If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

This week I asked our panel of experts …

How the heck do you get people to comment on your Blog?

Let's dig in and see what the experts had to say this week…

Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income Blog says:

The easiest and most powerful way to get more comments on your blog posts is to simply just ask.

To take it even further, get more specific with what kind of comments you would like to receive. It may depend on the post that you write, but you can ask for opinions, questions, criticisms, a vote, an experience, a link, etc.

For example, in this post (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-well-can-you-describe-your-website-in-just-three-words), I asked my readers specifically to describe their website in just three words. Because this was a very specific and simple request, it encouraged a lot more (145) comments.

Another example can be found on this post (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/the-only-100-words-you-should-read-today), where I asked people to “pledge” what actions they were going to take to succeed. In a little over 24 hours, it received over 280 comments.

There are other techniques to encourage comments other than just asking.

First, you should make leaving comments as easy as possible. The more steps involved and the more complicated it is, the less comments you will receive.

Secondly, you should do what you can to give your readers the feeling that their comments will be read. You can easily illustrate this by responding to comments yourself. To take it a step further, instead of just saying “thanks for the comment”, really engage with your community and ask questions, leave feedback and take the conversation even further.

A successful blog post does not end with the publish button.

And last but not least, think about the comments on your blog posts like it's a tool for the reader. It's not just a way for people to share how they feel about your post, but it's also a way to contribute and add to the post, and your community and brand as well.

Note from Nicole. I found this video from Pat that shows a few more of his tips on this subject.

Shannon Cherry of ShannonCherry.com says:

Getting a community going is tough. After all, taking the time to comment on someone's well thought out post is tough. I can admit I don't do it as much as I should, and often that's because I feel my time can be spent elsewhere. (I DO, however, visit a lot of blogs.)

That said, I am lucky I get plenty of comments on my blog at ShannonCherry.com

Here's how I do it:

1) Calls to action. If you don't tell them you want comments, no one ever will. But you DO need to be creative with this. Just saying please comment isn't enough. I often ask a question such as, “Am I off base on this? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.”

2) Posts with a bite. I'm known for my “Cherry Bombs”, which are occasional posts that are a little controversial about Internet marketing and the coaching industry. I get the most participation from these posts. The key to these posts from sounding whiny or bitchy is to always put a teaching element in them.

3) Use social media. All my blog posts are also disseminated through social media using my RSS feed. But when there's one I particularly want traction on, I talk about it more than once in my social media networks. Remember don;t do this all the time, or the really special posts you want highlighted will just be run-of-the-mill.

4) Build the relationship. When someone posts on my blog for the first time, they get an email from me thanking them. I admit, this is automated using a wordpress plugin called Comment Relish. I also use WWSGD (What Would Seth Godin Do) as a plugin. This one, which Nicole told me about, allows me to welcome new readers and returning ones differently. (Thanks, Nic!) Finally, I try to reply to every comment personally on the blog to foster communication and community building.

And one more thought…

How important IS getting comments on your blog? Frankly, for me, not much. I know the traffic is there, just sometimes there's not much to comment on. After all, some of my blog posts are informational in nature, just giving some tips, and don't ask for feedback. As long as the traffic is coming consistently, I wouldn't worry so much about comments.

Rachel Rofe of RachelRofe.com says:

With our blog, we try to provide ridiculously valuable and/or interesting content. Every time we do, we mail it to our list and announce it to the Earn1KADay forum.

On the basis of valuable/interesting, a lot of people will comment right there.

And I know it sounds like common sense, but when we ASK for comments… we get a ton more.

I would also say that one could maximize the traffic they get. Direct your blog readers to your Facebook Fan Page. Make posts. Get people to know you. The more they know you and like you, the more they'll want to reach out to you (and make more comments through it).

Connie Ragen Green of ConnieGreen.com says:

I blogged for at least a year without receiving even one comment. It felt like I was writing to the black hole of cyberspace, but I refused to give up. Then one day someone left a comment. I was overcome with joy! And then I wanted even more comments, so I took a close look at what I may have done differently to help make this happen.

