox of the future! Cloze is currently in beta.

Douglas Karr, founder and chief blogger at the Marketing Technology Blog, founder of DK New Media (an inbound marketing agency) and author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies.

#7: AgoraPulse
There is no shortage of social media marketing tools these days, that’s for sure. But despite the overwhelming number of tools out there, it’s still very difficult to find the ones that will really deliver while remaining accessible for a small-business budget.

When it comes to managing our Facebook Page, I’ve been very impressed with AgoraPulse. It focuses on Facebook (at least for now), but provides everything your Facebook Page will ever need.

In addition to contest and promotion applications that are a “must-have” for every Facebook Page, AgoraPulse offers unique features that really make a difference, such as:

• Detailed benchmark with competitors
  
  
• 
  AgoraPulse shows you a detailed benchmark with your competitors.
  
  
• Fan ranking and qualification
  
  
  
  The fan management feature shows you fan ranking and qualification.
  
  
• Advanced statistics and personalized content recommendations
  
  
  
  You can also track average users reached by day of week.

They also offer a ton of other great features such as advanced statistics, automated moderation and even admin rights and workflow management. These are the kind of features that used to be only available in expensive enterprise-level solutions. Getting access to such advanced and useful features for a price that every small businesses can afford does make a big difference.

Aaron Kahlow, CEO of Online Marketing Connect and chairman and founder of the Online Marketing Summit and its related educational arm, the Online Marketing Institute.

#8: GaggleAMP
One application that I’ve recently been exposed to and am excited about is GaggleAMP. I talk to many marketers who say, “If only our sales and business development team would share our social media postings, it would help us reach a greater—and more relevant—audience in social media.”

This is especially relevant in B2B companies where you traditionally have a large sales force compared to a small number of people in marketing. That sales force represents a potential army of internal brand advocates who can help make a company’s social media marketing efforts much more effective.

Leverage employees, partners, customers and fans to share your company's social media messages on your behalf.

With the emergence of GaggleAMP, social media and marketing directors can now utilize the reach of their internal staff to help spread their message in social media, and internal employees have complete control in deciding exactly which messages they would like to share on which platforms and how frequently.

Companies simply sign up to GaggleAMP, create a “Gaggle” (a group revolving around their content), and then request that interested employees join the Gaggle. Employees then authorize their social networks and decide which content they would like to share with their network.

GaggleAMP can send notifications when new content is available to be posted, and there is even a “point” system to gamify social sharing and reward those internal employees who are good sharers.

GaggleAMP tracks activity, allowing you to report on the impact and ROI for every message and campaign.

B2B companies are sitting on a goldmine of brand advocates who work at their company. By using GaggleAMP, they can organize and leverage their internal tribe while ensuring control over social media messages that are sent out externally.

For employees, it’s internal content curation served up on a platter to give them more timely and relevant content to share with their networks and maintain mindshare on whichever social networks the company’s customers or clients are on.

I expect to hear about more companies adopting GaggleAMP in the months to come!

Neal Schaffer, founder of Windmills Marketing, is a leading social media strategist and teaches social media marketing at Rutgers University.

#9: SproutSocial
I’ve been enjoying the statistics and tools available on SproutSocial, and am using it to get good Twitter and Facebook overviews of my accounts and for some of my clients’ statistics.

You can also do some Twitter account comparisons, schedule content, bring in your Google Reader to watch for content and share accounts with others.

Deliver beautiful detailed reports to your organization or customers.

If you manage many accounts, you can easily create nice-looking reports that give a good overview of activity and growth and SproutSocial is reasonably priced.

Andrea Vahl, social media coach, speaker and strategist and Facebook community manager for Social Media Examiner.

#10: Reachli
Reachli (formerly known as Pinerly) is the hottest new Pinterest analytics tool. Similar to Facebook and Twitter apps such as Buffer and HootSuite, Reachli allows users to pre-schedule pins and view feedback data such as click-through rates and number of repins. Creating social campaigns on Reachli is easy with its clean and simplified design.

Although the site is optimal for Pinterest analytics, it also allows users to post on any social platform and benefit from similar analyses. Boasting comprehensive capabilities, Reachli is an ideal page-management tool for any brand or community manager.

Reachli helps you understand what works and what doesn't to help you optimize your posts.

Social media analytics are essential in providing users with optimal content, as well as discovering hard data to support social initiatives. Offering real-time analytics and best practices data, Reachli helps you optimize your Pinterest content based on the analysis of click-through rates and repin feedback. This beneficial information can result in more effective scheduling and more engaging content.

For a low cost, brands can also employ Reachli advertising, a service that uses a unique algorithm to match content with its most relevant online audience across the social sphere. As Pinterest grows in popularity, brands will find the capabilities of Reachli to be extremely beneficial in most effectively leveraging the social platform.

Dave Kerpen, cofounder and CEO of Likeable, author of Likeable Social Media and the forthcoming Likeable Business.

#11: Instagram
For the team here at Sony, one of the new platforms we are most excited about is Instagram. When we launched our brand channel (@sony) 4 months ago, we couldn’t have imagined the wealth of beautiful, funny and creative content we would find. We’ve seen everything from the cutest pups and kitties with Sony products to gorgeous, artistic shots taken by professional Sony photographers.

