Yesterday’s task in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge was to write a ‘list post’ on your blog. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to write that up and publish it by now.
Today we’re going to take that post and attempt to drive some readers to it.
Today’s Teaching on Promoting Blog Posts:
Blog Promotion is something that most bloggers have tried to do in many ways – however one mistake that I see a lot of bloggers making in their attempts to find new readers is that they only ever promote their blog as a whole. Their promotion is all about driving traffic to their blogs home page URL.
While there’s nothing wrong with this – I personally have had A LOT more success in promoting individual posts than my blogs front page. That’s what we are going to do today.
Having hit publish on your post yesterday – don’t just leave it to chance that your post will be read by people. Be more proactive than that and spend a little time today giving it some ‘nudges’ to help it on its way.
I know quite a few have already done some of this by leaving a link on our previous post promoting your link (some of your are reporting quite good traffic from doing it) but lets go a step further and find some ways to promote your post in other networks outside of ProBlogger.
11 Ways to Promote a Blog Post
note: please be careful in using these techniques. Don’t use them all with every post you write. Choose your best posts and promote them selectively and in ways that are useful to other people.
1. Pitching Other Bloggers – asking another blogger to consider linking to your post. note: there’s a real art to this – read more on how to do it at 11 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Being Linked to By a Blogger.
2. Social Messaging – what social networks like Twitter and Facebook are you a part of? Attempt to leverage these to promote your post. The key is not to incessantly spam your followers and friends with your link – but use your network to ‘seed’ the link and let your followers spread word of it for you (this won’t happen every time but as your network grows it can become more and more powerful).
3. Social Bookmarking – promoting selective links on a site like Digg or StumbleUpon can lead to amazing results. Further reading on this topic at How to Get to the Front Page of Digg and Using Social Media Sites to Grow Your Blog’s Traffic.
4. Internal Links – don’t just promote your post on other people’s sites – think about where you can link to it from within your own site. Perhaps you’ve written on the topic before and can add a link for further reading, perhaps adding a section in your sidebar for ‘latest posts’ could work. Internal linking won’t drive heaps of new traffic but it can help with SEO and increase page views.
5. Newsletters – if you have an email newsletter list – shoot out an email to your list about your latest post.
6. Other Blogs Comments Sections and Forums – leaving helpful and insightful comments on forums or other blogs can be great at driving traffic if your comment is genuine, relevant and sensitive to the discussion. Leaving a link is sometimes also appropriate if highly relevant.
7. Email Signatures – Adding links to your blog to your outgoing emails is fairly common place – but whatever including links to recent posts instead of just your blog’s front page URL.
8. Followup Posts – write a new post on your blog that picks up where your last one left off. This builds momentum and if you inter-link the posts drives more page views.
9. Advertise Your Post – for posts that you’re particularly proud of and that are well received by readers you might even consider a mini ad campaign with a small budget using a service like AdWords or StumbleUpon advertising. Further Reading on this at Run a StumbleUpon advertising campaign on your blog.
10. Pitch Mainstream Media – occasionally posts will be relevant to mainstream media. You want to really pick a highly interesting post for this – it’s not something for every day.
11. Article Marketing – I wouldn’t recommend submitting exactly the same article you’ve posted on your blog to article marketing sites (this can get you into trouble with Google penalties for duplicate content) but I know of a few bloggers who rewrite their key articles for article marketing.
Of course there are many other ways to promote posts. Feel free to tell us how you do it in comments below.
Please note: don’t do all of the above things for every single post on your blog. I personally tend to pick 1-2 posts a week to give a push and let others grow organically.
Today’s Task – Promote a Post:
Take a little time to look at yesterdays post and ask yourself where it might be appropriate to promote it. If you look at the post and don’t think that it is really worthy of promotion anywhere – feel free to choose another relevant post to do it with. If you don’t have one – spend some time today writing something that you feel IS link worthy and then try promoting that.
For most of you I’d start with point #1 above – pitching to other bloggers. Choose another blog with highly related content to your post and politely submit it as a suggested link to that blog. Again – check out 11 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Being Linked to By a Blogger for tips that will help increase the likelihood of it being successful.
Feeling Timid?
I know that many new bloggers often feel quite timid and wary of promoting themselves. Don’t worry – you’re not alone. I have felt that myself many times and have at times not put my work forward where perhaps I should have. However – the times that I have been willing to push myself out of my comfort zone have often paid off.
