You can write the most well-researched, informative blog post in the world, but it doesn’t mean a thing if no one reads it. Promoting your blog posts is just as important as writing them.
Fortunately, there are several quick ways you can get your posts in front of a larger audience.
1. Keyword Optimization
Researching keywords and then integrating them into your posts effectively is key for getting more traffic from search engines. The simplest way to optimize your use of keywords is by using an SEO plugin, such as Yoast.
2. Crosslinking
When people like your content, they want to read more of it. Make that easy for them by crosslinking your blog posts to each other. Have you ever spent hours on Wikipedia from clicking link after link because each one sounded interesting? You can apply that same idea to your blog.
3. Popups
If you have a specific post you want all your visitors to see, put a link to it in a popup on your site. Worried your popup will annoy people? There’s always the smaller alternative known as the pop-in.
4. Social Sharing Plugins
The easier your posts are to share, the more likely your readers are to share them. Add social sharing plugins to your blog so it only takes a couple clicks to share anything.
5. Facebook Business Page
With the popularity of Facebook, your blog should definitely have a Facebook business page. Each time you publish a new post, share it on that page. Include an image and a short description to entice readers.
Facebook Groups
Look for Facebook groups that focus on the same type of content your blog offers and share your content with them. Before you share any posts, spend some time posting in the group and interacting with its members so that your message doesn’t look like spam.
6. Paid Promotions on Facebook
If you’re willing to spend a bit of money, promoting your posts on Facebook is a great way to build your audience, as long as you promote them the right way. That means creating an attractive image for the post, writing a headline that gets people’s attention, and optimizing the ad for clicks to your website.
8. LinkedIn Company Page
Just like on Facebook, you should also set up a company page for your blog on LinkedIn. You can then share your posts on LinkedIn right after you publish them. LinkedIn also lets you track the impressions your post makes and provides other useful data.
9. LinkedIn Groups
You can promote your posts on LinkedIn groups the same way as you would with Facebook groups, making sure you interact with the group first so you’re not simply spamming them.
10. Subreddits
Search Reddit for subreddits that relate to your blog’s content. Keep in mind that Reddit comes down hard on spam, so always read the rules for the subreddit you choose and make plenty of legitimate posts with your account before posting to promote your blog.
11. Google Plus Profiles and Pages
Google Plus may not be as popular as several more prominent social networks, but there are some parts with quite a few users. Share posts on your profile, and set your posts to public so anyone can view them.
12. Twitter Profile
It’s not difficult to build a large number of followers on Twitter, and once you do, you can share your posts with all of them through a few well-timed tweets. For the best results, come up with multiple headlines and images to mix and match, so you can promote your post several times without looking like you’re advertising the same post over and over.
13. Instagram Profile
You can add a link to either your blog or a specific blog post on your Instagram profile, so people see it whenever they visit your page. You’ll have to share images frequently and insert popular hashtags for the best results.
14. Pinterest Boards
There are two types of Pinterest boards you can create to promote your blog posts. You can make a board exclusively for your blog and pin all your posts there, or you can create a board related to your blog’s content, and pin both your blog posts and other related content so it doesn’t look like you’re just promoting yourself.
15. Buffer
Sharing your content on every social network multiple times is a time-consuming process. One tool that can help is Buffer. Connect all your social media accounts and schedule in advance when you want Buffer to post for you.
16. Meet Edgar
Meet Edgar is also a social media automation tool, like Buffer. The difference is that Buffer simply posts on schedule according to your post queue until it’s empty. Meet Edgar keeps your content in a library and shares it as much as you want.
17. Email Broadcasts
Make sure your blog has an email opt-in box where readers can subscribe to your content. Whenever you post something new, email it to everyone on your list.
18. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon recommends content to its users, and it can send you significant traffic if you build up a following. The best way to find followers is to follow others and liking the content they share.
Conclusion
Promoting your blog posts may seem like a lot of work, but all of these methods are fairly fast. Try them out and see which ones give you the best results.
To discover more ways to promote your blog posts, read this article.
Author: Mel Devent is a passionate blogger who enjoys writing about all things digital marketing. She is currently working as a Marketing Associate at Blogger Sidekick, helping small businesses build authority brands with content marketing. In her spare time she loves scuba diving, watching movies and catching up with friends.
There are so many blogs today that it is nearly impossible to count them all. Most of them never gain any traction and wither away. They’re not really forgotten, because nobody ever knew they existed. The problem, is that most don’t know how to create great content that gets read, shared, and linked to.
For businesses, this is a disaster, since the entire reason for the blog is to gain exposure, gain leads, and drive sales. There is no way to guarantee success, but by following the ten commandments of creating great content for your internet marketing blog, the chances your business succeeds online can be greatly improved.
1) Write For People First
Search engine optimization is an important practice, due to the huge amounts of traffic that search engines can send to websites that end up ranking well for large searches. However, writing for machines instead of people all but guarantees that any success you do have won’t last. Write for people and worry about SEO second. This will help to protect you from any changes in search engines’ algorithms and it will keep people on your site.
