Alright we all know that there are plenty of ways to promote your blog and after starting a discussion at LinkedIn, I’ve decided to pool all the ideas and suggestions into one single blog post. I must say that there were a lot of ideas drawn out from the LinkedIn discussion group.
I’ve also added some of my ideas to help promote your blog in any possible way and boost traffic. Be warned this is a huge list and it’s not possible to do everything at one time! So let’s have a look.
1. SOCIAL MEDIA
a. StumbleUpon is one of the biggest social networking sites on the planet and it comes only second to Twitter. To date it has more the 11 million users and it’s one of the major sources of traffic for this blog in terms of promotion.
If you wanna get more awesome StumbleUpon tips to promote your blog, visit this link at Get more stumbleupon traffic.
b. LinkedIn is another major social networking site and this whole blog topic came about after having a discussion there with the Probloggers group on Linkedin. If you haven’t started using it, you must consider using it to build followers.
c. Twitter. Obviously, Twitter is the biggest social media site on the Internet but you must have the right tools and you must learn how to promote your blog properly with it. Let’s have a look at an example here using Hootsuite
d. Facebook. I must admit I’m not an expert in using Facebook to promote your blog but I can recommend a fantastic blog to help you to become one! Facebook Promoting Tips.
e. Digg. Digg is another great place to promote your blog. Read this blog entry on how to promote your blog through Digg.
2. SEO
There are plenty of SEO guides and tools to help boost your blog through good search engine optimization (SEO). Although it has been emphasized a lot, only a few actually fully utilize the tools and knowledge they have to maximise returns from SEO.
A GREAT SEO keyword tool to use is Market Samurai Keyword Analysis Tool.
ScribeSEO is another SEO tool to help you write any content that is not only human friendly but very search engine friendly. Find out here, ScribeSEO tool tips
Consider also other keyword SEO tools
3. FORUM POSTING
1. The first and most important way is to actively participate and contribute to the forums. Don’t just promote.
Promote when you’re more familiar with the community or do it to help others, i.e giving them a link to any blog post to help them with a question they have.
2. Add forum signatures to the end of your post.
4. BLOG
Blogging on it’s own is a very essential part of building rankings and promoting your business. It is strongly recommended that every website should have a blog as static websites no longer rank well on search engines.
Blogging Directories
Another way to promote your blog is to submit them to Blog directories. Below is a list of them:
- Technorati
- BlogCatalog
- Bloggeries
Blogging Communities/Aggregators
Blogging Communities like BlogEngage and BloggerLuv are some of the best communities to join and interact with like-minded bloggers. There are a few new ones like Bloggersbase that you should consider too.
- BlogEngage
- BloggerLuv
- MMOSocialNetwork
- Sphinn.com
- Bloggersbase
- Bloggers.com
Microblogging
Microblogging is the concept of writing mini blogs on several Web 2.0 sites that includes Amplify, Tumblr among the many microblogging sites out there. You can even consider other free blogging sites like Xanga to promote your blogs too.
- Ping.fm
- Amplify
- Tumblr
- Xanga
- Posterous
- Livejournal
- Blogger
- Hi5
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to promote your brand or yourself. It exposes you to a whole new blogging community and it allows you to interact with others in your niche as well as allowing them to come and visit your blog.
My Blog Guest is one of the best sites to advertise for guest bloggers and guest blogging.
These are some of the reasons why you should start guest blogging
Blog Commenting
Blog commenting is also a very effective way to interact with your fellow bloggers. Although promoting blogs may not be as obvious when you’re commenting. It is important to always interact with visitors who comment and reciprocate. People are more likely to come back and comment on your blogs.
Here are reasons to do blog commenting
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is another area where you can promote your blog or content. Use it wisely and don’t overly promote.
6. RSS directories
RSS feeds are very important also in blog promotion. However, there are many other ways to make it better. Below are 3 ways you can achieve that:
Use an RSS Directory Submitter like RSSBot
Alternatively, you can try this list of RSS websites to ping.