All of my previous posts had been about my experiences with building an online business. They were all about me. In this last post, the one someone had been compelled to comment on, I was explaining how to do something that would help them to build their online business. I had shifted my focus from me to them.

I now write posts regularly that help my readers with technology, social media, affiliate marketing, and more. The result is many more comments, and true interaction between my readers. This has helped me to create a community of readers who are focused on a common goal.

My record to date is almost 200 comments on a single post. It was last year when I hosted one of my 30 day blog challenges and asked people to comment in order to have their blog included. Again, I was thinking of how to help them to achieve their goals instead of only writing about my own experiences.

Serve your readers by addressing their needs, and they will be encouraged to leave comments to be included in your community. It's a win-win.

Mark Mason of MasonWorld.com says:

I am a bit lazy when it comes to soliciting comments.

But when I do go after comments, I use these five ways for getting people to comment on my blog:

1. End every post with a question. Leave something open for discussion. This is just like talking over drinks. Leave an opening for your readers to comment,

2. Ask for comments in the post. Sounds obvious, but it helps.

3. Reply to each and every comment. When appropriate, ask a followup question.

4. Ask for comments on Twitter: Example: Here is what I wrote about Nicole Dean: http://URL.com Do you agree?

5. Email your list and ask for comments. It lets your readers know that you care what they think. Then apply #3 above.

Nancy Marmolejo of VivaVisibility.com says:

I make sure to include the first few paragraphs of a blog post in my weekly ezine then invite people to come over to the blog and drop a comment. It's important to make it a “cliffhanger”, get people excited to read the rest and find out what those amazing 5 tips are or that cool new resource you've discovered.

And I don't stop there. I also remind my readers how leaving comments on a blog is a GREAT visibility strategy. I want them to know there's something in it for them and it's not just ME looking for traffic or buzz.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Awhile back I posted here on this same topic. I dug out that blog post, dusted it off, and found a nice gem. I hope you like it!

27 Ways to to Get your Blog Readers to Comment

1. Enable the DoFollow plugin so that your commenters’ links are followed by the search engines. While this isn't essential, it will be important to some of your readers, so why not do it?

2. Enable Comment Luv plug in so that your blog commenters get an extra link from their most recent blog post. I had this one enabled for awhile, but decided to remove it. However, I do like it when others have it on their blogs and I enjoy commenting there.

3. Email your blog commenters with a “thank you” after they post. There are automated tools to do this (including Comment Relish), but you can do it personally or have your Virtual Assistant do it for you.

4. Respond to the comment on your blog, which is really just common courtesy. I have a hard time keeping up with this, which is why I have noted very prominently in the comment area that I personally read all of the comments. And, I do. I try to respond to comments left, so at least there's a sign that I'm around and I don't just “post and run”. lol!

5. Visit their blogs and comment back. Again, this is time-consuming and can’t always be done, but is nice to do while you’re having a break with a glass of wine in the evenings. Take a few minutes away from IM, Twitter, and chatting on forums (yeah, I love them, too!) and go visit your readers’ blogs.

6. Here’s an idea that I hadn’t seen before — list all of your blog commenters in a “thank you” post. While time consuming, it is a very thoughtful and appreciated gesture.

7. Hold blog contests and giveaways that involve commenting to win.

8. Have a contest to reward the person who comments most! (Hmm… any ideas for prizes that you’d like to see? I can do this easily! Let me know.)

9. Promote and market your blog so that it gets a lot of traffic. People want to comment on highly-trafficked blogs.

10. Ask your readers to comment. Sometimes people just want to be asked.

11. Ask them for suggestions. Ask for ideas. Ask for Advice. Ask questions — like in this post, I’m asking for YOUR ideas, as well.

12. Send a note about your blog post to your newsletter or ezine, letting them know you’d love to hear their thoughts. I try to let my other lists know about my recent blog posts without being obnoxious about it.

