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ProBlogger Christmas Eve Party – Save This Date

Darren Rowse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:57:43 +0000

OK – last year I did an impromptu ProBlogger ‘Christmas office party’ on Christmas Eve. It basically involved me drinking beer and eating some chips sitting in front of a webcam while Twitter followers dropped by to say G’day. We did a bit of Q&A and had some fun for an hour or so.

This year I want to open it up to everyone and give you a little advanced warning.

This year I’m going to do it a little earlier in the day (I’ll swap out beer and chips for coffee and a muffin) and it’ll be on at 9am this coming Thursday Melbourne time.

This will make it:

2pm Wednesday in Los Angeles
5pm Wednesday in New York
10pm Wednesday in London
6am Thursday in Singapore
3.30am in New Delhi (sorry friends!)

I’ll Tweet out a reminder in the lead up and when we start but it’ll be at the ProBlogger Show channel on Ustream.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

ProBlogger Christmas Eve Party – Save This Date

FeedFront Magazine Issue 9 Now Available

Shawn Collins — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:23:22 +0000

The ninth issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, is at the printer and it will be hitting mailboxes in early January 2010.

Issue nine of FeedFront will also be distributed at Affiliate Summit West 2010.

This issue of FeedFront Magazine includes The Importance of Branding in Affiliate Marketing by Rae Hoffman, How to Recycle Your Affiliate Blog Content by Justin Premick, and FTC Endorsement Guidelines by Gary Kibel.

Also, people to follow on Twitter, affiliate marketing statistics, and the program for Affiliate Summit West 2010.

Issue 9 of FeedFront can now be viewed online, downloaded, and printed from Scribd.

Get the FeedFront RSS if you’d like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

Also, become a fan of FeedFront on Facebook to see past issues, covers, etc.

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 9

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Read and comment on FeedFront Magazine Issue 9 Now Available

Disclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

Has Aweber Been Compromised? Reports of Spam Going to Aweber Lists

Darren Rowse — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:58:23 +0000

Updated: this post has been updated – twice.

I don’t want to cause alarm on this but today I’ve had emails from 11 subscribers to two of my different email lists that I administrate at Aweber complaining that they’ve been inundated with pharmaceutical spam. In each case the subscribers have set up email addresses especially for my newsletters which they use for no other purposes.

In each case they’re complaining of getting the same types of emails – up to 20 of them in a few hours.

At first I thought perhaps my account had been compromised – but I began to do some investigating and am beginning to see some others talk about the same problem. For example @planetmike tweeted about a similar problem here.

I’m not sure if he’s talking about my newsletters – that’s a possibility.

Further searching in a few webmaster forums turns up similar discussions.

Webmaster World – “Today I got pharma/ED spam to various of those unique addresses. After a little research, I found the common thread: The companies I gave those addresses to use AWeber’s services. (AWeber provides mailing list services to businesses, e.g. sending newsletters to a company’s customers.)”

WarriorForum – “Today I am getting deluged with spam to addresses that are on aWeber lists, including a couple of email addresses that have ONLY been given to aWeber.”

From another user in the WarriorForum – “I’ve been having EXACTLY the same issue.

I have some test e-mail addresses that I ONLY use within AWeber and just today I’ve started receiving lots of spam to them.

These are e-mail addresses across multiple domains including my own and others such as GMail, etc.

These e-mails are only housed within AWeber so I know that the problem is somewhere within their systems.”

AWeber takes our security measures very strongly and employee tested technologies and measures to make sure that our system is not compromised. After receiving your email our team went through an exhaustive list of checks just to make sure that there are no indications that connects this spam message you received to an issue with AWeber. All of our tests have come back secure with no reports of intrusion or compromise.

Also note that after looking at the spam message in question we see that members of our teams have also received this same message to their personal addresses that have never been used in conjunction with AWeber.

We’ll continue to monitor our system. And of course if you have any further questions, please feel free to let me know.

I’m hesitant to make a call that Aweber has been compromised (I know they wouldn’t have played a part in this, they’re reputable and it’d be business suicide for them to be caught at that) – perhaps it’s a problem with some email service provider (although from the emails I’ve received it’s impacting people who subscribe with a variety of email providers) but something does seem to be wrong here.

I’ve got emails into Aweber and will update you with their response.

In the mean time – if you have received this spam and you’re on the ProBlogger newsletter list (as some are reporting) I sincerely apologise and hope we can get to the bottom of it.