Try using these 2 Pinging Services like Pingomatic and Pingoat.
7. Video Posting
Video posting is another area to explore when promoting your blog posts like
- Youtube
- Viddler
- Dailymotion
- Vimeo
- Lulu
Use Camtasia Studio 7 to help with making videos
8. Article Directories
Use article directories like Ezinearticles to promote unique content that links back to your own blog posts.
- Ezinearticles
- Articlesbase
- Goarticles
- ArticleAlley
- Ideamarketers
- Evan Carmichael
9. Offline Promotion
Consider also offline promotional methods like creating flyers and leaflets that can help promote your blog. If you have a business and have a blog, this is another way customers can follow up with you
A great way to do offline promotion is also through business cards. The few things you wanna add to your business card is:
- Your Name
- Your Picture
- Address/Contact Details
- Call to action/Free offer
The last one is very important but of course don’t make it sound like you are begging them to visit it or else…..
Here Pat Flynn has a fantastic post on business cards. Have a look at it.
Now you might know that there is a huge amount of things to do so the best thing to consider is to outsource your blog promotion efforts. Do you have any more ideas? Let me know if you have any.
Related articles on Blogging Tips
- 5 Must Haves for the Serious Blogger
- Got Community? 5 Ways To Foster It On Your Blog
- 101 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I might try guest blogging – you made it sound good.
Rosanne Dingli recently posted..How long does it take to write a book
yeah rosanne. I highly recommend you to consider guest blogging
Twitter: lavenderuses
October 4, 2010 at 12:28 am
Wow you seem to have all bases covered Bryan! As a newbie blogger I will bookmark so I can reference this and look at the methods I’m not employing with my blog. Heaps to learn that’s for sure. BTW thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to visit. Hope you visit again soon.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia@lavenderuses recently posted..Growing Lavenders-Your Favourite Gardening Tool
hey patricia!
thx for stopping by
Yeah sure go ahead and bookmark it. I will update the list in future very soon.
Those were great and complete lists.
Some i have done, some i haven’t.
My favourite is article directories, and blog commenting.
Thanks for taking the effort on listing them =D
Kimi recently posted..Get Rid Of Spam Bots In WordPress With GASP
Yeah, if you are able to do that. I can guarantee an increase of traffic to your blog and more people coming over visiting. But I can’t guarantee ppl coming in the hundreds or thousands. Sometimes you will need to find what works for you. Some may work for me but may not for you. Thx for commenting Cheers!
Twitter: techiemania
October 20, 2010 at 12:44 am
Of all the nine ways in the list SEO and social Media are the most powerful ones. I am using both of them and I am getting good results for my blog.
Sathish @ TechieMania recently posted..Keeping Non-Profit Websites Beautiful- Making A Tough Job Easier With Updated Content Management Systems
yeah they are both great. I hope to utilize more of social media to boost blog traffic too. still working on that one
thx for comenting!
Thanks for the nice info. I see that search engine ranking keeps fluctuating. Its very important to work on other areas for blog promotion.
Yeah Amit,
I don’t really bother much about my rankings now as there are many more important ways to promote your blog.
thx for stopping by.
@Bryan: This is a top of your recommended methods or the order is random? I want to know what you recommend from the methods above, if you could only use one or two of these.
Patel
Urvisha Patel recently posted..Treatment for Diabetes In Dogs
Hi Urvisha,
Thx for asking this question. I’m sure its overwhelming to do all of it. Since you said on or two, would you mind if I add a 3rd one?
The first one is to comment on blogs related to your niche. Since your site is about taking care of diabetes in dogs, you would want to search for blogs similar or quite similar to your niche. I’m not so familiar with this niche but you must do your due diligence in researching content and blogs related to what you are doing now. Commenting on blogs will help let other bloggers know who you are. From there, start commenting regularly and network with them. make yourself known to them
Second one is to guest post. When you have the time find blogs to guest post or blogs that allow you to guest post. Again the best thing is to find related blogs to your site. This is great in terms of marketing your blog and getting traffic.
