How to Get a Custom URL for Your Facebook Page in Five Easy Steps

Does your Facebook page’s URL look something like this?

www.facebook.com/My-Facebook-Page/303188632181849

By default, your Facebook page’s URL is made up of your page’s name plus a long number. If you want to put the URL on your business card, or spell it out over the phone, this is obviously not ideal.

The good news is that you can create a custom URL (sometimes called a “vanity URL”) with a username and no number, like this:

www.facebook.com/myfbpage

In the past, you needed 25 likes to do this, but you can now do this at any time – even when you’re setting up your page.

It only takes a couple of minutes to secure your custom URL, so do it today if at all possible: the longer you delay, the higher the chance that someone will take the username that you want!

1. Login to Facebook and go to your page. (You can find it in the left-hand column of your Facebook home page, under Pages.)

2. At the top of your admin panel, click “Edit page” and select “Update Page Info”, as shown in the screenshot below:

You’ll then see this at the top of the Page Info tab:

3. Under “Page Address”, click the “Enter a Facebook web address” link, then click the new link that appears – “Create a web address for this Page?”

4. Your page should be automatically selected from the drop-down menu. Enter the username you want and click “Check availability”. You’ll need to make sure your username fits Facebook’s guidelines.

5. Make sure you’re happy with your username (and double-check the spelling) before confirming it. Once you’re sure you’re happy, click “Confirm”.

And that’s it! You should see this confirmation message:

Your old URL will redirect to the new one, so you don’t need to worry about updating your previous links.

Have you had a custom Facebook page URL for ages, or did this post prompt you to get yours? Let us know in the comments.

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Six Rules of Blogging (That Also Apply to Twitter)

I’ve been blogging for around 4 years now and despite all the changes we see in technology and software, the ‘rules’ to a successful blog tend to have remained the same. Yet, while the rules haven’t changed much, a lot of our traffic generation methods have. Gone are the days where 50 votes would guarantee a Digg homepage or you could place some technorati tags in your post and get thousands of visitors.

Each niche is getting more competitive by the day but it still doesn’t mean you can’t stand out from the crowd. One of my favourite new sites for creating relationships (hugely important) and getting website traffic has actually turned out to be Twitter. For the last few months, the micro-blogging has been in my top 5 referring sites, sending thousands of visitors monthly.

In this post I want to look at six common rules which can help with your blogging and also benefit the Twitter users of you out there who want to drive more traffic back to your site. Please note that I use the term ‘rules’ loosely, everyone has their own way of doing things and there will always be exceptions but you’ll probably find that these work well for you.

1. Provide Value

Let me ask you all a quick question: Why do you read Daily Blog Tips? I can safely assume you’re a blogger, but what is different to the hundreds of other blogging blogs out there? While answers to this may differ, the underlying factor is that the site provides value to you in one way or another and you don’t want to miss it. That is the single most important reason anyone subscribes to a blog.

They get value, whether that value is in the form of humour or in the form of how to make money, that’s what people want. Instead of getting into blogging to think of how you can benefit (mindshare, income etc) look at how you can benefit your readers. How can you make someone laugh, how can you make someone more money or in the case of this site: how can you help somebody become a better blogger?

If you offer constant value to your readers, you’ll give them an important reason to stick around.

Twitter Tip: Instead of just linking to your website all the time, why not help people out. Ask people who you can help them or even just inspire people with some motivational quotes.

2. Don’t Flood Readers with Posts

I’ve ran a number of blogs, from ones that focus on internet marketing, one that covers self improvement and for a while I even ran a celebrity blog (which I quickly sold). What I’ve learned from this is that certain types of blogs have a different level of posting frequency. If I only wrote once per week on a celebrity gossip blog then readers of the site are going to miss out on all the news.

However, if I run a site about personal development and write a 3,000 word post everyday, that’s going to be far too much for people to digest, and I’ll probably end up repeating much of what I’ve already said. Unless you run a news blog that needs to be updated multiple times per day, try to find a nice posting schedule that you can keep to. I tend to post around 3-4 times per week on my main sites.

Twitter Tip: Overactive users tend to get unfollowed. This has been minimised by tools like Tweetdeck, but if you are tweeting 10 x per minute (some people really do this) then you are going to clog up the twitter ‘stream’ and people will stop wanting your updates.

3. Take Part in the Conversation

This point is relatively obvious so I’ll get straight to the point. Blogging is not just about you and it’s actually not even just about your readers. It also includes the conversation that goes on between your blog and others in the same industry. Read the blogs of others and leave comments to let them know what you think of their sites.

Link out to others and you’ll find that people will start linking out to you; you can even go as far as connecting with other blog authors on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and stay connected that way. Do not think that your industry is confined to your blog; there’s a whole world out there.

Twitter Tip: Get to know the people that follow you and follow the leaders in your industry. I’ve made many friends this way that has led to Re-Tweets and even backlinks from their websites.

