Blogging is a foundational tool in your online marketing campaign. And you should be blogging everyday if you can. This will build quick visiblity, credibility & traffic to your site. It can also drive traffic from your social networks into your marketing funnel when you do it the right way. In fact, if you need a kick in the pants for your blogging, it’s not too late to jump into my good friend, Sandra Martini’s 30 Day Blog Challenge–and it’s free!

But are you using your blog to build relationships?

Here are 3 simple ideas to take your blogging to a new level:

1. Live on the edge! Ask pointed questions that will inspire people to respond to your thoughts and your topic. When your readers respond, always acknowledge their responses–even when you don’t agree. These conversations may be the first steps in new connections.

2. Talk about others in your posts! I don’t want you spamming, but feel free to share other experts opinions on your blog. Add your own commentary, of course. Make sure to include a link to her original post or social media page for quick reference and then let her know you just mentioned her on your blog (sent her a Tweet or post on her Facebook wall/page).

3. Invite upcoming experts to be “Guest Bloggers” on your site. Make sure they are either writing original content for you or repurposing at least 30% of the content for your readers. Allow them to incl ude a small bio box and their photo at the end of their articles with a link. Quickly, you will have other experts promoting your site and thanking you for the opportunity to build their own audience! And we haven’t even gotten into the time-savings opportunities…

Do you see the win-win-win in each of these ideas? When you are leading from a place of “shared abundance” and you value your community and relationships in your business, great things will come!

StumbleUpon is one of the best-kept secrets in the social networking world. Probably because it’s not really a “networking” tool. SU is a bookmarking tool that was designed to sort and tag favorite sites. It has evolved into a great resource to drive traffic to your site and to build fantastic relationships.

And you get start using this tool in just a couple of easy steps:

1. Go to www.StumbleUpon.com and download the toolbar. It takes a few minutes and will make bookmarking the easiest social media activity you do.

2. Take your “hot JV” list and visit their blogs and web sites. You are looking for valuable content that is relative to your expertise and your audience. When you find a good article or post, give a “thumbs up”. If you are the first person to rate the page/post, then you will also be able to add your commentary.

3. Spend 2 minutes each day reviewing blog posts, articles and videos from your friends and mentors (you should be doing this no matter what social media tools you are using to build your visibility & credibility) and “Stumble” your favorites. Then you can tweet about them and/or share them on Facebook as well.

This “secret” really only takes a minute for each site/article/post you bookmark. The best part is that everything that you rate will also be kept in your account for future reference! The theory is that you will bookmark your “friends” great content and add your commentary and they will do the same for you. Please note your friends may not be active on StumbleUpon, but other great people are. This is a great opportunity to increase your cirle of influence and circulate in new groups!

We have spent the last month discussing how to build content that drives traffic. One of my favorite, high-ranking social media sites is Scribd.com. This is a document hosting site that Google and Yahoo LOVE. In fact, when you upload your press releases, articles, power-points and even excell spreadsheets, the search engines will start scouring and assessing your document for good content almost immediately.

Scribd is a content sharing site that utilizes some bookmarking and networking features to maximize the reach and build credibility & visibility much faster for you than some other sites.

Scribd is also in the process of adding a sync feature with Twitter and Facebook that will definitely build exposure for them and your content on the site.

Best of all, it only takes about 2 minutes to login and upload your weekly ezine article or your latest free teleseminar presentation to start building quality traffic back to your site.

Have you ever partnered with a friend thinking that you could combine your efforts and really leverage your relationship to create more traffic, exposure and even more money in your pockets? But afterwards you felt like you got the raw end of the deal?

This happens all the time. I was talking to a close friend the other day about a “partnership” that she had recently entered into. At first glance, it seemed like a great deal because she was adding benefits to a program that she didn’t think she could offer herself and she got to partner with a really cool friend.

But afterwards, she felt like she was the one doing most of the work without the recognition or the benefits while still splitting the profits 50/50.

Can you relate?

Well, there are 5 steps that I recommend that all potential partners must discuss, come to an agreement and write down before making the “partnership” official.

Step 1: Know Your Purpose: What is the point of the partnership/JV? What do you want to create together? Know what you are doing and why so that you can stay on track. Otherwise, entrepreneurs often get caught up in the potential of what “could” happen if only….

Step 2: Who is the driver? Usually, people come together, brainstorm and create great ideas and think that everything is 50/50. But almost all the time, this is not the case. I strongly suggest that you decide who the driver is, and allow the others to be passengers. Even if the partnership feels even, you must decide who gets what in a worst-case scenario.