Third is using twitter. If you are too confused about what social networking is, start with twitter. Join twitter, make sure you add relevant info about your niche to twitter and start following those ppl in the dog health niche. Find conversation with them, tweet, re-tweet and publish your own content as well.
hope this helps you
Cheers!
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the fast reply. I asked this because I used to use a lot article marketing but lately the results are mixed with this method. I will consider your tips and focus on blog commenting and guest posting. Twitter is not my thing
Patel
Urvisha Patel recently posted..Treatment for Diabetes In Dogs
Hi Urvisha,
You’re right about article marketing. During the first few months of having this blog, I was still focusing a lot on article marketing but I don’t really do much of it now. For me, those 2 things are some of best ways to promote this blog although the rest still helps. Thx for stopping by. Hope to see u around soon
@Bryan: Article marketing seemed more effective 1-2 years ago but now I don’t see any improvements with this method. I need to change focus and do it fast.
Patel
Urvisha Patel recently posted..Treatment for Diabetes In Dogs
It used to be but it still is for good backlinking purposes but not so much for traffic. there are a lot of things on the internet that can change pretty rapidly. the challenge is to keep up with the changes
thx for commenting
I think the promoting a blog on search engines (seo) is most important for any blog. Its also necessary that your blog should offer quality stuff before you start promoting it otherwise it would not be able to retain the visitor get in response of the promotion
Twitter: andrewrondeau
November 16, 2010 at 3:12 pm
This is a very concise and complete list! You’ve really considered everything. This post deserves to be bookmarked and shared. You have included great links too. I will definitely try those business cards for my offline promotion.
Andrew @ Blogging Guide recently posted..5 Ways to Find Guest Blogging Partners for Your Website
Hi Andrew,
Yeah, the offline promotion tip was something I learned from Pat. Thx for recommending this post!
Can you suggest some good forums to participate in? I need to hear more on the forum topic, it’s one I’ve not investigated at all.
Daniel Snyder recently posted..How to Backup Your WordPress Database without a plugin
Hey Dan,
For me, I’m looking at digitalpoint or warriorforum. I’m not so sure about other niches. But I got to look that up and get back to you. I think the best thing is to get involved in a forum in the same niche as yours.
Thx for stopping by!
Hey Bryanps. Thanks for the forum tips! I’ll check them out, I’ve never got into forums yet… and I’m not a fan of their interfaces, but I think it’s worth involving myself!
Daniel Snyder recently posted..Number ONE thing Computer users neglect!
Facebook and twitter are my favourite. You can drive tons of free traffic and not just simple traffic, quality traffic. There are 575 million facebook users. Can you imagine how big that is?
Dictionar Roman Englez recently posted..Familia
Twitter: joehobot
April 24, 2011 at 7:35 am
I think you nailed every thing as far as the blog pormotion, but I think the main reason people do come back and revisit your blog as well as subscribe to rss feeds is the quality of the content. See you wrote quality content and you got 23 comments so far.
Anyway, been blogging for over 8 years now, and I must say you nailed a lot of things people can learn from.
ttyl.
@JoeHobot recently posted..I Wrote This Article with Blogsy App
Hey Joe,
Glad you like the post. I think comment counts are a good yardstick for quality content but not always the case. Sometimes it can be reflected by the number of RT as well. I think writing quality content should be the standard and there is a lot to improve in this area even in the saturated niche of blogging.
Twitter: joehobot
April 27, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Bryan, comments are always good, but tweets and facebook numbers are something people and even search engines look into lately.
You have great blog.
@joehobot recently posted..Droid Incredible 2 Review With YouTube Video
Twitter: Ruben_Sargsyan
August 31, 2011 at 4:33 pm
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