Should You Tweet Your Blog?

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 12 people | Log in to rate

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I am trying to decide if I should Tweet My Blog

John Merrick and Soren Jordansen just released a tool called Tweet My Blog that makes it easy to automatically post new updates to your blog to Twitter.com using a WordPress plugin.

(Please note that I have removed my affiliate links to Tweet My Blog. I still recommend it, if it suits your needs, but I want this to be a place to discuss your opinions and not have to compete with my affiliate links.)

Tweet My Blog provides a way to link your blog postings to Twitter so your followers there will be informed each time you update your blog.

They also provide a widget that you can add to your blog that takes the information flow the other way. You can show your latest tweets on your blog.

The use of both the plug-in and the widget completes the flow of information between Twitter.com and your blog and provides more links to what you are writing about, and this should increase the number of people who read your blog. If they then decide to follow you on Twitter, you should see an additional increase as more people learn about you and what you are doing.

Both the plug-in and the widget are provided for free, at least for now. John and Soren are both good at earning an income, so I don't know if Tweet My Blog will continue to be free in the future. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.

In the following sections of this page, I'll tell you more about John and Soren, and about Tweet My Blog.

Act on your dream!

JD

Is automatically tweeting new blog posts a good idea? 

I had never considered this question before John and Soren released Tweet My Blog, and now I'm finding that there are other tools for automatically posting news of your new blog postings on Twitter.

Some work only with WordPress and others work with any RSS feed.

But, that begs the question, Is this something you should do?

What do you think?

(All HTML is automatically stripped out of your comments. Please play nice in our sandbox. Off-topic and rude comments will be deleted.)

Is it a good idea to automatically tweet your new blog posts?

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Of course it is - my followers want to know!

AlanHocking says:

I agree with GrowWear you need to keep it in perspective and balanced

Posted November 08, 2009

Star Riley says:

to each his or her own my belief if your blog is relevent to your twitter followers then yes.

Posted October 27, 2009

Sojourn says:

I hadn't considered it not being a good thing to do. As a new blogger, I added it's one of my largest sources of traffic. Interesting point.

Posted June 09, 2009

speakeroftruth says:

yes, it is good

Posted March 25, 2009

Dimitry says:

here is a great free tool to get this done and also schedule future posts: http://www.blogomator.com

Posted February 08, 2009

GrowWear says:

Yes, it's a good idea as long as long as self-promotion is not the bulk of what you do on Twitter.

Posted January 26, 2009

MLM-Branding-Specialist says:

I think it's a great idea, and even before I know of this plugin I was doing so. The fact is, if you're active and informative you're usually able to build up a following on Twitter before you can for your blog. In this way, Twitter can be used to stream in new readers, and can then be used for conversation surrounding your latest blog post.

But Roger is absolutely right. You should definitely tweet more than your blog posts. I ask questions, give tips, chronicle important events or projects...all little bits of food for thought to keep my followers interested. The trick is to keep everything related. If your Twitter account is business-related, keep it professional. Don't add in random tweets about personal life. The more relevant and related your content is, the better it's understood and the more followers you'll gain!

Posted October 13, 2008

The_Davinator says:

Yeah, actually. I like the tool that Soren and John came out with. Actually the first day or two it PO'd me a bit because it would repost after I had to edit my post ever time. But now they have fixed that. I think it's great and saves me time from having to remember to post it on Twitter. As you said, only part of your Tweeting activity though.

Posted July 29, 2008

johndilbeck says:

I agree with Roger.

I'm starting to think that automatically tweeting new blog posts is a good idea, but should be only a part of what you tweet (or twitter) about.

I'm trying to find the middle road.

Act on your dream!

JD

Posted July 26, 2008

rogercarr says:

Yes, but you need to post tweets on other topics as well.

Posted July 25, 2008

No, how crass! Twitter isn't just about promotion, it's about building relationships.

