“No one is reading my blog. Why am I doing it?” “How do I get people to read my blog?”
When I hear this from clients the first thing I ask is “Are you telling the world that your blog is there to be read?” It sounds simple; the truth is that you can have the most amazing content, but if no one is reading it, then it is just sitting there.
“If you don’t get noticed, you don’t have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.” – Leo Burnett
So how do you go about getting people to interact and read your blog?
1) Promote it on Social Media
Promoting your blog posts on social media is an important step to grow your blog audience. Choose your top social media sites and make it a habit to promote your blog content regularly. There are many tools out there, like Buffer and Hootsuite, to help you simplify the process of sharing your blog content.
Tip: Remember to not only promote your new blog posts, but also to leverage older content that is still relevant. This is a great way to reuse your content and promote your expertise.
2) Find Relevant Groups, Join and Share
There are amazing communities on social media where you can share your content and bring reads to your blog. LinkedIn and Facebook groups are great places to start. I’ve participated in a number of Facebook business and blogging groups with solid results including:
- New readers to my blog who interact by commenting, which helps with my SEO
- Readers are sharing my blog content on their social media ,so it is being presented to a larger audience.
- I’m learning from other bloggers, which is helping my content get better and my business grow.
Tip: Commit to 1 or 2 groups and see how it goes. Group dynamics change over time;, if a group is no longer working for your business, move on.
3) Feed into Your Newsletter
“Write it once; use it as many times as possible”. I use my blog content to create my newsletters and vice versa. Sometimes my newsletters are a combination of 1 or 2 blog posts; other times one blog post contains enough information to stand alone. Whatever goes in my newsletter has a blog post associated with it.
Tip: Do not send too many emails to your list. You do not want to overload your list and have people unsubscribe. Skip automatically sending your blog posts to your list and follow a schedule for newsletters that is independent of when you blog.
4) Comment on Other People Blog Posts
Search out bloggers that service your market, read their blogs and comment. Why? Many bloggers offer a link from your comment back to your most recent blog.
This is great for SEO and brings new reads to your blog. For example, I’m a big fan of Neil Patel and his Quicksprout blog. I’ve commented on his blog posts many times and, as a result, I often receive traffic from his blog.
Tips:
- Write valuable comments – You are only going to get people to click on your link back to your blog if you show that you are engaged and you’ve contributed to the value of the post.
- Make sure your blog offers the same option to your readers. I use the popular WordPress plug-in, CommentLuv. It is simple to install and it provides a back link for people who comment on your blogs.
5) Leverage Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging is a great way to show a totally new audience that you are an expert on your topic. Huffington Post is a great example of a site that relies on guest bloggers for content. There are many opportunities to be a guest blogger, so start small and move up. Perhaps start with a trusted associate and guest blog on each other’s blog.
Tips:
- Be selective. Make sure the blog is aligned with your market and has a good reputation.
- Review the blog’s style and content and mirror your blog after it. For example, if most blog posts are about 500 words then submitting a 1,000 word blog post will not work.
I hope these are helpful in promoting your blog and bringing more reader to your site. Now, I’d love to hear from you. Are you getting the most out of your blog posts? If yes, how are you promoting them? If not, what are you going to do to step it up? Please comment below.
I love to see entrepreneurs follow their passions, serve more people and create the lifestyle of their dreams.
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Hi Heather,
One more suggestions for you and your readers. I’ve noticed that a lot of businesses actually send an excerpt of their blog post as a newsletter, as opposed to sending the whole article. This means that if people are interested in the article, they must actually click on a link to be read the article on the company’s website. There are lots of advantages to this method and a few disadvantages, it all depends on where your priorities are and who your audience is.
Pros:
– Your website will have more views. More traffic means better SEO. For websites that have ads, this could also make a significant difference in the amount of money you get from your ads.
– People are more likely to join in the discussion because they will see the latest comments at the bottom of the article
– People are more likely to look around your website and potentially make a purchase
– People are more likely to share an article from a web page as opposed to sharing it from an e-mail
Cons:
– People are less likely to read the full content of your post if they have to click to get to it
– If most of your audience reads your newsletter from their phone, this method would definitely not work as well for them (especially if your website is hard to navigate from a cell phone!)
Thanks for your newsletter, I really enjoy reading it 🙂
Claudie
Claudie: A great suggestion and good point. You are right there are advantages and disadvantages to both. I’ve experimented with both with mixed results. I find my newsletter audience likes to read the full article and I receive more feedback when I include most of the content. When I include a “tease” with links back less people open the newsletter and so far it hasn’t increased clicks to my site. I’m still experimenting to find the right balance as I agree with all of your Pros and would like to drive that behaviour.
Thanks for such as thoughtful reply, great addition to this article.
So, finally gone with the thinking that you build it and they will come! Ha! Ha! 🙂 You have to work your butt off to promote, and share or nobody will see it. (Unless you’re a BIG brand) Great tips in here, Heather. Thanks!
