A lot of bloggers make the mistake of thinking that if they build a cool site people will just naturally propagate to their site.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  The internet is vast and full of information.  Thus, the chances of someone coming across your site at random are small.  So, if you wish to drive people to your site you are going to need to give your audience directions.  Thankfully, there are some blog services, social tools, and email campaign sites that can help make the process of promoting your blogs easier.

Options For Promoting your Blog

  • Using Blog Services
  • Social Media Scheduling Tools
  • Sending Email Campaign

Blog Services

These are communities of blog sites already available.  I recommend registering your blogs with these services.  Once, you register your blog it will appear in a directory with other similar existing blog sites.  Then when users visit these sites, they can find your site by typing in a topic or category. 

Blogarama Free & Paid options

Blogarama is one of the oldest blog directories on the internet.  With over 700 thousand active blogs this is a site in which you will want to register your blog.  Their online interface makes it easy for people to search for a blog by name or category quickly.  The best part is its free to use and a quick way to get out there in front of people.

Bloggapedia Free

Bloggapedia is another blog directory site like Blogarama.  It is a newer site with a modern look-and-feel.  Their pages are more responsive and pleasant to look at compared to Blogarama.  The service is also free with no additional paid options to help promote your blogs.

Blogflux 

Unlike the first two, Blogflux is a bit more of an online directory for blogs.  It’s free to use and is also another useful way of promoting your blog online.  Readers can search the site by tags and categories.  They results display your company logo, a brief description of your blog and a link to your site.  So when a reader comes across your profile, they will have the ability to click over to your site.

Social Scheduling Tools

One of the most efficient ways to promote your blogs is through Social Media channels like Facebook and Twitter.  However, you want to be seen on more than just these two channels.  Which leads us to add more than these two social channels, causing an increase in the upkeep.  Typically this is done by manually logging into every social media channel and posting a link to your blog. 

I have tried this approach and this starts to get time intensive very quickly.  The whole point of blogging is to create incredible content for our reader to read right?  So why would you want to spend all of our time managing social media?  Thankfully, there are tools we can buy that make managing this as simple as clicking a button.

HootSuite Free & Paid options

This tool has quickly become one of my favorite scheduling tools to date.  HootSuite offers a variety of online and browser plugins to enable you to schedule blogs quickly.  The free option allows you to register three social accounts, but they have pricing options for as many accounts as you wish.  To use Hootsuite, all you need to do is register your social media accounts.  Once your accounts are setup, copy your blog’s URL into the quick scheduler with a brief message and schedule.  That’s it.  What used to take me hours each week to manage now takes mear minutes.

CoScheduler 14 Day Trial & Paid Options]

For those of you who have large teams of bloggers, might I recommend CoScheduler for you?  Similar to HootSuite, CoScheduler gives bloggers the ability to register multiple social media account to manage and schedule their posts quickly.  However, CoSchedule also provides an editorial calendar.  This editorial calendar can be managed from their online portal or through a WordPress plugin.  This tool is great for large teams and offers a clean, organized way of managing your editorial schedules.

If you wish to use HootSuite and manage your social media on your own, I would at least recommend an editorial calendar to help keep things straight.   There is a free WP Editorial Calendar plugin which offers a lot of the similar features as CoScheduler just without the social media integration.

Email Campaigns

Just like Social Media, Email campaigns are another great option for promoting blogs to your readers.  However, unlike social media, you cannot just drop a link onto your social media sites.  Instead, email requires you to send an individual email to each of your subscribers.  Depending on your customer lists this could be a very extensive list of people. 

One major drawback to this method involves the way email providers and companies handle mass mailing or SPAM.  For example, if you try to email each individual on your mailing list all at once through your regular email provider, the system will probably flag your email as spam.  Which in turn gets your email address blacklisted, making hard for you to send legitimate emails.   Thankfully, there are now sites and tools you can use to send mass mailing without blacklisting your email. 

MailChimp Free & Paid Options

For those of you new to email campaigns, I would recommend starting out with MailcChimp.  MailChimp has quickly become one of the fastest growing email campaign tools around.  It’s easy to use interface, widgets, and integration tools are easy to figure out and use.  With plugins for WordPress, you can seamlessly integrate your WordPress email lists with MailChimp and send your members weekly or monthly newsletters with just a click of a button.  Additionally, their online reporting makes following an email campaign a breeze even for the non-techie.

AWeber 30 Day Trial & Paid Options

AWeber is a more advanced enterprise email tool.  Similar to MailChimp they provide many of the same features and integrations.  However, they also offer a wider array of analytical tools, automation, and templates.  Some of these products include the ability to automate their campaigns with autoresponders, online customer service; RSS feeds and more (For a full list of features click here).

You should now have a better understanding of how to promote your blog.  Give them a try.   Even if you only use some of these options, then the task of promoting your blog will be easier.  I should know.  A lot of these came from mistakes I made early on.  Hopefully, you won’t make the same mistakes.  Happy blogging.

Additional Resources

I hope you found this article helpful.  Here are some other resources to help you become a better blogger.

 

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