13. Post something controversial. That’ll get people talking – for better or worse.

14. Don’t allow crappy/yucky spammy comments to remain on your blog. It makes your blog look neglected. Be sure to go in and delete your spam. If you’re using WordPress the Akismet plugin will help automate this process. There are tons of other plugins that will help keep spam off your blog as well, but spammers aren’t dumb and will find ways around them so be sure you delete the ones that do make it through.

15. Twitter about your best blog posts. That’ll attract people who are already talkative to come by and chat. Have your Virtual Assistants Twitter about it, too.

16. Automate the Twitter process. Don’t have time to twitter your own posts? There are plenty of plugins now that will send your blog post to Twitter and/or Facebook.

17. StumbleUpon your blog posts that are informative in nature.

18. Kirtsy blog posts of interest to your readers.

19. There are a ton of ways you can get the word out about a post on your blog similar in fashion to Kirtsy and StumbleUpon. You can add a widget to your blog that lists popular social bookmarking sites right at the end of your post. This makes it easy for visitors to submit your posts to the social networking sites of their choice and bring more people to it, allowing for more opportunities for comments.

20. Get personal. My personal blog posts are usually commented upon more than my others. Post pictures & videos of your day to day life as it applies to your blog.

21. Be silly or at least “real”. If you notice, in the past, I mentioned my husband’s reaction to beans… Too much information? Probably. But, it’s better than being B-O-R-I-N-G!

22. Make it easy to comment. If I try to comment on a blog and have to run through Captchas and logins in order to comment, I’ll likely leave. My vision is quite good, but I struggle with those darned Captchas — and they are not friendly at all to those with impaired vision. So, unless you don’t want people with impaired vision commenting on your blog… find a better solution.

23. Make sure your commenting works. A few minutes ago, I tried to comment on a blog and received an error. It was a friend, so I’ll tell her, but if it wasn’t… she might not know for weeks and think her readers weren’t interested or reading her material.

24. If you have a Blogger blog, be kind to those who do not have blogger/Google accounts and enable the alternative commenting.

25. Change the default text in your blog template from saying “Comments” to “Please leave a comment” or “Talk to me” or something – to attract commenters.

26. Think twice before setting up your blog to moderate comments. It’s definitely a hindrance to those who want to comment on multiple discussions. I’ve rarely seen active comments on blogs that moderate all comments.

27. Make sure your comment link isn’t hiding when people are reading your main page or when they are on a “category” page. Sometimes there’s so much “stuff” around the comment link that it’s hard to even find. I've been on blogs where I've wanted to comment, but honestly couldn't find the stinking place to do so.

It’s Your Turn.

So, now, I’ll pose this question to you. What's your best tip about getting more blog comments? Or why do you choose to comment on some blogs and not others?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Here are a few of my favorite Expert Briefs:

• Take a Look at My Home Office… If you Dare!
• How to Decide What to Blog About Next
• Tips for Balancing Work & Family
• Internet Credibility. How to Establish that You've Got It?
• How to Choose a Profitable Niche

If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

This week I asked our panel of experts a question that I've been thinking about lately.

“This question is about blog plugins. We all know about Akismet and All in One SEO and the other commonly known favorites.

Of all of the plugins that you've got installed on your own blog, tell us about 1 or 2 gems that you use that aren't as widely known.”

Shannon Cherry of List Building Promotion Secrets says:

Plug-in. Plug-in. Who's got the Plug-in?

I will admit I am almost as addicted to plug-ins as I am domain names. And why not? There are more than 10,000 of them out there to pimp out your blog. But if I had to narrow down my favorites, here are my top three:

• Thank Me Later. This one allows me to email first time commenters automatically. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. (I do both!)

• SEO Scribe. This is a subscription based plugin (meaning you have to PAY for it). It works with All In One SEO Plug In to analyze each blog post for the best SEO. It finds keywords and event backlinks you can use. Best of all, the subscription can be used on multiple blogs at once (currently I use it on 4 of them).

