Q&A : How to Promote Your Blog (And how NOT to…)
Knowing how to promote your blog is almost as important as knowing what to write: because what’s the point in writing a blog, after all, if no one ever reads it? Here are some questions and answers on the subject of blog promotion…
01.
HOW DO YOU PROMOTE YOUR BLOG?
Right now, I do three main things – although I’m very, very aware that I could be doing a whole lot more!
01. Posting to social media – and posting more than once. I use the Hiplay app to make sure my ‘evergreen’ content is re-posted to Twitter and Facebook on a regular basis: I know some people frown on the idea of people posting their own links more than once (Or AT ALL, really…), but I find it absolutely essential when it comes to promotion. When you think about it, a tweet has a “life” of just a few minutes – meaning that only a tiny percentage of your followers will actually see the link to that new post you just published – while the Facebook algorithm is set up to make sure that most of your followers there aren’t going to see what you post. So I post each link more than once, to maximise the chances of people actually seeing it – and use Hiplay to make that process a whole lot easier.
Related:
20 places to promote your next blog post
How to use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog
02. PINTEREST. Pinterest is a huge source of traffic for me, so I make sure every post contains a Pin-able image, and I make sure to pin it to my own boards, and any group boards I’m a member of.
Related:
How to use Pinterest to grow your blog
How I more than doubled my Pinterest traffic in 30 days
03. Search Engine Optimisation. I think a lot of bloggers think they don’t really need to bother with search engine optimisation, but it’s been SO important for my blog. Some of the most popular posts on the site are several years, but still getting regular traffic from Google: it’s the best form of promotion I’ve found, and, best of all, it’s absolutely free.
02.
IN YOUR EXPERIENCE, WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST EFFECTIVE FORM OF SELF-PROMOTION?
As above: Search Engine Optimisation. SEO is a huge – and sometimes complex – subject, so it’s not one I have time to get into here: this post on three easy ways to improve the SEO of your next blog post might help, though!
03.
DO YOU THINK THERE’S A WRONG WAY TO PROMOTE YOUR BLOG?
Absolutely: most new bloggers seem to get the idea that the best way to gain readers is to post comments on other people’s blogs, and while that may well be true, the comments have to be genuine ones – comments that simply say, “Hi, check out my blog!” are spam, plain and simple, and no one likes a spammer. I also really hate all of the “follow trains” or “follow-for-follow” groups you find on Instagram and Facebook: I’d much rather have a handful of followers who actually read my blog and comment on it than a million followers who’re there purely in the hope of boosting their own follower numbers. I think a lot of people seem to view it almost as a popularity contest: they’re not really interested in readers, they just want to be able to say, “ooh, look, I have x amount of followers!” and I think that’s missing the whole point of blogging.
Related:
Inside Instagram: Fake followers, fake comments, fake everything?
Tali
Thanks for this interesting post. It’s only too short for my taste as I’d like to read much more about your expirience and anyway, read your writing)) I’m a fan.
I guess for me visiting other blogs, reading and commenting is the way of getting to know other people, as I do it better/easier online than in real life, as sad as it is.
Besides, this way I get the chance to read about/write to people I’d never meet in my normal everyday life without the help of the internet.
And of course, all the information about fashion! I’m truly addicted, I read as many blogs as I can. Only now I realized how it feels to find something that really fascinates you.
I guess my comment has not much to do with your post, but I just wanted to write it))
And oh, I must thank Fashion Police for introducing the fashion blogging word to me. That was the first fashion blog I came around while googling for best/worst dressed at some Oscar ceremony. Then it was Shoeperwoman. Btw, Facebook links indeed are the best! Easiest way for me to see when new posts are published. And tweeter.
And nothing remains but to apologize for so many letters) I’ll go now to read other bloggers answers)
Amber
“Besides, this way I get the chance to read about/write to people I’d never meet in my normal everyday life without the help of the internet.”
This is exactly what got me interested in blogs, too. I find it absolutely fascinating to get little insights into other people’s lives, especially people who’re living totally different lifes from me – it’s an education, and as you say, it can be such a great way to get to know people you’d otherwise never have known existed!
Minka
I must say that FP was my first introduction into fashion blogging or in blogging in general, and it also inspired me to start my own fashion blog, unfortunately it’s not doing too well, I think I haven’t posted for more than a month now. I just have no free time whatsoever, you know, some of us still have regular jobs. 🙂 I guess it would be wonderful, if I’d get payed for doing sth I love… 🙂
Amber
I feel really lucky to be able to do something I love all day: it’s something I didn’t think I’d ever be able to pull off, so I’m constantly amazed that it did!
Grit and Glamour
#3. Amen, amen, AMEN! I think we’re absolutely of the same ilk in terms of our blogging philosophies. Must be why I like you so much. 🙂
♥ V
http://www.gritandglamour.com
twitter: @gritandglamour
Amber
Great minds 🙂
Nicola
Question 5 reminded me of a couple of characters in Jane Eyre. (I’m re-reading it, so it’s fresh in my mind.)
Self-promotion is really hard. I shrink from it, I kind of think that it’s a little bit un-British to be naturally good at promoting yourself, so we have to learn. I’ve had some examples of how not to do it on my blog, I wrote a post called ‘Hen Weekend Purchases’ which was just about some high street shopping I did while on a hen weekend, but companies who sell stupid hen night tat were drawn to it like moths to a flame. It’s months old and I still occasionally delete some hen-themed spam from that post, which no one else is reading apart from other hen night companies who are desperate to advertise their crappy products. Who knew that hen nights were such big business?
Amber
They actually do that to try and improve their Google ranking, rather than in the hopes that someone will actually click on it: theoretically, the more links (from related sites) you have pointing towards your blog, with particular keywords as the link text, the higher you’ll rank in Google for those keywords. It’s still kind of pointless, though, because a lot of blogs use nofollow scripts in their comments, which stops Google following the links in them anyway, so there really is no point to it.
The thing is, most blogs have a URL field in their comments, so if they took the time to leave a relevant comment, that actually contributed to the conversation, and didn’t use keywords as a name, I think people would be much more likely to click on it and maybe buy something from them. I know I never, ever click on a link from a spammer, because quite apart from anything else, I wouldn’t ever want to buy something from a business that spams people, but I would click on a link from another commenter, so they’re missing out by spamming.
Sorry, I’ve rambled on here. I’m actually really interested in spammers: I’m guessing it must work, but I just can’t imagine HOW it works!
lilly48
Here