Step 3: Who is doing what? Know what everyone’s responsibilities are and be clear about what each person brings to the table. Lay out who is in charge of the creative, the promotions, setting up the event on Facebook, Tweeting, etc. Evaluate these items regarding before, during and after the event and/or promotion. Include what each person will do during the relationship: promotion, creation, expenses, etc.

Step 4: What’s the Win? Be clear about the win (motivator) for each participant. Remember that often the best JV’s are motivated by more than just money including list building, visibility, credibility and even “new pools of influence.” Note that these are the tools used to evaluate a successful partnership in the end.

Step 5: How will I be compensated? If the “win” for each partner is money, then who gets how much? But if the “win” is list-building, you must be clear from the beginning who will host the list, how/when it will be forwarded to the partner, etc. Whichever the “wins”, be clear about the compensation on all levels. Always compensate appropriately and respectfully.

Step 6: OK—so there’s one more step here and this is the most important one: Write it down. After you have had a conversation and made decisions together on each of these steps, write them all down. This is really the most important step since our memories are just not perfect. This also allows for confusion to be  cleared up at the beginning of the relationship instead of the middle or the end.

There are so many great opportunities for all of us to connect and create wonderful collaborations for ourselves and for our collective audiences. And when you take these six simple steps at the beginning of a joint venture, partnership or any similar business relationship, you are sure to have great success, profitability and happiness together!

To access my Partnership/JV Agreement template, click here to download it now for free!

Interested in building your business through Joint Ventures, but not sure how to structure the relationship, or put an agreement into place? I’ve decided to make available to my readers the template I use when putting together Partnership Agreements, so enter your email below and grab them now!

My teenage daughter was embarrassed when I asked her to “clean up” her Facebook wall the other day. She had no idea that the new texting feature on Facebook was posting messages publicly instead of privately. While you might think this to be an issue that is more prominent with teens that us professional entrepreneurs, I beg to differ.

I noticed a Twitter friend of mine this morning posting a reply to the Twitterverse that displayed his irritation at being tagged “just to get me to read the article.” This seems to be a regular issue on Facebook with people tagging more prominent “Facebookers” to get into their news feeds and in front of more people.

In case you are still fairly new to Facebook and the world of social media, tagging is the ability to “label” your content that you share within your social networking & content sharing sites. While “tagging” on many sites is often a personal labeling system, on some of the networking sites, it is very public and very powerful. With the power comes responsibility. So here are three simple suggestions to protect yourself from harmful or irritating tagging on Facebook.

1. Adjust your privacy settings. On Facebook, there are 5 types of privacy settings: Profile, Search, Feeds, & Friend Requests/Activities, and Applications. I highly recommend that everyone using Facebook adjust their privacy settings strategically–based on who you want to see what. This is especially important for photos, videos and notes tagged with you as well as your news feed that includes all activity pertaining to you.

2. Review your wall daily. This may seem like a nuisance, but a 15 second scan of your wall can avoid embarrasing ads and messages that some of your “less than stellar” friends may consider funny. Remove these items daily.

3. Be informed. Adjust your email/text notifications so that when someone tags you or posts on your wall, you are notified immediately and can either respond or remove the information.

Whether you are a student or a professional, you need to be strategic with everything you do and say in your social networking. As my good friend, Mari Smith, says, don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want your grandmother or your great grandkids to know about you. Also, don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want posted on the front page of the New York Times. Thanks, Mari, for that great advice.

This is my simple list of 3 steps to safeguard yourself against unwanted tagging. Let me know if you have any more suggestions.

Have you jumped into social networking yet? Perhaps you are a little more involved with your LinkedIn account, or you have asked your teen to help you create a Facebook profile. You are making some friends,
checking things out, but it feels like there’s something missing.

Whether you are spending a lot of time with your social networking or just dabbling, make sure to check out these mistakes so that you don’t do the same thing most people are making.

Social networking is a powerful place to build quality relationships with great people. These relationships are the foundation for building a tribe of raving fans who can’t wait to promote everything you do and what you stand for. Isn’t that what we all want? It is completely possible through social networking, when done right. And relationships are based on WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHAT YOU DO. It is the little things, like what you do on the weekends, where you vacation, what books your read, what movies you like, are you a family person or not. THESE are the reasons people connect. Preferring you over your professional peers for expert advice comes later.

But don’t feel bad if you read this list and find you have made some of these mistakes. We all have. Most people learn by their mistakes.

1. Ever sent a “friend request” without a message that clearly connects you to the person? In my research, over 90% of all friend requests are anonymous, even with people who know you. Even though we have too much stuff on our plate, we have to slow down if we want to build quality connections over the internet. First make sure you have reviewed the profile of the person you are attempt to connect to. If you can’t see their profile, then do a quick google search. You must have a reason to connect with someone and let them know what it is. Social networking is not about quantity. It’s about quality. Second, include a personal note in each friend request connecting you to them.