• WPTouch iPhone Theme.This plugin will instantly make your site optimized for mobile browsers, while keeping your normal theme for people browsing your site on their PC. If you don’t use a heavily customized theme, then this plugin will be perfect to you.

Now there is ONE plug in I don't get that comes with the WP install: Hello Dolly! Can someone please tell me why that's in there?

Mark Mason of MasonWorld.com says:

This is an easy one for me.

I have 36 active plugins currently installed on MasonWorld.com, but the one I like the most is W3TotalCache (W3TC). I was previously using WPSuperCache, but I was having some page load time performance problems, particularly right after sending my list to my blog. So, I did some research and switched to W3TotalCache.

According to the W3TC people..

W3 Total Cache is the fastest and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress.

The cool thing is that W3TC uses Amazon S3 and Cloudfront (that the CDN thingy referenced in the blurb) to host some of the more frequently downloaded files on my site, and that helped performance a lot.

Regards,
Mark

Kelly McCausey of Work at Home Moms Talk Radio says:

I'm utterly dependent on the Broken Link Checker plugin. I have several WordPress sites with thousands of pages of content going back five years or more. Dead links are going to happen and I love how easy it is for me to remove or update them with this plugin. This is especially important with affiliate links that have gone dead but cleaning up dead links in general is important if you don't want to annoy your web visitors.

• Broken Link Checker

I'm using the WP-Invoice plugin on one of my service based websites where I often work long term with clients. The WP-Invoice plugin allows me to simply issue a web based invoice for monthly retainers and incidental projects. My client can then easily pay via PayPal. I love that I'm able to view pending invoices right within my WordPress site.

• WP-Invoice – Web Invoice and Billing

Lynette Chandler of TechBasedMarketing.com says:

Alright, I'll admit I'm partial to plugin since we developed it:)

1. List Authors Plus – this allows finer control over how authors are listed. You can display authors using the plugins' template tag or using sidebar widgets. Really handy when you have a bunch of accounts on your blog but not all account holders warrant a mention on your authors listing.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/list-authors-plus/

The rest of the list were not developed by us though we have more in the works

2. WP-Invites – allows you to create an invite code and only those who enter the correct invite code will be able to successfully register on your blog. I love this (and similar plugins) because we often request guest posts and we like to have our guests create their own account for both their convenience and ours. But at the same time we do not like to have the blog open for others to register either this stops unauthorized people and spammers from creating accounts yet still automates the author's account creation process.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-invites/

3. Syntax Highlighter and Code Prettifier Plugin for WordPress – I'm not sure not many people know about this but certainly not many non-techies know how to use this. I find  WP-Syntax great for affiliate sites – as in sites where affiliate managers post updates and codes etc. One of the problems with WordPress is, when you try to post a text article inside a textarea, you will get unexpected results with the line breaks. In short, it doesn't make easy copying and pasting. This allows you to create boxes for code and copy/paste text and also
makes it easy for people to copy and paste.

4. WP Mobile Edition – Pretty self explanatory – allows you to display a mobile version of your blog/site to those who are viewing on mobile devices.
http://crowdfavorite.com/wordpress/plugins/wordpress-mobile-edition/

5. Header-Footer – Don't you hate it when you have to install a gazillion plugins just to add a code to the header or footer of your site? Many don't realize, you don't have to. This allows you to add any type of code into your headers and footers and cut down on the number of plugins too, reducing that plugin mess (yay!)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/header-footer/

6. RunPHP, PHPExec, PHP Execution – lets you add PHP code into your posts, pages. While true it works well only if you know what you're doing with PHP but oh it can help you do a multitude of things. Like automatically add your affiliates' ID to your products links on the page. I've used it many times to do that and am sure affiliates appreciate the extra help.