2) Still, Remember The SEO Process
While writing for people first is most important, remembering to include keywords, images with relevant alt-text, increasing the speed at which pages load, and writing descriptive meta descriptions are all still important for eventually ranking well in Google and other search engines. Still, the more content is found, the more opportunity you have to gain valuable feedback and expand your reach when people link to it or share it.
3) Improve On Already Popular Content
It is getting harder to find topics that haven’t already been covered, but it is easy to find content topics that haven’t been covered well. Look for content that has gotten a lot of comments, social shares and links, then find ways to address the same topic, but cover it far better than anyone else already has. It also helps if you cover the content from the unique perspective of your business or industry.
4) Focus On Readability
Content that is difficult to read doesn’t get finished or shared, and it doesn’t grow businesses. Remember to use font sizes at fourteen or higher, black font on white backgrounds, and break up paragraphs into smaller ones. These small changes can have dramatic effects on the number of people that actually end up reading and sharing your content.
5) Experiment With Different Formats
Different markets respond to different content formats. Experiment with starting blog posts with bullet point summaries, use block quotes at different points of the article etc. Whatever gets the message across and leads to the most opt-ins and exposure should be used as often as possible until it stops working.
6) Use More Than One Type Of Content
Internet users are increasingly responsive to images and video. Sometimes, an interesting topic that doesn’t justify an entire article could better be said through video. Others, it may need well written, long-form content or an infographic. Use different types of content when appropriate and always invest in making quality content, no matter the format that you choose to use.
7) Look For Opportunities To Guide Content, Product, and Service Development
Many businesses are surprised to find out how much guidance their business can receive if they track activity on their blogs. Paying attention to the posts that receive the most activity can help to guide future posts as well as products and services. In turn, knowing the products and services that perform the best can help to guide future content efforts, creating a virtuous circle of sorts.
8) Give People A Reason To Read More Than One Post
Blog posts that get read are great. Blog posts that get users to view other posts on that same blog are better. Use smart interlinking strategies to guide users around the blog from one post to another, using related content plugins if appropriate, and remembering to focus on engaging titles that entice people to click on them.
9) Develop An Elevator Pitch And Tie It Into Each Post
An elevator pitch is the short description that describes the mission or purpose of a company. Making sure that the elevator pitch syncs with the content establishes continuity and an identity for your business blog. Familiarity breeds trust, which leads to more leads over time.
10) Don’t Forget About Design
Blogs with poor design don’t get read. Content can be outstanding, but if the platform it resides on isn’t professional in appearance, it won’t be read. Invest the time and money into solid design that is in line with the values of your business.
Here are some great examples:
- http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/03/15-beautiful-blog-designs/
- http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34143/12-Inspiring-Examples-of-Beautiful-Blog-Homepage-Designs.aspx
- http://www.thebestdesigns.com/design/themes/blog-themes/
Conclusion
Sometimes, blogs just don’t work. Not every market is responsive to blog content, but for those that are, following these ten commandments to creating great content will significantly improve your odds of success.
So you know that effective blogging can get you the desired traffic. But do you know that there are a few blogging mistakes that can actually restrict your growth? Like any other internet marketing tools, blogging can be influential enough and get you the desired visibility. But, have you seen the other side of the coin? Blogging mistakes can also slower results. Let’s talk about the most common 10 mistakes that can hamper your blog success. Here are they :
1. Blog Post Headlines that Do Not Work
Readers find too many posts online daily. The headline is the first thing that will come to their attention. This is where you need to make a different move. Your headline should be brief yet effective to convey the main message. If you choose a headline that does not talk to the customers, they’ll not even bother to see what’s there in the detail.
2. If You Never Link to Your Other Old Posts
Never lose a chance to rank higher. Don’t abandon your old posts thinking they are of no use anymore. By linking to the old posts, you can get the desired keywords you want to rank with and also get lots of traffic.
3. Don’t Care About Linking to Other Bloggers
If you think outbound links won’t do any good, that’s not right. Many influential bloggers are out there who love to connect with the talented newbies. And when you connect with them, you get traffic back to your site through an active conversation. But yes, by conversation we mean meaningful contribution. Other bloggers will also join you if you can offer valuable contribution or share knowledge.
4. Not Knowing the Importance of Comments
Who cares? You’re making a mistake if think blog comments are not important. Invite others to leave comments on your post. If visitors feel like leaving comments, that means they find it engaging or interesting anyhow. Leaving comments is a good way to attract more and more visitors. It proves that your post is valuable.
5. You Pick Topics that Nobody Care About
What’s the use of it? Why choose topics that do not have to do anything with the mass. People will not look for such topics on the search engines. So the chances of visibility will reduce. Do you get it? It’s the basic. When it’s true that too many resources about the popular topics are already available online, it does not stop you from being an explorer. That means you can dig deep and focus on some more critical aspects about the same topic.
6. Don’t Rush for Regular Blog Posts
That’s another mistake you must not repeat. There is no need for publishing posts daily. If you think by making daily blog posts you’re going to retain your visitors, that’s an old formula and may have an adverse effect instead. Don’t publish posts that have nothing to contribute. That’s a waste of time and space. Your readers don’t want anything that does not cater to their requirement. What you’ll do with such useless posts?