PS: I’ve sat on this story for 18 hours hoping to get a response from Aweber but it seems that their support don’t work weekends (I’m actually a bit surprised that they don’t seem to have put any response on their blog or Twitter account as I’m now seeing more and more buzz about it in forums and on Twitter). I’ve since had another 10 or so angry complaints from readers and have seen the same thing happening for another list I have on a separate account which I use to promote the ProBlogger Book with Chris Garrett. That account is completely separate to my Aweber account and I don’t even have access to the password of it meaning that it’s not just my Aweber subscribers who are being hit.

Again – this could be a wider issue than just Aweber – perhaps some spammer is using some kind of system to target a whole lot of random email addresses – but it does seem that perhaps it’s somehow more centred around Aweber. Time will tell.

I don’t like to post this as I really love Aweber as a service (they’ve been brilliant since I switched to them) – but because readers seem to be unsubscribing and blaming me for it I wanted to make sure word was out that there may have been a problem.

I’d love to get comments from anyone who has similar experience with this in the last few days. Are your lists complaining of spam at the moment too? Hopefully in getting people’s experiences we’ll be able to help Aweber get to the bottom of what’s happening.

Update: Within half an hour of posting this Aweber got in touch. They’re not ready to make a public statement on this but are happy for me to pass on that they’re aware of it and are “doing extensive investigations into any possible issues.”

From what I can tell they’re collecting lots of data – perhaps if you have any specific data from those in your lists including header information of spam emails it could be worth emailing Aweber to let them know of your problem and any data that you have. I’d suspect that specific information would be helpful to them.

Update 2: Aweber have now made a statement about the compromise of data from their system. You can read my initial reactions to that here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Has Aweber Been Compromised? Reports of Spam Going to Aweber Lists

How to Be A More Productive Blogger [And Add 37 Minutes to Every Hour!]

Darren Rowse — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:33:20 +0000

This week, on a busier than normal day, I Tweeted that I wish there were more hours in a day (or that there was a pause button so that time could stand still for a bit so I could catch up). The tweet was of course an attempt at humor but the deluge of replies that I received from that Tweet revealed that I’m not the only blogger out there that wishes they had more time.

As I giggled at the responses it struck me that if I’d not posted that message on Twitter about how I wish I’d had more time that I’d probably have had an extra 6 minutes that hour to get the things I needed to get done finished.

While I’m glad I did get on Twitter for those 6 minutes (it gave me a laugh, made me relax and lightened my day a little) I began to think about all the other small little distractions and time suckers we as bloggers face and on a whim (and for a bit of fun) came up with this list of how to be a more productive blogger.

How to be a more productive blogger:

Turn off Twitter – 6 minutes an hour
Turn off Facebook – 3 minutes an hour
Stop checking your Traffic Stats – 2 minutes an hour
Stop checking your AdSense Earnings – 2 minutes an hour
Stop Tweaking your blog design – 3 minutes an hour
Stop checking your Google Page Rank – 1 minute an hour
Turn off Email – 5 minutes an hour
Log out of your RSS Feed Reader – 2 minutes an hour
Stop checking to see if someone Dugg your latest post – 1 minute an hour
Stop checking affiliate earnings/e-book sales earnings – 2 minutes an hour
Turn off any other Social Media Sites (LinkedIn/StumbleUpon/Plurk/Reddit etc) – 3 minutes an hour
Turn of Skype, Gtalk and all other IM services – 4 minutes
Stop Reading Blog Tips and Start Blogging – 3 minutes an hour

By my calculations this gives you an extra 37 minutes an hour to do what you need to do. Over an 8 hour work day I’ve just found you a smidgen under 5 hours!

What would you add?

Update: No I’m not really serious. While we could be more productive as bloggers by minimizing a lot of this stuff there can also be a lot of good things come from these activities. I guess it’s about knowing your goals, setting good boundaries and engaging in these kinds of activities to the extent that they help us achieve our goals.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Be A More Productive Blogger [And Add 37 Minutes to Every Hour!]

13 Types of Posts that Always Get Lots of Comments

Darren Rowse — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:02:38 +0000

Over the last week I’ve had a couple of record days of getting comments on my own blogs. Here on ProBlogger my ‘win a book’ competition drew in 1512 comments while on DPS asking my readers if they had a photoblog and giving opportunity for them to promote it drew in 592 (although this will go a lot higher tonight when I send my newsletter out).

