Promoting Your Blog
by Lou Belcher
If you write for your eyes only, you don’t need to worry about promotion. But if you write for a living, the promotion or marketing part of it can make or break you.
Before the marketing, your first order of business is to make sure your blog entry is worth reading. Do everything you can to ensure that it is interesting and valuable to your readers. Beyond that, you might shoot for it to be entertaining as well. That can’t hurt.
When preparing your work, pushing the snooze button on your ego will help immensely. Too many times we get in our own way. We think that what we have written is so wonderful that we can’t hear constructive criticism. Take the risk. Have others look at your work and give you ideas for improvement.
That doesn’t mean that you need to implement everything that your readers say. Instead, it means that you would be wise to give some honest thought to how your writing is perceived by others.
Once you post an entry to your blog, no one will read it if you don’t do some promotion. Develop a routine system of promoting each entry that you post. For example, you can establish a Twitter account, a page on Facebook, or join a social media network, or all three. When you post an entry, put a notice on each of your announcement sites that new work is posted.
Another way to promote your blog is to establish an email distribution list of those interested in your writing. Every time you post a blog entry, put out an email to your list (even if it only consists of one or two people at first). Be sure to add the addresses of those who express interest in your blog with care. Don’t try to remember later who they are and where you put their email address.
In your email to your distribution list, invite them to comment and get a discussion going about the topic. Also, invite them to forward the notice to someone they think will enjoy your column. And, don’t leave everything to chance. Give your readers some added reasons to visit your blog. For example, hold surveys of interest, run contests, and hold giveaway opportunities occasionally so they will want to check back from time to time to see what’s going on.
Please leave a comment and tell us ways you promote your blog...
If you write for your eyes only, you don’t need to worry about promotion. But if you write for a living, the promotion or marketing part of it can make or break you.
Before the marketing, your first order of business is to make sure your blog entry is worth reading. Do everything you can to ensure that it is interesting and valuable to your readers. Beyond that, you might shoot for it to be entertaining as well. That can’t hurt.
When preparing your work, pushing the snooze button on your ego will help immensely. Too many times we get in our own way. We think that what we have written is so wonderful that we can’t hear constructive criticism. Take the risk. Have others look at your work and give you ideas for improvement.
That doesn’t mean that you need to implement everything that your readers say. Instead, it means that you would be wise to give some honest thought to how your writing is perceived by others.
Once you post an entry to your blog, no one will read it if you don’t do some promotion. Develop a routine system of promoting each entry that you post. For example, you can establish a Twitter account, a page on Facebook, or join a social media network, or all three. When you post an entry, put a notice on each of your announcement sites that new work is posted.
Another way to promote your blog is to establish an email distribution list of those interested in your writing. Every time you post a blog entry, put out an email to your list (even if it only consists of one or two people at first). Be sure to add the addresses of those who express interest in your blog with care. Don’t try to remember later who they are and where you put their email address.
In your email to your distribution list, invite them to comment and get a discussion going about the topic. Also, invite them to forward the notice to someone they think will enjoy your column. And, don’t leave everything to chance. Give your readers some added reasons to visit your blog. For example, hold surveys of interest, run contests, and hold giveaway opportunities occasionally so they will want to check back from time to time to see what’s going on.
Please leave a comment and tell us ways you promote your blog...
posted by Lou Belcher at
1:45 PM
2 Comments:
Yes. I knew nothing about blogging, Facebook, or Twitter till the publishers of my book steered me to them. My routine: write a short, amusing post and try it on my Facebook friends. If they like it, I put it on my web page (which also has stuff about the book). If I link to it on Twitter, those who like it RT it. Helps me make friends; maybe it helps the book do so too.
Thanks for your comment Charlie. Sounds as if you've got the routine down. :)
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