How to promote your research through blogging | Exchanges

How to promote your research through blogging | Exchanges
How to promote your (first) gig - DIY Musician Blog - CD Baby
How To Promote A Blog Post On StumbleUpon - Ghost Blog Writers
Running a Blog to Promote Affiliate Products | Tips and Tricks HQ
Apple TV bundles a $25 iTunes gift card with purchase to promote ...

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 12:00 AM PDT

With around 42.6 million new posts each month on WordPress alone, blogging has become a serious marketing and business tool. But why should you, as a researcher and author, spend time creating and writing a blog?

After all, your time is precious, and setting up a blog, writing regular posts and gaining followers isn't necessarily at the top of your radar. However, with more and more journals incorporating blogs as part of their online presence, and an increasing number of academics blogging regularly, here's why you should too- and how to get the most from your efforts.

Why blog?

First of all, it will help you refine your writing skills. Blogs are more widely read than academic journals and textbooks, so while you could be writing for a broad audience, your posts will still need to hold up to academic scrutiny while being accessible.

Blogging is also a great aid to discoverability. Every time you write a blog post, you are creating content that can be shared via social media, as well as providing a cue to search engines that your website is active. Additionally, non-academics find it a lot easier to access a blog than to find their way around journals and paywalls, so your work has the potential to reach and influence a much wider audience. Not convinced? Over 409 million people view more than 14.4 billion WordPress pages every month- that's a lot of potential readers!

With a blog, you immediately become part of a large network of bloggers with whom you can share thoughts and ideas, and engage in some of the cutting edge debates in your area of interest. Not only can this further enhance your reputation as an expert in your field, it's a great opportunity to hone your communication skills as well as gain valuable feedback on ideas and broaden your professional network. For early career researchers, starting a blog can be beneficial as you network with more experienced academics and pick up tips on how to publish, or refine your CV for example.

With many institutions and research funders placing a growing emphasis on open access and community outreach, a blog can be a great way to reach out to the public and engage in meaningful conversation around your area of expertise. Blogging enables you to share your enthusiasm for your subject with those outside of the narrow world of academia, maybe even inspiring the next generation of researchers along the way.

How to write your blog and promote your work

Setting up a blog is incredibly easy with services such as WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. Once you've chosen your domain name and a theme, you are pretty much ready to start posting. But what makes a good blog, and how do you go about promoting your work?

1. Find your voice
As you start to blog, you will end up finding your own voice and style of writing. Look at other academic blogs to see the range of styles used, and find what suits you best, whether that is shorter posts or longer, more reflective posts. Make it clear whether or not you are writing on behalf of an institution and, importantly, be yourself! Successful blogs tend to use a conversational tone and speak directly to the reader.

2. Define your audience
Make sure that you know who you are aiming your blog at- whether it be fellow academics and researchers, policy decision makers or even schoolchildren. When you write, you should always have this audience in mind. This will help develop your tone and style and your readers will end up feeling more 'connected' to your writing. Just remember to make your writing accessible to all- overly scientific and technical jargon will alienate some readers, as will posts that constantly stray off topic.

3. Use social media
Make use of your social media accounts to promote your latest blog post. A Facebook post or a Tweet will broaden the scope of your blog's reach and let people know as soon as you've posted something new. And best of all, if you have your social media accounts linked, this will take minimal time and effort.

4. Read other blogs
But don't just read them. Get involved by entering into conversations, posting comments and linking to posts that interest you on your own blog. This will encourage others to link to you and increase your online discoverability. When you comment on other blogs, try to add value by offering useful information and advice. This can be an excellent way of networking with fellow bloggers in your field of expertise.

5. Include keywords
You want your blog to be as visible as possible on search engines, especially Google, as this will generate a lot of the traffic to your site. Think of keywords that best sum up your post and repeat them throughout your text (just don't overdo it!) and in the post title. The trick is to use words that you think people will search for when looking for the type of content you are posting.

6. Guest blog
Writing posts for other, more well-known blogs can be a good way to get your own blog going to begin with. Not only are you networking with other bloggers, you are creating a name for yourself, and your posts will include a link to your own blog. Having your blog linked to a more well-established blog is also great for search engine optimization.

Good luck on your blogging journey!

How to promote your (first) gig - DIY Musician Blog - CD Baby

Posted: 05 Aug 2014 06:17 AM PDT

You've booked a gig. Congrats. Now it's time to make sure your audience will consist of more than just the bartender.

