Buffer.com Tutorial: Social Media presence augmentation

I will assume that those who are reading this blog post are the people who is using Twitter as the Social Media Platform. Though, there exist many other platform such as Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and so on. This blog will cover augmenting Twitter presence with Buffer. Twitter is great social media platform as you will find far most reach than any other social media platforms. You do not need a campaign to gain reach in twitter. All you need is a little bit of intelligence to gain the reach to the target audience! So lets play with Twitter now.

So now coming to the tool managing your Twitter account. It is time to work with Buffer. Buffer app helps schedule tweets to your Twitter account. If you haven't tried Buffer till day, now it is time to try it. Though it may appear as simple tweet scheduling utility, it will come with inbuilt analytic for the tweets posted via buffer app. So you get insight into the potential of your tweets, reach and engagements from fellow Twitter users.

Buffer.com

Take a close look at the image posted above! Do you wonder what made big difference to those tweets? This is what the objective of today's blog! What made that great difference to the tweets? Most of us would under estimate the analytic data! A short version of the analytic would prove that posting at right time will get lot of visitors to the tweets. Still, a little chuck of socialmediapreneurs would argue that hashtag has made the great difference! Well, if it so then here is the evidence to prove it otherwise. 

Getting engagement on social media platform, especially, when it comes to Twitter, it depends on variety of factors as mentioned below:

1. Posting Time: At which time of the day, you schedule your tweet is far more important! So if you are planning to schedule your tweet in Buffer then it is good to brainstorm the timing of your tweet. When most users would be online? Your reach depends on number of users online. The impression of your tweet with online users would augment your presence. While you can not use it as thumb rule! Each niche has its own peak time. To find out when you will get more reach depends upon your experimentation with Twitter. So If you are tweeting your niche then it is good to schedule your first scheduled tweets by distributing it equally in the day. It is effective method if you try it for a week to know more about which day and time, you get more engagement.
   
2. Followers: Well, it is factor which is beyond your control. Your engagement, at least for first few engagements, depends upon your followers. Twitter is like domino so it depend upon the one who first engage with it! Think about one of your followers who has some 400 followers in his account. What happens if he retweets your tweet, your tweets is visible to some 400 more users! What if the case if some with 75k follower retweets your tweet? That is your tweet potential. So know who might retweet or engage with your tweet once posted.
   
   Though it might look little naive to know followers, it is good to know your audience. As I stated earlier, this is factor which is beyond our control. Could be able to control who follow us? Damn! It is not Facebook! So you have got to manage with what you have got! But it is nothing to worry about. Twitter is all about engagement! You are not going to gain anything with just broadcasting your tweets. As far as possible make it engaging! Engaging tweets gets good amount of impression among online users.
3. #Hashtags: Comes the most debated strategy among socialmediapreneurs! But the truth is using hashtags gets wide reach among online users. If your tweet is related to trending topic in the Twitter then you have wide reach than expected. The impression of your tweet is many fold as trending topics usually have considerable population of Twitter users interacting with the tweets posted, either they like it or not. So planning your #hashtag usage is very important factor.

Yet never use too much hashtag than expected. If you wish to have wide audience then it is good to plan your posting schedule accordingly. Using too many hashtag will make users assume that you are spammer! Yes! Most of the tweets in Twitter are spam, advertising products. Worse part is it includes false advertising. Even I have received DMs and mentioned tweets stating about job opening. But clicking the link will lead you directly to a dating site or provide a survey in which we have to sign up! So spams are too common. So make sure you do not gain the spammer tag in Social Media. So avoid using too many hashtags in your tweets. Better try using maximum 3 hashtags!

Twitter Tweet using Hashtag!

For instance, consider that you are going to tweet about a topic, say 'wordpress seo plugins', good we got the keywords. If my math is right, we got 3 keywords for utilization. To draw maximum attention, I would use it as

'Top #wordpress #seo #plugins for your blog'

That's it, actually it will sound like a true sentence! But most of the tweets which I encountered where poorly written. For instance, the same statement was written as

'Top plugins for your wordpress blog. #wordpress #seo #plugins'

In the above mentioned example, we lost word economy. Note this point, no one will read it deeply as they do it with story books! You must catch attention in the first look and make the user engage with the tweet.

