I have roughly 4500+ Twiter followers. For some, that seems unobtainable, while to others, it appears I am still fairly new to Twitter.

If you have spent anytime on Twitter monitoring your Twitter count, you will notice that your number of followers fluctuates too… daily! — like the stock market ( up / down)!

So, I wanted to construct an article that would not only provide background into why another Twitter user stopped following you, but what behaviors you could deploy to maintain their interest.

The reasons I blog and am active on Twitter is because I want to reach a worldwide audience. I have ideas and opinions that I want to share… and that equations become impacted when I have more followers. Period.

Let’s take a look at the Top 10 Reasons Why People Have Stopped Following You On Twitter! You might be employing a strategy that is turning off more Twitter users… than engaging them!

The first thing you have to realize is that there are tools that Twitter users to evaluate you. When your Twitter activity falls under these categories, you will be unfollowed. Plain and Simple. Here are some examples of that as well as other things that “red flag” you.

Top 10 Reasons Why People Have Stopped Following You On Twitter!

1. You Didn’t Follow Back?! — Other Twitter users want followers just like you do. Often this factor alone will be the deciding factor. So, realize, unless you are a celebrity (where an endless supply of Twitter users gravitate to you in droves), you must reciprocate their follow with one of your own. And yes, regardless of how fantastic, stupendous, and awesome your tweets are… No FollowBack = No Love!

2. You Stopped Tweeting?! — Twitter users use 3rd party apps to help identify problem areas in the list of people they follow. Somewhere along the way, you just stopped tweeting. Maybe you took some time away from your blog or some tool you use to automate your tweets stopped working… whatever the reason you came up on the radar.

3. You Are An Annoying Spammer! — A day does not go buy online where some guy, somewhere has not developed “an amazing money-making program, guaranteed to … (fill in the blank)” and is circulating that idea all about, especially on Twitter. Automated tweet after automated tweet… even DMs… chock full of spam and spam links!

Not only were you unfollowed, you were definitely #BLOCKED!

4. You Live On Twitter! — Are you guilty of this? Can you clog your Twitter timeline like nobody else with tweets galore? Nobody likes a big mouth though. Pace yourself!

5. Fanatical Celebrity Pursuit — Everyone has someone in the entertainment industry they emulate or find intriguing. The difference is, they don’t spend their day RT-ing everything the celebrity tweets, or have one-way conversations with said celebrity. Worst yet, is when that celebrity is a trending topic and you continue the debauchery.

Bottom line: We’re creeped out by all the obsessiveness. Seek professional help.

6. Personal Attacks — We live in a culture that values only one opinion, our own. Why do we feel the need to be in complete control, blame everyone else, and be right in every situation?

Social media awakens us to the reality of opposing viewpoint. Instead of the harsh critiques, name calling, and intolerance, try understanding. Discussions always improve this way… as will your Twitter experience.

7. Politically Correctness — Many users want people they follow to conform to their line of thought. Conflicting interests would mean you would get unfollowed. It’s natural though. You would rather be a true representation of yourself than some billboard.

Unless, you are a billboard — meaning you are marketing a product or creating a brand on here. The reality is people on Twitter often have a preference to converse with real people, not someone with a networking agenda…. and trying to jam their product up my ass!

8. Offensive Topics, Offensive Language — No need to explain this one. Is there?

9. The DM’er — I use an auto DM service. But, I honestly use it to greet a new follower and encourage conversation…

But, not you. You don’t need to encourage the person to “Like” your Facebook Page, subscribe to your blog, connect with you on LinkedIn and subscribe to your YouTube channel all in the same DM… do you?

10. One Dimensional — Every tweet., Every day. The same topic. From wanting new Twitter followers, to talking sports, or religion, or politics, of hip hop… nothing ever changes…

Bonus: The Sharer — Do I really want you to tweet the link of every blog and news article you read after work?

Sure, sharing is great, but leave some of that mystery for yourself.

Overtime: Automate it! — Not sure where these automated posts, quotes, and affiliate links for products are coming from… but, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of value from it. See Reason #3 — The Annoying Spammer!

