Comment on other blogs

Commenting on other blogs is very beneficial to drive traffic to your blog.  Many blogs allow you to leave your website when you comment so in turn, you are getting your name out there.  

First, google blogs that are in the same niche.  Google other weight loss blogs, health blogs, home based business blogs and so forth.  Find some recent posts and start commenting.  Some blogs have a comment luv plug-in that shows your last blog post after your comment.  Those blogs are awesome (http://losingthisweight.com is one of them!)

Now, when you comment don't say things like "good post", "very informative" or one sentence comments.  Actually add something to the post or applaud the writer's ability to get their message across the blogosphere.  A good comment would be something like this (don't copy and paste this comment because it really depends on the post you are commenting on):

I really enjoyed reading this post.  I would also add (add in your suggestions to the post). 

Don't sound spammy and don't put your website or business site in the comment box.  When you comment it will give you the option of leaving your website.  You can leave your blog or company website.  I suggest leaving your blog so that people visiting your blog from that post will see an actual person behind the comment and not just a company website.

Join Forums for weight loss

If you are just now coming to this blog, start from the beginning.  Look over to the right sidebar and the bottom post is the first one.   Read from there up.

Since you are blogging about a weight loss product, your traffic will come mostly from those who want to lose weight.  Join some weight loss forums!

All you have to do is google weight loss forums, weight loss groups, weight loss communities and the like.  Join and in your signature, put your blog address.  You can also put your Body by Vi site address but I like to just put my blog address in there so they will learn about the product from an actual person instead of a website.  They will also see your results on the product and get to know the person behind the product and blog which makes it personal.  Remember I said, keep it personal!

Start answering questions and make yourself an expert in weight loss.  Don't just promote the Body by Vi challenge but answer general questions and talk about your experiences as well.  If you spam the community, you may get banned.  You don't want that!  Follow the rules and make some friends!

Now go, join forums!

Using Stumbleupon for traffic

Why Stumble is Good For you: It can bring you traffic and you can make some moola! Also I think it's a great selling point for a review. You can stumble it and it has the potential to bring more eyes on the product! I have done it with some of my older reviews, just to have something to stumble. Why the heck not! Now I've never had a viral post. The most I've gotten from one of my own stumbled posts was around 4.5k but I'll take it! 

How to Stumble. Just download the toolbar. Go to a blog or even a site anywhere. You like it? Well click the "I Like it" Button. If you are the first to like it you must discover it. Click yes it's safe for work if it is, than choose a category. Than write in some tags. I would take the same tags as there are category. And some outside of the box.

So lets say we are stumbling a Recipe post. Category would be Food-Cooking, and than tags I would put recipe, food ,cooking. Leave a simple review. Do not just repeat what the title of the post was. Just go like Oh yum that looks delicious! I need to make that soon. People can read the title of the post.. they don't need you to just keep repeating it in the review section. When you do discover YOU MUST LEAVE A REVIEW. 

SO LEAVE A REVIEW AND SET A CATEGORY! Please please please.

BOMBSHELL: Stop doing the Stumble Thread. I really don't think it's help the majority of you. My idea, make sure that whomever you are following, that you checked that you can share via the toolbar. And instead of having a thread just share that post after YOU have stumbled it with other MDers and they will thumbs it up. I think just going down the line isn't working for most of us. I don't do the thread anymore cause some of the posts I just don't think are going to do too good.

CONTENT: If you want a killer stumble, your most likely not going to get it on a post of your family about how they are not eating. I don't think the Parenting/Family category does not do that well. But that's just me. I see what does well and what doesn't. Personal content is really hard to get good traffic on.

Recipes do well. Movies, TV, Music, Video Games, Crafts, Photography, an Humor. Those I have seen do really well. I personally spend a lot of time in the Photography category.

NO GIVEAWAYS! I tend to stay away from Gift Guides too cause I don't think they are going to do good in a few months when it's not Father's Day anymore. But that's just me.

