15 Best Ways to Promote Your Website/Blog

Why should you invest in your blog? It’s a reasonable question to ask when deciding whether a blog is worth the time and money it takes to run properly. Everyone’s always talking about how starting a blog helps “expert status,” but does it have any real value?

•  Users spend 3 times longer reading blogs than websites.

• Businesses that blog 20 times/month generate 4 times more leads than businesses that don’t blog.

• Blogs with 51+ articles have 77% more   monthly leads.

The benefits of blogging are real, but it takes hard work. It takes some old-fashioned networking, a bit of social media marketing, and a dash of SEO. The problem is that once you start looking into the million and one ways to improve your blog, you feel obligated to do what everyone else is doing. That’s not how it works.

You don’t need to do every one of the ways to promote your website/blog, but you do need to start doing a few things right now. Work your way up to what the big boys are doing one step/post at a time.

Here are the 15 best ways to promote your website/blog.

1.   Presentations. Turn your articles into a PowerPoint, a Youtube video, or spice it up with a Prezi presentation. Submit your presentation to Youtube, Google Video, Vimeo, as well as Slideshare and other presentation websites.

2.   Facebook. It might seem obvious, but share your articles on your Facebook page! Don’t just plug in a link though, do something different. Try posting interesting facts or quotes from the article. Give your Facebook friends/subscribers valuable content worth clicking. When posting, follow the G.A.S. formula!

• G.eneral knowledge
• A.nswer questions
• S.olve problems

3.    LinkedIn. The wonderful aspect about LinkedIn is that everyone is on their to connect, network, and develop professionally. You can connect LinkedIn to your Twitter handle and post your article to both sites in one post. You can also share the articles to the professional groups you’re a part of. This lets you send an article to your target market with a click of a button.

4.   Signature Links. This was originally seen on e-mails and forums, but the signature link is one of the most effective ways to promote your article and engage the blogger community. Comment on someone else’s thread or post a thread on a forum you’re a part of and plug in your website or article as a link at the end of your post.

5.   Pinterest. Share pictures from your article on Pinterest as well as infographics. Share content from other users as well as join a few groups. This is an excellent way to post links to your new articles. You can also create and use a custom image that encourages readers to share your published article. “Pin it to Pinterest!”

6.   Guest Posts. There’s two ways you can use guest posts to promote your website/blog. One way is to ask another blogger or writer to write a guest article on your page. They can share your post and this is a great way to share followers between you and the contributor. You can also contribute an article to another website/blog. This lets you target the contributor or the website/blog you’re trying to contribute to. Sharing is caring.
 

7.   RSS. Submit your blog’s RSS feed to RSS directories to have your articles get automatically published on other blogs.

Example: www.blogadr.com, www.highclassblogs.com, www.submitlinkurl.com, www.blogsavenue.com, and www.topofblogs.com.

8.   Instagram. Grab an excerpt from your article, a picture from your text, or add an image that relates to the topic and share it on Instagram with a link back to your page. The trick is to make the image interesting to your target audience.

9.   Search Engine Optimization. Don’t forget to optimize your blog to your brand/articles. Use tools like Google Analytics to see which keyword phrases are searched for the most. Stay away from one or two-word key phrases. Use bullet points and italicize or bold your key words.

10.        Newspapers. Approach newspapers with articles about your blog or articles featured on your blog. Remember, journalists still need stories written by the end of each day. Take advantage of that. Find out what their readers like to read about and work an angle.

11.        Social Bookmarking. Use social bookmarking websites to bookmark your articles publicly. Websites like Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Netscape, and Stumble Upon are popular and effective routes to social bookmarking.

12.        Web Directories. Web directories like Yelp, Technorati, Google + Local and 4square let you claim your blog/business and provide a link as well as a description to your page. Take advantage and create another way for Google to find your website/blog!

13.        Multiple Languages. Very few websites are taking advantage of the online minorities. Posting your website/blog articles in multiple languages increases readership and web traffic.

14.        Skim-Friendly Content. Don’t assume that every reader has the time to read your article, make your website/blog post easy to skim through. Include headings/subheadings, pictures, lists, short paragraphs, and borders/blockquotes.

15.        Social Blogger. Pick a few blogs and follow them. Make sure that these blogs share your target audience and comment on their articles. Provide useful feedback on what you liked or what you wanted to see more of. Ask questions about the content. Sign your comment with your website or article’s link. Be friendly though, no one likes to be used for a free link.

These are the 15 best ways to promote your website/blog. These are tactics that make it easy for people to find your blog online. These tips will also make it easier for others to subscribe to your blog posts.

 

Do you have a great way to promote your website/blog? Share your promotion tactic in a comment and share this article if you found it helpful!

Eduardo Lopez is a Public Relations professional, writer, author, and public speaker with more than 5 years of digital communications experience. He is the digital communications manager at LS Media Group, LLC and founder of ViralTalk PR. Add him on LinkedIn or follow him on twitter.