But the best thing about all of this content is that the community has been more than willing to let us share their work (crediting them, of course).

We’ve asked hundreds of Instagrammers if we could share one of their Sony-related photos and have never once been declined. The result is that we get access to authentic and cool content while honoring this community of artists.

Instagrammers share their photos with Sony.

We’re also exploring holding contests on the platform and have just recently launched our very first #SonyX contest. Although we’re only two days in, we’ve already received a lot of enthusiasm from the community and are building awareness for our new X headphones via the photo entries and the use of the hashtag.

Callan Green, senior social media specialist for Sony Electronics.

#12: Buffer
Buffer is to social media marketers like what a wand is to Harry Potter—it’s one of the coolest and most useful social media tools I’ve ever used.

As you know, in order to benefit from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you have to actively be posting things—an account with no life is not going to be very interesting to those who follow it. With Buffer, you can schedule your tweets and posts ahead of time and create a consistent social media presence on your accounts.

Often, I’ll schedule a week’s worth of tweets, which will automatically drive traffic back to my site or keep my audience engaged throughout the week, without lifting a finger.

Of course, it’s best practice to follow up with those who reply and you may have specific time-sensitive tweets to share in between your scheduled posts, but anything that allows me to be more efficient in my business and ensure that I am posting stuff when I might not have the time otherwise is gold in my opinion.

With Buffer App, you can schedule your tweets and posts ahead of time and create a consistent social media presence on your accounts.

In addition, the team behind Buffer is always friendly, responsive and looking to improve, which speaks highly about the tool and what kind of company created it, and where it’s headed in the future.

Pat Flynn, founder of the Smart Passive Income Blog.

#13: SocialToaster
I’m excited to see some of the advancements in using social media to increase brand advocacy. SocialToaster is making great strides in combining gamification for sharing brand-related content with superfans to drive reach and engagement.

Brands like QuickenLoans, JustFab and the Baltimore Ravens are leveraging these tools to connect with fans in an authentic and mutually beneficial way to increase brand loyalty and advocacy. It’s exciting to see social media used in a way that drives and enhances brand passion.

You can use SocialToaster to amplify your message.

Nichole Kelly, president of SME Digital, a division of Social Media Explorer and author of How to Measure Social Media: A Step-By-Step Guide to Developing and Assessing Social Media ROI.

#14: Pop-Ups
In the past, pop-ups were hated by many marketers, and rightfully so due to their unprofessional look and feel, plus the fact they were so disruptive to readers each time they came onto the site.

But if you look around today, some of the most professional websites—like Social Media Examiner, Content Marketing Institute and others are using pop-ups for lead capture.

The main reason for this shift and “acceptance” is as follows:

1. Pop-ups today can be set on delays and scheduled. In other words, you can set a pop-up so that once a viewer closes it out, it does not reappear on their screen again for whatever amount of time you’d like—be it a week, a month or forever.
2. Now pop-ups look much more professional than in the past. Great visuals can be added, they can fade in and fade out depending on how long someone has been on the site, and their custom options are plentiful.

I added a pop-up feature to The Sales Lion a few months ago and the results have been exceptional. Instead of getting 15-25 signups a day for people downloading my eBook and subscribing to the newsletter, I’m now getting 25-40 a day, which is a huge increase.

At the same time, I haven’t had any long-time readers complain that they had to see a pop-up one time, which was a fear I initially had.

The Sales Lion saw a huge increase in opt-ins from the use of this pop-up.

If you’re looking at adding a pop-up lead capture to your blog, you may want to consider Pippity, PopUp Domination or others.

Marcus Sheridan, co-owner of River Pools and Spas, founder of PoolSchool.us and founder of the popular sales/marketing blog The Sales Lion.

#15: LinkedIn’s Skills and Expertise Page
What if there was a social media tool that could tell you:

• The best keywords to use in your social profiles?
• Who the key influencers are and how to get in touch with them?
• The exact companies you should be targeting with your particular skill set? What kinds of groups you should join for optimal relationship-building?
• What companies you should work for and who you know at those companies?

Of course by now you’ve probably guessed that I’m talking about LinkedIn. But the tool I’m talking about in particular is LinkedIn’s Skills and Expertise page. After entering “Facebook Marketing” in the search box there, this is what came up:

The LinkedIn Skills and Expertise page helps you find experts in different fields.

Keywords: “Related Skills” show up on the left-hand side of the Skills page when you search for a skill to add to your LinkedIn profile. Think of them as relevant keywords. LinkedIn will also show you the popularity of those particular keywords (the higher the number, the more people are using that skill) Hint: Use the less popular skills too!

Influencers: LinkedIn will show you the influencers in your particular skill set by name, picture and title. It will show you how you’re connected to them. If they are a first-degree connection, send them a message. For a second-degree connection, ask for an introduction. Outside of your immediate network? You can still reach them through InMail or a shared group. What a powerful way to build your network and find mentors or advisers!

Companies, Groups and Jobs: The Skills page will also highlight the companies, jobs and groups that are recognized by LinkedIn as being relevant to your skill set. This can save you an enormous amount of time when you’re looking for companies to offer your services to, for groups to engage with to build your strategic relationships or jobs that will suit you. And of course, because this is LinkedIn, you’ll see who is already in your network and can give you access to that company, group or job!

