How to Use MicroBlogging to Increase Your Profits
Are you wondering how to use microblogging to increase your profits? First of all, this concept for me isn’t really about the money - not entirely. I do look at it as a good way to promote my blogs, websites, lenses, and other we 2.0 profiles. But, I thought I’d explore the concept about using microblogging to help us all make more money online.
I’ve been a member of twitter since last summer at around this time. I now have over 1000 tweets and over 200 followers. It’s been a productive year so far. And lately, some of my twitter followers have been tweeting about Plurk - which I’ve come to think of as a site that’s similar to twitter, but with it’s own twists. Those are the only two sites I use for the moment.
What is Microblogging?
MicroBlogging is a form of social networking. People make short updates of around 140 characters throughout the day. You find “followers”, “friends”, and “fans” depending on the site you use. When I first signed up for twitter, my first thought was - why would people care about what I’m doing? When I realized that you could make it fun as well as professional, everyone wins.
Use It to Get Traffic
My top use for microblogging is to use it to help me get traffic. When I write another blog post, I have a routine. I ping it, announce that I wrote it on twitter and plurk, and then stumble and digg it if I think it was particularly good. But of those, microblogging has been the most valuable. The traffic I get from Stumbleupon is a little fleeting. The visitors don’t seem to stay as long, and they rarely comment. The visitors I get from plurk and twitter hang around longer, read the articles, comment, and they’re likely to come back. I do a similar thing for my hubs and squidoo lenses.
Putting Affiliate Links in Your Updates
I’ve heard that some people put the affiliate links they are promoting directly into their updates. I’ve heard of people doing it. I’ve even tried it once or twice - with no results at all. I personally think the best method is to write an article or a blog post about the affiliate product and paste the affiliate link within it. Then, once it’s published, include the link to the blog post or article, not the link. I think it’s a little tacky and unprofessional to put the affiliate URL directly into the updates.
Meet New People
Another valuable thing that microblogging has done for me is help me meet new people - colleagues. As someone who works from home, I miss out on the benefits of conversing and meeting people “at work”. Well, I’ve heard people call these spots a nice “water cooler” and I feel as if that’s accurate, at least when it comes to the social aspect.
If I’m feeling stuck on something, I spend some time on one of the two sites (or both). If I need to ask people a question on what I’m stuck on, such as installing a template or figuring out something else on my blog, I’ll ask my friends on the site. After you build relationships, the people are more likely to respond to you when you share a link, ask someone to stumble or digg your latest article, etc.
What is it that you like the most about twitter, plurk, or any of the other microblogging sites?
Jul 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 am
I love the community aspect of Plurk. Twitter is less community focused and I always found it hard to converse there. You were either in the loop or had no idea what the loop was to begin with.
With Plurk you build a steady connection with people who know people. If you Plurk something that catches on they’ll share it with their friends via a rePlurk. In this way the potential for traffic growth is huge.
Of course, for the money making aspect, it all comes down to your content. If you’ve got your blog entries well monotized, targeting the right audience, etc. Then ultimately, more hits will mean more conversions which is were money making happens.
Jul 3rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Well said Rebecca! Thanks for stopping in.
I agree, if you have good content to begin with, microblogging sites like plurk will help further that because of word of mouth.