In life, your reputation is something you should hold dear. In the blogging realm, it could mean the difference between a well received blog and a clunker. Sometimes a bad reputation can breed success (usually in a niche market, see John Chow), but it can lead to death of your brand if not handled correctly.

How do you recover from a well-publicized reputation hit?

I have looked to one of my idols, Bear Grylls, and the way he and his team handled his reputation hit in order to showcase some tried and true methods to regaining the trust of your audience.

For those who do not know, Bear Grylls is the host of the television show Man vs Wild. He has an extraordinary list of accomplishments including being the youngest Briton to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest and survive the trip down. He is charismatic, dynamic, and is an excellent speaker. Originally, the premise of the show was that of a survival expert being placed difficult situations with a 5 day window to reach civilization. It made for outstanding drama, and great entertainment. Bear would showcase his exceptional survival skills in the face of what appeared to be grave danger. A camera crew would follow but according to the introduction, they were only instructed to help in life and death situations. It was staged to appear in real time, and in a documentary format.

It also was a little too good to be true. Reports started surfacing about the staging of events and the fact he would receive assistance while filming these episodes. He was branded a fraud, Discovery Channel pulled the show off the air, and he was bashed all over the blogging and talk show realms. His reputation had taken a serious hit, and while it was in my opinion unfair, the damage had been done.

The problem with being labeled dishonest or fraudulent is that almost all other aspects of you reputation are now considered non-valid, at least to those who do not invest the time to know the full story behind the label. Most of what happened to Bear he had no control over. He didn’t edit the show, he just did what was needed to make the show entertaining from his end. There was no dispute that he was putting himself in difficult situations, or that his skills at surviving were exceptional. People were more fixated, however, on the fact that this gorge he just scaled without a rope or climbing equipment was near civilization and not isolated as the shows editing made it appear. The focus on him doing extraordinary things was completely lost.

So rather than running from this whole situation, Bear Grylls and the those associated with the show did some proper damage control. All the previous shows were re-edited to make sure that events that were stage were disclosed. New voice over spots also helped explain to people that these situations are controlled and there are people standing by to assist if need be. Producers behind the show identified that although some events may have been staged, Bear’s exceptional way of selling the situations is what made the show entertaining. After some careful re-branding, the show is now more of a survival ‘how-to’ guide and Bear’s reputation has been restored. The show is more popular than ever.

As a blogger, what can I take from this story?

If you feel your reputation has taken a hit, the first thing that has to happen is you need to identify the problem and correct it. In Man Vs Wild’s case, the problem was the producers didn’t trust that Bear Grylls’ survival skills and visual storytelling would be enough of a selling point for the viewer. They decided the make the show seem more dramatic by creating the whole ‘trapped in the wild, needing to find civilization’ storyline. It backfired on them when it came to light some events were staged. They immediately took steps to correct this. If you are an excellent writer, trust your content and your ability to storytell.
While rebuilding your reputation you need to focus on the positives. While the way they branded the show at the beginning was misleading, the show itself was entertaining. When you have a good product, you can take the occasional hit. After the show was re-branded, more of an emphasis was placed on Bear and the things he does, and this made the show more successful than ever. The producers focused on the positive while handling the negative accordingly.

When I was moonlighting across America as a rock singer, I heard the same thing over and over again. All publicity is good publicity. That is not entirely true. Bad publicity can destroy your reputation. But if you carefully spin the bad publicity, you can use it as a boon to bring traffic or new readers to your blog.

One of the biggest crazes on the internet is how you can turn blogging in to your career. Many of you are attempting this, I know I have been. You can find so many resources that will tell you exactly how to turn that passion for writing into a lucrative and rewarding career.

It CAN be a lucrative career, but that isn’t what this post is about. Hit up Google and you can find out all about the career bloggers and their rise to financial security.

The main problem with career blogging is also the reason that so many people are attempting it. It is extremely easy to start a ‘business’ blog in an attempt to profit. Many services cater to the career blogger, and it has over saturated the marketplace. Finding a fresh and new voice in the blogging world is about as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. It doesn’t mean you cannot be that fresh voice, but the odds are stacked and they are not stacked in your favor.