Roezer says:

No Tweeting your own blog is not a good idea because if it was twitter would be full of my blog tweeters get your followers to tweet your blog.

Posted July 17, 2009

Stephen Ayer says:

I agree with Roger. If the majority of your tweets are self promotion people will either unfollow or ignore you.

Posted August 03, 2008

 

Do you tweet your blog? 

I've been using Twitter for awhile, but only recently had that "aha!" moment where I finally grokked how useful it can be.

I don't want to tell everyone what I had for breakfast or every time I go get some coffee, but I don't want every post to be a promotional link, either. I would like to strike a happy balance between the two. I want to meet new people, learn what they're doing, and follow their links to their latest Squidoo lens, blog post, or whatever.

Until installing Tweet My Blog, I'd never tweeted about every blog posting. I'm not sure I want to tweet about all of them.

What do you think?

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Do You Have a Separate Twitter Account For Your Blog? 

So, if you have decided that it's a good thing to post most or all of your new blog postings to Twitter, do you post it to your primary personal Twitter account or do you have a separate Twitter account for your blog(s)?

If someone is following me on Twitter, I don't think that I want all of my postings to be promotional in nature, and that's starting to happen with automatic tweeting about my Squidoo lens updates and now with automatically posting new blog posts to Twitter.

I'm considering setting up separate accounts for myself, my Squidoo lenses, and my blog.

I think anyone who follows my blog posts on Twitter using an account just for that purpose would not mind if that's all they see when following that account.

What do you think?

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21st Century Affiliate Marketing 

News and views by John Dilbeck

I've been an affiliate marketer for several years and I currently earn 100% of my income from affiliate marketing.

Over the years, I've tried hundreds of products and services, and - frankly - most of them aren't worth your time and effort...not to mention your money!

You won't find me promoting every "flash in the pan" product that comes down the line.

Yes, I want to earn a living, and I want to increase my income, but I want to do it by helping you succeed and not reaching into your pocket all the time by trying to sell you products and services that I won't use myself.

If it's not good enough for me, I won't recommend it to you.

I've worked hard to build a good reputation, and I intend to keep it.

Here are the latest postings on my 21st Century Affiliate Marketing blog:

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John Merrick and Soren Jordansen 

More about them

John Merrick

The John Merrick who (I think) programmed Tweet My Blog is a hard-working programmer in the United Kingdom. As far as I have been able to learn, he programs and provides technical support for HitsConnect.com and InstantSqueezePageGenerator.com.

Although he shares a name with "The Elephant Man," this John Merrick is a rather handsome gentleman, as you can see if you check his profile page on NetMarketingForum.com.

From what I can deduce, he previously has worked with Soren on creating the Floating Action Button script.

Soren Jordansen

I've known Soren for a couple of years and have always found him to be friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.

On several occasions, he took the time to offer detailed answers to some questions when he had no incentive to do it. He did it to help me understand something.

When he opened his traffic exchange, Dragon Surf, I joined it as soon as I heard. I've been a member ever since and have been an upgraded pro member for most of that time. Dragon Surf remains one of my top five favorite traffic exchanges and I'm always happy when Soren sends me a commission payment from Dragon Surf.

A few months ago, John and Soren released Floating Action Button, and you've probably seen it on several sites if you have any interest in traffic exchanges, online marketing, and blogging.

Recently, Soren and John teamed up again and this time they produced Tweet My Blog.

I expect that Soren is doing the lion's share of the marketing and promotion and I think he's on the right track.

Tweet My Blog

Tweet My Blog is a WordPress plug-in and a widget that can be used to drive blog postings to Twitter.com and also show your "tweets" on Twitter.com using the widget on your blog. In other words, it pushes your blog posts to your followers on Twitter and shows your tweets on Twitter to the readers of your blog.

This should result in more exposure to your blog posts, since the tweets are distributed almost immediately after you post to your blog.

It may also increase the number of people who follow you on Twitter when they see your latest tweets on your blog.