Of course, as a blogger I use automated strategies on Twitter to entice readers — and for the most part, it works! But, I do try to keep the automation to a minimum. There is still plenty of human interaction on my part that more than offsets that.

In Closing

The reality is that you will never be able to please everyone on Twitter… and most comical of all, the majority of Twitter accounts do not appear to be operated by real people anyway. They’re either spam or an old abandoned Twitter account for something that used to be marketed that failed. Many Twitter accounts are suspended.

People are fickle.

Well, there you have it: The Top 10 Reasons Why People Have Stopped Following You On Twitter!

In the comment section below, what are some of the reasons you have unfollowed other Twitter users? Did you make a snap judgment… or was the reason a valid one?

More Source Blogger Articles On Twitter: 

How To Add Your Twitter Tweets To Your Facebook Fan Page

JustUnfollow: Should You Unfollow Twitter Users That Do Not Follow You?!

Facebook is the biggest online social network today. It’s already become an inseparable part of millions of people’s social lives, and it becomes even more inseparable because Facebook integrates with lots of other online services. This achievement has put Facebook in the realm of the Internet giants.

One of the other online giants which has also influenced the lives of millions is WordPress. It’s fair to say that WordPress is the most popular blogging platform today. I’m sure that there are many who wonder whether these two services could be integrated.

If you are one of the millions of WordPress users who wants to add Facebook to your WordPress website(s), you’re in luck. There are two ways to do just that!

Syndicate Your Status

The first and easiest way to add Facebook to WordPress is to subscribe to the syndication. There are many elements of Facebook, most come with their own RSS subscription. The problem is, it takes a little effort to locate the RSS button.

For example, to integrate Facebook’s “Links” to WordPress, you need to dig a little deeper on the side menu under your Home panel. Click “More” to reveal more links.

Then click the “Links” to go to the Links page.

At the sidebar on the Links page, you will find the RSS button. Right click on it to copy the RSS URL. You could subscribe to two kinds of links: “My Links” and “My Friends’ Links“.

By default, Facebook will bring you to “My Friends’ Links” page. So if you want to subscribe to your own links, click “My Links” link and right click on the RSS button on your links page and copy the address. This address will be used later on your WordPress blog.

Another RSS feed that you can subscribe to is your Facebook notifications. Click on the “Notifications” icon on the top of the page next to the search field and choose “See All Notifications“. Then on “Your Notifications” page, right click at the “Via RSS” link to copy the subscription address.

Please note that I did the walkthrough using Facebook’s new profile. If you are still using the old profile, you could upgrade to the new one by visiting the “Introducing the New Profile” page and click the “Get the New Profile” button.

To add the RSS to your blog, go to the Widget area by clicking the link under the “Appearance” sidebar menu in your WordPress admin area.

Locate the RSS widget and drag it to the Widget area on the right and fill in all the necessary data, including the RSS feed URL that you’ve just copied.

After clicking on the “Save” button you will see the content appear in the widget area of your blog.

This method is applicable to all elements of your Facebook account. You can use it even if you are using the WordPress.com service and not a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Use Plugins

As Facebook becomes more and more popular, you can expect to find more and more WordPress plugins related to Facebook. If you do the search, you’ll find tons of them inside the plugins repository. One of the recommended plugins is “Facebook Social Plugins“. You can easily search and install the plugin from within your WordPress plugins area.

After installation, activate the plugin.

The plugin will add its own setting link under the “Settings” sidebar menu.

Among the settings, you can customize many aspect of the plugin. But the first thing that you should do before customizing anything is to get a “Facebook Application ID“. Click the “here” link.

Then you can customize each aspect of the plugin, such as: the “Layout” and “Color Scheme“.

Don’t forget to click on the “Save” button after making changes to the settings.

As for getting the application ID from Facebook, clicking the “here” link will bring you to the “Create an App” page on “Facebook Developers” site.

All you have to do is to verify your account by providing your mobile phone number or credit card number. After that you will have your “App ID“. Insert the set of numbers on the “Facebook Application ID” field on the “Facebook Social Plugins” setting.

After activating the plugin and doing all the necessary customization, you will have the additional “Like” button (or “Recommend” button according to your setting) on the locations of your blog that you’ve specified.

