Who wouldn’t love for a post to go viral?
You could pop open an ice cold can of Tab and sit back in your duct-taped office chair refreshing your stats for hours. Or maybe that’s just my dream. Maybe you just want, you know, people to read your stuff. Today we’re looking at promoting your blog posts without being a nasty spammer.
How can we get more eyes on our awesome work? Make friends, create relationships
To get people to read your post, you have to let people know your post exists. That means interacting. The more you become an active and authentic part of the community of writers and readers on the web, the more writers and readers will come to you. The Internet is the best place for introverts to sell themselves because it’s all typing! Yay!
But notice that word “authentic”? It’s important. Promoting your posts starts with creating genuine relationships.
Make professional connections
Conferences are a great way not only to learn more about your craft, but also to connect with like-minded folks in the blogosphere. I get a third of the hits on my blog from yeah write, which I was introduced to by a friend I met at Blissdom. My biggest posts have been picked up by bloggers I reached out to after hearing them speak at conferences.
To be read, be a reader. Reading your favorite blogs and commenting on them is a great way to get to know other bloggers AND their readers. It’s no secret I have a huge girl-crush on The Bloggess. I regularly read and comment on her blog, and it’s among my top five referrers. Her readers want to read people who read her.
If you want people to be generous with your work, be generous with theirs. Promote your favorite posts and bloggers and, if you’re as awesome as everyone says you are, they will return the favor.
Be courteous and don’t be tacky
Do not email your post to random bloggers and ask for a link-back. “Dear [Big Blogger]: I’d love it if you’d link to my post 10 Crappy Things I Made for My Kid’s Goody Bags!”
There’s an etiquette to asking people to read, share, or link back to your posts. The less you know the person, the more formal you need to be and the more connection you need to find between your content and that blogger. I target completely different bloggers when I want to promote one of my political rants than I do when I’m pushing a parenting story and another list entirely for, say, posts about my underwear.
Do not randomly tweet your post at bloggers you don’t know. “@GiantBlogger Here’s my new post! I’d love if you’d retweet it! Pleeeeease and thank youuuuu
Do not put links back to your blog in comments you leave on other blogs. Only on rare occasions would this be appropriate. If you have a post that might answer a question the blogger has asked, or if your post is so uncannily related to that it would be freakish not to tell the writer about it. Otherwise, it’s spammy. But, if you have some connection with another blogger, let her know about your great post.
Now try it for real: promote one of your blog posts and share the results in comments
Let’s do it. Promote a post.
- Use your list post from yesterday or pick any recent post you think might be more appropriate
- Choose one of the techniques above to promote your post
- You can also follow the specific suggestions outlined in this section in the 31dbbb workbook
- Promote selectively, and in selective ways, and let us know your results in the comments
The yeah write #116 weekly challenge grid is still open for submissions: giving away a premium WP theme from Elegant Themes
You can add your day two list post or you can write a new post specifically for the challenge: a personal essay or traditional blog anecdote. Is it time for a 31dbbb prize giveaway, yet? If you’re on self-hosted WordPress or are planning to move to self-hosted soon, you’re invited to browse the Elegant Themes web site for a new theme and, if you’re on the challenge grid this week following our submission guidelines, we’ll add you to a random drawing for a new premium theme. Just let us know you want in in the comments.
Questions, promotions and prize drawings in comments…
Because I’m obviously late on jumping on the band wagon with these 31 days, I’m just getting to this. My list post was about the Broadway Revival of Pippin, so I tweeted out to their Twitter account and also posted on their facebook. So far, though, only my friends have seen the post/tweets, but I’m hoping maybe whoever runs their social media pages will see it soon?
I’ve been trying to find some more blogs to follow/comment on but have been having an issue finding blogs that really interest me. I used to be able to find blogs so easily but it feels like something has changed in the past two years and now it’s hard for me to find any blog in the same niche as mine. Maybe I just don’t know how to search correctly? For the time being, I’m basically going through everyone’s blogs in this 31 day competition and also reading through their comments. I’m bound to find interesting blogs that way!
Jake, you can also join us for the regular weekly writing challenges. If you’ve subscribed to our email blast, you’ll get a notice on Tuesdays when the challenges open. The interaction and comments there go a long way toward making people feel included and that most of their words are being read. I’m glad you found us!
