The best writing in the world is wasted if its intended audience never sees it. Amp up web traffic to ensure your blog reaches its optimal fan-building potential with these 5 final steps.

8. Track and analyze readers
Invest in some tracking software to understand traffic to your sites. You can start with free services like Google Analytics or Stat Counter to determine which of your blogs gets the most traffic, where your visitors come from, and which pages they like best. Later, you may want to pay for more advanced tracking. Figure out what your fans want so you can provide more of it! Tracking software also provides keyword analysis, so you can see how people are finding your blog in the first place.

9. Find subscribers
Your fans need know when new content is posted so they can connect immediately. RSS feeds are the easiest way to notify fans of new posts. Once you have the feed set up, display the RSS feed button prominently on your blog in many different places. Some users like to be notified by email. You can collect email addresses and send your updated blog out directly. To increase your fan base, offer contests that encourage fans to sign up for your RSS feed: give away tickets or VIP passes to your next event, posters of your album cover, shirts, or other merchandise. Above all, make signing up easy! It should only take one click to get weekly updates.

10. Create a Conversation
You’ve got to allow comments on your blog. Interesting discussions indicate an active fan base; a blog with zero comments on every post appears unpopular and discourages followers. Ask questions in the conclusion of each post to encourage reader responses. Get the ball rolling by asking a friend to write an interesting or controversial comment on your first post. Then, respond to your comments. Readers want to know their voices are being heard, and they feel more connected to the band when they hear back from you. Comment on other blogs, including forums and chats (see #4). Always include a link back to your own blog so casual readers can follow you home and become fans.

11. Avoid Routine.
Many readers lose interest when confronted with pages of pure text. Add the occasional funny YouTube video, unique MP3, screenshot of a website you discuss, or photo of your guitar. Anything that breaks up the text and requires a second glance will boost your blog’s appeal. Consider occasionally changing the type of blogs you write. Every once in a while, make your blog a video-blog. Just film yourself narrating the blog and upload it to YouTube. Create a music video and advertise it through your blog. Consider hosting a guest-blogger every once in a while (maybe the drummer thinks he can write better than you). Inviting band-mates, other musicians, or club promoters to share their opinions gives the readers a different point of view. If you’re then asked to become a guest blogger on their sites, the cross-linking can provide a boost in traffic.

12. Build a brand.
Differentiate your blog! Make sure it is recognized as your blog, not just another page on the web. Promote your blog in as many different ways as you can. Bring it up at performances and to friends. Put your blog on business cards, your website, and social networking sites.

These 12 surefire steps will get you started as a successful blogger and help you to develop a loyal fan base. Just remember your audience and keep them satisfied. Then watch your work pay off as you achieve popularity online and with your musical career!

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The internet is a very effective marketing tool, but you have to make sure to utilize it properly to get the best response. By creating an appealing website that attracts both fans and possible attendees you will see a large increase in the viewers at your productions. With these 4 basic steps to promoting your theater online you will be on your way to a much bigger audience and satisfied cast.

I. Promotion

• Find theater bloggers and other promoters in your area. Offer them free tickets to productions to get them in the theater and reviewing the performances online. When they write reviews, create a link to their blogs so other people can see from an outside source how great your theater is.

• As soon as you get a list of bloggers in your area, start commenting on their blogs. Even if they are not writing about your theater, this will help you get your name out there. Always provide a link with each comment that leads readers back to your website. But remember, no one likes to hear unproductive information, so make sure your comments are useful.

• Sell merchandise on your website! This is a great way to let the fans of performances promote the theater for you. Creating t-shirts and other merchandise is one of the most profitable ways to market your theater.

• Link your theater’s home page to its MySpace page (or other networking page) and vice versa. This cross promotion will allow an easy flow of traffic between all sites and allows viewers to quickly find more information. Mention your website in your blogs and press releases.