And you will also get several additional Facebook related widgets that you can put on the widget area.

There are other ways that you can use to integrate Facebook to WordPress blog, but these two are the easiest method that I could find. If you know other methods, please share them using the comment below!

I’m sure you have read the facts about social media. In theory, one would think that with so many users, the potential to bring great exposure to your business and gain new customers would be overwhelming… right?

While although I think there may be a benefit to some industries, for the most, I think it it is really just a huge waste of time, resources… and expectations!

Do you know who is most mislead about social media?… It’s the ones who DO NOT use it. Why? Because if they did, they would quickly see social media’s informal culture. Now, I know, I can expect heat from some of the people who work in the industry, but who are they fooling? Ask those people what they use to gauge their “success” in social media campaigns.

For many people, social media is a way to connect with friends on Facebook, or share a few quirky ideas on Twitter… and show off one’s follower count on LinkedIn. Others use social media to make a name for themselves, while promoting a product or service… as do many bloggers.

Let’s dig deeper into some of the sensationalism of Social Media.

Social Media Sensationalism

As I was fishing around company webiste, I came across some of these facts abdout social media:

Social Media is Not a Trend

Social media is here to stay. Below are some statistics that prove this point:

• 127 million people (57% of Internet users) visited a social networking site at least once a month in 2010.
• It is estimated that 164.9 million people will be using social networks on a regular basis by 2014.
  • In 2014, 56.8% of 55- to 64-year-old Internet users will visit social networks regularly; 37.9% of seniors 65 and up will be social network users.
• More than 55.5 million adults in the U.S. visit social networks at least once a month.
• The age of twitter users is slightly higher than most other social networking services.
• The leading contender of social networking sites is Facebook with 500 million active users
  • Many of its users are 35 and older.
  • Average user has 130 friends
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• • More than 240,000 small businesses participate

In one section, where there is a mock Q&A about the topic it reads:

“I think it will waste my time.” 

This will only come true if you let it. Once your business profile is created, a social network won’t require much of your time to maintain.

What’s Wrong With This Message?

1) Social Media is hard work! — Try connecting a blog and/or your small business with social media. It takes a good while to integrate all of that… and once you are done, there needs to be updated content, and interactive areas, and responses, and inquiries, etc… Won’t require much of your time to maintain? — yeah, right!

2) People need People — Sure there is always a minimal level of networking on social media sites, particularly for job seekers, but people often use social media for personal reasons like baby pictures, sharing ideas on pop culture, or dating… as a means to “escape”… not business.

3) The Demographic of Business Owners — While there are a lot of young CEO’s, business owners, and entrepreneurs, the majority of this group spends little time online, most likely has never set up a user profile, and would prefer to have a young assistant take care of that.

4) Business is about relationships — The internet is often perceived as being very cold and anonymous. Unless your business is set up to be primarily online, business is still done the old-fashioned way —on the phone and in person!

5) No one will seek out what they’re not looking for! — Businesses are not looking for answers on Facebook and Twitter. Even when they discover you, the likelihood of them being your local customer is slim.  Many businesses, particularly the one I look for have to use a more direct approach to educate and advise business owners of our products, services, and overall concept.

6) I love the statistics — until you truly monitor the user’s online experience: Video games, Online dating, ESPN, Netflix, Porn… hmmm… doesn’t appear very official or business-like. Does it?

In Closing

"A Facebook Fan Page? Uh, sure!"

While in theory, social media integration into you business sounds tempting, the reality is that internet use during the work day is discouraged. And rarely will much business-related occur after hours.

Plus, many business owners wouldn’t know the first thing about even basic marketing techniques.

In addition, the internet is doubling in size every few weeks. How are they going to find you? Perhaps your efforts need to be more targeted toward SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING?

Better to stick with what works best: 1) A Phone Call and 2) Dropping In Unnanounced.

At least, that way, they have to address you.

Even traditional forms of marketing (mail / e-mail) are useless for what we do! — hint: Quack!

Have you ever owned a diary…err, personal journal? Basically, people write their most intimate thoughts inside them and hide them from everyone. No one is ever meant to read them. Maybe it’s a good “outlet” for people to write down their experiences and concerns. I’ve heard that many therapists ask their patients to start one.

