Image by nickwheeleroz
This is a guest post by Kevin Geary from This is Broken Blog, a blog exposing important things in our daily lives that are broken and need to be fixed. It’s entertainment and education. Come visit us to see more of what’s broken (and even submit your own ideas).
For every great blog promotion strategy, there are five that suck. Really suck. They suck so bad that using them can get you blacklisted by real bloggers, ignored by annoyed readers, unfollowed on Twitter, and possibly placed on the terrorist watch list.
Being successful is not just about doing the right things. Avoiding the wrong things is just as important. Nobody wants to take two steps forward and three steps back; especially in blogging where success is few and far between, often takes a long time to become successful, and has a gigantic Dip.
If you’re to have any chance at success, you need to protect your blog from yourself. Protect it from your lust for quick success, your desire to become a ProBlogger in six months, and your general blogging ignorance (if you’re new).
10 Blog Promotion Strategies to Avoid at all Costs
1. Leaving “great post” comments on other blogs.
One of the best ways to get readers to your blog early on is to leave comments on other blogs. Of course, there’s a right and wrong way to go about this. Here is an example of a good and bad comment, using ProBlogger’s comment section as an example.
Patrick O’Keefe recently wrote a guest post on ProBlogger titled “Enhance and Grow Your Online Community Through Appreciation“. Here are two comments from that post:
Shane wrote:
Very good post, thank you for writing it.
Baker Wrote:
I saw this first hand, but really I stumbled into it unintentionally. I put up a bumbling video of myself thanking everyone for allowing me to have over 6400+ visits in my first full month blogging. The video wasn’t great quality or presentation, but people realized it was very genuine and I received several comments and e-mails. Again, I wasn’t out to really benefit like this, but I realized a side benefit from my regular reader’s really connecting with the video. Thanks again for 31DBBB, it helped me so much in having a great start!
Shane, you’re comment is broken. Obviously, you got one of the top 3 spots (which drives a lot of traffic on a successful blog like ProBlogger). But where’s the sincerity? Where’s the realness? It’s a fake comment meant to do one thing, drive traffic. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and it’s a big no no.
Baker did it right.
When you leave comments on other blogs, remember these three things: sincere, relevant, and valuable.
2. Emailing random blog authors and asking them to link to one of your posts.
I made this mistake early in my blogging career. Needless to say, I got a lot of hate mail in return.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. If your first impression is a spam-looking (no matter how good your intentions are) email to a random blog author trying to get them to link to your posts, you’re not going to make any friends.
Instead, find a way to add value to their blog and engage them with that in mind. They call it “link love” for a reason. Very few time-tested bloggers have sex on the first date. Build relationships slowly over time and you’re in like Flynn.
3. Asking random blog authors for a link exchange.
This goes along with number 2. Usually new bloggers will write to other bloggers and try to get them to place a link to their site in their blogroll in exchange for a link back. It’s a good way to build pagerank and get recognition, especially if you’re in the blogroll of a highly trafficked site.
But what’s a blogroll for? It’s to help readers find other quality sites on the same topic. Insincere link swapping devalues the goal of a blogroll.
Again, build that relationship. Add value. You get rewarded for being genuine, not for being hyperfocused on getting traffic.
4. Making Twitter all about you and your blog.
Twitter is a great way to drive traffic to your site. Darren recognized that early and started TwiTip, a site that gives you tips on using Twitter effectively. Unfortunately, as Twitter gets more mainstream it’s going to lose value. That’s just the nature of free networking and exposure.
Twitter is my third highest source of traffic and I don’t have all that many followers. What I do have is important followers. Relevant followers. And I only follow relevant people who I actually care to hear from. That’s what Twitter was designed for. That’s what makes Twitter effective.
The people who are breaking Twitter (yes, it’s being torn down in terms of value as we speak) are the ones who use it to promote only themselves and only their blog. They’ll throw a retweet out there every once in a while and join in on a #followfriday session, but that’s about it. Their main goal is to drive traffic without adding any value. And who can blame them? It’s free and easy.
