This week I thought I would continue with my Blogging 101 series and share some tips about promoting your blog, particularly if you have invested quite heavily financially in it like I have. Last week I spoke about the pros and cons of self-hosting your blog.
There are hundreds of posts floating around the blogosphere about promoting your blog so if you’re new to blogging or thinking about setting up a blog as a New Year resolution, you have a whole realm of help and advice at your fingertips.
It takes a long time to build a following but as long as you’re putting useful and quality content out there and letting people know how to find you, followers will come.
Tips for promoting your blog
Social Media
Your number one tool! There are tons of platforms and channels now available out there that you can join for free and instantly connect to new communities of like-minded people. However, be selective and choose the channels that are most appropriate for your blog, don’t feel you have to join everything.
There are also some great RT Blogger accounts that will retweet your post if you tag them in it, and many host Blogger chats during the week which are a great opportunity to engage with others. Don’t forget to put your blog URL in your social media bios too!
On this note, Tweetdeck and/or Hootsuite are fantastic platforms for managing your social media and scheduling tweets and posts in advance if you’re a bit like me and struggle to always remember to share new posts etc.
Bloglovin’
You don’t have to be a Blogger to have a Bloglovin’ account so this is a great site for people who love reading blogs to capture their favourites in one easy feed. For Bloggers, providing you have some of your social channels connected, every time you publish a new post, Bloglovin’ will also send out a tweet/Facebook post etc.
Business Cards
Business cards seem a bit official but for sharing your contact details at blogger events etc. they are ideal. I got my current set of business cards from Moo.com.
Buying advert space with other bloggers
This isn’t for everyone, but I think when you find the right website that you feel gets enough traffic that could possibly transfer to your blog, it’s worth taking the plunge. Costs for this vary but it really will depend on how well you think your advert will fit on another blogger’s site.
As you’re reading this, I have an advert on a well-known Blogger’s site –hello if you have come from there! Please take your time and give me a follow to make it easier to come back!
Understanding SEO
For promoting your blog, I am not going to lie that few people –myself included- find this aspect (SEO) of website management fun, but if you want Google to be your friend and your content to maximise its reach, this is a fairly vital aspect to not only do, but get right.
Google have some great free online courses and videos about SEO as well as others who have filled YouTube in equal measure about the topic.
Measuring & results
There is no point going to all the above effort and expense if you’re not going to monitor if your hard work is paying off. Since self-hosting my blog, I can take my stat measuring to the next level and have my blog connected to Google Analytics which I couldn’t seem to do previously.
Google Analytics allows you to drill down on your site traffic a lot deeper and you can find out exactly how people have found you, where they have come from, where they are clicking, what they are viewing, and how long they are spending on your site among a ton of other great features.
The stats that are available within your dashboard via WordPress.com, Blogger or Jetpack are still perfectly adequate however and are ideal for quick checks to see how you’re doing.
And that’s kinda’ it to be honest. What did you guys think? Has this post been helpful to you? Let me know what tips you have for promoting your blog in the comments.
Until next time x