My wife, who has probably never read even one sentence from any of my blogs, voiced her concern that elements of our personal life would end up on the pages of a blog for all of the world to see. I’m not famous or interesting, nor do I have a desire to compromise my personal life, so the idea of a self-biographical account of my life was never considered. (Sorry, hon!)

Back in 2009, I came up with the idea for Source Blogger. OK, it’s not an original idea, meta-blogging. But, I’d like to believe that I consistently write some of the best quality content in my niche/category. And if you dusted off the cobwebs and went back into the archives, hopefully, you’d see this. As committed and driven I am about Source Blogger, it’s far from the most popular or recognized in the blogosphere. Right now.

Unlike a diary, Source Blogger is written by me to be read. I do want the exposure. But, how do you get it?

Today, we are going to look at 5 “tools” (Digg, Alexa Toolbar, Blog Catalog, Entrecard, CMF Ads) that claim to help you, in part, to reach your goals… and why I no longer use any of them. This blogger has matured.

Day 1: A Blog Is Born

Once you’ve created a concept for your blog and begin writing articles for it, your next step is to locate and utilize resources that will get you and your blog in front of other bloggers with similar interests.

It’s not a mystery. Places like Digg or Blog Catalog were originally good sources to keyword search for certain topics… with Digg being the #1 article submission site and Blog Catalog being the #1 blog forum site. And Entrecard and CMF Ads, being a good way to interact with active bloggers and discover other blogs.

Just in the short time that Source Blogger (originally launched on Blogger, now on WordPress) hit the scene, many of these sites either changed or did not really provide much value as they professed.

Let’s take a brief look at each of them. Shall we?

Digg

One of the perceptions of many new bloggers is that if they run to the largest article submission sites (Digg, Reddit, Mixx) and submit their content, then there is a the likelihood of being assaulted with thousands of “pageviews.” But, after submitting article after article, you see that scenario rarely happens or not at all due to oversaturation.

When Digg changed its parameters to only display your content to the people who followed you on Digg, you suddenly realized that the potential to reach a large audience was reduced to the 15-20 followers you had prior to the change.

Digg seemed to be lobbying for the big blogs in the space like the Huffington Post, Tech Crunch, and Mashable.

Goodbye, Digg.

Alexa Toolbar

Considering that Source Blogger is a “blog about blogging,” I figured the Alexa Toolbar would be a good barometer of determining the percentage of those bloggers historically portrayed to have interests in “techy” things like blogging, social media marketing, internet marketing, article marketing, and making money online who were visiting Source Blogger.

As Source Blogger’s Alexa Rank shot up to 50k, something strange happened after that. I started to really get decent, consistent traffic!

What was bizarre was that the more visits and pageviews I received, my Alexa Rank began to tumble? Odd, huh?

Goodbye, Alexa Toolbar.

Blog Catalog

Ok, never been a big fan of forums… but I did see it as a strategy for being involved in discussions that would enlighten other bloggers on who Source Blogger was and what our views were on particular blogging topics. A great way to do some networking, right?

Well….. unfortunately, that was NOT the case. The site has a band of active bloggers in the forum who are hostile towards bloggers like myself. Trying to market your blog and its content (no, not spamming or link dropping either) did not serve to induce the “clique-ish, overly-social” feel of the forum discussions. Leading you to consistently defend why your site had banner ads or a subscription box for news letters.

Goodbye, Blog Catalog.  And Good Riddance!

Entrecard & CMF Ads

When you blog about blogging, any blogger, in any category, has the potential of being a reader.

So, for many months, I struggled with whether I should maintain the Entrecard & CMF widgets. Until you realized that only a very minute percentage of bloggers were actually active on the site. Once someone has seen and read your blog a few times, they will subscribe, leave some comments, etc. But, now that they have, I didn’t feel like I had to continue to offer them an incentive to do so.

In addition, offering an incentive for another blogger to visit my site definitely defeats the purpose of why I created the blog to begin with. I would prefer you visited out of a genuine interest, not for advertising credits (Entrecard) or fractional money amounts (.002 – CMF Ads).