Let me give you a tip. Free and easy asks for abuse. Abuse is a great short term strategy. So is eating donuts for energy. But what happens when you get a big sugar spike? Crash. If you abuse Twitter and Facebook and others you’re going to crash as soon as people catch on to your antics. Shamless self-promotion on Twitter and social networking sites is a horrible long term strategy.
5. Joining forums simply for promotion.
See point number 4.
Forums are a great way to drive traffic to your site if you do it right. Don’t be a broken forum user. Put a tasteful link to your site in your signature and then make it your mission to interact the way the forum was designed. Be on the forum for the benefit of others and to further your own education, not to promote your blog. If you add value (see the trend), you’ll get the traffic.
6. Submitting all your posts to social media sites.
Are you a social media spammer? Do you have 70 social media buttons below your posts? Do you submit every post to most of them? It’s cheesy. Again, things that are free and easy get abused. It’s your job not to abuse them. Write great content and you’ll get recognized in time. If you force it, you’ll get recognized as the spammer you are and you can kiss success bye bye.
Instead, join the three most relevant social media sites and work to build value. Promote 10 times as much of other people’s material as you do your own. And don’t forget: sincere, relevant, and valuable.
7. Writing for search engines.
I want you to achieve the top spot on Google. Really, I do. But as a reader, I’m hungry for good content that’s sincere, smooth, and easily ingestible. Your keyword soup gives me the runs, in like, I run far away very fast.
If you write for the search engines and not for your readers, you’re going to get the top spot in Google. You’re going to get a lot of traffic and your adsense revenue is going to be great. But you’ll never have a great blog. You’ll never have a dedicated tribe of readers. You’ll never be a respected resource.
Search engine spiders aren’t going to give you good word of mouth. Neither are the strangers that find you on google who visit you once, hate your content, and leave.
Good content can and should be keyword dense. The trick is to do it without making my head spin. Copyblogger will teach you how it’s done.
8. Loading your site up with badges to all the social media communities you joined overnight.
Have you ever been to a blog that has a sidebar full of social media and social networking profile links? They’re on just about everything. On top of that, they throw in a big mybloglog widget and an entrecard widget.
You can be a jack of all social media sites, but you’ll end up being a master of none. Besides that, it’s just a bunch of clutter to your readers. Google beat out Yahoo because Google was simple and Yahoo was hectic. Do you want your readers to focus on the content or to focus on everything BUT the content?
Zen Habits is the master of simple. You have no choice but to read his content because there’s nothing else to do. And look at his subscriber count. Take a hint. There’s no way you can add value to a hundred social media profiles. Be selective and go for clean.
9. Copying someone else’s style or idea.
The easiest way to look creative is to not be creative at all. There’s enough creative out there that you can just copy and paste and people will probably never be the wiser.
And I’m not talking about lifting content from other blogs. That should be an obvious no-no. What I’m talking about is finding a successful blog and copying their overall style and even parts of their design. If I look like them, I’ll have their success. No, you won’t. You can never be more original than the original. Think about how that affects readers…
If they like the original, they’ll stick with the original. If they don’t like the original, they’re not going to go for a copy cat. You lose both ways. When you copy what your competitors are doing, you ensure that you’ll never pick up any market share.
If you want to be the best, you have to stand out. Figure out what everyone in your niche is doing and do the opposite.
10. Using search engine auto-submitters.
Have you seen these things? Get your site indexed on 50000000000000 search engines instantly!
This isn’t particularly bad, it’s just a waste of time and money. It’s not necessary. The only search enginge you need to target is Google and getting your site indexed is free and easy.
Use Google’s Webmaster Tools, get a sitemap plugin, write great titles and great content, and get “link love” by building relationships and adding value to other people’s projects. That’s all you have to do to own Google search. Throw the gimmicks out the window and focus on sincere, relevant, and valuable.
