Assuming your blog is older than a week or two, you will by now have discovered that writing amazing content and taking stunning photos isn’t enough. Here’s the good news though – if you have nailed the content and the images, you’ve done the hard part. Now it’s just a matter of letting people know your blog exists.
When I first started out, I had no idea I would have to promote my blog (this seems so ridiculous in hindsight). I thought I would write posts, and people would magically know they where there. I realised pretty quickly this wasn’t the case, so I plunged blindly into the world of online promotion.
Some general ways to help promote your blog/boost your traffic are:
*Join linkys – Have a look here for how this can help
* Use your images as more than just window dressing – See here for how to do this
* Improve your SEO – See here for some easy to implement ways to do this
By far the most effective way is through social media. The whole world is quite literally at your fingertips. You can advertise to potentially millions of people worldwide without moving from your chair, and best of all, it’s free.
Some blogger’s use networks such as Google+, LinkedIn and Periscope, but for me, it’s all about the big four – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
For Twitter, there are so many great uses, it’s a post in itself – and it will be. Twitter tips will be going live tomorrow, so please do check back.
For tips on how to use the other three, read on.
Facebook
I don’t actually use my personal Facebook to promote my blog. Maybe I should, and I’m sure at some point in the future I will. However, a Facebook page is a great way to promote your blog.
*Firstly, set up a page, invite all you friends to like and share it and invite some of their friends.
*Facebook has a reasonable window of opportunity for people to see what you are sharing, so I would recommend posting two or three times a day only.
*There is no limit to the number of characters you can have in an update, so use the extra space. Add a brief description of the post.
*Join and use blogger groups. Search blogger groups, and you will find loads, choose one or more which you feel best interest you. Share your posts here for a much larger audience.
Instagram
Instagram is the best place to share pictures. Post the pictures from your latest blog post. Have your blog link in the bio and always point this out in the caption so people can find you easily.
Pinterest
Pinterest has the largest window of opportunity for views by far. Even months down the line, someone could re-pin something and start a flurry of visits to your post. Try to make sure all of your posts have at least one pinnable image. A pinnable image:
*is portrait
* is in focus and not blurry
* has the post title attached to it, either directly in the image, as part of the alt text, or both.
As a general rule across social media, the opinion seems to be that for every one post of your own you promote, you should share five of other people’s. Much as I like to share the blogger love, I must admit I don’t do this.
I like to share content I enjoyed and that I think my followers might like. Some days, I might only share one post of someone else, other days ten. I hate the idea of sharing things just to meet a quota rather than because you actually enjoyed them.
I definitely advise sharing content you love though.
There’s also nothing wrong with cross promoting your platforms, for example, mentioning you have Instagram to your Twitter followers (please through a tweet though, not an auto DM).
I hope this helped you – let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to check back in for tomorrow’s Twitter post.
When I first started out, I had no idea I would have to promote my blog (this seems so ridiculous in hindsight). I thought I would write posts, and people would magically know they where there. I realised pretty quickly this wasn’t the case, so I plunged blindly into the world of online promotion.
You should definitely set up a Facebook page, Facebook is very visual, works well with sharing others contents (and the all important #bloggerlove) and you can write more than 140 characters which I find I need to do.
Part of me wants to but I do like keeping Facebook separate although I have joined and use the Promote Your Blog group. I probably will end up doing at some point though 🙂