When you begin hearing stories of people spending hours and hours visiting other blogs in the Entrecard, CMF Ads, Adgitize network, it becomes a very unhealthy, obsessive environment… one that I wish to separate myself from.Especially, when it is marketed as “blog advertising”.

If your blog traffic stems solely from other visitors on this network, you need to take a hard look at whether your blog is worth maintaining.

Goodbye, Entrecard & CMF Ads.

In Closing

At this point, I am more than happy with the traffic I receive from Google, Bing, Twitter, and other viral resources like comments and bloggers who discuss Source Blogger and link back to certain articles here. Even from google images! (An often overlooked source of traffic – keyword optimize those images!)

This may be an overly-uttered phrase, but blogging is hard work. And it does take months and years to develop your identity and reputation into someone who is respected and read. Often, the first step is distancing yourself from sites like Blog Catalog, Entrecard, and CMF Ads… to gain credibility in the eyes of others.

But, you can do it…. without having to invest in an enormous amount of your personal time vying for theses types of inorganic sources of blog traffic.

Part of the “maturity process” of a blogger was putting away “childish things”.

To Digg, Alexa, Blog Catalog, Entrecard, and CMF Ads… I wish you the best!

What do you guys think? Am I dismissing them too prematurely?

Followers of Source Blogger may be surprised to know that I also run an interracial dating blog as well. It’s true. While I have tried many different ideas for blogs over the years, this blog (which will remain anonymous) has stood the test of the time. The focus of the site, like any blog, is to promote real discussions on interracial dating and other cultural issues common to that demographic.

Now, it just makes common sense that if I was getting traffic from people interested in interracial dating, I would be involved in dating sites that focused on this demographic as well, right? And I do.

I recently had lunch with a blogger who stated that he was using the same dating affiliate network, but making $100 a day…or more.

Ok, not to say that I don’t have faith in my fellow man, but I had to see this for myself. So, he whipped around his laptop and..

I saw his account ledger for myself! Day after day, making $80 – $110!

What was he doing differently than I was? I consider myself a pretty dynamic blogger when it comes to content and marketing, so what gives?

His Strategy

Not only does he make decent money, but all of what he does is automated!

1] He creates multiple accounts on Gmail. All with a different ethnic background: White women, Black women, Hispanic/Latina Women, etc.

2] He relies heavily on Craigslist or Backpage (Gumtree in London) and make posts in the personals section of the site.

Remember, he’s posing as a woman, so, he will use an accompanying image  for his personal ads that matches his target audience to lure all types of men. He generally posts in high traffic cities like New York or Los Angeles.

Here’s an example of what he posts:

“My name is Erica and I am looking for some decent men in Boston. If you are well-mannered and not over 50, (that sets the bar high enough so older men in their 40′s will respond), email me and we’ll see what happens. Pictures not necessary for the first email but I definitely want to see you. I’m just a lonely girl looking to have some fun with the right man.”

3] The auto-reply setting of the e-mail is key:

This is the auto-generated reply:

“Hi there, thanks for your reply to my ad, I hope you’re guy I’m looking for. Could you please register for free at *insert affiliate link* and send me your profile ID, Hon? It’s important so you can see my profile with pictures and a cell phone number.”

Aftermath

Now, most of us that spend enough time online, would “smell something fishy” here, right? C’mon…affiliate link? But, it does work. I tried it myself for 3-4 hours and made over $40 until my ads were flagged in Craig’s List.

The bottom line is you can never be sure who you are speaking with online. Many men enjoy posing as a woman online (for some odd reason)… so, it would just be a matter of time before internet marketers would pick this up and run with it.

I still say… you find me anyone making consistent money online… and they’re up to something shady.

Anyway… what do you think of these tactics?

p.s. No, you’ll never have a “Crying Game” moment… because the chance of meeting is less than 0%.

As a blogger, I enjoy discussing various topics and issues with other bloggers. Blogging is a discipline that binds a lot of us together. There’s a connection. We struggle with many of the same challenges.

Besides blogging, the niche/category of blogging you chose also is a great opportunity to discover other bloggers who share the same passion you do, in the same field. Ultimately, these are the same bloggers who will be battling you in Google keyword searches, but a little competition is healthy, right?