It’s no surprise that these types of posts got a lot of comments – for one I specifically asked for comments and there was a tangible benefit for commenting in each case (the chance to win something and the chance to promote something) – but what other types of posts get lots of comments?

I asked my followers on Twitter to share some of their most commented upon posts to see if I noticed any trends on types of posts that drew readers out of lurking mode to react with a comment.

Here are 13 types of posts that were most common in people’s responses with a few links to examples.

Note: some of the examples could have been used in multiple categories and some get more comments than others – but that’s because they are from smaller blog where the blogger doesn’t normally see loads of comments. I could have found bigger more well known blogs as examples but decided to go mainly with ‘normal’ blogs from readers as I think it is probably more useful than highlighting just mega blogs that get lots of comments on most posts.

1. Competitions

Lets start with the most obvious – give people the chance to win something by leaving a comment and you’re well on the way to drawing people into leaving a comment. Example: Giveaway: SKIL 4-piece Power Tools Combo Kit.

2. Personal Stories

Sometimes sharing something personal really draws people into what you’re writing. I know when I’ve shared something from my personal life on my blog – either as an off topic post or as a way to illustrate something that I’m talking about that it always draws people in. This is particularly powerful if you share a problem overcome, a failure or something that people can relate to. Examples: I’m a Mom and Exposed.

3. Show Off Posts/Share a link

These types of posts ask your readers to show or share something that they’ve done, written, created etc. The ’show us your photoblog’ link above is an example of this. So to was another of my posts – ‘Share Your Best Photo‘.

4. Creative Posts

posts where the blogger has gone to extra lengths to do something out of the ordinary and creative often have a ‘wow factor’ that gets people commenting. Example: Disney’s “A Whole New World” Sung in Pictures.

5. Hacks

Walk people through a process or show them how to do something for themselves (DIY). These types of posts are great for traffic but I find that they also tend to get reactions – particularly if it’s a good and helpful hack. Example: Apparently My Bling Likes to Swing.

6. Meaty Posts

It was fascinating to read through the 80-90 links to most commented upon posts that people sent me – one thing I noticed is that it was often quite long and in depth posts that seemed to be getting commented upon. Longer resources that really looked deeply at a topic or that gave comprehensive advice. Example: How NOT to Suck at Blogging (this post probably fits into some of the other categories too – it is strong, opinionated and pretty in your face – all of this Elicits a strong response).

7. Relatable Posts

Many of the posts talked about were on topics that a lot of people would have been able to relate to. Not always personal stories – but on issues and problems that lots of readers might face. They draws out people to tell their story or personal reflection on their own experiences with the topics. Example: Why Do Women Let Themselves Go (this post also has a strong headline and perhaps some controversy attached to it).

8. Question Posts

Ask a question and those who hear it are wired to answer it. I find when I include a question in the title of my posts that comment numbers tend to be at least double normal posts. Do Young Entrepreneurs Need to Go to Collge? (a post that had a question it its very title – as long as some opinion and meat to it). Also What Camera Gear Would You Buy if you were Given $1000 to Spend? (this post not only asked a question but was a hypothetical/fun post on a topic that I knew would also create some debate between readers loyal to different types of cameras. Also Net Worth vs Self Worth: The Passion Paradox (while this post isn’t a pure question post there’s a strong call for people to react in it and the blogger highlights other people’s posts on the topic/reactions).

9. Debate or Controversy Posts

Put two or more opposing arguments to your readers and step back to see what happens. Example: Which Digital Camera Manufacturer is Best? (this is an old post when we only had a few readers – I’m too scared to post the question again as this question always gets people so fired up). Also Adam Lambert’s Jacket Auctioned for $2000 (not a debate but certainly stirred up some controversy).

10. Opinion Pieces

Expressing your own strongly held opinion on an issue will generally have your readers examining their own opinions. If you do express it strongly you can expect your readers to share what they think strongly also. Example: I like Dave Ramsey, But He is Still Wrong. Also Why our Current Education System is Failing (also some controversy/debate in this one too).

11. Humor

Humor evokes a natural physical reaction (smiling and laughter) which sometimes also comes out in other ways (like sharing a reaction, passing it on to a friend etc). Example: I took 1,973 pictures of my children on vacation and all I got was this lousy blog post (also a personal type post).

12. Group Projects/Challenges

This is one I’ve used quite a bit over the years – getting readers all to go and do something and then come back and share the results. Examples: Top 5 – Group Writing Project, Enter the Passion to Profit Challenge and RED: Weekend Photography Challenge.

