If you want to sell, you must give your customer a call to action to act upon. If you want to grow your blog following, you’ll need to do the same thing.

1. Contact Me

Do you have your contact information in your reader’s face, above the fold? Yes! Is it out there where they can see it and don’t have to spend time looking for it? Great! Call to action: Ask them to email you if they have questions or ideas. Some people prefer to communicate by email and not be exposed in comments.

2. Social Media

Social media icons are great and a must-have on your blog, on every page and post. Don’t be afraid to give them a push, ask them to follow you on Twitter and tell them they can find you Facebook or Pinterest. In addition, it is not enough to have the links; be bold, be big, be creative with your CTAs. Remember big buttons with bold graphics and colors work. Here is a great post about CTA guidelines and buttons from Hongkiat.com.

Alternatively, write “If you liked this post, share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.” Remember to hyperlink the platforms to make it easy for them. Don’t make them work hard! There are WordPress plugins that will help you on this one so that you never forget to do it.

3. Encourage Comments

The comments are under the fold, and you will have a CTA there, but don’t wait until the end of the post; ask them for their opinions, their suggestions, and their experience within the blog post.

The last lines of your post should always have a call to action, such as, “What did you think of the topic? Let me know in the comments below”

4. Email Signatures

Every time you send an email, your signature is there with all of your links. A great idea is to include a question or a link to your latest post, with a teaser – a call to action – making them want to drop everything and go read it now.

5. Consistency Across the Board

Everywhere and anywhere that you have a profile (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, G+, Pinterest, ANYWHERE!) include all of your links. The wording should be consistent, and the branding should be the same.

Final Thoughts on Calls to Action:

Remember to be very clear about the action you want them to take.

Make it easy for them. Don’t make them work hard. Have all your links in place.

Facebook is still growing can you believe it? And still, there are a lot of bloggers who are not using Facebook on a daily basis to promote their blog.

Tips for promoting your blog on Facebook

1. Cover Photo – use the header for your blog as the cover image and if you change them on your blog then change them on Facebook. Show people what your blog is all about, but don’t go overboard with text, visuals visuals.
2. Profile image – That should be of you.  Yes you.
3. Set your settings in your admin panel to allow other people to post on your wall. You want to create a conversation remember!
4. Use the highlight and pin at top feature.  For example if you post every other day then pin highlight the post when you first post about it and then when you want to post again pin the status about the blog on the top until the next time post something from your blog.
5. About – fill it in! Include a short description about your blog, include all of your social links and include a way that they can contact you.
6. When you update your status with a blog post, use enticing descriptives. Create curiosity so that they will want to click on the link.
7. Facebook is once again rolling out improved image viewing capabilities, why? Images work. Use less text and more images with your links.
8. Share other people’s posts!
9. Post on other people’s walls relevant information and include links.
10. Link your comments on your blog to your Facebook page. Here’s a great article reviewing WP plugins for commenting

How are you promoting your blog on Facebook? Share your tips and ideas with us. 

Recently somebody asked me; “I want to blog, I want to make some extra cash, how do I find my niche?” Good question!

The idea of creating a blog that can monetized in order to bring home the extra bacon without leaving your home is nice, but it doesn’t really work that way.

How does it work?

Let’s go back to the question of “how do I find my niche?”

First, let’s focus on what you love. Where is your passion? What is your favorite thing to do?

It could be anything from bringing up your newborn to off-road biking to building computers from refurbished parts. Creating a business out of a personal passion is easier than starting from scratch. Remember that you will be spending hours upon hours researching and working on the topic, so being passionate about it makes it much easier.

Identifying Your Niche

Another way of identifying your niche could be by investigating your professional skills. Think of your expertise and how you can make an impact on a community with mutual interests. How can you become a valuable source of information on the chosen topic? How can you solve the pain of a particular community? If you can answer those questions, you might have found your niche.

Sounds good? Wait, that’s not all.

Taking your passion and knowledge into consideration is not enough. You also have to do the legwork and identify your target market. Although it might be your passion, you must study the ins and outs, research the size of the market, find out who your competition is, learn the language that the specific community speaks. Only then will you be able to figure out your monetization plan.

This takes time to do but is an essential first step towards your personal success. Think of it as a full-fledged business. Today, would you go into a business without creating a detailed business plan? Your new blog should be planned just as well.

As an exercise, write down the answers to the following:

• Name 5 topics that you are passionate about
• Name 3 skills in which you have an expert skill level
• Ask friends and family to name 5 topics that they think you are passionate about
• In each of your passions, pinpoint something that is missing, something that is causing you pain within your passion.

This will help you get your mojo into groove and help you find the niche, which will ultimately help you bring home the bacon.

Monetization

You have your niche, you have your plan, now add a simple way to monetize your blog. PalTip is a simple WordPress plugin that will save you hours upon hours in affiliate back-office link building and sign-ups.

How did you find your niche? Share with us your tips on finding your niche.

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