Blogging is popular…
You can make money at blogging…
Shit, you can conquer whole markets online just by blogging…
However, if you are like most bloggers you feel like you are the only one reading your blog.
I know how frustrating it is to spend a couple hours writing the perfect blog post and then be able to count your visitors on one hand. However, if all you did was write the blog post – even the most killerest leet post – then that’s your main problem.
Sure daily blogging while pinging the RSS directories can slowly build up some SEO stats but waiting around for that to happen is about as fun as watching grass grow.
If you want people to read what you wrote, you need to tell people you wrote something! It’s a simple-smack-in-the-head-why-didn’t-i-think-of-that strategy but thousands of bloggers forget to do it everyday.
From now on when you finish writing your blog post you should not think, “great I’m finished,” you should now think “I’m half way done now I have to tell people about it.”
Granted I’m no perfect boyscout either and I have forgotten or been just plain lazy before too. However, when I am blogging daily and do the following 5 things after each finished blog post – I typically see about 1,000 – 2,000 readers. Even on new blogs that are only 1-2 weeks old!
5 Ways To Promote Your Blog
- Share your new blog post with your social networking friends. Send out a tweet, share the link on facebook, update your myspace status, drop the link to your linkedin network…
Personally, I just send my new blog post links out to Twitter and Facebook but with a service like Cliqset or Ping.fm you can broadcast it out all over the place with a few mouse clicks.
I automate this by syncing my Twitter account with my Facebook account so whatever I tweet gets posted to my FB profile too. Then I sync up my blog with Twitter so whenever I write a new post it goes out to Twitter automatically.
TIME THIS TAKES: 0mins
- Tell the world you just made a new blog post by submitting your summary to Digg.com, Propeller.com, Mixx.com, StumbleUpon.com, Newsvine.com, and ShoutWire.com
These are content sharing sites. Their whole premise is for people to share their blog posts with the world yet I talk to at least one blogger per day who doesn’t use these sites.
They are free to join and to post your stories. If your story is good enough it will attract some eyeballs and if it really rocks socks then people will vote for your site to go to the front page… Enough votes and you hit the frontpage for an EXPLOSION of free blog publicity.
To increase your chances at a front page appearance you should write catchy titles, be controversial, or relate your post to something popular that’s going on in mainstream media.
TIME THIS TAKES: 5mins per submission
- Talk about your blog topic in online forums with a link to your blog post in your signature box.
There are thousands of online forums where people go to talk about their passions with like minded people online. Just run a search in Google for – your topic “forum” – and you’ll find plenty.
The trick is to 1.) search the forum for people talking about your blog topic and 2.) change your signature box to talk about your new blog post.
Now when people login to read your updates in the forum they will see you are knowledgeable on the topic and that you just wrote a blog post about it. If they like what you have to say in the forum they will want to see what you had to say in your blog post and click through.
TIME THIS TAKES: 5mins to setup & 5mins per forum reply
- Get out and talk with other bloggers who are blogging about your topic by leaving comments on their blog with a link back to your post.
Google has a redonkulous new feature called “show options” that let’s you browse for results on your search by news, books, blogs, forums, and other mediums.
So do a Google search on your blog topic, then click “show options,” then click “blogs,” and BOOM there are all the bloggers talking about what you are talking about.
Go leave comments on their blogs and fill in the link to your new blog post in the website field of the comment form. If people like what you have to say they will click through to see your blog as well.
If you are a “vlogger” (video blogger) then you should go comment on other peoples videos related to your video just as if it were a regular blog post.
TIME THIS TAKES: 5mins per comment
- Submit your blog post to article sites so that others may publish your content in their blogs/sites/newsletters.
There are tons of popular places online that get their content from sources like EzineArticles.com or AssociatedContent.com. In order for those people to publish that content on their sites they have to credit the author and leave whatever links intact.
If your post is good enough it can get picked up by newsletter publishers with hundreds of thousands of readers or even just get featured on the front page. Either way it’s another free way to get exposure.
Not only that but each article you submit will get you another backlink to your blog. Once those backlinks start adding up your blog gets more and more powerful in the search engines and eventually every post you make goes right to the top of Google for your topic.
TIME THIS TAKES: about 10mins if your slow
If you did just one instance of each of these 5 things it would take you about 30 minutes to complete. If you really want to see your blog grow then I suggest you spend about 2 hours after each post doing these5 free blog traffic tactics.
Does anyone else have any killerest tips for blog promotion? Leave them as a comment below…
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t be surprised Justin, but MOST PEOPLE don’t ping, social bookmark or even tweet their blog posts when they finished writing them.
(and that includes me) LOL
Well these are good tips. I do most of them already, but its consistency that lacks for me. And then there is the topic of repurposing. Thats a biggie too!
Jan
Nice touch with the “time this takes”. As always useful info and made simple. Thanks. – Bernie
.-= Bernie Landry´s last blog ..If Margaret Atwood Can Read Online, So Can You. =-.