13. Mega Lists/Resources

There is nothing like a mega/over the top list of resources or links relevant to your niche to draw in traffic and comments. These posts are a lot of work but tend to do well in social media – but also at getting comments. You get comments from those in the list, from those who want to be in the list, from those who find the list useful, from those who think your list is skewed and biased…. etc. Example: 87 Great Photography Blogs and Feeds.

What Was Your Most Commented Upon Post?

Of course these 13 types of posts just scratch the surface – I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you’d add.

I’d also love to see your most commented upon blog post. Dig back through your archives and find 1-2 examples of where you had comment numbers way above your normal average and share the link below!

Further Reading: 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog (ironically another of my most commented upon posts ever).

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

13 Types of Posts that Always Get Lots of Comments

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First Timers Guide for Affiliate Summit West 2010

Shawn Collins — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:42:12 +0000

I’ve put together a presentation with advice for folks attending Affiliate Summit for the first time.

Have a quick look for guidance on when to arrive, the dress code, what to bring, following Affiliate Summit West 2010 on Twitter, and more.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, sign up for the Affiliate Summit Mentor Program where Affiliate Summit veterans team up with first timers to help them get the most out of the conference.

First Timers Guide for Affiliate Summit West 2010
View more presentations from Affiliate Summit.

Visit http://www.affiliatesummit.com for more details on the conference.

Video: First Timers Guide for Affiliate Summit West 2010

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Read and comment on First Timers Guide for Affiliate Summit West 2010

Disclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

Socializing your feed with Twitter

Steve Olechowski — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:23:00 +0000
Sometimes you reach across the hedgerow to share with your nearby neighbors. Other times, members of the household move away and yet you can't keep from calling to remind them to wear a hat and such because it's chilly out. Today, we're celebrating acquaintances near-and-far by launching the ability to send your feed to Twitter.

FeedBurner has always been about measuring, managing, and monetizing syndicated content. Our hope is that by providing one application in which you can direct your feed in real-time to a number of endpoints, in this case Twitter in addition to the myriad feed readers, aggregators, and search engines that we have always supported, and then following on with providing analytics for measuring exactly how and where your feed gets distributed across social media, you can make better and more informed decisions about how to monetize your content.

Many of our publishers who have tried our Google Analytics feed item link integration have already noticed that their most popular feed items have been shared many times on Twitter.

We're now taking our distribution and analytics a step further by enabling the ability to automatically publish the feed items that meet your criteria to Twitter, using the Google URL shortener at goo.gl.

To get started, go to the Socialize service on FeedBurner's Publicize tab and add the Twitter account to which you would like to post items from your feed. You can take the default settings and click [Save] to start socializing immediately, or use the options we offer to customize exactly which feed items are sent to Twitter and how exactly you would like them to look. The next time you post a new item to your feed it will be sent to Twitter (as always, make sure to ping FeedBurner whenever you update your feed so this process happens as near real-time as possible).

For full details on all Socialize options, see our FeedBurner Help Center topic.

To see the results, take a look at the Twitter account in which you are sending your updates. This blog post, for instance, as well as select blog posts from this and the FeedBurner status blog, will appear from now on at http://twitter.com/feedburner. If Twitter is where you are consuming most of the latest content these days, please follow @feedburner to receive our updates in your favorite Twitter client.

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, on behalf of the Google FeedBurner team

3 Steps to Help You Choose a Topic for an E-Book

Darren Rowse — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:12:01 +0000

In my recent post on the importance of having your own product to sell I was asked in comments by Todd for advice on choosing the best topic to create an ebook on.

Here are a few quick thoughts on some starting points for choosing a topic for an e-book – mainly for people who already have a blog:

Todd – Good question. For me it was partly just about blogging for a number of years in my niche and starting to just get a hunch for what would work. I guess in that time I began to see patterns in what was working and what was not working in my niche. I also began to get to know my readers more and saw the challenges and problems that they faced.

Of course saying ‘go with your hunches’ isn’t probably the answer you were after – so below I’ve identified a few steps to work through in choosing a topic for an E-book.