Where do you find other bloggers though? It’s time to stop staring at your own blog and go off-page, shall we? There’s blogging communities, forums, and social media venues…such as the king of social media…Facebook? Heck no, I’m referring to Twitter!

But, soon you’ll discover something on the way to the party that will make you job much harder. Come see for yourself.

Marketing & Promotion

One of the first things I discovered about blogging was that building the perfect mouse trap and waiting on the mouse… was an exercise in futility.

Imagine being a real estate salesperson and conducting an open house. The house is ready, you’re prepared…you wait for the buyers…yet, they never come. Just as in blogging, the “if I build it, they will come” model has been regarded as a completely ineffective method.

The simple way to overcome this is in identifying people who would have an interest in your blog and bringing your blog to them! Of course you sought out areas of the Net that contained the highest concentration of prospective readers…and social media made this easy!

Like the instructions on a shampoo bottle (lather, rinse, repeat), you duplicated this same process. Although, this slow, lethargic course of saturating the blogosphere is often dreaded by many bloggers who don’t have the patience to gradually expose their blog in this manner.

The Culture Of Social Media, Forums, and Blogging Communities

When you walk through the door of these places, it quickly becomes evident there are a lot of people there who are not there for the same reason you are. You are a very serious, committed blogger who is striving to achieve great things in the blogosphere. While others are not.

Obviously to succeed, you’ll have to develop a subtle approach to networking. But how? You may witness other bloggers trying to ram their blog and its content down the throat of others. While on the other hand, you may witness a constant stream of conversation that does not seem very productive at all.

Networking without a purpose is called socializing — and that’s unlikely to deliver blog traffic or develop contacts with other like-minded bloggers.

Some blog communities (e.g. Blog Catalog) have transformed into almost entirely an outlet for this type of over-socializing with very little redeeming value for the average blogger.

Reaching Your Goals vs. The Lure of Social media

My time is valuable. I want to make the most of any networking opportunity by isolating and targeting those bloggers/readers who have the potential to become a resource to me and/or add value to the existing community here on Source Blogger.

I’m well aware that the world does not revolve around my blog. But, I want it to be clear that I am here for a purpose. Sure, if I was someone like Robert Scoble, Darren Rowse, or Matt Cutts, I could go off on a tangent about travel, surfing, or Polynesian food. The difference is that I’d already be a very recognized figure. While you and I are not… (as yet!) So, at this point, while still trying to create your brand, your best bet would be to stay conscious of your dialogue and what you want the intended result to be.

We all love social media. But it does have the potential to distract bloggers and make their time unproductive. If you are going to spend any considerable  amount of time discussing issues outside of our blog, create a special, personal account for that purpose.

My wife often says that a lot of the biggest business deals happen on the golf course; contracts are signed, companies are bought & sold. Surprisingly, blogging is really no different than this.

But, to use her analogy…as bloggers, golf to your hearts content! But, without the desired results, it’s well…just golf!

The reality is that most of your faithful readers will undoubtedly be bloggers themselves.

Developing a relationship with a blogger requires a great deal of mutual respect and trust. They have to juggle their personal lives with their blog responsibilities and still find the time to read, comment, share, and RT your articles too.

One of the misconceptions when starting out new in the blogosphere is that you can bypass this process of networking and interacting with bloggers.

You can’t. Period. End of story.

Let’s take a deeper look into what makes up these relationships and why we would even want to develop online friendships. Shall we?

Google

Google is about the only “free lunch” we get as bloggers. I am grateful for the traffic it sends to my small directory of blogs.

But, as I really pour over my blog analytics (stats), the greatest amount of page views and community contribution I see comes from my friends, peers, and colleagues.

And it’s obvious that in any link building strategy, it will most likely be from the relations I create and not Google that will help my blog the most.

Remind me why I want/need online relationships again?

• Develop mutually beneficial connections
• Generate more awareness for your own blog
• Establish credibility in my chosen niche/category
• Grow your blog readership and community
• Build your brand

Now that we’ve established the merits for creating and cultivating these relationships, let’s discuss how to approach other bloggers, where to find them, and what to do when we’ve made the contact.

