Coffee Break Blogging

Do you really need to be everywhere?

In this episode, I take a good hard look at "be everywhere" and whether it is necessary - or even smart - for a blogger looking to grow their web traffic. Is this the real secret... or a recipe for burnout?

I'm a HUGE believer in leverage as we grow our business. Truth is, trying to be everywhere is just inviting you to spend time on very LOW LEVERAGE activities.

I'll explain in full in this episode of CBB.

No doubt that YouTube is the big kahuna when it comes to video marketing. IT is the biggest video site in the world, also the world's second biggest search engine. You will no doubt be publishing any video you produce to YouTube.

But, where else should you put it? Is YouTube the only place to bother with?

In this episode, we look at the relative importance of some of the other video sites out there, such as Vimeo, Viddler, Veoh, DailyMotion, etc.

And where exactly does Facebook fall into the mix? Surprisingly well, actually.

If you've wondered if you should be bothering to post your videos anywhere besides YouTube, this episode will answer that for you.

Today is our last episode where we are going to be talking about YouTube here on our little traffic series. Okay? But today, we are actually going to mention it in the course of leaving it. We are going to actually talk about the world beyond YouTube.

Should we post our videos anywhere else besides YouTube?

If you're going to use YouTube marketing to its fullest, then you're going to need to take the extra time to set up certain things for each YouTube video. One of those things is annotations.

What are YouTube annotations and how do you use them? That's the topic of this episode of CBB.

Also in this episode, I'll give you 5 specific tactics you can use annotations for in order to grow your list and increase engagement. I'll also share how this lazy guy (that's me) deals with annotations. ;-)

And that's what we're going to talk about in this episode of Coffee Break Blogging.

Welcome to Episode 101 of Coffee Break Blogging!

Today we are going to continue talking about videos; specifically on how to make good looking videos.

If we're going to use video marketing to grow our traffic, we want to make sure those videos look as "pro" as we can. It doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't need to be Hollywood. But, it does need to look somewhat pro so that people enjoy watching it.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• Microphones to use to make your videos
• Cameras to use to make your videos
• How to record audio and video separately and match them together
• How to script a video and not have it look robotic
• The hardware and software that I am using personally

We've just spent the last 4 episodes talking about using podcasting to grow your traffic and your business. Now, we move into the topic of video.

And we'll start with Youtube. How exactly do you build up your Youtube channel? How do you get more video views? More subscribers?

Like anything, if you're going to do it right, it takes some time. So, let's do it with some foundation in mind.

In this episode, we'll talk about what I see as the two main approaches to YouTube: Being Helpful, and Being a Personality. For each, I'll share some of the things which go into it.

Then I share 8 best practices to build into your habits so that you can effectively build up your YouTube channel.

• How you can control the "related videos" at the end of your video
• A little "trick" for dominating the related videos in the sidebar on YouTube.com, next to your own video.
• How to use your video stillshot to get more views.
• How to use Youtube as a social network to build your profile.
• How to look for good topics to make videos about.

We also celebrate my 100th podcast! Really appreciate all of you - thanks for much being a part of it! ;-)

We're talking about podcasting in these few episodes because it can definitely help you increase your traffic - and that's the stage of our business that we're currently talking about on Coffee Break.

But, surely... and ultimately, you want to build your list and sales. We start podcasts to grow our business.

But, how?

In this installment, I discuss a few specific strategies to help you monetize your podcast.

• How to deliver calls to action on your show
• Specific tactics to build your email list from your podcast
• The 3 ways to promote your own products on your podcast
• A more advanced tactic which will allow you to specifically track the ROI of your podcast
• How to learn how to build your email followup engine, so that your podcast will then result in residual sales down the road from your email list.

Now that you've decided to start and launch your own podcast, it is time to start thinking about the long road to growing your audience. Podcasting is indeed a long-term content marketing play. Results are not immediate. This episode will show you some of the tactics you need to build into your podcasting for the long haul.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why your show's USP is so important
• How to cross-promote your podcasts on your blog
• Why you should have an official landing page for your podcast
• How you can use Facebook ads to promote your podcast
• How to use other podcasts to promote your own
• Much more ;-)

If you're going to bother podcasting, you might as well do it for keeps. :-)

If you listened to the last podcast and decided YES to launching your own podcast, then let me help you get started.

In this episode, I'll share with you how to get started with your show and how to go about launching it.

You'll learn:

• How to come up with a show title and description
• What to look for in good podcast cover art
• Why you should pre-record several instances in advance
• Equipment to get started podcasting
• How to "power" the podcast off your blog
• How to maximize your opportunity after iTunes publishes your show, and how to build real inertia from being in "New and Noteworthy"

You've possibly heard about the big surge in podcasting lately. And since we're talking about growing our traffic during this phase of the podcast, a natural question is....

"Should YOU Start A Podcast?"

This episode starts with some basic stats on the growth and popularity of podcasting from the likes of Edison Research and Libsyn. Numerically speaking, it seems like podcasting makes a lot of sense. And for many, it does.

But, there's some questions you need to ask before diving in so that you don't run into the wall quickly and sputter. I share 4 specific questions you need to ask yourself before starting a podcast. Also, I give you 3 things you need to think about before getting started.

No doubt - podcasting can be a powerful extension of your blog and your brand. This very podcast is even beginning to catch up to my blog. When you compare my weekly downloads to my weekly blog visits, the podcast is now doing about 43% of the traffic of my main blog. Really cool! But, don't dive in without asking yourself these key questions.

Learn from my mistakes.  :-)

A lot of bloggers spend a fair amount of time trying to grow vanity metrics like their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. But, we must ask the basic question... "Does it matter anymore?"

In this episode, we'll discuss some basic statistics. Just what is the average organic reach of a post on Facebook? What is the average click-through rate on a tweet? And given these metrics, is this really where our time is best spent?

How should you deal with the issue of your fanbase on social media? Need you worry much about the size?

So let's talk about Facebook Page Likes and Twitter Followers and basically any of these vanity metrics that many people think about, here today at Coffee Break Blogging.