As a writer, do you feel it is in your best interest to expand the reach of your writing?

What if you are a good writer, but feel that you are wasting your talents in a going nowhere blog?

Have you considered writing a book?

It seems a forgotten way to turn writing in to a career is to author a book. I say forgotten only because my writing experience has been limited to the internet. I bet many blog writers feel the same way. When I was a writing music for a living, I always felt my work was legitimized by producing a physical CD. Would I feel more like a ‘real’ writer if I published a book? I decided a month or so ago that I was going to research that, to see how I would like the challenge. Maybe this is another way to expand my writing and truly make writing a career? Like any good interweb user, I approached Google with a simple query:

“How do I write a book?”

The first listing that came up was actually insightful and beneficial to me. It was written by Scott Berkun and posted to his blog. He has some pretty straight forward advice when it comes to writing a book. After taking a little time to mull over if I did or didn’t want to write a book, I decided it was something I wanted to try. What do I have to lose?

So for the past three weeks I have been working on my first book, and it has nothing to do with AdSense, Blogging, Wordpress or how to generate a six figure income online. I have been using Wordpress on a non-public blog to write the book. Each post I make is a chapter, and it is very easy and comfortable because of the amount of time I spend blogging in general. I can go back, edit, and make changes at will, and it’s kept in order for me. The beauty of the book I am writing is that it’s chronological in a way, so using a blog format works. I am aware that I will have to convert everything into a publisher ready format, but the process appears to flow so far. Without knowledge of book publishing, however, I had to do a little research to find out what my options are. When I was in a band, It was difficult to land a record deal so many bands would self-publish their music on CD and then sell them at shows. I figured the same could be done for an aspiring author, but instead of playing shows, I could sell it online. You may call it a lack of self confidence or a lack of knowledge, but I feel it will be easier to self-publish than attempt to find a publisher, at least at this point.

After looking over about 100 self-publishing websites, I decided that Lulu.com was looking like the winner. They offer all types of publishing solutions, and it appears they have a one that will fit my book style and my budget. They let you create your project in a private or public setup, so you can go right to selling it online if you choose. I have set mine up as private because I am not ready to publish. I intend of finding someone to edit and proof read my book first, similar to how I rely on sound engineers to record and produce my music. Another good thing about this specific company is you can publish as few or as many as you’d like, so I intend on publishing a small amount first, just to see if I like the quality of the product.

When I get close to completion, I will post about it here and more than likely create a website specifically for the book. I am excited about this endeavor because I feel closer to that ultimate goal of being a self employed writer. Blogging is great for earning income, but I definitely feel I have moved some eggs to a different basket.

I am interested to find out how many blog writers have considered publishing books if they have not done so, and if they have, what are some good suggestions they could give an aspiring author such as myself.

I have heard there are two guarantees in life. I feel there are three.

1. Death.
2. Taxes.
3. You will write a bad and pointless blog post.

When I start out every blog post, I try to make it as witty, informative and interesting as I can. I spend a bit of time crafting it, proof reading it, and then I hit that little publish button. Later that day, I’ll come back hoping to see comments from fellow bloggers and readers about what they felt about my opinion. Sometimes, I will come back to the website and see a big fat zero in the comment section. Immediately, I think ‘Wow, everyone must be stupid except me!’

Then reality sets in.

The post I made just plain sucked. I can picture it now. Joe or Josephine Average opens up their RSS reader and clicks on the newest brilliant article from Man vs Blog. They read it, utter a quick ‘meh’, and wish they could get that 5 minutes back.

Don’t think it won’t happen to you. Trust me it will. I have pulled up articles from great bloggers such as Darren Rowse and thought ‘Ok, that was entirely a waste of time.’  Even the best writers can start with a great idea and have it go south. The key is to not get discouraged when this happens.

Readers will forgive the occasional bad post. Readers will not forgive a string of uninspired and worthless posts. If you look back at your most recent post and feel it isn’t your best work, don’t fret.