I have so much trouble with this one, and of course I know it comes 99% down to my lack of confidence. The thing I love about Yeah Write is that it forced me to comment on people’s blogs because I knew it was encouraged and expected. I’ve been off a bit lately with my commenting just because of time crunches, but I always feel badly when people were commenting on my blog and I’m not reciprocating.
As for promoting, I always tweet out my posts, and I do see my hits jump right after, but I am not getting new commenters and it’s mostly all Yeah Write peeps (not complaining, you know I LOVE you guys). It could be time of day, I tend to tweet early AM or late PM. I need to learn one of those tweet scheduler doo-hickeys maybe.
And maybe I’m just making excuses, but I feel like my connection to the outside world and the growth of my blog went down when I stopped hanging out on Twitter all the time. Or maybe it’s a lack of relevance of my blog. All of the above?
Michelle,
How do you do with Facebook promotion? Do you have a Facebook page for The Journey? For me, I get the vast majority of my hits from Facebook, then Twitter. Twitter hits started going up after I met and connected with bloggers from conferences because it is such an easy way to keep in touch with people. Tweeting out posts from your archives from time to time also can be successful – I like to call this “bringing out your dead.” There’s a WP plug-in to automate this (I know nothing about plug-ins, but…) and since you blog so much, people might not have had time to read posts the first time around. Consider tweeting out your best stuff from the past once or twice a week. ~ Cindy
I have a FB page for me as a writer (in addition to my personal one) but not blog specific. I left it wide open for all those other writing projects I don’t have. I am terrible about managing it and I haven’t promoted it in a very long time. I tend to only post there when I send out a new blog post. I don’t get a lot of traffic from there and I don’t know if I what I do get, which comes in as Facebook, is from my personal page or the public one. I’m on Blogger, not WP, so I don’t know if the same automation capabilities exist. Currently I can’t even get my scheduler to work. But I like the idea of trying to beef up the FB page. Maybe it needs a little love. Thanks for the suggestion!
I think I do well with this. I participate in a lot of prompts, leaving the door open for tweets about the content. I have different options and a variety of prompt I use. Then I always try to comment on at least 3 of the blogs from each post. Also, my WordPress is set up to automatically send my newest post out to Twitter. This has caused my fan base to grow more than I ever dreamed possible.
Loved this! And totally went over and read your underwear post. I am with you, buying the bags. Though before thongs were cool (and when I had a 21-year-old butt), I bought thongs and spent a week feeling my own ass because it was so airy down there not to have fabric on it. True story.
Oh, and I am in the middle of a transfer to self-hosted wordpress. Did I say middle? I meant beginning. Did I say “I”? Someone smart is helping me. And I “met” her on Twitter. So, yeah, Twitter is awesome.
I think it was Kramer on Seinfeld who called it going “al fresco.” Which I love.
I always appreciate the “Comment Luv” plug-in when I visit a blog. Since I’m using wordpress.com, that’s not an option. Like Laura wrote, it might be time to look into a self-hosted WP site.
We could take the dive into the WP self-hosted pool together! Let me know if you figure out how………. 🙂
I’m also thinking about taking that dive! Have either of you looked into any options yet?
This is a good challenge! I’ve been trying to make my rounds, mainly among other yeah write blogs since I’m new and I want to be a good neighbour. I love the “Comment Luv” plugin lots of you guys are sporting, gotta get me one of those! 🙂
I gotta get me one too! I’m not sure the pricing. Also I don’t know how to install plug-ins. I need a tech department.
Let me know if you find a techie, Cindy. Especially one that will work for “please” and “thank you.”
Most exciting thing to ever happen to me: I wrote a post about Old 97s, one of my favorite bands, and I posted it on their facebook page. The band read it and tweeted it out to their 7 bazillion followers. I got lots of interesting comments from fellow die-hard fans, and that was my biggest post, in terms of traffic, ever. But really, I’m just psyched that the band liked it.
That is sweet!
I used to have CommentLuv, and I loved it, but I lost it and haven’t been able to figure out how to get it back. I think I lost it when I updated a Jetpack plugin (for WordPress).
I really haven’t gotten the hang of Twitter. I guess I am kind of spammy about it because I mainly just tweet links to my own posts. I have found it hard to engage in other ways. (If I’m bad at small talk in real life, I guess it makes sense that I’d be bad at it on Twitter.) But I also don’t try that hard and feel like I don’t really get it.
I wrote about savory oatmeal one time, and I consistently get traffic from Google searches for savory oatmeal. There are a lot of people out there who are curious about savory oatmeal.
