Methods of Blog Post Promotion

Ok, so you just finished the post you have been working on all day. It’s proofed, formatted, published and you are feeling proud. What’s the first thing you are going to do? Promote some life into it right? We don’t want it to sit there like a trophy collecting dust in the attic. We want everyone talking about it. We want our online friends to flood to the site to see this master piece and start a line of comments that seem to never end.

This is the kind of post that’s going to require YOUR help. In all my wisdom and expertise I can muster up enough to get the conversation started but the true gold comes from you. Don’t be shy, tell everyone what steps you take to promote your blog posts. I’ll list a few things I like to do:

Commenting
Commenting on other blogs in your niche is one of the most effective ways there is to bring life into your own blog. It takes time and effort but if consistent you will have regular commenters on your blog. You will find that friendships are quickly developed and this will only grow with time if you stay focused and continue to seek out new blogs to befriend. The key is sincerity. Comment often and always read the post and add value to the site.

Tweet
Twitter is very popular and there is some debate as to how appropriate it is to tweet your blog posts. Personally I see nothing wrong with it as long as it’s mixed with other tweets. As far as how effective it is I’m still undecided.

Broadcast
I’m a big fan of BlogCatalog and even tough I don’t like to broadcast every post I will send one for my best work. This is an easy way to get your link in front of hundreds of people. What do they say about lists?

MySpace Bulletin
I’m not as active in MySpace as I was a while back but will login and post a quick bulletin for my friends. By the way, I’ve been somewhat particular with my MySpace friends so most are in the Internet Marketing field in one way or another. This helps with a more ‘targeted‘ list of online friends.

Newsletter/eZine
Of course this is my favorite. In our eZine I sprinkle blogs posts links from several of my blogs. I even promote blogging friend’s posts now. This helps promote our blogs and lends value to the publication. It seems like the perfect fit.

Last Note
Just a quick note. The best time to begin your various methods of promotion is immediately after you post. Personally I don’t post every day. I like to give others a chance to read and comment on the site before the content gets buried. Blogs with more traffic do not have to worry about that issue. If you post every few days or so you want to send people to fresh content so promote after each new post and don’t wait a day or two.

What is you favorite methods of blog post promotion?

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30 Comments

Reyn Aria  on January 7th, 2009

I mostly use Twitter and BlogCatalog broadcast just like you. Another method that’s proven to be quite good for me is to bookmark my post to several sites.

Brian  on January 7th, 2009

Hi Reyn. Sure, there are a lot of bookmarking sites out there now. Good advice.

Shirley  on January 7th, 2009

Well, I haven’t heard of using MySpace, somehow I don’t think that it would deliver targeted visitors…

But commenting is key, especially on websites that use Comment Luv. And using social bookmarking sites is also very effective.

Brian  on January 7th, 2009

Hi Shirley, The targeted part comes from having an all IE friends list. You are right though, it’s not the most effective means of promotion. I have around 600 contacts there and no more than a hand full will respond to a broadcast. If it took much more than the couple of minutes to send it I probably wouldn’t bother.

Commentluv  on January 7th, 2009

Brian

You can immediately guess what I’m about to say. No promotion works better – at least for me than commenting.

It’s the only method I use to bring it from 0 to 600 in 8 months.

Yan
PS: Yes, I’m now a features writer for commentluv.com so don’t scratch your head… ;-)

Brian  on January 7th, 2009

Wow, did you just break that here? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Congratulations Yan, CommentLuv is lucky to have you.

Legitimate Home Based Business  on January 7th, 2009

Hi Brian,

I social bookmark every post i make using social bookmarker.com , this generates some handy traffic. I don’t see a problem bookmarking my own stuff and i know a lot of people do this.

Jason

Brian  on January 7th, 2009

Hi Jason, Bookmarking is a good and I don’t see anything wrong with bookmarking your own posts either. Bookmarker.com seems to be re-directing to cheapeducation.com, is the URL correct?

Wei Liang | Earn Money Online  on January 7th, 2009

Blog commenting is indeed a very effective method of marketing. Not only did it bring in more traffic but also building a better relationship with fellow bloggers.

Wei Liang

Brian  on January 7th, 2009

Hey Wei Liang, congratulations on being the CommentLuv Featured Site. That’s very cool. I love your new theme too by the way.

Commentluv  on January 7th, 2009

Not really, Brian. CommentLuv is going to be big in 09 so it’s a natural course that I tap into the opportunity. Piggy-backing if that’s how it’s often defined.

I hope I could replicate the same success I have on CommentLuv.

Yan

Make Money Online  on January 8th, 2009

Definitely.. you haven’t been checking out my blog recently brian did you? I hope you didn’t miss out my list of 171 social bookmarkts..

