You started your latest blog, and you’ve written a lot of posts, but you can’t seem to get any page views. I’ve been there, and it’s not fun to pour your heart and soul into something that gets no return. If you don’t promote your blog, you’ll struggle to get it to grow.
Keep reading to learn why you need to market your blog and how you can do so.
But first, this post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy to learn more.
Why Promote Your Blog
Whether you just started your blog or have had it for years, it never hurts to promote your blog. In fact, there are a lot of reasons in favor of marketing yourself or your content.
Get More Website Traffic
Especially when you start a new blog, it can take a while before it starts to get traffic. The best way to speed things up is to share links to your blog posts on your social media.
Then, you can ask your audience to read your content and share it with people they know who would like it. Now, you can share it with your friends and family.
But if you want to get more loyal readers, you’ll want to target people interested in your niche. That may or may not include people you know in your personal life.
Eventually, SEO can help you get even more traffic. But you can miss out on a lot of extra traffic by not promoting your website elsewhere.
Attract Clients
Another great reason to promote your blog is to get it in front of prospective freelance clients. If you use a blog to market your services, you can’t just publish articles.
You can join social media platforms where your ideal clients hangout, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. After you publish a new article, share a link to the article.
When potential clients see it, they can click on it and read about the topic. If they like your work, they may decide to contact you and hire you.
Make More Money
You can make money with a small blog, but more traffic generally results in more money. As you get more traffic, you’ll get more impressions and clicks on any display ads.
If you use affiliate marketing, more website traffic also tends to lead to more link clicks and sales. The more traffic you get, the more opportunity you’ll have to make money.
Showcase Your Work
A lot of people start blogs with the intention of using them to make money. But maybe you’re in the small group of bloggers who do it purely for the fun of it.
You can still promote your blog to show off your work. If you’re proud of your writing, it makes sense to want others to read it and share it with people they know.
How to Promote Your Blog
No matter why you want to do it, you should consider a few ways you can promote your blog posts. Here are some of the best options, many of which I’ve used for my blogs.
Use Social Media
Social media is one of the best places to share links to your blog. There are tons of different platforms, so you can choose one that works for you and your niche or audience.
For example, I use Instagram for one of my music niche blogs. Instagram has an active musician community, so it’s easy to grow a following and engage with people who I think will like the content.
But maybe you want to start a niche blog about business, so LinkedIn is a better fit. No matter which platform you choose, start with one so that you can really learn how it works.
And if that platform is Instagram, read my review of The Instagram Marketing and Sales Academy for more tips.
Create a YouTube Channel
As much as I enjoy writing and creating that type of content, videos are pretty powerful. If you want to promote your blog and make a bit of extra money, consider setting up a YouTube channel.
You can turn each of your blog posts into YouTube videos about the same topic. In the videos, mention that you have a coordinating blog posts for anyone who prefers to read.
You can also use your videos to promote any resources or other pages on your blog. That way, you can get clicks even from people who enjoy watching videos over reading.
Start an Email List
An email list isn’t the best way to attract new readers. However, it can be a great way to promote your blog to people who have read your content before.
You can prompt people to join your email list after reading one of your blog posts. Create a free download to entice people to join and offer extra value that the public won’t get.
Then, you can create a newsletter and include a link to your latest blog post. Preview your blog post topic and ask people to click on the link to learn more.
Get on Pinterest
Pinterest is a type of social media, but I think of it as its own thing rather than like Instagram or Facebook. It’s more like a combination of a social network and a search engine.
You can share links to your blog posts as pins with graphics or images. If you add a good pin title and description, your pins may show up when people search for related keywords on Pinterest and even on Google in some cases.
Those keywords can also help the Pinterest algorithm distribute your content to people who may be interested. That can help you get more clicks, and at least for me, Pinterest is one of the top traffic sources.
I’d recommend creating a business account so that you get access to analytics. You’ll also be able to connect your website and learn when others share your content from your blog to the platform.
Republish on Medium
Another easy way to promote your blog is to share all of your posts on Medium. In your account, you can go to the Stories section and click on Import a story.
Copy and paste the link to your latest blog post and clean up any formatting issues that appear. Then, you can share it on your Medium profile to get more views from the built-in audience on there.
If your blog post has internal links, those links will still go to your website. So if your Medium followers click on those links, they’ll visit your website, and you can get more traffic.
Like other platforms, Medium can distribute your content in front of people who don’t follow you. That can make it easier to get views even on a relatively new blog.
Do Some Guest Posting
I’ve recently started pitching guest posts to blogs related to the niches of my various blogs. In many cases, guest posting allows you to include a link to your own website in the content or in your author bio.
You can guest post on sites with a lot of traffic and/or a high domain authority to help build your SEO. That can help you rise in the ranks of search results, or you could get traffic from those guest posts you write.
Unfortunately, this strategy relies on other people accepting your work. It also involves a lot of rejection before you get your first (or second or third) successful guest post.
Pay for Ads
If you have the money, you may not want to wait for organic marketing tactics to kick in. Consider investing in paid advertising either on search engines or social media.
This will help get more eyes on your content, so you may get more traffic. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that people will click on your ads.
And if you don’t understand how to write good ad copy, you could waste a lot of time and money. But ads can be worth testing if you have the means.
Can a Blog Be Successful Without Social Media?
A blog can be successful without social media. You can use SEO, PPC ads, guest posting, and other methods to promote your blog and get traffic.
However, not using social media can significantly restrict you and your blog’s potential. So while you may hold off on social media at first, there might come a time when you decide to give it a try.
What Should You Avoid When Making Blogs?
When starting a blog, you should avoid choosing a topic you know nothing about (unless you have the money to hire freelancers). I’d also recommend not rushing into starting a blog.
You want to make sure you enjoy writing and that you’ll stick with the blog niche for a while. Finally, avoid writing about yourself, at least at first, because people don’t care unless you’re a major celebrity.
Why Do Most Blogs Fail?
Blogs fail for a variety of reasons. For one, a blog might not have unique, compelling content that attracts the right audience, so the blog won’t get many views.
Another common reason for failure is that the blogger gives up too soon. Blogging is a long game, especially if you’re in it for the money, so you may need to work for months or years before you see a return.
Is Blogging Oversaturated?
Blogging can be oversaturated, especially in popular niches, like finance. However, you can get over this by choosing a smaller niche within a larger topic.
Instead of blogging about finance, blog about finance for single adults, for example. There won’t be as much competition within a smaller niche, so you can set your blog apart and make it a success.
Final Thoughts
If you want your blog to get traffic or make you money, you need to promote your blog. I’d recommend spending just as much time on marketing as you do on content creation.
That way, you can get people to view your existing content and follow you to learn of new posts. Soon enough, you can convert those readers into loyal fans and even customers or clients.
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