When I started blogging years ago, I never imagined having thousands of posts on my blog. But when you are blogging everyday for a few years, your blog posts will add up quickly. Many bloggers do a good job promoting their new blog posts. Your old content matters too. In order to get the most traffic to your website and keep people interested in your work, you should keep an eye on your older posts and leverage them to grow your community. Here are 5 things you can do to your old blog posts to grow your empire:

1. update them: so you like creating lists or writing about time-sensitive things? Then you have to be ready to keep your posts up to date at all times. That way you won’t turn off your new readers when they reach your site through your older posts. Every blogger needs to have an update schedule for lists and date sensitive posts.
2. revamp them: this is what many bloggers have done with their low quality posts since Google Panda updates went into effect. When we start blogging, we make mistakes. Your older blog posts may not reflect too well on the current quality of your website. It never hurts to go through your older posts and work on improving their quality. Use Google Analytics to identify the top posts. I would start by focusing on the posts that get the most traffic. This is probably not a process you can complete in one night but you should integrate it into your weekly schedule.
3. spread them: so you have some ageless content on your site that are just sitting there and don’t get enough love from your visitors? You should use your Twitter and Facebook accounts to promote these posts. Tweet Old Post is a cool WordPress plugin that lets you do just that.
4. link to them: this is a no brainer. How can you expect the search engines to give your old blog posts some love if you are not doing them any favors yourself. Every new blog post gives you an opportunity to link to your older posts. Seo Smart Links is a cool script that allows you to link to your older posts. I personally love using Random Posts plugin.
5. repurpose them: no matter how old and outdated your posts are, you can always salvage them. Repurposing them is one way to do that. Why write a blog posts from scratch when you can modify your existing ones to get what you are looking for. Reusing content ideas lets you come up with new killer posts fast. I am not talking about repeating the things you have said in the past but rather using different angles to approach the same topics.

Your older blog posts do matter. Don’t neglect them. Embrace them!

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Twitter is a great community to be a part of, contribute to, and learn new things from. There are a ton of people who are worth following and learning from on Twitter. What you do not want to deal with is Twitter bots. Not all Twitter bots are annoying. But if you are on Twitter to build relationships, you do not want to do it with software programs. Thankfully, identifying Twitter bots is not that difficult these days. Here are 8 ways to do just that:

1. post type: by looking at what others are posting to Twitter, you can easily tell novice spammers. These folks use all kinds of tactics to game Twitter trends and annoy the heck out of other Twitter members. If someone is just posting nonsense links to Twitter or is overusing hashtags (multiple unrelated hashtags per post), you are probably dealing with a Twitter robot.
2. hashtag tracking: some Twitter bots are truly harmless. For instance, everytime I post a tweet about WordPress to my account, a few of my followers retweet my posts automatically. Over the past few years, I have come to know some of these folks. But there are a few robots in that list as well.
3. post frequency: if someone is posting tweets every 15 minutes, you know you are dealing with a robot (or someone who is doing bulk automation). I don’t care how perfect one can be. It is impossible to post every 10,15 or 20 minutes (on the dot) day in and day out.
4. 24/7 posting: some folks post content 24/7. I personally don’t mind that as long as those tweets are valuable. Nevertheless, most of these folks are using auto-tweet programs to get the job done. Services such as Hootsuite do allow people to import RSS feeds and post them to Twitter automatically. These types of tweets are not always annoying though.
5. unwanted DMs’ or replies: every time I talk about my web host or Windows on Twitter, I get a bunch of automated messages (replies and DMs). I usually block the source accounts as soon as I find them.
6. affiliate promotions: so many people are posting information on Donald Trump University or get rich schemes on Twitter. Most of these people are not even smart enough to hide their tracks, which is good news for the rest of us as we can find and block them fast.
7. spammy timeline: not sure if someone is a real person or robot on Twitter? Just check their timeline to see if you can find any repeating patterns. Twitter bots have become somewhat sophisticated in the past few months. But you can still identify them if you look hard enough.
8. cross posting across multiple accounts: if one message is always getting retweeted immediately by multiple accounts, there is a good chance you are dealing with copycat accounts. I know a few top Twitter users who have multiple Twitter accounts (one for each niche they are involved in). I would not remove these people from my Twitter lists. However, duplicate accounts that look spammy are a must block.

Did I miss anything? How would you go about identifying Twitter bots?

