Gain Exposure and Build Relationship with other bloggers with Blokube

As part of my weekly contribution here, I will be starting a series where I will be reviewing some great tools I think bloggers should use every once in a while. Every resource I review will be free, and will also be something I personally like and think deserves a review.

The resource I will be featuring today is Blokube, a great promotion site for bloggers that I’m honored to be a moderator of.

If you read my last blog post featuring 4 unique ways to generate traffic to a blog, you will notice my second point talks about social blogmarking sites.

The concept of social blogmarking sites is still new to most bloggers, and I’ll try to give a short description to help you understand.

I’f you’re reading this I’m sure you know sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious. They are social bookmarking sites where people are able to submit content from other sites across the internet, and where the most voted content ends up staying on the homepage. That is exactly how social blogmarking sites work, just that a blogmarking site only accepts submission from bloggers.

Relationships: While traffic is great, ultimately, relationships is what brings about results for bloggers. Since Blokube is a website focused on bloggers only, you will have the opportunity to network with thousands of bloggers from all over the internet who might take an interest in your work. Blokube also has features that make this easy, such as a chat room, a messaging system, the ability to comment on submissions from other bloggers, and the ability to add people as friends.

Traffic: Blokube currently has over 5,000 members, most of whom are bloggers. By submitting your content to Blokube you will be able to get your content in front of other bloggers, and as a result get more traffic to your blog.

Links: Links submitted to Blokube are also indexed quickly by the search engines, and since those links are directed back to your blog you will be benefiting a link boost by submitting your content to Blokube. It can be difficult to get links online, so it is important to make the best of every link opportunity you have.

I have been using Blokube since it launched, and I have noticed what works. Below are some things you can do to get the best from Blokube.

Use the Right Titles: When you’re submitting your site to any form of social media/community site the best way to ensure your content stand out is by using the right titles. You need to realize that there are thousands of other bloggers looking to get exposure for their content, so the best way to stand out is to have a title that clicks!

Engage: One thing I have learned about marketing is that if you’re in a competitive environment the best way to get results is to get noticed, and online, one of the best ways to get noticed is by engaging. By commenting on submission from other bloggers, by adding other bloggers as friends and chatting with them occasionally, by voting interesting content you discover in the community, you will be able the chances of your articles getting more votes, and as a result leading to more traffic for your blog.

You can check Blokube out for yourself at Blokube.com

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How To Make Money Without Leaving Your House!

When Ronald Reagan took the oath of office for the Presidency in January of 1981, one of his earliest
pledges was to make life a little easier for the small business person. Reagan believed that America was
founded on the backs of intrepid folks who took a chance and gambled everything they had on a chance to
start fresh. Small business today is the embodiment of that idea.

Less regulation and lower taxes during the former California governors first term in office sent the number
of small business formations skyward and the industry, despite increased taxes and regulation, has never
looked back. Today, as much as ever, there are outstanding opportunities in the small business market.

Think about it. Big business puts out a controlled product that appeals to the masses. When selling
nationwide, little attention is paid to particular regional differences. Small business fills this void. Its not
necessary, in an environment of lower overhead and more flexibility, to have a product that necessarily
appeals to the masses. You might produce T-shirts and apparel with local slogans and insignia on them out
of your own home. This product will likely appeal to the locals and certainly may have some fascination
for tourists, too. Its not something a major company is likely to fashion because of its limited audience
attraction. But you dont need to sell as many units to operate a successful small business.

There are numerous examples of small businesses having local flavor that became an overnight sensation
nationally. Ben and Jerrys ice cream was a Vermont tradition that suddenly caught on big everywhere.
Numerous franchises and grocery distribution outlets later, the original owners are ready to cash in big
time!

Price: $4.02

Click here to buy from Amazon

Personally Deliver Recommended Links to Your Friends with Handpick

Handpick is a simple tool with a huge benefit: it lets you personally handpick links from the Web and deliver them to your friends via a daily digest. If you’re someone who is often sharing links with specific friends individually, you’ll love the convenience of using Handpick. It stops you from bombarding your friends with numerous emails of recommended links service, plus it lets you email all of your friends at once.

Let’s see just how Handpick works.

Of course you’ll need a way to actually “handpick” links on the Web, so you’ll need to install the bookmarklet or Chrome extension.

You can also add a Handpick bookmark to your iPhone or iPad. Just visit this page on your device and follow the directions so that you can “handpick” links on your mobile device.

The second step is to create a group of people to “handpick” for. These should be all people that will like the types of links you’ll be sharing; therefore they should have a common interest. You’ll be able to create as many groups as you want. Each group will show up as a check-box when sharing and you’ll be able to choose which groups you want to share to.

All that is needed to create a group is a name and time that you want the group members to receive their daily email digest.

Next you’ll need to add members to your group. As mentioned above, those members will receive a daily email digest of all of the links that you handpick for the day. Members are added by manually entering their name and email one-by-one. Just keep adding members until you’ve got everyone that you want to share with in that specific group. Since Handpick is in early beta, I’m sure that this method of adding members will change since it would surely be so much easier to import your email contacts or choose friends from Facebook or Twitter.

You can also manage your group and change the name, delivery time, and email subject for the daily digest. Additionally, you can choose to turn on/off delivery via BCC. If you turn it on, all members of the group will be able to see the email address of each group member. This is a very bad idea if the members do not know each other. However, if you’re all friends then this shouldn’t be an issue since you’ll more than likely have each others email addresses and probably correspond with each other frequently.

There is also a feature called “Contributable” which you can also turn on/off. With this on, you will allow all members in the group to handpick content for that specific group. So if they have a Handpick account, your group will show up in their accounts as well so that they can also send links to it.

All that’s left is to browse the Web and “handpick” links. When you find something you want to share, click the bookmarklet or browser icon in Chrome and you’ll get a small window with sharing options.

You can change the title and enter a description. Don’t forget to choose the group that you want to share to! Finally click on “share” and you’re all done.

As you can see, it has never bee easier to share links with specific friends. I not only love the concept of Handpick, but I love how easy it is to set up and share to people that I usually have to email individually. I do, however, hope to see an improvement in the design of the site and also in the way that you add members to the group.

Handpick is currently in private beta, so you will need an invite to try it out.

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