How to Promote Your Blog

Once you create your blog and start writing content, you will have to learn different ways to promote your blog. Your blog will not succeed if no one ever sees it.

You need to learn online marketing strategies to help you to promote your blog as a whole, as well as each piece of content that you create. This is called content marketing. Your marketing skills will determine how much traffic comes to your website, how many social shares you receive, how many comments your blog posts receive and how many subscribers you gain.

Ultimately, the goal is to have as many visitors as possible in order to monetize your blog. You can convert visitors into advertising clicks, affiliate referrals, and product/service buyers.

In this guide, we’ve included all possible tactics that you can use for promoting your blog and your content.

125 hands-on tactics to start promoting your blog

Now, let’s look at the ways that you can promote your blog and it’s content. This is the ultimate list of 125 tactics including some basic steps and advanced techniques to help you to market your blog. 

To make it easier for you to navigate this guide, I broke it down into 9 main categories: 

• For starters: Let everyone know
• Community: Be active in your niche
• Email: Various tactics and list building
• Content: Promoting your blog with the right content
• Social media: Promoting your blog through social networks
• SEO: Promoting your content on search engines
• Collaboration: Promote your blog through partnerships
• Paid promotion: Promote your blog through advertisement
• Other: Miscellaneous ways to promote your blog

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For starters: Let everyone know 

Let your friends and family know about your new blog. 

These techniques are essential and you should use them first. Word of mouth is one of the strongest ways to promote your projects. Plus, your close contacts can give you honest feedback.

1. Tell them in person.

This might sound a bit old school, but these methods still work. Make sure that you tell your friends in person that you started a blog. You don’t have to be pushy about it, but it’s ok to let your close friends and family know about what’s new in your life.

Despite the increasing use of social media and other forms of communication, Content marketing is still mostly reliant on emails. This is mainly because emails generate the highest leads and give the best conversion rates

2. Send them an email.

If sending emails is your preferred method of communication, you can write a simple email and let everyone know about your new journey. You don’t have to be fancy with this contact. We will talk more about how you can use email to promote your blog later in this guide.

3. Have a blog launch party.

People throw parties for various occasions, so why not have one for your newborn blog? It might sound a bit ridiculous, but it’s also a good reason to get together with your friends and relatives.

4. Announce it on social media.

Social media is a big deal these days, and we will be covering more tactics for promoting your blog through social media later in this guide. For now, this refers to simply announcing your new blog on social media to all of your current connections.

5. Ask them to join your blog newsletter.

Newsletters are an easy way to stay up to date with new blog content. Anyone who signs up for your newsletter will receive notifications once you post new content. If you aren’t sure what we are talking about, don’t worry. We will cover this in more detail later in this guide.

6. Ask them to share your blog with others.

This one is a no-brainer, and it should be at the top of your list. Once you write your first piece of content, ask your close connections to share it online. If you ask twenty people to share your post on social media with their own connections, you will slowly start getting visitors to your blog.

7. Add your blog URL to your email signature.

Then, anyone you contact via email can check it out. WiseStamp is a great app to try for anyone using Gmail or other browser-based email systems. It will even pull your latest blog post into your signature.

8. Add your blog URL to your social profiles.

This includes the networks you use the most, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest. This way, whenever people find you on social media, they can discover your blog as well.

9. Add your blog URL to forum profiles.

Include all of the profiles with signatures where you participate in discussions, preferably related to your new blog’s niche.

10. Add your blog to author bios.

These could be any sites you are already contributing to, including other blogs that you own. Maybe you already have a blog about photography, and you’ve started a blog about marketing. Your author bio and about page should link to your new marketing blog.

11. Create business cards and add the URL of your blog to them.

You can create business cards for cheap or even for free these days. Just use services like Vistaprint.com.