Buffer.com Tweet Scheduling

That's it, the above mentioned factors work well for creating text of your tweet. Now it is time to use Buffer to schedule them to your need!

Now, Login into buffer.com! If you did, then you are holding a basic account which let you schedule maximum 10 tweets in queue. So it is limited functionality! Never mind! We could get our initial reach through these 10 scheduled tweets. So at initial level you do not need an 'upgrade to awesome'. 

Now click on 'What do you want to share?' and compose your tweets and click on 'Add to the queue'. That's it you have scheduled your first tweet! First part is over!

Next, we need to analysis our posted tweets! Buffer app comes with inbuilt analytic system which will track tweets posted using Buffer. If you wish to experiment with your niche schedule 10 various tweets of same niche to the queue at different time intervals. So that you may get insight of the audience that you might reach next! If you get too much of positive response at particular time, then it is good to mark it along with the day and time in the week. We can assume we might get good reach to the target audience with minimal efforts on those day!
Important: There is no hard rule to rule social media. your initial reach depends on your experimentation! Don't relent until you complete the objective!

Trackback: Importance of crediting original blog post in your blogs

Now, you might have started a blog and keep running it. If you don't have a blog, know how to start a blog. You would have started writing unique and original content to your reader. Either it may be for business or personal need, whatever it may be, it is deemed to be blog for all purpose by the audience you receive from internet. Importance of blog in business circle is far important than running a website for business. You might have wonder running a website for local business would be great thing if we were in 1990s. But with 2000s, no business will survive online if you don't run a website of own. Running a website alone will not give you the result, you need a blog. That's apart.

Now, when you start writing a blog post, you might have to rely on sources upon which you write the blog post. It is quite nature that most of the blog post you see on the internet will be based on the any information or source which is seems authentic to public. That how, we build trust. To build trust, either we have to celebrity or rely on trusted sources of information. 

What is Trackback and Advantages of Trackback?

So, now on, you are a blogger, who trust on trusted sources to create your own content. What would be important to make your reader know that you rely on a trusted information? The answer is obvious, mention the original source in the each blog post if available. Some bloggers post about the research, travel experience, personal diaries on internet blogs. For them, none will care about the authenticity of the contents presented. But when it comes to blogging based on technology, medical science, economy, society, anthropology, history, Geological work, etc, it is good to mention your source and info-graphics. This will convey that you did some real work on those facts. 

To be a known as serious blogger, you have to be serious about the source of the information you receive and post to your audience. The topic on serious blogging is different issue which does not fall under this post. 

Well, now time for trackbacks, some blogs or information website enable backlinks which act as trackback. So placing the source of information will help you get new visitors from original blog source. The parent blog to which you have placed a link in your blog will in return place a link stating that you blog discuss on the same topic. So, you will have high probability of any one who visit the parent source would visit your blog for further information. 

To my surprise, I find so many blogs which typically post similar content but also copy and paste content. Many of them do not post what is the source on which they rely. It would appear like a personal blog of authors. To be authentic, one has to provide the source if blog needs one. I am not insisting that every blog post must have mention the source. Yet, if you have one, it is well-advised to post the source. Who knows? You might get links from source websites. Thus, new readers!

Note: Trackback comes with lot of explanations. Yet, the information presented here limited and only stressed the importance of trackback. If you find anything left out, kindly mention them in comments.

How to start making money online?

Many of us would have encountered ads which solicit for making money online! Most of us declare it to be scam to cheat money out of us. But reality is different. The truth is most people determined to work online make real money online. Sounds skeptical! You might wonder that, if any, you would have already spent few bucks for these online programs. And now, I may sound like some agent who is trying to rip you off your money! But making money online don't need an huge investment. If you are not planning to run e-commerce website, you don't carry heavy burden. And I am not here to lecture on any online program or scheme for a subscription fee or payment. All said here are real life experience to start blogging from zero.

Note: Beware of online scams about "making money online". Unscrupulous people start campaign every month to embezzle public money. Don't bite the bait. Some fraudsters campaign for free programs but for a fee. So have research done before signing up for any programs.