I’m assuming that part of the keyword study in your niche/category was also finding out who were some of the most influential bloggers who also published similar content as you. Since the blogosphere is always losing and adding new blogging talent, it’s important to keep up to date with your industry’s activity and to make a point of having an overview of what’s going on and who’s saying what.

When you publish a new article, place the title in Google and look at the results. Click-through to the blogs prominent from the results page and spend some time determining if this is someone to develop a relationship with. Social media sites like Twitter are a good way to develop your “circle” too.

You may be overwhelmed by the multitude of blogs and bloggers out there. How you keep track of it all is up to you. Some people keep their favorite blogs in a ‘favorites’ tab, others use spread sheets, and others subscribe to blogs.

What am I supposed to say to other bloggers anyway?

There are going to be days where comments are limited, tweets are minimal, and you’re not having many discussions with other bloggers.

If that is the case for you, you can imagine how it is for other bloggers. So, reach out to them. Break the ice! Don’t be shy! What’s the worst that could happen? They ignore you? So what?

Convince them you are a genuine and sincere person. Bloggers are generally suspicious in nature, so don’t let this alarm you if their arms are not wide open at first. It will generally take a steady dose of interaction for them to become comfortable with you.

Find a common point of interest… like THEIR blog maybe?! Mention an article you read on their site. Be supportive and complimentary. This is not the time to argue some petty philosophical issue. Assure them that you would like to be part of the discussions on their blog.

And really mean it.

Now repeat these steps daily. You’re not always going to have the same impact, but bloggers will enjoy engaging with you if you are positive, friendly, and have a good attitude.

What else could you do?

• Include them in “best of” or weekly lists
• Offer to guest post for them
• Promote their blog throughout the blogosphere

You are actually a helpful resource to other bloggers. Demonstrate your value.

If you are that selfish, money first, it’s all about me, willing to “step-on-the-throats-of–others-to-succeed” type of blogger, this article is not for you. Nor will you ever be successful in my book.

Um, I think I made a friend, now what?

Before you even start on your quest, you must be prepared for others to inquire about you. And they will do some investigating!

They’re going to go straight for your blog. After they’ve assessed how much time went into your blog’s presentation and layout, they’ll read your ‘About Me’ page, your advertising page, check out your Alexa Rank, Page Rank, Twitter subscribers, Blog subscribers, comment counts, age of your blog,…and most of all, read your content!

Be prepared for this. Impress them. It will be much easier for them to reciprocate when they like you too.

In Closing

At this point in the article, I am supposed to be reinforcing the benefits of making friends, but it actually so much more than just link building and promotion.

There’s a great deal of personal enjoyment that comes from growing together, learning from each other, and mutual discovery.

One of the true realities of being a blogger, is that your blog will only ever be read by a very small portion of other bloggers out there. Fortunately, you have the power to offset that by being more socially dynamic.

Use that power.

Your true friend,

Jeffrey Baril – Source Blogger

It probably never dawned on you that Facebook, Digg, Networked Blogs and Blog Catalog would be in collusion to steal your Adsense earnings, did it?

Thanks to the recent upgrade to Digg, the Iframe toolbar was (finally) retired!

Unfortunately, the Iframe toolbar is still a reality for readers who access your blog through Facebook, Networked Blogs, and Blog Catalaog.

Does this mean they are laughing all the way to the bank? No… although, they are diverting your revenue and preventing you from cashing in.

Still in disbelief?

Let me explain… I’ve done a little research on this.

Are Facebook, Blog Catalog, and Networked Blogs Stealing Your AdSense Earnings?

The dreaded framed page.

If you are a frequent (or infrequent) user of Facebook, Digg, and Blog Catalog, do you remember clicking on a link that successfully brought you to the desired page, but it was framed?

I can tell by that blank look on your face, you either don’t remember or it’s not sunk in yet.

Digg.com

Let me show you. Here is an example of Digg’s Framed Page: See that toolbar?

This is at the top of your page when viewing an article. It’s almost like a built-in toolbar with many user interfaces.