Here's a checklist of simple things you can do to get the most people possible out to your show:

1. Ask the venue what they'll be doing to promote — You don't want to double your efforts. Sometimes venues will take out adds in the local weeklies, advertise on the radio, and even make posters for you. If so, great! If not, at least you know where you stand.

2. Get a media list from the venue — If you're just getting started performing live, you probably don't have an extensive list of contacts in the local press. The venue booker will often have a list ready to send to bands who are touring from out of town, but they can just as easily send that list to you too. It normally contains email and/or phone numbers for local music journalists, editors, bloggers, podcasters, radio show hosts, and more.

3. Contact the press — You want to make sure that your gig is listed in all the local concert calendars, but you also want to see if you can get other kinds of coverage: show previews in the newspaper, interviews on blogs, a spotlight on a locally focused radio show, etc. If you contact them 2-3 months in advance of your show, you'll greatly increase your chances of getting some media attention. You'll also have an easier time getting big exposure in the press by following this simple advice about quality press shots.

For a list of local media people that'd be interested in covering your music, and some tips on how to get in touch with them, check out "How to get the media's attention."

4. Create a concert poster — Yes, concert posters still matter, even in the Internet age. In fact, the Internet has given a second life to the art form. Here's an article about why you should create concert posters, how to create them, and what to do with them once they're made.

Send the poster to the other bands on the bill and to the venue (in case they want to use it in their online of offline promotion). If the file is large, upload it to a cloud-storage site like DropBox and share it from there. Otherwise, just send as an email attachment.

5. Put up posters around town — To be honest, blanketing the neighborhood in posters won't guarantee a big audience for your show. But it does do two things: gives you a start on visual branding, which will help with name recognition later on; and reinforces in the minds of people who've already considered going to your show that this is an event they won't want to miss. Just be sure to follow any local laws regarding hanging posters/fliers in public places. If you can't put them on telephone polls, ask the staff about bulletin board or window space in coffee shops, music stores, etc.

6. Use your poster online — It's time to put that poster on your website, in a blog post about your upcoming show, in a photo gallery for show posters, and on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever other social media platforms you use.

7. Create a Facebook event — Despite the declining popularity of Facebook amongst musicians, Facebook Events are still one of your best promotion tools. Create an event and use elements of your show poster for the header image; then invite all your Facebook friends that live within an hour or two of the concert venue. Be sure to share admin privileges with the other bands on the bill. Also, a single Facebook Event for the night is always preferable to each band creating their own separate Facebook events; it keeps things simple and helps you build momentum and buzz by cross-promoting to one another's fans.

For more information on how to set up an effective Facebook Event, check out "Use Facebook Events to get more people to your next show."

8. Send out an email — If you're a brand new band, you might not've built your email list yet, but go ahead and have your band members compile a list of all the email contacts for people they know that might want to come to the show. Start there! Send those folks an announcement about the show, tell them how psyched you are, and that you really hope they'll attend.

9. Tell all your family and friends — Despite your best efforts, the majority of your audience for your first show will probably be folks you already know. Instead of getting discouraged, use this to your advantage; get as many people out as you can. Tell them that it's really important to have a good crowd for your first show in order to prove to the other bands and the venue that you're worth working with again in the future.

Start with your close family and friends; but don't forget to talk your show up to co-workers, players on your softball team, church members, etc.

10. Give away a few spots on your guest list — People love contests and prizes. In the weeks leading up to your show, do a handful of social media or email giveaways for free entrance to your show. The winners will be thrilled, and you'll have multiple chances to remind your online network about the show in an exciting way.

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What else are you going to do to promote and get people out to your next show? Let us know in the comments below.

Chris Robley's Author Bio

How To Promote A Blog Post On StumbleUpon - Ghost Blog Writers

Posted: 05 Aug 2014 08:00 AM PDT

How To Promote A Blog Post On StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon Blog Traffic StumbleUpon can be one of the biggest sources of traffic to your blog.

For my personal site, Country Music Life, StumbleUpon is the #2 traffic referrer (after organic search mostly from Google).

CML gets about 1,500 pageviews per day with each visitor averaging just over two views.

It's a pretty good sized blog for being just a person site about country music. But it does well and has lots of sources of traffic. So I think it's very interesting that StumbleUpon is right up there on the referrer list. It's worth paying attention to if you have a blog and even if you have a business blog.

Here are the steps you can take right now to get more traffic to your blog from StumbleUpon.

Step 1. Find Content That Does Well On StumbleUpon

To succeed on StumbleUpon you'll likely need visuals and/or list formats.

