10 Effective and Powerful Ways to Promote Your Blog
Do you know how to start a blog? Creating a blog on a site like Wix is easy, but how do bloggers get people to visit it? There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into promoting a blog that often is hard for a new blogger to spot.
To get the scoop on how to get the word out to generate organic traffic from other areas around the web, check out these top 10 creative ways to promote a blog online.
10 Ways to Leverage the Internet for Blog Promotion
Blogs are a special marketing tool that helps to generate a fan base for Internet offerings. However, in order to get readers to come back again and again, some thought has to be put into the content, the publishing schedule, and how to cross-promote into other profitable areas around the web.
To leverage the unique power of the Internet to reach specific traffic segments, try some of these 10 tips and tricks:
1. Get Google’s Attention
How do people get to a site if it’s not through a search engine? Google is the largest search engine and getting their attention means a blog will naturally get more traffic.
To get Google’s attention first, a blog should be optimized around specific content that appeals to the site’s ideal visitor demographic. Learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and include keywords and content themes that might help in ranking higher in the Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
2. Have a Regular Publishing Schedule
People are creatures of habit and if they know that a blog updates its content regularly, they will be more apt to check it more often. Publish content two or three times a week, preferably on the same days of the week at the same time.
3. Network With Other Bloggers
Who is more likely to promote a blog post willingly than other bloggers in the same niche? It’s a “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” approach. Use social networks to friend or follow experts in the same niche and then comment on their blogs and build a relationship with them.
When a person comments on a post in another blog, it often asks the author to give the URL to a website. People who want to know more about the author of the comment will be led back to your blog.
4. Make It Easy for Others To Promote the Blog
There are a variety of ways to get others to do some promotional work for you. One, is to simply ask the audience to share the content of the blog freely. Another, is to add social networking share buttons at the end of every post to make it easy for them to do a “one-click” share.
5. Make Your Blog a Multimedia Experience
Blogs with pictures and embedded videos are more likely to be shared than those with just text. Wix is a blog platform that makes it easy to add these types of non-textual elements to a post without having to learn how to code HTML. The simple drag and drop features allow even the most basic user to create a visually-rich site instantly.
6. Create a Facebook or LinkedIn Group
Not everyone will come to a blog from a search engine query. Other readers can be found on social networking sites like Facebook. To create a tribe, make sure to have a presence on Facebook and post status updates regularly. The links will take them back to the website.
7. Run a Contest or Giveaway
Whether it’s a blogging contest or a giveaway, the requirements should specify that to participate and win a reader must like and share a blog post. Blogging contests can also request specific topics and a link.
8. Have an Email Marketing Plan
Once someone visits your site, you want to convert that anonymous person into an email lead. Build up an email contact list and use features like Wix Shoutout to contact them regularly via professionally design newsletters from beautifully designed Wix templates. This will help you establish an online relationship and prime the pump to close future sales.
9. Install Traffic-Boosting Apps
Wix offers a number of apps to help you get listed in directories and sites that will boost your traffic or create an advertising campaign to generate traffic from around the web. Check out Site Booster to help you get listed in Google and Bing as well as other directories. Use GetTraffic to create an advertising campaign in Wix.
10. Be Active On Social Networks
It isn’t just about Facebook and LinkedIn. Check out the demographics of different social networks and start engaging people on the platform that matches up with your ideal customer base.
That might be anything from Twitter to SnapChat to Pinterest. Meet with people where they already are and then create an expert presence that inspires them to go back and check out your offerings.
Plan to Succeed
As it can be seen, starting a blog takes some planning and strategizing to make sure it draws a crowd. However, there is plenty of good information out there to get you started down the right road (like this cool YouTube video.
The work you do behind the scenes is just as important as the content you decide to publish. What works for one blog may not work for another blog’s audience.
Take your time exploring and experimenting with the many options available to know what works for a particular site to get it right.