7. You’re Not There on Any Social Media Platforms
If you are still not on the social media platform, it’s high time that you join the prominent ones. Facebook, Twitter are a few that can’t be overlooked. These social media sites will give your post an additional boost. You’ll get visitors from these sites.
8. You Publish Very Less
When you don’t need to publish posts daily, it’s also true that very less numbers of posts on your blog is also not favorable. If you’ve very less numbers of posts on your blog, the blog won’t be able to make a prominent place on Google.
9. If You Only Focus on Increasing Word Count
It’s not true that by increasing the length of the posts you’ll make it to the top. The bests of the posts are comprised of 450 – 500 words. So it’s not true that only word count matters. Rather focus on offering a powerful message.
10. If You Write a Weak English
Your English should be clean and human readable. If it’s not, readers will lose interest and back off. Your posts must be able to hold a reader’s interest. Weak English and lots of mistakes can’t do any good. So these were the main 10 mistakes that can hamper your blog success. Refrain from making these mistakes if you want to see a smart and steady growth.
Don’t lose hope and try to maintain consistency. It might take a little time in the beginning to show some good results. But it’s very important that you don’t give up.
Author Bio :
Jason Smith is an online marketing strategist for Mr. Rooter – Plumbing Leak Specialist. He likes to blog about recent updates and tricks to boost business through digital marketing.
You know content is important. But how can you get people to read your content?
More importantly, how can you get your target market to read your content?
If you’re a marketing professional, writer or even a business owner looking to increase traffic to your website, you probably already know that the key to any successful website is stellar content. Which means your blog, an essential component of content marketing, must be well researched, well written and yes – well marketed.
If you build it, they may not come.
They may, but they probably won’t, unless you are in some way publicizing your blog. I have seen online traffic dramatically increase after deploying some of these methods, and I’ve also written articles that have been for the most part passed over.
8 Tips for Increasing Your Blog’s Readership and Boosting Your Search Engine Optimization
1. Post often, and consistently.
This is what I’ve found to be the best way to see a quick increase in your blog traffic. The more you post blogs, the more potential you have for readers. We’ve seen this for ourselves – once we became committed to posting daily on our corporate blog our traffic steadily increased.
2. Write about useful, engaging topics.
These tips only work if you write content people actually want to read. Who are your target audience? What do they want to know?
Try to write about topics that either 1. Instruct (how-to articles); 2. Entertain (everyone loves humor); or 3. Inform (industry news, etc.). If you don’t know what your potential customers want to read – ask them.
3. Keep it short.
Choosing a relevant, engaging topic is only half the battle. No one (and I mean no one) will want to read your blog if you write it like an English paper.
Online readers are skimmers. Stick to short articles (under 1,000 words) and short paragraphs. Use lots of paragraph breaks and subheads. Incorporate relevant photos and videos to illustrate your points.
4. Don’t overlook metadata.
What’s the first thing you do when you’re looking for information on a topic? That’s right, you Google it. That’s why SEO is so important.
What are the key words or phrases you want to lead online users to your site? Use those keywords in your blog’s title, content and meta description. If you use a platform like WordPress, the program will help you make sure your keywords are used correctly. And don’t forget to tag those blogs as well.
5. Don’t be afraid to guest blog.
Remember that old saying, “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine?” It turns out that applies to blogging, too. Ask other websites in your industry to post some articles as “guest posts” and offer to do the same for them. This gives you an increase in your potential readership base for every guest blog you publish.
NOTE: Don’t forget to include an author bio on each guest blog with links back to your site, as well as a link to your Google+ profile (see #8).
6. Comment, and respond to comments.
The more you engage with your readers, the better. They will come to know you better and trust you. Think of it as a two-way relationship; don’t just spew information at them, make it a discussion. (But don’t get defensive; allow others to profess their own opinions)
7. Integrate.
I probably use this word in every blog I write. Did you just write an amazing blog post? Great! Now Tweet it. Link to it on your Facebook page. Share it on Google +. Link back to it in other relevant articles. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – integrate, people!
8. Get a Google+ account.
Speaking of Google+, do you have an account?
Here’s how smart those Google people are: they’ve updated their search engine algorithm to look for trustworthy, high-quality authors. This concept of “authorship” allows Google to improve search results by returning content it knows is from a credible source. And how do you get a good authorship ranking? By joining Google+, of course (I’ve always said Google would take over the world one day…).
By associating your Google+ profile with every piece of content you write, you’re increasing your author rank and making it easier for Google to find you. And you want Google to find you (see #4).
Well, that’s all for now, friends. I hope these tips are helpful in increasing your blog’s traffic and bringing more visitors to your website.
Do you have any tips for increasing blog readership?
About the author:
Check out Natalie’s Google+ Profile
Natalie McCatty is a content writer for Solutions 8, Arizona’s fastest growing digital marketing firm offering SEO, video production, content creation, web design and more. Follow her on Twitter @nmccatty8 or read more of her work on the Sol8 blog.