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You've finally created a blog and you've made your first post. Now how do you get people to actually read what you're blogging about?
Here are some tips on promoting your blog.
1) Quality Content - Interesting content will keep your readership returning. Update your blog regularly. So what if you aren't the best writer? Maybe you haven't done much writing in your life and you're afraid that people will judge you for your style but people generally don't care. Only pro writers and editors care about placing each comma and semicolon where it belongs. You don't have to worry too much about that. People just want to be entertained. They want information. That's what they're searching for when they find you on a search results page or stumble on you by accident. Write something from your heart. That's where the best writing comes from.
But if you're just unsure of yourself so much that it stifles your progress, don't let it! Take a look at a blog called BoingBoing (http://boingboing.net). All kinds of stuff goes on there, usually funny or interesting stuff in quick bytes that people love. Post funny or interesting pictures, videos, podcasts, etc. Then, just use a few words to describe what people are listening to or seeing
Googlebot, which is Google's web-crawling robot loves content. The more you update your blog, the more frequent the search engine spiders will return to it.
2) Write about your passion.What do you love? It could be sports, or making money. It doesn't matter. What does matter is what's important to you because that shows in your writing. If you show that corner of yourself, people will come to read.
3) Let people know youOnce you started writing about your passion, remember to inject some personality in it. What makes a good read is when you find someone passionate about their topic, enough to let themselves show through. Always try to put some of yourself into what you're writing so that other human beings can relate.
4) Don’t solicitEspecially for Internet Marketers: Never try to sell things in every post you make. Oh sure, once in a while, you may have something great to tell readers about, but if you try to sell them something in every post you make, people will soon tire of it and just shy away. Just blog with pure information, once in a while, you might want to recommend a product, but basically, your blog should just provide information for people. Let your links at the side or the anchor text that finishes every post point to your products. Keep the selling at the bare minimum.
5) Take part in forums that are related to blogging. Ask other bloggers for their opinion on your blog and take their suggestions to heart. 6) Publish an RSS/Atom/XML feed. If you're using Blogger, you can turn on RSS feed by clicking on settings in your dashboard and then clicking on site feed and make sure that your settings are set to yes.
RSS Readers are available for free at http://www.rssreader.com/ You can subscribe to as many rss feeds as you want. This is a wonderful resource for niche research. As is http://Nichebot.com/ just enter a few keywords to see how many times that keyword has been searched for.
Inventory.Overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ works the same way.
7) Carefully choose your subject titles, taking into consideration what other internet users may be searching for. Use keywords in your title. I suggest subscribing to Word Tracker. Their report of the most popular searches is published each Tuesday and distributed to over 30,000 subscribers.
Focus on writing for people and more people will come to read your blog. Keyword density is going the way of the Oldsmobile; though there are some keyword stuffers still around, keyword density is pretty much obsolete.
Find your niche or Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Technorati.com , is a blog search engine that also lists the top search words. The more targeted your keywords are, the greater your return in search engines will be.
8) Involve yourself in commenting on other blogs. You can gain a loyal readership just by offering feedback to your fellow bloggers. The comment feature allows you to add a link back to your blog as well.
9) Be sure to include your blog address in forum signatures and in your email signature. 10) Submit your blog to directories. Submit your blog's url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex.
11) Write articles. Include a resource box in your article and submit it to article directories such as http://iSnare.com Write articles about your chosen niche and leave a link to you blog in your resource box at the end of your article. Do the same thing with Newsletter and Ezine Publishers in the niche of your choice. Don't forget to post those articles to your own blog
12) If you're using blogging software such as Blogger, there is an option to notify the central blog update services (such as http://weblogs.com) whenever you've made a new entry to your blog. Make sure that this option is turned on! In blogger, click on publish in your dashboard and make sure that your settings are set to yes under notify weblogs. Alternatively, you can go to http://pingoat.com and send out a ping each time you update your blog. This lets everyone know that you've just updated your blog.
13) Link to other blogs. Use services like blogrolling, which is similar to linking. Blogrolling allows you to maintain an updated list of your favorite blogs. But, don't build a long blog roll of sites that you have no intention of returning to. There is nothing more annoying then visiting a blog that has a humongous blogroll.
Be patient, traffic doesn't happen overnight. The best way that I've found to increase traffic is by getting to know people. Spend what free time that you have, reading blogs, leaving feedback and building friendships. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you visit as often as you can. While you are waiting for the traffic to come, just enjoy blogging. You'll be improving your writing in the process.
Eventually you'll build a network of not just readers, but friends and loyal supporters. Blogging is not just about marketing; it's about creating lasting relationships.
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