I know there are more broken strategies out there. I had fun talking about the top 10. Now I want you to expose more of them in the comments section. Let’s see how many we can come up with. Go.
* I mean narcissistic . :)
@Tony Teegarden
I disagree. I think most of the “bad” things people do are things they would and in fact still do to people in person. Before we had people with Twitter accounts with a stream of “New Blog Post!” updates we had telemarketing, door-to-door sales people, aggressive signature gathers for a petition, etc. etc.
All this stuff (social media, blogging, etc.) is just a new tool for people who are insufferable, greedy, self-centered, or looking for a quick buck to be that way to a new (and larger) group of people.
Great Post, thank you. (Kidding, of course).
On a serious note, I’m on the fence about point #4 – using Twitter as a promotions tool. I am of course following some tweeters strictly because they’re keeping me updated on their blog posts. But these streams are promoted that way, so I guess I’m not bothered. However, I have been following a few photographers as of late that seem to be spamming my twitter feed with odd-and-end thoughts…it’s a little much.
I find myself spending more time tweeting about random ideas, responding to other tweets and maybe forwarding links I’ve come across. Occasionally I’ll link a higher profile article from my blog – but it hasn’t been my focus. I don’t think I’m getting a ton of visits from Twitter, but my goal is really not to over-saturate my followers.
Of course, my perspective may be a little different. I’m not a hard-core blogger. So I guess my promotions tend to be more like afterthoughts.
Great post.
I’m kidding. The problem is: my english isn’t good enough. But I’d like to say thanks for the tips and that you have (at least) one good reader from Brazil. (yeah, that’s me and probably you have hundreds more.)
@ Joe
I really don’t agree with # 8. I don’t have 10 social bookmarks beneath my posts, but beacuse I think It doesn’t make my blog look good.
But I don’t believe this is SPAM. The guys who own Digg, Stumble, etc… want you to use their site so what’s the big deal?
Kevin, very insightful. Many new bloggers fall into the trap of adding comments to blogs and forums with little value, myself included.
I would also add, not having good content or not having patience. Both when starting off is a must have. Especially if you want to build a good relationship with other bloggers or exchange links.
I have a social media widget, but it never once occurred to me that I could use it to submit my own posts. I ask other people to submit them if they think it’s worth it.
Is this a double whammy?
Well right out of the gate I have to admit that I am guilty of #4. Not intentionally, but more because of time and just not knowing how Twitter works. I have started to see the importance of connecting with others by sharing more than just my blog with them.
I have also done number one but never thought it was because of my need to bring visitors to my site. I just wanted to recognize the great job that the author did, but I do plan to be more mindful of how I can add value to the comments section of other blogs.
Thanks for posting this, because I may have never known I was doing it all wrong. :)
It’s posts like this that make me glad I’m subscribed. Couldn’t have come at a better time. I was getting overwelmed by all the social media-ness of the blogging world lately, so I’m glad you brought it back down to basics.
Question:
Can anyone recommend a “sitemap plugin” for wordpress? I’ve heard heaps of bloggers talk about them, but I’ve yet to hear of a good one.
Thanks!
I have a social media button below my posts (the “addthis” widget). I think I submitted one of my own posts exactly once – just to see how it worked, since I was unfamiliar with how it worked.
I’ve been blessed with great comments on my web magazine, although Akismet does a great job of wedding out the obvious ones and marking them spam.
Keywords are the absolute last thing on my mind when I write. I just sit down and write my article. If it has relevant keywords, great … but I’m not going to sprinkle in a bunch of keywords just for the sake of search engines.
I’ll add:
#11: Being pushy about favors
I’ve asked a few folks (bloggers and “normal” people) to write guest article for The Casual Observer, typically in the “a day in the life” vein. I have loose agreements from several.
I try not to follow up more than once a month – with something like “let me know if you have any questions about the article” and I’m also very loose with deadlines – meaning that I don’t have any. I’m asking someone to write content for my web magazine; can I really afford to be pushy?
