All Entries in the "Blog Tools" Category
Should You Use Automated Software To Build Your Following?
Every day now I see the next automated software for Twitterers being harked as the next great thing. Get 16,000 new followers automatically in 90 days. Gain thousands of followers automatically with no effort while you sleep. You know the deal.
The problem with these automated packages is that they work too well. It’s not that they don’t work at all. They work too well.
Yes, you’ll get thousands of followers, but they won’t be targeted followers, and chances are those people following you won’t have the slightest bit of interest in what you have to offer. I’d rather have a list of 1,000 highly targeted followers than 20,000 non-targeted followers.
A few years ago you’d see the say hype about blogs. Get instant trackbacks! Increase your RSS subscribers by the hundreds! Same deal, different program. You still those too, but not as often as you used to. I think the charlatans and snake oil salesmen finally realized they were going to sell as many as they sold and they moved on to the next great thing. Now it’s Twitter followers. Same game, same story, different day.
Don’t fall for it.
Does Your Blog Have A Natural Language Flow?
Blog writing isn’t hard. Too many bloggers try to make it difficult. You don’t have to spend hours upon hours searching for the right keyword for every blog post. Do most of your keyword research right up front. If you know what your niche topic is and the most important 15-20 keywords for that topic with 100 or so related keywords (yes, keep a spreadsheet unless you have a photographic memory) then you have enough information for a year’s worth of blog posts.
You don’t have to go down the list of keywords making sure that each blog post is stuffed with X number of a specific keyword in order to be optimized. The best optimization is simply natural language writing that incorporates a good mix of the right keywords over time. I’ve proven this over and over again on countless blogs of my own and client blogs. Keyword optimization for blogs is about two things: Single post high octane content and blog brandable content that moves beyond a single post. Do the first one right and after a year of posting the second one should fall into place. Natural language writing is the key.
Neuro-Blogging: Is It The Next Big Wave?
A brain scientist at the University of Wisconsin is using Twitter to experiment and test an application that will allow people with biomedical difficulties to use the social media application without typing with their hands. They will instead be allowed to think what they want to tweet and communicate with the entire world through their brains alone. On April 1 he succeeded.
The experiment opens up all kinds of other possibilities as well.
With a tool like Twitter Tools a person can use their blog to send a tweet. If you can think your tweet through Twitter then by using Twitter’s API you should also be able to think a blog post using Twitter Tools and similar WordPress plugins. That brings up all kinds of possibilities:
How long will it be before:
- Terminally ill patients can blog from their hospital beds without the use of their hands?
- Drivers on a freeway are able to send a blog post while navigating rush hour traffic?
- Bathers can send a blog post from their tub without using a keyboard?
- Birthing mothers can keep loved ones informed during labor?
- Workers trapped in a land mine can help their rescuers find them?
- A man on the moon can instantly send a love note to his wife back at earth while in the midst of performing maintenance on the space station’s mechanical parts?
This is truly amazing technology. How long will it be before we are all wired to communicate across great distances using nothing but our brains and a computer?
Is TwitWall Another Blog Platform?
TwitWall is a standalone social application for Twitter. If you have a Twitter account you are automatically set up with a TwitWall even though you may never use it. I wonder how many Twitterers do not even know they have a TwitWall. I just discovered mine a couple of weeks ago.
The point behind TwitWall is that you can say more than the 140 character limit that Twitter enforces. Good idea, but why not just write it on your blog? Then you use can use Twitter Tools to post the link to Twitter from your blog?
There is a practical reason for using TwitWall. It does appear to be just another blogging platform, but I don’t write to mine every day. Just when I have something unique to say that I really only care that my Twitter audience reads. TwitWall does have some advantages though. No. 1, when you write to TwitWall, your blog post automatically Twitters instantly. Just like Twitter Tools. But it’s also social and accessible to every other Twitterer with a TwitWall. Therein is your advantage.
If you have a strong Twitter following, you can use TwitWall to go into greater depth about some of your tweets. But don’t do it too often. Another reason to use TwitWall is you can target specific types of Twitterers who can find you through TwitWall and follow you based on your TwitWall postings. It’s just another way to reach the right people for your niche. Just don’t overdo it.