Skills is truly a doorway into stronger connections and better business.

Viveka von Rosen, known internationally as the “LinkedIn Expert” and author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day.

#16: Scoop.it
I originally thought Scoop.it was just another curation tool, a platform that allows users to gather together great content that they’ve discovered online. A Scoop.it button on the browser window can now rest besides those for List.ly and Pinterest, so that as you go around the Internet and find great content, you can simply click and share.

Scoop.it is a powerful curation tool.

When you “scoop” a tweet, a blog post, or any other content, you’re creating a post that is added to a category, or a “topic.” You can easily create new topics that others can follow. In turn, you can follow the topics of others.

At any point, a post can be re-shared through a number of other social platforms. People can add comments to a post, or give it a thumbs-up. Combined, these features make for a robust content curation tool that allow you to build community around topics, and to nurture relationships with influencers by sharing and discussing their content.

When you create topics, Scoop.it suggests content for you to add. You can manage how Scoop.it recommends content based on keywords or the feeds of particular users. Those feeds can include their blogs, Twitter feeds, Twitter lists, hashtags, and Facebook.

In this way, Scoop.it becomes a powerful social discovery tool and if focused on an individual, can even act as an influencer outreach management tool.

If you’re a HootSuite user, you can now integrate your topics right into HootSuite. With or without HootSuite, though, Scoop.it can act as a central hub to discover great content, build community around that content, and nurture relationships with influencers.

Ric Dragon, CEO and co-founder of the digital marketing agency DragonSearch and author of Social Marketology.

#17: Pocket
The hottest social media marketing tool I’ve discovered in the last 6 months is Pocket (formerly known as Read it Later). At first glance you may think that Pocket is simply a private online bookmarking tool, but it’s actually much more than that. Pocket is a centralized mobile content curation and social media sharing control center!

Put articles, videos or pretty much anything into Pocket for later.

You can save and tag content from anywhere (your smartphone, tablet or computer) to your Pocket account. You can even save content to Pocket from Google Reader and Twitter using the browser extensions.

Save content to Pocket from Google Reader and Twitter using the browser extensions.

The real power of Pocket, however, is that it integrates with over 300 web and mobile apps. This means that you can collect the best content you discover on any device and share it whenever and wherever you wish through Pocket.

Pocket drives my entire social and mobile content curation and social sharing system, whether I’m sitting at my desk or on the go.

Pocket integrates with over 300 web and mobile apps.

Here are three tips for using Pocket:

1. Download the Pocket app to your mobile device and/or tablet and install the bookmarklet to your web browser. If you have a Mac, be sure to install the Mac application. (You can now share content to your social networks directly from the new Pocket Mac Application.)
2. Save the content that you want to share with your social networks to Pocket from your computer, mobile phone or tablet. Be sure to add the tag “Share” to the particular articles you save that you later want to share with your social connections (you can add as many tags as you like).
3. Each day, login to Pocket on your smartphone or tablet and push the articles tagged with “Share” to Buffer (my personal favorite), or literally to almost any social network of your choice. Don’t forget to insert your own insights or comments when you share!

Note: Typically I share from Pocket to Buffer because it integrates with Bit.ly and enables me to track the links I’ve shared. Buffer also distributes my social shares at optimal times so that they can be more visible with my network connections.

Pocket is a smart content collection and distribution tool that allows you to become a master social curator!

Stephanie Sammons, founder and CEO of Wired Advisor, a digital strategy and marketing agency for financial advisers, business professionals and professional services firms.

#18: Crowdbooster
What if you had a system that informed you exactly when your best times to tweet are in order to reach the maximum audience, based on how your followers respond? And what if the system showed you the Klout scores of new influential followers so you can follow up? And how about spotlighting @mentions that you hadn’t responded to yet?

Look no further than Crowdbooster!

Crowdbooster always shows your best times to tweet at the top of the dashboard. The times are adjusted as your followers respond.

But this awesome tool doesn’t just analyze Twitter. You can also dig into your Facebook Fan Page metrics to analyze your top posts, number of impressions, fan growth, top fans and more. You can even schedule posts via Crowdbooster for both Twitter and Facebook.

Crowdbooster displays colorful "bubbles" showing how well your tweets (and Facebook posts) are doing. Hover over any bubble for more information as shown in the black box.

You get one Twitter account and one Facebook Page for free. Upgrade levels include up to 10 or 30 total social accounts (currently only Twitter and Facebook Pages) for a reasonable fee. Give it a try and see what you think.

See at-a-glance metrics for follower growth, influential followers, retweets and more.

The nice thing about Crowdbooster is the team is super helpful, friendly and approachable… and they’re always iterating, so stay tuned for even more awesome features in the pipeline!

Mari Smith, leading social media strategist and premier Facebook marketing expert. Co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day and author of The New Relationship Marketing.

#19: Lithium
We use Lithium for our new community platform. Its phenomenal capabilities allow for a lean team to rally users, influencers and our own associates to participate. From an organic growing knowledge base through the ability to reward frequent contribution, it is state of the art with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) functionality and a truly object-oriented environment that makes it easy for a layman to customize.

Lithium helps companies unlock the passions of their customers to build brand advocacy, drive sales, reduce service costs and accelerate innovation.