Just make sure the next post you have is up to your usual high standard.

Every so often, I don’t feel like typing out a blog post. I know what you are thinking, but it is true! Between my several websites and blogs I can easily suffer from keyboard mileage. I feel that way right now actually. If I don’t blog regularly, however, all the work I have put in to ‘professional’ blogs will quickly fade and my traffic will decrease. As it has been widely reported on over ten thousand blogs, traffic is the key to profiting on the web. I don’t plan on boring you by talking about that.
In addition to my professional blogs and websites, I maintain a personal blog. I post less frequently now because of my ‘web’ endeavors but it is still my preferred release of emotion.

In the case of keyboard mileage I usually ask myself a simple question. Why do I blog?

For me, there are a few variables. First and foremost I want to be an author. It has been a dream of mine for a long time. Blogging basically turns me in to a self publisher. I am opinionated and I seek a limelight. This probably stems from being able to command an audience from a stage. There is a certain thrill to knowing that I have a captive audience to basically say whatever I want to. I always try to make sure I have something relevant to say, but honestly, the attention is something I have always craved.

I like to blog because it lets me display my talent in writing. I know there are a million better writers than me out there, but I like to feel I can articulate better than some and usually have a straightforward and to the point way of discussing a topic. Some writers get intimidated because they will come across a writer who flat out blows their mind. Rather than be intimidated I tend to be inspired by them.

Another key reason I blog is because I feel I have something to share that may help people. That is the main reason I write songs as well. Obviously, people by nature seek attention and they seek emotional release. I would not spend time promoting my websites and blogs if I wasn’t looking for personal gain from them. It doesn’t mean I do not respect the art and medium however. Although I am looking to gain, I am also looking to share the knowledge. It was the same way in music. I would spend hours working on music that I had very personal attachment to. Once the song was written, however, it was all business. Just because I was working hard to make music a career didn’t mean I didn’t care when someone came up to me and said a song moved them. I cherish those moments.

Lastly, I can blog from anywhere. Before I started blogging, my main outlet was music. I would write song after song but it would take a long time to be able to publicly display those songs. On the web, it is almost instant gratification. I will post and within hours I will get feedback from various sources. That, in turn, helps me become a better blogger.

When people come up to me and say that I only blog for personal gain, all I can really say is “yes I do.” I hope that my writing will eventually lead me away from my current job. At times like that I am reminded of a something a great musician once told me.

If you are in it strictly for the music, then write and sing songs for your dog in your basement. If you are in it for the music and the ability to try to earn a living, take it public. -Matt Wydra

After going through the reasons in my head why I blog to begin with, I usually feel inspired to write and try to make my next post relevant and important.

Why do you blog?

When I am in the mood for a laugh, I look back at my music career and listen to my old songs. I can hear the very obvious changes in my voice, but many people cannot. Here are links to three songs I have written at three different points in my career. Can you hear the difference?

Thank You For Dancing - 2001 [LINK]

Alone in A Corridor - 2005 [LINK]

On and On - 2008 [LINK]

Naturally, I feel that the last song is my strongest. 7 years of vocal progression have given my voice a more soulful delivery. Singing a song like On and On would have been impossible in 2001. How does this relate to what I am doing now in blogging?

Often times, people will jump right in to blogging before clearly identifying their voice. I know I did. The first mistake I made was not knowing exactly what I wanted to talk about. Initially, I started writing a column based blog. Then, like a lot of people, I became obsessed with the notion that I could easily make six figures blogging about how to make money blogging. The latter was extremely boring and tedious. My final progression has been to focus more on my experience, which is songwriting and music business, and how it can relate to blogging in general. This topic seems to be the easiest and most enjoyable for me to write about.

Although the progression only took about 8 months, I have landed at a place in which I feel happy and comfortable blogging on a regular basis. I also feel that what I contribute now is meaningful and worthwhile to someone, although obviously not everyone. I anticipate my blogging voice will continue to develop over time. Just as with singing, maybe in 5 years I will have a more soulful delivery.

