A little mind map brainstorming on my iPhone about elements of a good blog post. What would you change or add?

It's day two of my 30 Day Traffic Challenge and today I am going to embark on one of my favorite tactics for driving traffic which is commenting on other blogs. Commenting on other blogs has several implications for driving traffic.

First, commenting on other blog posts get you involved in the conversation. It allows people to see who you are and click through to your website if you leave a link.

Second, if enabled, your link on someone else's blog post can be indexed by Google. By default most blogs use a no-follow rule which means that your link will not be indexed; however, with the help of Market Samurai I can find blogs that have this option set up to allow search engines to index my link. This creates a backlink to my website, which is one of the leading variables to determine how my site ranks on search engine results.

Third, leaving comments on other peopl's blog posts forces me to keep on top of the latest trends, strategies and tactics others are using within my niche. In my case, I'm going to comment on blog posts that have to do with driving traffic to your website. I not only get to learn about what others are doing, but I get to use this information as inspiration for some of my upcoming blog posts.

For me, commenting on at least three blog posts per day is a reasonable frequency and pace that I can maintain over the course of 30 days. There is a ton of information on the Internet about driving traffic to your website so I feel like there will be no shortage of blog posts to find and comment on. This may or may not be the case for you depending on your niche.

A best practice when commenting on other people's blog posts is to add insightful information to the original blog post. There's nothing worse than leaving a boring comment with a link to your website. This adds no value and can ultimately hurt your search engine optimization. It can also hurt your reputation. On the other hand, leaving an insightful comment that adds value to the conversation will draw additional comments and can help build your reputation overtime. You may even find some new people to follow online and build mutually beneficial relationships.

That's it for now. I have some comments to leave. Do you regularly leave comments on other blogs? Why or why not?

Sent from my iPhone 4S

So last week about the iPhone 4S and it is really helping me in terms of my ability to streamline my social media process. For example I am writing this blog post by talking to my phone. I am e-mailing this blog post using Siri and the email capabilities built into the iPhone.

Sent from my iPhone 4S

This is my first blog post from Siri. I'm using the email functionality and I set up Posterous as a contact in my contact list.

Sent from my iPhone 4S

Lots has changed and some has stayed the same. The new Posterous Spaces kinda reminds me of Google Plus at first glance. I've heard at least one report that some owners are having trouble managing site members.

Time to kick the tires a bit.

People are always asking me about Facebook and Twitter, specifically which one they should use for marketing their business. Here's and interesting infograph that compares the two.

I got the iPhone 4 this week. Here's one of my first videos and some early impressions. After 5 days I still absolutely love it versus my old iPhone 3G. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh5WKcW-ggU

... Sent from my iPhone

Facebook Pages are a great way to leverage the largest social media platform and connect with folks in your target market. Here are some tactics I've been using to improve my business Facebook Page and those of my clients. 

1. Consistently post new content. If people have "liked your page they've basically given you permission to communicate with them. Don't be bashful - post new content on a regular basis to maximize the opportunity. One warning - don't post too frequently or you might annoy them. Find a proper balance that's acceptable for your audience.

2. Add some variety to your content. Don't just post links or one-liners. Mix it up with pictures, videos, links to local events, articles on related content, and links to your blog articles. Also, use Notes to post longer updates, much like you would with a blog post.  Finally, try asking questions or taking a poll to drive engagement.

3. Add some customization.  Did you know you can have up to 6 tabs on your Facebook Page?  The Wall and Info tabs are not optional, but you can customize the remaining 4 tabs with something unique.  There are several apps to create tabs from Youtube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but I also recommend you create a couple tabs with FBML. This basically gives you the flexibility to add HTML much like a Webpage. 

4. Make it fun. If your Facebook Page is all business, people might get bored.  Even the Wall Street Journal has comics.

5. Connect with other social media platforms. Most people know you can connect Twitter to your Facebook Page so that new updates gets tweeted. This will help drive traffic. You can also connect your blog RSS feed so that new posts appear in your Facebook Wall. Why do this? One, for efficiency and two, to help spread the word and connect your followers across multiple platforms. It's no different that including your website address and phone number in a print ad. 

6. Have a call to action. What do you ultimately want your Facebook Fans to do?  Call? Sign-up for something? Visit your website? Share your content?  If you never ask you can't expect them to guess. Be bold and ask them to take action.

What have I missed?  What other advice do you have for improving business Facebook Pages?  

... sent from my iPad

If you're not familiar with QR codes, they are an increasingly popular method of sharing information similar to a bar code. Users with a smartphone, can focus their camera on this code and the QR code software will save the information behind the code on their phone.

In this case, it's my URL, but it could be you contact info or any number of attributes. I'm already starting to see QR codes on packaging and websites. What do you think? Are QR codes here to stay?

... Sent from my iPhone