15 Ways To Get Exposure For Your New Blog |
Posted: June 26, 2013 |
The biggest challenge all new bloggers face is getting people to notice them. Even the highest quality of blog posts won’t do you any good if no one is reading them. Building a large audience for a blog takes time, but fortunately there are a number of different ways to quickly gain significant exposure to targeted readers, even for brand new blogs. We’ve probably all read about the importance of commenting on other blogs and linking out, but what else can you do? 1. SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and Reddit are great for getting thousands of visitors to your blog in no time. Each one of these websites has its own audience with unique preferences. Take some time to study and analyze the types of content that are becoming “popular” on these sites and create your own blog post intended to draw attention from social media users. 2. NICHE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES. While the major sites listed above send huge amounts of traffic, there’s also a lot of competition for that traffic. Niche social media sites are perfect for reaching a highly-targeted audience. Some niche sites still send very significant traffic, and best of all, it can lead to success with the major social media sites. 3. LINKS FROM MAJOR WEBSITES Another option for getting a quick rush of traffic is to get a link to your blog from a website with a very large audience. Find some of the largest sites in your market and take a look at what type of content they provide and who they link to. Once you have a good idea of what they like, create a blog post accordingly and email them to request a link. Be sure that your post provides something of value for their readers. Tell them why it would be valuable to their readers, and maybe you’ll get a link. This is very similar to developing content specifically for social media in that you are starting with a specific audience and working backwards to create something that they will like. An example of a major website that links out to others is Lifehacker. 4. WRITE A GUEST POST FOR A WELL-KNOWN BLOG One of the best promotional opportunities that is ignored by most bloggers is writing guest posts. Many blogs accept guest post submissions, and those who take advantage of the opportunity can get targeted traffic, a link to their blog, and name recognition. Take a look at some of the top blogs that focus on the same topics as your blog. Take a moment to email the blogger and introduce yourself. Ask if they would be interested in receiving guest submissions. Don’t stop with just one attempt, contact several of the leading blogs. (If you already know that they accept guest submissions you can just send your article with your first contact.) 5. NETWORK Probably the biggest lesson I have learned since I started blogging is the importance of networking with other bloggers. Bloggers are human. They help people that they like, and they like people that help them. Other bloggers have the ability to link to you, vote for you at social media sites, publish your guest posts, and promote your products and services. All successful bloggers have built a strong network along the way. For more information, see 5 Keys to Better Networking at Freelance Folder. 6. GIVE SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR FREE Some bloggers have used free giveaways to help build their audience. Everyone likes to get something good for free, and because of that, other bloggers will link to you if they like what you’re offering. Downloadable products like e-books and special reports are popular as giveaways. They’re low cost to create and easy to distribute. Make sure that your free giveaway is good enough that you could actually charge for it. If the quality is low, your results will insignificant. 7. CREATE A UNIQUE PIECE OF LINK BAIT Every day there are bloggers benefiting from creative ideas that draw links from thousands of other blogs. We looked at getting links from major blogs earlier, but links don’t have to be just from the top blogs. A great piece of link bait can draw so many links from smaller blogs that it all adds up to a huge amount of traffic. A current example is the Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs list created by Mark at 45n5. In recent weeks and months Mark’s list has drawn thousands of links (including this one from me). 8. SPONSOR A CONTEST A lot of blogs right now are running contests to reward their readers and gain more exposure. Many of these contests are giving away prizes that are donated by other bloggers. You probably read about the $54,000 giveaway at ProBlogger. Darren gave others the opportunity to donate prizes and get some exposure for themselves. Those who took advantage of the opportunity got a link from ProBlogger and exposure to about 30,000 readers. 9. WRITE A PRESS RELEASE Press releases are not used very often for blog promotion, but they have the potential to quickly get your blog in front of a lot of influential people. Simply writing a press release to announce the launch of a new blog isn’t going to create attention. You’ll need to have something truly newsworthy to promote. For more information on press releases see Publicity Insider. 10. DESIGN GALLERIES If your blog features a very high quality design, you may be able to get listed in any number of design galleries. Many design galleries have large audiences and send a significant amount of traffic to the sites included in the gallery. Some of the leading galleries include CSS Beauty, CSS Vault, and Unmatched Style. 11. HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT If you are interested in drawing traffic from social media, but you don’t have the time to learn about social media marketing for yourself, there are professional consultants that can help you create the content and the traffic. Lyndon from Cornwall SEO recently published an article Why You Need a Social Media Consultant. Hiring a good consultant is a cost-effective way to get traffic almost immediately (and coincidentally Lyndon is for hire). 12. ORDER A PAID REVIEW Many blogs are willing to publish a review of your blog for pay. Of course the amount that you have to pay will depend on which blog you choose to do the review. If you are considering paying for a review make sure that your blog is ready. Just because you’re paying doesn’t mean that you’ll get a glowing review if your blog doesn’t deserve it. On the other hand, a positive review from a respected blogger can immediately improve your reputation. 13. BUY ADS Regardless of what topics your blog covers, I’m sure there are plenty of relevant websites and blogs that will be willing to sell ad space to you. Paid ads can be very effective if you choose the right place to advertise. Search around and find a website or blog that shares your target audience and offers reasonable rates. 14. ANNOUNCE YOUR NEW BLOG FROM ANOTHER BLOG THAT YOU OWN Of course this is only an option if you have another blog, but it is a big advantage for established bloggers who want to start a new project. Many of your satisfied readers will be interested in your other projects, especially if the new blog also targets a similar audience. 15. PARTNER ON YOUR NEW BLOG WITH SOMEONE INFLUENTIAL Do you have a great idea for a new blog? Have you ever thought about working with someone else for mutual benefit? You may not have an established audience that you can market to, but others do. Consider approaching some other bloggers about your ideas and see what partnership opportunities may be available. BE READY FOR THE TRAFFIC Now that you’ve got some ideas for getting some attention for your new blog, you’ll want to be sure that you’re ready for the traffic. 1. WEB HOSTING Some of the methods that we looked at above, especially social media, will result in floods of traffic that can have serious effects. In order to survive and avoid a server crash, you’ll need to have quality hosting. 2. HAVE A FOLLOW UP READY If your promotional efforts successfully get thousands of visitors to your blog, hopefully a decent percentage of them will become repeat visitors. Those that come back to your blog over the next few days will be looking for new content. The quality of that content will be a huge factor in whether they become a loyal reader or whether they never come back again. It’s not a bad idea to have your follow up planned out ahead of time. 3. HAVE SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED It would be a shame to get a lot of traffic and not gain new subscribers. One of the first things you should do with any new blog is make sure that your subscription links are visible to new visitors immediately. 4. FOCUS ON QUALITY NOT QUANTITY What ultimately will determine the success of your blog is the quality of content that it provides. All of the promotion methods that we looked at will require you to produce high quality blog posts in order to create the results that you want. New visitors are unlikely to be impressed by the amount of content that you have on your blog, but they will be impressed if you have very high quality, original content. Of course you won’t be able to put all of these methods into practice on your blog. Choose a few that you think will work for you and go out and get some exposure for your new blog.
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