Through out this post, you will find good way to start making money online. But remember their is no shortcut to success. Your will have to work harder for few months to start generating money.

See also: How to monetize your blog or website!

Their are many ways you could make money online. They are

1. Affiliate marketing
2. PPC ADS (Pay per Click ads)
3. Sponsored ads
4. Product or service reviews
And the list may expand with innovations. 

With penetration of internet, these list may get appended with new methods and strategies.

While it may sound simple to start making money online, remember it's serious business. Real money comes out of it. Most of them consider this methods as alternate source of money. But in reality many of them make life out of their online journey. If you are thinking to take up part-time work, then stop reading further. I would be waste of your time.

If you are determined to make serious money online, you will have invest good amount time setting up your strategies. It would even take weeks to months and depends on your involvement.

Do you have any plan for subscribing to any program about "making money online"? I am sorry. This blog is not for you. No lectures or presentations will help you without your involvement. Now, let's get started:

#1. Affiliate marketing

The very hot topic to make money online. Affiliate marketing model is to pay you commission when you make sale through your referrals. You can do marketing for a predict or service either through blog or social media. When any click on your referral URL to the product page and makes a purchase, you will receive commission on that sale.

Pros: Commission rate is high! In most cases, websites will pay higher price than the other models of income.

Cons: income will not be regular or in periodic interval. One month you may make $100 and next month you may get $1000 depending up on the product which get the sale.
At time, good products don't get as much sale as ordinary product.

#2. Income from Blogs

Well, this is the most conservative way to make money online. Pay per click ads network make the job easier. All you have to do is to sign up an ad network which will pay for the clicks you receive.

Pros: it is easy to setup. All you need is an email address and as billing address. You are good to go.

Cons: you need huge internet traffic to earn clicks on the ads. Unless someone clicks on the ads, you will not be paid. It need lot of patience than other methods.

See also: How to create a blog?

#3. Product reviews

You can opt for product review program. You will have to review any product or service which it can be a software, computer hardware, house hold products, etc. You have to make reviews.

Pros: you will get your hands on all product and services for free. Some make good money out of the second sale if those products.

Cons: you can't spell bad word about the product. If any, you will find yourself to restrain from making such remarks.

#4. Sponsored Ads:

It is the next stage of PPC ads. Once you reach target audience and started making money online, you next goal should be to get sponsors. It will increase your revenue exponentially. As ppc ad network pay you the according to the number of clicks and conversion rates, sponsor will pay you for the content you generate and for sponsor ads occupying the little space on your website. Yet, it is not a walk in the park. To get sponsors is not a easy task. Only people who believe in serious blogging could get sponsors.

Remember making serious money online is not a easy task. All you have to be in patience. Their is no quick way to earn money as soon as you get into a ad network or marketing. Create killer content that reader feel really can't miss out.

How to Start a Blog?

Welcome! You have a question in your mind! How to start a blog? Well, what you are about read is a blog! So now, you have gain first hand knowledge on blogging. You will know more when you read more in this blog!

Many have opinion that blogging is serious stuff. Yes it is serious stuff to do. But to be a human, you must hate serious stuff. Yet those who write blogs are  humans. So if you want to be a blogger, stay as a blogger. Know that, blogging is fun. Don't force yourself to write very high quality contents. It must come up eventually. Though blogging is serious,  you have enjoy your blog. It's not a factory job which could be done even without interest. If you fail you enjoy your blog, then it will turn into a boring text and make audience to move on to next search for a quality blog.

Find your niche:

First as a blogger, you have to find your niche to create content. If you wish to have blog which deal with one subjective matter then you will have to find niche on which you are about to blog.

To find niche content, one must know oneself. What you are good at? On what am I suppose to blog! To make progress, your blog must be continuous, no discrete content will draw continuous visitors. To have following, you will have find your niche and blog on that.

How to find your niche content? Will be next question you might ask me. To be frank, your niche content is your passion. Think on what you are passionate about! What things you discuss with your friends and family more. This could be your niche content. Rest is your creativity.