Step 1: Ask Some Questions about Your Readers and Their Needs

here are some questions I’d suggest you consider to help you identify and sort through those hunches.

what questions do you keep getting asked repeatedly by readers (via email, in comments etc)?

what are readers asking you to make recommendations on?

what posts on your blog are getting the most visitors?

what posts on your blog are getting most comments/discussion?

what trends are emerging on your topic in your niche?

what’s the biggest problem or challenge for people in your niche – particularly for beginners?

what terms are people searching for to arrive on your blog?

what words are people searching for on your blogs search tool?

Answering these types of questions should point you in the direction of some topics that could be suitable for an e-book.

Step 2: Ask Some some More Probing Questions to Narrow in on the Topic

Once you’ve identified some of these topics you will probably want to narrow the field a little by asking some of these questions:

what topics have you written a lot about already that you could pull together as the basis for an e-book? (see a note on this below)

what do you know enough about to write something useful? Do you have the authority and expertise to write it yourself or should you outsource the writing?

are you interested in or passionate about the topic? I’m sure that not all authors are passionate about their topics but it sure helps because there is a lot of work involved!

is the topic you’re thinking of writing about something that really needs more than a single post – can you write enough to justify it being an e-book and something people pay money for?

are there many other resources already available on the topic – how will yours be different?

is the topic you’re thinking about too wide or narrow? Sometimes topics are too big and could end up being a series of e-books. ON the other hand some topics are too narrow to really justify being an e-book and perhaps it’d be best to widen it and look at a larger topic.

Step 3: Test Your Topics

Once you’ve narrowed Your Field – test the topics that you’ve come up with. I’ve seen a number of bloggers come up with ideas for big projects that they think are great which in reality are not. If only they’d tested their ideas before investing significant time into them!

You might want to bounce them off a fellow blogger, perhaps test them with a small group of trusted readers, ask some questions on Twitter etc. If you’ve not covered the topic much on your blog before you might also want to test the idea on your blog with a post on the topic to gauge reader interest. Alternatively you might run some kind of poll to see if your suspicions about your readers needs are confirmed.

The key is to try to find out if the topics you’re thinking of writing about are the types of things people are REALLY interested in and willing to pay for. Note: This might be an ideal time for a survey.

Three last thoughts:

1. ‘How To’ Topics – My suspicion is that ‘teaching’ or ‘how to’ type e-books are going to be more attractive to potential buyers than other types. I’m sure there will be exceptions but most of the e-books that I’ve seen do well either lead people through a process, explain something, solve a problem or give them skills and understanding over a particular topic.

2. Start with a Problem – when it comes to selling an e-book you’ve got a lot better chance of convincing someone to buy it if you can tell them that it’ll solve a problem that they have. In my e-books I took the problems/challenges of ‘building a better blog’ and ‘taking better portraits’ and centered everything in the e-book around them. These problems were reflected both in the writing and the marketing of the books. Once you’ve identified a problem you’re on the right track.

3. Repurposing Old Posts – I mentioned above that you might like to consider what topics you’ve written about a lot already that you might be able to base an e-book on. All I’d want to qualify this with is that you’ll probably want to add some solid extra content to these types of e-books. I’ve proved (twice) that people are willing to pay for stuff you’ve published before but in each case I worked hard on adding extra material to make it more valuable.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

3 Steps to Help You Choose a Topic for an E-Book

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5 reasons social brands fail

admin — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:15:15 +0000

Ever since Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Youtube and the like started being the main social networks where people gather, talk and share ideas and other stuff, it became clear that this “new media” movement will replace the old TV, newspapers, static sites and even blogs that are separated and sort of un-engaged from the community.

So everyone from small startups and businesses to big corporations started to search for ways to tap into this new customer and profit source, by hiring social media consultants and creating their own accounts to promote themselves and their products.

But the new social media is quite different. In this environment, people can easily discern genuine messages and persons (who really care about the others) from simple and quite selfish spam (which includes, for example, products promotion and corporate news on Twitter, Facebook and other networks, which no one cares about, judging by the followers/subscribers count).

So, what are the main reasons why a lot of big and small companies and brands fail on new social media networks?

1.       They don’t provide value to their followers.

A lot of brands just tweet about their products and give out information about events, sales, etc. The thing is, people don’t really care, whether they like your product or not. How about providing your followers with special discounts, information or events? That wouldn’t be too hard to organize and it would really surprise everyone in a positive way. Plus, a lot more people will join you because of that.

