By now, you’re probably well-acquainted with the importance of having a blog to help promote your business or book—or both. It takes time to build blog readership, though sometimes a topic just takes off. For a good example, rent the movie Julie and Julia, which is based on the true story of Julie Powell’s adventures in cooking Julia Child’s recipes over the course of a year. Powell began blogging about her cooking efforts and it quickly caught on. Blog traffic grew rapidly and she eventually ended up with a book deal and a major motion picture.
Unfortunately, most blogs don’t hit the media jackpot like Powell’s did, but the point is that it can happen, and either way, it’s an important way to connect with your audience to promote your business. Here are some strategies to give your blog an extra boost:
- Announce your blog posts to your social media networks on a regular basis, including post title and a link back to the post (to drive traffic!).
- Share your blog link on all online profiles, such as in your Facebook bio or your member profile with your trade association.
- Share blog posts and links in your e-newsletter.
- Write about specific people or businesses and then send them a link to the post. Encourage them to share with their networks.
- Invite others to submit guest blog posts. Most will be inclined to share their post with their networks.
- Use your blog as a launch point for contests and special promotions. Conduct campaigns that inspire readers to share with their networks.
- Blog often. More is better when it comes to online content.
- Pay attention to which posts get the most attention, and which ones fall flat. They can’t all be winners. Notice when you get the most comments so that you can do more of what works.
- Invite people to respond. A very small percentage of site visitors actually take the time to comment on your blog. However, you can increase results by asking a question that urges readers to respond.
- Participate in blog carnivals. A blog carnival is essentially a roundup of blog posts from various sites based on a specific topic. The blog host benefits from featuring other people’s blog posts because contributors often share the link with their networks, and contributors benefit from exposure with the host’s audience plus a link back to the contributor’s site. Join bloggercarnivals.com to find a list of bloggers seeking posts for upcoming carnivals.
- Submit your blog link to blog directories for greater exposure. Here’s a list:
- http://blogcatalog.com
- http://mybloglog.com
- http://blogflux.com
- http://technorati.com
- http://blogarama.com
- http://blogexplosion.com
- http://bloghub.com
- http://globeofblogs.com
- http://networkedblogs.com
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