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How to Get User Generated Content for Your Blog

One of the things that’s fascinated me is how blogs can get their readers to create content for them for free.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that user generated content (UCG) can be a great boon for your blog. UCG allows you to have more content for less work. Once you start getting submissions on a regular basis, you don’t have to worry about posting frequency.

UCG turns your blog into a community site. This is a great thing because we humans are social creatures. We like to participate in content as well as consume it. Instead of the blog being just about you, it becomes a site about a group of people. You’ll get free marketing because those people are invested in your blog. They will want recognition so they will tell others about your blog.

A couple blogs in my niche have started to get user generated content so I investigated them to see what they were doing.

Comments

Many of the blogs I looked at had an active comment section. Getting feedback seems to be one of the best incentives for attracting UGC. Your readers have something say but they also crave interaction with other readers. They want to know what other people think about their content. They want an audience for their posts.

It’s not just the number of comments that matters. The blogs I looked at had a good number of regular commenters. These commenters created a close-knit community. If you were a regular reader, you felt like you knew them as friends. This adds even more incentive for UGC since it’s usually more enjoyable to create content for friends rather than complete strangers.

Social Proof

One blog I looked at has an interesting strategy. They started off as a podcast. As they grew in popularity, they started syndicating all the other podcasts in the niche. Soon, others readers thought creating a podcast was the thing to do, so they created podcasts on their own. They wanted an existing audience for their content so they submitted their podcast to the blog. Now the blog has a thriving podcasting community and the podcasts are getting started every month.

Now you can’t just syndicate written content because of copyright issues, but other bloggers may not mind having their content syndicated on your blog as long as you have a good audience and give proper credit. It doesn’t hurt to ask bloggers if you can syndicate their content.

Social proof is all about generating momentum. Once you get the first couple of people to create UGC regularly for your blog, their content will attract other people to create their own content. So, a possible strategy is to hire one or two writers to demonstrate that your blog is open to UGC.

Ask Your Readers

Some people will need a little bit of prodding to produce UGC. And if your readers don’t know you’re looking for content, they may never offer their help.

Once you have an active comment section and an audience of many repeat visitors, setup a page with your submission guidelines and then blog about it asking your readers to send in their content. There’s a very good chance you’ll get some UGC.

Want more traffic? Performancing can increase the traffic to your blog with our social media marketing services.

Performancing Hive: Get your free membership

performancing-hive Are you a member of Hive, our dedicated forum for professional bloggers?

If not, we’ve got a great offer for you. 🙂

Get a free membership to Performancing Hive, which usually costs $10 per month, so you can be part of this budding community.

Members not only get exclusive help and advice for growing their blogging business but we give away various freebies, including exclusive reports, themes, software and services.

So don’t delay. Simply sign up with code 093588648A to claim your free access. This is valid until December 11th.

See you there!

Twitter banned from courtroom, as it should be

Twitter may allow you to share anything and everything from anywhere, but that doesn’t mean that it’s always right to do so.

Spectators at a Georgia state coatroom have been banned from sending tweets during the course of a criminal trial.

District Judge Clay Land said that Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which prohibits the “broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom”, can be extended to include the use of Twitter.

Both logically and ethically, that makes a lot of sense.

Many criminal trials are extremely sensitive, and judges have an obligation to control how both media and public are allowed to disseminate information.

What’s possibly harder is to enforce such a ruling. Short of confiscating mobile phones and other communication devices upon entering a courtroom, it could be quite hard to ensure that such a rule isn’t breached.

What do you think? Was the judge right to ban Twitter?

Via

5 More Common Distractions to Bloggers and How To Deal With Them

Pencil on paper Last year, James Mowery posted about five common distractions that bloggers face in the course of a writing/blogging workday. James cited TV, games, mobile phones, social networks and even the web as top distractions. There are a host of other things out there that can get your focus out of writing. Here are a few, and some tips on how to deal with them.

1. Chores

Most probloggers and writers I know work from their home offices or from their homes. While you get to save a lot on daily expenses when you work from home, one big challenge is managing your time between work and domestic life. Face it–there are just a lot of tasks and chores that one might need to take care of while at home. You might have to do some cleaning and organizing. You might need to prepare food for lunch or dinner. You would inevitably find some pressing task to do. Even when you’re not actually doing these, the mere fact that these are on your mind can take your focus off blogging and writing work.