7. ThemePerPost – love this. Lets you use different theme for a post or page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/themeperpost/

I'd have to end this by a small advise to do your due diligence on any of the plugins mentioned. While we have run it without problems and have not encountered rogue code in them but our servers may be configured differently than yours and also files on download pages change from time to time.

Got some feedback on Twitter from Warren Whitlock:

Denise O'Berry of DeniseOBerry.com says:

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, small business owners had to struggle with learning how to code html or php if they wanted to build their own website. WordPress has made life so simple for do it yourselfers.

And it continues to get better and better as the platform matures and those cool techie folks out there create plugins that make our lives simpler.

Like most small business owners, my websites have the standard plugins to battle spam and allow for social sharing. But one of my favorite plugins — that's not so common — is Add Sig, a plugin that allows you to add standard and custom signatures at the bottom of your posts. You can find it here http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/add-signature-plugin-for-wordpress/

I've used this plugin to add guest blogger bios, affiliate products, email list sign up forms and many other options. It's simple and takes just a few minutes to enter or change without requiring a ton of technical knowledge.

Connie Ragen Green of ConnieGreen.com says:

I have found that less is more when it comes to plug-ins, so I choose them carefully before installing them on my blogs. The ones I'd like to share are
the broken link checker plug-in and the drafts dropdown plug-in.

I include links in most of my posts, and I always check them before I publish them. However, things beyond our control often happen, resulting in broken links and unhappy readers. The cure for this is the broken link checker plug-in, which lets you know when a link on your blog is no longer active. This gives you a chance to correct it, replace, it, or simply remove it.

I post regularly to two blogs, so I tend to write partial posts and save them as drafts. The drafts dropdown plug-in makes it so easy for me to choose
which draft I want to work on, saving me lots of time.

Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income Blog says:

Hi Nicole,

Here are a couple of gem plugins that most people probably don't know about:

• Broken Link Checker: this plugin is great because it will automatically detect any broken links on your WordPress blog, either links that you type in yourself that were just not typed in correctly, which happens from time to time, or links that used to work but do not anymore because the page that it points to is no longer available.

• Robots Meta: this plugin, which is a bit more advanced, allows you to choose a number of settings for your WordPress blog as far as what the search engine spiders can and cannot crawl through. So for example, if you want to create nofollow links for your comments or for your archive page, it's just a click of a button away. Also, each new page or post that you create has a setting where you can choose whether it should or shouldn't be indexed by Google, which comes in handy when you are creating more private type pages, such as landing pages for lead magnets for opting into an email list.

Cheers!

-Pat

Alice Seba of Contentrix says:

I'm pretty old school when it comes to marketing. I don't look for fancy marketing tools or plugins for every little thing. However, I am a big fan of saving time and automating things where it makes sense. With that in mind, I have to make a little plug for my own plug “Speedy APLC Publisher”. It is designed for our members at allprivatelabelcontent.com and it allows them to instantly load their PLR articles into WordPress. But the cool thing is, it can be used for any content. Whether it's PLR you bought elsewhere, articles from a ghostwriter or stuff you wrote yourself. As long as it's in .txt format, it can be uploaded.

It allows you to:

* Mass upload of articles in .txt format
* Schedule imported articles for publication e.g. Every 1 hour, 24 hours, 72 hours, etc.
* Upload the articles as drafts if you want to edit them before they are published.
* Choose your categories. Publish all articles in one category of your choice or individually select a category.
* Choose your authors. Assign all articles to one author or individually assign articles to author(s) of your choice.

It's a great timesaver, even if you plan to edit the content. All you do is upload the zip, make your setting and everything is ready for you to work your magic.

Here is a video showing how the publisher works.

Denise Wakeman of Blog Squad Tips says:

Great question, Nicole! I usually go for plugins that make things easier and automate tasks.

I especially like …

• Viper’s Video Quicktags: Super-easy way to add videos from YouTube and other video sharing platforms to your posts.