I joined when I first heard of Tweet My Blog and downloaded the zip file that contained the code to be uploaded to my blog.

I tested this on my 21st Century Affiliate Marketing blog for a couple of days.

The download was fast and exactly as expected.

Installing the plugin and widget was very easy, as well, and it took only a few minutes. There is a ReadMe file included in the download that explains all that's necessary for installing and using the plugin and widget.

Previous to using the widget for showing my latest Twitter tweets, I had been using the code from Twitter.com for doing the same thing. After comparing the two, I deleted the code I got from Twitter, in favor of using the new widget.

I have identified several things I like and several other things I dislike about Tweet My Blog, and I'll present them below. You are invited to take part, too.

Currently, I'm using Twitter Tools from Alex King to automatically update my Twitter account whenever I post to my blog. It also works as a widget to show my tweets in the blog's sidebar and I like how it works much better than both the code Twitter offers or the way Tweet My Blog does it.

Tweet My Blog Updates 

Update: Monday, July 28, 2008

From John and Soren:

Based on member feedback and our own testing we have tweaked and improved the Tweet My Blog plugin. We highly recommend that you log in, download the new version and update your blog.

http://tweetmyblog.com/login.php

Here's what we have fixed in the new version:

1) Added a smart update function. TMB will no longer double post at Twitter if you edit your blog post.

2) Fixed the Twitter feed. It will now display neat little message when Twitter is down - instead of the ugly error messages. This also fixed the problem, some people had, with the the entire side bar being wiped out during Twitter down time.

3) And finally we have fixed a PHP5 issue that would turn up some fatal error messages on blogs configured in a certain way (very rare).

Do you have a blog using Tweet My Blog? 

I've been blogging so long I don't even remember when I started. I do know that it was before the word blog or weblog had been invented.

I have quite a few blogs that I've been testing, and now I'm in the process of deleting most of them so I can focus on earning a living and sharing what I've learned rather than testing every blogging platform I encounter.

One of my primary blogs is at John Dilbeck and Friends.

Do you have a blog where you are using Tweet My Blog? If so, why not share it with us.

You can add a link to your blog in the next section.

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Things to like about Tweet My Blog 

These are personal opinions and you're free to agree or disagree.

If you agree, click the up arrow to the left of the item.

If you disagree, click the down arrow.

If you don't see something you like, please feel free to add it. Don't forget to refresh the page and come back to vote for what you added.

1

Vote Up
Vote Down

Tweet My Blog is very easy to use

The download was fast, the instructions are thorough, and both the plug-in and widget work as described.1 point

2

Vote Up
Vote Down

It's free

I don't know how long it will remain free. Soren hints that he may start charging for it at some point.1 point

3

Vote Up
Vote Down

It automatically tweets about your latest blog posting

You don't have to remember to go do it manually.1 point

4

Vote Up
Vote Down

You can earn affiliate commissions

If someone you refer purchases items inside the Tweet My Blog website, you can earn generous commissions.1 point

Things not to like about Tweet My Blog 

These are personal opinions and you're free to agree or disagree.

If you agree, click the up arrow to the left of the item.

If you disagree, click the down arrow.

If you don't see something you dislike, please feel free to add it. Don't forget to refresh the page and come back to vote for what you added.

1

Vote Up
Vote Down

You are building backlinks to Tweet My Blog instead of your blog

The TinyUrl links in your tweets point to the Tweet My Blog site and it shows your blog in a frame. You are not building backlinks directly to your blog. This also applies to using any URL shortener site, such as TinyURL, which builds link back to their site, not yours.3 points

2

Vote Up
Vote Down

No option to turn it off for a particular posting

I don't like it when a computer takes away my ability to choose. There may come a time when I don't want to Tweet about a particular posting, but Tweet My Blog doesn't allow me to choose not to post a tweet.1 point

