1000 True Fans part 2

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Submitted by Matthew Needham on 15 Comments

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photo credit: Photos8.com

In the first part of this two part post we looked at how to grow your revenue via the concept of 1000 True Fans. In this post we focus on how to get 1000 True Fans.

Wikipedia defines a fan as:

someone who has an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking and enthusiasm for a sporting club, person (usually a celebrity), group of persons, company, product, activity, work of art, idea, or trend.

So how do you as a website / business owner get fans?

You get fans by lots of hardwork, but essentially this means connecting with people using the following 4 step process.

1. Write lots of content

Write lots of content that your target market is going to be interested in. Stuff that they need to know, giving them reasons to come back and visit your site. Make the content interesting but more importantly make it useful. Update your site regularly so there is always lots of fresh content.

2. Hang out with your potential customers

Be where your customers are. Find out what websites your potential customers hang out on and make sure you go there too. If you don’t know what sites they like. Make a point of asking them, through say an online poll or ask your visitors through a post what other sites they visit or email the people who comment on your site and ask them for their advice. Connect with people.

Also you need to comment on the blog posts where your potential customers hang out and as many relevant sites as you can find.

Another great way to generate visitors is by submitting guest posts to these sites and others. My good friend James Richmond at theinfopreneur recommends that you comment on 20 blogs a day. Make sure you do too. But don’t go putting nice post as your comment. Put something meaningful and give insight. Don’t just try and promote your products.

Be out there. Make sure your potential customers know your name and recognise your style. However, be yourself style wise, don’t be influenced too much by others.

3. Add lot’s of value

The best way of adding value to your visitors is to answer your readers specific questions. Which you can do by inviting readings to ask questions and post the responses on your site.

4. Promote

Step 4 is the culmination of all your hard work, make sure that people know all about it. Write and promote, write and promote. Post to Twitter, Facebook, everywhere you can. Make sure that people know all about your content.
Finally, you need to capitalise on this content. You need to get your new visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or RSS feed (What is RSS?)

For the management of my newsletters I use Aweber email management which has a whole host of templates which can be customised to your needs and the facility to automatically email newsletters or messages at predetermined times.

There are other email managment tools out there, but Aweber is the tool that powers a number of the big blogs.

Once you have your fans though, don’t give them the hard sell, continue to add value in your communications and treat your fans well. Every 4-5 communications you can promote your product or service, but don’t over do it!

For more information visit theinfopreneur.net and sign up to the free tutorial – 7 days to better traffic.

Can this work for you?

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15 Comments »

TheInfoPreneur said:

Thanks for the mention brother, great information here!

It’s honestly this simple, as you say write and promote!

Your promotion is the part that takes the most work, replying to everything and being everywhere!
TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Are All These Products Too Expensive?

[Reply]

Matthew Needham Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 1:36 pm

The thing is James, people just don’t believe it. I guess most people are just after the magic bullet.

[Reply]

- 28 January 2010 at 7:33 am

Ben Lumley said:

Nice second part Matthew.

You’re right of course – you need to go out there (after creating lots of great content) and engage with your potential customers and then add value.
Ben Lumley´s last blog ..How to be a better dad

[Reply]

Matthew Needham Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

Thanks for the comment Ben, you’re absolutely right. You’ve always got to add value. Thanks for sharing!

[Reply]

- 28 January 2010 at 7:59 am

Eleanor Edwards
Twitter: giveabrick
said:

Hi Matthew,
I agree with the guys, this is a great post. The thing I’m struggling to get a handle on is promotion. Maybe between you, you can help?

I understand and am starting to implement commenting on other people’s blogs. What I’m less clear on is how to best social media.

Whilst I appreciate it works for you James, I’m not comfortable with posting blog links every 15mins or so 24/7. Equally, I understand that Ben, you promote just your latest posts via Twitter over a 48 hour period.

Is there a half way house? The site already has loads of content that no longer displays on front page. I’m biased of course but I believe it still has value. What’s the best way to promote this?

And finally, what other social media do you use and how?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Eleanor

[Reply]

Ben Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 3:34 pm

Hey Eleanor

You need to develop an update schedule through something like Twitter that you personally are comfortable with. Personally I think you update schedule, especially through Facebook is fine (James may disagree but we all do it our own way and that’s ok.)

The Social Media sites I use are Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Stumble Upon. When I release a post I set up my automated tweets to go over the next 48hrs. I then share the post on Facebook as well as sumbit it to Digg and Stumble Upon. That’s it. The biggest thing that seems to work for me is the engagement with other people through things like comments and places like Twitter. James does the same thing and it’s social engage he does that brings him the success.

I use a related posts plugin to highlight 3 related posts, not on the front page, at the bottom of each post. This helps me recycle posts if you know what I mean. I do also occassionally tweet out a link to an old post. Running a post hightlighting popular posts and ones that people might have missed every two months has worked well too.

Hope this helps
Ben´s last blog ..How to be a better dad

[Reply]

TheInfoPreneur Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:15 am

Hi Eleanor,

I totally get where you are at. I went through this same thing, but very quickly I was like, you know what it’s my site and I want people to visit.

Why not try a different post every hour? Or every 2 hours? You definately have to get your site out there, don’t think of it as your work, but bricks for the people who need it.

Spreading your content a lot is something not everyone likes, but think of it as the money boxes on every corner.
TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Are All These Products Too Expensive?

[Reply]

- 28 January 2010 at 2:09 pm

Ralph
Twitter: ralphcarlson
said:

There is no question that taking James advise has increased my readers exponentially. If your blog isn’t read, nothing much matters.
Ralph´s last blog ..Feedback and Connections

[Reply]

- 28 January 2010 at 5:53 pm

Ralph said:

Ben,
Does Akismet like this email address any better?
Ralph´s last blog ..Feedback and Connections

[Reply]

- 29 January 2010 at 12:48 am

Ralph said:

Sorry about that last comment. I meant to say Matthew.
Ralph´s last blog ..Feedback and Connections

[Reply]

Matthew Needham Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

sadly not, but don’t worry, I find them all ok!

[Reply]

- 29 January 2010 at 1:03 am

Eleanor Edwards
Twitter: giveabrick
said:

Thanks guys
The biggest thing I need first is consistency. My use of Twitter is very hit and miss at the moment.

If I planned on posting a link to the blog every hour, that is workable. But Ben, can you do me a favour and tell me how that looks from a Facebook perspective? I currently have the two linked. @replies don’t go to FB but the hourly tweets will. Is that too much for FB?

Thanks so much for your help,
Eleanor

[Reply]

Ben Lumley Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 10:47 am

Ok Eleanor will do!
Ben Lumley´s last blog ..How to be a better dad

[Reply]

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