Creating an Effective System to Promote Your Blog

Each and every post you write takes time and effort, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice if people actually came and read what you wrote? Below you’ll find easy, time-tested and effective ways to promote your blog and get more visitors.

Also, be sure to take 30 seconds to reply to the poll at the end. I’m very curious!

Creating a System to Promote Your Blog

Photo Credit: Ronaldo F. Cabuhat (flickr)

Put all of your social networking to good use and come up with a system for promoting each blog entry you write. This is an exercise in marketing, confidence and promotion.

1. Start with social media. Here’s a simple Twitter promotion system. Note: big thanks to John Paul Aguiar and Twitter Dummy (which you should buy) because this system is adapted from Twitter Dummy.

• Update Twitter three times with your new post the day it gets posted (since not everyone who follows you will see all of those posts).
• Use HootSuite to schedule those posts if you don’t want to be attached to Twitter all day (but, if you’re not a regular tweeter, do not pre-schedule tweets or else you will look like a robot). Remember, not everyone who follows you will see your post, so that’s why you want to announce it three times.
• When you receive re-tweets, be sure to re-tweet them, and add a thank you. Only do this if you get just a few re-tweets, otherwise you’ll drive your followers crazy. If you do this, you can reduce the number of times you tweet about the post yourself (because other people are doing that for you).

2. Supplement with email marketing.

• Use an email marketing system like Aweber to add a personal message to your subscribers about your new post. I prefer this over automated RSS feed e-mail updates, because this way you can add extra info that might call attention to something specific you want your readers to notice.
• Tell your readers why they should click the link and read the post, or ask for reactions or thoughts.
• There are free email marketing systems, if you don’t want to pay for something like Aweber (which is $19/month). MailChimp.com is free and easy to use.

3. Maximize with article marketing.

Turn your best posts into articles and attract even more visitors to your blog.

• Add some length to your posts and create articles out of them (at least 1000 words). Short articles are OK, but longer is better and more likely to be picked up by publishers for redistribution.
• Submit those articles to Ezinearticles.com, which remains the top article directory on the web. Article submission is free and you will have the opportunity to link to your blog from either the article itself or the resource box (where you talk about yourself as the author at the end of the article).
• You don’t necessarily need to create an article for each and every post you write, but in the beginning, it is not a bad strategy.
• If your posts are short but are related, you can combine 3 or 4 of them into an article. Edit the article so it flows well, and make sure the title is on-topic.
• Additional article directories: GoArticles.com and ArticlesBase.com. There are also niche-specific article directories, and some social networks have article repositories as well (like Biznik.com, which is GREAT place to submit your articles and get people looking at your content).

BONUS: Commenting on other people’s blogs is another promotion tool, and if you do it strategically it can work well.

• Try posting a new entry on your blog, and then circling 4 to 5 blogs that you know share Comment Luv (like this blog does). Read their latest post and comment on it (if you want to; don’t comment unless you can be genuine about it). This is a great way to leave a little link to your post.

Keep in mind that the point is to create a system that you can follow. Try it and tweak it as necessary until you get the right amount of visibility for your blog.

30-Second Poll: How Did You Hear About This Post?

I’m curious to know which marketing methods brought you here. Choose one of the following and leave it in the comment box! Cheers, Tia

A. Twitter via @bizchickblogs
B. A Re-tweet
C. A comment on another blog
D. Through the bizchickblogs email list
E. Social bookmarks
F. Search

— Tia Peterson

Related posts:

1. 4 Ways to Get Your New Blog Some Exposure
2. Want a Successful Blog? Focus on Content and Connections

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