Will I get articles from most of these people eventually? Yeah, probably – and I’ll also build good relationships. On the flip side, if I was sending a reminder 3 times a week, they’d probably tell me to go fly a kite.
Before i read this article i didnt much know about social media site, but now fully aware but is want do, what is not, thank u for problogger developers giving such an oppurtunity to read this article in problogger, thank u very much.
A great article! Helpful for newbies like me who are just getting their own blogs off the ground, but also for seasoned bloggers who either need reminders or who just never knew these points!
Thanks for writing this, it is something I am certainly going to be mindful of as I begin my own new blogging journey!
Somewhat off topic, but I LOVE the image – that’s what drew me in to read the post. With so many posts in my reader each day I don’t click through on many of them, but I’m glad I did on this one for the ideas. Thanks!
@infmom,
No, your social media widget is just fine. It’s how you use it that matters.
If it’s for your readers, that’s great. If you’re submitting all your new posts to each of them, it’s not great.
Tools are not inherently evil; it’s the application of the tool that makes something good or bad.
To tell you the truth I don’t want people to write a book when they leave comments on my blog. I’m happy to have someone leave a line instead of reading my post and not commenting at all.
Something else that annoys me it’s when someone has a blog, you do leave comments on their blogs and they never comment on yours. It’s all about them. Some of them are really popular, they get lot’s of comments but I wonder why it’s not both ways.
When I first began blogging I tried to do all these ten things (in the good way) because that is what I read on Problogger…lol. The good thing about it was I got to know what these things were all about very quickly. But once I found my ‘groove’ I understood what worked for my site and what didn’t.
Now I don’t do any of these ten things to promote my blog – because it doesn’t suit my niche. I’ve realised that the best thing for my blog is good content – to write about what people want to know. It seems for my blog that ‘time’ is my greatest asset. The longer I blog the more people find it ;)
(I haven’t actually commented on this site for a while because readers here are not particularly interested in my niche…lol. But I’m commenting now because I have something to say and I want to contribute ;)
Ouch, this one hurt. I found myself dong a bunch of this stuff without even thinking about it. I’ve found the blunder of my ways and am grateful for this article. *smacks himself on hand* I’ll never spam again.
You broke it down so it will forever be broke! It’s all about “keeping it real”, right? When I first started blogging, I tried to mimic all the wrong bloggers…the ones doing all of the things you just described. It didn’t “feel” right, but I could’nt figure out why. I thought that’s what I had to do in order to have a successful blog. Thanks for putting into words, what that uneasy feeling was!
Hey, I’m a little confused. You said that twitter was mean to have it’s users selectively choose followers, but I heard all the time that it is good etiquette to follow all my followers. I have a automatic program that follows back people set up for this purpose. Would you consider this an abuse of twitter or am I correct in following people back?
Just a tip I’ve learned over the months, allows click notify me of future comments vie e-mail, it helped me engage in the blog’s community more.
Thank you!
I really don’t like it when bloggers force you to listen to their music when you are reading their blogs. I often listen to the news while I am going through blogs, and to be blasted all of a sudden by loud, unpleasant music is really a put-off. If I ever come across this, I close the page immediately without even reading the rest of the post. It’s fine for bloggers to want to share their music, but they should allow for the option of switching it on, rather than forcing readers to frantically search for the “off” button.
I really agree with the points you have stated above. What i think unusual talking among them is “Writing for Search Engines”. Most bloggers would indeed ask to do that and why i like that is because no matter how great content you write, you need readers for it and the best source of readers in Search engines. May be some good blogs like this one already have a trade mark and so may not depend on search engines but for new bloggers like us, readers are really essential and to get readers we need to target the search Engines.
Anyway i like your explanation that we cant have a great blog even if we get tons of traffic and do not write for the readers of the blog.
Well With that, i think now i can say you have a “Great post”.