2.       They do not listen to people and the community.

When people are giving you feedback, you have to accept it, whether good or bad (companies used to pay for that in the past!). But that is not enough! You also must act upon what the community tells you. If everyone is saying that you need a certain feature in your product, you can’t just ignore them and release a new version with that feature still missing. This will make you lose credibility in front of customers, and, on the Internet, it will never be forgotten (anyone doing a quick search for reviews of your product will find those negative opinions and will think thrice before buying it).

3.       They’re not social.

You can’t be on a “Social Network” and not engage in conversations with people. That’s what it’s all about! Talk, share good and interesting information, be more open and personal, and answer everyone’s questions. If you’re getting a lot of comments or tweets and don’t’ reply, it’ll seem like you don’t care about the brand at all, which will most probably get you off the “Trusted” list of most people.

4.       They’re not fun.

A lot of brands are having trouble with this one. Most of them are used to being serious and all business like, but that attitude backfires on them when they try getting into social media. They try to control what they say and do, but that is simply not a good decision, because people will spot it from a mile away. You’ve got to be fun, let people see something interesting, make mistakes, and do other things to show you’re genuine. If you’re scared of being more open, you shouldn’t try to become social.

5.       They are selfish.

No one likes people who just join a community to start shouting and boasting about themselves and their products or offers. This will never work when the people make the rules and have choices. They will just turn away and never listen to you again. Don’t just try to make a quick profit, aim for long-term relationships, and provide win-win situations. It is really not that hard. If you are a software company, you could, for example, provide free copies for the first XX people that reply to you, or something similar. This will make those people happy that they are your followers and they will tell everyone about it. Even those who didn’t get the freebie will have a better opinion of you (and most of them will think “I’d better subscribe, who knows, maybe they’ll have something like this in the future”).

That’s it, reread the above points and keep them in mind for when you try to get your brand noticed and popular on social media networks.

5 mistakes to avoid on Twitter

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:23:56 +0000

Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms nowadays, and it is the number one network in micro-blogging (posting short updates and messages under 150-200 characters). Having a Twitter account is a must for anyone socially active and/or who wants to communicate/sell something to customers.

But there is a certain unspoken code of conduct on Twitter, which new users (whether big companies that are looking for new customers or just individual people who want to connect with their friends) don’t know anything about, so they end up making exactly the same mistakes. This happens over and over again on new accounts, and it can really hurt your reputation if you’re just starting out and are already getting into trouble.

Here are the 5 most common mistakes of new Twitter users, which you should remember and avoid:

1.       Not using an avatar, a good, descriptive bio and a custom profile background.

This is the number one “Why do they do it?” mistake made mostly by individuals (companies at least bother to use a logo). It is very easy and fast to upload a picture (which you use on other sites or just a photo of yourself; if you don’t like it, you can change it later) and write up a short, but descriptive bio. You know what is most commonly associated with missing avatars? Spammer accounts. Just take some time and do it so you won’t regret it later. As for the profile background, it is actually optional, but it will really make you look more professional or organized if you use a custom one.

2.       Trying to get popular people to reply to you.

It’s OK if you write a good, informative or interesting message to a few persons you want to friend (or are already following and want them to follow you back), but when you start poking everyone popular just to get them to notice you and possibly reply, you’re kind of crossing the line. The same goes for tweeting controversial or offensive stuff like “I think he was fined for DUI yesterday” just to get someone popular to reply (which would make those that follow him notice you, though I doubt they’ll ever want to be friends with you).

3.       Not sharing interesting stuff.

Twitter is not just for personal or business use. You can’t talk only about yourself, your products or other people and expect to have a lot of followers. And you should not provide only value (as weird as that sounds); interesting, funny and quite useless stories and news must also be shared. This will make you seem more personal to other people, and will raise your status from “Useful, but boring, cool…” to “Wow, Useful and fun!”, which is, of course, a good thing.

4.       Not engaging in conversations.

Don’t stick to just one-way or two-way messages. Engage in a group discussion around an event or something that interests you. This will help you get noticed and be more popular. But please, don’t just do it for the sake of doing it (like tweeting “Cool, thanks” or “OK, good bye”, they’re not helpful and are just confusing sometimes).

5.       Not seeing Twitter as a primary communication tool.

Twitter is not a novelty anymore. Hundreds of millions of people are using it, with thousands new users joining daily. Just like Youtube is the number one tool for video sharing and LinkedIn is the most popular business/personal profile service, so is Twitter the main way to engage and communicate with friends, partners, consumers or businesses.

Remember the above points and don’t repeat them on your new profile like thousands of other people still do, and you will raise a rank above, guaranteed.