Senior marketers often love the concept of niche blog marketing because it’s an easy and cost-effective way to launch a business online. However, many people fail to realize that just because a blog is technically set up correctly and content is posted, it doesn’t mean traffic will materialize on its own. You have more work to do and that is where these 3 Blog Promotion Tips come in.
Luckily, there are traffic and promotion elements that are cost-effective, easy, and fun if you know how to do them without falling into the paid traffic trap. This is something that will bring the right visitors to your blog, rather than send irrelevant traffic that won’t be interested in subscribing to your list.
Traffic and blog promotion is an ongoing task that you’ll be integrating into your to-do list as long as you’re blogging. Ideally, you’ll do it daily, and much of it can even be put on autopilot.
1. Pull in Traffic with Increased Content Creation
Once your blog is set up, and you’ve learned about the correct search engine optimization (SEO) rules you need to adhere to, it will be time to start attracting traffic in the form of interested readers.
To do this, you need to make sure you create the highest quality content possible. Use keyword research to assist you in developing content with built-in SEO measures, like longtail keyword phrases.
This helps the reader find you online. Instead of having to wade through dozens of pages to possibly find your blog post, it will stand out at the top of the search engine results pages as exactly what they were looking for.
Make sure that you’re adding fresh content to your blog on a regular basis. Not only does Google want to see this, but if you start attracting loyal readers, you don’t want to keep them waiting indefinitely for new content.
Consider them subscribers, even if they’re not on your official email autoresponder list. You need to put out new content on a regular basis to give them something to consume. And keep in mind that not everyone feels comfortable signing up to a list.
Some people will bookmark your blog and check it daily to see if you have anything new. They can still buy through your links where you’re promoting products in your blog posts, so cater to them the same as you would an official subscriber.
Use an Editorial Calendar
Sometimes it helps to create an editorial calendar. In fact, you can even do this right inside WordPress using a plugin. This allows you to keep track of what topics you plan to write about, and when.
So if you have a niche topic with several different sub-topics, it helps ensure you’re not oversaturating your blog with one slant while ignoring the others. A good example of this would be the survival niche.
You might be really into the food storage slant, but you wanted your blog to cover all sub-topics. If you don’t have an editorial calendar, you may not notice that you’ve blogged about food storage fifteen times in a row.
If you have the calendar created, you might be able to schedule a food storage post on Monday, water storage on Tuesday, bug-out advice on Wednesday, first aid on Thursday, and self defense on Friday, as an example.
This helps make sure your readers feel like your blog is comprehensive in nature and not just zeroing in on one topic only. You’ll be satisfying everyone – including those who already have the food storage part down, and were turning to you for advice in other areas.
When you create your content, make sure you add at least one visual to your blog post. You can get a bulk amount of downloads whenever DepositPhotos or iStockPhotos has a sale, or use a free stock image site like Pixabay.
Not only do readers like to see images in text-heavy blog posts, but when and if they share the blog post n their social accounts, the image will show up as a thumbnail to represent the post.
This image then catches the attention of people who are scrolling through their feeds. If they’re on Facebook, for example, and see nothing but text posts, your image will stand out if someone shares your blog post with their friends and family.
2. Set Up Accounts and Share on Social Networking Sites
Social networks – including forums and other online communities – are going to give you the best return for your investment of time and effort in getting traffic and promoting your blog.
This is where real readers hang out and search for content about your niche. They love being able to engage in discussions, ask questions, share their thoughts, and share things they like with others.
Make a list of all of the social networks, forums, and communities where people are discussing your niche topic. You can look for niche-relevant hashtags on the sites or apps and see what comes up.
Are there lots of influencers in your niche there? If so, that’s not a bad thing – it means there’s a good audience you can tap into. Make a separate list of what kinds of topics people are discussing there, and what kinds of reactions there are about certain things.
You can use these ideas as fodder for your blog posts coming up, so it’s not just research for numbers and traffic potential. For example, go on Instagram and see what’s there for your niche using their search function.
If you’re in the gardening niche, you’ll see that there are over 22 million posts about this topic, but they may not all be relevant to the type of gardening you’re blogging about. If you get more specific, such as container gardening, you’ll see that there are over 642 thousand posts.
Go through and hover over to see how much engagement there is. You can engage here, too. Help them with ideas and questions. If your account name has to do with your niche, such as containergardener or something, it might help to get them to click over to your account, follow you and follow the link back to your blog that’s in your bio.
Don’t Forget the Apps
Use social networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. Don’t leave out apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, which often have a lot of varied niche content being shared.
This is a strategy where you’ll be directing traffic to your blog from social sites and apps. But don’t forget to add share buttons to your blog via a plugin so that people know to share your content on their own social networking accounts.
You can choose which networks it can get shared on, including the ability for people to send the link directly via email to someone they know. For example, you might have someone reading your blog where they know someone who is looking for this information, and with the click of a button, they can share it and send you more traffic.
You can also find tools that auto-share your blog content to your social networking accounts. Whenever the blog post is published (which is also something you can automate), the link gets shared in a variety of places so you get to have a hands-off approach.
Don’t forget to pop in on relevant forums where people are having ongoing back-and-forth conversations about your niche topic. Just go to Google and type in your niche topic and the word forum.
When you set up an account, see if the forum allows users to add a signature file. This is what appears below every comment on the forum that you make. Some forums allow it to be a hyperlink.
So if you’re on a forum, participating and being very authentic and helpful, and they see your signature file, they will follow it to learn more from you. You can use this space to send them to your landing page with your opt-in freebie on it.
3. Tap Into the Power of Guest Blogging
When you’re getting started and sizing up the competition, you might be a little jealous of all the other bloggers having a head start on you. But there’s a straightforward way for you to get the same exposure as them – engage in guest blogging!
This is a two-way street. First, approach the blogger and ask if they would like you to create a guest blog post for them. This gives them a day off of blogging, and many influencers like to collaborate with others in their niche for great content for their readers.
You might even want to have the post ready for them to use. Make sure you include your name and the URL of your blog so that they can share it as a live hyperlink back to your site.
You ideally want to create exclusive guest blog content for each person who accepts your offer. Don’t use one cookie-cutter blog post that you hand out to everyone. That wouldn’t make you look for good in the eyes of the bloggers.
You may want to go the extra mile and begin engaging with and getting to know the blogger before you ask them about a guest blogging opportunity. Some may not like the cold-calling type of approach, so this would give you more leverage in getting approval.
Another thing you can do is ask if the blogger would like to make a guest blog post on your blog. This gives them more exposure, and it’s a win-win for both of you. When that guest blogger creates their post and it’s published, they’ll usually notify their followers about it, sending their email subscribers to your blog to read it.
This gives you a chance to get these new visitors to your site on your email autoresponder list. You can even add an introduction to the blogger and his or her post, and then write something at the end to thank and compliment them on their great share of information.