While I’ve had a few times in my blogging life where I’ve had lucky breaks that result in traffic – most of the times traffic has arrived at my blogs in numbers have been a direct result of me doing some promotional work. Don’t just leave it to chance – put yourself out there and see what comes as a result.
Once you’ve done it – I’d love to hear how you went about promoting your post and what the result was in comments below. Lets learn together how to get this task right!
Update: There are lots of folks talking about this over at the forum, you should check it out! Day 3 – Promote a Post
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
I have written a blog post on two techie things:
Gravatar and Favicon,
http://www.clausdjensen.com/archives/25
It’s ment for those who are a little techie-newbie-like, but who love to learn new stuff that they can apply immediately.
If you are one of those, check it out and please leave a comment.. :-)
Greetings,
Claus D Jensen
Great task Darren.. I have promote my yesterday post in other blog. It seems like my blog receive new readers. Thanks again
Hi Darren
Great stuff. I’m fairly new to this and had been getting about 20 hits a day. I followed your advice yesterday and went up to 190. Brilliant
Thanks
TinyURL.com/c8zszl
I would like to try 1. Pitching Other Bloggers because seems the most challenging. I’m already using SU, Twitter and Reddit to promote my posts. This time i would also try article marketing but first i will rewrite the post.
Great ideas for promotion. I think the most important message is that it needs to be REAL. Linking to posts that really do relate to yours – doing it because it fits. Everyone sees through a blatant plug – but a link that really FITS helps everyone, readers most importantly.
As a mom writing about twins – there are LOTS of possible links. I find my blog is CONNECTING me a great online community.
My problem is still the PHYSICAL aspect of how to link – I have spent some time on it but admit I then give up and go straight back to writing. I am a writer first, and a blogger second but…..with this proper motivation I will make it a point to just DO IT.
Thanks for the push.
http://www.twintensity.blogspot.com
(Once I get those links up, I found some FANTASTIC posts – written by OTHERS that I’d love to share!)
Hi Darren,
thanks. i just can’t miss your lessons. though today i was busy preparing something at our church, i said i have to go back to the internet to learn what your tips would be today.
i did something in the past 2 days, busy making over my ‘elevator pitch’ and other tips you have given us.
today i am getting this new one. excellent. i have been following and been followed on twitter, though just recently. but it gives lots of traffic to my site. people don’t understand what i wrote but i like being seen and to see people’s sites.
Got my list post ready, finally…
10 TOUGHEST MOVIE HEROES OF ALL TIME (and I didn’t pick the ones you expected!)~~~>http://linkbee.com/NX3M.
Any of you guys with movie-related links, I’ll link you immediately. Get in touch! [email protected]
Hi Darren,
Thanks to the this post, I have found some glitches in my promotion strategy. On the other hand, it’s funny that you suggested Twitter as a promotion platform – I originally signed up for Twitter to have another place to promote my blog. The traffic is soaring steadily.
http://www.cyberfootprint.eu/top-5-must-read-books-for-a-pr-pro/
Damn, try this link instead… http://www.smalltowncritic.com/2009/04/08/10-toughest-movie-heroes-of-all-time-by-coop/
Hi , I have started the elevator speech. Than i do a link post on my weekly challenge of $50 cash weekly.
And i had promote my posting thru facebook.
So do check it out on how to earn $50 cash for free weekly
Just finishing up my homework . . .a link to my list on 5 ways to share the love (link love that is!)
http://www.lisarosendahl.com/journal/2009/4/8/5-ways-to-share-the-love.html
Hey Darren,
Serious question I’d love for you to weigh in on – would make a great post for the site as well.
What are your thoughts on whether a blogger should have a separate blog/business twitter or use their personal twitter for their blog?
I know that Twitter accounts aren’t appreciate when they’re solely used to promote their own agenda/site/business, but should there still be a separation between the business persona and the real person?
I have a fairly new music blog and I’ve just started using Twitter in the last month. Right now I’m listing my personal twitter account feed on my site and I’m torn about whether that’s the best idea.
Love to hear your and anyone else’s feedback!
Thanks-
I usually post my latest blogpost also on a music forum which has an area for bloggers, and get most of my traffic from there.
But this listpost did not seem so very suitable for that forum, so I did not post it there. But I did Twitter it and am looking now for other blogs to read and comment on, although commenting is mostly a step to far.