If you are struggling with your voice, there are things you can try to help you figure out what is needed. Something I always did while writing a song was to ask myself what the song was about as a whole. Not specific lyrics or direct subject matter, but the broad overview of the song. When you figure out the broad subject matter, it becomes much easier to identify how to deliver the direct subject matter. Suppose you decide you want to create a make money blog. You can take the overall subject matter and strip it down to a way you feel comfortable delivering it. For example, maybe you want to focus specifically on affiliate programs. Once you streamline the overwhelming part of starting a blog, it is much easier to identify where you fit in and how to use your voice.

When I was struggling with a song, I would often shelve it for a fresh idea. If your current blog isn’t working the way you want it, try something new. If the original idea was good enough, you will find your way back to it with a fresh approach and attitude. I just finished a song that I wrote music to way back in 2004! Sometimes, an idea just needs to simmer for a while.

Writing a blog should be fun, but don’t be discouraged if at times it feels like work. This is part of the process of identifying what makes you tick as a blogger. When a blog feels like 100 percent work and 0 percent fun, that may be the time for you to look for a different part of your voice.

What challenges have you come across when establishing your voice?

Almost every day (occasionally I’ll take a break), I will spend a good solid hour or so at my RSS reader looking at posts from fellow bloggers. A post by David Kam at the MarketingDeviant caught my eye, and got me thinking about the importance of storytelling in marketing. Here is a bit of that post.

“Marketing is like storytelling where you are the storyteller. The story you tell gradually builds up throughout the years. The story becomes stronger as people talk about it as many people will grow fond of it. The better the storyline, the better it will be remembered by the people. If the people remember your story they will remember your business.” -David Kam

  Some of the best advice I received early on in music was make sure the song you write tells a story. It really didn’t matter what the story is, but people have to be able to relate to it.

After reading David’s post, I started thinking about how important that is in blogging. How important your storytelling is to building your brand and establishing your voice in an overcrowded marketplace.

Maki at Dosh Dosh is my favorite example of excellent storytelling in a niche blog. Early on, he set himself apart with excellent writing, a creative thought process, and a little bit of flair. People remember him and his business, because his posts and advice have a little something extra that you do not find in many blogs. It is easy to forget he has only been at this a little over a year! Amazing. Another writer I truly love is Ben Cook, the former author of the Blogging Experiment. Once again, he is another author in the make money online genre of websites. It would be easy for him to get lost in the crowd. He built a loyal readership with intelligent and a sometimes unorthodox writing style that kept the reader well informed and entertained. Unless you are John Chow or you come up with some clever gimmick, the only way to succeed in blogging is to make sure your storytelling is on point, no matter what your genre is.

The blogging world has exploded in the past couple of years, and so have the amount of people trying to capitalize financially from their blog. One of the best things about Wordpress is that you can make it artistic, but still flexible enough for proper advertisement placement if that is what you are into. I run a few ad friendly websites and before I got a firm grasp on how to use Wordpress, it was essential that I found an already setup ad friendly theme.

Before reaching that point you should make sure if monetizing is right for you.

Below are some of my favorites. These are all free unless otherwise noted.

Prosense by Dosh Dosh and The Wrong Advices:

Prosense is a theme with decent ad blending while allowing the maximum amount of space to be dedicated to the ads. Judging by the name, you could guess that it is specifically geared toward Google AdSense ads, which as you know, may or may not be your preferable choice of monetizing. It has nice steamlined look, and a slick RSS feed icon in the top right to encourage subscribtion. It comes in simple gray and blue color schemes, but if you have a little knowledge of coding, you could easy change the scheme to your personal preference. Prosense is free, and can be downloaded directly from Dosh Dosh or the Wrong Advices.

Acosmin Monetized Theme:

Right out of the box, this three column theme has in place the code for advertisements. They do a good job within the code of explaining which box is set up for which type of ad. Along the left sidebar column there is placement for up to four 125 x 125px ads. This is excellent for selling those spaces because it is very high profile. On the right side bar is a perfectly placed 300 x 250px space for Google Adsense. It is excellent for CTR and, if you content is crawled correctly, will display excellent ads for your site. In the header, there is a spot dedicated for a 468×60 ad banner. If your website is generating decent traffic, this will be a highly lucrative spot.

