KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays by Mark Victor Hansen, Joel Comm Read Free Book Online Page A

you didn’t write that content yourself.
     
    There are things you can do to encourage comments. Writing about controversial subjects is perhaps the easiest. Every niche has issues about which people feel strongly. Editors on news sites know that when they write a news story about abortion, Israel, or health care, they’re going to get page after page of comments. If they write about the cost of potato chips in Sweden, however, it’s unlikely that they’ll get any.
     
    You shouldn’t be writing about controversial topics all the time. That would make your site look predictable. But you should know which subjects are most likely to cause a storm in your community.
     
    You should know too the effect that storm is going to have on you. My blog, JoelComm.com , is mostly about entrepreneurship and online marketing. Occasionally though, I’ll let fly on a subject that I feel strongly about it. It could be politics, business, or people not washing their hands after going to the bathroom. Those posts always generate lots of extra comments, but they can also irritate people—especially people with dirty hands (and they know who they are). Writing about controversial topics might cost you a few users who strongly disagree with you, but overall it’s a winner. Those who remain feel a closer connection with you. You’re not just a web site, you’re a person with opinions, thoughts, and feelings. You’re someone just like your readers: a friend and a member of their community.
     
    Comments are one way for your readers to communicate with you and to share their thoughts with other members of your community. It’s social media, though, that’s really made the difference for publishers trying to turn their users into a community.
     
    The three most important sites for an Internet publisher are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Each site has its strengths and each serves a different purpose.
     
    You’re probably already using Facebook to keep in touch with old friends and colleagues. Once you launch a web site, it’s worth creating a Facebook fan page for your site, which acts just like your regular Facebook page. You’ll be able to use status updates to tell people when you’ve published a new post. You’ll also be able to create discussions on topics that are important to your community. Most of all, you’ll be able to see who is reading your posts, and they’ll be able to see you. That helps to create a much more powerful connection between you and your readers and between your readers themselves.
     
    LinkedIn is similar, but it has a greater emphasis on business relationships. You should certainly create a profile for your site and your business on LinkedIn if you’re going to be publishing anything related to commerce, but even sites dedicated to passions rather than professions should be using LinkedIn. It’s another useful link between you and your community.
     
    I use both of those sites, but these days I use Twitter even more. In fact, I even use a special application on Facebook that lets me send my Twitter updates to Facebook so that they appear as status updates ( Figure 2.3 ).
     
    Figure 2.3 Twitter helps me to build my personal brand and talk directly to my community, but look at what else I’ve crammed into my Twitter page: sponsored tweets, announcements, personal updates, links to blog posts, URLs, and plugs for my products.
     

    For a publisher, Twitter can be like lifting the curtain and taking your readers backstage. While a blog post is carefully crafted and researched, a Twitter update can be spur of the moment. It can be something as important as an announcement of a new product release or as simple as a description of what you’re having for lunch. Each of those posts helps bring you a little closer to your audience.
     
    Because your followers on Twitter can also write to you directly and publicly—and receive a reply—that relationship becomes personal. I don’t think there’s a