4 Potent Ways to Promote Your Blog to Get More Traffic

So you’ve written a blog post. Do you sit back and wait for people to come?

Well, you could if you’re willing to wait for search engines to find it. And even then, unless you are already considered by search engines as A Very Important Website, your post is not likely to be found in the first few pages of search results as there is too much competition.

What this translates into is no traffic.

Doing a bit of self-promotion in a way that is human and adds value to others, is a great idea to increase eyeballs on your blog.

So we’ll deal with 5 ways to do this, but first let’s focus on getting the content portion right. And I only mention that because so many bloggers fail at it. But the consequence of not getting the content bit right means you’ll probably just waste your time promoting it.

Get the Content Bit Right First

What do I mean by “getting the content bit” right first?

Well, your content needs to be written for the right audience - those who will eventually buy something from you, and the content also needs to be optimized. For instance, the usual stock images won’t attract attention, so you’d need to do some customization.

I am not going to expand on the subject of content here, but Neil Patel, Internet Marketing Guru, has written a post about how to create a blog properly, and the steps about content are thorough.

4 Solid Blog Promotion Ideas

There are many ways you can promote your blog and posts, but the following four methods are some of the most potent ways to bring in more traffic, when they are done properly.

To avoid repetition in each method, every one of these points, bar paid search, requires two specific elements, the first one of which is this: all blog promoting you do needs to provide value to others. Never, ever blatantly market your wares.

The key with online marketing is:

a) to be human, and

b) to promote links in a way that’s natural; woven with grace and dignity into value-add content.

The second specific element that makes these ideas work - all four of ‘em, is that they all need to be centered around your target audience. If they are not, you will get traffic, but it won’t be the right kind of traffic. The right kind of traffic are the people that will eventually buy from you.

Traffic for the sake of traffic is, well, just plain stoopid.

#1: Link from Q and A forums

Find niche forums where you know your target audience waffle around, so that you get their eyeballs on your content.

There’s no shortage of forums online; here are four of the most popular:

1. Quora
2. Mosaichub
3. Yahoo Answers
4. Askville

When you register, make sure you complete your profile, so that people who may be interested to get in touch will know how to find you, or get more information about you.

Then go ahead and find questions you can answer, that your target audience are searching for. Provide answers that are sincere and value-add. Some answers may require brevity, while others can be mini blog posts.

Here’s an example of a value-add answer on Quora. You can see the writer has included a link to content, but has done so in a natural way that is not blatant promotion:

Skills requirements to make it work:

• You’ve got to be a good writer

#2: Link from social media

Link to your blog posts or other value-add pages from your social media accounts. But again, only use accounts where your target audience hang out.

This method can be used at no cost, or depending on the account (some offer this function while other’s don’t) give it a boost by paying a small amount.

Because it’s such a popular method of promotion, many social media tools have been developed to make tasks easier.

The important thing with linking from social media to your blog is that you use images and/or video. Images attract attention, but they can’t just be stock images like this one:

A stock photo image can do more harm than good.

Whereas the next image has been customized. Canva is a versatile tool that can be used by people who aren’t graphic designers:

This image has been customized and will attract more attention
than stock photos on social media

Quicksprout offers a full-on social media and blogging guide as to how to do this, so I won’t go into more detail here.

Skills requirements to make it work:

• Basic graphic design
• Social media knowledge

#3: Link from paid search

Paid search is the only promotional method listed here that requires some financial outlay, but it’s minimal compared to offline paid advertising, so you still win, as long as your target audience is searching for stuff online.

Paid search methods include:

• Google Adwords
• Bing Ads
• Yahoo Search Ads

The most difficult part of paid search is choosing keywords that people use to find whatever you’re offering.

Use paid search to send people to a blog post, or if you’re having a promotion for instance, you’d need to set up a landing page to send traffic to. A landing page is a dedicated, standalone page that contains no distractions and is very focused on getting the reader to perform one action. You’d use a landing page if you wanted higher conversions.

Get the lowdown on paid search and how to do it with Wordstream’s helpful “how to”.

Skills requirements to make it work:

• Keyword research
• If using a landing page, you’d need these skills: copywriting, graphic design, technical know-how. Or hire a pro.

#4: Comment on other blog posts

Probably the simplest method of all, is to simply add a comment on other blog posts in the same niche.

At the risk of being repetitive...make sure your comment adds some kind of value, otherwise it won’t attract attention.

Here’s an example of a value-add comment made on Neil Patel’s blog:

Skills requirements to make it work:

• You need to be a decent writer, because your comment represents your brand

In Conclusion

Once you've published a blog post that's been written for the right people, there are ways to get the news "out there" so that search engines index your content faster because of the links from other big sites, and also to get more eyeballs to your blog, but you always need to add value to readers, and add links to your blog in a natural way.

Always focus on your reader so that you provide content that is useful.

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