Starting a new blog is a lot of fun, but getting people to actually visit the site can be very challenging and frustrating. There are literally millions of blogs out there, with more coming each day. With so many options it’s hard to make yours stand out from the crowd.
The key to any successful blog is interesting and unique content. However, if you’re a new blogger, chances are no one is seeing your content even if it is great. In order to make that content effective you will need to get some people to visit the blog before that can fall in love with the content.
As a new blogger there are a lot of things you can be doing with your time to promote the blog and start to build an audience. In this article I’ll point out some of the best ways that bloggers can focus on getting that new blog off the ground.
1. Use Social Media
Want a great way to quickly and inexpensively market that new blog? Social media is the answer. Social media sites are capable of sending huge amounts of traffic, which will get you noticed and help to build some in-bound links.
In order to have success in terms of getting traffic from social media sites, you will need to be an active user yourself so that you can understand how social media works, network with other users, and start to understand what types of content the users react to.
Now you should be able to create some content based on what you know the social media users tend to respond to.
2. Social Networking Profiles
Although you won’t get a huge traffic rush from it, linking to your new blog from your profiles on sites like Facebook and MySpace can be a good start to build some links and start getting some visitors to the blog.
While this may not have huge results, it will only take a few minutes and will be worth your time.
3. Twitter
Twitter has exploded in the past year to become a must for online marketers. If you can actively use Twitter on a regular basis and build up an audience of followers, sending out some tweets about your blog or posts can make a big impact.
Of course, you don’t want to only tweet about your own links, be a real Twitter user and promote your posts occasionally. The more followers you have the more likely you are to get re-tweets which can lead to a lot more traffic.
For those who already have an established Twitter account with some followers, this is an excellent opportunity.
4. Advertising/PPC
If you are willing and able to invest a little bit of money into the blog, adverting can provide a good return. Banner ads are a popular online option and they can be great for increasing your exposure and bringing new visitors.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads are another useful option. With PPC you can bid on certain search phrases and your ad will appear when people search for these words. You will only pay if someone clicks on your ad and comes to your site.
5. Submit to Blog Carnivals
Blog carnivals are really nothing more than a collection of posts on a specific topic. A blog will host the carnival and other bloggers can submit links to their own posts on the subject. You won’t get big traffic from this method, but you will easily start to build some links.
You can find carnivals to submit to at www.blogcarnival.com.
6. Write Guest Posts for Other Blogs
One of the most effective ways to promote a new blog is to write guest posts that will be published on other blogs. Guest posts will help to get exposure from a new, targeted audience, plus you will be building links through your author bios that link back to your own blog.
You will get some click-through traffic, but probably not a ton. The click-throughs will be of high quality, and it’s great for building links from strong blogs. Also, it’s a great way to network and get to know other bloggers in your niche.
7. Exchange Links with Other Blogs
Link exchanges are very popular because of the impact that inbound links have on search engine rankings. I’m not suggesting that you go nuts and exchange links with a hundred blogs, but trading links with 5 or 10 blogs in your niche can be a big help.
While blogroll links may bring some visitors to your site, the links are much more valuable for SEO purposes.
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