The color scheme is very professional, it is a smooth grey and very earth tones. The layout features a lot of nice icons and rounded corners. The blog is highly monetized but it really doesn’t feel like it. When you click on individual blog posts, it keeps the same format without adding any additional Adsense ads. This is a good feel for those who want to have a nice website without looking too Adsense dependent.

Green Money Theme:

The Green Money theme was created by the folks over at EzMoneyOn.Net. I do like this layout a lot, it has a nice Pro Blogger feel without trying too hard to be overly monetized. It is easily customizable and a new blogger could configure this quickly and efficiently.

Blix Krieg Monetized Theme:

Although the Blix theme (a popular theme a few year back) was abandoned, it has been brought back as a monetized theme. The author even lists the reasons why you should use the theme. He makes several great points about not trying to make millions using AdSense but using a theme that can at least cover costs. The layout is nice, familiar and not overly complicated. This is an excellent choice for a monetized theme.

Monetizing the Web theme:

This theme is offered from the website, Monetizing The Web. Pretty simple and straight forward. It is a little more advanced for those who will be selling 125 box style ads as well. One of the great things about this theme is they offer it in 17 different color schemes. This might not seem like a big deal to you, but it is definitely nice to be able to change colors without having to know much HTML, especially if you are new to the web and blog world.

Bluesense AdSense Ready Theme:

Maki at Dosh Dosh, who helped bring the world ProSense, also has another theme called BlueSense. I do not like this one as much as ProSense, but it will definitely get you excellent click through rates. Decent color scheme and great ad blending.

AdSense Ready Theme:

Jason Golod created his own AdSense ready theme. It is simple and straight forward, with one 250 pixel tower slot built in. With additional customization, you could make this even more AdSense ready.

Slick Blue Theme:

This theme comes from the folks over at HackWordPress. It is a very slick theme, no pun intended. The authors have placed a nice arrangement of 125 x 125 banners, it is SEO friendly, and it is Adsense (BidVertiser ect) ready. Another great function is it already has the social networking buttons in place so you do not need to fuss with any code.

Connections With Adsense Theme:

Connections with AdSense is a theme created by the folks at MoreEarnings.Com. A nice layout which maximizes your blog with 3 AdSense blocks on the main page, and 3 blocks on the single post page. This layout is also very SEO friendly.

Simple AdSense Theme from Themey:

The dull gray color scheme is designed so that eyes are automatically drawn towards the adverts (in this case Google’s AdSense, although it is pretty straightforward to change them for Yahoo! ads or others as they are industry standard sizes). 3 ad units and 1 link unit are shown on each page, which is Google’s maximum allowable. In addition, AdSense for search has been used to replace Wordpress’ inbuilt search function. The theme is intentionally basic with no images used. This makes it quick and easy to apply to any blog or site that is using Wordpress as a CMS.

CSS Gallery Theme:

This is a popular theme, as you can tell by the amount of times it was commented and complimented. A CSS Gallery Wordpress theme for webmasters who want to build CSS showcase or web gallery. Packed with built in Tagging, Google ads and a sidebar block with 125 x 125 banner ads. Theme is valid XHTML 1.0 transitional and valid CSS! This is sort of a niche theme but it works well and has great ad placements.

WP Premium Theme:

This is an elegant theme, not to heavy on monetization. Works great and looks ever better!

In this post, I used suggestions and links from other prominent blogs and posts. I will link those here as well, so you can see their posts. Some of them are extremely comprehensive.

http://hackwordpress.com/125×125-button-ready-wordpress-themes-gallery/ - Excellent post showcasing graphical based Ad ready themes.

http://www.doshdosh.com/16-adsense-optimized-wordpress-themes-to-maximize-your-contextual-ad-earnings - Maki over at Dosh Dosh always has great posts. This one is no exception. In fact, it was the first one I stumbled upon when I was searching for monetized themes last year.

http://mashable.com/2008/04/29/monetizing-wordpress-11-sources-for-ad-ready-wordpress-themes/ - Mashable is a great resource for a lot of blog related information. This post is excellent as well.

