Blog or News Site - raise

The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.

How can you use Twestival to increase your audience?

1. Organise a Twestival in your area if there isn’t one. This will make you an instant local hero and authority on Twitter. Local media, business and media will identify you as the expert.
2. Sponsor a Twestival - all Twestivals are run voluntarily with all proceeds going to charity:water. Sponsorship is used to cover room costs and any food and drink costs. Your logo will appear on the local Twestival homepage.
3. Donate a prize for Twestival raffle - Raffles are a great fundraising activity and rely on the generosity of others to donate great prizes. These can be an item (Wii, Ipod), a voucher (iTunes) or service (consultancy).
4. Attend a Twestival - this is a worldwide event entirely organised using Twitter. Take part and tell everyone about how it went and who you met.
5. Donate money to charity:water using TipJoy and twitter all your friends to do the same. They’ll think you’re a star!

Find your local Twestival, get involved today and be a super hero.

11 Tips To Increase Your Blog Audience using video:

If you want your audience to identify with your mission;  you need at least one compelling story that connects your work to real people. If a story moves you, it will likely move others as well—and become the foundation for deeper involvement.

2. Be relevant.
People respond to what’s going on around them, so try to relate to the news as much as possible. You’ll also have a better chance at success if you’re pitching your video to bloggers or other websites — they’re always looking for something current and fresh.

3. Tell them what you want.
You have their attention, now tell your blog viewers how you want them to engage, whether it’s donating money, visiting your blog, or just volunteering. They won’t know to give unless you ask for it.

4. Be brief.
Few people are watching your 7-minute online video - that only works when you have them locked in a room. Try to get everything out in 2 minutes or less for a good message with high audience.

5. Videos don’t raise money by themselves.
Your organization should think of online video as one of many tools to fit into your fundraising program. Adopting video into your organization is critical, but it has to be a means instead of an end. Try more new tools.

6. Embed video on your donations page.
The distance between the “play” button and the “donate” button on your blog should be short. Also, give your viewer the right web tools. Can the viewer forward the video to a friend, subscribe to your RSS feed, get involved, and sign up for your newsletter right there on the spot? If not, they should.

7. Put video at the center of a campaign.
Video is often best used in the context of a campaign. A campaign can be raising money for a particular village, trying to reach a specific goal, or giving limited to a specific timeframe.

8. Empower your viewers on blog.
Ever heard of peer-to-peer fundraising? Encourage your audience to pass your videos along. Make the embed code easily accessible within your page so your video can reach a broader audience.

9. Create a blog media library.
Start gathering your footage now—you might have all the ingredients already! Building a media library is a valuable long-term asset for your organization. Have a camera ready for every important event. Ask volunteers to document their work and make it available for future events, trainings, and online use. Using existing footage you get more bang for the buck.

10. Test.
You don’t know if something works unless you test it. Send out emails with video and some without, and measure the results. Each nonprofit will have different nuances, and you’ll want to know when using video is most effective.

11. Know when not to use video on your blog.
Truth is, your strongest donors will likely donate with or without online video. They have been already, right? They don’t need any extra convincing. Use online video for attracting new audiences, for driving specific campaigns, for empowering your membership to spread your story or for deepening or expanding existing relationships.

News or Blog site ?

One of the key reasons nobody reads your blog is because you have tried to become a news site.

People can read news anywhere. Almost every site has a "news" link.

But sometimes in the process blogs can become more credible, trustworthy, and faster for news then traditional news sites. Techcrunch, Mashable, Huffington Post are just a few that have amazing distribution.

Many bloggers think just because they have millions of people that read their blog they need to deliver them news. They think people are looking to them for news. But they are not.

People read blogs because they are looking to connect with you. They need to know you are the same "dumbass" that they are.

The #1 tip I can tell people who want to have a successful blog is to be yourself.

People give me xxx all the time for talking about  strip clubs,gay, lesbians,weird pictures, getting drunk, lol blogs,losing weight , LOST.

People say I need to stay on topic all the time.

I guess they don’t know the topic of this blog is me.

Its a blog. Its not a news site.