Ways to Improve Your Blog – Marketing
You may have a great blog but if no one knows about it, then you just have a bunch of words. Marketing no matter how big or small can really improve your blog and get more visitors coming to check you out.
This is Part 4 in an eight part series from the article 99 Ways to Improve Your Blog from the blog Traffic to Your Blog written by Steinar Arason. Please check out all of the posts in this series: Content, Design & Appearance, Functionality, Marketing, SEO, Networking, Subscribers and Making Money.
Integrate Tools/Widgets for Social Media
Social Media Marketing is one of the best ways to get free exposure for your blog. You can encourage readers to vote for you and make it easy for them by adding some elements to your posts, such as buttons or widgets for specific social media sites.
Use Niche Social Media Sites
Most bloggers that attempt to gain traffic from social media focus on the major sites. like Digg. Getting to the front page of Digg is no easy task, and it really won’t produce traffic that is very targeted. Niche social media sites will send lower volumes of traffic, but popularity will be more attainable and the quality of traffic will be better. You can find social media sites in your niche at this categorized list of sites .
Build Profiles on Major Social Media Sites
For targeting the major social media sites, building a strong profile is one of the best ways to improve your results. To build a profile you should be actively using the site on a daily basis and always keep your eyes open for great content that you can submit.
Give Something Back to Your Readers
All blogs provide readers with content. What else can your do for them? By giving something back to your readers you can do a better job of building the community around your blog and developing a relationship and trust with your readers. There are a number of possibilities for giving back to your readers, and some that are mentioned at other places in this post. You could run a contest, give away some free advertising, give away an e-book, basically anything that will add value to your readers above and beyond the blog posts.
Feature Your Best Content Somewhere on the Blog
Some of your visitors will not be familiar with your blog and they may not have seen your best work. Somewhere on the blog you should have a list of links to your best or most popular posts. New visitors will hopefully take a look and see the quality.
Write for Other Blogs
One of the best ways to gain exposure and to build some name recognition is to write for other blogs. You can either do so as a guest blogger or as a paid writer. Usually if you are providing a free guest post you will get a brief bio statement and a link back to your blog. When you are doing paid writing you typically won’t get the bio or the link, but the exposure will still help.
Run a Contest
You can create some excitement from subscribers and generate some buzz by running a contest. Of course, people like to win things, so contests are a fun way to satisfy your readers. You can either put up some of your own money for prizes, or you can get others to sponsor the contest, which has been done very effectively be a number of bloggers.
Participate in Group Writing Projects
Group writing projects are a good way to get involved with other bloggers, get a link to your blog, and get exposure to a new audience. Check out Group Writing Projects to find some new opportunities.
Do Some Statistical Analysis
Do you know what types of posts draw the most traffic and the best response from your readers? Do you know where your traffic is coming from and what terms people are using to find you in the search engines? Use a tool like Google Analytics to do some basic stat checking on your blog and implement what you learn.
Submit Your Blog to Directories
Directories can be helpful for allowing new readers to find your blog, and they can also be good for search engine rankings. There are literally thousands of directories, blog directories, and RSS directories that you could submit to. Unfortunately, you’d have to spend days of your valuable time to get it done. You can submit it yourself to the top directories, or pay someone else to do it for you.
Set Up FeedBurner’s FeedFlare
I’m going to assume that you are already using FeedBurner since it is basically a necessity. FeedFlare is a simple way to add some nice elements to your feed that will allow subscribers to interact and share your content. There are a number of options to choose from, including links that will submit and vote for your posts at all the popular social media sites. To set up your FeedFlare, login and click on “Optimize” and then “FeedFlare.”
Release Your Own Blog Theme
Do you have an attractive blog theme that people really like? Have you considered releasing it for others to use freely? This has been done by a number of blogs, and sometimes it is done right after upgrading to a new theme. That way you can give something away without allowing everyone else to look just like you.
Use Entrecard
Entrecard is a unique way to make your sidebar more productive. With Entrecard you can network with other bloggers and with your readers, and drive traffic to your blog.
Submit Your Posts to Blog Carnivals
One of the easiest ways to start building links to your blog is by using blog carnivals. You can submit one of your posts to a carnival on a specific topic and if the host decides to include your post you will get a backlink. There are carnivals on just about every topic you can think of.
Host a Blog Carnival
Another method for driving traffic to your blog is to host a blog carnival. In this situation other bloggers will be submitting their posts to your carnival, and sometimes those who are included will also promote the carnival once it is published. If you’re looking for an easy way to get some other bloggers to visit your blog, consider hosting a carnival.
Submit Your Blog to Web Design and CSS Galleries
If your blog features a unique and attractive design (not a free theme), consider submitting it to web design and CSS galleries. There are more galleries than you can keep track (there’s a good list at Virtual Hosting). These galleries can give you a great deal of exposure and send some traffic and links your way.
Encourage Bookmarks
Bookmarks are a great way to increase your repeat traffic. If someone has bookmarked one of your posts they obviously have some intention of coming back to it later. Make it easy for your readers to bookmark by using the del.icio.us tagometer badge or something similar.
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August 25th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
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