Blog Series Wrap Up Plus 5 Ways To Madly Increase Business Exposure

Blog Series Wrap Up Plus 5 Ways To Madly Increase Business Exposure

My first ever blog series was really cool. Kiesha, Alex and Ana are awesome for being a part of it.

In this post I’m going to bring it all together so you can get all the parts of the BlogStars Series. I’m also gonna give you some ways you can increase exposure for your blog or business.

So What Was The BlogStars Series?

It was simply a collaboration between me and the 3 bloggers mentioned above, where we all took a crack at one specific topic, which was “Building Trust and Credibility”. Here are the 4 parts of the series for those who might have missed one or two of them:

Part 1. 4 Ways You’re Destroying Your Credibility and 5 Tips To Avoid It

Part 2. Sharing Blogging failures: Will it build trust or make you a loser?

Part 3. 10 Rules of Social Engagement That Will Make or Break Your Blog Readership

Part 4. How to Stand Out in a Crowded Room

So, was it successful? Well that depends; how do you define success?

Did it run exactly how I thought it would?

Yes.

Did we all get some really good quality links coming back to our sites?

Yes, from really relevant sites.

Did we all get increase exposure that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise?

I’m sure we did, and that right there was the point of the entire thing.

I wanted it to lead to increase exposure for all of us and this is what today’s post is all about.

The Unfortunate Truth

There’s this idea that when you get online, you’re automatically going to be seen by thousands of people; that you life is no longer private; and that you get random people navigating their way to your site. Because of this idea that they’re being watched, people fear being ridiculed and they assume that but that assumes that people will be reading your stuff, right?

Here’s the unfortunate truth; if getting seen/noticed/exposure was that easy, we would all be successful, and blog like mine, Ana’s, Kiesha’s and Alex’s wouldn’t exist. There would be no need for traffic generation strategies, or search engine optimization because everyone would be getting all the traffic they’ve ever wanted.

If you get nothing from this post, please remember this: Just because you build something online, doesn’t mean people will know about it. I have sites that you’ve never heard of because I haven’t marketed them or told you about. (I have some really cool surprises for you in 2011)

Anyway, the point is that exposure takes works and the goal of this post is to give you ideas on how to get more of it.

How To Be Seen By Everyone & Their Grandma

Being everywhere in the “real world” is not only really hard, it’s flat-out, physically impossible. But in the virtual world (a.k.a The Internet) the same rules don’t apply. You can be seen from all four corner of the web and by thousands of people at once.

Here are 5 ways you can do that:

1. Do a Blog Series

Email 3 or 4 of your closest blogging buddies (if you don’t have any yet, Read This Post) and plan out your own blog series around any topic you’d like to talk about. The key is to help each other promote every single post.

Four people promoting one blog post is better than 1 doing it alone. Collaboration is the fastest (free) way to reach a brand new audience and a series can help you do that.

2. JV Products

If you’re planning on having your own product one day, you might also consider creating one with strategic partner; preferably someone who already has an established audience. Again, this uses the power of collaborations. Why go at it alone?

3. JV Freebie

The same idea as above, only with a free offer. If you’re having trouble coming up with a free product to offer people to join your email newsletter, you can create one with the help of bloggers in your same niche.

Asking everyone to contribute an article to create a downloadable ebook is simple and effective. Plus, if it turns out awesome, your collaborators can help you promote it by sharing it with their people,  and grow your list a lot faster.

4. Get on Someone’s Newsletter

This is a super ninja strategy, but also really simple to do. Ask someone to plug your offer into their email newsletter in exchange for the opportunity to get plugged into your newsletter.The point here is to get exposed to everyone who joins the other person’s list.

I admit, not everyone will want to do this because your email list is your most important asset. You need to be completely comfortable with the person and most importantly, the offer. Think about who is currently serving your market and then propose this opportunity only to those who you have gotten to know.

5. Appear on 3 or More Blogs in a Week

This isn’t a new strategy, but still a very effective one – Guest Blogging. If you want to reach a new audience in 2011, start submitting 3-4 really good quality guest posts per month. I wouldn’t be talking about guest posting if it wasn’t working.

For more tips on guest blogging, check out this post.

How Are You Gonna Increase Exposure in 2011?

Let me know in the comments section below. What are your thoughts on getting yourself  seen online? Share your ideas and please share this post – on Twitter, Facebook, Digg & Stumble Upon. I’d really appreciate it.

Take care and talk soon
Hector

———————————————————————————–

P.S. ..don’t forget to grab your copy of the Smart Blogging Guide. 63 Steps to a more effective blog. It’s basically my journey of everything I did for the first 8 months of blogging.

I’m sure you’ll like it..