Sadly, as a newer blogger I had to learn many of those things out the hard way!
However, the biggest thing I’ve found is the content. If you want people to come to your blog, write excellent content. Not only will it keep them interested in finishing the article they clicked in the first place, but it will have them coming back to check subsequent posts. I like that you mentioned Copyblogger because they really offer quality advice on writing better.
GENEROSITY is the name of the game to me. At least on the internet :)
I really enjoyed this post, I have good habits but I can improve others. Love the name of your site, BTW “This is broken blog”
I was guilty of about 75% of these during my initial attempts at blogging. I’ve cut down on the spam at this point, but my site is now blacklisted by Akismet and I can’t seem to get it removed. Now I try to focus on writing valuable or entertaining content, and I submit my posts to around 5 or 6 bookmark sites just to get it out there. I’m also in the process of cleaning useless buttons and widgets off the sidebar. This is a mandatory post for newbies and an excellent refresher for experienced bloggers too.
I’m a new blogger… There I said it! I really appreciate posts on “What Not To Do”, I’m reading a lot more than I write at this point – Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
@ So,
Thanks. It’s brand new so I haven’t gotten much feedback on it. Glad to hear you like it.
Shane, you’re comment is broken. Obviously, you got one of the top 3 spots (which drives a lot of traffic on a successful blog like ProBlogger). But where’s the sincerity? Where’s the realness? It’s a fake comment meant to do one thing, drive traffic. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and it’s a big no no.
Kevin, you read a lot more than he wrote, unfairly.
If your boss said “good job”, just because he wanted you to feel good and do more good work, would that remark constitute a waste of everyone’s time?
I rarely post a “great job” comment–but when I do, it is because the author really did a great job, and I have nothing else to add. Expressing a simple appreciation does not make one insincere. Quite the contrary…pretending interest in a blog discussion when one’s true motive is self-promotion seems a bit insincere.
I agree with “Chris | Martial Development”. A “great job” comment is not necessarily a fake comment. You don’t need to “add” value all the time. Sometimes you only want to send a congratulation.
Of course, if you put a “great job” in every single post, then it is a signal that you only want promotion but there is not anything wrong with sending a short comment without substantial content from time to time.
Thank you, thank you, Darren! I get design clients who are so eager to make a splash they want to do it all… before they even have a site with worthwhile content. And they get frustrated when I tell them to focus on one or two things and keep it simple. Being everywhere is not only time-consuming, but it won’t get you the traffic if you have no content! Thanks for another great article!
Is “you’re comment is broken.” intentional or unintentional humor?
@ Aron,
You heard wrong. Stop the auto-following.
@ Chris at Martial Development,
To make points, we all have to speak in generalities. That’s what I was doing. I understand that some people are sincere in their “great post” comments. I also understand that MOST people who leave “great post” comments do so simply for the promotion of their own site.
Darren is a “ProBlogger”. He has a page rank of 6. He doesn’t really need the “great post” comments anymore. Since he’s making a couple hundred grand a year he knows his content is great. I think it would be best to reserve “great post” comments for new or up and coming bloggers.
Again, I’m speaking in generalities (which is necessary to make a point). Most people use “great post” for self-promotion so that’s why it got included.
@ Need Money
Unintentional humor. I HATE people that screw up “you’re” vs “your” and I did it writing this post. Not because I don’t know the difference but because I was doing too many things at once and didn’t catch my error. Thanks for pointing it out. Obviously, I’m broken sometimes too!
@ Andrew Price
Google XML Sitemaps
@ Asswass
I didn’t say it was bad to have them, especially if they are all installed in a single widget like “sharethis”. I said it’s bad to list them all and try to use them all and submit all your posts to them.
Guilty as charged on at least 2 items. I have some defence in that i’m still ‘wet behind the ears’ regarding blogging.
