September 6, 2011

How to Whore and/or Pimp Your Blog


About a month ago I wrote this post about how I felt like I was whoring myself all over the Internet for the sake of my blog. Upon reading this, someone (I could swear it was Jenn at Fox in the City, but I can't find the proof!) innocently suggested that I write a “how to” post all about whoring your blog, and essentially yourself, out to the world.

Warning:
I do not claim to be a professional in social media, networking, advertising or whoring. I simply aim to outline what I've learned about the whoring process. Most of this is dead on true, some may be exaggerated. You be the judge. The words “whoring” and “pimping” will be used interchangeably. Because really, what’s the difference?



* * * * *

Once upon a time there was a girl who did not blog. Then one day she decided to set one up. She hadn’t read many blogs before and didn’t have the first clue what she was doing, how to put herself out there so people might read what she wrote, or if she even wanted to.

The girl dabbled with blogging at first. Then got pretty serious with it, using her writing space to work on some issues (her tagline for awhile was “because blogging is cheaper than therapy!”).

Then one day in the Spring of 2011, after she had already been blogging for an entire YEAR, the girl’s little bloggy world opened wide up! It all began with the desire to share a knitting pattern with other knitters but she needed a place to post the pattern for these other knitters to find. Then it was the idea to set up an Etsy shop of the girl’s knitted items…

And then BAM! The girl realized she WANTED people to find her. To hear her and share with her. The next thing she knew she had discovered a blog called Things I Can't Say and joined in on her very first blog hop. From there the girl was whisked away into a new-to-her world full of blogs, comments, Twitter (#wineparty!) and social networking.

* * * * *



First and foremost us bloggers gotta stick together! There is so much to be learned from each other, and the purest bloggy love you can give and receive is commenting. Second and foremost is Twitter.

During #SummerBlogSocial I wrote about how I didn’t get Twitter for the longest time. Well that’s because I didn’t go there often enough to get the lay of the land. I was too enamored with Facebook, I guess. Coincidentally, I began getting bored with Facebook around the same time my blogging world opened up, so I was cool with giving Twitter a second chance.

The only problem with Twitter is that things happen fast and the attention span of tweeps isn’t real high things are easy to miss. So you have to tweet your post several times throughout the day in hopes that a bunch of your followers will actually see. Here is where a little thing called Triberr can help.

Triberr does this cool thing of autoMAGICally having all the other tweeps in your “tribe” tweet out your posts. Once you’re signed up, you don’t have to lift a finger. The only downside I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of review and giveaway blogs out there and I know some tweeps feel like those tweets get spammy (try saying that 3 times fast). I’m not talking about bloggers who do that sort of thing sometimes. I’m talking about the ones whose sole purpose is doing reviews and giveaways. There seems to be a line between love and hate where that’s concerned. Anyway, I know that Triberr has helped some people find my blog and for that I appreciate it. Besides, remember that bit I said about attention spans things happening fast on Twitter?

OK. So. Next I saw a news headline (on Twitter) that said StumbleUpon has exceeded Facebook in its users’ social networking reach. Someone “stumbles upon” something they think is cool, shares it, someone they know sees it and “stumbles” it, and so on and so forth. It’s really no different than Facebook or Twitter in that regard, but the key here is that StumbleUpon stumbles are being clicked on more often and reaching more people, apparently than “likes” and sharing on Facebook.

While all the blog conferencing was happening over the summer I also heard that LinkedIn is another tool that bloggers can use to show their more professional side. Because yes, you CAN be a professional blogger if you want to. Or, you can be semi-professional. You could also just dig on the swanky title LinkedIn gives you when you sign up as a blogger: Independent Internet Professional. Nice, right? For me, I like the idea of putting myself and my blog on LinkedIn because I do take my blogging seriously. It has become important to me. I love my blog. And yes, I am open to the perks opportunities it might bring my way.

Now here’s where some serious whoring comes in. There are these other sites you can join called Klout and Foursquare. Klout is exactly what it sounds like: a measurement of your social media influence. Now, the formula for this seems to be as secret as the Colonel’s original recipe. Mostly it seems to be for contributing to Twitter fun because the things Klout decides you’re influential about are sometimes suspect. My friend SG wrote a great post blasting Klout for their insensitivity. I mean, somehow I’m influential about “thriller”. WTF? I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that song nor MJ anywhere!

But you can’t help yourself. You will play along with Klout even if only you hope to one day have them recognize the things you feel you should be influential about. I have to admit, I’m pretty proud that both coffee and wine are on my list.

What?

Foursquare is my newest social media pimp. It’s like Facebook check-ins on steroids. I guess you earn little badges and can become a “mayor”. A mayor of what I have no idea. Like Klout, I’m pretty sure it is something you can take a little less seriously than the other things, yet it’s still a possible means of making connections that you otherwise wouldn’t.

