Tip #2: Get Yourself a Gimmick (aka, Write a Good Bio)

This may be the single most important piece of advice I could impart to you: if you’re creating online content to promote something—or to promote yourself—you need an angle.

For example, if you’re a pediatrician who’s written a book about getting infants to sleep through the night—every aspect of your blog and site, from the visuals through to the website copy, should express this one blurbable fact: “I am a pediatrician and an expert on infants and sleep.”

Your angle should be visible everywhere, but is best described in a brief bio on the landing page where your content lives. For bloggers, this is usually the header or the sidebar of their blog.

This way, when people click through to your site from another source (be it a blog, a Wall Street Journal article, or somebody’s Tweet), they’ll know immediately who you are, what you’re about, and what you’re promoting.

Over the years and because of my prior blog, I’ve been phone interviewed by the Associated Press and MSNBC.com and excerpted by Slate. The topics were totally unconnected: working from home, higher education, and whether it’s unhealthy for women to vent their problems to their friends.

Why were the queries so random? Because my blog was a “personal blog”—a public work space for practicing my writing. I wasn’t selling anything and I wasn’t creating content for any specific reason, except that I loved to write. I wrote well enough to get media attention, but I didn’t have an easy-to-describe persona behind my content, so the leads never went anywhere.

Do This: Develop a short bio of yourself, no longer than 10 words. Practice reciting this bio aloud until it sounds right—polished, concise, authoritative. Then put it on your blog.

Content is a disposable item. Your over-arching voice and expertise is your real product. Don’t blog without purpose. Use your bio as your Mission Statement, and you’ll quickly find yourself creating a valuable information product that builds your brand and makes you a go-to source for mainstream media—and for your customers.

Next week… get ready for your close-up!

In the search for internet success, the same question always pops up, though it takes different forms: “How do you become famous on the internet?” (Also: “How do you drive traffic to your site?,” or “How do you make something go viral?”)

Unlike many other professional arenas, where you have to pay your dues, the internet moves fast. You could set up a blog in January, chat a few people up, publish a few interesting things, and be featured in major newspapers and radio outlets by March. Mainstream media continues to quote and link to bloggers and Twitter users on a daily basis in news stories on TV, radio, and in major papers.

So how can you get some of this coverage and run with it, becoming an internet sensation?

There’s no sure path or guarantee, but based on my personal experience as a blogger, I’m sharing 3 tips on how to maximize your chances at gaining—and running with—internet momentum. Look for Tip #2 next Friday.

Tip #1: Locate some influencers. Follow them on Twitter. Do what they do (and fast).

A couple of weeks ago, an influential personal blogger I follow on Twitter mentioned an essay series in which she’d participated. The blogger that created and hosted the series was not well known (yet). She was asking for additional essays. I liked the concept, so I wrote something in about 10 minutes. I left my last name off of it and asked the blogger not to link to me, because the topic was personal and I didn’t want it tied to me forever in the public sphere (but I did want to write something and contribute to the conversation).

Two weeks later, this blogger and her series was mentioned in The New York Times. Several of my co-contributors with blogs (there were about 8 of us total at the time) were excerpted and linked to by the paper. A few days after that, the series was covered by NPR. Additional bloggers and their blogs were named on the air and later on the website.

Imagine if I’d wanted my name and URL on my essay? That’s a possible free shout-out in two national outlets. And because I acted fast and was one of the few contributors on the list at the time, my chances of being mentioned were pretty good.

Do This: Find people whose endorsements make things take off. Follow those people on Twitter, Facebook, and/or the RSS to their blogs, and act quickly if they name opportunities that suit you. If you need or want PR, use your full name and always provide a link to your site.

Next week… Get Yourself a Gimmick.