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
Wow!!! 120 comments on this string! Got your work cut out for you Paul.. I posted a blog about promoting my blog on my site. Not alot of deep insight but it is my basic opinion. http://guardraildamageahead.com/day-3-of-31-days-…
Up until recently I have not done much to promote my blog, although there has not been much to promote. I have added the listing to my email signature, linked it to my face book page and our church website. I have also occasionally tweeted a new entry.
I cannot say any of these have been that successful… yet!
Other than that I have a lot to learn and implement to gain the exposure for my writing that I would like.
I only promote through Twitter at the moment. I am really bad about leaving comments on other blogs. I read their posts, but don't often comment. Kinda same with Twitter, I may see something that I could RT to help get out my profile, but I just keep on going. Today I am trying to figure out a Facebook page and eventually I'll do a LinkedIn page. I do have those accounts and use as my personal pages, but I'd rather not mix my blog with my personal life. I will promote my blog here and there in my personal life when I feel it's time.
Today I am Tweeting about my list post from yesterday:http://knowyourstory.net/2010/05/04/day-4-of-my-o…
I realize that my blog is a small niche blog and not for everyone so my promotion is limited to my twitter feed and commenting on other blogs.
There are a number of excellent ideas that I have already gleaned from the comments made so far. I normally use facebook, twitter, linkedin, network blogs and a number of other social networking tools. I also comment on other blogs and guest post every so often. The only thing that I did not seem to see covered in the comments or the lesson so far is using offline resources such as word of mouth, print magazines/articles, brochures and such. I use these as the opportunity comes my way and have seen some results.
Promotion is a problem for me, too. My blog entries post to Twitter automatically, and they usually post to Facebook. I also leave comments on other blogs, hoping they will come visit mine.
I have just started adding blogs to my blogroll. I am hoping that as I add others, they will add me.
Like a few people have mentioned, I am new to blogging and so I have decided to promote it once I am comfortable at posting content regularly.
I have actually been using Google Buzz quite frequently and feel like for gmail users this could be another great avenue to promote blog posts.
Any thoughts on using Google Buzz? Anybody use it yet for promoting your blog posts?
Hello everyone!
1- To promote yesterdays baby dedication post I tweeted, and usedhttp://www.christianchirp.com a christian version of twitter. I also facebooked it and posted for a potenital tweet trade on Twitter Moms….
2 Tweet swaps on twitter are most sucessful plus posting on their site links of relevance.
3 I am still looking for innovative ways=) I DO like the blog loops like word filled wednesdays eachweek. We swap commnets well….
Here is the post .
http://parentingtwinsandmore.com/2010/05/05/word-…
Thanks!
Hello everyone!
1- To promote yesterdays baby dedication post I tweeted, and usedhttp://www.christianchirp.com a christian version of twitter. I also facebooked it and posted for a potenital tweet trade on Twitter Moms….
2 Tweet swaps on twitter are most sucessful plus posting on their site links of relevance.
3 I am still looking for innovative ways=) I DO like the blog loops like word filled wednesdays eachweek. We swap commnets well….
Here is the post .
http://parentingtwinsandmore.com/2010/05/05/word-…
Thanks!
Hello everyone!
1- To promote yesterdays baby dedication post I tweeted, and usedhttp://www.christianchirp.com a christian version of twitter. I also facebooked it and posted for a potenital tweet trade on Twitter Moms….
2 Tweet swaps on twitter are most sucessful plus posting on their site links of relevance.
3 I am still looking for innovative ways=) I DO like the blog loops like word filled wednesdays eachweek. We swap commnets well….
Here is the post .
http://parentingtwinsandmore.com/2010/05/05/word-…
Thanks!