{"id":1225,"date":"2018-01-29T10:33:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T10:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstsiteguide.com\/how-to-promote-your-blog\/"},"modified":"2024-02-23T22:17:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T03:17:06","slug":"how-to-promote-your-blog","status":"publish","type":"guide","link":"https:\/\/firstsiteguide.com\/promote-content\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Promote Your Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"
Once you create your blog<\/a> and start writing content<\/a>, you will have to learn different ways to promote your blog. Your blog will not succeed if no one ever sees it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to learn online marketing strategies to help you to promote your blog as a whole, as well as each piece of content that you create. This is called content marketing. Your marketing skills will determine how much traffic comes to your website, how many social shares you receive, how many comments your blog posts receive and how many subscribers you gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, the goal is to have as many visitors as possible in order to monetize your blog<\/a>. You can convert visitors into advertising clicks, affiliate referrals, and product\/service buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this guide, we\u2019ve included all possible tactics that you can use for promoting your blog and your content.<\/p>\n\n\n Before you start promoting your blog, you need to make sure it\u2019s ready:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, let\u2019s look at the ways that you can promote your blog and it\u2019s content. This is the ultimate list of 125 tactics<\/strong> including some basic steps and advanced techniques to help you to market your blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To make it easier for you to navigate this guide, I broke it down into 9 main categories: <\/p>\n\n\n Let your friends and family know about your new blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These techniques are essential and you should use them first. Word of mouth is one of the strongest ways to promote your projects. Plus, your close contacts can give you honest feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Tell them in person.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This might sound a bit old school, but these methods still work. Make sure that you tell your friends in person that you started a blog. You don\u2019t have to be pushy about it, but it\u2019s ok to let your close friends and family know about what\u2019s new in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the increasing use of social media and other forms of communication, Content marketing is still mostly reliant on emails. This is mainly because emails generate the highest leads and give the best conversion rates<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Send them an email.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If sending emails is your preferred method of communication, you can write a simple email and let everyone know about your new journey. You don\u2019t have to be fancy with this contact. We will talk more about how you can use email to promote your blog later in this guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Have a blog launch party.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n People throw parties for various occasions, so why not have one for your newborn blog? It might sound a bit ridiculous, but it\u2019s also a good reason to get together with your friends and relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Announce it on social media.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media is a big deal these days, and we will be covering more tactics for promoting your blog through social media later in this guide. For now, this refers to simply announcing your new blog on social media to all of your current connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Ask them to join your blog newsletter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Newsletters are an easy way to stay up to date with new blog content. Anyone who signs up for your newsletter will receive notifications once you post new content. If you aren\u2019t sure what we are talking about, don\u2019t worry. We will cover this in more detail later in this guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Ask them to share your blog with others.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This one is a no-brainer, and it should be at the top of your list. Once you write your first piece of content, ask your close connections to share it online. If you ask twenty people to share your post on social media with their own connections, you will slowly start getting visitors to your blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. Add your blog URL to your email signature.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, anyone you contact via email can check it out. WiseStamp<\/a> is a great app to try for anyone using Gmail or other browser-based email systems. It will even pull your latest blog post into your signature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. Add your blog URL to your social profiles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This includes the networks you use the most, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest. This way, whenever people find you on social media, they can discover your blog as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Add your blog URL to forum profiles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Include all of the profiles with signatures where you participate in discussions, preferably related to your new blog\u2019s niche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. Add your blog to author bios.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These could be any sites you are already contributing to, including other blogs that you own. Maybe you already have a blog about photography, and you\u2019ve started a blog about marketing. Your author bio and about page should link to your new marketing blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. Create business cards and add the URL of your blog to them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can create business cards for cheap or even for free these days. Just use services like Vistaprint.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. Network with others at every opportunity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you attend networking events? Be sure to have a quick elevator pitch about your blog when people ask you what you do. If you\u2019re at a blogging conference in particular, it\u2019s highly acceptable to let people know that you founded yourdomain.com, a blog that helps people learn more about your subject matter. Even if you have a day job that you need to promote, your elevator pitch is that you are a [your job title], and you also run yourdomain.com, a blog that helps people learn more about your subject matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. Submit your blog to directories.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While hundreds of directories will list your blog for a particular yearly or permanent fee listing, only a handful of them are worth considering. These include Best of the Web Blogs<\/a> ($299 for lifetime listing), and EatonWeb Blog Directory<\/a> ($59.99 for submission). Some of these directories offer free listings as well, but you will be waiting for a very long time to have your blog added, assuming they add it at all. If your website is specific to a geographic location, you could consider adding it to local directories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. Join social community sites.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many social bookmarking and voting sites. Your goal is to look for social bookmarking and voting sites that have engaged users such as Digg<\/a>, Alltop<\/a>, or similar. Note that many of these websites are not fond of people promoting their content all of the time, so you may want to consider making friends on those networks and occasionally sharing content with them in the hopes that they will submit it to these networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. Use blog promotion networks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several networks exist solely to gather people who love to help each other promote their blog posts. These systems include Social Buzz Club<\/a>, Viral Content Bee<\/a>, and similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. Build your network or group.