STUMBLE MORE! Just get to using that toolbar and stumble. Not just the people from this forum. EVERYWHERE! I use it on my iPad and do it at night while relaxing on the couch... cooking dinner I'm also stumbling. You need to get your favorites up, which you get my using the like button. 

You need more followers: The more followers you have the more whatever you like or discover will get accessed by more people. And if they end up liking it it'll go further. The sky is the limit but you need followers.

TIME: Time is important. Early morning during rush hour.. people are stumbling. Or anywhere from about 4-10pm I think do well. People are home from work and relaxing. Do your stumbling than. It has a better chance of taking off.

If you want a post stumbled... DISCOVER IT YOURSELF. People mess up the categories... all of the time. And can kill the stumble.

Join Blogging Communities

Blogging communities are forums or groups where you can learn a lot of things from master bloggers.  This will also give you a chance to drive traffic to your blog.  Everyone can be a prospect, even other bloggers.

There are blogging groups on facebook you can search for.  Some of my favorite blogging communities are:

Mom Bloggers Club
Blogging groups on Cafemom.com

There are tons more, you just have to search for them.  Do a good search for "blogging community" or "blogging group" and you will find many to choose from.  There may even be weight loss blogging communities or groups.

Once you become a part of the blogging community, do not spam their board or group with your business.  Show off your BLOG and ask for suggestions and help.  This will open up them to your product without you even being obvious.  And take their tips and help into consideration.  You can even ask me for any kind of advice on your blog's look or your content.  My email is megan.russell0310 (at) gmail.com.

Now go, join some blogging communities and make contacts!

How to add an email subscription link on your blog

Having an email subscription link for your blog is very important because your subscribers can get your posts straight to their email.  I'm going to go over how to do this step by step.

1. Go to http://feedburner.com
2. You should be able to sign in with your email that you use on blogger.com (click Next)
3. In the "Burn a Feed right this instant" form, put in your blog's entire address (http://yourblogname.blogspot.com) (click Next)
4. Then click on the RSS feed option (click Next)
5. Choose a name for your feed and the feed address (I usually make it the title of my feed with no spaces) (Click Next)
6.  Now you should see your feed address (Click Next)
7. Click on "Clickthroughs" so you can see how many people click on your feed to read your blog (Click Next)
8. Now you should click on the "Publicize" tab at the top
9. Click on "Email Subscriptions" on the left side
10. Click "Activate"
11. Now you will see the subscription management form.  Copy the code for the subscription box
12. Now go into your blog and add a gadget under "template"
13. Make sure it is an HTML/Javascript gadget
14. Paste your code in the box and make the title Subscribe to my blog
15. Hit SAVE

Now you have an email subscribe link to your blog and people can get your blog posts straight to their email!  Check Feedburner often because you can see how many people are subscribing to your blog!

NEVER copy material

You don't want to copy and paste material from other sources unless you have a Visalus FAQs page or the like.  Copying from other blogs and pages is plagiarism and is illegal.  It can also get you red flagged by google and have your blog removed from their results.

Please follow my research keyword tips and write unique content for those keywords yourself.  This is the best and only way to blog.  Add quality and unique content to your blog.  You should also try to get your blog posts to be at least 250 characters or more.  The longer the blog post, the happier it makes google.  You may find that my blog posts in THIS blog aren't that many characters but I'm only doing this blog to help you blog.

So again, NEVER copy material unless you are doing a page about Visalus with general Visalus information.  If you read http://losingthisweight.com, all of that material is mine that I created on my own.  Please don't copy it!

Keep your blog personal

Don't just use your blog to promote your business. It looks like spam and will turn people off.  Make sure you post about yourself, your weight loss journey, your family, your successes, your struggles and anything in between.

If you visit my blog: http://losingthisweight.com, you will see that I do post about Visalus but I also post about myself and my weight loss journey. I add pictures of myself, talk about my weight loss journey and talk about things I do during the day.  You want to do the same thing but about YOU!  People want to know about YOU and to know the person behind the blog!

So make sure you keep your blog personal as well as promote the challenge.