4. Make Your Blog unique

There are a lot of things you can do to make your blog stand out:

• Have a unique design
• Write long, detailed posts in a niche that writers short informative ones (or vica verca)
• Implement an idea nobody else uses like the bloggers face-off or a list of top blogs
• Bring in authority figures for interviews
• Offer content in different formats such as audio and video
• Give away a free eBook for more in-depth topics like this one I did on how to make friends

Despite new blogs being created every single day, it doesn’t mean you can’t stand out from the crowd. Make sure you offer pure value consistently with a splashing of the above and you can’t go far wrong.

Twitter Tip: Make your profile stand out by adding an image and a creatively designed profile. It looks far better than a generic offering and shows you really care about getting involved.

5. Make it Easy for Readers to Connect

Quickly think of some of your favourite blogs that you read regularly. DailyBlogTips? TechCruch? ProBlogger? Something that I find in common with people and their favourite blogs is that they know a lot about the author, and feel like they ‘know’ them a bit. For example I just know that the author of this site is Daniel and he lives in Brazil. I just know that the author of ProBlogger is Darren Rowse and he lives in Australia with his wife, V.

Do you make it easy for your readers to get to know you and connect? Some easy ways to do this include having an informative about page, using your name on posts and blog comments and even sharing your personal stories at times in your blog posts.

Twitter Tip: A good way to tell people about you on Twitter is to fill in your bio, but you can also include a link and use this as a specific ‘twitter landing page’ that quickly tells people about you and your website. This is usually far better than just sending them to your homepage.

6. Make Content Easy to Read

There is nothing worse in my opinion than content that is just split into huge chunks of text with no line breaks. Even a post like this which is well over 1,000 words, is easily scannable due to the ‘list’ format and the bold headings.

Some tips on making your content easy to read include:

• Spell-checking your posts before you publish them
• Use bullet points where necessary
• Create sub-headings for longer, in-depth posts
• If you are doing a list post, separate the points with bold headings for people who scan / skim
• Include paragraph breaks after every 3 or 4 sentences
• Read the post yourself to see that it all flows properly

Twitter Tip: Although nobody expects you to write perfectly with 140 characters. Try to make sense and don’t shorten every single word, use multiple tweets or direct messages where possible.

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Freelance Bloggers: 12 Tips to Promote Your Work With Social Media

There are growing numbers of bloggers making money by writing for other blogs. With the popularity and success of multi-authored blogs and news-related blogs, this appears to be a trend that will continue as there is a considerable need for valuable, well-written content that draws attention. As a paid writer, if the work that you produce consistently draws traffic, comments, and links, blog owners will want you to write for them. You’ll have more repeat opportunities as well as more new opportunities that find you.

Social media provides an excellent opportunity for freelance bloggers to promote their writing and draw traffic and exposure. Many paid writers assume their job is over as soon as the post is submitted. However, a little bit of extra effort to promote that post with social media could make a world of difference in the success of the post and in the amount or work that you get. Blog owners are paying for results. If you can outperform other freelance bloggers by delivering some extra traffic with social media, your services will be more complete and more effective.

Why is Social Media a Great Fit for Freelance Bloggers?

1. Portability – With social media you can build profiles on various sites that will help you with just about anything that you write. You can essentially build profiles and take them with you from job to job. Whether you write for one blog or for ten, your profiles with social media can help you to promote it all. When you start a new gig writing for a different blog, your social media profiles are ready and able to produce results right away.

2. Noticeable Results – Many blog owners that are paying writers are routinely watching stats to see which writers and which posts are producing the best results. With social media you will be able to generate enough traffic to your writing that the blog owners will take notice.

3. It’s Free – Promoting your work with social media will cost you nothing. Once you have been active, learned how the sites work, and built profiles, you can quickly promote your work at no cost.

4. Exposure – There is almost no other way to get your work in front of as large of an audience as you can with social media. If you’re using the most appropriate sites and categories to promote your work, the visitors that arrive will be fairly well targeted.

My Experience Promoting Paid Blog Posts with Social Media:

5. StumbleUpon is Key – A decent StumbleUpon profile is extremely valuable. I’m not one of the top users, but my profile is effective enough that I can submit or review one of my articles and get the ball rolling. If the article is worthy, several of my friends will wind up seeing it and giving a thumbs up or a review, leading to more traffic. StumbleUpon is also very flexible. Almost anything you produce will have a place on StumbleUpon if it is high quality. Best of all, you can start using StumbleUpon and producing results amost immediately. It’s not like Digg where you have to have a very strong profile to have a good chance at drawing traffic.

I almost never give a thumbs up to content on my primary blog, as I leave it up to readers to determine whether or not it is worthy of a stumble. However, very frequently I’ll give a thumbs up to my work on other blogs. Submitting your own content to social media can be a sticky issue for some people. I personally don’t see any problem with promoting your own work on other blogs, but I would be interested to hear your opinions on the subject. From my perspective it’s just a little something extra that I am able to provide to the blog owner that is paying me for my work.