Lithium also has the capability to do private moderation areas so we can all learn what FAQs need answers, solution creation both by us and by users to populate the knowledge base with good content and the ability to co-create content with guest bloggers.

Kat Smith, director of social media and commerce at Petco.

#20: Tweetbot
Tweetbot is a Twitter app that allows you to do everything you can do on any other Twitter app with an extra killer feature: the ability to filter out tweets.

Tweetbot allows you to filter out tweets.

This app allows you to focus on the tweets that matter in your Twitter stream. It’s available at the Apple App Store.

Michael Stelzner, founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner.

#21: PostAcumen
Facebook is one of our brand’s primary social channels. Our goal with that channel is to deliver content that begs to be engaged with. We’ve had tools to measure how well our own content performs, but we also wanted to know how well we performed relative to the competition.

Thanks to a brand-new tool called PostAcumen, developed by the same folks who made EdgeRank, we’re now able to perform extensive competitive analysis on Facebook posts. We can see how our content resonates with our fans and how those metrics stack up against our competitors for Likes, Comments, Shares, etc.

With PostAcumen you can see how your brand compares against direct competitors, or even industry leaders.

There is a nominal cost for the service, but so far it’s provided great insights, is easy to use and understand and helps us get better at delivering engaging content to fans.

Liz Phillips, social media manager at TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, where she manages social media for TaylorMade, Adidas Golf, and Ashworth brands.

#22: Facebook Pages Manager App
My favorite social media tool is the Facebook Pages Manager App. This tool allows me to manage multiple pages while on the go. Not only can I post, comment and engage with my fans on multiple pages, but this app does so much more. I’m also able to create Facebook Offers directly from the app, which allows me to promote my programs and services anytime, anywhere.

In addition, I can instantly get a greater reach for my most important posts by buying Promoted Posts on-the-go directly from my mobile phone.

This is what it looks like to buy Promoted Posts via a mobile phone using the Facebook Pages Manager app.

With these features, I can make real-time decisions for my pages based on my fans activity and my current marketing goals. If you’re like me and often on the move, this app is one you don’t want to go without!

Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies and a social media strategist.

#23: Vocus
One of my favorite social media tools is Vocus. Vocus is a suite that helps manage your social media profiles, monitor what is happening in real time and other key functions.

One of the key elements that makes it different than other services is that it incorporates the very popular Help A Reporter Out (HARO) website. HARO is a site where reporters can post their requests for information and interviews anonymously, and where you can respond. If it’s a good fit, the reporter contacts you. It’s a great way to get additional free PR. Combined with the rest of Vocus’s platform capabilities, this provides a powerful one-two punch.

Michael Crosson, founder and publisher of SocialMediopolis.com and founder of the fourth-largest LinkedIn group, “The Social Media Marketing Group.”

#24: Quozio
Can’t find an image to pin on Pinterest? No problem! I recently came across a simple, slick tool that allows you to take some text, like an inspirational quote or a particularly helpful blurb from a blog post, and turn it into a beautiful, pinnable image. The tool is called Quozio.

You can use Quozio to create cool quotation pins for Pinterest, but it also solves a common problem.

When you find a great article, or blog post, you want to pin it to one of your pinboards. But sometimes when you use your Pin It bookmarklet to try to pin it, the bookmarklet can’t find a pinnable image on the page. This is where Quozio can come to the rescue.

All you need to do is highlight a snippet of text from the blog post you want to pin, copy it, then use Quozio to create a pinnable image from that text. You can pin your new image directly from the Quozio interface.

To make sure your new Quozio pin links back to the original blog post you want to share, you just need to edit your pin after you’ve posted it. You can click on the “edit” button in the corner of any of your pins to edit that pin’s settings and add the URL of the original blog post.

When editing your pin, make sure you add the URL of the original blog post.

Then just click on “Save Pin” and viola! You’ve got a beautiful pin that links back to an awesome blog post.

 

[mailboxpimp]

hree ways brands are using Facebook apps to grab their fans’ attentions and encourage them to subscribe to their list.

Why Use Facebook to Find Email Subscribers?
Email converts new customers more effectively than any other digital medium. The key is having the right people on your list—the ones who want to hear what you have to say and are most likely to buy from you. That’s where Facebook comes in.

Your Facebook fans are probably fans because they already like your products or services. That’s a great start to finding a narrowly targeted audience that’s likely to buy from you.

Engage with Facebook fans, capture their email addresses and market to that targeted audience to make sales and partnerships.

A simple lead funnel gives context to the process. By engaging with your Facebook fans, you build trust. From there, you can ask your fans to sign up for emails that share information they’re interested in. With strong email and marketing tactics, you end up with sales and long-term customers.


Facebook apps are the easiest way to acquire email addresses for your list, but let’s be honest; cool apps won’t build your list. You need a smart plan that’s based on understanding your audience.

Keep reading to see how three brands are using Facebook’s social advantage and apps to grow their email lists.

#1: Crowdsource Product Ideas
A few months ago, Kristina Allen launched Lilypad Candles, a store that sells eco-friendly soy candles. Kristina’s email list was nonexistent. She had zero email addresses.

What she did have was a plan. She knew that giveaways are a great way to increase community and even grow her email list, and she wanted to take advantage of that power.