Take a closer look:

This is how your blog URL appeared to the legions of  Digg readers:

Does that look like your blog’s URL? Of course not! Would anyone even remember your blog after viewing it? So, remember that flood of traffic you used to receive with Digg? Guess what…

This shouldn’t look all that foreign to you. You probably just never realized the repercussions of this and whet it meant for your blog.

Blog Catalog

That’s the framed section of the page for Blog Catalog.

And the URL?

Yikes! Does that look like http://sourceblogger.com to you?

You say you get a significant amount of traffic from Facebook ,Blog Catalog, and Networked Blogs? But are these REAL 100% pageviews and hits? Well… now that things are being made more clear to you, How does this make you feel now? How did this impact your traffic and your earnings? Think about it, my friend.

Facebook

In addition to the framed page on Facebook, you get screwed penalized in many other ways!

The fans who signed up for your blog’s Facebook Fan Page can go to the Notes tab and read your complete blog article without having to visit your site.

If it was a summary that enticed the reader to click a “Read More” that brought them to your site, that would be OK. But, the whole article?

It’s no secret that Source Blogger is on record as being publicly opposed to access to blog content that exists away from my blog pages – including many article marketing sites.

Is there anything worse than having to compete with your own off-page content that is nesting in other larger, more visible, and well-SERP’d locations that is like a magnet for Google? That jazzy little article you wrote is buried on page 6 of the search results, while the same article placed on Facebook is showing up on the first page. The Google keyword search user goes straight to that page, via the ‘Notes” tab… and leaves!

There’s no way to subscribe, leave a comment, or even get a CPM zone view (or potential CPC or CPA click) from the visit! Right?… Damn!

Networked Blogs

OK, you’re going to be slick here. You deleted the ‘Notes” tab in Facebook and intend to replace it with the ‘Blog” tab. Brilliant! The Blog tab shows a snippet of your article (from NetworkedBlogs) and the reader must click on the title of the article to read more.

Wait! Not so smart. Here is how a recent article on Source Blogger appeared to NetworkedBlog readers:

That sure doesn’t look the permalink that I assigned! http://sourceblogger.com/dealing-with-emotional-reality-of-shutting-down-blog

The Effects of A Reader Viewing Your Site Within An I-Frame

1.  Steals traffic – Blog Catalog,  Networked Blogs, and  Facebook  double their traffic by showing your content in its frame and redirecting the shortened urls back to their site instead of to your site.

2. Steals links – By creating shortened urls whose sole purpose is to redirect the viewer back to the parent site.

3. Steals content – Your content is essentially being “hosted” through the framing structure

4. Steals potential revenue – By either blocking your content/ads or by stealing ad impressions/clicks

The Solution

Since your website then is inside of a “window” type frame, your site is not getting the actual traffic from that click, Digg and/or Facebook are.

Let’s prevent your blog from displaying the frame!

There is a way to stop this from happening to you, and it is so very simple. This script is actually quite simple, you just paste a few lines of javascript code into the HEAD section of all the pages in your site EXCEPT the index page:

The code is as follows:


<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

if (top.location != self.location) top.location.replace(self.location);

</script>

This will prevent your website from being framed in the future, and will prevent any loss of traffic and or revenue from ad providers such as AdSense or AdBrite.

Some of you may be in shock over this. I know, I know… no one has ever explained this to you. Take a moment. Catch your breath. Now type your response in the comment section below. I want to hear what you think!

I have been using Digg, Facebook, NetworkedBlogs, and BlogCatalog for years now! Say it isn’t so!

“First of all, why would I want to add this to my Blogger / Blogspot template? Don’t I already have social bookmarking options already?”

Although, Google Blogger Blogspot has recently made more changes available to your readers at the footer of your articles:

1) The list of choices available may will limit your reader from the ability to broadcast your article effectively to the ideal social medium.

2) The bookmarking interface is unsightly or not dynamic enough to invoke a response from your readers.

Primary Goals of Social Media Marketing

1) Harness huge amounts of traffic to a blog or website in a very little amount of time.

2) Blog exposure to new visitors, readers and advertisers.

3) Increased revenues, subscribers, and comments.

4) Creating effective backlinks in social media venues is an effective SEO strategy.