Brian  on January 8th, 2009

That’s a BIG list Ben. Nice idea to group your lists together in one post too: Awesome Compilations On Pei Profit Dot Com

Dennis Edell  on January 8th, 2009

I gotta go with Yan on this one. ;)

Of course, it works 10 times better when commentluv is in play. :)

Brian  on January 8th, 2009

I have no idea why my CommentLuv plugin isn’t working. I have deleted and re-installed it, upgraded it and even tried the beta version. It’s activated and running right now according to my WP back office. Maybe Yan can pull some strings for me. It might have something to do with my latest theme upgrade.

Dennis Edell  on January 8th, 2009

Just contact Andy himself, he’ll be all over it. :)

Yan from Review  on January 8th, 2009

Sure, Brian. I’ll make sure that Andy will knock at your door and get it working here – perfectly.

Yan

Brian  on January 8th, 2009

Thanks Dennis and Yan, I just registered for the CommentLuv support forum and asked Andy in a thread there. I just needed a little push ;) I have a feeling it’s going to be the script in my last theme upgrade.

Yan from Review  on January 8th, 2009

Brian

Most probably you used the wrong ids that didn’t match those on your comment.php. I’ve sent Andy a note anyway.

Yan

Brian  on January 8th, 2009

Thank you my friend :)

Jessie | Flashlight  on January 9th, 2009

The great thing about comments as well is that the promotion tends to yield results quicker. I find that article based promotion tends to kick in after more of a lag (if at all, of course). :)

Brian  on January 9th, 2009

That’s a very good point Jessie. I agree completely but still recommend article marketing.

Blog Carnival of Link Building,Traffic Secrets,Blogging Tips | Work From Home Business Blog  on January 9th, 2009

[...] You have just posted a fantastic article on your blog. How do you get the word out? I thought it would be nice to discuss various methods of promoting our blog posts. I invite you to share your favorite and most effective steps of getting traffic to your latest post. Do you pay for promotion? Do you use Web 2.0? Already have enough regular traffic? Together we can add to our marketing arsenal and save time and energy finding new ways of effective promotion. Post Link: Methods of Blog Post Promotion [...]

Rob O.  on January 10th, 2009

I’ve been having a fair bit of luck with using Twitter to promote new posts or changes on the site. It’s nothing Earth shattering, mind you, but there has been a mild uptick in traffic since I started tweeting about 3-4 weeks ago.

Brian  on January 10th, 2009

Hi Rob, Twitter is very popular. Good call. I’m glad you found my other site. I’m following you on Twitter now but I’m not very good at it.

Tom Lindstrom  on January 10th, 2009

Hi Brian, I would have to choose blog commenting as the most effective way of promoting your blog, especially if you can deep link to a relevant post on your own blog.

When it comes to commenting, relevant and constructive comments are always appreciated and get approved a lot easier than “nice post” or “thanks for sharing”.

As you pointed out, blog commenting is a fantastic way of building relationships with other bloggers.

Brian  on January 10th, 2009

Hi Tom, it sound’s like blog commenting is the first choice among a lot of us, including me. Relevant and constructive are exactly right. It’s hard to believe anyone gets by with “Nice site” and simple comments like that. It’s one way to show they didn’t bother reading a single word.

Just between you and me, back in my evil days ;) I use to have a site setup just to humiliate those people. It was LowLifeSpammer.com (now offline) and I would edit their comments and change their site URL to LowLifeSpammer.com. It was on my forums back then but the same principle.

Sheryl Loch  on January 15th, 2009

Hey Brian & others,
I have been TRYING to comment on more blogs. For one I love reading them so, I am there already and if I can add something then great!I do not get accused of leaving comments such as ‘nice post’. Even if you wish I did. :0

Twitter does bring in some hits. It just depends on who your followers are. A huge number of followers does not mean that any of them care what you are doing.

I also do the ‘mini post’ on forums and social networking sites in the blog area.

I just started using Bookmarking and will be doing that with more post. In fact I will be sending this article into the ‘bookmarking machine’. ;)

FriendFeed does bring in a few hits if you have interesting titles.

Most of all – I am excited that some of my articles are getting super great hits from the SE’s. I am still practicing on getting good keyword phrases an using them in titles and articles while still making a useful post.

I forgot that it was you with LowLifeSpammer.com – I loved that. I remember editing spam on our old board with that. LOLZ!

Sheryl Lochs last blog post..Could a Monkey Post Your Blog?

Brian  on January 16th, 2009

Hi Sheryl, I’ll have to check out that ‘bookmarking machine’. Forums are something I need to concentrate more on because they have a great track record and it’s a perfect way to build our network of friends.

Michael Torner  on March 11th, 2009

Very nice information. Thanks for this. By the way, did you create this layout yourself?

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