Finally I can see Google AdSense Ad in ProBlogger. Wating for the 4th Day tip.
Sjay
Hi Darren and everyone – I do promotion via Twitter and Facebook regularly. Today I wrote a comment on another blogger’s blog and linked to her post in my blog … hoping for reciprocity. Still working on asking the outright question!! I appreciate the great teaching and encouragement here … and here’s my piece for this lesson: http://thetimefinder.com/find-time-for-managing-your-energy-and-your-spring-projects/
Ver y nice ideas. Although I think I have some problems, because my topic (Photoshop for beginners) is maybe too popular.
But, anyway, here is a link to my Day 2 post about the Photoshop Basic concepts
http://is.gd/rzdv
This day (2 out of 7) it is the topic “layers”.
Hope you like it.
Hmm – I don’t know. The people who read my blog aren’t nessessarily Twitter types. I automatically do some of the things you mention, such as linking to other sites, but I think my subject may be a little too narrow? Anyway — I haven’t done yesterday’s assignment yet, so I’d better get writing!
Rachella
sorry for the typos in the comment above. I was in the meeting and typed really fast. I was excited after seeing the visitor data and hence thought to inform you first. Apologies again. Please allow me to correct it or remove the bad portion as you may deem fit.
Hi there,
Currently, when I publish a post, it also goes straight to my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I’ve also written posts with a link to other articles in the media or by other bloggers. These articles can be the inspiration behind my post or it can be extra information by others that’re relevant to my post. I also use internal links in some of my posts (see my post yesterday on ‘lists’: http://velvetescape.com/blog/?p=760 ) and I often write follow-up posts. I find that all these methods work well to build traffic and interest for a particular post – great advice indeed!
I sometimes ask my fellow Twitterers for an RT or a Stumble – my advice is not to do it too often, only when you feel a certain post is worth the attention. That works too. For instance, I asked for an RT on my ‘list’ post yesterday and received it. Very cool!
My next steps are to look more into StumbleUpon and Digg, consider a newsletter and pitching to other bloggers to link to a specific post on my blog http://velvetescape.com/blog and hope for my big break!
Another great lesson Darren! I’m really enjoying this challenge and I’m learning a lot! Thank you so much!
Over at Autism From the Outside, I wrote a great list on 5 ways to elicit language everyday. Check it out here:
http://blog.autismfromtheoutside.com/2009/04/5-ways-to-elicit-language-everyday.html
Thanks for the lessons! I’ve put completing this on my 101 goals in 1001 days list!
If it’s a really important post, using a “RT plz” at the end of a Tweet will usually get you a few re-tweets. I save asking for only those posts which are extra special. :)
i agree and always do that. Hope i can maintain my method.
I have been promoting my blog using all the techniques you have mentioned above and I can say from experience, interlinking is one of the main ones that everyone should do because that will increase your page views significantly.
Hi Darren,
Good post, this. I ended up putting the link on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter. And saw a little spike!
Update:
Logged on to the metrics counter this AM, and WOW.
My blog is less than 2 months old so I would get just 13 visits a day.
After doing this promotion excercise: A facebook msg, a twitter tweet (just one), posted link on MomDot, left meaningful comments on two blogs in my niche, and doing a $5/day StumbleUpon promotional campaign–for one day, my visits yesterday=130…even with a couple of comments!
WOW, didn’t know I’d get real results that fast. Thanks so much Darren.
Darren,
Please email me and tell me why you never approve my comments. If you are going to be prejudiced I’d like to know why. Thank you.
The promotion does not work very well for me. I have tried most of methods described above with limitted success. Still most of my traffic (90%) comes from Google.
Maybe this is due to my niche: anonymity and privacy.
Thanks for the tips. This is fun!
My list: Ten Things you Need to Know When Moving Cattle!
So, I’m just getting back to you to let you know how the Post Promotion went for me. I promoted my list post through Facebook, (by inviting my collegues to comment on that post with their suggestions), asking one particular collegue who has a great notification website to let me link her on my blog roll while also mentioning my post, AND by linking here in the comments. So far, I’ve had several people go in to that post and post their comments from the folks I invited from Facebook. The best result from that so far is that one person, who has a daughter at an Art’s School will be forwarding my post link to a large group of students! Bingo! i also got a handful of hits from this website too! It really works!