Hi Justin,
I guess most of the people know the stuff you mention but most people to apply these consistently.
so the key here is consistency
John Tan
.-= John Tan´s last blog ..Daily Task For November 11th 2009 =-.
Hey Justin,
Great tips on getting traffic to your blog. Pinning your post and commenting on other blogs is very effective.
When you comment on other peoples posts you must leave a productive comment and you should comment on many blogs before you see any considerable traffic.
Cheers,
Jeanette
.-= Jeanette Fitzgerald´s last blog ..Blogs Get Hacked – It Could Happen To You =-.
Great Article you posted here. You are abslutely right about this and it is something more people should be doing. I am going to start doing this with all my posts in the future and really start getting some traffic moving to my website. Why don’t you put up a short blog about how best to ping?
.-= Freebie´s last blog ..Ultimate Chocolate Machine =-.
Yeah man, I do pretty much the same thing, just depends on which sites I use based on the site I’m promoting. Some sites are better for particular subjects. Twitter and Facebook are a must. Stumbleupon works the best for my site as far as bringing quality traffic, youtube as well.
twitter, youtube, stumbleupon, facebook are my go to spots. I also use digg, delicious, and sometimes other video sites like myspace, dailymotion, vimeo, etc.
It really doesn’t take long at all.
.-= SoundsAndGear´s last blog ..The dope new features in Kontakt 4, and why I love it even more =-.
Good comments. There is no point in having a blog if nobody reads it. If you have good content let it be known.
Of course you’re right, Justin. I usually get as far as number 1 – well, actually Friendfeed does it for me. But all the other stuff is just as important, and I don’t seem to do it consistently enough.
.-= Derrick Markotter´s last blog ..Affiliate Marketing 6: Installing WordPress =-.
It’s all about doing it consistently. Too many times, if people don’t see results immediately they assume it doesn’t work and stop doing it all together. Or they become too lazy and slowly stop doing it. Dedicate time to do it and just do it. Stop looking for other ways to do it quicker or easier…this takes only 30 minutes for pete sake!
.-= LeslieZ´s last blog ..Affiliate X – Not Affiliate X Factor =-.
Great suggestions and consistency is key… I have my sites set up to tweet and ping automatically whenever I post… with all of the free WP plugins out there, everyone should take the time to set them up… they’ll do most of the work for you… =)
.-= Linda´s last blog ..Too Thin? How Not to Lose Weight & Gain Weight =-.
Great stuff dude. Should become just a simple system each and every post…
1. Tell friends (social media)
2. Social Bookmarking (hire out)
3. Post same article on forums, facebook pages, and other resources for ultimate leverage
Easy cheesy. Great article braaa…
see you tomorrow
.-= Chris Brisson´s last blog ..Ultimate Integration Marketing: Firefox Add-on’s =-.
Use the ping.fm plugin with wordpress to do all this on autpilot.
Use another plugin to submit to onlywire.com
Spin it a little and submit to multiple article directories, pointing resourse box link to your original content.
Do a video of your blog post and take it to tube mogul.
.-= Simon Carter :: Mr Article Marketing´s last blog ..Should you hire a pro to write your articles? =-.
Hi Justin,
great tips which I use already always but without big results, because consider that for every site to which you submit you’ve also to get or better to conquer the right audience
and that needs time too.
But please explain one point you named (Submitting my blog posts to article directories)
do you mean the same identically blog post, shoulden’t it be different to my blog post because of duplicated content?
Keep up the great work
greetings
.-= werner´s last blog ..On Defining & Ensuring Personality Development =-.
Hiya Justin!
Great post. It’s amazing how the simple things can make such a huge difference, isn’t it? I have a lot of these things automated for me which helps me be “consistent”. If I had to do it all by hand, I’d forget….lol
Thing is with blogs – you can’t wait for them to find you…ya gotta go out and and get ‘em
All the best,
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
.-= PotPieGirl´s last blog ..Google Ranking Case Study Results =-.
Hi Justin
Very good overview!
You might want to add that commenting on keywordLuv and Commentluv-Blogs like yours is even more effective than commenting on regular blogs…
Mike
.-= Mike @ Getting backlinks´s last blog ..nofollow or not … a short interview with Matt Cutts =-.
Great stuff Justin!
Hey do you have any thoughts on Ping.fm and Onlywire? Do you use them? Do you like one more than the other?
Thanks Justin!
.-= Paul Cooley´s last blog ..5 Things to Think About When Choosing A Domain Name =-.
There’s another rockin’ resource to use to get more visitors and that’s Vinefire.com. Forget the fact that they claim you make money to post your links….I managed to get over 100 visitors to my blog lastnight alone!! And while that’s not huge, it beats the 10 or 20 I get from Twitter every day.
.-= Dovinea´s last blog ..Increase Website Income With A Simple Change =-.
Ping.FM and Onlywire.com are cool but I’m more about quality then quantity. Delicious, Digg, Reddit, & Stumble are worth probably the other 300 bookmarking sites combined.
But what about the extra backlinks???