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also create your promotional operation as you network with others in your niche. Just have everyone connect in a Facebook group<\/a> or create a new team on Slack<\/a> where anyone can share their ideas or latest posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. Be active on relevant forums.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a quick way to find forums related to your niche. Type the following into the Google search bar \u201cintitle:forum\u201d + [your niche keyword] to find good ones with active members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18. Be active in groups and communities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to be active where your targeted audience spends their time. Perhaps there are forums or Facebook groups that you know of, and the audience you want to attract is hanging out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19. Ask and answer questions on Q&A websites.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thousands of people are looking for answers on the web every day. You can create accounts on Questions & Answers websites such as Quora<\/a>, Stack Exchange<\/a>, and similar and start helping people by answering their questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is to find topics that are related to your niche and be active in those sections. It will help you to get your name out there and build your authority. You can direct people to read more relevant content that you have created on your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20. Comment and interact on other blogs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Commenting on other related blogs is a great way to build relationships with top bloggers within your niche. Research the web to find top blogs in your niche and start commenting on their newest posts. It will help you to make them and their readers aware of your existence as well as a way of developing your authority within your niche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21. Collaborate with other bloggers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with other bloggers is always a good choice. However, don\u2019t confuse collaboration with networking. While networking is all about making new connections and forming relationships with other bloggers, collaboration is the result of networking. Therefore, once you establish reliable connections, make sure to work on collaborating with authoritative bloggers, as it will help you to achieve your potential. When you join forces with like-minded people, you can achieve so much more than if you were working on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 22. Contribute to other blogs in your niche.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt Cutts, Google\u2019s former head of webspam, has denounced guest blogging as a tactic for SEO<\/a>. That being said, it\u2019s still an excellent way to get exposure within your niche as long as you are submitting quality content to quality blogs. Find blogs that have strong social shares and community engagement as evidenced by the number of comments per post and social followers. Get to know the blog owners and editors, establish a relationship with them, then approach them to see if they are accepting new contributors to their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23. Let people guest post on your blog.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You might get requests for guest posting on your blog, and it\u2019s a good sign which means that people see the potential in your blog. The key is to make sure that these contributors are committed to creating high-quality content. From your end, you will have to have a process in place to review and publish this content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In most cases, guest bloggers will also help you to promote the content that they wrote. They will share it on their social networks, and you will receive additional exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 24. Attend conferences and meet new people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Attend conferences and networking events. Be sure to have a quick elevator pitch about your blog when they ask you what you do. If you\u2019re at a blogging conference, in particular, it\u2019s highly recommended to let people know that you are a founder of yourdomain.com, a blog that helps people learn more about your subject matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 25. Organize events and be a speaker. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can organize and host your own events. It could be a local or an online event. Here is an example of how Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker held a 1 Day Business Breakthrough<\/a> local event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use keywords in the title, description, and H1 tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Events like this will help you to network with more people, build new relationships, and give you and your website more exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 26. Grow your email subscription list.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t wait until you get a substantial amount of traffic! Start collecting subscribers from the beginning. If you get a few people who love your blog on the first day that you launch it, you want those people to give you their email address so that you can keep them up to date with what is happening on your blog. Later, this list will be what you use to promote your new content or products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also use a service like MailChimp<\/a> that allows you to have up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails for free. Another option is a service like Aweber<\/a> that allows you to have up to 500 subscribers with unlimited emails for $19 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 27. Send emails every time you post.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This step is pretty basic. Let all of your existing subscribers (even if you don\u2019t have many) and anyone who might like your content know when you post a fresh article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 28. Create a curated newsletter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that you can collect interesting content around the web, including your own content, and send the list of useful articles to your subscribers. It could include anything. Hiten Shan<\/a> sends weekly emails to people interested in Saas business.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 29. Add your best or latest content to your email signature.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a particular piece of content that you want to promote, you can add this article as an extra link in your signature. Include links to past blog posts in the email signature to encourage on-going blog traffic. Here is a case in point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 30. Send emails at the best time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important to send emails, but it\u2019s also important to do it at the right time so that more people see it and open it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 31. Use email automation services.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can send emails automatically using one of the email autoresponder services. This will allow you to send messages to your subscribers in the order and frequency that you decide. Often people create full-on campaigns for their email subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 32. Send a second email to those who missed it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Noah Kagan, when they send emails to Sumo.com subscribers the open rates are as low as 50%<\/a>. Here is what you can do to increase your open rates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 33. Include social share links directly within your email.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro marketers do this all of the time. It\u2019s a handy trick that will let your subscribers share your content from an email with one simple click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 34. Optimize your email content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many ways that you can experiment with email content. However, there are three main areas to pay attention to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to test your email, don\u2019t change everything at once. Each test should only change one piece of the email.