How to Promote My Blog?

Have you ever found yourself thinking and tapping your head: “How to promote my blog? Man, I write like a machine! I spit out posts, articles, and surveys like its the sole pursuit of life. I take what few hours I have, lock myself in a closet, and produce good material, well researched and written.

And for what? A pittance of unique hits, an alienated spouse, and children who think I’m not so much a father as I am a mad journalist who just happens to live in the upstairs walk-in closet.”

I feel Your Pain

But I can tell you that if you’re wondering and asking “how to promote my blog?” you are not only in the right place but you’re asking the right question.

Before I continue with your promotion question,  let me back up and clear up some fuzzy concepts.

What you want is traffic. In fact, when the idea of getting more traffic springs to your mind, you are actually asking “how to promote my blog?”

But traffic being the goal, our thoughts naturally rush to the idea of gratification, not the act of getting there.

So, retool your work philosophy.

Don’t ask how can I get more traffic? Instead think about promotion: how to promote my blog to get more traffic or, in the case of an existing blog, how to promote my blog in new and better ways?

Remember:
1. Traffic is a goal, not a course of action.
2. “How to promote my blog?” leads to a plan and a continuous journey toward gaining traffic.

So, to the crux of your question: How to promote my blog AND how does it produce traffic?

How to Promote My Blog

• Regular Posting

You may well laugh reading this.  Still, it’s among one of the top challenges of bloggers. It can be difficult to punch out interesting and content rich posts day after day. But if you are serious when you ask yourself “how to promote my blog?” then this step is the most important foundation.

Think about it:

Everyday you have to find new subjects, new competing keywords, and target your post towards your readers needs. On top of this you probably have other demands on your time, energy, and patience. The demands on most people’s time is formidable.

All this not withstanding you must post regularly. You can post daily, every other day, or weekly but you must stick with your rhythm.

Here’s why:

Your readers come to your site because they want to read what you have to say. While what you have said in the past is important, today is what’s on everybody’s mind.

Think of your blog as an expanding corporation. Each blog post is a new store that more people will use. Like any business that is growing, it expands its reach, market share, and profit.

If you stop posting regularly without seeking new topics and more profitable keywords, not only might you lose readers but you can lose income quickly.

Here’s why:

Keywords wear out. What?! Keywords represent patterns of thought, the textual representation of what a searcher is thinking.

Keyword expressions change, come and go, sometimes falling out of use or used less frequently. Depending on many factors like traffic, and how you monetize your blog, this could mean a reduction in the number of visitors to your site

And possibly a corresponding reduction in cold hard cash!

Post regularly!

• Networking

Networking has a whole host of categories; each of which will help you push your blog out to more people.

1. Community Blogs- Its  a straight forward step for you when wondering how to promote my blog? Find other blogs and bloggers that you like and respect.  Make a signature block for your self, including your name and blog name linked back to your home URL then comment on their postings. Regularly. Over time, people will see you, get to know you, and visit your site.
2. Community Bulletin Boards- Become a member of boards like Problogger.com They offer a wealth of information. Chat with folks, learn new skills and techniques. Even answer questions if its within your expertise. And always leave your hyper-linked signature. Rules above apply.
3. Attend blogging conventions like Blogworld.  Here you can meet and listen to the who is who of blogdom! Get your elevator speech (sometimes called elevator pitch) ready. You never know who you’ll meet and change your blogging life forever!

• Social Media

The beauty of social media is the ability to push out your site to many thousands of users with comparatively little effort. In addition, you can build a loyal following of people who will wait on the production of every post.  Using social media is like reproducing a blog in thousands of locations at once, rather than just on your website.

And beyond you tweeting and commenting on your Twitter and Facebook sites, there is even an application that will push out every new blog post to your waiting audiences. Check-out Networkedblogs. These folks will push your post out to your Facebook and Twitter account each and every time you produce something new. I use it!

I would recommend that you start with Twitter and Facebook only. Once you establish your rhythm, you can expand out to others like Technorati, Digg, and so many more. Go slow. Don’t get overwhelmed.

• Guest Posting

Asking yourself how to promote my blog can sometimes totally miss this idea: guest posting. This not only refers to you posting on other websites but also having guest posters on your blog. This can be somewhat delicate.

People will post where it does them some good, where they are trying to help a friend, or simply to be nice to the community at large. Keep in mind that the more famous the guest, the more people are hounding him or her for a guest post. Many people are irritatingly persistent. As if this kind of behavior is ever rewarded!

The best way to be rewarded as a guest poster or have someone post for you, is to get familiar with people on their blogs, on the bulletins boards, and in person if possible. Be helpful, polite, and don’t ever expect favors or take on an air that people “owe” you.

Remember that if you want some one as a guest poster, chances are they have more authority than you do in the industry. What’s in it for them? Sometimes just being nice is enough (unlike the other guy).

• Advertising

Ah, advertising! This is the one where you are thinking this is going to cost me money. Spending money is one of those “ideas” that probably didn’t even occur to you when you thought “Hmm…just how to promote my blog?” Who wants to spend money?

There are free or inexpensive ways to advertise:

1. Post a blog badge on a friend or associate’s blog
2. Maintain a back-linking campaign
3. Apply to free Internet Directories

But here is a piece of professional philosophy I want you to take to heart: A person who believes in their own success, invests in him or herself.

This doesn’t mean that you must put aside 500 dollars now for a monthly advertising fund. What it means is that sometimes the cost is outweighed by the benefit of greater visibility and therefore greater traffic to your site.

There will come a time when you need to advertise in a way only a professional agency can. It may not cost as much as you think and the returns can be substantial. It will probably put a whole new slant on your “how to promote my blog?” question. At the very least it will open new avenues of traffic. Keep it in mind.

 

For your reading pleasure, here is a link to Daniel Scocco for all of you who are still wondering “how to promote my blog?”  And here is a complimentary article I wrote about how to earn money through a blogging.

I hope this article was of some meager help to you. If you liked it please Twitter or Facebook me up on the left now. If not, please leave a comment and let me know how I can do better. Thanks!—Dean