Roaming around on Twitter, I found a gentleman who goes under the alias of “AlanzEyes “. Initially, he appeared to be your average Twitter user, but on closer inspection I determined otherwise.

One of the greatest aspects of Twitter is that it allows users to share a URL/link to their favorite web page.  It’s a great means of promoting your site.  Sure, you can link to your own personal site and hope that you acquire your newest, avid reader, but let us be honest…it’s not all that original.

AlanzEyes has taken a slightly different approach in his use of the URL feature.  He has created what I call a “gateway page” - a web page dedicated to those users who visit his personal site via Twitter.

Not only does the the page encourage individuals to track him on Twitter, but he offers an incentive: “I’ll follow you if you follow me, and we can share with each other.”

For those users who have never visited his site, the page functions as a personal message.  Right off the bat, the author is able to develop a relationship with his visitors.

So, just how successful has Alanzeyes’ gateway page proved?  AlanzEyes has managed to grab a total of 131 followers in 506 updates (at the time of publication).  With a bit of Math, that equates to an average better than 1 new “follower” per 4 Twitter updates.

Due to the success of AlanzEyes’ gateway page, I have decided to adopt his strategy but with a bit of variation.  I have created my own gateway page which can be located through my Twitter account .  Let’s see how well it works…

I must admit that my recent use of Twitter has moved from intrigue to complete infatuation.  Nonetheless, the actions of fellow users have brought several bad habits to my attention.  While I am an advocate of using Twitter to publicize your blog, there is, however, a wrong way to go about it.

A common strategy as of late has been to try and gain notoriety by trying to follow as many users as you can locate through the Twitter community.  Others are even more desperate, unwilling to to take the time to add users themselves, that they enlist the help of a computer bot to explore Twitter in search of potential new ‘targets’.

In fact, I had one user who Twittered a personal message to me: “Hey Gavin funny thing, we have the same interests… i am following you - will you follow me?“  Needless to say, I lacked any desire to return the favor.

So, what’s wrong with adopting the described approach?

Firstly, your target audience will struggle to take you seriously.  It will prove difficult to gain the notoriety and respect that you might otherwise receive and deserve.  As soon as I was approached to engage in an exchange with a completely random individual, my instant impressions were, “Are they desperate or are they DESPERATE?”

Secondly, your stats on the number of users who are following you will mean nothing when you find yourself following 16,000 individuals.  Other users will feel that you did not earn your statistics the proper way; instead, you went around begging.

The bottom line: If your blog is worthy and your “Twitts” are interesting, you will find that users will be more than willing to follow you.  At the same time you will earn a better “Following” to “Followers” ratio - a key statistic.  Those individuals of the Twitter community who are well-respected stay far away from the aforementioned approach.

A Twitter account provides a great opportunity to leverage the number of visitors to your site.

Twitter is unique in comparison to other online social media. It’s not the site itself that is unique rather its the visitors that Twitter brings.

Unlike “other” social media which tends to bring one-time visitors, Twitter forwards those individuals who will visit consistently or on a permanent basis. Ironically, these “followers” often do not consist of those Twitter members who have subscribed to your Twitter feed or even have a Twitter account.

Why does Twitter tend to convert visitors into ‘repeat visitors’? That is a good question, a question which I have been trying to understand. In reality, Twitter is comparable to an RSS feed - updates are seen by numerous Twitter users. It’s almost as if your updates are “broadcast” in their face.

What is most notable is that Twitter is a truly, community-building site. It does not suffer from the same privacy implications encountered by other social media.

The best feature of Twitter is that it provides growth opportunities for not just new but also well-established blogs. While Twitter was almost an “underground” affair, the once elitist site has gone mainstream. In fact, very few blogs do not take advantage of Twitter.

Looking to get kick started? Feel free to inform me of your twitter feed by leaving your username in the comments.

I’m so keen on Twitter that I have two feeds running simultaneously. One of them is my own personal account while the other provides updates related to BlogaPro only. Take your pick…

Technorati has been a popular tool ever since its inception. It ranks as the 504th most popular site in the entire world [at the time of publication] according to alexa.com. There is of course no wonder, that many bloggers use the site in an attempt to garner a reputation.

A few crafty individuals have discovered that mutually agreeing to exchange Technorati favorites can boost the publicity of your site in turn resulting in higher web traffic. An early adopter of the technique was “Maki” of doshdosh.com.

A site that was once struggling to receive web visitors suddenly became one of the leading sites on the topic of ‘Internet Marketing’. In fact, Maki exchanged so many Technorati favorites that doshdosh.com was suddenly catapulted into the ‘Top 100′ most popular blogs.

Technorati utilizes a ranking scheme called “Authority”. There are two ways that a site can increase its authority:

1. By another site linking to an article on your site.
2. By another user adding your site to their technorati favorites.

Because the algorithm behind the authority scheme is in fact so simple and easy to understand, it is easy to take advantage of.

Experiment

As a social experiment, I challenge all of you to exchange favorites with the visitors to your site. In fact, I’ll help you get the ball rolling…

1. Add BlogaPro to your technorati favorites by following the favorites link.

2. Inform me that you have participated in the technorati favorites exchange:

• You can either create a post linking to this article (which will create a trackback) OR

• Leave a comment down below providing your site’s URL and your technorati username/ID - I’ll reciprocate by adding you to my “favorites”.