6. Don’t Ignore Niche Sites – If you tend to cover specific topics or industries in your various projects, niche social media sites can be another great resource. While niche sites will not be able to drive as high a volume of traffic as the major social media sites, the quality of traffic will be much higher and visitors will generally be more interested.

7. Sharing Can Help – Most social media sites allow some type of functionality for sharing links with your friends. When appropraite, be willing to share your work with friends that you think will be interested. Many bloggers do this regularly for their own work, but not too many do so for their paid writing.

Some Tips for Getting Started:

8. Start with Major Sites – Unless almost all of your paid writing is highly targeted on a specific niche, general social media sites will give you the best results. Building a profile with a site like StumbleUpon will allow you to promote a higher percentage of your work. If you are just getting started, focus on what will give you the best all-around results.

9. Go for the Most Noticeable Results – One of your goals should be to create results that will get noticed by blog owers. If they notice that your work is typically bringing a lot of traffic, your work will be more valuable to them. This is another reason to focus on major social media sites. If you’re writing for a blog that draws decent traffic, the blog owner may not think very much about a niche social media site that send a few hundred visitors to one of your posts. On the other hand, a few thousand visitors from a major social media site would be very noticeable.

10. Become an Avid User – Take the time to use the social media sites that you’ve targeted on a regular basis, not just when you need to promote one of your posts. Being a strong social media user involves much more than just promoting you own work. Get to know the site and be looking for opportunities to help others as well.

11. Don’t Force It – Not every blog post will be a good fit for social media. When you write something that just isn’t likely to draw much interest from this audience, don’t force it. You’ll have better results when you stick to promoting your best work that is well-suited to social media.

12. Build a Network of Friends – Regardless of which social media site you are using, friends are a significant part of your success. Be sure to dedicate enough time and effort to build up your social media relationships. Networks of friends aren’t only important on the social media sites themselves. Many bloggers are able to help promote their work by emailing a few other blogging friends to request social media votes when they need them. Building a strong network of other bloggers can be a big help in this way. Of course, you need to be ready and willing to help others whenever you can.

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How to Get a Custom URL for Your Facebook Page in Five Easy Steps

Does your Facebook page’s URL look something like this?

www.facebook.com/My-Facebook-Page/303188632181849

By default, your Facebook page’s URL is made up of your page’s name plus a long number. If you want to put the URL on your business card, or spell it out over the phone, this is obviously not ideal.

The good news is that you can create a custom URL (sometimes called a “vanity URL”) with a username and no number, like this:

www.facebook.com/myfbpage

In the past, you needed 25 likes to do this, but you can now do this at any time – even when you’re setting up your page.

It only takes a couple of minutes to secure your custom URL, so do it today if at all possible: the longer you delay, the higher the chance that someone will take the username that you want!

1. Login to Facebook and go to your page. (You can find it in the left-hand column of your Facebook home page, under Pages.)

2. At the top of your admin panel, click “Edit page” and select “Update Page Info”, as shown in the screenshot below:

You’ll then see this at the top of the Page Info tab:

3. Under “Page Address”, click the “Enter a Facebook web address” link, then click the new link that appears – “Create a web address for this Page?”

4. Your page should be automatically selected from the drop-down menu. Enter the username you want and click “Check availability”. You’ll need to make sure your username fits Facebook’s guidelines.

5. Make sure you’re happy with your username (and double-check the spelling) before confirming it. Once you’re sure you’re happy, click “Confirm”.

And that’s it! You should see this confirmation message:

Your old URL will redirect to the new one, so you don’t need to worry about updating your previous links.

Have you had a custom Facebook page URL for ages, or did this post prompt you to get yours? Let us know in the comments.

Read More »

Facebook to Start Hunting Fake “Likes”

As the popularity of Facebook grew so did the importance most people give to “Likes”. They pretty much represent the social-proof currency of the web these days (i.e., the more “Likes” you or your fan page has, the more popular you must be). The consequence is an obvious one: people started finding ways to generate fake “Likes”.

No one seemed to care that much until this week, when Facebook announced it will start filtering those fake likes. Here’s a quote from an article on All Things D:

Facebook is a ginormous site whose primary currency is “Likes.” So, of course, it has a counterfeit “Like” problem.

Now Mark Zuckerberg and company say they’ve figured out how to crack down on zombie “Likes,” via “automated efforts” that will zap the bogus ones.

A blog post announcing the move says that most people won’t notice the change, because “on average, less than 1% of likes on any given Page will be removed.”

But I bet that some big brands and/or personalities that have many millions of “Likes” may see their numbers chopped more dramatically.

I don’t think accounts with fake “Likes” will get suspended though. If this was the case it would become too easy to sabotage the fan page of a competitor, for instance.

Anyway it will be interesting to keep track of the big brands to see which are the ones with the highest percentage of fake “Likes”.

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Earn From Facebook

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