I did the mistake of commenting & dropping my own, topical, link into it. Must admit it felt a bit off doing that. I have seen the errors of my ways though :-)
The only thing i would question about what you said was regarding the number of Social Media icons listed. I totally understand what you say about less is more but in my chosen direction in would like to be able to understand many to be able to recommend few. An example would be: i believe i can tell that Digg is more Technology focussed whereas Mixx is more general / entertainment focussed. Therefore depending on who i was talking to depends on which one i’d recommend. Just because you might see 11 Social Media icons on my blog it doesn’t mean i’m “Jack of all” (although i admit it is rather time consuming so may rethink the strategy at some point! Lol).
I know it’s (now) a cliche but i did like this article because it was informative & provided value i didn’t even know i was looking for. The best type :-)
@ Michelle,
I think you need to really sit down and think about exactly how your product helps others. If it doesn’t genuinely help others, leave and stop promoting it.
If it does help others, figure out why. How exactly does it help them? Then mind map articles, tips, and information around that to offer people free. Become a resource for information on how to solve a problem and quietly lead people to a specific solution (your product).
It’s very difficult to explain without being able to see your site or know what your product is, but if you’d like to talk further just email me personally:
kgeary83 [at] gmail [dot] com
Great post I agree with you except the part of:
“Figure out what everyone in your niche is doing and do the opposite”.
I don’t think is best to do the opposite in some things, especially considering the usability, it’s like reinventing the wheel. Maybe I would add doing the opposite, improve it or change its context.
Kevin, this is a good summary of good etiquette. I’ve just got back into the business of promoting a blog after a while out of the game. I’ve always had a personal blog but never bother promoting, tends to more a way of remembering things for myself as old age sets in!
But we’ve just released an eBook, and an accompanying blog and I’ve been carefully looking at the various strategies of spreading the word.
And of course one technique is to make sure I’m properly and appropriately participating in relevant debates via comments and other interactions with blogs in my space.
We ran an online subscription content business for 6 years, it gave us a deep insight into how content is created, distributed and promoted across the net. Sometimes I feel dismayed at the way the net’s been hijacked by the money grubbers.
However, then I remember all the really great work from so many people including Darren and ProBlogger, and I hope, our various endeavours, and my heart lifts.
It’s about not giving into the dark side. As this post points out, play the game honestly and ethically and you will be rewarded. It probably won’t happen overnight – it took 6 years for our million dollar exit – but it will happen.
Cheers…David
You are stating the obvious. But perhaps, in this case, the obvious has to be stated.
Definitely made most of those mistakes myself. The one I most abused was #1, the broken comment. Sadly I’m still guilty.
The key to leaving a great comment is to focus on why you liked it, not just that you did. Obviously if you left a comment you cared. By gosh, tell us why.
Alternately, tell us why you hate it, disagree, why the formatting sucks, just about anything. I’m not encouraging you to attack the blogger, but feel free to critique the post.
Heck. I’d welcome that over no comments on my blog.
Get in there and share a relevant experience as per the example above is a winner. But but but, don’t try to one up the blog poster. They’ll not appreciate it, nor likely will the other readers.
I’m just overtalking now, but as I said, count me guilty on most of these.
Oh yeah, link love gets you noticed.
Darren, thanks for the education and reinforcement. The most important thing I try to teach my clients about Twitter is that it is a conversation, not just a way to stand on a soapbox and talk about yourself or your product. I review everybody who follows me (sometimes i get a little behind, but I do look at everyone before I decide to follow back) and I won’t follow people who recycle the same dozen tweets over and over, or only appear to be posting a periodic twitterfeed site scrape of most recently posted headlines.
I think Aron heard right, but was listening to the wrong advisers. I’ve seen a couple of “experts” recommend that you follow everyone who follows you on Twitter. But this way leads to madness. I have avoided following accounts such as “Namecheap Coupons” or “ezpcjobs” because their content is 95% spam. Or “atlgirl420” because she is a teen obsessed with smoking pot. If a twitter follow does not enhance my online experience, I will not follow.