• Market your website off-line too! Have your website listed on programs at performances, playbills, and announce it at shows during the curtain speech. Tell the audience what you have to offer (discounts, merchandise, behind the scenes action) and they will want to check it out.

II. Show Character!

• Literally, make a section for the characters in upcoming events! This allows fans a smidgen of information leading up to the show, sort of like a preview to a movie.

• Also, have a segment explicitly for the performers. This should be a biography including age, where they’re from, and their ideal roll. Even ask some bizarre questions, like “If you had to be any flavor of ice cream, what one would it be”. This allows them to show their personality and can make for some good laughs.

• The best way to provide an inside look on current and upcoming performers is to take pictures and videos of everything! Post all intriguing material on the website. Include rehearsals and cast parties along with the actual performances. This lets fans get the inside scoop of what theater is really like. Creating this bond between the performer and the viewer will make the audience feel more connected to the show, and will keep them coming back for future performances.

• Be creative! Make the website entertaining and interactive. The Altar Boyz have a website which includes a specialized video game along with an “Audience Confessions” section where fans can post any statement onto the site. Some other ideas may be individualized quizzes, blogs, and audio clips (especially if you are promoting a musical).

III. Create a Community

• To make it easy for fans to know about the updates on your website, have them sign up for email newsletters or an RSS feed. These will inform the subscriber of any new content that was added to the site, so they don’t have to manually check back for updates. The subscription or sign-up process should be as easy as possible, making it only one or two clicks away!

• Creating a chat room or forum page on your site is a must. Forums allow fans to have a common place to discuss various theater productions. Be sure to have these pages focused around the audience rather than the theater itself. This will make the fans come back regularly. To get some conversations going, add an “After Performance Thoughts” forum. This way, audience members who have just seen the show can tell others their thoughts and recommend it to others. A good forum will promote itself and in turn, promote the theater.

• Let fans become part of the theater community. Make it a club, where they can receive emails, newsletters, discounts on tickets, and special deals just for being members. Allow people to enter to win prizes (maybe an autograph from their favorite performer, or free tickets). Remember to make the sign-up process as simple as possible.

• Allow people to buy tickets from your site, or at least reserve tickets. This makes the buying processes easier for the viewers, and increases the traffic to your site. It also can allow you to get email addresses that you can utilize for your email newsletters.

• Let people contact you! Set up an email address solely for the theater in highly visible areas on your website. List the address in so that people can read but it spamming software cannot, such as theater(at)website(dot)com. Make sure to respond to any inquiries in a timely manner.

IV. Track

• Record traffic, discussions, and sales on your site. This will help gauge what performances were most appealing to customers and can give you ideas for future shows, blog discussions and promotions.

With these four tips and tricks for online promotion, your theater should be showing at full capacity in no time. For more ideas and expanding thoughts of these basic steps, visit other theater sites to see how they put them into action.

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Your band rocks. You know it rocks. You’ve found the sound to take to town. But these days, everything’s on the Internet, and if you want to share your music with the world, you need to be there too. Don’t worry! It doesn’t take a degree in Computer Science to get ahead online. If you can surf the Internet (and we know you can, or you wouldn’t be here) you can expand your fan base across the country and around the globe.

1. You Must Submit

• Websites like GarageBand and Kazaa let listeners enjoy totally free music. Tap this vast market by submitting your songs to online radios. You’re potentially reaching an audience greater than the biggest gig you’ve ever played, and you don’t even have to unload your equipment from the van. One upload covers you forever.

• Once your music reaches the masses, these sites will help you connect with your new fans. Most sites allow you to add links to your website or email newsletter, so that you can capitalize on the momentum of the moment. Music lovers hear your music for free, follow the links to your site, and become instant fans.

• Links make the Internet go ‘round. Post your own on comment boards, forums, and fan sites. Encourage your fans and groupies to post links, too. More links posted by more people in more places equal more search engine relevancy. Remember, a link is more than a URL and a name. Anchor text, with interesting descriptions, encourages people to click.

