Our content marketing mentor today is Kristi Hines, one of those people you tend to think “She is doing too much too well for one person” Today we’ll try to pick her brain and learn how she is doing that!
**To join us please sign in here -> Twchat.com/hashtag/vcbuzz
About Kristi
Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, professional blog, and social media enthusiast. Her latest course helps bloggers promote their content in a variety of ways, including ViralContentBuzz!
@kikolani – I just signed up for your free 8 days to promotable content course – thanks #vcbuzz
— Phil Turner (@Philtrate) February 18, 2014
Kristi’s website: http://kikolani.com
Questions we are going to discuss
Q1 The latest post published on your blog is titled “32 Experts Share Their Best Blog Post Promotion Tips“. We would like to start by asking you the same question. What would you say has been your #1 blog promotion tip?
Promote on all the top networks: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+, and Pinterest. It may feel like a lot, but… Some of your fans may only use one network religiously. You’ll miss those fans if you don’t post to their preferred network.
@kikolani Do you prefer to use instagram for content promotion as its mainly used for sharing images , how can we make use of it ? #vcbuzz
— Navneet (@Javamazon) February 18, 2014
@Javamazon I’ve tried Instagram a few times – it’s tougher since you can’t put live links in the posts. #vcbuzz
— Kristi Hines (@kikolani) February 18, 2014
Q2: There has been a lot of talk about “the death of guest blogging” the sky is falling. We really don’t want it to beat a dead horse with that exact same conversation but would like your take on a couple of things.
This is a three part question.
Q2A: You closed your blog to guest contribution awhile back. Can you please elaborate on your reasoning for doing so?
I was being flooded by really bad requests, and I just didn’t have the time to deal with them anymore. While I got a lot of good posts, I still had ones that I would read, consider, then find out they were stolen / spun. Probably 80% bad, 20% good. It’s very time consuming if you are a one person show.
@kikolani why not just ignore the bad ones? That’s what I do ? #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) February 18, 2014
Q2B: What changes have you seen (positive or negative) after closing guest contribution to Kikolani?
I just publish less content on my site than before. Traffic and mailing list opt-ins haven’t actually been hurt though.
Q2C: Do you think content marketing will continue to be a viable marketing tactic for businesses in the years to come?
Absolutely! Businesses just have to INVEST time/money in quality content. $5 writers off Fiverr don’t cut it anymore.
The sad truth is people will never stop looking for shortcuts ? #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) February 18, 2014
@seosmarty The whole SEO thing is a bit of a shortcut. Isn’t it? #vcbuzz
— Yoav Ezer (@YoavEzer) February 18, 2014
@seosmarty Unfortunately many shortcuts are still working, and better then doing it the right way. Very frustrating! #vcbuzz
— David B. Faltz (@dfaltz) February 18, 2014
Q3: Another blog promotion question. Another two part question.
Q3A: What are your two top social media platforms for blog promotion?
The top network driving traffic to my blog is StumbleUpon, followed by Facebook and Twitter.
Q3B Can you tell us a little bit about your blog promotion strategy on these?
Ironically, I don’t do much with StumbleUpon – that’s all organic stumbles from my readers. For FB, I post on my personal profile and page, plus use promoted post ads. For Twitter, I post the update multiple times throughout the day using different text. And for big posts, I use ViralContentBuzz for an extra boost. ?
Q4: You are constantly coming up with some of the best content we’ve seen on the web (which never ceases to amaze). Can you tell us a little bit about where you get your ideas and inspiration?
Most ideas come from things I am curious to learn about or problems I want to solve. I also keep a spreadsheet for topic ideas that pop up, but I don’t have time to write about. It makes a nice rainy day source.
@philtrate @seosmarty I get more referrals from my client work and guest posts than my blog. #vcbuzz
— Kristi Hines (@kikolani) February 18, 2014
Q5: Awhile back you left your full time job at an SEO agency to take on freelancing full time. What advice would you give to someone looking to take on content marketing/writing full time?
You need a strong portfolio to earn a living from writing. If you are a SEO writer, you need credits like Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Watch, not HubPages and Ezine. Best way to get those credits: guest blogging on authoritative sites in your industry. And your own blog also makes a great part of your portfolio if you are creating quality content there too. Tip: Use WP RSS Aggregator with your author RSS feed to create a portfolio page like this: http://kristihines.com/freelance-writing-portfolio/
@kikolani a bit off topic : How much do you write every day? #vcbuzz
— Yoav Ezer (@YoavEzer) February 18, 2014
@YoavEzer 2 – 3 posts a day, depending on length and topic. ? #vcbuzz
— Kristi Hines (@kikolani) February 18, 2014
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