It's interesting when I look at the posts that do well from CML on StumbleUpon. Not all posts do well. The ones that seem to do the best are the one that are lists (Saddest Country Songs, Funniest Country Songs, etc.) or posts that mention the bigger country artists like Keith Urban and Tim McGraw.

Lists and big recognizable brands or topics have always been good types of content. They attract mass audiences and since SU is a discovery engine, more people are going to like that type of content.

For your first step, use StumbleUpon. You'll be able to see a variety of pages from around the Internet. They'll be skewed toward your interests, but you'll start seeing trends of the type of posts or pages that SU feels you'll like.

You'll see the trends and it will probably include a lot of lists, images and things like that.

Text posts can do well, but you'll need a really interesting topic with a great title to pull people.

StumbleUpon works by giving users a new page. They'll decide within seconds if they want to look through the entire page. Photos are good. Lists are good (people can scan them) and catchy titles are a must.

Step 2. Find A Common Question Your Reader Has

For every piece of content we create we try to look for common questions that the target reader has. When you start with a question and aim to provide the best answer possible with the content it seems to be the most successful no matter what channel you're using to get traffic.

You probably know some of these questions already. Think about the conversations you've had with your customers. Think about the answers you've provided.

You can also look on industry forums. Look at popular industry websites in the comments sections. Find the most popular articles on the site and see what questions readers are asking in the comments.

From here you'll identify the big questions and from there you can plan to create content that will answer it. This sets you up for successful promotion including promotion on SU.

Step 3. Format Your Blog Post

We've talked about this a little bit already, but it's worth its own point.

Once you answer your question in the blog post, go back to the post. There is formatting to do. Here are the big things to do:

Break up paragraphs into shorter paragraphs. One or two lines are best.
Add headings. It makes it easy for people to read and scan.
Add images. They add visual context and catch attention.

These formatting tips are one of the reasons that lists seem to work well. Look at the posts you see when you're stumbling. You'll see similar formats.

Step 4. Share On SU With Appropriate Category And Tags

Pick one Category and about 3-5 appropriate Tags.

Publish your post and share it on SU. It's called "Add A Page" from your profile on SU.

Categories are big. You want to find the category that best fits the content. SU users setup their preferences so they see certain types of posts. You're looking for your target reader so take some time to find the best category. You can try this out with a few posts and if you're not getting any traffic then see if there is a different category that might work better.

Select 1 Category and 3-5 Tags.

Step 5. Make It Easy For People To Share Your Post On SU

Next, you want to encourage your visitors to share or like your post on StumbleUpon.

Add the SU badge to your blog posts. You could test it for a little while to see how much use it gets. If you're not getting a lot of use then it might be worth taking it down, but if it works it can really send a lot of traffic to your site.

(Optional) Step 6. Use StumbleUpon Paid Advertising

Finally, there is an advertising option with SU called Paid Discovery. I haven't used it for my posts opting for the organic traffic, but I have heard good things about PD and if you really want to drive traffic to a particular post this might be a better advertising option than others like AdWords and Facebook.

Conclusion

StumbleUpon has been a strong driver of traffic for my sites for years. It's consistent and it's proven over those years that things don't really change too much, which is good. You can count on it.

Follow the steps above and you'll be adding a good source of traffic to your blog that can lead to more discovery of your content and brand. In online marketing, that's the first step to signing on new clients.

Running a Blog to Promote Affiliate Products | Tips and Tricks HQ

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 12:00 AM PDT

Warning: the following information is for those that know that hard work generates reward, and for those that intend to provide value in the marketplace. If that's you, there are some nuggets in here for you, dive in!

There are numerous ways to generate traffic to promote affiliate products. In this article I would like discuss a free method which involves getting traffic from search engines (in the organic listings) and directing that traffic to affiliate offers from blog posts, pages, banners, and emails.

This is a follow up to this affiliate marketing intro article that discusses exactly what affiliate marketing is, and many of the best practices for affiliate marketing.

In the article linked above, you can also learn what NOT to do, which will save you a great deal of time by not making the same mistakes many affiliates have made before you. As a prime example, it's important that you don't just sign up and promote a giant selection of affiliate products. It will get very overwhelming and will be less fruitful, even for the more organized among us. Not to say that it can't be done, but I would suggest getting a solid background before attempting to expand your portfolio. My guess is you will actually make MORE money in a shorter time following this suggestion.

