Lee Stacey Tech Geek

Getting more Twitter followers... The cheating method

2011-01-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

There are many ways to get more Twitter followers and by far the best way is the organic method as detailed in my post "A Twitter follower is for life, not just for Christmas" but it is possible to game the system and if done carefully, without being blacklisted. The method I will show you here uses three different services to increase, retain and manage your follower count.

Step 1 - Get new followers

There is an app for that! In fact, there are many but one that seems to work is an app called "Twiends". This allows you to build up credits by following others through the service and those credits are then used to list you for following. Try not to be greedy and follow too many though or you will be punished by the Twitter Gods!

One good way to build up credits is through Facebook likes. You can add your own Facebook pages here too. By liking things on Facebook using Twiends, you're not running the risk of Twitter blacklisting for following too many!

Subscribing to their newsletter gets you a bunch of free credits and they also send out vouchers from time to time. They also have an affiliate link which earns you 25 credits on sign up.

My advice is to go easy on the Twitter "Twiends", use the Facebook likes that score 4 credits or above and take advantage of the newsletter credits. Slow burn is the key to sustainable growth!

Step 2 - Auto follow your new followers

Auto following your followers back is the best way to keep hold of followers picked up through services like Twiends. For this, I use a service called "SocialOomph". They offer a lot of premium services for follower management and scheduling but their follow back feature is free.

It's worth mentioning also that if you're trying to build followers for a targeted marketing campaign, they also offer keyword tracking facilities. Be very careful here though because you can easily run into follower churn issues with the Twitter Gods!

Step 3 - Clear out the dead wood

Using services such as those I've listed above, you will end up with lots of followers that drop you soon after you've followed them. To deal with this I use a tool called "JustUnfollow". This service only allows 50 unfollows per day by default, which is actually a good thing because it helps with flying below the radar. You should make this a daily task!

All important warning

I cannot stress enough how you need to be careful when using automation to grow your followers. If you go too mad your Twitter account may end up suspended due to what Twitter consider "aggressive follower churn". If they decide to treat you nicely upon discovering your automation habits, they may still exclude you from search which can be very damaging to your overall presence on the social web.

You have been warned!

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Getting your social media ducks all in a row

2010-12-28T04:03:00.000-08:00

If you're going to stand a chance at making money from a blog, it really helps to get all your social media ducks in a row. Sure, search engines will help people find your work but a little bit of a push over Twitter, Google Buzz or Facebook will help a great deal... There are also many other social media platforms worth investigating.

While most social media links are nofollow, they do make your media instantly and easily shareable. This means more traffic, which on a blog whose aim is to turn traffic into cash is a good thing!

Be warned though, people don't like spam. If you're going to use social media tools, be prepared to be social!

Making money from a blog using Google Adsense

2010-12-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

I've decided it's about time I started making money from blogging again. No magic tricks, just some SEO friendly copy that reads well and will hopefully be useful to you, the reader and good healthy use of Google Adsense. Want to know more? Of course you do. That's why you're here!

Choose Blogger

If you want to monetize a blog using Adsense, there's no better platform for doing so than the old favourite, Blogger. Firstly, it's owned by Google so you know it indexes well and if you stick to their standard templates all the SEO tech stuff is already taken care of. Not only that but Adsense is built in. Job done.

Good copy FTW

Of course you will need to get writing and you're going to have to do plenty of it too. You'll also need to write the right kind of content... That's the hard bit but if you refer to a post on my other blog "5 simple SEO tweaks for bloggers" you'll find a couple of tips there to help you get your copy right, with the right keywords and plenty of incoming traffic.

What about affiliate stuff?

Not gonna lie... I will be dumping some of that stuff in here too but I'll keep it interesting and relevant. If I don't, you won't come back!

So that's it?

Not quite. I will also be setting up some feed aggregators and other such bits. I'll keep you informed and write about those here. In the meantime, I'm going to sit back and count my money. ;)