3

Vote Up
Vote Down

No control over what is advertised

Although I trust Soren, at least to the extent that I know him already, Tweet My Blog doesn't allow me any control over what may be advertised as a result of someone following my link to Tweet My Blog. Yes, that makes it automatic, but it also presents the possibility of indirectly recommending something I would not otherwise recommend.1 point

4

Vote Up
Vote Down

The widget just creates links to your Twitter profile

When you use the widget to show your Twitter postings, each tweet is a link to your Twitter.com profile page. It doesn't matter if you have a link in the tweet or not. I would think a better way would be to make active links only to URLs and not to plain text.1 point

5

Vote Up
Vote Down

It tweets when you update a blog posting, not just when creating a new posting

I was posting to my blog this morning and right after clicking the publish button - isn't that the way it always works? - I noticed a typo. So, I did what I always do and edited it to make the correction. A couple of minutes later, I decided a sentence didn't flow the way I wanted, so I edited it again to re-write it. The original publishing and both updates were tweeted. I had to go to my Twitter profile page and delete two of the three entries. (The July 28, 2008, update is said to fix this.)0 points

Tweet My Blog - Cool or not? 

In my case, I'm having a hard time making a clear decision about using Tweet My Blog or uninstalling it.

I'd welcome your thoughts and comments. Tell us what you like and dislike about Tweet My Blog.

Please keep it civil.

(All HTML will be automatically stripped out of the comments.)

What do you think about Tweet My Blog?

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I don't like it and I'm not going to use it.

spirituality says:

I like twitterfeed a lot, don't see why I should use something else.

Posted May 21, 2009

Susanne F says:

Why use a plugin when we got http://feedtwitter.com ? you just add your blog and then it does the work. Too much of a bother to add a plug-in, activate it and it might not get updated next time WP is updated.

Posted July 24, 2008

thefluffanutta says:

I really don't get the point of TweetMyBlog. There is already a popular and respected plugin for WordPress (Twitter Tools). It does everything you need it to do, and it doesn't splash 'sales letter' in your face. It even comes with a widget for your tool bar.

This is just a clever marketing ploy.

Posted July 23, 2008

I love it. It tweets automatically and I can earn commissions. What's not to like?

 

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Blog Posts from Google about Twitter 

Twitter, IPO and Advertising
Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder of Twitter was holding court for reporters in the UK and started to talk about all ...
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Our view is that Twitter will get sold -- probably to Google (especially if the upcoming Twitter-Google search deal goes well). An IPO is possible, but Twitter's ads product would really have to take off. The public markets don't have ...
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Los Angeles Times staffers have been warned: the Twitterverse isn't safe. Editor Russ Stanton and assistant managing editor Henry Fuhrmann have issued new guidelines governing the use of social media like Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter's stalled growth could spell bad news for Twitter ...
October numbers are in, and Comscore, Compete, Google, and Quantcast all agree: US traffic to Twitter.com reached a peak in ...
Powered by Google

What do you think about tweeting your blog? 

Your comments and feedback about Tweet My Blog, automatically tweeting new blog posts using any other tool, and/or this lens are welcome.

Don't be shy. We don't bite.

(All HTML will be stripped out, automatically. Please keep it civil. Abusive or off-topic comments will be deleted.)

submit
  • Reply
    ftuley ftuley Oct 28, 2009 @ 9:42 pm
    Excellent lens, you done really well here. 5 stars well deserved. And favorited too. Thank you for sharing.
  • Reply
    spunkyduckling spunkyduckling Oct 27, 2009 @ 11:46 am
    It's something I might consider in the future
  • Reply
    Sojourn Sojourn Jun 9, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
    Excellent resource. I've just started blogging and added Tweetable to my blog to send out updates for all my posts. Now need to check and see if it's shortening the URLs. Great though-provoking lens. Thanks!
  • Reply
    spirituality spirituality May 21, 2009 @ 7:56 am
    I absolutely tweet my main blogs, and all automatically. I even often tweet squidoo updates, though I do that manually (the squidoo interface helps of course). This tweet my blog service sounds like a ripoff though. I'd advise anybody to go with the free services for this stuff, not something that puts advertisements in your twitterstream. Very bad for business, and not likely to make you much money either.
  • Reply
    poutine poutine Mar 24, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
    I prefer to Twitter my blog only once in a while by hand.
  • Reply
    OhMe OhMe Feb 27, 2009 @ 5:40 am
    Very interesting. I enjoyed reading all the opinions.
  • Reply
    johndilbeck johndilbeck Oct 19, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
    Hi Junyuan,