You think I’m almost done, don’t you?

I have yet to mention all the blogger community sites out there. I probably don’t even know of all of them, but here are the ones I do know of:

And the ones I know of who want to help you get the perks of blogging:

I must point out, however, that the 2 blogger product review opportunities I’ve received so far have not come from the above. They have come from commenting on other blogs and simply making myself and my interests known. I got to sample and review wine (LOVE) and next up is digital scrap booking software. These are simply 2 things I talked about, and someone noticed.

I inadvertently whored myself. That’s gotta be a talent.

So let’s recap, shall we?

I think the whoring/pimping order should be:
  • Start your blog
  • Get on Twitter
  • Find other bloggers and blogs to follow
  • Participate in Hops and Memes
  • Comment and reply to comments
  • Make bloggy friends
  • Set up a Facebook fanpage
  • Get invited to join a Triberr tribe
  • Join StumbleUpon and stumble your own posts as well as other stuff you like
  • Make sure it’s easy for people to follow you with plenty of options right at the tippy-top of your sidebar
  • Sign up with LinkedIn
  • Participate in the silliness of Klout and Foursquare
  • Add your blog to every single blog directory and community you come across!

Oh, and lest I forget, keep up on your content as well. Because no matter how you whore your blog, if people come to it and don’t like what they see, they won’t stay.

People are fickle, really.

I suppose now you want a nice little package to wrap this all up in?

You’re in luck. I happen to have one.

It’s about.me.

Once you’ve set up profiles on every social/professional/fun networking site you can handle, your final step is to set up ONE MORE profile that links all your other profiles in one place!

I feel I may have overwhelmed you.  I have a solution for that too.  There's this great site called Eli | Rose Social Media where you can go to get guidance on all of this.

Phew!

That, my friends, is the blogger whoring and pimping process in a nutshell.

Now go. Go pay your pimping dues like a good little blogger.

And then go take a shower.



Disclaimer: This very informative post was written for the sole purpose of helping my fellow bloggers in their pimping pursuits. I am in no way affiliated with any of the websites I mentioned and linked to, nor have I been compensated for this post. I’m not THAT big of a whore! Sheesh, what do you take me for?





Only Parent Chronicles

10 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the info! I started my blog 2 months ago and have been trying to find out how to draw more traffic to it.

    http://southernbelle35.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. My head just exploded. Also? I think I'm having an anxiety attack. Will you be my blog manager?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have some tutorial guest posts scheduled the next few weeks on Klout and StumbleUpon. Also, if you search Twitter Lists at my place, you've find an in-depth how-to on using it to your advantage...

    If you're ever looking for help or pointers, shoot me an email. I have a deep pool of resources.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you - lots of great advice!!

    WM

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just got back from the insane asylum because my anxiety disorder so bad from reading this.

    seriously, about ago I did something stupid. I looked at my blog stats. Then I started whining on google+ (which I don't like) and twitter (which I do like) about after 14 months I was only at 75 hits a day. Several loyal friends/readers yelled at me and set me straight.

    I write every day and post every other day. I belong to many of those sites you listed. I remember every day taht I write for myself and if I get readers and commenters, then that's icing on a great tasting cake.

    Good post...

    Oh have you read this blog:

    http://lancemyblogcanbeatupyourblog.wordpress.com or this twitter account @TLanceB

    I'm a whore

    ReplyDelete
  6. Haha, Lance, got a kick out of that! Yo,peeps, you have GOT TO check out Lance's blog. Right N-O-W. He's the good kind of whore (not that there are bad whores, nope - just bad johns).

    ReplyDelete
  7. I jump on and fall off the blog-whoring bandwagon ALL.THE.TIME.

    I will pimp my blog like I'm crazy (I might be) and then stop. You can definitely tell a difference.

    I was on the fence about triberr. Triberr truly is what you make of it.

    Out of all social media, twitter is my favorite. Hands down.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can see why this post nearly drove you over the edge - that's a lot of information!

    I use Twitter, LinkedIn, and FB, and am finally starting to get the hang of StumbleUpon. I don't use Foursquare and really have no desire to. Likewise, I've found that you have to choose a few blogging communities that best suit you - I personally like BlogHer and SITS - but you probably won't be able to do them all.

    And that pretty much extends to the rest of blogging and social media too - you can't do it all. You can try, but you'll probably just burn yourself out in the process. Which only serves to negate the fun of blogging.

    Great tips, though! You gave people a lot of options to choose from. I stumbled this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Isn't it amazing how big the bloggy world really is once you get going? I actually stopped joining a lot of sites and links b/c I couldn't keep up anymore. My blog is growing slower now, but that's ok. This was a really good post. I'm going to tweet this.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great post! I have just found Twitter and found it so helpful in promoting my new blog.

    ReplyDelete