Twitlonger: one of the most popular Twitter services around. All you have to do is write your message on this website. The rest is taken care of by these folks.

JumboTweet: I have seen some large tweets being posted on Twitter with this service. While that sort of defeats the whole purpose of tweeting, it is nice to have the option.

Tweetc: all you have to do is sign in to your account and use this service to post longer tweets to Twitter. It supports sending your messages by e-mail as well.

ezTweets: ezTweets allows you to send your messages to Twitter and Facebook without having to worry about character limits. It keeps track of the number of your characters and shows you how many tweets you would need to cover as many characters.

Long Tweets: has a pretty simple interface. It does require you to provide your Twitter credentials before getting started.

How would you go about posting 140+ character Twitter messages?

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Twitter is a goldmine for those who know how to use it properly. Having a Twitter account for yourself and your blog is just a start. In order to take advantage of this goldmine, you should always think ahead to find ways to get the most out of Twitter for all your projects. Let’s say you are thinking about launching a couple of new blogs in the near future. Why not start targeting your potential visitors with a niche Twitter account today? Managing multiple Twitter accounts can be a tad bit difficult if you do all the work yourself. Solutions such as Hootsuite should have you covered there.

Managing niche Twitter accounts gives you more flexibility when you are ready to expand your blogging business. Twitter is a tool that enables you to connect with the right audience for your next project. Keeping multiple Twitter accounts up-to-date all the time can take some work, but it will be worth it in the end. Here are just 6 reasons you should start niche Twitter accounts:

• gain targeted followers: if you are tweeting about a specific topic/niche all the time, there is a good chance most your followers will be interested to be hearing about that topic. Once you have a decent following going, you can use your Twitter account to drive the right kind of traffic to your other web properties.
• network with big players: Twitter is an amazing tool to use to connect with the top dogs in any industry. If your blog gets a decent amount of traffic or you have a large number of followers on Twitter, you will have an easier time making a breakthrough with the top dogs (though some have made it with much less).
• more responsive audience: your audience will be more responsive to your tweets and offers if you focus on a certain niche on your Twitter profile. As long as you keep the material on your Twitter page focused on a certain topic, the sky’s the limit.
• great blogging resource: I can’t tell you how many times I have found new blogging ideas from my Twitter timeline. Most bloggers can come up with new post ideas just by taking look at what others are talking about or asking for on Twitter. Don’t forget to get your Twitter followers involved in your blog posts and ask your community to retweet your posts.
• don’t forget SEO benefits: niche Twitter profiles do get ranked high on major search engines. They can also help your blog get indexed faster. Wouldn’t it nice if you could have multiple entries on the first page of the SERPs?
• gain instant traffic: many bloggers use article marketing or guest posting to drive traffic to their new blog. There is nothing wrong with those approaches. Twitter just happens to be a much better tool to drive targeted traffic to your website from your very first day.

Niche Twitter accounts are your business assets. The more of them you maintain, the more flexibility you have when starting a new blog or venture. Just make sure you abide by Twitter’s guidelines and stay away from spamming others.

Twitter is a wonderful community to be part of to learn from others, build relationships, and share what you know. But in order to get the most out of it, you should go beyond replies and retweets. Getting involved in Twitter chats is one way to do that. If you have visited top bloggers’ websites in the past few months, you have probably heard about Twitter chats. These are all about the Twitter community coming together to share ideas and learn new things. #Blogchat is one of the more popular weekly Twitter chats around. There are of course other topics you can choose from depending on your niche. Twitter chats such as #Blogchat provide you with a unique opportunity to connect with the experts, build relationships, and learn from others. Here are 6 ways you can get the most out of these types of chats:

• Come prepared: you don’t necessarily have to but you will get much more out of your Twitter chat experience if you come ready to roll. Being prepared about the topic that will be discussed at a certain date on Twitter will help you make a better impression on others. It will also allow you to ask the right questions and learn more things.
• Don’t be afraid to share: the more value you put in Twitter, the more you get out of it. Don’t be afraid to share your experiences and thoughts on a certain topic on Twitter. If nobody shares anything valuable, these chats can get pretty pointless.
• Listen to what others say: you don’t want to do all the talking on Twitter. Smart Twitter users actually listen to what others have to say. You can not only learn new things by listening, you can figure out people’s needs and wants. These types of conversations could potentially help you develop your own killer products.
• Follow up with participants: these types of chats can help you discover future partners. Besides, it never hurts to build a more solid relationship with your Twitter friends, so don’t be afraid to follow up with your tweeps outside your Twitter chats.
• Learn how to throw events: throwing Twitter chats on a weekly basis for your blog readers is another way to get them more engaged. If you have a popular blog and want to get people even more involved, starting your own Twitter chat can be the way to go. By looking at chats such as #blogchat, you can learn how to throw these things yourself.
• Keep an open mind: don’t go to these chats with a closed mind. You can not only learn a lot of things from these types of discussions, you may be able to come up with ideas on how to take your business to the next level. Don’t dismiss any new idea without testing it.