2. Give It Away Now

• Internet newcomers sometimes balk at offering free content, but what better advertisement is there? If listeners fall in love with one or two of your songs, they’ll be happy to pay to download the rest of the album. If they’ve never heard of you, what will compel them to spend money just to find out whether or not you’re any good? Free content is free publicity.

• Root your website in your own sound. You’re a band! When fans hit your home page, they need to hear your music. Use an audio encoding application to create MP3 files of the songs you want folks to hear. Then upload the file to your site, so that it’s easy for them to find and play high quality recordings of the music right then and there.

• Everyone loves freebies. Once you’ve got your fans’ attention, give them incentives to love you more. Create online contests or other ways for visitors to win free tickets or VIP Passes to your next show. Mail personalized postcards with images and track titles to anyone who downloads the album. All the extras help create a real bond with your fans.

3. If You’ve Got Something to Say, Why Don’t You Say It?

• The best way to stay in touch with the virtual community is to read and comment on other websites and blogs. If you know music, other musicians and bloggers want to hear your feedback on their work, and if you leave comments on blogs, other bloggers will follow you back to your site. Google Blog Search, Blogdigger, Bloggapedia, BlogTopList, Blog Catalog, and Outpost Earth can help you find your music community online.

• Keep it real by keeping your own blog with Blogger, WordPress, or LiveJournal. Stay in touch with your fans by giving updates on your band’s schedule, offering snippets of new songs, and providing juicy gossip about the music. Add links back to your website so fans can download music or sign up for your newletter. Read your fans’ comments, respond to them, and watch your network grow.

4. Reach Out and Touch Someone

• Social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace are a boon for bands of all sizes. These sites walk you through the creation of your own page, then help you find new and old fans among their existing members. Once you’ve built your page, you can post band news, add friends, customize your page, and get active in the music community.

• You put a lot of effort into that music video. Make sure it gets the audience it deserves.

• Post your videos for free on YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Google Video, and link them back to your website. There is literally no better way to find fame on the Internet than with a viral video—one that is so wonderful that everyone who sees it reposts the link and shares it with their friends.

• Join communities tailored to your genre. Find existing communities or create your own through MyBlogLog and Ning in addition to the other sites mentioned above. Joining these specific networks will help you stay in tune with the music world and find new fans and contacts to promote your band.

• Take it back to the real world. Once you’ve connected with your online community, you can start networking with posters hung in prominent locations or postcards sent to your mailing list. Just ask your fans if they want to receive mailings! You can use Ticket Printing’s Design Your Own tool to create publicity that will catch attention and connect you to your listeners.

So, start networking today! Spread your music and your influence far and wide across the Internet and watch your fan base grow.

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Think your nonprofit organization has no need for a blog? You may want to think again.  According to Technorati, nearly 10,500 blogs were tagged “charity”, 4,000 blogs “nonprofit” and 2,300 blogs “philanthropy” in January of 2007. Nonprofits are hopping onboard the social media bandwagon and are seeing returns. If you’re still not convinced here are ten reasons your nonprofit organizations should have a blog.

1. You ARE an Expert in the Field – Nonprofit organizations have a wealth of information when it comes to their cause. Share it! This information is highly desired in online blogging communities and passersby alike.  You know your stuff and by posting regularly in blogs, your organization will gain a reputation for being an expert. People trust experts. Donors want to know their money is being put to good use, and volunteers want to know the time they spend is making an impact. Readers will want to see more information authored by you and will follow links back to your organizations website.  According to the March, 2007 Blog Readership Report, 67.3% of bloggers found information by following links from other blogs.  To find blogs that are topically related to your organization use Technorati and Blogcatolog.  Icerocket has also done an excellent job dissecting blogs and making them more search friendly.