One way to deal with this is to finish quick tasks as soon as you can, so they don’t accumulate and overwhelm you. As for the bigger ones–like cooking–you can perhaps schedule a thirty-minute break. Hey, you need to eat, too! Then, perhaps, you can relegate the big, time-intensive things to the weekends, like grocery shopping, washing the car, and the like.

2. Kids

One of the reasons I chose to run my work and business from home is so I can keep tabs on my kids. I bring them to school in the mornings, and fetch them before lunch–that way, I’m assured of their safety, the paranoid dad that I am. But as my kids are only starting to learn independence (they’re in their early primary grades), I find myself being asked to do this and do that every so often. Kids need snacks, after all. Kids need their bath. Kids need their afternoon nap.

A good way to deal with this is by blocking off a few minutes of your workday to spend quality time with your kids. This way, they don’t feel left out, and you get to do things together without distractions (yes, they need your focus, too). But make sure they understand that you need to work for a living, and that you shouldn’t be disturbed while on the job. Another good way to deal is by giving them activities to do while you’re at work. Let them play. Let them do their homework. Or how about assigning chores to them, if they’re big enough (distraction #1 and #2 solved!)?

3. Problems

Everyone has problems. These could be money problems, family problems, health problems, or such. Thinking about these big things can take your mind off your concentration. How could you write great blog posts, after all, if you’re constantly thinking of how to pay off a big debt, or if you’re coughing and sneezing all the time.

Why not focus on solutions, instead of the problems? This way, you might be more inspired to work. Money problems? Then being more productive would probably help solve that in the long run. Health problems? Do something about it–rather than worry, why not be proactive? Family problems? Talk!

I can classify problems as those that can be set aside for a later time, and those that need to be addressed urgently. If you have some serious illness, then you have to take care of it as soon as you can, especially if it’s debilitating and if it can sap you of energy you need to be productive. Some problems can be set aside for later. If you need money, why not just focus finishing your work now, so you can get to bill your client earlier, for instance?

4. The temptation to slack or sleep

Another big problem faced by home-based professionals and entrepreneurs is the allure of the bed. And I don’t mean this in a naughty way. When you feel sleepy and tired (and unfocused and uninspired, as well) there’s always the temptation to just sack it out. It’s not just the bed. There’s also the couch, the recliner, and even your desk.

Here lies the importance of dedicating a certain room–or at least a space–just for work. Don’t work in the bedroom. Keep it sacred: just for sleep, rest, and those other private things. Set your environment such that it’s conducive to work, and that it’s not too relaxing. Avoid dim lights, very soft furniture and boring environs. I sometimes find my office chair too comfortable, that I move to a less comfortable seat, so I don’t fall asleep.

However, sometimes, you just have to succumb to your tiredness. If you feel you’re too tired to be productive, then why not take a nap? After fifteen to thirty minutes, you’d feel refreshed and full of ideas to work on. If you’ve spent all day working, then you do deserve a good night’s (or day’s) sleep. When you wake up, take note of dreams or ideas you might have had, as these might be valuable later on. Early mornings are conducive to writing, in my opinion.

5. Work

Many multitaskers would agree with me that work can also be a big distraction. When you juggle a lot of tasks, every other ongoing task can take your mind off the important thing you want to focus at the moment. If you’re a freelancer, you might be working on more than one client or project, and you just can’t give 100% to just one at any given time. If you work for someone, then you might find yourself working on an ever-growing task list, that you’re confused with which item to address first.

This can be best addressed with GTD solutions, or at least by organizing your workflow. Keep a task list, and keep it prioritized. More importantly, try to keep it short. Why not get the small things out of the way early on? Those things that can be done in two minutes or less should only take two minutes or less. And once these are out of the way, you can spend big chunks of your time on the bigger stuff.

Dealing with other distractions

Sometimes, distractions are not all that unproductive, though. For instance, online discussions, forums and social networks can be great breeding grounds for great ideas and for connecting with the right people. Even downtime can be productive if you know how to make the most of it. For a writer, you can use this time to observe your environment, and take stock of current events–things that can help give you ideas on what to write about later on.

The best way to deal with distractions is identifying these, and knowing the best way to deal with them. It’s a matter of managing your time and resources such that you are productive in those things that matter.

image credit: flickr/tomsaint

Will Amazon Affiliate Twitter posting tool increase spam?

Amazon has introduced a new feature for its Affiliate members, making it easy to post a link to any product on the site to Twitter.