Lilypad Candles had a goal for using Facebook.

Kristina considered her target audience, what prize would most appeal to that audience and how she could gain emails and feedback via the entry form. She knew she wanted to host the giveaway on her company’s Facebook page because she wanted to grow her number of fans in addition to her email list.

Since email lists are most successful when members are truly interested in what you have to share, Kristina opted to give away $100 worth of candles to a randomly selected Facebook fan who opted into her email list.

Offering her fans $100 worth of candles (instead of a big-ticket item like an iPad) helped weed out the people who just wanted to win something and weren’t interested in her product.

Kristina used ShortStack to create her giveaway landing page. Notice how she required users to answer a poll about their favorite candle scent.

Make your giveaway entry painless for your fans, but valuable for you.

Kristina included the poll because it was a simple step for her fans, but gave her important information about what her customers were interested in. She can use that feedback to create the products her customers want.

On the first day of the giveaway, her business acquired 200 emails, not to mention new Facebook fans. Pretty impressive for a brand-new company with no email list!

#2: Provide Incentive to Share With Friends
Alter-Ego Comics had never really thought about using Facebook to acquire emails before, but with TabSite‘s help, they put together a giveaway to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

They offered up three pretty amazing action figures to anyone who liked their Facebook page and entered their name and email into the entry form.

To sweeten the pot (and to drive more traffic and possibly subscriptions), they offered additional entries to fans for every friend they sent over to like the Alter-Ego Comics Facebook page.

Make your giveaway entry painless for your fans, but valuable for you.

Alter-Ego Comics’ giveaway tactic worked because in addition to offering a giveaway relevant to their audience, they leveraged friend networks (additional entries for every friend who liked the page) to build their list.

When everything was said and done, 120 people joined their email list. Not bad for their first Facebook giveaway!

#3: Use One Click Actions
Using the ActionSprout Facebook app, UNICEF created a powerful landing page to encourage people to join the list for further information on how they can help Syrian children.

UNICEF is well aware that emotional stories drive action. They’ve made sure their fans are moved by the poignant images, text and action button.

UNICEF uses emotion to find targeted email subscribers interested in a cause.

Anyone who clicks on the I Demand an End! button automatically joins UNICEF’s email list. In one or two mouse clicks, UNICEF captures their target audiences’ emails and grows their list.

ActionSprout has another feature that is important to marketers: the ability to create a solid call to action within the Facebook news feed by adding a feedback option.

All Facebook updates have the like, comment and share options. With ActionSprout, you can add an option that reinforces your call to action.

UNICEF used that feature to their advantage by including a Demand option.

Giving Facebook users another feedback option reinforces your call to action.

Updates and articles that trigger intense emotion are strongly associated with how people share content online. The Demand option stirs emotions and emboldens Facebook users to demand an end to the abuse of children in Syria.

By using ActionSprout to amplify their message, the UNICEF team was able to spread the word and build the organization’s email list at the same time.

The Bottom Line
To build a strong email list that provides high conversions, you must appeal to your target audience and weed out the rest. Emotion is an important motivator whether you’re invoking empathy or inspiring fans to take the next step toward a goal. Make sure your acquisition campaign speaks to emotion first, reason and logic second.

Relevance is as important to your campaign as emotion. You don’t want just anyone on your email list—you want qualified prospects. Hosting a Facebook giveaway that offers a prize targeted specifically to your optimal subscriber gives you a better chance of finding those prospects.

While you have someone’s attention, make the most of that moment. Do some crowdsourcing to find out what products they like or want to see, or encourage them to share the campaign with their friends. Those friends of friends are likely to be quality subscribers as well.

 

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5 Reasons Why You Should Start Crafting a Video Marketing Strategy

Before a video marketing strategy is put in place, there are millions of questions you’ve asked yourself in order to get the ball rolling. What does video mean to my business? Will my customers actually watch my video? What will this cost me? Answering these questions should not leave you pulling your hair out; rather, it should push you to start developing that strategy.

We’ve been listening and commenting on forums, LinkedIn groups, Twitter and Facebook and it has become clear that what people want — marketers in particular — are reasons why they should be using video. To help you wrap your head around video marketing, we’ve put together reasons why you should consider brainstorming your first video marketing strategy.

Video elicits greater emotional responses

Viewers, consumers, visitors (however you position them) respond better to content that utilizes more than one sense. When they’re reading a blog, they’re utilizing sight. When they’re watching a video, they are utilizing sight, sound and hearing; by using all three, your viewers are more likely to elicit an emotional and memorable connection with your message than they would with the written word. Just think, when was the last time you had an emotional and memorable connection with written ad? Books can illicit emotional connections but you don’t have thousands or millions of words to convey your message — you have 30 seconds.

Video gives you an opportunity to exercise those creative juices

Have you ever said to yourself, ‘If only I could show people what I mean when I write about <enter subject matter here>’? Well, this is why we have video. Creating a video about your features, benefits or your blog allows you to once again, increase the number of senses being used by your audience, helping them to thoroughly understand your concept/message. For example, if your consumers buy your product because of it’s amazing functionality, then why not SHOW your audience the benefits of what you provide instead of just writing about it?