Ehh… They are backlinks but not the most valuable. Kinda like collecting pennies to get rich. Sure it’ll work eventually but you’ll get there a lot faster with quarters and dollars.
Best thing anyone can do for really great links, is provide the most kick ass content that they can provide. Because that’s when other websites start linking to your stuff.
Hi Justin
I agree with you completely. Whenever I have written what I consider to be a rather good post there is some magic that makes it popular and people seem to find it automatically. An indifferent article on the other hand collects an indifferent response.
Readers are very clued up. The seem to instinctively gather around quality like bees to a honey pot.
In the same way word of mouth will pack a movie house for a good movie. But they will stay away in droves when it’s a poor one. It really is all about quality which makes it easy to understand but not so easy to apply!
P.S. Spinning articles is for spammers and duplicate content is a myth (google it)
Hey Justin
I usually tweet my post, then email my list about them and the cool thing is my list usually tweets my post using tweet meme
I also like posting comments on other blogs, it’s cool to learn new things on blogs like yours that always provide quality information.
.-= Jeff Bode´s last blog ..Social Media Marketing – A New Marketers Best Shot? =-.
Awesome article Justin.
Most of us do some if not all of these tasks, the only problem (and am guilty as hell) is the lack of consistency.
It takes a great article like this to remind us of what we should be doing and where we are loosing out, thanks for sharing – keep em coming
.-= Zulfikar´s last blog ..10 Ways To Increase Your Blogs Pageviews =-.
Thanks for the tips Justin,
I just put up my first blog and have been working on ways to get traffic to it. I think I will no longer have to think about it, I’ll just follow your advice, and do it.
Thanks again,
Greg
Hi Justin
Great tips, some of them I am doing but you sure gave me a lot to think about. There is plenty more I could still do to increase traffic to my blog. Thank you.
Michelle Jayes
Try PING.FM… you can get all your posts distributed to a number of different social sites all at once.
.-= Adam´s last blog ..Just Released – Center of Gravity indicator for NinjaTrader =-.
Great tips, but a little question about point 5 :
When you add your article to articles site, do you rewrite it ? Because if no there are risks of duplicate content penalties, isn’it ?
All the best,
Dushan
There is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty… Feel free to research it yourself just google the phrase “duplicate content is a myth” and you’ll find proof.
Basically, duplicate content only happens when you submit the same thing to the same website. When you submit the same thing to multiple websites it’s called syndication. There are no penalties either… Google just won’t index more then one copy on one site.
They will however index AND RANK more then one copy on multiple sites. I have proven this for myself with over 200 front page Google rankings. You should prove it to yourself as well.
(…) is one nice source of tips on this topic(…)
you sure know how to make me bookmark your site. didnt make it past step 1 before I was off signing up for new automated services
now Im back for the rest. Just want to say thank you for ALWAYS the best advice. everything that comes from you is top notch.
I especially like your fifth suggestion… It's definitely beneficial to talk about and promote your own blog, but it's that much more believable that the blog deserves the praise if it's coming from a third party like an article site.
I don't think you can overestimate the power of “networking”, on- and offline, about your blog.
Justin, thanks for those great tips. You listed a couple I had not considered before nor read about.
I was checking the links back to my site and I just had to mention… you aint kidding about mixx.com. They gave me 30 back links for one submission.
I try not to kid
haha
Thanks for the information. I was tweeting my blog postings, but was not doing anything with the digg, mixx type sites. Went back and submitted a bunch of old blog posts to those sites. Hopefully it helps out
Just refreshed myself with this post! Had not heard of Ping.fm many thanks for that, will add to my list of tools.
Take care now, Love and Light Maggie
Just refreshed myself with this post! Had not heard of Ping.fm many thanks for that, will add to my list of tools.
Take care now, Love and Light Maggie
I agree with the above comments that state that the whole link building, PR increasing methods are tedious. I think the best advice is clearly to write/do what you love and spend a nominal amount of time promoting it. If you truly have great information, thoughts, ideas…word gets around pretty quickly.
i generally do most of these things when i post a blog. But sometimes it becomes repetitive and boring updating all different blog directories and bookmarking sites. Perhaps i should be a little more active in marketing my stuff
I have had success with the following:
If you are using wordpress do the following.
1. deactivate pinging.
2. make great post
3. submit snippet to social news sites
4. Let social bookmarking site know about your social news post
5. ping you social bookmark rss feed. Look on your profile page.
6. Reactivate wordpress pinging for daily post.
Works great. Along with the stuff Justin says this will also help you out.
Great post. 2 years later here we are checking out your info. I am constantly trying to learn new ways to promote after writing. I want to get into Ezine Articles; however, i am so confused… you submit the same article posted on your blog into Ezine Articles? Will this not be seen as duplicate content? Or do you re-purpose your content (not spin, but repurpose) and submit the article and tie it into an article already on your blog?
Hi thanks for the post. It is a refresher on content marketing strategy/ systems for me. Scrolling round your blog Justin – enjoying a lot of the content – thanks!