    Thanks for the kind words. I agree with you about the value of Twitter.

    I visited your lens about Twitter and the tools that work well with it. That's a great lens and I'm sure it will be useful for lots of Twitter fanatics. I left a comment about Twitteriffic for Mac users.

    Thanks for the invite to add this lens to your Internet Marketing Directory.

    Act on your dream!

    JD
  • Reply
    Junyuan Junyuan Oct 11, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
    Twitter, I must say, is one of the best social networking sites on the Internet and if used correctly, it can help you bring your business to the next level (in terms of traffic and sales). You have a terrific lens here that shares so many different tips on Twitter! I've given your lens a 5-star rating and added it to my favorites. You may want to check out my lens where I share 20 free Twitter tools you can use to enhance your business... Feel free to visit it and let me have your comments! :) You may also want to add your lens to my Internet Marketing Directory to get more traffic to your lens... Cheers!
  • Reply
    Bev Bev Sep 8, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
    Wow! I didn't realize that you could do all of this with Twitter. I didn't comment on the above questions because I had no idea...John, you are just full of marketing information! Great lens!
  • Reply
    johndilbeck johndilbeck Jul 30, 2008 @ 6:57 am
    Thanks, Davin, I appreciate your comments. Act on your dream! JD
  • Reply
    The_Davinator The_Davinator Jul 29, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
    Very excellent lens about TweetMyBlog John. I left a few comments. I'm one of the guys that says "ThumbsUp"

    Davin
    The Viral Sanctuary
  • Reply
    johndilbeck johndilbeck Jul 24, 2008 @ 5:00 pm
    While discussing these issues with Mike Paetzold on his blog at http://wptutorial.com/blog/ , he made the observation that we can't build backlinks to our blog when using Twitter if we use TinyURL.com to shorten the link.

    That had not occurred to me, so it's not just a problem with TweetMyBlog, but with using anything that redirects to the blog posting.

    Unless we're manually linking, we aren't building backlinks to our blog.

    So, should this be considered a weakness of TweetMyBlog?

    I'm currently testing Twitter Tools on my blog, instead of TweetMyBlog, to see what I like and dislike about it.

    So far, I like the Twitter widget much better, even better than the code Twitter provides.

    Still digging.

    Act on your dream!

    JD
  • Reply
    mulberry mulberry Jul 23, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
    good topic and very useful information
  • Reply
    johndilbeck johndilbeck Jul 23, 2008 @ 10:42 am
    Thanks for the link to twitter-tools! I wasn't aware of that. JD
  • Reply
    thefluffanutta thefluffanutta Jul 23, 2008 @ 3:06 am
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/
  • Reply
    thefluffanutta thefluffanutta Jul 23, 2008 @ 3:04 am
    If you have your own WordPress blog, you should just use Twitter Tolls plugin. If you don't have your own WordPress blog, you should get one, and then get the plugin.
  • Reply
    SusanVillasLewis SusanVillasLewis Jul 21, 2008 @ 11:24 am
    I actually use TwitterFeed to tweet all my blog posts off of three blogs. Hadn't thought about the backlink issue and I need to check that because the tweets also end up in my FriendFeed. Hmm.
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by johndilbeck

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John Dilbeck lives in the mountains of western North Carolina, near the small town of Murphy. He loves living in the southern Appalachian mountain... (more)

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