Darren, I’m back again to comment.
The result of the promote a blog post challenge for me was 30 visits to my blog. Not exactly spectacular – you can tell I’m in the ‘little league’ here! I received 28 visits through Stumbleupon, 1 through Facebook, and 1 through Problogger.
Now, I’m not normally one to complain, but I’m really wondering what is up with people. I know there are a lot of comments to read here and tons of blogs to choose from out on the big, wide, internet, but why is everyone so selfish? I mean, my blog is about good down-to-earth stuff for parents – just making the world a better place one day at a time. No glitz, no sensationalism, no earth-consuming paraphernalia, and I don’t charge for a visit. Why would people prefer to read about celebrities, the latest technology, or how to make a quick buck?
Darren, do you care about what kind of Earth you are leaving for your kid/kids? How will our kids care for the Earth if we’re all rushing around looking for the latest sensational Tweet? I don’t grudge folks their blog income, but just get a little perspective people.
Come on over and take a look at what I’m doing. E-mail me a comment and tell me if there’s something glaringly wrong with my blog. Or if you already frequent other green blogs, let me know which one/s so I can learn from that.
I have posted a link from my Day 2 Task of List Post on my:
– Facebook (I usually always do this every time I make a post) but still no comment from my friends (they usually do!) except for the photos
– Twitter http://twitter.com/gabybali (How do I know if people click the link to my post from Twitter? hmm..)
– Digg (so far no one dugg it :( ) http://digg.com/travel_places/5_TIPS_TO_ENJOY_BALI_NOT_AS_A_TOURIST
– Delicious http://delicious.com/gabysuroto
And 10min after I left comment on your post here, I got a nice comment from other blogger,Charmaine : http://randalswife.blogspot.com/, that is soo great!!
I do use Internal Links on some posts. And because my blog is also about Bali,I sometimes left comment at Bali Blog and put their links on mine too, but I’m not sure they ever click my post back…I never received a response from Bali Blog, although I mentionned them a lot on mine..
Hey,I think I’m doing good on this Day 3 task,right,Darren? Thanks!!
I published my list post and then worked on the promotion of it in various ways.
I built promotion into the post by asking for additions to the list. I put my post in front of quite a few people who have an online presence and familiarity with me and my “cause”.
So far, I have gotten responses from a Twitter follower and from a fellow college alum who is in my LinkedIn group. I anticipate a trickling response to the post over time, as more people add to the list content.
I have a marketing plan for every blog post that I write. It’s part of the routine once the post is published. It involves, Facebook, Linkedin (those are automatic feeds but I check up on them), Twitter, posting a broadcast at Blog Catalog then choosing one of the social networking groups that I belong to and requesting a stumble or other social love.
I keep comprehensive Google alerts set to my blog topics. I search for blogs where I can add value to the discussion through comments.
I love the concept! I am one of these types that gets completely caught up in promoting my blog as a whole.
I did a little work on Twitter to promote it. We’ll see what comes of it.
This actually worked GREAT yesterday. I got a few readers from Digg and StumbleUpon, but word really spread via Twitter. I got a lot of retweets, and analytics shows a huge spike. This inspires me to read more. Oh, and I also reached out to a top blogger in my niche, who wrote me back. Day 3 was a huge success!
Wow, what a great series. I have learned a lot like everyone else so far and am looking froward to the next few weeks of this series. I just started my blog a few weeks back and this series is great. I did a list entry this morning. It is on starting the process of controlling debt to become debt free. This will be the first in a series.
http://seansbuildingahappylifestyle.blogspot.com/2009/04/debt-freeis-it-possible.html
I would think of myself as a timid blogger–so today’s task is very helpful
Thanks a lot.
Sean
I did write a post on one blog with a list included in the text. And then I also wrote a list page for the blog I’ve created for this project.
http://patriciahysell.wordpress.com/april-topics/
I’m getting a little nervous because I’m not really quite sure what I’m hoping to achieve with the blog. My dreams seem to big, too unwieldy. Too much to ask for from an uncaring global community.
I am soooo glad I signed up for this. I haven’t had the opportunity to make any post yet. I’m printing the assignments off and doing the work during my down time. In just these few days I have gotten a lot out of the challenge. I am looking forward to more.
