You blog, and chances are, you tweet as well. Twitter is an amazing tool to build relationships and no matter what people say, to promote your own content. I mean, we all want people to read our posts. You don’t want to only share your own content and other people’s content, you want to engage as well, but you want to get traffic to your blog and increase your readership, let’s be honest.
Ever since being on Twitter for the last year and a half, I’ve learned quite a bit. One of the most important things I’ve learned when it comes to getting traffic to your blog, is to know how to write good headlines. Don’t get me wrong…I’m no extremely famous blogger who gets mass traffic, 50+ comments on every post, and all of that.
However, on average, I get well over 100 click-throughs to my latest posts with my almost 2500 followers at the time of this post. And over a span of several days, that can easily double or more.
You don’t have to be a great copywriter or even know how to write great headlines. It requires just a little bit more thought into your post titles and thinking a tad more creatively.
If you can’t grab attention, you can’t generate interest, and so on. The same works with headlines and blog titles. If you’re not grabbing attention and then capturing interest, your followers and friends won’t click to read!
For example: I’ll automatically tweet out my post when it first gets published, but after that, I’ll switch it up which gets us into the last but definitely not least, tip.
What I’ve found is that by actually sharing my new post on the day it’s published, even 3 or in rare cases, 4 times, is actually alright by my followers. Of course it all really depends on your audience but you get the picture. You want to spread it out over a few hours and not do it rapid fire because that definitely will lead to people unfollowing you.
This helps in a number of ways because your followers aren’t always on at the same time so by tweeting it out at different times, it increases the chance they’ll see it versus sharing your post just once. The best times to post are between 12:00 PM and through to the evening. Some say the perfect time is 4:01 or all that jargon, but really, let’s use common sense…
You’ll get far less traction in the morning and late at night. These aren’t peak hours so you won’t get peak traffic, ’nuff said.
Instead of just reusing your first title, do your best to change it up. Ask a question, test out a new title, simply be creative. It’ll not only help you get more people to view your new post but help you become a better, much more effective headline writer.
Anything I miss? Have any tips, tactics, or strategies to getting your posts viewed more?
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A lot of useful tips here Mike. I do often come across people that use up all of the 140 characters in their tweets. I do retweet them but it is annoying as hell to have to edit the tweet in order to make it short enough.
Btw. nice tip about timing. I’ve never actually thought about timing my tweets. I just send them out after I’ve published an article.
.-= Julius Kuhn-Regnier´s last blog ..How to Make a Great First Impression Through Guest Posts =-.
@Julius Kuhn-Regnier, Thanks Julius. Yeah, a lot of people don’t think about timing or posting their new blog post more than once. It’s like running a TV commercial only once. You’re not going to get near as much exposure to your message that way compared to broadcasting it several different intervals throughout the day.
.-= Mike Stenger´s last blog ..Please Quit Social Media =-.
Great ideas Mike! I’ve seen a lot of people take a question of statement out of the blog post that will really grab peoples attention, and it seems to work. I usually just post the blog title – so it looks like time to mix it up for me!
.-= Tom@Free Squeeze Pages´s last blog ..The Aweber Code….And Why You Need To Promote It! =-.
@Tom@Free Squeeze Pages, That is actually a great idea Tom, I usually just hit the re-tweet button and let it go with what it says. I have seen Nick from sitesketch101 customize his retweet button to show some interesting text other than just the title and link and it seems to work well for him, I might try that.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Linking Out For SEO =-.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by kbloemendaal: RT @HotBlogTips 4 Tips To Get More Blog Exposure Via Twitter http://tinyurl.com/ycuwsyd...
These are some good tips. I have also started trying to put my link in the middle or even the beginning of the post so when it gets retweeted your url is not cut off by people who may not be savvy about things like that.
I also use TweetDeck which has a “TweetShrink” utility built in as well as a url shortener.
.-= Richard´s last blog ..Google Fears Facebook and Your Facebook Ad Credit. =-.
@Richard, I use Teetdeck and didn’t know about the “tweetshrink” feature… off to check it out now.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Blogging Is Easy? =-.
I find posting during weekdays at business hours brings me the most traffic.
Nice post, I totally agree with the fact that tweets are like writing copy.
.-= Paul Roekle´s last blog ..Things I Learned When Writing A Sales Page =-.
@Paul Roekle, Right Paul. Like if you throw up a billboard in a small populated area, you’re not going to get nearly as many eyeballs as if you posted it downtown.
.-= Mike Stenger´s last blog ..1 Simple Step To Selling And Achieving More =-.
I think the brutal force is the answer for all tweeter users. Just try to write as many articles and as many headlines as you can and this MUST end with a success
I think that many persons are searching in the tweets – so it would be good to write a different words in your tweets – and give them a chance to being found.
Also, if you have the tweet meme button installed on your blog, its relatively easy to look back through old blog pots, and re-tweet a post or two at any time of day.
@Will@laser hair removal, Yeah that’s a great tip Will, thanks for sharing!
.-= Mike Stenger´s last blog ..1 Simple Step To Selling And Achieving More =-.
Excellent tips. I never thought to tweet more hen once per article as I figured it would tick everyone off.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..I am Unsubscribing From Your Blog – Again =-.
@Dennis Edell, I thought the same thing in the beginning Dennis. I’ve really just tested here and there and saw what worked and what didn’t. You don’t want to just share your new post then post it again with nothing in between though. Engage in between, share other people’s content, etc.
.-= Mike Stenger´s last blog ..1 Simple Step To Selling And Achieving More =-.
@Mike Stenger, Makes perfect sense Mike, thanks.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Do You Know The REAL Difference Between Bloggers and Internet Marketers? =-.
A trick I use to test out different titles on Twitter is using bit.ly
It makes it easy to track which Tweets actually made people click, and visit your site. Without bit.ly you only see the final result of how many people visited your site that day, and never know what worked, and what didn’t.
.-= Brian Inman´s last blog ..Subscriber Numbers Are Not A Sign Of Success =-.
@Brian Inman, Great point Brian! Analytics are extremely important when it comes to measuring your efforts. Bit.ly is great as well as ow.ly if you use Hootsuite which is one of my personal favorites.
.-= Mike Stenger´s last blog ..1 Simple Step To Selling And Achieving More =-.
good tips. you can tweet the same article a couple times in a 24-hour period (maybe every 12 hours). also if you have a long twitter id keep the short this way it’s easier to retweet!
@Sanjay, It is always good practice to leave room to re-tweet.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Linking Out For SEO =-.
Excellent post, Mike. Timing your tweets is important. Since we all probably have followers from all around the world, it’s good to tweet in a few hour intervals (let’s say 3-4 times a day, but no more), if you want to promote your blog post to as many people as possible.
.-= Marko´s last blog ..What it Takes to Start a Successful Blog =-.
Excellent tips and the best part about it is that (unlike many other Twitter tip posts) this is short, sweet and to the point. Twitter takes time, thinking and a lot of work to develope a true following that will generate quality clicks.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..A Day in the Life of.. Episode 5 [video] =-.
I hate automatic posting. I prefer to write it myself with unique style, put some grabber word hence people will click on it. Anyway you have good tips for me. Thanks!
Nice post Mike. I especially like tip #1: Keep it short and sweet. I’ve gone to RT just to find they used all 144 characters. Then we find ourselves trying to remove part of the tweet to make it fit. Many probably won’t bother re-tweeting at that point.
@Keith Ever notice when you alter the tweet using the RT plugin it doesn’t record the RT? I just tried it again with this post and it didn’t add to the number of re-tweets.
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Connect With Me – Leave Your Links =-.
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