There are a great many ways to promote blogs online. I’ll concentrate on free tactics for this post as they’re usually where most people start (or should do).
Firstly,
before anything else, the best advice I can give you is to pick a
handful of tactics and try each one in turn. Measure as accurately as
possible which one gets the best results. If you try ALL tactics at
once, it will be hard to keep track of, you won’t be fully optimising
any of the tactics and it won’t be clear which one is working best for
you.
Which strategies and tactics you use to promote your blog will vary depending on what you’re blogging about. If you feel you’re blogging
about topics that offer great value and are of interest to your target
audience, you’re ready to start experimenting with promotion.
You should also decide what you’re trying to achieve by promoting your blog.
Do you just want to drive traffic or do you want to encourage signups
to your newsletter OR do you want to push sales? If your aim is clear,
it will help you pick the right strategy and tactics and also give you
an important metric to measure to figure out if your efforts are
working.
Here are some practical tips and explanations of FREE tactics you can use to promote your blog:
Social Media
Social media can be a very effective way of getting the word out about your blog. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram etc can be brilliant at driving traffic.
Just posting your blogs onto social media won’t work very well. Using social media to promote your blog means you will need to put in some time to create genuine and thoughtful posts and connections.
FREE tactics to use on social media
Twitter:
Instead of just tweeting your article onto your tweet feed with a few
relevant hashtags, why not search out people who follow others tweeting
similar content. Find anyone you think would be interested in a specific
article on your blog (check out Followerwonk
as an example of how you can do this - there are also similar platforms
you can use). Once you’ve done this, methodically tweet a friendly,
helpful and personal tweet directly to each twitter user you’ve found,
asking them to check out your article and why you think they’d like it.
Engage with their tweets and follow them so it’s not just a one way
street. Asking for people’s expert opinions is an easy way to break
barriers and get engagement.
Facebook: Seek out and join as many Facebook groups as you can that focus on the topic or topics of your blog. Engage with the moderators of that group and the posts others have contributed before venturing to post your own blog
article. Ask for genuine feedback, be honest and ask others to share if
they like what they read. This way you can connect en masse with people
who are extremely active and interested within your blog’s area.
Pinterest: If you’ve got some great images in your blog
(even better if they’re your own so you don’t have to credit them) then
install the Pinterest plugin on your browser, set up a Pinterest and
start posting! The pictures will link back to your blog so if you include a compelling caption then anyone who loves your picture might follow the link to your blog.
Instagram: If your blog
subject is shown off well visually, start an Instagram account. Make
time to like and comment (a genuine comment, not just “hey, nice pic!”)
on people using the same hashtags as you. As i tell my team over at the growth marketing agency Rebel Hack - “always be adding value”.
You
can also scroll through people who follow Instagram accounts similar to
your own and use the same tactic. Liking and commenting on others
pictures is a sure fire way to get their attention - after all everyone
loves to be the centre of someone’s attention. If you know they’re
interested in your subject then they’ll probably want to follow you too!
(Make sure you include a link to your blog in your bio and mention that in most of your posts with “check the link in my bio”!).
Guest Posting/Blogging
Guest posting is a brilliant way to:
- 1) create important backlinks to your blog that will help you rank in search and
- 2) find a relevant audience and drive referral traffic.
Contact
sites you feel you could write a great, interesting post for that would
interest their readers. Contact the editors of those sites with a
personal, engaging and unique message complimenting them on their site
and pitching some ideas for articles. Make sure you make it clear why
you think you can add value to their readers with your guest post. The
more information you can provide about what you plan on writing the more
likely you are to get a positive response, it’s all about making it as
easy as possible for them to make a decision.
Commenting and Connecting
Another great way of promoting your blog is to comment on the blogs of others in a similar niche (but not in direct competition with you). Like and comment on their blogs,
offer to link to them (or even better, DO link to them and alert them
you’ve done it). After a period of time of interacting directly, post an
article into the comments of one of their most relevant blogs
with a link to your article and an explanation of why you think they
will find it interesting. The link may not be a “do follow” but you’ll
be presenting your blog to an audience who is already reading the kind of content you offer. You’ll be:
- 1) building a relationship with that blogger and
- 2) enticing their readers to your blog.
You may even get a few great “do follow” links!
Conclusion
There are SO many ways you can promote your blog, the most important thing to do is:
- choose the ones that feel natural to you and will help you reach your set goals.
- try and stay away from anything spammy or salesy and connect with people and sites that you genuinely like.
- make sure you measure your efforts so you know if they’re working.
If you don’t have a blog then you should read this article showing you how to promote your content when you DON’T even have a blog! However, setting up a blog and starting to promote it is the 1st step to getting your business noticed!
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