• Photo Dropper: Lets you easily find and add creative commons licensed photos to your posts from Flickr.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I currently have 25 active plugins on my blog, but amazingly I don't have the broken link checker. I'll have to add that one today since it sounds really handy. Then have my Virtual Assistant go through the broken links for me and fix them.

As for my favorite plugins, it was easy for me to choose mine, and I was surprised that they hadn't been mentioned yet.

My absolute favorite three WordPress plugins are:

• WordPress Editorial Calendar
• Datafeedr Random Ads V2
• Page Links To

I also depend on Podpress to keep my podcast running, but I didn't think that was really a “hidden gem” so I'll just mention it in passing as my other most favorite plugin.

Here's a bit about each one so you can see why I love them.

1. WordPress Editorial Calendar.
Their description says:

The Editorial Calendar makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your blog.

The Editorial Calendar is basically a way to organize and manage your blog posts.

I've found that it's especially useful if…

• You're a visual person
• You like to plan your posts and promos in advance
• You're outsourcing
• You have guest bloggers or a community blog where others are contributing to your blog
• You have theme days (like I do these Expert Briefs)
• You're doing a challenge or contest of some sort (like my month-long Computer Butt Challenge)

Here's a screenshot that I took on Monday (the 15th) of my blog calendar. You can see that I already had two blog posts scheduled for Tuesday, ready to post.

If I didn't have this plugin, I think I'd have gone crazy(ier) by now.

Click on the image if you'd like to see it full size.

2. Datafeedr Random Ads V2

Their description says:

The Datafeedr Random Ads plugin is a free plugin which allows you to simply and easily show random ads anywhere in your template files or using widgets.

Here's a video to show you how I use it on this blog. I have it installed on several other blogs, but thought you'd be most interested in seeing behind-the-scenes here.

3. Page Links To Plugin.

Their description says:

Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

The easiest way to show you how this works is to point you to my navigation above. If you go to the top navigation where it says “Tools I Use in My Business” – hold your mouse over those words and you'll see a list of sub-pages.

If you click on some of the pages that display, you'll be taken to pages here on my blog. If you click on others, you'll go directly to other sites where you can learn more about the tools. I didn't have time to create pages for each tool yet, but wanted my readers to know what I personally use in  my business, so I started to list them there.

Here's what the plugin looks like when you're using it. This is my settings for my “Contact Me” page under “About Nicole” on my top navigation.

It's Your Turn.

So, now, I'll pose this question to you. What are your favorite lesser known plugins? I'd love to hear what you have on your blog!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I have created brandable reports from several of the previous Expert Brief columns that you can use to earn commissions by giving them away.

If you’re new to expert briefs, don’t miss these favorites:

• Are Internet Marketers Evil?
• How Do I Get More Traffic from iTunes?
• Do Successful Marketers actually use PLR or just promote it?
• What does an Internet Marketer's Office Look Like?

If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the graphic to the right to see them all –>

This week I asked our panel of experts about how to get more traffic with iTunes.

The question I asked was…

“I keep hearing that ratings and reviews are really important on iTunes if you have a podcast.

So… this is for those of you who have a lot of testimonials. How the heck did you do it?”

WHY is this question important?

Your traffic and exposure to your podcast from iTunes appears to be directly related to the number of comments/reviews you have.

A quick back story on this week's question ….

1. I had my podcast on iTunes.
2. Like a doofus, I removed it. (Don't ask.)
3. I've struggled to get it re-added, and now am starting from scratch to get subscribers, reviews and ratings.

I've got a few things up my sleeve, but thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss the topic and hear from everyone and find out what's working for them.

Basically, I've created my own brilliant mastermind group that I can email when I have questions. The cool thing is that I then post their responses here so you can also read them. Pretty slick, eh?

Please Welcome our New Experts.

You'll see two new faces below. I stalked hand-picked Jason and Pat because I'm impressed with their knowledge of iTunes – and because they're great guys.