People love to talk to people, not brands

You may have a consistent discourse in your content and you may have even personalized your Twitter account to “Nurse Betty” or what have you but the reality is, people cannot physically SEE this personality. Video allows you to tie in that consistent discourse with the “Nurse Betty” behind your Twitter account to an actual person, talking to actual customers. Although subjectivity is everywhere, there is nothing like hearing and seeing a person describe a product or feature to know what it’s really about. Perhaps this said person is saying it with a smile — you have just created an underlining sense of “happiness” associated with your brand.

You can now track and measure your videos

First there were websites and then there was Google Analytics. Now there is video and most people are unaware that there are also Video analytics! Instead of spending thousands of dollars creating an amazing video, posting that video and then crossing your fingers that people watch your video, you can track it all. Use video analytics to know who is watching your video, where they are coming from and how long they are watching for. Don’t like what you see? Not satisfied with your click through rates? Not to worry. You can utilize A/B split testing to see which thumbnail receives a better response from your visitors. In addition, by customizing a Call to Action during your video or at the end, you can guide your customers to the next step in your sales cycle.

There are 60 hours of video being uploaded every minute

According to a recent Google webinar I attended, there are 60 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute; this is not including all the other video hosting platforms that are out there! Now, we’re not suggesting that you jump into the “I need to do it because everybody’s doing “ fallacy. What we are suggesting is that you analyze whether video would be valuable. How do you do this? Ask yourself the following:

· Are your competitors reaching out to YOUR customers through video?

· Are your customers utilizing video to connect with the brands/products they love and use?

· Can your products/features/benefits be properly executed through a visual platform?

If you’ve answered yes to any one of these questions, you need to start thinking about that video marketing strategy!

 

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How to Brand Your Site’s Social Shares with Shareaholic





This tip may seem like an unnecessary piece of housekeeping. “Branding my Tweets? Who has time for that?” But the results can be extremely helpful to growing your site, and it’s really easy to do.

When your Twitter handle is highlighted in each of your Twitter shares, you will drive attention to your Twitter account and increase your following. Including your Twitter handle in your site’s social shares can help you gain new followers and brand recognition whenever a post is shared — a passive and easy way to build your site’s audience.

If you’re using Share Buttons in the Shareaholic WordPress or Drupal plugin, simply go into your settings and scroll down to Share Buttons General Settings. There, you can edit your Twitter shares to point to your Twitter handle and include any message that you want. For example, you can make all Twitter shares say “by @Twitterhandle” vs. “via @Twitterhandle” depending on your preference. If you’re not using these plugins, follow these instructions.



So don’t hesitate – make sure to brand your social shares and grow your Twitter following with this simple step. You could be missing out on engaging with some amazing new followers!

 

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7 Hard Truths for Marketing in the Modern Age

1. Numbers Aren’t Everything
When I first began to blog on a personal level, I felt every view, click, link, and Tweet was the greatest thing in the world. This is still true, mostly, though there’s a lot more to it than how many people follow your business on Twitter or like your Instagram photos.

On the non-numerical side of things, the overall aesthetic of your online assets is just as important as numbers. What does that mean? Well, it is almost like how certain people can look suave in a $200 suit while others can’t even pull off one worth $2,000.

Though I may never capture all the clicks in the world, I still take pride in how my blog (and blogs I write for) look and feel, and are received by readers who actually care.

2. Quality Trumps Quantity
As a blogger and content crafter, I frequently encounter the classic “Quality vs. Quantity” question. I’ve shared my input before, as has just about every other marketer on every marketing blog out there. But what you need to know is short and sweet:

No one will read the world’s longest novel if it’s full of crap content; even fewer will read the world’s shortest novel if it’s full of mediocre content.

What I’m getting at is that it all boils down to how well you put together your posts, Facebook statuses, Tweets, landing pages, and other content. The shorter the piece, the more attractive it is to certain readers. You’re never going to capture everyone’s attention with the same blog post, though, which is why it is important to mix it up and give length and effort to the topics that deserve it.

3. Professional Shoplifting is “OK”
Writers are thieves.

We steal bits of dialogue we hear on the street, run with ideas we see on other sites and try to do them better, and do everything we can to use inspirational input as fuel to output better content.

It is really easy to see “shoplifting” in action when you visit a major news site, read the latest article on Google Panda, and find a repurposed (possibly worse) article on a competing website. There is nothing ethically wrong with writing on topics people want to read about as long as the content is original and any “borrowed” information is linked back to the original source.

4. Social Media Is Hard
At least, this is true for small businesses with admins who have no clue what they are doing.

The thing about social media is that no one has to like or follow your pages — and if they do, they don’t ever have to tune into your messages. In fact, why should you expect a real person to willingly choose product promotions from an impersonal brand over status updates from actual friends and family members?

You can’t expect this from your customers. Instead, you have to convince potential followers that the content you publish is informative, entertaining and worth its place on a newsfeed. Inexperienced marketers (or interns, assistants, etc.) responsible for a company’s Facebook page might go into it expecting 1,000 likes and shares a day only to be shocked at how challenging it is to gain traction.

Patience pays off on social media, as does research, awesome writing, and a touch of creativity.

