{"id":6453,"date":"2010-06-07T16:37:35","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T16:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=6453"},"modified":"2010-06-07T16:37:35","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T16:37:35","slug":"online-visibility-13-ways-to-build-a-following","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/online-marketing\/online-visibility-13-ways-to-build-a-following\/","title":{"rendered":"Online visibility: 13 ways to build a following"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month’s guest blog post was written byJames Nissen. Last week, I shared\u00a0James’ pitch and wrote about How a guest blogger pitched me and made me say ‘yes’<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"james<\/a>By James Nissen<\/div>\n
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“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius<\/div>\n
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One of the greatest things about promoting a brand online today is how low the cost really is. \u00a0I have helped to market SecretintheDirt.com <\/a>over the past two years, and it has grown from a single ebook to a thriving golf community. \u00a0Over 8,000 golfers have now joined our community at Secret in the Dirt, despite having launched only two months ago. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Granted, we did have a strong buzz before the launch of the site, but the great part about this adventure was the fact that it cost us almost nothing to build the brand up to what it is today. \u00a0Allow me to use a clich\u00e9 metaphor, but one that I think applies to building your brand. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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I want you imagine that before you have a “brand,” your idea is just a bunch of car parts. \u00a0Everything you do to promote your idea is like adding a new part to the car. \u00a0At some point, you will have built the body of the car, the engine, put on the tires, added the interior, and checked all the wiring. \u00a0There is nothing left to do; the car is ready to run. \u00a0You will have maintenance from time to time, but the hardest part is over. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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At this point,\u00a0your brand can go places it never could go before when it was just a bunch of parts waiting to be used. \u00a0Your brand will never get that way if you expect it to run when you’re only halfway complete with the job. \u00a0So start building the car today. \u00a0Here are 13 cost-effective resources we used in building our brand online.<\/div>\n
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1. <\/strong>YouTube.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
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Our greatest asset in the beginning was a set of golf videos that Mike Maves aka “Sevam1” put together on YouTube. \u00a0A friend of his asked for some advice on golf, and he put the videos together simply to help his friend’s game improve. \u00a0The videos ending up attracting over 500,000 views in a short time and people began to talk about them. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Find a way to talk about your product or service in the form of a video, and put up as many videos as you can. \u00a0Other great videos sites include DailyMotion<\/a>, Vimeo<\/a>, Viddler<\/a> and Twitvid<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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2. Bloggers.
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\nMany people have blogs, but how focused are they? \u00a0How big of a following do they have? \u00a0How often do they update the blog?<\/div>\n
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I’ll never forget a quote I read by Jeremy Schoemaker from the very successful site ShoeMoney.com <\/a>that said he would continue to update his blog even if nobody read it. \u00a0You obviously want your followers to read it, but there is a tremendous power in that kind of mentality. \u00a0Other blogging services include WordPress<\/a>\u00a0and Tumblr.<\/div>\n
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3. Twitter.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Twitter has not brought the highest amount of traffic to our site of any source, but I still believe it should be part of the online arsenal.<\/div>\n
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Sites like Twitpic <\/a>and Twitvid<\/a> allow you to share pictures and videos with your Twitter followers, and it makes it easy to start conversations online with people who want to learn more about your brand. \u00a0You can even hold contests for your Twitter followers and keep them up to date on important changes to your website or business.<\/div>\n
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4. Niche Forums<\/strong><\/div>\n
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One of the biggest sources of buzz for the Secret in the Dirt ebook came from Golfwrx.com<\/a>, a forum devoted to talking about golf-related products and topics. \u00a0Mike posted in the forum constantly, answering questions about the YouTube videos and the golf swing. \u00a0I have seen forums in every conceivable niche, and if you can find one or two big ones relating to your company, posting to the forum regularly will go a long way in building up your credibility.
