You Wrote a Blog Post. Now What?

Something that many bloggers think about is: How can I get my blog read? We would all like an audience and to think that our writing is being read by someone. Anyone?

Here are a few tips for getting your blog noticed, read and shared.

Share your blog in your email signature. I use WiseStamp to create my custom message.
Add your blog to Pinterest. I pin using the Pinterest “Pin It” Button.
Stumble your blog. I wrote a detailed post called Maximizing StumbleUpon for Your Content Sharing Strategy which provides detailed information in StumbleUpon.
Make sure that you are utilizing the available space on your profiles (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) by adding a link to your blog whenever possible.
Engage with people who visit your blog. If someone new comments on or shares your blog, continue the conversation with them. Visit their blog, share their content and go beyond one interaction.
Guest BLOG! Great post by Darren Rowse, @ProBlogger, Why Guest Bloggers are Great for a Blog, goes into great detail but the Reader’s Digest version is that it gets you whole new audience and links back to your blog. Win/win!
Be a part of the blogging community by reading, sharing and commenting on other’s blog. Again, common sense, but I think this is where some bloggers drop the ball and others really knock it out of the park.
Make sure that you make it VERY easy for readers to share from your blog. Add a tweet button at the top of your post and sharing buttons on the side or bottom of each post.

Power tip: One thing that bloggers should try to avoid is only tweeting their own blog links. Look in your Twitter stream. Is it just a stream of you tweeting your blog? Why would this be interesting to anyone? Following the 80/20 rule (more on that it the ROI of your Twitter ROE ~ Rules of Engagement) and sharing eighty percent of other’s peoples content and twenty percent of yours creates an environment of engagement. There are various thought processes on how many times you should share your own posts. Four is the maximum that I have heard is commonly acceptable, include in this number the times that you retweet others sharing your post. If you are going to share the same post multiple times, space them out through different time zones and days.

Create a personal network of bloggers or social media friends that will share your content and you can share theirs as well. This system of social media reciprocity works well on many levels as you make friends, your content is shared and you have great content to share as well. This can be done individually or through Triberr which makes it very easy to have your content propelled through social media. I am not a fan of the direct message to ask to share something, unless you are a real friend to the person and have that arrangement.

And, now I will state the obvious, if you really want people to read your blog write good material. Being interesting is the best way to keep people interested.

Please share what you do to get your blog read? I look forward to learning from you.

Resources:

How to Get Visitors to Your Blog by AskShane.org

Featured image courtesy of Thomas Hawk licensed via Creative Commons.
Article by Peg Fitzpatrick

RaulColon

1 Like

Will be reading the stumbleupon guide! Some great tips! thanks for sharing!

Peg Fitzpatrick moderator

@RaulColon So glad you liked it, Raul. Anything you do that I missed?

RaulColon

1 Like

@Peg Fitzpatrick

When it comes to Email Signature I need to clean it up a bit. Like my biz partner and friend Chris Brogan says only one or two things in your email.

I have gotten traffic from Pinterest but even other niche sites like Gentlemint bring a more engaged readers. A good example today I shared an image of our Comic Strip about Dads.

Search for other related topics and engage with people that write about your topic. If you know a specific blog topic might be of interest to someone shared it directly.

I think you covered everything where you can even get more out of it by using the tools you mentioned.

Peg Fitzpatrick moderator

@RaulColon I agree that Chris would, of course, know the blogging biz but sometimes for people who are not as well known it is important to share more details. When you are "Chris" or "Guy" the name recognition that they earned goes a long way.

Finding people interested in your topics is a great suggestion.

18 comments

Newest | Oldest

AmyMccTobin

Fantastic for anyone confused by HOW to grow an audience... sharing with my Business Page right now.

@AmyMccTobin Glad you liked it ~ thanks for sharing!

MZazeela

Peggy - Great ideas. Engaging in as many places as you can seems to be a key. Just as in the print business, wider distribution leads to wider distribution.

I love to express my thoughts and feelings and I love to write about them. My quandary is the time management. I struggle to keep up with the few channels that I already use. I can't imagine adding even more. As it is I rarely sleep more than 5 hours a night. (hmmmm, new blog topic).

Cheers,Marc

JoshPGreenberg

I feel I need a content sharing plan as much as an editorial calendar. It might be useful to create a checklist to make sure that you hit all of these points and at certain intervals if necessary. Just an idea.

@JoshPGreenberg Great point, Josh. I recommend and create those for my clients as well as accounts that I manage. Check lists rock!

dbvickery

Peggy, I am committing to reading your StumbleUpon post later today - just opened it in another tab. I think I am under-utilizing that asset. I also wonder if I should expand my Pinterest boards. For example, I have the root URL for most of my favorite blogs in a single Favorite Blog board. However, perhaps I should do more blog-post-specific pins within their own boards. At a minimum, I should create Social Media Sports Analogy and Leadership Sports Analogy boards...and perhaps one dedicated completely to 12 Most.

@dbvickery That sounds like a great way to segment it, Brian. And it would help people find your great posts by subject matter. Creating separate boards with great covers is a fantastic way for people to find your content. I use Pinterest as a resource for myself but try to share it in a way that is easy for others to follow if they choose to do so.

I need to get Stumbling more again. it rocks!

stephhwilliams

Great post! Have only recently started using pinterest and didn't think of using it for my blog! Oh, so much to learn!

@stephhwilliams I try to write things that I wish I read when I was new and help new people along the way. I love tools and tips myself so it is fun to share. There is always so much to learn, that keeps it new and fresh.

BruceSallan

In response to this blog title, I say "Now, you rake in the dough!"

IF only it were so....

@BruceSallan Right! Not so easy, huh? Did you see the Storify from the webinar that I took last week with Darren Rowse, @problogger about monetizing your blog? Really great tips here >> http://storify.com/pegfitzpatrick/monetizing-blogs-darren-rowse-problogger-pbwebinar

dustinstout

I would say that making your post shareable is a BIG key. Make sharing as simple and seamless as possible fr the reader! They shouldn't have to search for the sharing buttons, nor should they have to go through the trouble of copying your permalink, going to another website to shorten it, then go to their social network of choice and paste it. Everything should be right there on your blog for them.

That's why I use a sharebar that sticks to the side of the blog post and follows the reader all the way down so it's always accessable no matter where they are on the page. It contains Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon buttons, as well as a general "Share" button that has every other possible sharing website behind it.

@dustinstout Great thoughts, Dustin! I tried the floating Sharebar too but it interfered with this new theme. I do use it on other sites. I agree that making your blog shareable is key. I forgot to all putting a custom tweet button within the post. I need to add that too. Have you tried that?

Thanks for the heads up on the link on Google+!

@Peg Fitzpatrick You're welcome! And I have experimented with "Click2Tweet" but that's about it. I leave everything to the sharebar. I hate clutter and I think there is a such thing as 'too many options' when it comes to social sharing.