2. When you post comments on someone’s one or send them a message, do you include a “signature” with a link back to your web site? Survey after survey shows that social networkers consider this spam. Only include links when it is relevant to the conversation at hand.

3. When someone asks “what do you do”, do you refer them to a sales page for more information? Or copy the sales content into a message? Social networking is not about selling. It is about building quality relationships. As I mentioned earlier, build the relationship first and your friends will want to purchase and share when the time comes.

4. Do you spend all of your time making new friends in your social networks? Because we look to our peers for information, there is an expectation that you will share good information. This information should be a combination of expert advice from yourself and others.  Because there is so much information in the Web 2.0 world, we rely on each other to help help sort the relevant information from the trivial and unimportant information.

5. Do all of your comments and messages direct people back to YOU for more information? In my research, the main reason people delete a friend, is because that person comes across as selfish and self-absorbed. The social networking world is a cooperative environment based on sharing. If you can’t get past yourself, or you feel like everyone is competition, then it is probably not the place for you.

I am sure you have heard me talk about the two reasons people visit the internet: connections and content. In this world of information sharing, people are looking to the peers for advice and direction. So building a network of peers for this purpose is necessary. To build quality connections, make sure to “fix” these problems quickly.

The best news about social networking is the community is very forgiving. If you make a mistake and it’s brought to your attention, apologize and fix it. And then go on. None of us are perfect. Even when we know the rules.

Generally speaking, there are three types of events in Facebook: Events that you host, events that you are the featured expert, and events that you attend. Only one of these should be hosted by you in your social networking/promotional campaign, but all can be promoted by you.

1. Hosted events: these events are hosted by you. You are responsible for getting quality attendees and should, therefore, be the creator of the event. If you are hosting another expert on the call, then use his/her name
and expertise to help spread the word.

2. Featured Expert events: these are the events that YOU are featured as the expert. The event is typically hosted by someone else, unless you are featuring yourself. These events should be created by the host. Make sure to share the event with your network by “sharing” to your wall and even inviting some of your favorite friends.

3. Events to attend: these events may be hosted by favorite friends and/or relevant to your passion, expertise or interest. These can be shared to your network by using the “sharing” feature on the event and by sending private messages to friends. When you attend an event, your response is sent into your news feed for all your network to see. This is a great way to promote your friend’s events and relevant opportunities.

Sometimes, it makes more sense to use your affiliate links when you are promoting an event. In these cases, you should direct people to the correct web page and not to the Facebook event. But remember, social media is a
community of sharing, so make sure to be considerate.

You may have noticed a recent survey I did about what online business owners want and how they want it. Turns out that most people really want to know how to get more traffic to their website.

Whether it is converting your social network onto your list or just getting more eyeballs on your site, there are a few key techniques that work to create a steady stream of quality people checking out your stuff!

1. Drive traffic to your blog. Whether you have a website or you are active on Facebook or Twitter, you want to be strategic about the links you include in your “about me” section. Our 21st century way of doing business is about connecting and conversing. So your blog is going to be a better choice to carry the “conversation” than your website. Conversely, directing people to your blog over Facebook is also the better choice because this brings them closer to you, gives them a taste of your business and your brand, and allows you to actually track the visitors and the subscriptions.

2. Post on your blog often. I recommend at least 3-5 times a week. You want to include short tips and relevant information to your market. The more you post, the better the search engines like you and the more valuable you are to your market.

3. Share other people’s content. Review blogs daily and note valuable content. When your competition posts something of value, review the post on your site with links back to his/her site.

4. Guest blogging. Allow other qualified experts the ability to post quality, unique content on your site. This allows you to be the hub of information in your industry. Allow your guest blogger to include a “resource box” at the end of the article/post with a link back to his/her site. You can also be a guest blogger on someone else’s site. Make sure that the blog is complimentary to your services as you do want to attract people interested in what you have to offer.

5. Article marketing. This is my favorite strategy for driving quality traffic. You can post your article on various “portals” or directories that host your articles for people interested in republishing your content for their own newsletters or publications.

It sounds like a lot of writing, but don’t forget that you can repurpose your articles to be used on multiple sites. Make sure to repurpose at least 30% of your content so that Google doesn’t knock you down, but also so that you customize your content for the different readers. And create a system around when you post, what you post and where you post. This will help you keep track of what you are doing and how much time to spend.

In the internet world, there is an overwhelming amount of information at our fingertips.

But I want to know what kind of information you really want to learn in order to build your business and your lifestyle the way you want them. Plus I want to know specifically how you want that content delivered.

Here is a quick 2 minute survey to get your feedback…

Click here to take the survey.