5. You Can’t Do Everything
When I go into a small businesses and see a sign that says, “Follow us on Facebook! Google Plus Us! We are on LinkedIn! Find us on Twitter! Connect on Instagram, Pinterest, our blog, YouTube, website, Tumblr, and everywhere!” I get annoyed.

Companies that don’t yet understand etiquette in a social world are quickly demonized — or worse, ignored.

Brands should start slow with no more than two platforms that already captivate their target audience. Do you own a crafts store? Pinterest and Instagram are obvious go-tos. Are you a concrete contractor? A YouTube channel for short films is not recommended.

Pick your battleground wisely, and remember that it is a war zone out there where you must constantly fight for users’ attention.

6. There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Answer
Social media and content marketing frequently evolve. People are coming up with new tools, platforms are becoming more interconnected, and on and on. It is unclear how things will be in a year’s time since consumer habits and technology change at such a rapid pace.

One important thing to always remember is: don’t let the self-proclaimed experts fool you.

The best advice is to take recommendations and the things you read with a grain of salt. Some people definitely know what they’re talking about, others don’t. When it comes to social media and content, do what you are most comfortable with as long as it shows a modicum of results.

7. Online Marketing Is Indispensable
If you are not currently marketing your business online, you should be. Why? Because your customers are all over the web (and on mobile).

People shop online, chat with friends, share new products they bought on Facebook, compare prices, look up directions and hours of your place of business, and so on. You need to develop solid digital assets because that is what consumers expect.

It does not matter if you run a bakery, a call center, marathons, or whatever — social-content marketing is the only way to network in the digital age.

Final Thoughts
Before wrapping up this post, here is an important cautionary warning:

Overdoing it is almost worse than not doing it at all.

Over-aggressive sales and messaging is the quickest way to lose customer faith and followers. You will also burn through money and patience, but that’s a conversation for another day.

 

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6 Tips for Improving Social Media CTRs

What is your best tip for improving clickthrough rates on articles you share via social media?

1. Share Content That Merits a Click
Your friends may be good people, but they still value their time, so while they may be quick to RT and share, it is always a challenge to get them to actually read your post. So, know your audience and superserve them.

“Chances are high that your network is a very diverse group, with people from all different backgrounds. Choose the segment you’re most interested in targeting — say, young professionals who may hire your company for a particular service — and focus on sharing articles only relevant to that audience,” advises Brittany Hodak, Co-founder of ZinePak.

“Soon, you’ll build a reputation for sharing helpful, insightful content that merits a click.”

2. Be Concise, Relatable and Authentic
But be a real person about all of this. Don’t be “that guy” (pictured above) either.

“When sharing content, there’s no need to oversell it. Use a truly authentic voice to briefly introduce the content and do it in a way that the audience can relate to,” advises Brewster Stanislaw of social media management firm Inside Social.

“Exercise empathy and take the time to think about what would motivate your audience to consume that content. By captioning your content in such a way that is easy-to-digest and is enticing to the reader, you will maximize CTRs.”

3. Recycle Posts With New Copy
Remember, despite appearances people don’t all live on social media.

“Social media has a short shelf life when it comes to followers paying attention to your posts. By sharing your content multiple times over several weeks with different copy attached to each post, you’ll generate more click-throughs while discovering what copy works best for your following,” says Brett Farmiloe of digital marketing company Markitors.

4. Get the Cold Hard Stats
Data-driven marketers win, always.

When new studies come out about how to drive appropriate social media engagement, Maren Hogan, Chief Marketing Brain at Red Branch Media, is all over them.

“Using the phrase “retweet” will get you 50 percent more shares. Even just including the word ‘click’ in your CTA will actually get clicks.”

While you can discover this for yourself, it’s always helpful when others with (potentially) more experience do it on a grander scale so you can learn from their wisdoms.

5. Remember, Headlines Equal Money
Entrepreneur and writer John Rampton of Adogy knows how profitable a strong headline can be.

“If you want to improve the click-through rate on your article, test it before you put it up. Spend quality time on article titles. Honestly, you should be taking almost as much time coming up with an amazing title as you do the article.

“Titles are what show first and what attract people to your article. You have less than a second to attract someone to click… does your title make the cut?”

6. Use Graphics — Always!
Text alone won’t win your audience over. Stunning imagery will draw new readers in.

“Make sure you feature a prominent graphic,” shares Emily Doubilet, Founder and CEO of Susty Party.

“For example, on Facebook, instead of using the ‘Share Link’ option, choose ‘Share Photo’ instead so that the image comes up larger in people’s newsfeeds and so that you can edit the caption or link later if necessary. On Twitter, insert a photo with every link you share, because people are more likely to click if there is an image to grab their attention.”

 

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8 New Share Buttons Added to Shareaholic (including Flipboard, Kindle It and Weibo)

Business owners, marketers and publishers can all benefit by adding these buttons to their arsenal of social media sharing icons to amplify reader engagement and traffic.

Here are a few quick stats that demonstrate the potential and reach of some of these services:

• Flipboard — with more than 100 million active readers, Flipboard, the personalized social news magazine, is one of the best ways to place your content in front of relevant audiences.
• Kindle It — it’s a no-brainer that you’d want people to feel comfortable reading your content on their preferred device.
• Odnoklassniki — to connect with over 200 million registered users in Russia and beyond, share to Odnoklassniki.
• Sina Weibo — known as the Twitter of Asia, Weibo boasts 503 million registered users.
• XING — the European business networking platform captures a premium audience of 14 million members.