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5. Squidoo<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Seth Godin hit the nail on the head when he helped to create this site. \u00a0It\u00a0allows anyone to create a mini-site (called a “lens”) about any conceivable topic in a very short amount of time. \u00a0We used this site as an opportunity to create sites about golf and golf history, which in turn brings traffic back to our site. \u00a0Another site similar to Squidoo is HubPages<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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6. Facebook Fan Pages<\/a>
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These pages are great because they are indexed by Google, and people may find them just by doing searches about your topic. \u00a0They don’t allow for as much customization as a normal web page or blog, but with over 300 million users on Facebook, you can be sure there are many people who\u00a0will be interested in the products and services you offer. \u00a0They offer a great way to keep in touch with your loyal followers.<\/div>\n
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7. Simple Scripts<\/strong><\/div>\n
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At some point, you will have to invest in hosting for your website. \u00a0If you don’t hage hosting yet,\u00a0I recommend\u00a0a hosting service that uses Simple Scripts. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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It’s a\u00a0user interface that comes installed when you by hosting from Bluehost,<\/a> Hostgator<\/a>, and a few others. \u00a0The great thing about Simple Scripts is that with just a few clicks (literally), you can have your blog or website up and running, without having to worry about installing it yourself the hard way. \u00a0It makes it a lot less scary if you are new to the web. \u00a0You can also point as many domain names as you want to the same hosting plan (it’s around $100 a year).<\/div>\n
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8. EzineArticles.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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This service allows authors to submit articles on every topic imaginable, and is great for establishing credibility in your niche and getting your thoughts clear about your topic. We have seen thousands of people view our articles, and all of that traffic is free. \u00a0Other great services include ArticlesBase <\/a>and ArticleDashboard<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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9. Flickr<\/strong><\/div>\n
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If your niche involves art or pictures of some type, consider using Flickr. \u00a0It’s a\u00a0great service that allows you to create photo albums that you can share with others for free. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Even if your niche does not involve photography, posting photos from industry events and appearances is often great material to share with your loyal fans. \u00a0Another great photo site to use is Twitpic, which links up with your twitter account.<\/div>\n
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10. Google Analytics<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/div>\n
I can’t\u00a0speak highly enough of Google Analytics. \u00a0This is a free service that takes minutes to install onto your website or blog. \u00a0You can see where your traffic is coming from, how much traffic you had, how effective your affiliates are, what countries your visitors are coming from, how long they stay on each page, and a lot more. \u00a0Testing is critical to refining your website.<\/div>\n
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11. Cold-Emailing<\/strong><\/div>\n
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I was surprised to see\u00a0how many bloggers, radio talk show hosts and newspapers are hungry for good content. \u00a0Don’t be afraid to contact successful people in your niche and ask if you can write a guest post for their blog.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0BlogTalkRadio<\/a>\u00a0lets you\u00a0create your\u00a0own radio shows for free, and these talk show hosts always need new guests and experts to have on their show.<\/div>\n
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Last but not least, don’t\u00a0forget the almighty newspaper. \u00a0Contact the smaller ones in your town or neighborhood first, because\u00a0they like to highlight “local stories” and things going on in that part of town. \u00a0If you’re\u00a0giving a free seminar or making an appearance somewhere, odds are one of the writers would love to spotlight it.<\/div>\n
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12. Karma<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/div>\n
Aside from the fact that people enjoy getting things for free, it never hurts to have karma on your side. \u00a0When we launched the Secret in the Dirt E-Book, we gave away several chapters for free as a bonus for signing up to our email newsletter. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Posting videos and blogging regularly has the same effect. \u00a0Give people a chance to get to know you on a personal level, and make it a habit to answer questions emailed to you about your topic. \u00a0Give them some real value. \u00a0If what you say gets them hooked, they will be back for more.<\/div>\n
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13. Elance.com<\/strong> <\/a><\/div>\n
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When we ever ran into a problem that we could not solve ourselves, we used Elance. They have professionals who can help you out with logo design, banner ad design, web programming, blog layouts, troubleshooting, writing, video editing, and a lot more. \u00a0The turnaround time is pretty quick, and since professionals bid for jobs, you are sure to get the best price.<\/div>\n
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Even though\u00a0you now have the right tools, when you make a habit of using them day in and day out, you will start to see success. \u00a0It will feel like a slow climb at first, but that’s part of the journey, right? \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Take what applies to your business and throw the rest out. \u00a0Focus on one tool at a time, and build upon that. \u00a0Get creative, think outside of the box, take action, and add parts to your car. \u00a0It will be up and running before you know it.<\/div>\n
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James Nissen, head of marketing for SecretintheDirt.com, loves golf, espresso, and the outdoors.\u00a0He\u00a0also may be found reading the occasional book or playing guitar.\u00a0 He is a graduate of the University of Redlands with a degree in accounting.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month’s guest blog post was written byJames Nissen. Last week, I shared\u00a0James’ pitch and wrote about How a guest blogger pitched me and made me say ‘yes’ *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By James Nissen \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":8,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[641,695,619,216,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-6453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-online-marketing","7":"tag-flickr","8":"tag-get-more-facebook-likes","9":"tag-photos-graphics","10":"tag-video-marketing","11":"tag-writing-articles","12":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}