At Pingable we’re all about Wordpress, which is all about blogging (and a few other things). With an estimated 900,000 blogs created every day, many of them don’t last more than a few weeks. Bloggers put tons of energy into their blogs, then get disappointed when nobody reads them. Here are our favorite ways to promote blogs, both new and old:
For new blogs:
- Use RSS – make sure your syndication feed is available and prominent on your blog.
- Sign up for social bookmarking services like Technorati, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious, etc. Don’t just submit your articles, become an active user by voting on other peoples submissions. Become an active member of the blogosphere.
- Submit your blog to directories like Blogcatalog
- Join forums related to your niche and become active in them as well. Use your forum signature to promote your blog (read the rules of the forum, some are really strict)
- Start building relationships with other bloggers. Ideally, with bloggers who share your topic. Building relationships could be exchanging links, just sending an email, commenting on their posts or sharing their posts with your favorites social bookmarking service (See #2).
- Similar to building relationship, you should look at guest-blogging. This is a valuable tool for building your initial blog traffic and reputation. Almost all big blogs have a policy for accepting guest blog submissions. They get free content, you get exposure, everyone wins.
- Also along the same vein of building relationships is this little trick: write about someone else’s post, make sure to clearly credit them and provide a link. Then reach out to the original author and let them know you’ve featured their post on your site. This is both good blog karma and a good way to encourage backlinking.
- Set up social networking accounts at Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. These can be powerful tools for retaining new visitors and pulling them back again when you post new content. Services like this only help if you cultivate a community around your blog. They are not idle sources of traffic that require no work from you.
- Thoroughly plan your blog out. Ask yourself important questions instead of just jumping into writing content which can be the most exciting part. Ask yourself:-What is this blog going to be about?
-Who are my readers going to be?
-Why will they want to read this blog?
-Do I have the time to commit to this? - Decide what design will best fit your blog. Consider the answers to the above questions, plus:
- Set up an analytics tool like Google Analytics or Web Clicky so you can target traffic sources and figure out what works. A word to the wise: don’t stalk your analytics, checking them every few minutes – you’ll just go crazy.
-What format will my content be in?
-How large will my images be?
-Where can I place my social networking links?
-Does the design help organize content effectively?
-Is there room for expansion?
-Is there room for advertising?
For established blogs (promoting your content)
- Ping like your life depends on it. Wordpress is set to automatically ping a service called “Ping-o-Matic” which will then notify the most popular blog tracking services. If you want to take it to the next level, check out this resource.
- Make sure users can easily share your content. Wordpress has many plugins for this, one of our favorites is Sexy Bookmarks which puts sharing links below each post.
- Submit each post (or just the good ones) to social voting sites. We like Dzone and a few others.
- Submit your blog to Dmoz. We didn’t put this one under the new blog list above because it won’t get accepted if it’s brand new. Getting accepted depends on you having quality content and a legitimate reputation.
- Use Google’s Keyword tool to target traffic and determine post titles.
- Establish your blogroll.
- Set up Wibiya – a very cool new toolbar for your blog.
- Stumble every post. Don’t spam it, just submit it once so others may stumble upon it.
- Submit every post to Digg, Technorati, Mixx, Reddit, and all the other social bookmarking tools you can find.
- Give something away. Commission some free icons, a free Wordpress theme or something related to your niche. This will both attract new readers and encourage sharing.
- Continue to build relationships with other bloggers. Write guest posts, share links, comment on other blog posts, participate in forums, etc.
Sources:
- http://webbietips.blogspot.com/2008/02/20-tips-to-promote-your-new-blog.html
- http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42377
- Our own experience
Kris Cain
Awesome tips. One of my resolutions is to be a better blogger and generate more traffic. Some of these I am doing all ready. The rest I will be working on now.
Thanks!
Shailendra from Hotel Booking
Great Tips Cyrus,
Forum posting is a great way for promoting a website or blog. Different forums have different set of rules and some of them might restrict you to include links in your signatures till the time you achieve certain minimum number of posts.
sparsh from Web Development Company
You have gathered very nice tips for promoting blog. I am using most of your tips to promote my blogs. Thanks for sharing this informative and useful tips.
Nino
Thank you for the promotion tips, especially for new blogs. I am working on three blogs now, and i am having some difficulty getting them to rank well in the SERPS. I will use your advice above to get the ball rolling in a better direction. Thank you again.
James from cheap electric guitars
One of the things that I have found to be extremely helpful is using Onlywire which is a service that submits your posts to dozens of different social bookmarking networks at once. While submitting individually is doable, it usually takes more time than it’s worth (in my opinion).
Henry from target market
Thanks for this tips Cyrus!
Sad to say that there are still many blog sites without RSS. If you want to keep your readers updated about your stuff RSS is a must!
Stuart Conover
All of these are great tips and I\\\’m pretty much following all of them already aside from #7 which I haven\\\’t decided if I want to use or not yet.
Great advice
John from how to make money with adsense
My email list members are getting a blast about this tomorrow morning with a link to this page. #9 for new blogs is so important! That one piece of advice is what far too many newbie bloggers forget or ignore. It can make all the difference.
from from meta scrubs
You have probably heard the phrase “Content Is King.” There is a reason why people keep saying that. Not only will fresh content keep visitors coming back, it also ensures that the search engine spiders will get back to your site as often as possible. Each time you publish a new blog post you send out a signal, a ping, that alerts the search engines to your blog. That’s why it’s important to publish as many blog posts as possible. Preferably on a daily basis.
Mike from Storage in Allentown
Wow, over 900,000 blogs created every DAY?? That is an insane amount. I had no idea!
Kevin from work at home business
Thank you for the wealth of information that you have given us , link building some time takes a while but at least there are good people like you that are encouraging other to promote safely and not to spam. Even though i am still asking my self can i submit my blog to Dmoz , still not sure
John from Career Options
Really tips for blog promotion..I also have a blog which is not so popular..looking forward to following tips provided here…thnaks
ken from music gifts
Very good ideas on seo, I’ll have to digest these and try them.
Fred from Buy Diamond Ring
Do you make a regular account at Facebook or a fan page?
Mark from wine of the month club
I couldn’t agree more in regards to point #7. Almost no matter whom you’re talking about, people always like to read nice things about themselves, even if it is on some random blog. A few nice words on my blog has lead to better business relationships then I have been able to build anywhere else.
Kevin from Reliable Affordable Web Site Hosting
Wow! What an awesome list of tips! I had a pencil in my hand and paper and was taking notes! Thank you so much! I have two blogs and they need some help…bad. Now with your guidance I hopefully can get them in front of more eyes and higher in the SERPS. One is doing good in Yahoo but not google. Oh well, I need to come back here everyday, I have a lot to learn.
Thank you so very much!
Greg from Garmin
Great Tips! I need to follow this to promote my blog. perfect idea. Thanks a lot!
John Paul from Money Dummy Blog
Great list.. I agree with every tip. with a little time and effort you can get a new blog noticed and pulling traffic pretty fast.
Mike from Leprechaun Child Costume
Thanks for the great blogging tips post, lots of great ideas that I can use.