Today I will be starting a weekly series which I call Applied to Blogging. Each week, I will be profiling a superstar and how their work ethic and skills can be translated to blogging and generating profit off of your blog. Today I will be focusing on one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, Michael Jordan, and how he overcame adversity to become the one of the most famous and decorated athletes.

Everyone comes from a meager background.

Michael Jordan grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina and by no means was a standout. He was basically just another kid. His family wasn’t poor but of a modest background, and Michael was a middle child. No one could have predicated such greatness. Every professional blogger comes from a similar background. The stories might be different, but no one is born a professional blogger. Don’t be discouraged if your blog doesn’t attract traffic right off the bat. Every single blog and blogger has been in that position.

You still need the natural talent and tools to succeed.

There is a famous story that has been told countless times about Michael. As a sophomore in high school, he was cut from the basketball team during tryouts. He then worked twice as hard during the summer to enhance his skill and made the team the following year. Television networks always tried to make this story about Michael’s hard work and sheer will to make it. They said it predicted his future greatness. While part of that is true, they usually omit the main reason he was cut from the team. Michael was a 5 foot 11 inch sophomore. He wasn’t tall enough to make an impact at the varsity level. Over the next 12 months, Michael shot up an additional 4 inches and was now tall enough to compete. If you are attempting to complete in the blogging world, you must have the natural talent to succeed. Everyone can improve, but if you do not have natural talent for writing and promoting yourself, you might want to look for another way express yourself.

Ask for help when needed.

When Michael came out of college as the number 3 pick in the NBA draft, they expected him to be good. They didn’t know he would be great right off the bat. But he was shunned as a rookie all-star by those who felt he was being praised too heavily. He continued to put up gaudy stats but his teams toiled in mediocrity. It wasn’t until he received help that he was able to raise his team to a championship level. There is no harm in asking for help. If you need assistance with a post, or an idea, ask you fellow bloggers for help. They will be more than happy to oblige!

Don’t stop at one goal and be determined.

When the Bulls won their first title in 1991, they said it redeemed Michael’s career and placed him among the best ever. So what does Michael set out to do? He wins 5 more. He cemented his place in history by staying fiercely determined. Even if you reach your first goal, make new ones and strive to make your own place in history!

I saw a posting on Flimjo doing a weekly recap of what was discussed on the blog the previous week. I liked the concept a lot. It was a good way to put everything all in one tidy post, and give love to those who have commented this week. I like the concept so I will be giving it a shot to see if it is worthwhile or not for the reader. Let me know your thoughts.

This week was a slower week in general as I was putting more effort in to a new layout at Review Chicago. For those who don’t know, Review Chicago is my newest website. It is dedicated to my hometown of Chicago, and I intend to make it a contributor based website. If you know anyone who lives in Chicago and would like to contribute, email me!

Sunday, April 20th I posted at length on how I use Facebook to promote a website or a blog. There are several tips included within the post, including simple instructions to creating a Facebook application.

On Monday, I discussed using alternative methods to drive traffic to your website. This is part one of a three part post. The other two parts will follow this week. In an additional post, I talked about Max Davis at the Blogging Experiment and a class he is offering on buying and selling websites.

On Wednesday, I authored an article on how to use Twitter to promote a blog. It sparked up some intresting dialogue in the comment portion.

Top Commentators This Week:

On Cath Lawson’s blog, there was an excellent guest post by Tim Brownson discussing whether or not one is a leader or one is a follower. It was a well written article and because of it I subscribed to his blog.

Diane wasn’t really active this week, but her blog is an excellent read. Check it out here.

James Mann posted a good column about focusing and taking care of business. His blog is one of those how to make money blogs, but he offers some good advice. Read and see for yourself.

Highlights from the big boys (or girls):

Darren at Pro Blogger has a great post on staying accessible to your readers even after your blog becomes more popular. He practices what he preaches, he is the biggest blogger ever to respond to an email I had sent. Some of the others have not. Caroline Middlebrook has a great new course on using StumbleUpon to drive traffic. Check it out here.