What’s your favorite Twitter chat? Please share your hashtags below.

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No matter how much value you offer through your Twitter account, there are always going to be people who will criticize you for everything you do. Perfection is impossible on Twitter or on your blog. You are going to make mistakes, and there will be people who will bash you no matter how much value you offer them thereafter. The last thing you want to do is getting into a shouting match with someone on Twitter and embarrass your brand. Twitter may be a tad bit less personal than Facebook. That does not mean you have the freedom to go at your followers and start a cursing match (the only person who can pull it off on Twitter seems to be the legendary Dana White).

Nobody likes to get criticized. Some can handle criticism better than others. Still, you won’t find too many people who get up in the morning hoping to find hate mail/tweets in their inbox. There are two ways to deal with negative feedback in social media. You can stop everything and start blaming yourself or the world. The better way to approach this is to try and learn from your mistakes and figure out how you can offer even more value to your Twitter followers.

If you have gotten negative feedback on Twitter recently, here are 6 ways you may want to go about addressing them:

1. Listen and listen good: A lot of people don’t seem to listen on Twitter. If you are the only one talking, you are not going to learn anything nor are you going to build solid relationships with people. Maybe the criticism that you are getting is valid. A year go, people started complaining to me about using a certain URL shortener for my tweets. I could have just ignored it. I decided to go with bit.ly and ow.ly instead.
2. Don’t insult: some people just can’t take negative feedback or any sort of criticism. If that is you, Twitter may not be for you. Twitter is a social network with emphasis on the word “social.” Even if the God almighty came down from the heavens and showed off amazing powers, there are still going to be people who’ll not like it. Insulting your followers does not reflect too well upon your brand nor does it give others any encouragement to follow you on Twitter.
3. Investigate: just because people are criticizing you, it does not mean that you are wrong or they are wrong. You won’t find out unless you investigate. So you have got to listen to what people have to say and do some research to see if your followers are right.
4. Don’t overreact: there are two ways to overreact to a negative tweet. You can either get too aggressive with your critics or start begging them for forgiveness. Overreacting does not solve anything. Everybody makes mistakes. Just learn from it and move on. Don’t just give up on Twitter because a couple of people don’t happen to enjoy your tweets.
5. Learn from Mistakes: everybody makes mistakes. The key is what you can learn from your mistakes. If you don’t study your mistakes, you are not going to learn anything, which means you will continue making those mistakes over and over again.
6. Don’t change who you are: not everyone is going to like you. Don’t just change your personality to appease the few that hate your style. It’s always easier to be yourself and see where the chips fall. I am not suggesting you should not try to improve your content. But don’t stop tweeting about a certain topic that you are passionate about if a couple of your followers don’t like it.

Twitter is a social network. Some people will like you and some won’t. Not all criticism are constructive. You should still put some time to figure out which ones are valid and try to learn from your mistakes. Remember, nobody is perfect.

Nobody likes being ignored on Twitter. It does not matter if you have 100 followers or 100,000 tweeps. It could be very disheartening if you are not getting any feedback on your tweets. It could be that you are being followed by the wrong types of people. Maybe your content is not good enough. Those of you who are new to Twitter will probably have to spend some time building trust with others (which is why you should never tweet nonsensical affiliate offers or bogus stories). You can do just that by tweeting/re-tweeting content others want to share with their tweeps. Here are 5 ways to do just that:

1. Tweet pictures: not every picture will get love on Twitter. But if you have an amazing or unique picture to share, people will take time to look at it. Picture lists can get you retweets too (e.g. 10 amazing trees or 20 awesome monuments). Just make sure you tag your picture tweets properly to help people find your tweet easier.
2. Don’t forget infographics: infographics are quite popular among top tweeters. Not all infographics are created the same. Those that provide a unique value or can teach you something have a better chance of going viral. If you know your way around Photoshop/Illustrator and are creative enough, you can create these yourself and keep getting links to your website. Otherwise, you can just take advantage of infographics created by other Twitter members. Coolinfographics.com has plenty to get you started.
3. Everybody loves videos: it is difficult to find people who do not like watching videos. People may not be interested in all types of videos, but everybody likes something. Sharing videos on Twitter can get you retweets and help you build trust with your tweeps. I have personally had success with interviews and science videos. To be clear, I don’t go out of my way to tweet videos that I don’t like. You probably should not either.
4. Quotes can help: many top Twitter users take advantage of famous quotes to motivate and educate their followers. These types of quotes can go viral easily. You never know who’s going to read your quote but if you can help others with these, they are worth a try.
5. Useful documents & templates rock: this is my favorite. Let’s face it. Most of us don’t want to re-invent the wheels and create our document templates from scratch. Not when there is a template out there that addresses our needs. Those template/document lists can get a lot of attention on Twitter. Just recently, my list on top 100 yes-follow social networks got a bunch of mentions on Twitter. You can easily come up with your own lists and get the much needed retweets and backlinks.

Your goal on Twitter should not be to just get a bunch of retweets. You need to have a real strategy. At the same time, retweets can give you valuable feedback on what your audience is looking for and how you can take advantage.

Here are 5 ways I go about finding stories to tweet/re-tweet for my @panah account:

Twitter Lists: everyday that passes by, I find myself spending more time reading stories from my Twitter lists and less focusing on my Google Reader feeds. You can find many Twitter superstars who keep tweeting those top stories. It’s like having someone finding you stories worth reading. Twitter lists save me a lot of time.

Google Reader: still one of the best ways to keep up with the news. You do have to do some research to find feeds worth following. This service takes care of the rest and even allows you to share your stories with the world in a more convenient fashion.

Topsy: Topsy is a powerful Twitter search engine that can find you top stories based on your keyword. It can also show you who has tweeted those stories and who the influential tweeters are in your niche.

Tweetmeme: Tweetmeme does not need any introduction. Users can go through stories based on categories and find the ones that are getting the most love on Twitter.

PostRank: one of my favorite blogging tools. It makes it easy to keep up with the top blogs in any niche. Being able to see which ones are growing or struggling is nice too.

I mainly focus on the first two tools to find stories to share with my Twitter friends. I never share stories that I have not read. That way I have a say in the quality of stories that show up on my Twitter account.

What tools are you using to find “tweetable” stories?

Even before using Klout, I knew what areas I needed to work on to get more out of Twitter. I spend a lot of my time reading articles and going through other people’s works on a daily basis. I have been more of a listener on Twitter, learning from what others have been sharing and looking for ideas for my new projects. Klout can easily figure that out. It not only tells you what topics you have been focusing on, it even identifies flaws in your strategy.

Klout shows you your true reach, your amplification score, and your engagement level with other influences on Twitter. The service analyzes your number of friends, retweet percentage, in/out message ratio, list inclusions, and all kinds of other metrics to help you gather some actionable information about your Twitter account. The service is not perfect, but it has done a great job helping me change my ways on Twitter. A must try for everyone on Twitter.

Facebook may have made the idea of “social walls” popular, but there are plenty of third party services that allow you to create customizable walls that go beyond what Facebook has done. Let’s say you want to create a wall on Twitter about your favorite topic or hashtags. That can be easily done using a service such as Tweetwally. Tweetwally allows you to filter through tweets using hashtags, usernames, and keywords. You can also track tweets by mentions (@) as well. The wall automatically updates itself, which is what you would expect from Web 2.0 mashups these days. Here is the wall that I have created for WordPress:

If you happen to be interested in choosing your own URL for your wall, that option is available to you as well as long as you sign in to the service by using your Twitter account. I used http://wp.tweetwally.com/ for my WordPress wall. You can change the look and feel of your wall and add your own description to it as well.

So why would you need a Twitter wall? For starters, it makes tracking a specific topic much more convenient. Besides, you can share it on your blog with your visitors. You can also embed it on your blog as well. All in all, a cool free service that gives you yet another way to create targeted walls based on Twitter content. Let’s hope it stays around and gets the improvements it needs in the future.