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Post by zonemom on Nov 14, 2014 15:31:36 GMT
How did I miss this conversation about giveaways!! I've been doing them for years and have gotten my system down to a science. I don't rely on them for traffic necessarily, though, but they have increased my social media following a great deal. simpleholisticgirl, I run my giveaways for 2 weeks unless I'm close to missing my deadline ;-). I use Rafflecopter to run them. People enter throughout the entire time period and typically come back toward the end for an extra push. I always make the mandatory entry easy to do--people don't like to jump through hoops. In fact, in the past year, I've made the only mandatory entry that they be a part of my community--this tells my followers that I like rewarding them and helps me get rid of most of the sweepers who could care less about my blog. I post my giveaways on online-sweepstakes.com and a few other larger boards. I send it out in my email newsletter and schedule promo messages on twitter and facebook, but I don't do many linkys because there's no way to automate them.
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Post by glamistahome on Nov 14, 2014 16:51:54 GMT
I love link ups as well and noticed that smaller linkup parties work better for me. Also, there is a number of link ups that focus on a particular topic so with a more targeted link party you might have more luck attracting readers. G+ is a little different to Facebook, which is great because on G+ people are focusing around the things they like instead of people they know. You might want to follow some Fitness Groups and organize your circles. You can always add and rename circles, switch people around your circles, meaning move from one to another and push your content to the particular circle. For example, you might have some people who you put into a food circle and other into fitness, if you have a post that is interesting to just one group you can push it to the appropriate circle without pressing the content on others who might be less interested.
Wow, I never realized that publishing your posts to certain circles is how you get more traffic to your blog! I always post mine to the public. I will definitely work on this moving forward! Thanks so much!
I would say creating specific circles and pushing your content that way targets the people who are really interested in your post. However, you can still push the post to different circles, you can have a public and fitness circle on one update. I believe if you push it to a particular circle the users in that circle get that number on the bell that someone shared with them.
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Post by Crystal@ Tidbits of Experience on Nov 14, 2014 17:11:03 GMT
Link ups, and groups on FB and G+ are awesome ways to generate traffic. Triberr is also great if you have a good strong tribe working with you in there. (Which, I am blessed with a few good ones.) Stumbleupon is my highest traffic generator by a long shot.
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Post by simpleholisticgirl on Nov 14, 2014 19:51:59 GMT
Thank you so much zonemom, girlonthemove, and glamistahome! This first giveaway was really as a favor in an interview guest post and not necessarily for traffic. The giveaway is her book. I didn't even ask for people to follow me as one of the methods to enter since they probably would care less what I had to say after the giveaway. Plus I know I want my following to be more organic versus forced. I don't even know how often I wold do giveaways, but I think it's a good practice for me to learn how to run them so they are successful. Who knows what opportunities I could get from this. All your advice was very helpful!
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Post by susanf on Nov 14, 2014 21:14:24 GMT
I think my traffic has been built primarily on the basis of commenting and interacting with other bloggers. If I have a few days when I am less social, I notice a drop in my page views.
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Post by OklahomaJamie on Nov 15, 2014 0:45:10 GMT
I would like to know how to properly set up Google analytics. I have it set up, I think...... but I don't really get any good stats showing when I look for them.
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Post by theruthlesscrafter on Nov 16, 2014 13:37:36 GMT
Is there a particular rhyme or reason to giveaways? Meaning how long should the giveaway be (you want to allow enough time to promote it of course). Do people have the ebay auction attitude, meaning do you find people may wait until the very last minute to enter hoping they are the only ones or do you find that they enter right away? I'm in the middle of doing my very first one now and not seeing much activity. I also am searching for giveaway link ups to post it. I am also hosting my first giveaway to promote my craft business I started officially in August. I'm busy but I could always be busier - crafting, not social media! LOL This was an invaluable resource for me about resources. It's a manual of "how to" and "why" for giveaways created by Rafflecopter (link below). Between that and the SITS girls Blog Mentoring week I've really educated myself and that is what made me decide to do a giveaway. learn.rafflecopter.com/?utm_source=intercom&utm_medium=email&utm_content=day1&utm_campaign=welcomeI entered your giveaway. Exciting prize - how did you partner to get a sponsored giveaway?
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Post by theruthlesscrafter on Nov 16, 2014 14:25:22 GMT
Depending on your blog niche, I would say look ahead 2-3 months, in fact, if you're posting 4-5 times a week, cut it back to 3 and spread them out until you're posting 2-3 months AHEAD, then you are prepared for holidsays, marathons, and cycles in YOUR niche! Great advice to do your posts a few months ahead. I'm at the beginning of my craft business blog and I need to either craft or post/work on my social media. It's hard to do both as I need crafts to create my posts! If I can start to use this holiday for next year that will definitely give me a good cache of items. Thank you.
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Post by simpleholisticgirl on Nov 17, 2014 15:21:21 GMT
Is there a particular rhyme or reason to giveaways? Meaning how long should the giveaway be (you want to allow enough time to promote it of course). Do people have the ebay auction attitude, meaning do you find people may wait until the very last minute to enter hoping they are the only ones or do you find that they enter right away? I'm in the middle of doing my very first one now and not seeing much activity. I also am searching for giveaway link ups to post it. I am also hosting my first giveaway to promote my craft business I started officially in August. I'm busy but I could always be busier - crafting, not social media! LOL This was an invaluable resource for me about resources. It's a manual of "how to" and "why" for giveaways created by Rafflecopter (link below). Between that and the SITS girls Blog Mentoring week I've really educated myself and that is what made me decide to do a giveaway. learn.rafflecopter.com/?utm_source=intercom&utm_medium=email&utm_content=day1&utm_campaign=welcomeI entered your giveaway. Exciting prize - how did you partner to get a sponsored giveaway? Thank you so much theruthlesscrafter! I actually got approached by the book promoter. I then went to the author's website to see what it was all about. The author and I then corresponded back and forth and decided on the interview and a giveaway. It's such a specific giveaway so I wasn't sure if it would be successful, but I went for it anyway. I would probably do more, but I just don't want to make it all I do.
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Post by mendedwheels on Nov 18, 2014 21:42:59 GMT
Depending on your blog niche, I would say look ahead 2-3 months, in fact, if you're posting 4-5 times a week, cut it back to 3 and spread them out until you're posting 2-3 months AHEAD, then you are prepared for holidsays, marathons, and cycles in YOUR niche! Great advice to do your posts a few months ahead. I'm at the beginning of my craft business blog and I need to either craft or post/work on my social media. It's hard to do both as I need crafts to create my posts! If I can start to use this holiday for next year that will definitely give me a good cache of items. Thank you. I hope it helps you out!
Remember, when you're doing HOW TO type of posts, you can always write it ahead of time. When I do that, it also help me make sure I have photos of the steps I NEED in the post to make 100% sure it makes sense. I can't tell you how many times I have forgotten to take crucial photos, or worse, the photo was horrid and had to go back and fake it.
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