Plus, I'm hoping they'll be guests on my podcast soon, so I HAVE to get some reviews on iTunes first (to impress them) and I wanted to know how best to do that. I figured I'll do whatever they say, get lots of reviews, and then start pestering them to come on my podcast. Wish me luck!

Please give them a warm welcome by commenting below!

Mark Mason of The Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast says:

One of the things that I find interesting about the iTunes marketplace is that so much less is known about how the rankings are ACTUALLY done compared to Google. Lot's of people have theories, but there is much less hard data on iTunes rankings than there is for Google.

Anyway, I recommend the following:

1. Here is the most important thing. Quality. Good mic, pop filter, great content, right volume level, etc. Spend a few extra minutes on your podcast production and people will pass it along to their friends. In all things, content is still KING.

2. Make you have professional looking graphics. Having a value proposition in your tagline helps too. People will not subscribe to a podcast with crummy graphics.

3. Same goes for your description. Make sure it is compelling. Remember, you are trying to convert people into hitting the subscribe button AND rank in the iTunes search engine. So also make sure your keywords appear in the description.

4. Speaking of keywords, make sure you have your keywords in your RSS feed in the channel info.

5. Get reviews. Lots of them. This is very important. Not just star rankings, but also a written review in iTunes. Ask your listeners to go to iTunes and leave a review. Offer them an ethical bribe.

6. Publish show notes on a blog and so all your normal Google stuff. Let people know that you have the podcast…but make sure you have a separate feed for your podcast as opposed to all your content.

7. Burn you podcast feed in Feedburner and pay a VA to submit your feed to any and all podcast directories. There are many. Submit to them all.

8. Repurpose your audio and publish it in YouTube. Link back to your podcast in your youtube description.

I recommend Jason Van Orden, Paul Colligan, and The Podcast Answer Man Cliff Ravenscraft for further information.

Jason Van Orden of Internet Business Mastery says:

Here are four tips for getting more positive reviews and ratings in iTunes (which greatly increases your visibility and traffic).

1. Just ask

For a week or two, make it a point to ask for reviews and ratings in your show, in your email newsletter, on Twitter etc. Your loyal audience will be happy to oblige.

2. Set a goal with your audience

This is the goals that you see them post for telethons. When you ask your audience for reviews, tell them you have a goal to get to X reviews. Make them a part of the journey to hit a specific target by a specific time.

3. Link directly to your page in iTunes

Any page in iTunes can be linked to directly. Just right-click on the name of you show and select Copy Link.

4. Create a very short video showing them exactly what you would like them to do

Make it really easy. Show them exactly where to go, what to click and what kind of review to leave.

Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income Blog says:

Because I have experience with creating iPhone apps, I know exactly how important reviews and ratings are for rankings in iTunes. Not only that, great rankings and reviews will encourage people who happen upon your page in iTunes to listen and subscribe as well.

There are several ways to generate more reviews and ratings:

First and foremost, just create awesome content. The more awesome your content is, the more likely someone will take the time to leave you a rating and review. On the flip side, you can also get a lot of ratings and reviews by creating absolutely terrible content, but I'm pretty sure that's not really what you're going for.

Secondly, you can simply ask. Asking people to leave a rating and review isn't a bad thing in my opinion, as long as it's not overdone. You can ask on your show, in your blog, on Twitter, on Facebook – where ever you'd like!

Thirdly, you can leave ratings and reviews for other podcasters in your niche. Many times, those people will be more than happy to return the favor and leave a favorable rating and review for your own podcast as well.

Lastly, another thing you can do is instead of asking for ratings and reviews on your show is highlight some of the ratings and reviews that have already been made, and make sure to mention the commenter's iTunes handle (or name if you know it) as well. This will encourage others to leave their own reviews because they'll know there's a chance they might be mentioned on your show as well.

Kelly McCausey of Work at Home Moms Talk Radio says:

Work at Home Moms Talk Radio has been in iTunes since 2005. For as many years as I've been listed there, maybe I should be bothered that I only have seven reviews? Five are positive, Two think I need to be more professional (pfft!).

