Building Traffic: 6 Tips to Publicize Your Blog

You need to publicize your blog. Write it and they will come won't work. Even if you are famous, even if you are Madonna or Osama Bin-Laden or Bill Gates, if you start blogging no one is going to read it if they don't know about it.

1) One technique is simply to tell people about your blog.

For example, email them and tell them about it. Guy Kawasaki e-mailed ten thousand people when he started blogging. Now Guy is a best selling author, one of the original Apple employees who evangelized the Macintosh, and is a columnist for Forbes.com -- you probably don't know as many people as Guy and neither do I. However do let your friends, colleagues and other contacts know.

2) Use your email signature. 

An email signature is a little block of text that is appended to every email that you send and all modern email programs allow email signatures. You can include your blog information in your email signature. I suggest you experiment with different text. Some people may be more likely to visit something that says that it's a blog, while others may be more likely to click on something like "Ted's thoughts and opinions on whatever" you are blogging on. 

3) Link prominently from your website.

If you have a Web site, link prominently to your blog. Don't make it hard to find. It always amazes me when companies or individuals start a blog and it is very difficult to find.

There was a local gourmet food shop whose blog was written up in a local paper and it was almost impossible to find. They should have had a link from their home page on their website and from any other pages that were appropriate, but they didn't. With some difficulty, I found it via Googling around and I shouldn't have had to gone to that difficulty. They certainly didn't do themselves any favors.

4) List your blog anywhere you list your website.

This includes online as well as offline materials such as letterheads and business cards, in any advertisements, on your fax header page and so forth.

I don't currently list my blog on my business card although I probably should. I notice a lot of people do, but some don't. Most people which don't are pretty much in the same boat as me. I printed a couple of thousand business cards about ten years ago, and I simply don't go through them that fast. But the next time I print business cards I am going to guarantee you my blog will be prominently featured there.

5) Another way to build traffic is to enter carnivals. Carnivals can really help to publicize your blog.

A carnival is a "best of list" of posts on certain topic, and carnivals move continuously to new host blogs - that's the carnival aspect.  Examples include Carnival of the Capitalists, Carnival of Entrepreneurship, Carnival of Marketing, Carnival of Business, and so forth. The best way to find them is via the Search Engines or blogcarnival.com, which currently lists 787 blog carnivals. There is probably one your blog could be included in. And every time I get listed in a blog carnival, I do get some additional traffic.

6) List yourself as the author of your blog and include it your bio and other places. For example, let's say you are a petunia consultant and have a blog called Petunia Power. You could list yourself as Ted Demopoulos, author of Petunia Power (assuming your name is Ted Demopoulos, which is probably isn't).

Now that sounds impressive! What is Petunia power? Is it a book? Is it a website? Is it a blog? Well, it really doesn't matter. It sounds impressive and it is because you're writing regularly on a topic.

Write it and they will come won't work. You need to let the world know about your blog. These tips will help you get the word out.

And for over 100 more tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com

Comments

[Lani Rosales]

Ted, I love #1- be brave, right!?!

I would add that getting offline is an *amazing* way to promote- going to networking events, conferences, even meet ups can be great. Face time with people lends to a sense of true connection and even friendship and can have a longer shelf life than a link.

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Lani,

Well put. Offline is still the "real world" and a great way to make connections.

Of course we can make great connections online, but can certainly cement them faster in person.

Maybe see you next time I'm in Austin.

[BeewtumsLem]

bloggingforbusinessbook.com - now in my rss reader)))

[Raghu]

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[Bofan]

Little late getting to your site, but some good advice here. The carnival term is a new one for me. Thanks

[Kamal]

Hi! Thanks. I had been looking for something like this kind of info.

Cheers!
http://myblog-kamalsharma.blogspot.com/

[waqar]

Hi
I am blogging since 2 years but continuously fail to bring traffic, actually I am able to bring traffic but fail to manage it. help me!