2.  Credibility – It is more important today than ever before for nonprofit organizations to be trustworthy in the eyes of their contributors. The public wants transparency.  A blog facilitates this relationship by showing consistency in your ideas and presentation. You put a lot of work into maintaining your blog on a consistent basis with meaningful material—that is a huge investment for you to lose and the public will notice this too. Another way to establish this relationship of trust is to make events, projects and progress as visible as possible.  By having weekly updates on projects and the projects successes, users will know exactly what difference their donations have made (or will make if they donate).  Project developments can be posted onto the blog keeping the organizations efforts and needs current (Have Fun Do Good Blog).

3.  Search engine optimization – Search engines take into consideration many factors when calculating a search result list.  A focused, well written blog hosted on your website is a key component in helping overall search performance.  A blog allows plenty of room to add keywords and phrases you wish to rank well for.  Additionally, if your blog has useful and meaningful material, other sites will want to link to it, improving your websites level of importance.  Also, search engines place higher value on pages that are constantly updated, so remember to ping them regularly to inform them you’ve added new content. You can use one of the many free tools such as Search Engine Land or (Technorati), more than 17 million of them are information thirsty bloggers who desire the kind of content your nonprofit blog could provide.  Blogs are continually being incorporated into social networking sites and in turn peoples’ daily routine.

5.  Negative Comments – Even if you haven’t been writing about your organization, other people have; they are talking and probably writing about you! Hopefully, their words are positive, but almost inevitably there will be some negative commentary. Many organizations see this negative commentary as a major deterrent to engaging in social media.  However, a blog provides a median to field complaints or concerns and defend the decisions the organization has made. Remember to listen. Some comments may be unfounded, but others may provide information that could improve your organization.  When replying keep a professional tone and respond quickly.

6.  Marketing Events – A regularly maintained blog will attract loyal readers who can easily be informed about upcoming events.  To incentivize new subscribers, or to increase the loyalty of existing subscribers, consider having special promotions on the blog before events.  However, a blog should work in combination with the traditional channels of marketing your event, not to replace them. (An event is also a great way to market your blog!)

7.  Annual Report – Many nonprofits (At least all of the ones I have worked with!) are required to compile an annual or semiannual report.  By working smarter and creating a blog, you will have most of the content for the report already completed before you even begin compiling it (Have Fun Do Good Blog).  In many ways blogs are more honest and accurate than formal annual reports, as they build a habit of (and comfort with) sharing information as it happens.  Your memories are fresh and the facts are at your finger tips…contrast this with the rush and toil characteristic of the last minute annual report – the effort required to create the content will be more cost effective.

8.  Gathering Information - One of the most difficult aspects of any nonprofit is gaining an understanding of its supporters. Two people may be supporting your organization for two entirely different reasons.  A blog can help tap into a resource of information and more that new technology provides.  Two major information related benefits include:

• Allowing users to create- A blog encourages involvement in the organization as it encourages discussion of your topics.  The AARP Issues Blog allows readers to create entries about what issues they feel are important and receive feedback from these entries.

• Provide information to supporters-and they will return the favor. If a picture can convey a thousand words, than a blog on your website will have a lot to say.  So much of the success of a fundraising campaign (whether you like it or not) comes from its emotional appeal.  By having a blog that contains pictures and stories, viewers will become more emotionally involved with the cause or service. If they feel a connection they are more likely to share with you and about you.

9.  Fundraising – That’s right you can use your blog to raise money, and not just with ChipIn and Network for Good both have charity badges available for a small fee.  Blogs bring in visitors looking for valuable information and in turn they will see your badge. There are countless examples of blogging communities that have worked together to raise money using charity badges.

10.  The “Heart” of the Organization – A blog gives you the unique opportunity to show the organization in a totally different way. A blog brings your humanity to the forefront.  After all, it is very difficult to write every day about something you’re passionate about and not have who you are come through.  The key to being successful with any marketing venture is telling a compelling story and building meaningful relationships, blogs are just another tool to do so.

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