Life of the Party

I've had a blog of some sort for quite awhile now. One of my favorites was called Coolest Sports Videos. It got all of its content from You Tube and it drove a lot of traffic to the two businesses I owned at that time, Authentic Sports Memorabilia & Authentic Sports Fan Apparel.

I have found that blogging in conjunction with social networking is an excellent method traffic generation as long as you keep a couple things in mind. The most important of which is that, “People love buying, but they hate to be sold to.” I've seen a lot of people make the mistake of pounding out affiliate link after affiliate link to their social networking contacts. That doesn't work very well in the long run since people will simply cancel their connection with you.

Think of your social networking as being invited to a party. You wouldn't try selling something to other people at a party, would you? Of course not! We have all seen the person who shows up at a party and tries selling something, haven't we? He or she is the person everyone is trying to avoid, right? If everyone is avoiding the person who is trying to sell something who does everyone gravitate towards? It it normally that person who is entertaining, isn't it?

That person is normally either a good story teller or knows how to tell jokes that aren't offensive. And by story teller I'm not talking about a long and drawn out saga about their latest battle with their in-laws or some other target of their hostility.

If you think about it for a moment and apply your own experiences to this you'll realize that when you do need to buy something such as a new television the last person you'll go to is that person who was trying to sell you a television at the party, right? You'd be far more likely to remember that person who was such a delightful story teller at the party who is a salesperson at a local electronics store, wouldn't you?

Trying to sell something to everyone is a hard habit to break. I still catch myself doing it once in awhile and I am almost always rewarded with fewer friends on Facebook or less followers on Twitter and that is because my Twitter followers aren't a targeted market for the most part.

Alright, we discussed social networking and we haven't touched on blogging yet. If your social network is a party, what is your blog? Your blog is like your home and like your home you're only going to invite certain people into it, right? You'd invite people who you met at a party to your home, wouldn't you? Well at least you'd invite those people who you enjoyed. Would you invite that person trying to sell you their products? I wouldn't. I wouldn't because the only thing they are going to do at my home is sell their stuff to my friends.

I know you've seen the comments left on blogs that have little or nothing to do with the blog post. “Nice post, I make 262 million dollars a week with ABC or XYZ.” Kind of spammy, don't you think? Blog comments should add value to the conversation so don't waste your valuable time having to delete such nonsense by not inviting them into your home.

Again, like your home it should be about you or the things you're interested in. I have two blogs. One of them is mostly about social media and social networking news. I say mostly, because it has things about article writing as well. My other blog is about traffic generation resources and includes posts about blogging.

I blog about these things because they interest me and because they are related to my business interests. I don't sell anything on my blogs. One does have a lot of banner advertising, but most of those banners are to businesses my friends own. My social networks and blogs are sort of like my home in that you'll find pictures of the things I've done with my friends and family. I've set it up that way for a reason. I want people to feel comfortable with me before they buy advertising from me. I want them to know I am a real person with a real life away from my laptop. In other words, I want them to know we share a common interest that isn't necessarily their wallet.