If you find a "pocket of people" or "niche" to serve, and you serve them well you can do very well for years to come. Sticking to a topic or niche that you are passionate about can amplify your efforts significantly. I have found though that many that are just entering the online world as an affiliate attempt to sell to that same niche… the "affiliate marketing," or "make money online" niche. That can and does prove valuable for many people but my personal recommendation is to crawl before you walk. If you have time to "test" before you "teach" then I say go for it, but if you intend to just parrot what others are saying and assume it's accurate, you might be doing an injustice to your niche, and yourself.

With that said, in this article I will bring you through a real world example that caters to the niche of people that are building a business online, just for the sake of learning. I will walk through the promotion of a product here on Tips and Tricks for this demonstration.

Importance of a Tightly Focused Blog Topic

When setting up a blog to promote affiliate products it's a great idea to create a tightly focused blog. Not to say that you can't do well by having a general blog, but in my experience your efforts can be compounded when sticking to a very very tightly focused topic.

When search engines for example, sense an underlying theme about your blog, you will begin to see more traffic for terms that you haven't even targeted only because it is clear what your web site is about. In the example for those that want to generate an income online, or expand their business online, you can discuss general topics and have different categories like SEO, Blogging, Media Buys, Pay Per Click, Traffic Generation, Affiliate Marketing, Membership Sites, and so on. And that can do very well in the long term. Or you can pick one of those topics, drill down even deeper into it and build a site just around that.

Now, once you narrow down on a very tight topic you can start getting very targeted, buying traffic to your blog when done correctly. Search engines will reward you with more traffic that you didn't have to chase, and visitors will turn into customers faster when the site caters to their very specific needs.

Getting Free Organic Traffic From Search Engines

The way in which you get traffic is by paying attention to how you formulate the content that you write. I know there is a lot of chatter right now about "fresh," even "daily" content and I even speak on that myself on occasion. But the truth is that quality is more important than quantity. Now, when you can deliver quality in great quantity, naturally that can be advantageous to you. But spend a week on a post if necessary, you are your own boss after all, so create your own deadlines.

Pay attention to the best practices for search engine optimized content, as well as the behind the scenes factors that affect social sharing. Here is a brief overview of what to consider for each piece of content that you write:

a) Consider the phrases that the people in your niche are typing into the search engines. Make sure to write content that is optimized for one or more of those keyphrases. To keep the process quick and simple I use Google or YouTube Suggest to see what potential longtails are being searched. I pick one main one and sometimes a secondary one and write my content.

I'll use the exact phrase in the title of my post and that's as far as I often go in the "manual" sense. I think that when you write naturally after that you are bound to hit on some key terms and phrases without it seeming faked or shoehorned in. I may use a secondary phrase or two as subheadings as well, but that's generally it.

However, if you follow along with the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress some of the suggestions for SEO is to: have your targeted keyword in the title of the post (which usually places it automatically in the URL and title tag as well), include the phrase in the first paragraph, and include it in the copy as well, perhaps in a subheading. Also, for what it's worth, including it in the meta description can help but often that description isn't used in the SERPS anymore. More often the snippet is derived dynamically by pulling in a section of the content based on the search term used. But the meta description still has a place, sometimes in social sharing.

b) Keep the copy relevant and focused. Since it is a blog, allowing your personality to shine through is often very beneficial. Create lots of whitespace to make the article more easily readable. Sometimes break up the text with relevant images.

Don't pay too much attention to the number of words. I think it's important that the post is as long or as short as it needs to be to provide the answer to the initial query.

c) Consider the underlying HTML. It's important that the title is wrapped in H1 tags. Subheadings should use H2 or H3 tags. Also including the correct Open Graph, Twitter, Meta, and Schema.org markup "behind the scenes" can make a big difference. All of these factors affect how the "snippet" or "summary" of your content appears when shared or displayed on Google, Facebook, Bing, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, etc.

Real World Example of How to Run the Blog

There are a few products in the Tips and Tricks store worth promoting as an affiliate. There is the WP eStore plugin, WP eMember plugin, and WP Affiliate Platform. If I was to build a blog to promote one or more of those products I might consider first catering to a niche that wants to "get started." That would take WP Affiliate Platform off the table, at least for now. That could be suggested to the customers on my list or that are part of my membership site down the road.

Since I am just thinking of this as I write, I am going to make a decision and choose the WP eMember plugin to promote. Therefore my niche will be people that want to launch their own membership site. I might focus more on those that do not already have or may not already know about WordPress. I can still help the others, but I think I will structure my content around those people that know they want to build a membership site, but need the next logical steps.