Upcoming this week:

This week I have a slew of posts coming out. I am starting a new weekly series profiling inspirational people and how their life stories can be applied to your blogging techniques. The first one is on Michael Jordan and will come out tomorrow. I also have a new wordpress theme review, this one on the Mimbo theme and a post on using timestamps effectively.

I intend to be more active here in the coming weeks, I have hit a lull with some of my other sites.

Cheers!

Last week, I started reading more on how you can drive traffic to your website using Twitter. Several bloggers that I read use Twitter daily to help find new readers and meet new people. I really didn’t grasp it at first, but I definitely got sucked in to Twitter quickly.

For those who don’t know the Twitter factor, I will drop a few stats on you.

Last week, I started actively using Twitter. Not really to drive traffic to my site, but to find new blogs that I could personally read and start following.  Immediately, I noticed a huge traffic spike to the blog. So I decided to look into it a little further.

• Since I started actively using Twitter (last week), I have increased my RSS subscribers by 32. This isn’t an unheard of increase, but I know that most of those new readers should stay around awhile.
• My website views have increased by almost 300 hits a day. Once again, if you are a large blog, that might not seem like much. But for an upstart, that is quite a bit of traffic inflow.

Those are just the raw traffic numbers from the website. What I wasn’t expecting were the tons of compliments via Twitter, users going to my band websites from my About page and complimenting my music, and meeting several people who I have since had nice and meaningful conversations with. I have also found many, many new blogs which I have subscribed to and read daily.

So, how did I do it?

These are the steps I went through in order to build the traffic and increase my followers. There are a few people who look at these types of methods as spamming, but they key to it is to NOT spam, and use your newfound connections properly. I have yet to post a link in a tweet (which is a message) attempting to drive traffic to the website. I may from time to time, but this method works to build a grassroots following similar to how I used to promote my band on MySpace.  When I promoted my music on MySpace, I would find a similar artist to my music. I would go through and then attempt to add their friends and message them. The mindset was ‘If they like this artist, there is a better chance they would like my music than if I picked a random person off the street.’ Instead of spamming them, I would message them personally and ask them to check out my music. It worked well, until people took advantage of it and start spamming relentlessly. So far, I have found that not to be the case on Twitter. Here are the steps.

1. Make sure you profile has up to date links. I made sure that the blog I wanted people to go to was the first link on the profile. In the biography section of the Twitter profile, I added a link to the websites About page. This way if people wanted to find out about me, it would take them to my blog. (Keep in mind, I do not have advertisements on my site, I am more interested in sending them to the website so they can see what I write about, and if they like the content, will add my site to their RSS reader. However, if you are displaying ads, this is a good way to increase hits and traffic)
2. Find someone with a similar business or blog and attempt to add their followers. It seems pretty simple and it works fast. In my example, I immediately cruised over to the profile of Maki from DoshDosh. He has a wonderful social media blog, his writing is top notch, and I like his overall style. I went one by one and added every single follower. You can do it faster than you ever could add a MySpace friend. After I had added all his followers, I went to a few more profiles and added similar followers. My thinking is if someone is following another blog, they quite possibly could be interested in following my blog.
3. Download and install an application to help manage Twitter. I personally use Twhirl. It helps me manage replies and messages in a chat like setup. It is great for responding to messages.
4. Respond to every single message and tweet. You will get a fair amount of backlash from adding people so fast. The reason is because many assume that you will just be spamming them. Take interest and respond the messages. You will ease their mind and if they like your content and tweets, they may become a reader.
5. Don’t spam incessantly. One thing I have noticed, is the people who spam get removed very fast. So if you intend on building long lasting relationships and not just quick traffic spikes, make sure not to spam.
6. Give back as well as take. You will have an opportunity to meet a wonderful community and find many new friends and blogs. Make sure you give traffic and subscriptions back. I assure you that you will find something you’ll love.

I hope this continues and I am able to grow more relationships with bloggers!