It’s another step in making it easy to promote Amazon’s products, after the introduction of cut-and-paste widgets and “link to this page” for bloggers and website owners.

Yet Twitter is already flooded with spam and promotional messages, and Amazon has just made it a whole lot easier for casual spammers to flood the service with affiliate links.

Additionally, because the links are effectively cloaked (a side effect of having a limited character count on Twitter) it’s not easy to know what will directly benefit the Twitter account holder if the link is clicked and a purchase is made.

Of course, seasoned spammers will already have automated systems in place to create and publish tweets, but now anyone can do it with just a few clicks.

I don’t deny that the service is useful. If you have a loyal Twitter following and are genuinely recommending products, and providing disclosure, then the occasional link is fine. This new tool will save you time.

Unfortunately, I can also see it adding to the stream of rubbish flowing through Twitter, and an increase in the number of account blocks I’ll be having to do on a regular basis.

What do you think?

Would You Consider a Dedicated Twitter Device?

Since I’ve started appreciating Twitter for both personal discussions and promoting my blogs and online content, I’ve been exploring ways to access the service conveniently, even while on-the-go. For this purpose, I’ve settled with a Symbian Series 60 application called Gravity. The application is a fully-featured Twitter client that supports practically anything that a desktop-based client can, such as retweets, direct messages, searches, TwitPics, and even multiple accounts.

I’m satisfied with the application, but I only have one gripe, which is connectivity. At home and other WiFi-enabled establishments, I can roam around and still be able to Tweet, since my phone has WiFi. When I’m out of coverage, I can simply use my 3G or HSDPA connection. While the cost is nominal, this is a bit limiting.

On ForeverGeek, I recently read about TwitterPeek, a dedicated device for reading, receiving and posting tweets. What’s appealing with the TwitterPeek is the unlimited connectivity it offers. The device sells on Amazon for $199 with lifetime unlimited service or $99 with a 6-month subscription ($7.95 monthly thereafter). Developed by Peek in partnership with Twitter, the company behind the device hopes to be a big part of Twitter’s mobile strategy. If all goes well, then this is also one good way for Peek to promote its dedicated email device.

The TweetPeek is affordable, and it’s out just in time for the holidays. I’m not sure if it will work outside the US, though, given network limitations. If it does, then I’m going to grab a few for myself and my loved ones.

Would you consider an unlimited Twitter device?

Who is Posterous good for?

Posterous has caused quite a stir in the blogging world, because it all but removes even the moderate level of complexity that other blogging platforms tend to put in the way of simply publishing.

The service has even managed, somehow, to alter my view a little on using free, non-self-hosted blogging platforms, though I’d still say it’s not for everyone.

The fact is, most people can benefit from having a platform that’s easy to post multimedia content to on the fly and integrating with social networks even if they are au fait with the likes of WordPress, TypePad and Movable Type.

Of course, personal blogs will work just fine on Posterous, but also higher flying media professionals who want to share a lot of content with people, are often on the move with their smartphone, record and/or link to a lot of videos and podcasts, and whose personal brand is based more on the raw content than slick design.

Posterous designs aren’t shabby, by any means, and can be customised to a certain extent, but even if you use your own domain name or subdomain, it’s still obvious you’re hosting with a third party.

If you want to make money directly from your blog, by displaying ads for example, then you’re out of luck with Posterous (at the moment) though there’s no obvious restriction on linking to affiliate sites.

However, if you run a number of blogs on other platforms, Posterous could well be an easy platform for publicising them. With good social media integration, while your Posterous blog may not directly lead to increased revenue/sales, it’s another way of driving visitors to other projects.

You can post pretty much anything to Posterous, but it does seem to lend itself well to shorter or media rich posts. It’s also ludicrously easy to set up multi-author blogs, just by authorising the email addresses of all your writers.

Even if you use your domain for other types of content, such as a forum or a shopping cart, if you can change your domain name records you can set up a subdomain for the blog portion of your site, which then redirects to the Posterous servers, while the rest of your content remains on your own server.

In fact, the only time I’d suggest avoiding Posterous (unless you’re paranoid about the service shutting down and your content disappearing) is if you have a very strong design identity, or you need a more complicated blog setup that only self-hosting will allow you.

In reality, most of us could do with cutting down the complexity of our blogs, and Posterous might just be one way of doing that.

What do you think of Posterous? Do you use it for any of your blogs?

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