Now, the first thing I'm going to want to do is buy the WP eMember plugin myself, because frankly, how can I behave congruently if I haven't used it personally? I can't. Also, having a membership site will be part of my strategy. You see, I want to offer a tightly focused web site and only answer questions that my target audience is after before they buy. I can then asnwer all of the questions that they want after their purchase within my membership site.

The content in the membership site might be: how to buy a domain name, how to buy hosting, how to setup WordPress, how to keep WordPress secure, how to make WordPress fast, how to setup WP eMember, and on and on getting very specific eventually on how to use WP eMember. I can record videos for this very easily (as I build my own site) using Screencast-o-matic (less than $20 per year last I checked) and provide the videos in my membership site, separated from my blog, so as not to "dilute" the subject matter of my blog.

At the same time I will have built a very valuable resource for my audience. I can put a yearly price tag of say $97 on it, for those who come "off the street" but offer a free bonus valued at $97 to those who buy through my T&T affiliate link. Picking up what I'm laying down here? Those members are also customers, and are also going to be on my list (because the WP eMember plugin ties in with the API's for 3rd party newsletter companies like AWeber, MailChimp, etc). I can tell them all about WP eStore and/or the WP Affiliate Platform later on.

In This Real World Scenario, What Might I Blog About?

Well, now that my membership site is up and I filled it with content by filming myself as I built it, I now am in posession of a very valuable asset, not to mention real experience with the product that I am promoting. I am already steps ahead of the average affiliate.

And now that I have a blog setup to promote WP eStore, what will I write about? Now, as I stated above I would look to keyword tools and Google/YouTube suggest, but I would also put myself in the shoes of the potential buyer. The first thing that I would do is write a review. And who is more qualified to write a review than the guy or gal who used the product? I know that people like to see comparison reviews but we will focus on what the plugin CAN and WILL do for the user. And if that satisifes their needs, and the fact that they are getting the free training, and great support at T&T, why wouldn't they buy? At that point, competing products are no longer relevant.

Don't forget the Schema.org markup when doing the review to help it stand out in the search engines. Target {Product Name} + Review but also look for a long tail in Google Suggest that doesn't have results in the top 10 where other web pages are using that phrase in their titles.

After brainstorming briefly then going to Google.com and initiating some queries, I found some topics that I can consider writing posts about. Now I didn't go as far to see if the top results have titles with those exact phrases, but here are some examples:

1) Build a membership based website
2) Sell instructional videos online
3) Sell your training courses
4) Create your own paywall
5) I want to teach people how to cook

You get the idea.

Now for a domain I might go with something like: createapaywall.com to keep it generic enough to talk about "membership sites" in general, even though I will talk heavily about WP eMember. With that said, as you start getting search engine traffic you can start focusing posts around WP eMember terms and direct people to your membership site to get some "how to" videos.

Well that's it for now. I hope that you were able to pull something from this and you can apply it to another niche that you are passionate about. Please mention in the comments if this was helpful to you and I will come back to write some follow ups based on your questions.

Apple TV bundles a $25 iTunes gift card with purchase to promote ...

Posted: 12 Aug 2014 09:21 AM PDT

Posted by Evan Selleck on Aug 12, 2014 | No Comments »

Apple TV and $25 gift card iTunes Festival

Back in February of this year, the Cupertino-based company ran a quick promotion for anyone who was thinking about buying an Apple TV, sweetening the deal with a bundled $25 iTunes gift card. They're back at it again, this time with an eye towards the iTunes Festival in London.

Apple has begun running a limited time promotion for the Apple TV, beginning today, August 12, until September 30, that will net anyone who buys an Apple TV a $25 iTunes gift card. With the card, you'll be able to buy anything within Apple's digital marketplace, including movies, music, and apps. However, you can't use the $25 to lower the price of any physical goods.

While the promotion in February was apparently just a way to get more eyeballs on the Apple TV in general, this time around Apple's geared the promotion towards the 2014 iTunes Festival, which is taking place in London starting on September 1, and going until September 30. It will have bands such as Maroon 5, 5 Seconds of Summer and Beck, among many others. With Apple TV, you'll be able to watch the Festival for free.

While many believed that Apple TV would be getting an upgrade at the end of 2014, it turns out that partner hesitation may be causing the set-top box revamp to be on hold until next year. In the meantime, though, set-top box owners can expect to see a tweaked user interface in the coming months, with thinner front and redesigned icons.

You can find a link to the Apple TV and gift card combo below. Do you plan on taking advantage of the deal?

[via Apple]

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Tuesday, 12 August 2014