Now that you’ve created a blog, you’re probably wondering how you can get more people to read it.
No matter how great your blog and its associated content are, it’s tough to get anyone to read it without the proper promotion plan.
In fact, CrazyEgg states that every good blog is 80% promotion and only 20% creation. Fortunately, there are many ways you can promote your blog for the purpose of earning more readers and becoming more popular in the blogosphere this month.
Follow these five tips to get started:
Share your blog to social media
More than 1.7 billion people have social media accounts and it’s likely that you’re among them. If you haven’t been sharing your blog on social media, however, you’re missing out.
When you share your site on social media, you make the most of your pre-established base of followers and friends, which can be a powerful tool for expanding your audience.
If you’re writing a lifestyle blog, it’s fine to share it directly from your personal accounts. More likely than not, your family and friends will scroll through your blog and share it with their family and friends.
When you take into consideration that the average Facebook user has more than 140 friends, it’s clear that a promotional post can expand your blog’s following hugely. To generate the most leads, be sure to share your blog on each social media platform multiple times over the course of a week. This can help ensure you reach your entire audience.
For an example, check out the recent post called “WordPress vs. Blogger: What’s the Difference?” that I’ve shared on my Facebook page:
Keep in mind that there are some situations in which it’s not appropriate to share your blog from your personal account.
If you’re writing a business or commerce-focused blog, for example, it may be wise to set up independent social media accounts that are solely for the purpose of interacting with followers of your blog. This helps establish your brand and build a base of interested leads.
Once you’ve built your business pages, feel free to share them on your personal social media profiles in order to give yourself a head-start with people you already know.
If you’re not sure which social media platforms to use for your blog, consider setting yourself up with a Facebook and Twitter (Twitter currently has more than 284 million users and there are over 500 million tweets shared daily) account to begin with.
Once you master those platforms and gain some followers, you can branch out from there.
Develop an email list and start using it
I’ve discussed the importance of an email list in other posts, and it’s time to come back to it here. Building an email list from the moment you start blogging is one of the most important things you can do for the later success of your blog.
In a case study involving Buffer, the company sent a new blog post out to 40,000 email list subscribers. Of these 40,000 people, 7,500 opened the email and more than 1,800 clicked through to read the article.
When people come across your new content like this, they’re likely to share it with their friends and post it to their own social media accounts, which can be a powerful form of advertising for your blog.
That said, you’re wise to embed an email subscriber opt-in form on your blog ASAP if you haven’t already.
For an example, check out the email subscriber opt-in on marketing leader HubSpot’s site:
Include sharing buttons in your content
Wondering how to get more users to share your blog posts? What if you included buttons that made it easy for them to do just that?
Sharing buttons are an effective way to encourage your readers to share your content across their social networks. For an example, consider the sharing buttons that are included alongside this recent Hubspot article:
If you’re going to use sharing buttons in your blog posts, though, it’s wise to remember this rule: less is more.
While it may seem strange, adding too many sharing buttons to your content can actually overwhelm your readers and discourage them from sharing at all.
In fact, according to a study conducted by Neil Patel of QuickSprout, adding more than three social sharing buttons decreased the number of shares his content received by 29%.
In light of this, you’re best adding three or fewer social sharing buttons (do this by using any of WordPress’s simple social sharing plugins) and placing them in a prominent location, like above or just to the side of your content. This can help expand your blog’s reach and earn you more social shares than you previously thought possible.
Start guest posting
If you’re looking for an effective way to promote your blog, one of the best things you can do is start guest posting.
Guest posting, or writing a blog post that will be featured on a different blog, is one of the best ways to expand your audience and begin to develop authority in an industry.
While many people find the prospect of guest posting intimidating, it’s actually quite simple.
To start guest posting, you simply need to find a few blogs that are a good match for your content.
- They should be relevant to your niche
- The audience should be interested in the type of topics you cover
- The blog should have a healthy readership (plenty of comments and social shares on posts)
- The blog should have an active social media and posting schedule
If you’ve been reading and commenting on the blogs of other people, it’s likely that you already have a few potential guest post locations in mind.
Once you’ve narrowed it down to two or three, you’ll simply want to send an email to the webmaster behind the blog in question to pitch your guest post.
For a complete discussion on how and when to do this, check out this guide. While you may not get many bites at first, keep at it.
As you continue to build your blogging community by engaging with other bloggers and creating quality content for your own site, opportunities to guest post will begin to present themselves.
Purchase advertising
What if you could reach more than 84% of the people who visit your blog across external sites for several days out of every month?
Well, you can. By taking out paid ads, you can expand your blog’s reach and place targeted advertising in the places that your audience hangs out, thus driving them back to your site and your content.
Google AdWords is by far the most popular platform for pay-per-click advertising, and it’s a great place for beginning bloggers to get started.
The Importance of Promoting Your WordPress Blog
There are many ways to promote a blog and the importance of doing so can’t be underestimated.
From attracting people to your content to promoting social sharing across the web, promoting your blog is one of the most pivotal parts of becoming a successful blogger in your industry.
For more information on how to become a WordPress Guru and help your blog get the attention it deserves, enroll in my WordPress Academy today!
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