By
Lance Trebesch |
Lance Trebesch, CEO of
TicketPrinting.com, has a
successful 18 year track record of technology and early-stage
experience. TicketPrinting.com is a member of The Music Office
Trusted Vendors and we highly recommend his products and services.
TicketPrinting.com is the leader in affordable online ticket
printing for small-to-medium size organizations, companies, venues,
non-profits, schools, associations, and clubs. Over the past 10
years, TicketPrinting.com has designed and printed millions of tickets
for thousands of events, fundraisers, performances, concerts, plays,
sporting events, raffles, parties and more. TicketPrinting.com has
hundreds of ticket templates – just put in your event or raffle
information and we print and ship in 24 hour. Or, our Design-Your-Own
ticket online tool enables you to customize your ticket. |
This is part two of
how to build a successful blog. Part one talks about setting up the blog
in the right format to gain reader interest. Part two discusses about
more promotion techniques and how to keep your readers.
-
Ask people to
subscribe.
RSS feeds allow users to subscribe to your blog and receive an
update when you add new blogs. This makes it convenient for readers so
they do not need to check for blog updates. An alternative is to send
the updated blog through email, so having both an email subscription and
a RSS feed is necessary. Also, make the sign-up process simple and
prominent. Display the RSS button everywhere and occasionally mention
it in your posts to sign-up. The simpler the process to sign-up, the
more chance the reader will go through with the process.
-
Offer a bribe to
sign-up.
Take an example for Marketing Pilgrim, by offering a
$600 cash giveaway by signing-up for a RSS feed. The code to
register for the money is in an RSS-only message. Receiving $600 free
is pretty convincing to sign-up. Other options to get people to sign up
are free e-books related to your topic (“How to Get a Record Deal”), or
send a personalized autographed picture of you or the band to those who
sign-up.
-
Comment on forums.
Comment on blogs. Comment on chats. And comment by providing a link
back your blog. By injecting your opinion and showing your personality
through these comments, people will notice you and want to find out
more. Make sure the comments are meaningful and not just some form of
spam to create a link back to you. People appreciate when an expert
adds their knowledge, so write truthful comments that will help the
audience. Comments are the biggest promotion of your blog in the
beginning months of the blog.
-
Leave blogs open
for discussion.
If compiling a list, ask for comments to add their suggestions for the
list. The
5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) blog by Influential
Marketing Blog became instantly popular by people linking to it, posting
comments and recommending the blog. After writing a general blog that
does not include a list, ask a question at the end to encourage comments
and blog discussion. The more, interesting discussion, the more people
will link to your blog, promoting it.
-
Respond to
comments.
Read your comments daily and respond when someone asks a question to you
through the comments. Once you start getting a steady reader base that
begins posting comments, do not discourage them by never responding
back. Respond rapidly to make your reader happy.
-
Start a podcast.
A
podcast is a great way to promote both your blog and your music.
Podcasts are an audio blog, but you should not update it as often as
your blogs (unless you just want to run an audio blog exclusively). On
the podcast, talk about interesting subjects related to your blog and
mention your music often. Play a fraction of your music just prior to
and just after your podcast, promoting both your music and your blog.
-
Invite guest
bloggers.
Be a guest blogger. Your blog gains interest if you occasionally
– monthly, quarterly – invite guest bloggers to write. Your business
pals become a good place to start when thinking about guest bloggers.
The guests then feel flattered by your interest in them and in return
promote your blog or music. On the other hand, ask your business
friends to guest blog for them, which immensely promotes your music or
blog through their site. Whenever you get an opportunity to guest blog,
take it.
-
Add videos,
pictures, MP3s, etc.
Just having words on every blog gets boring. Perk reader’s interest by
putting a funny YouTube video in your blog, adding a unique MP3 or
taking a snapshot of the website you mention in the blog. Any item out
of the norm to create a change will boost your blog’s appeal. Every
once in awhile, make your blog a video-blog through YouTube where you
narrate the blog (and act as well). You can also create a
music video for you or the band and advertise it through your blog.
-
Use tracking
software and analyze.
Find out how many people are visiting your blogs and which ones generate
the most traffic. You should re-create titles and content that receives
many views. The tracking software can also tell you how people are
hearing about your blog, through Digg, Google, etc. It can give you a
great insight on your viewers and many other marketing hints if you are
creative.
-
Build a brand.
You want people to recognize your blog as an object, not just another
blog. Make your blog worthwhile to the reader. Promote the blog with
any sources you have. Tell your friends, family and strangers about
it. On your website, promote your blog and on your blog promote your
website. Do the same with social networking sites, YouTube videos,
podcasts, live performances, etc. By marketing in a bunch of different
places, you spread your name and have more sources to promote your blog
and music.
Your blog will only
see success if you follow all these steps and promote it as often as
possible. Blogging takes a lot of dedication but pays off in the end with
increased music sales. Never stop blogging and remember, you are writing
for your audience.
By Lance Trebesch
lance@ticketprinting.com
www.TicketPrinting.com |