By the way, everyone, please DO keep your social “add to” links for people like me. When I find stuff I love and want to link to at the end of the week in a “link roundup” on my blog, I Digg it. Then I check out my little repository on Digg when I’m ready to blog.
As for this article, consider it Dugg and retweeted.
As a rookie (OK – virgin) to the world of blogging, twitter and this social networking business, this was a very helpful post. In fact I may have innocently re-tweeted with a shameless plug at the end and have since deleted. In fact, this is my first comment to be left for a blog post. While it is my intent to write with passion and be resourceful… I’ve have lots to learn! Thank you.
Forgot to add the /snark code to my previous comment currently hanging out in limbo.
Promoting 10 times more of other people’s work is good in theory, but seems a bit steep to me. But I guess I assume that most people who “promote” a link don’t actually comment on that link, but just pass on the link. As a commenter and a writer I think I’d prefer the one good comment to someone else promoting my work.
Auto DM’s on Twitter that promote your blog/website/company might be the most annoying promotion tool ever.
Oops – I have lots to learn (As in double checking before hitting submit!)
All I can say is that I am so glad that I got a chance to read this early on. As a newbie it is frustrating to have basically little to no traffic. But I have gained it the hard way: I earned it. I was at the point of thinking maybe the things mentioned in this blog were how it was done. That you had to be spammy to get readers. Thank you so much for enlightening me.
This is very valuable information. A year ago, I never even heard of Twitter nor did I ever imagine myself doing a blog but times change very quickly. Twitter has become one of the main places I visit each day. I announce posts that I’m excited about, but I’m still working on other aspects of my twitter profile such as design, film and technology.
It is a fine line where you can cross into overpromotion. However, when you blog because you want to and not because you have to, you are going to put quality into your posts and that’s what will bring the readers who identify with your topics in for return visits. People who truly love blogging about a certain topic (mine is about dogs) are going to be in it for the long haul. Promotion for me is just a way to get the word out, but it excessively so is taxing for the same people you are trying to get your message across to.
I’ve written great posts on more than one occasion but the reason more often than not because the blogger has echoed so many of my sentiments, I am pretty much in 99% agreement and can’t add anything enlightening or original. Still, I think it’s good to let the blogger know you liked what they had to say.
The people who overdo self-promotion lose sight of what’s important in communicating. I think as long as you are in touch with your passion, and keep things in perspective, you will not alienate the readers you have worked so hard to bring to your blog in the first place.
This is a great post! No really, I mean it!
On point number 6.
From about a month ago I got a little carried away posting my stories to Reddit. The site was generating a huge amount of traffic for me — perhaps two or three times what I had previously seen. And it kept on getting better. I was excited.
Then a few days ago, I posted another piece to Reddit. One of the commenters looked up my recent posting record and noticed I had submitted 25 self-posts in a row. I was accused of self-whoring and a number of other things. Pretty soon the Reddit traffic dried up.
So, now it’s back to square one — actually not square one — but the traffic has plateaued at a significantly lower level than it reached.
I particularly agree with number 3. I hate when I get emails from bloggers pretending like they’ve read my blog for ages and asking if they can be added to my blogroll. What is worse is when I visit their blog and Im not even in their blogroll. I laugh and think “why do that and how many other people did you email this too??”
But something that I do really like is if someone goes to the effort to determine that my name is Liss and not Lily. Anyone who I receive an email from addressed to Lily gets deleted.
The first point regarding comment really close to my heart. Although I am not guilty in committing that but I know of people who does that in my blogs. One fine example the person comment without reading the entry and asking question which answer can be found in my entry and it was not his first time… I felt bad and thus I didn’t tell him off. What would you do in situation like this? Delete his comments?
This was an informative post for me, as I’m fairly new in the blogosphere. Because I did wonder about a few of your points, like your advice regarding social media, search engines and Google’s webmaster tools, this post will serve as a valuable reference for me.