12. Network with others at every opportunity.

Do you attend networking events? Be sure to have a quick elevator pitch about your blog when people ask you what you do. If you’re at a blogging conference in particular, it’s highly acceptable to let people know that you founded yourdomain.com, a blog that helps people learn more about your subject matter. Even if you have a day job that you need to promote, your elevator pitch is that you are a [your job title], and you also run yourdomain.com, a blog that helps people learn more about your subject matter.

Community: Be active in your niche

13. Submit your blog to directories.

While hundreds of directories will list your blog for a particular yearly or permanent fee listing, only a handful of them are worth considering. These include Best of the Web Blogs ($299 for lifetime listing), and EatonWeb Blog Directory ($59.99 for submission). Some of these directories offer free listings as well, but you will be waiting for a very long time to have your blog added, assuming they add it at all. If your website is specific to a geographic location, you could consider adding it to local directories.

14. Join social community sites.

There are many social bookmarking and voting sites. Your goal is to look for social bookmarking and voting sites that have engaged users such as Digg, Alltop, or similar. Note that many of these websites are not fond of people promoting their content all of the time, so you may want to consider making friends on those networks and occasionally sharing content with them in the hopes that they will submit it to these networks.

15. Use blog promotion networks.

Several networks exist solely to gather people who love to help each other promote their blog posts. These systems include Social Buzz Club, Viral Content Bee, and similar.

16. Build your network or group.

You can also create your promotional operation as you network with others in your niche. Just have everyone connect in a Facebook group or create a new team on Slack where anyone can share their ideas or latest posts.

17. Be active on relevant forums.

Here is a quick way to find forums related to your niche. Type the following into the Google search bar “intitle:forum” + [your niche keyword] to find good ones with active members.

18. Be active in groups and communities.

You need to be active where your targeted audience spends their time. Perhaps there are forums or Facebook groups that you know of, and the audience you want to attract is hanging out there.

19. Ask and answer questions on Q&A websites.

Thousands of people are looking for answers on the web every day. You can create accounts on Questions & Answers websites such as Quora, Stack Exchange, and similar and start helping people by answering their questions.

The idea is to find topics that are related to your niche and be active in those sections. It will help you to get your name out there and build your authority. You can direct people to read more relevant content that you have created on your website.

20. Comment and interact on other blogs.

Commenting on other related blogs is a great way to build relationships with top bloggers within your niche. Research the web to find top blogs in your niche and start commenting on their newest posts. It will help you to make them and their readers aware of your existence as well as a way of developing your authority within your niche.

21. Collaborate with other bloggers.

Working with other bloggers is always a good choice. However, don’t confuse collaboration with networking. While networking is all about making new connections and forming relationships with other bloggers, collaboration is the result of networking. Therefore, once you establish reliable connections, make sure to work on collaborating with authoritative bloggers, as it will help you to achieve your potential. When you join forces with like-minded people, you can achieve so much more than if you were working on your own.

22. Contribute to other blogs in your niche.

Matt Cutts, Google’s former head of webspam, has denounced guest blogging as a tactic for SEO. That being said, it’s still an excellent way to get exposure within your niche as long as you are submitting quality content to quality blogs. Find blogs that have strong social shares and community engagement as evidenced by the number of comments per post and social followers. Get to know the blog owners and editors, establish a relationship with them, then approach them to see if they are accepting new contributors to their website.

23. Let people guest post on your blog.

You might get requests for guest posting on your blog, and it’s a good sign which means that people see the potential in your blog. The key is to make sure that these contributors are committed to creating high-quality content. From your end, you will have to have a process in place to review and publish this content.

In most cases, guest bloggers will also help you to promote the content that they wrote. They will share it on their social networks, and you will receive additional exposure.

24. Attend conferences and meet new people.

Attend conferences and networking events. Be sure to have a quick elevator pitch about your blog when they ask you what you do. If you’re at a blogging conference, in particular, it’s highly recommended to let people know that you are a founder of yourdomain.com, a blog that helps people learn more about your subject matter.

25. Organize events and be a speaker.

You can organize and host your own events. It could be a local or an online event. Here is an example of how Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker held a 1 Day Business Breakthrough local event.