Blogging platforms:

Now, you have your niche content on which you are passionate enough to start blogging. But how to create a blog? When you have a search for creating a blog, you will find most popular blogging platform. It is none other that WordPress. It is a open source blogging package with multitude of plugin to customize your blog. All we have to do is get a server and the WordPress code run. That's it you have created a blog for yourself.

But such platform raise affordability question! You will end paying server charges. Hosting your own blog provide liberty to manage it at your wish but for a cost.

To have a cheap and effective blogging platform, you can opt for blogging services such as WordPress.com (not WordPress.org), blogger, hub pages, so on. Setting up a blog on blogging platform will be discussed at later stages.

Writing blogs:

Blogs are not made in a day. It is a continuous process. You have to blog periodically. Don't make your blog idle for long time. But that doesn't mean that writing gibberish blogs will make it active. To run a blog, you need readers who visit periodically. They have expectation that you will post some good content to read. If you can provide feeder to those followers, you will have an successful blog. So avoid irrelevant and vague contents.

Original and unique content:

Think of a reason to blog! It might surprise you for the reason to blog. For example, consider blogging about "chess game". Before you start blogging, just run a search on your favorite search engine. In this instance, " how to play chess game " you would see a lot more than what you have intended to blog. You will find from tutorial to famous world class moves of chess tournaments.

So what is the use of your blog! How will reader get impressed with your blog? What will make them to read your blog? As the search shows, almost content market is saturated. Almost you can find anything in internet. So what will be the special attributes to your blog? Simply filling up words should not be your strategy. If it is it will increase the bounce rate (later, I will explain about bounce rate). For now, concentrate on how to keep your reader on the blog.

To make reader stick to your blog, provide a original and unique content. To be very simple, please don't copy and paste any contents from other sites. Most people do copy and paste. We are not common people working in a software company (no offense). Those who are thinking about copy and paste strategy may quit reading this blog! Any further, you will find uninteresting.

For those who are willing to have original and unique content, you will find this post useful. For a post to be original, you must create your own story. Sorry! We are not doing a movie here. The story is the content subject. The subject matter of your blog must be original. It must be your thinking and observations than others. Think yourself as a story teller. Will your children listen keenly to the same story which they read last night? So create original stories for your readers.

Your blog story may be related to current trends, latest news regarding your niche content, any interview about the subjective matter of your blog. But it must be original. Remember, create your own story.

And second important factor in blogging is unique content. Your subjective matter of the blog must be unique. Unique writing in the sense it must distinguish from others. But this fact is somewhat abstract. Not only you, many fellow bloggers will blog about same subject matter. So to make a content unique, you must apply innovation. When some view or opinion are expressed regarding the subjective matter of your niche, you must apply your innovation to add crux to the discussion. Add fire to the fuel, your blog will be hot. Your content will be hot and will be become most sought blog on internet. Unique and original content is the secret of success.

When you are about to start a blog, keep these factors in mind. Blogging is not to pass time. It is valuable and make difference to life. Unique and Original content will take you to the online podium where you will be treated as celebrity.

Make Money from Internet

Best ad network for your blog to make money from internet

Did you ever wonder how make a blogging successful? As you would observe, most blogs are Wordpress blog hosted on Linux box. How do that webmaster could sustain hosting charges? That's where the ad networks come into play. If you have a blog which qualifies with unique content then ad networks are ready to play. This method reduce your burden on selecting best ads that are displayed in your blog as the better related ads are placed by the network. All we have to do is to provide a exclusive space for the display. Rest is taken care by the ad network.

See also: Effective and simple steps in marketing strategy 

Now comes the interesting part, which is the best ad network to start with. With all popularity, Google Adsense stand at podium. But reality is most websites, especially, blogs fail to get well with Adsense. Though Google Adsense be like godfather of ad network, you have alternative to get income from your blogs. 

For them who find difficulty to get into popular ad network may try infolinks. Infolinks approval is quite easy. Those who use any blogging platform like blogger, wordpress, drupal, joomla, integration would take less than a minute. 

Though it may take couple of days for the approval, you will not find any stringent conditions as we might find in other ad networks.

I was able to monetize my first blog within a week. The ads started flouting with an hour of approval. 

Sign up for an Infolink account today, start earning money through your blog.