This is Day 3 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ other bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers. You can read more about it and still sign-up to participate here.
I’ve talked to a number of bloggers over the years who are frustrated that few people read their posts or comment on their blog. After asking them what they write about, I usually ask them what they’ve done to promote their blog and connect with new readers. Often, the response I get is just a blank stare.
There seems to be an “If you build it, they will come” mentality with some bloggers. Some believe if you start a blog and write something every once in a while, readers will magically show up, engage, and become regular readers.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Successful bloggers, proactively reach out to people to build their audience.
Today’s lesson in the 31 Day’s ebook, gives some good suggestions for how to promote a blog post. Here are some of the things I do on a regular basis to promote blog posts published here and my personal blog.
Twitter – Twitter and blogging are like peanut butter and chocolate, they’re a match made in heaven. To use Twitter well, you need good content to tweet (aka blog articles). And to blog well, you need channels to get the word out about new posts (aka Twitter). I tweet every post I write. And usually more than once.
Facebook – OurChurch.Com has a Facebook page, which we post our blog posts to. I post a link to my personal blog posts on my personal Facebook profile.
Commenting on other blogs – I try to comment quite a bit on the blogs I read. When doing this its important not to be spammy. You genuinely want to contribute to the conversation. But often times I can contribute to the conversation but posting a link to an article I’ve written on a related topic. I don’t do this often, but you could Google the topic you’ve just blogged about as a way to find similar blog posts, and then post a meaningful comment with a link to your post.
Email distribution – Most of the people who register a username & password on OurChurch.Com check the option to be added to our blog email subscription list. Once a week, we send a post out to that list.
Newsletter – Once a month we send a newsletter to all our web hosting clients. One of the regular features in each month’s newsletter is an exerpt from a recent blog post.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking about today’s topic when I wrote the list post on this blog yesterday. 6 Things I Learned from Day 1 of #31DBBB is not likely to appeal to people outside of our group, and so I going to find another post to promote.
Discussion
- What did you do to promote your list post from yesterday?
- What ways of promoting blog posts have you found to be most successful?
- What other innovative ways have you promoted your blog or posts, that weren’t listed in today’s lesson?
The Extra Mile
A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further today…
- Reply & give other bloggers feedback on their promotion ideas.
- People continue to add comments to the Day 1 & Day 2 posts, check em out.
- Tweet, share, & bookmark this post. (You could win a $25 gift card!)
- Ask & answer questions about blogging but unrelated to elevator pitches in the forums.
229 Comments
Tweeted my blog entry from Tuesday. Curious to see if it generates any traction. http://jerryfultz.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/buildi…
Would really like to see RSS covered in detail in this project. So many blogs I try to subscribe to have broken RSS links, or misdirect somehow. RSS is the main way I view blog posts, and I'd be subscribing to more if I could get clean access to their subscription tool.
Tweeted my blog entry from Tuesday. Curious to see if it generates any traction. http://jerryfultz.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/buildi…
Would really like to see RSS covered in detail in this project. So many blogs I try to subscribe to have broken RSS links, or misdirect somehow. RSS is the main way I view blog posts, and I'd be subscribing to more if I could get clean access to their subscription tool.
I took rc2k's advice and signed up for twitter feed so that all my posts would publish straight to my facebook fan page. They were already posting to twitter. I am eager to see how it works out.
Here is my post today:
http://campfirecowboyministries.com/2010/05/how-t…
Thanks to everyone for dropping by and commenting. Yesterday was the biggest comment day I ever had.
well since we are on the topic of promotion; I set us a Digg for my post that some you already know of and have commented at – thanks for that. Please help get a few more diggs by promoting it or even adding your own diggs: My Bucket List:http://digg.com/d31QJdP?t
I have yet to see many referrals from Digg, so this will be a good opportunity to see if it can be useful.
shot
Hmmm, Digg, definitely does not work for me – even if I use Twitter, facebook or direct requests. In this case I got 4 referrals from Digg but the Digg count remains on 1.
This is the problem with promotion – everyone wants to be promoted but not willing to promote others.
So here is my offer: Forget about my request. You tell me what you want me to promote and I will help you out.
I posted this idea to someone the other day. I sometimes have a hard time finding pictures that are relevant to the subject I am posting about. I started using flickr and only searching in the Creative Commons. Most of the time, I can find awesome pictures. I usually send the person an email telling them thanks for letting me use their photo. I provide a link to the post and encourage them to send the link to friends so that they can see how God is using their talents.
I have never had anyone ask me to take a picture off the blog. I always link the photo back to their flickr homepage and attribute it to them. It's turned out to be a win-win situation.
Hope this helps.
I also primarily use Creative Commons searches on flickr for my images. I post a note on the photo page, but I hadn't thought of directly emailing the person. I especially like the way you point their talents back to God!
I've had just one person ask me to remove a picture. I quickly found a suitable replacement on flickr.