 

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HTML 101: The Complete Guide to Understanding Code on Your Blog

Once I joined Shareaholic and began blogging more often, I realized that I needed to get myself in gear and learn some basic HTML. And here’s a reality check: you do too. No matter how many pageviews you have, having an understanding of HTML is key to having a successful blog.

Need to force an image to stay on the right of your post instead of drifting to the middle? HTML.

Need to install analytics to track your success? HTML.

Don’t want to bother your web designer with the small stuff? HTML.

You don’t need to be a coding genius to rock your blog, but you should have a basic understanding of the terminology and a few tags up your sleeve to take your blog posts to the next level.

Understanding HTML
Before we get into the tags you need to know, I wanted to give you a quick intro into some general HTML terminology and structure. This way, you’ll understand what I’m talking about later in the post once we get to the top tags you should know.

Opening and closing tags
In any piece of code, there will be an opening and closing tag. The opening tag starts off the sequence with a left angle bracket, a character (or two) signifying what the tag is supposed to do, and a right angle bracket. A closing tag ends the sequence in the same manner—it looks just like the opening tag, but it has a forward slash before the character. Here’s a visual breakdown for you:



Include the object or text you want to modify in between
Think of opening and closing tags like a container for content. The opening and closing tags surround all the elements they are modifying—anything in that “bucket” of HTML will obey the rules of the opening and closing tags.

It’s very important to understand what opening and closing brackets are and how to place elements in between them when you first start to understand code—they give you a reference point for what’s happening in the code. You’ll also be a pro at copying and inserting any code on your blog since you have an idea of where code starts and stops.

X HTML Tags You Should Know
1. Site structure
<head> </head>

This tag is at the top of the page. In between these two brackets, you’ll see information about the page (including the page title) any analytics you have installed, and theme styling code for the rest of the page. Think of this section of HTML as the description of your page.

<body> </body>

Everything between these two tags appears in the body of your webpage—aka, what your readers see whenever they visit your site. All of the HTML code for your post and any widgets that people can see directly go here.

Note: You don’t have to paste these tags in your post—they are part of your site structure already.

2. Organize with headings


We’ve talked a lot about the importance of using headers in your blog posts. They’re a great way to break up your text, making it easy to skim and understand. There are three different sizes of headings: H1 is the biggest, H2 is the second biggest, and so on. I’d recommend not using more than two different types of headers in your posts because having too many becomes distracting to readers.

3. Create links


This is probably the most important tag for a blogger to know–readers expect bloggers to include relevant links in their posts. Place the link you want to use in between those quotation marks in the opening tag and you are good to go.

4. Embed images


This is probably the second most important snippet you should know. Whether you’re sending an email to your blog subscribers or putting together the most pinable post ever, using HTML for images is important. Notice that you should include the link to the image itself, the size of the image in pixels and then the alt tag. The last part is especially important for SEO purposes.

5. Link images


Now, to make an image a link (like our CTA at the bottom of this post), all you have to do is surround the image code from step #4 in a the code for a link (step #3)–basically you are replacing the “text you want to link to” text and inserting the code for embedding images.

6. Align images and text


There are few things more frustrating than when an object won’t align the way you intended it. No matter how many times you click the alignment buttons, the image or text stays stuck a different way. To specific a certain alignment, include <p align=”left”>before the thing you want to align and </p> after.

Note: Most people recommend using CSS, the language used to style your blog, to align aspects of your site. While this is generally a good rule, I’d recommend using the above alignment codes when you’re trying to fix a specific object that isn’t properly aligned already.

7. Blockquote


A great way to spruce up the formatting of someone’s quote with HTML is with the block quote. This snippet of code styles the quote differently than the rest of your body, making it clear that someone else said or wrote the that text.

8. Numbers (ordered lists)


If you want to make a numbered list, this is the tag for you. For all of those top 10 blog post lists, this tag will be your best friend.

9. Bullets (unordered lists)


If you want a list without numbers, use this tag. Great for highlighting a few quick points under a main idea in your post, especially if your post is running long.

10. Formatting fonts


Super simple stuff. If you want to make some parts of your post stand out, these tags are essential.

 

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New Mobile Anchor Ads can increase your ad revenue by 400%

What are Mobile Anchor Overlay Ads?
The anchor overlay ad format is a mobile web ad unit that sits at the bottom of the screen on a mobile device. As a user scrolls down the page, the ad remains “anchored” to the bottom of the screen. Since the ad sticks on the page and is always in users’ view, this ad format usually monetizes far better than standard ads, as much as +400%.

The setup process to enable or disable a Shareaholic App on your site is very easy. Follow a few short steps and you'll be done in just minutes:
1. Login to your Shareaholic account.
2. Select your site from the My Sites dropdown at the top of the page.
3. Under the 'Monetization' header, find the Anchor Overlay Ads section. Use the toggle button to enable or disable the ads.

Further, you can also control whether you would like Anchor Ads to show on desktop, mobile or both.
1. Click the Configure button above the Anchor Overlay Ads toggle.

2. Choose whether you want the ads to show on Desktop, Mobile, or both!

3. Click Save Changes.

 

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