<\/p>\n\n\n 35. Create content for the targeted audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The content of your blog will be the bait that attracts readers. You will need to figure out who is in your targeted audience. Here is a list of questions that you need to answer first to gain a better understanding of your audience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good content makes people take action because they have one of the following qualities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be tricky to come up with the right content that will cover all the hopes and concerns of your audience. But, if you have the right approach, your content will attract a lot of traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 36. Have posts scheduled and blog consistently.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating a consistent schedule of posts on your blog helps your readers to know when they can expect to hear from you again, whether it\u2019s daily, weekly, monthly or even quarterly. The key to maintaining publishing consistency is to be realistic. Individual bloggers will find it difficult to create high-quality content on a daily basis. Start with weekly or bi-weekly posts and work your way up to daily posts, if that is your ultimate goal. Just don\u2019t sacrifice quantity for quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help you to maintain consistency, be sure to use some form of an editorial calendar. You can use Google Calendar<\/a>, or even a simple spreadsheet. Use it to manage your ideas and plan your content themes for each month so that blogging is something you focus on, not something you do in your spare time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 37. Work on long-form content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to studies by SerpIQ, long form content usually gets higher rankings in search engine results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One type of long form content is evergreen content. Evergreen content continues to be relevant to readers and gives them value years after the publish date. It will help you to improve your SEO ranking, and you will drive more traffic to your blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 38. Use proper headlines to get more clicks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The headline, or the title of your blog post, has to capture the attention of potential readers. People may see it in their social media news feed or search results. Make sure that you include the main keyword phrase that people might use when searching for the topic you are covering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also important to include the principles mentioned above in your headlines. Show social currency, practical value, or focus on emotions to have your headlines clicked on more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are examples of good headlines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 39. Organize your content and make it scannable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to properly structure your content so that people can quickly scan through it. Use elements such as sub headline, bolded text, and bullet points to optimize each post for both readers and search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A research study<\/a> from Nielsen Norman Group shows that on the average web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 40. Add graphics and images to your content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Create and add graphics to your content. Images can be a great source of additional traffic to your website. You can let people use your pictures and ask them to cite you as a source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can even create pre-made HTML code for each image that people can copy and paste on their websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research shows<\/a> that articles with images get 94% more views than those without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 41. Create useful infographics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Infographics became popular in recent years, and marketers often use them as a promotion method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t have to be a professional designer to create infographics. Here are some tools that you can use: Piktochart<\/a>, Canva<\/a>, and Venngage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip: Include HTML code for people to copy and paste on their website. This would help you to get links to your site as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 42. Use <\/strong>SlideShare<\/strong><\/a> to promote your content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SlideShare is a multimedia content tool that allows you to create slideshows and post them on your blog. This way you can present your work, ideas or some fun photos to your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 43. Write in-depth guides.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your main pieces of content will be your cornerstone content. This is content that will be used as a foundation for your website and smaller blog posts will be written around the core posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 44. Refurbish and republish your old content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This practice can be compelling. You can find some of your older articles that have had a high number of visits and see if any of the content can be updated. Once you do that, publish it with the new date and share it with your audience. Content gets old all of the time, so make sure you stay on top of this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 45. Create controversial content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to get people talking, controversial content is the way to go. You need to be careful with this form of content, but it could bring attention to your blog. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 46. Convert your articles to a PDF format.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Research has shown that when people hear information, they are likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can convert your articles into PDFs and offer to download them through signup forms. This way, you can grow your subscriber’s list and offer them something else down the road. If you don\u2019t know how to create PDFs yourself and you don\u2019t have a designer on your team you can use tools such as Web2pdfconvert<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 47. Start a podcast.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A podcast is audio content that you can create to share your views on various topics. People can sign up for your podcast if you decide to publish files in a series. You then record audio files and post them on your blog for people to download or listen to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Podcasts are an excellent way to promote your blog and your brand. Many people prefer to consume information via audio<\/a> when they are traveling or driving. It\u2019s just another channel that you can use to reach your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 48. Create a contest.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Contests are an efficient way of increasing traffic and leads to your blog. Running a competition is not rocket science, but you need to follow a few steps to make it successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a high-value, concise ebook and make it available for free, no strings attached (don\u2019t even ask for an email). Now, share that ebook everywhere you can and encourage readers to share it as well. Be sure to include your bio inside the ebook.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 49. Run a giveaway.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Giveaways are also excellent means to attract attention to your website, as long as they are set up correctly and properly promoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is software available that can make it easier to set up your giveaway. Here are a couple of examples that you can take a look at WizHive<\/a> and Wazoku<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 50. Write an eBook.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After you blog for some time, you could consider writing an eBook. It\u2019s not always fun to write a 30-40 page document, but it could give you some positive benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
125 hands-on tactics to start promoting your blog<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n\n\n\nFor starters: Let everyone know <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Community: Be active in your niche<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Email: Various tactics and list building <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
Content: Promoting your blog with the right content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n