It's interesting, I am an avid iTunes user and have never read reviews to decide whether to give a podcast a try. I'm not sure how much weight they're given in the grand scheme of things. I've seen a lot of programs ‘featured' in iTunes that have only one or two reviews posted, so I don't believe reviews play a huge role in that. You'd think it would!

Not focusing on getting reviews hasn't hurt the show. I'm number one in iTunes for my targeted search terms and that has consistently brought me new listeners who have turned into customers. My tip would be to not worry too much about the reviews and use good keywords in your podcast episode titles and descriptions. iTunes Music Store is a search engine after all.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Well, I have a few ideas, but I'm still obviously experimenting.

1. Write a Blog Post about iTunes Reviews.

I'm writing a blog post where I beg for ratings. (checking that off my list now… This is it.) lol.

–> Pssst. Here's me on iTunes:

Online Business Success Interviews on iTunes with Nicole Dean

2. Asking Past Guests who've Been on My Show.

I am contacting my friends who have been interviewed on the show and am asking them to take a moment to review the show, to help us both get more traffic. I'll also resend them the transcripts so they can help spread the word.

3. Adding iTunes Button to My Blog.

I added a button to the upper right corner of my blog where it showcases the iTunes link. (It used to be hidden more.) I know… fancy marketing, right? Nothing too slick about that. Just an oversight that I corrected.

4. My Lists.

I'm going to mention the link to my lists frequently and add it to my autoresponder sequence, too.

5.Viral Report about iTunes Traffic.

I'll be turning this blog post into a free report that will get my iTunes account more exposure – and, hopefully, more reviews.

6. During the Shows.

I'll mention during the shows that I record from now on that I'm on iTunes and that I appreciate reviews.

7. How about Prizes?

I have a few ideas for contests, but I'm just not sure yet how the whole thing works. How about this… you review my podcast (hopefully something nice) and then comment below that you did it. I'll randomly choose five winners from all the reviews to win. (Winners will be contacted by email.)

If you win, you can choose any one of the following as your prize:

• A copy of my Blog Tour Guide
• Any article pack from EasyPLR.com
• A copy of Scott & Angie Tousignant's new Sizzlin' Circuits workout

Here's the link to me on iTunes:

I'm taking Jason's Advice, so here's

HOW to Post a Review on iTunes.

I asked my friend, and my podcasting virtual assistant, to help me figure out how the heck to post a review on iTunes and why a review that a friend posted wasn't showing up. Here's her response. (I added the graphics. I don't want her to take the blame for how amateurish they look! )

Christina Lemmey of MultiMediaVA.com says:

OK! Here's the scoop on iTunes reviews (and a couple of other cool things)…

To review a podcast, go to your iTunes library and click on the podcast title from your library list.

Another page will show up with the podcast graphic, title, and episode titles.

On the left, under the graphic, there's a ‘subscribe' button with a little ‘down arrow'.

To Subscribe and Share:

Click the ‘down arrow' and you have 4 choices:

• tell a friend (apple sign in / account required…this allows you to email friends the podcast link)
• copy link (this is your itunes subscribe link, in case you lose the original email)
• share on facebook (login required)
• share on twitter (login required)

To Rate:

Once you're done sharing, scroll down this same episode listing page and you'll see ‘customer ratings'. Simply click the number of stars and the results show up immediately.

To Review:

Directly underneath that is ‘customer reviews' where you can write a review up to 6,000 CHARACTERS in length (although iTunes recommends 200 WORDS).

Once you hit submit, the review is sent to iTunes to be approved. Not sure how long that process takes but once they are approved it says they'll show up in the iTunes store. (That is possibly why we don't see Melissa's review showing yet.)

Hope this helps! I also left you a glowing review while I was testing out the process

I hope this was helpful. And, thanks, as always, for reading!

Please share your tips (or questions) below.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean