What is a retweet, why retweet, and tips for getting more retweets…

Do you (re)tweet?  There’s no denying the massive growth in popularity and power of Twitter in recent months, and as more and more people become Twitter-savvy they are starting to use the service in new and better ways.

One type of tweet which is definitely on the increase in the reTweet (RT) which is where a user likes your tweet so much that they send it out again, to all their followers!  This is not only a massive compliment, but it means extra exposure and often new followers.

Format of a retweet

The usual format for a retweet is to start with the word Retweet, or more commonly just RT, then @username (the person who you are retweeting), then the original tweet.

If the original tweet is short enough that you have a few characters to spare then you can add a comment before the RT:

Comment here RT: @username original tweet goes here

Why retweet?

Retweeting is good for you, your followers, and the person you retweet, here’s why…

When you retweet you’re taking a useful/interesting tweet that many of your followers won’t have read, and allowing them to see it.  Since you found is useful/interesting/funny/etc and your followers by definition are interested in similar subjects to you, chances are they will like it too!

So you’re helping your followers by giving them content, you’re helping the person you retweet by exposing them to your followers who will likely be interested in what they have to say.  This in turn helps you by increasing your own followers loyalty, and probably getting the attention (and probably a follow) from the person you reteweeded (is that a word??) A win, win, win situation!

Getting retweeted

Of course the most value when someone retweets is for the original tweeter, so how do you get more of your own content reteweeted?  Here are 4 top tips to get more retweets…

1. Firstly, post high value tweets which help people.  Usually tweets which link to useful articles, videos, blogs or software tend to get retweeted often - any links to free things tend to get retweeted!
2. Use keywords in your tweets.  The more targetted your keywords the more chance they will get picked up and retweeted by new followers.
3. Keep your tweet short.  With only 140 characters, if your tweet is too long there won’t be enough room to add RT @username at the beginning which means people will have to edit your tweet… and people are lazy!  make sure you use shortened URLs for links and leave at least enough characters for your username and four extra (for “RT @”)
4. Lastly - don’t be shy about retweeting other people.  If you retweet often you’ll probably find that other people retweet you back!

So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and start reTweeting!

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There are often pages on a site that you don’t want to be indexed. If you have the same text on multiple pages, of you have a generic privacy notice or disclaimer which you use across multiple sites, using the robots “NOINDEX” meta tag on those pages will prevent a duplicate content slap from Google.

This is a particular problem when using a system such as Wordpress as a CMS, since by default there are archives (date archive, author archive etc.) which can be seen as duplicate content by the search engines.

I’ve recently been installing a plugin on all my Wordpress sites which makes managing which pages are NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW nice and easy. The plugin is simply called Robots Meta and can be downloaded from the Wordpress.org plugin directory.

The plugin is simple to install and use, allowing you to set noindex and nofollow on a per page/post basis, and also for sections of your site such as specific archives. An essential tool in the arsenal of any Wordpress CMS webmaster!

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First of all apologies if you’re waiting for the next part in my blogging series, I’ve been in bed with flu for the past couple of days.  I’m on the mend and the nest part will be here tomorrow but in the meantime I wanted to share something with you that made a massive difference to my business.

While I was in bed yesterday I watched a free DVD I got from Russell Brunson which I’ve not watched in probably a year.  Even though I probably watched it three times when I first got it, there were still new ideas I picked up from it yesterday.  I checked the website, and amazingly Russell is still giving these away for free (you just pay postage) so go and grab a copy, and check back here tomorrow for the next part of my blogging series!

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I had an email from Joe Lavery yesterday telling me about Jo Han Mok.  He’s the author of ‘The E-Code’ and a very succssful marketer.  He’s put together a series of 15 videos covering his favorite free traffic generation techniques and is virtually giving them away.  Check them out here.

Since I totally trust Joe and the videos are so cheap I decided to take a look and all I can say is I’m impressed!  Now I’ll be honest, the video’s are not great quality - in fact it gets a little irritating sometimes when the audio skips but that doesn’t matter, it’s the content that is pure gold.  These videos cover a range of subjects, each one focussed on getting free traffic from various sources - Web 2.0 sites, MySpace, eBay, Squidoo, Articles, Spyfoo and many, many more.  Jo’s approach is to let you look right over his shoulder as he explains the various techniques and how to make the most of them.

I’ve only had time to watch a few of the videos so far, and although a lot of it is stuff I alreayd knew, I’ve already picked up a few gems - things that will help me drive fresh traffic over the next few weeks which I’ve never heard anyone else teaching.  In fact, just one of these little secrets I’ve already implemented and seen a fresh stream of traffic on my stats - in less than 24 hours!

So, if you want to get a whole load of free traffic to your site, blog, or promotion check out these videos and see what you think!

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OK, tomorrow I’m posting the first part in my mini-series on blogging, and using a blog as a launching platform for an online business, but right now I just want to share a really cool free resource with you…

I’ve been doing a lot of PPC recently, in particular I’ve been using Adwords to drive traffic to my web design seminar signup page, and a separate affiliate promotion.  I’ve been consuming every morsel of information I can find on the subject from books (Perry Marhall’s Ultimate Guide is my favorite) to articles, ebooks, blog posts and videos in order to increase my CTR and keep my costs down.  Well, what I just found this morning is something I wish I had when I started because it’s one of the best resources I’ve come across on the subject of PPC and Adwords, and it’s really easy to get your head around…

Basically it’s a completely free 5 part series on using Adwords, and you can get your free copy here.

Now don’t let me hear you saying you never get anything good for free!

If you’re not sure whether you ought to be using PPC, just remember that it is without doubt the fastest way to drive traffic, and can literally have you in profit in hours (rather than in weeks or months from SEO).  Even if you’re concentrating on generating your own traffic by creating content (which is what we’ll be talking about in the blogging series) you should still learn PPC as it’s a great tool for testing new markets, promoting affiliate products, and getting an extra stream of traffic and income!

See you tomrrow for the start of the blogging mini series…

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I found a nice little free resource today… It’s a free acess membership site with a ton of resale rights and PLR content.  You can get free access right now.

The content covers quite a range of niches, and although I’ve not gone through a lot of it yet, what I’ve seen so far looks pretty good.  There’s not an awful lot of PLR content on the free account (although you can upgrade to a paid account with a lot more) but there’s certainly enough that you’ll probably find something of interest, and there is a lot of resale rights content (well over 100 products) and quite a few banner and e-cover templates in PSD format.

If you’re after some freebies, or a little inspiration for your next article then check it out!

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