I post to Facebook and sometimes BlogHer. I have found lately that I get traffic from Pinterest. Really, though, I find the most engagement from this community. You guys are great. 🙂
Finding yeah write has been huge! It made me love blogging all over again and this community is so generous with both commenting and sharing our content with a wider audience. If your peeps aren’t on Twitter, there’s no need to be there. I’ve found that it is really easy to develop and maintain relationships with bloggers there but then (a) I could talk to a brick wall and (b) I like to waste time.
I tweeted the post I wrote about the cocktail party I spent reading in the bathroom to Susan Cain, the author of the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. She tweeted it, and now I kind of feel like I was touched by a rock star.
Wow–how cool! I would have been too introverted to tweet to her. 🙂
GO SAM! That’s awesome!!
You’re awesome! I loved that post, too.
Considered tweeting my anger list post to Charlie Sheen, but Outlaw Mama suggested tweeting Judy Blume a recent post on talking to my kid about menstruation. Am going with that one instead. Just remember – you knew me when. 😉 Congrats on The Bloggess!
That’s a perfect match-up!
Wow I am way out of my element here. First i have no idea who the Bloggess is and then I really don’t get Twitter. i usually just publish my posts and wait for the universe to send readers to me. Not really I comment on others blog and I’ve had them comment on mine back. That the the way I’ve gotten followers so far. Lately I’ve been apart of the most awesome Facebook group ever Bloppy Bloggers and I get some traffic from there. i try to participate in blog hops also.
If the Blogess commented on your blog, then really, you should just quit now. What else is there to work for? Bowing down now. (Sarcasm=jealous)
Great tips–not the least of which is comment luv & good titles. I’ve lost the commenting habit & need to get back to it, so thanks for the reminder that we might write alone, but we’re also always in some kind of a conversation – so it’s good to get the hell out of our heads & look around at the rest of the world.
It’s gotten harder to comment as I tend to be reading from a tablet while handcuffed to a taekwondo bench watching them teach my daughter how to kill people. I cannot type on a touchscreen to save my life, and it’s super-hard to login to comment. I tend to do more “liking” and retweeting because it only requires me to push one key.
I think I already do this one pretty well. My blog automatically sends out a tweet when I add a new post. Then I promote the post on my Facebook page and on Google+. I’m part of a group of midlife bloggers who promote each other’s work, so one of my friends will usually tweet a new post, too. If I think a post is relevant to one of my private Facebook groups, I will promote it there as well. I don’t do it often, but a couple of months ago I added a link in a comment on a blog that WAS really relevant. and I still get hits from that.
And YES to CommentLuv! I have it on my blog and I find cool new blogs from comments on blogs I read.
Elizabeth – finding your niche of like-minded bloggers is probably the best way to promote yourself. They are the people who WANT to read what you are writing and also to share it. How do you do on Google +? I’m not there other than having a lame profile.
I’m not really there much, either. I’ve just started trying to do more and it’s slow going. I spend the vast majority of my time on social media with Facebook and Twitter. The Midlife blogger group has recently had a discussion about making better use of Google+ which was my impetus for resurrecting my profile.
Well, I just tweeted my list to David Sedaris because it included my elevator pitch that my blog is like him with a vagina and a law degree. This should end very well, right?
When I saw him recently in Asheville he told a great story about discovering a terrific writer from a conversation at the cash register at a bookstore. And he always shares what he’s reading that he loves. It should be you!
I can’t wait until you guys go on a book tour together. That will be brilliant. I’m so glad you tweeted him.
What a great idea to attract more readers! Couple questions, though. Isn’t thins more of an ongoing pattern than a one-day assignment? Not that that’s a problem! Building a better blog should certainly mean starting habits. But like Cindy, I don’t really have something I feel I could promote at the moment.
I have left several comments on Momastery, and I think I’ve gotten a few views from over there! Not sure about followers or people who came back, but it increased page views.
I also try to “promote” myself by brewing generous with links. If anything I say relates to another post I’ve read, I link that post. Haven’t gotten any link-backs so far, but I’m still pretty new at this! We’ll see what happens.(:
Katie Jane – absolutely. It’s a blogging lifestyle of building relationships and a reputation for great content.
OK, I don’t have a promotable post this week but I’ll tell about the time I most successfully promoted a post:
1) After a conference, I emailed the keynote speaker to tell her how inspiring I thought she was.
