Is Shopify or Wordpress better for blogging if I would like to sell some services on my store?

The obvious answer is that you have to create content that has value for educators. Think about the problems they have, the questions they need answers to, and write blog posts that address these concerns and answer their questions. The second thing you should do to grow your readership is to make a list of the top 3-5 sites where educators are going today to get their information, and start commenting on those sites. As you leave smart and relevant comments on these sites that educators are reading, it will increase the chances of them checking out YOUR blog. Do both of these together, and you will see your readership grow pretty quickly.

I love what Lee said about being yourself but staying on message. And Ali was right: choose your goals then plan backward from them. Twitter is a tree: the more your water, fertilize, and prune it, the stronger it will be. Here are a few quick tips: · Actively prune inactive and spam accounts to keep the number of people you follow less than the number who follow you. · Talk to thought leaders, especially people who have more followers than you. Engaging them in conversation will put you on the radar of all their followers. · Give public "high fives." Compliment other people's work, writing, products, and thoughts, and 95% of them will like you. · Use TweetDeck to create custom streams based on the niches you're target, and Buffer App to schedule the delivery of new content. I have to use Buffer; otherwise, I'll sometimes forget to post my stuff! · Be yourself. I can't stress that one enough. · Keep in mind that bigger isn't necessarily better. Again, what is your goal? If you're trying to network in your industry, than a smaller following might be appropriate. If you're selling info products, then you'll need lots of people entering your sales funnel. · Have fun. I believe that people prefer to follow winsome people. · Stay consistent. Your following will grow steadily as long as you're posting steadily AND engaging people in conversation. · Be really generous. I believe that people prefer to follow generous people. · Go read one hundred blog posts about how to grow your Twitter following. By the time you're finished, you'll be the expert. Come back and teach all of us "experts" something, okay? Austin

A few approaches I'm currently using: 1) StumbleUpon Once you create an account, add in some interests. These can be general (e.g. "Technology") or more specific (e.g. "User Interface"). Then, at the top of the page is a big dropdown that by default says "All Interests." Pop that open then poke on the interest you're looking to get ideas for. Start stumbling and see what comes up. 2) Facebook Create a new Facebook page for yourself. It doesn't need to be public. Then, when on that page, open the "Edit Page" menu at top and choose the last item, "Use Facebook as PAGENAME." Then, use search or whatever means to find pages that post like-minded content to what you're looking for and "Like" these pages. {NOTE: Because you are "acting as" your page, YOU are NOT liking these pages, your page is liking them.} Okay, so now you should have a page that you're acting as, and you've liked some other pages. Now if you go to the FB homepage, you'll see a custom newsfeed of posts from JUST those pages that you liked (plus ads). Over on the left (in today's interface at least) there's a little arrow next to Newsfeed. Click that and switch to most recent. Voila, the freshests posts from the pages you like. You can switch back to "Use Facebook as YOURNAME" using the arrow at the very top right of the desktop interface. 3) Sharegrab.com This is from the EdgeRank Checker people. Basically, you log in and create Pods (read: groups or lists) of FB pages. Then, you can choose a pod, and a date range, and it'll show you the most "shareworthy" posts from those pages. Hope this is helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me if you need any assistance implementing these ideas, or creating a custom blended RSS feed (which is still a fantastic way to achieve your goal). https://clarity.fm/toddlevy

If you have a self-hosted Wordpress blog, there is a great free plugin called "Tweet Old Posts" which will promote older posts on a schedule you set. http://wordpress.org/plugins/tweet-old-post/ It works really well and is simple to setup. Cheers, Hani

This depends on your definition of popular, but I can help you out. You're not going to be getting thousands of hits per month, but you can gain some popularity. 1. You're going to need to publish two posts per week, so you better be ready to write. One for your blog, and one for someone else's. 2. You won't be publishing any "round up" content, like 10 best tools for "blank". You're going to need to deliver ACTUAL value here. 3. Make sure that the topic of your blog is first about something people are actively looking for online. User Google Trends to test out some keywords. 4. Use BuzzSumo.com to search for keywords of blog posts and check out how many people are sharing those. Take a look at the most popular posts and then out do them. Write an even more comprehensive and valuable post than that one. 5. Build your email list as quickly as you can. Use Appsumo.com and install their list builder app. 6. Provide a content upgrade for each post. For example, an eBook, a checklist, anything that relates to the value of the article you wrote. Exchange the free item for their subscription to your email list. 7. Email your list once per week with a new article you just published. Ask them to share it if they like it. 8. Guest post for the second article you wrote each week. Find popular, related blogs and pitch them a post idea. Link back to your blog, but to a landing page that specifically outlines the value of signing up for your email list. OR 8a. Link back to a landing page that gives away content bonuses that you mentioned in the guest post. 9. Run a contest where you give something away related to your blog topic. (don't give away an iPad if you're a real estate agent, you want to attract subscribers that have to do with your niche.) 10. Die from exhaustion.