Lately I have been paying attention to post promotion. The most frequent method I use is inside links to post with similar content. For example recently I posted an introduction for the new song of Troye Sivan – For them :
http://www.theskykid.com/2009/04/07/troye-sivan-for-them
As the song was devoted to homeless children across the world I included a link to a movie review of the film ” Children Underground : which deals with the same issue.
http://www.theskykid.com/2008/01/04/children-underground
In addition I promote the future posts and the one that have been published before via twitter and friendfeed ( having a friendfeed on my sidebar helps get them noticed ).
Also when I review a book or movie I usually get in touch with a director , an actor of the performer and them know – or their fan base that a new article is published .
Another way I use to promote certain post is making a relevant entry about in a forum I am member of.
Speaking of bookmarks – I would be more thankful if my readers are using that instead of me doing it myself. That`s why few days ago I published a topic titled ” Support theSkyKid.com” in which I described varies ways in which people can show support for the blog.
Here is the entry in question :
http://www.theskykid.com/2009/03/30/support-theskykidcom
So far, in addition to promoting my post on your blog, I also posted it to Twitter. I need to try some of your other suggested techniques as well, but haven’t gotten to that yet.
I finally got around to posting my list style post.
http://howtomakemoneyontheinternet.info/free-ways-to-promote-a-blog-website/
Once I started submitting/promoting my blogs posts to social media sites I noticed a significant increase in readers and RSS subscribers. However, since there are so many sites out there like Digg, Kirsty, Reddit, etc. that speak to different demographics I’m not sure which sites to submit posts to that will allow me to reach the demographic mostly likely to be interested in reading my posts, which focus on green living and DIY. Time will not allow me to submit posts to EVERY social site out there and even if I did I’m sure that I’d be labeled a spammer, which I do not want. How do you decide/know which social sites are best for your blog’s niche?
Once i started submitting/promoting posts to social media sites I noticed a very steady increase in reaers and subscribers.
What I want to know is how do you decide WHICH sites to use to promote your posts to reach the demographic most likely to read your blog? Which in my case is frugal green living and DIY.
Without reading this post, I realised I am already doing some of the things listed here – like promoting the post on some relevant blogs via comments, putting it on social media sites (Twitter, Plurk, Facebook) etc. I’ve also just installed Google Analytics, so let’s see how much traffic this will bring. As always, thanks for the great tips!
As promised, here are the two pages I created as part of this challenge.
The Context
http://www.roadmappmarketing.com/lead-generation/what-you-need-to-know-about-generating-leads
The List (to be published 9-April-2002 @ 10 am PDT)
http://www.roadmappmarketing.com/lead-generation/6-ways-to-generate-leads-for-free
Thanks,
Ben
I am still in the process of writing my list-post.There are some lists on my blog here is one of them.
http://karansguesthouse.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/jaipur-a-fun-place-even-by-night/
It is a list of choice of things to do in the evening in Jaipur if you are here on a holiday.
Submitting your blog post to a Blog Carnival is also a nice way of promoting it.
My blog is scattered loosely in the crafting/SAHM niche, but is mostly knitting. I spent some time today setting up almost 100 post links through Ravelry.com–a huge knitting community/database.
Two plus years of knitting posts is a lot! But I can link my individual blog posts to my projects, the patterns and even the yarn I use. Once I get photos uploaded, it could generate quite a bit of activity I had never considered before.
This is beautifully put. Blogs are often so personal and can feel like our babies. I think that is why we can be so reluctant to market them.
Stepping outside the comfort zone in today’s assignment.
http://clutterbunny.com/2009/04/09/10-ways-to-inspire-yourself-to-start-spring-cleaning/
Hey Darren,
Nice articles as always. I follow you so much that I have you everywhere on FBK, Twitter and what not?
Well I have a website on Health and to study abroad. I have not seen any inflow from such social marketing sites.
I believe there are not many health related websites who try to promote and even if they do people are not interested. Education doesnt seem to be on radar on such websites.
They talk about FUN, and websites development stuff.
How many people might want to read an article of education and study abroad on such websites?
I believe my niche is a lot different then the usual and kind of limited with info and not many developments happening in the arena.
Do you see any place for me to promote education , study abroad links and I am really proud of my articles.
Anybody with any suggestions?
Panks
OK… I have some catching up to do. I’m already doing the first two tasks but I definitely have a lot to learn from Darren and others here. Time to re-dedicate myself to this challenge!