Use keywords in the title, description, and H1 tags.

• Use SEO-friendly URLs
• Make a user-friendly layout, use H2 tags, bullets, etc.
• Use keywords in the first 100 words
• Make your design responsive

Events like this will help you to network with more people, build new relationships, and give you and your website more exposure.

Email: Various tactics and list building 

26. Grow your email subscription list.

Don’t wait until you get a substantial amount of traffic! Start collecting subscribers from the beginning. If you get a few people who love your blog on the first day that you launch it, you want those people to give you their email address so that you can keep them up to date with what is happening on your blog. Later, this list will be what you use to promote your new content or products.

You can also use a service like MailChimp that allows you to have up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails for free. Another option is a service like Aweber that allows you to have up to 500 subscribers with unlimited emails for $19 per month.

27. Send emails every time you post.

This step is pretty basic. Let all of your existing subscribers (even if you don’t have many) and anyone who might like your content know when you post a fresh article.

28. Create a curated newsletter.

This means that you can collect interesting content around the web, including your own content, and send the list of useful articles to your subscribers. It could include anything. Hiten Shan sends weekly emails to people interested in Saas business.

29. Add your best or latest content to your email signature.

If you have a particular piece of content that you want to promote, you can add this article as an extra link in your signature. Include links to past blog posts in the email signature to encourage on-going blog traffic. Here is a case in point:

30. Send emails at the best time.

It’s important to send emails, but it’s also important to do it at the right time so that more people see it and open it.

31. Use email automation services.

You can send emails automatically using one of the email autoresponder services. This will allow you to send messages to your subscribers in the order and frequency that you decide. Often people create full-on campaigns for their email subscribers.

32. Send a second email to those who missed it.

According to Noah Kagan, when they send emails to Sumo.com subscribers the open rates are as low as 50%. Here is what you can do to increase your open rates:

• Step 1. Take the same email and change the subject line into something new.
• Step 2. Email it out a week later to people who didn’t open your first email.

33. Include social share links directly within your email.

Pro marketers do this all of the time. It’s a handy trick that will let your subscribers share your content from an email with one simple click.

34. Optimize your email content.

There are many ways that you can experiment with email content. However, there are three main areas to pay attention to:

• Subject line;
• Body text; and
• And call to action.

If you want to test your email, don’t change everything at once. Each test should only change one piece of the email.

Content: Promoting your blog with the right content

35. Create content for the targeted audience.

The content of your blog will be the bait that attracts readers. You will need to figure out who is in your targeted audience. Here is a list of questions that you need to answer first to gain a better understanding of your audience:

• What is their occupation?
• What common problems they might have and how can you help them?
• What topics do they enjoy reading the most?
• What keeps them up at night?

Good content makes people take action because they have one of the following qualities:

• Social currency;
• Practical value; and
• Emotion.

It can be tricky to come up with the right content that will cover all the hopes and concerns of your audience. But, if you have the right approach, your content will attract a lot of traffic.

36. Have posts scheduled and blog consistently.

Creating a consistent schedule of posts on your blog helps your readers to know when they can expect to hear from you again, whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly or even quarterly. The key to maintaining publishing consistency is to be realistic. Individual bloggers will find it difficult to create high-quality content on a daily basis. Start with weekly or bi-weekly posts and work your way up to daily posts, if that is your ultimate goal. Just don’t sacrifice quantity for quality.

To help you to maintain consistency, be sure to use some form of an editorial calendar. You can use Google Calendar, or even a simple spreadsheet. Use it to manage your ideas and plan your content themes for each month so that blogging is something you focus on, not something you do in your spare time.

37. Work on long-form content.

According to studies by SerpIQ, long form content usually gets higher rankings in search engine results.

One type of long form content is evergreen content. Evergreen content continues to be relevant to readers and gives them value years after the publish date. It will help you to improve your SEO ranking, and you will drive more traffic to your blog.