I usually just use google images or other free stock photo sites.
These are good ideas! Thanks!
I also primarily use Creative Commons searches on flickr for my images. I post a note on the photo page, but I hadn't thought of directly emailing the person. I especially like the way you point their talents back to God!
I've had just one person ask me to remove a picture. I quickly found a suitable replacement on flickr.
I also primarily use Creative Commons searches on flickr for my images. I post a note on the photo page, but I hadn't thought of directly emailing the person. I especially like the way you point their talents back to God!
I've had just one person ask me to remove a picture. I quickly found a suitable replacement on flickr.
Forhttp://www.theorganizedartist.blogspot.com I normally post to twitter and facebook. I have made sure to @ recognize any twitter users that I mention in my blog (PWilson, NancyLBeach, etc.) I like that through Google Analytics I can track how effective my Facebook and Twitter promos have been.
One other tool I use is to send a short email to the people I feel will be most impacted by the post. For example, on a ministry team blog I post a weekly "preparing our hearts" post that I want each team member to read before Sunday. Once that post is up I go to my Planning Center people list and send a mass email to the team with a link to the post. I see a direct impact on the days that those emails go out on the number of visits to my blog. Many of these people don't seem to be aware that they can subscribe to receive emails of the blog posts but that is an upcoming post to them! 🙂
I'd love to find out if any of you have found tools to educate non-blog readers to find user friendly access to your posts/blog?
Forhttp://www.theorganizedartist.blogspot.com I normally post to twitter and facebook. I have made sure to @ recognize any twitter users that I mention in my blog (PWilson, NancyLBeach, etc.) I like that through Google Analytics I can track how effective my Facebook and Twitter promos have been.
One other tool I use is to send a short email to the people I feel will be most impacted by the post. For example, on a ministry team blog I post a weekly "preparing our hearts" post that I want each team member to read before Sunday. Once that post is up I go to my Planning Center people list and send a mass email to the team with a link to the post. I see a direct impact on the days that those emails go out on the number of visits to my blog. Many of these people don't seem to be aware that they can subscribe to receive emails of the blog posts but that is an upcoming post to them! 🙂
I'd love to find out if any of you have found tools to educate non-blog readers to find user friendly access to your posts/blog?
Forhttp://www.theorganizedartist.blogspot.com I normally post to twitter and facebook. I have made sure to @ recognize any twitter users that I mention in my blog (PWilson, NancyLBeach, etc.) I like that through Google Analytics I can track how effective my Facebook and Twitter promos have been.
One other tool I use is to send a short email to the people I feel will be most impacted by the post. For example, on a ministry team blog I post a weekly "preparing our hearts" post that I want each team member to read before Sunday. Once that post is up I go to my Planning Center people list and send a mass email to the team with a link to the post. I see a direct impact on the days that those emails go out on the number of visits to my blog. Many of these people don't seem to be aware that they can subscribe to receive emails of the blog posts but that is an upcoming post to them! 🙂
I'd love to find out if any of you have found tools to educate non-blog readers to find user friendly access to your posts/blog?
Oh! I also have had some success with using hashtags within my tweets. For instance, this was my tweet today about a post I wrote earlier:
Flood in Franklin, TN. How can churches help affected churches?http://bit.ly/a5n2Yj #flood2010, #Nashville
Oh! I also have had some success with using hashtags within my tweets. For instance, this was my tweet today about a post I wrote earlier:
Flood in Franklin, TN. How can churches help affected churches?http://bit.ly/a5n2Yj #flood2010, #Nashville
Oh! I also have had some success with using hashtags within my tweets. For instance, this was my tweet today about a post I wrote earlier:
Flood in Franklin, TN. How can churches help affected churches?http://bit.ly/a5n2Yj #flood2010, #Nashville
Here is my latest post about the power of encouragement--http://bit.ly/aY8m10
Many of you were a huge source of encouragement to me yesterday by not only stopping by to read my post, but by taking the time to comment. Thank you so much. Paul, I am so glad you had this idea, not just because it will make me a better blogger, but because it has introduced me to many friends that I will follow long after our 31 day project is over!
Ok, let's try this link instead–
http://www.nolanbobbitt.com/welcome_to_nolans_world/2010...
You're welcome, Nolan. I'm glad you decided to participate. I've facilitated several group blogging projects over the last couple of years, and none of them even came even close to the level of interactivity that we're seeing so far with 31DBBB – people posting comments here, going to other bloggers blogs & posting comments, etc. It's totally blowing me away! I really I've had very little to do with it. You and other participants are serving one another in unbelievable ways.
You're welcome, Nolan. I'm glad you decided to participate. I've facilitated several group blogging projects over the last couple of years, and none of them even came even close to the level of interactivity that we're seeing so far with 31DBBB – people posting comments here, going to other bloggers blogs & posting comments, etc. It's totally blowing me away! I really I've had very little to do with it. You and other participants are serving one another in unbelievable ways.
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