Norma – Definitely – it takes work to be seen and to grow your following!
Grrat tips! I found that since I joined the 10bloggers group I have received more feedback on my blogs.
Sharise. I’m glad that you are starting to see result by joining a blogging group. Next step is to reach out to another group and see what happens.
Great tips! I do all of this with great success. In fact, I noticed that I had achieved first page Google rankings for a very broad and highly competitive keyword I hadn’t even been targeting but, due to my blogging strategy, my SEO benefited greatly.
Niquenya – that amazing, great example of the benefits of blogging. It is very motivating to hear other people’s success with blogging. Thanks for sharing.
I can really relate to the frustration of your clients when I first became a blogger. I think most bloggers go through that stage and you swear you’re talking to the crickets! Even as a more experienced blogger, your advice is helpful and has encouraged me to undertake more guest blogging and also to comment more on other blogs. Your blog has reassured me that I’m leveraging the necessary platforms to get people to read my blog which is most helpful. Thank you Heather for a well informed read.
Michelle – Thank you for comment and you made me laugh “swear you are talking to crickets”, so true! I think the key to really being successful with blogging is to realize that there are a wealth of people who like to read blogs, but you have to reach out them so they know you exist and that you are sharing value.
Hey Heather,
The suggestions you given here are the ways that I promote my blog. I specifically get a lot of traffic from just commenting on other blogs. I love to comment on blogs that have the commentluv plugin because it gives you a choice to pick the last 10 blog post to show with your comment.
One thing I would add is to join blog communities. The number 1 community that refers traffic to my site is kingged.com. I engage and comment on 2 blogs per day at least 5 days a week and it has paid off well!
Thanks for the share! I hope you have a great weekend!
Thanks for the suggestion to sign up to kingged.com Sherman, I’m going to check it out!
Sherman, Thank you for sharing and the information about kingged.com, I hadn’t heard of it and it looks very interesting. That is the exciting thing about blogging and comment – the sharing of ideas, I’ve learned so much from other bloggers. CommentLuv is a great plugin – it beneficial for everyone.
Hi Heather 🙂
These are all very valuable and very important ways to promoting your blog and I do ALL OF THEM!!
Thanks for sharing your awesome knowledge!
Joan, thanks for stopping by and commenting, yes they are all important ways to promote your blog. The really important part is to promote it. Otherwise you are missing a great opportunity for blog and business.
Fantastic information Heather, as always. I think sometimes the fear of marketing yourself can limit the potential of breaking out of your self-imposed shell, and becoming marketing machine. Your post offers excellent, practical tips to help with online marketing. I need to join more groups with my target audience, so thanks for the reminder! Best 🙂
Renee – So true, as well as the fear of social media and “what if I do it wrong?” I know I felt that way about Social Media until I took the leap.
These are such good tips! And diverse too – there is something for everyone here. I really like how you recommend to join one or two groups. I know I was so gung ho in the beginning and I couldn’t keep all the groups straight. I was spread way too thin for participating in all of them!
A. Lynn – Thanks for sharing your experience. Yes, if join too many groups then you are spread too thin and you spend too much time on social media. The trick is to try a group out, move on if it isn’t giving you the results you are looking for. Having said that you have to stay with the group for a bit to be able to make that decision.
Great post and full of helpful info. Once we dedicate time to study what needs to be done, our blog posts will become engaging and people will interact….oh, of course, share our posts. It is most certainly worth the time as it will pay off in the end.
Alexandra – Sharing is key, you can’t expect people to just discover you. It is a challenge to get it going, it is work as so many things are but the rewards are worth it.
I too have been doing almost all your tips. What I see is I can increase the frequency of posting on twitter & I sometimes forget to post on Fb. Love belonging to blog groups. Enjoy the diversity and reading others articles. Commenting on others blogs Id like to do more of, not into guest blogging. I look forward to the day my subscribers really enlarge.
That’s great Roslyn – It is a process that takes time to build up. You have a great blog, what type of blogging groups do you participate in?
The great news I actually am doing all these things. The biggest challenge I have, (I believe), is that I prefer to post and get the interaction (comments, shares etc.) on the Huffington Post first. Then I will put the piece onto my blog and after the fact it is a bit more challenging to get the traffic there and ultimately to my website. I use backlinks in every piece I post on the Huffington Post, so that helps. My traffic on my site and blog, is still relatively small compared to what I get on the HuffPost, as one would expect. I love being part of several new groups and can send new people to my posts on my blog even after they have run their course elsewhere. Enjoyed the article and thank you Heather, as it affirmed for me that I am doing something right. 😉
Beverley – It is great that you are on Huffington Post, and I understand why posting there 1st is so important, that is amazing exposure. It would depend on why you want to bring traffic back to your page. What do you want to accomplish?
I agree that these ways are helpful in igniting your market. Thanks so much for providing us the secrets of promoting your blog.
Lorii – I hope they are helpful. Thank you for stopping by.