2) I then began to read and comment on her blog.
3) I started to follow her on Twitter and struck up a very casual twitter relationship with her. Like, I think she knows who I am now, but we aren’t BFFs or anything, like The Bloggess.
4) When I had a relevant topic, I tweeted a post to her telling her she inspired me to write it, which had the benefit of being true.
5) She retweeted the post.
6) Many of her followers retweeted the post.
7) A Babble.com writer noticed the post and linked back to it in a story.
7) The original blogger discussed the post on a Sirius radio interview.
8) Result: My biggest post ever.
I have to say, although I don’t write political posts very often, my top three posts are all political. I’m not going to change to an all political-rant blog because of it, but timely posts on current events written in a fresh way are definitely eye-catching. The flipside: Their popularity tends to be short-lived. Posts about my underwear? Apparently immortal.
Admittedly, I don’t do much promoting for my blog. I think if it could, it would fire me for a better agent. :-/ I promote it on Facebook (personal & blog page) when I publish a new post, but I can do more than that. I’m headed to Six Flags with the munchkins this morning… I will post another comment tonight after I try some (maybe all) of the promoting tips! I really like my list from yesterday… maybe a nice gamer blog will pick it up? Maybe? Please?
Also, I love the “Memoir” WordPress theme. I’ve been wanting to make the switch to a self-hosted site, but I heard it’s harder than most people think! My husband is always promising to help with the design of my blog (but doesn’t), so how awesome would it be to say, “Nevermind, babe. I got it.” 😉 I’d love to be in the drawing! And any tips on moving to a self-hosted site would be tremendously appreciated as well. You guys are so good to me. Thanks!!
My blog would fire me for not writing. I don’t know anything about anything about switching to WP – I started there so thankfully didn’t have to navigate the technology. I’d suggest Twitter for post promotion too. Jump into the conversation. I tweet all my stuff out three times. I usually post in the evenings, so I’ll do an AM tweet the next morning and a later-in-the-day tweet like “For the PM crowd!” Twitter is a great way to interact with people you normally wouldn’t find it easy to connect with.
Even though I know very little about Minecraft, I see lots (and lots) of blogging parents mention it. That’s why I tweeted the post to Freshly Pressed. Here’s hoping they pick it up and she goes viral!
Minecraft is our primary parenting tool.
Having spent all his savings buying the Xbox version, my son was doing yard work yesterday to earn extra money for some mods. My hubs looked at me and said, “This Minecraft thing could really work to our advantage.” 😉
Oh my (squeal)! Thanks!! Got a call for a job interview today too, for a job I really, really want (working with the troubled youth-aka young criminals). Now I have two things to cross my fingers for. I’m runnin’ out of fingers!
I agree about leaving comments on the big blogs — I always see returns to my pee wee blog. And it’s funny Cindy. I had a friend (like a real world, non blogger friend) who mention she reads your blog. And I know she is a huge fan of the Bloggess. I wondered how she found your darn talented self and I wonder if reading your comments at the Bloggess could be the how?
Jamie – it’s totally possible! And I have found some of my favorite bloggers by reading the comments. She also has the comment luv plug-in (I know SoupMama has that too), which automatically includes a link to the commenter’s most recent post. I click through all the time if I see interesting titles (Pro Tip: Have interesting post titles).
ALSO I HAVE TO SHARE! I titled my post yesterday “Why Am I not BFFs with The Bloggess Yet?” and tweeted it out using her twitter handle @The Bloggess. SHE COMMENTED ON MY BLOG. And we are totally BFFs now. The End. ~ Cindy
From your advice above about linking to your own stuff in the comments of other blogs:
“If you have a post that might answer a question the blogger has asked, or if your post is so uncannily related to that it would be freakish not to tell the writer about it.”
So I edited your comment on this post to include the link to The Bloggess’s comment in your space. Soooo freakishly relevant.
I may or may not have made a screen shot of her comment my desktop wallpaper. OF COURSE I TOTALLY DID.
Freakish update:
So I tweeted back at a Bloggess fan last night based on a funny conversation she started and he tweets today:
“Blog find of the week: @Reedster2. Funny. Fan of @TheBloggess. Poster of good stuff here: http://www.reedsterspeaks.com“
wow
I heart the “Comment Luv” plug-in. It’s a nice way to promote a post without being a jerk and just linking it. And you’re right-it’s a great way to discover other cool posts while commenting on someone’s blog.