38. Use proper headlines to get more clicks.

The headline, or the title of your blog post, has to capture the attention of potential readers. People may see it in their social media news feed or search results. Make sure that you include the main keyword phrase that people might use when searching for the topic you are covering.

It’s also important to include the principles mentioned above in your headlines. Show social currency, practical value, or focus on emotions to have your headlines clicked on more often.

Here are examples of good headlines:

• Social currency: Ex. “Why 1000’s of Bloggers Will Come to SMX Conference in 2019”
• Practical value: Ex. “Spend 10 Minutes a Day, and You’ll Have Incredible Abs in 2 Months”
• Emotions: Ex. “Warning: Don’t Buy Another Ounce of Dog Food Until You Read This”

39. Organize your content and make it scannable.

You need to properly structure your content so that people can quickly scan through it. Use elements such as sub headline, bolded text, and bullet points to optimize each post for both readers and search engines.

A research study from Nielsen Norman Group shows that on the average web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit.

40. Add graphics and images to your content.

Create and add graphics to your content. Images can be a great source of additional traffic to your website. You can let people use your pictures and ask them to cite you as a source.

You can even create pre-made HTML code for each image that people can copy and paste on their websites.

Research shows that articles with images get 94% more views than those without.

41. Create useful infographics.

Infographics became popular in recent years, and marketers often use them as a promotion method.

You don’t have to be a professional designer to create infographics. Here are some tools that you can use: Piktochart, Canva, and Venngage.

Tip: Include HTML code for people to copy and paste on their website. This would help you to get links to your site as well.

42. Use SlideShare to promote your content.

SlideShare is a multimedia content tool that allows you to create slideshows and post them on your blog. This way you can present your work, ideas or some fun photos to your audience.

43. Write in-depth guides.

Your main pieces of content will be your cornerstone content. This is content that will be used as a foundation for your website and smaller blog posts will be written around the core posts.

44. Refurbish and republish your old content.

This practice can be compelling. You can find some of your older articles that have had a high number of visits and see if any of the content can be updated. Once you do that, publish it with the new date and share it with your audience. Content gets old all of the time, so make sure you stay on top of this issue.

45. Create controversial content.

If you want to get people talking, controversial content is the way to go. You need to be careful with this form of content, but it could bring attention to your blog. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

46. Convert your articles to a PDF format.

Research has shown that when people hear information, they are likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.

You can convert your articles into PDFs and offer to download them through signup forms. This way, you can grow your subscriber’s list and offer them something else down the road. If you don’t know how to create PDFs yourself and you don’t have a designer on your team you can use tools such as Web2pdfconvert.

47. Start a podcast.

A podcast is audio content that you can create to share your views on various topics. People can sign up for your podcast if you decide to publish files in a series. You then record audio files and post them on your blog for people to download or listen to.

Podcasts are an excellent way to promote your blog and your brand. Many people prefer to consume information via audio when they are traveling or driving. It’s just another channel that you can use to reach your audience.

48. Create a contest.

Contests are an efficient way of increasing traffic and leads to your blog. Running a competition is not rocket science, but you need to follow a few steps to make it successful.

Create a high-value, concise ebook and make it available for free, no strings attached (don’t even ask for an email). Now, share that ebook everywhere you can and encourage readers to share it as well. Be sure to include your bio inside the ebook.

49. Run a giveaway.

Giveaways are also excellent means to attract attention to your website, as long as they are set up correctly and properly promoted.

There is software available that can make it easier to set up your giveaway. Here are a couple of examples that you can take a look at WizHive and Wazoku.

50. Write an eBook.

After you blog for some time, you could consider writing an eBook. It’s not always fun to write a 30-40 page document, but it could give you some positive benefits.

Here is an example of a case study, where Danny Iny talks about how to write a viral eBook and how to get traffic from it.

Social media: Promoting your blog through social networks

51. Share your content on primary social networks.

The first thing you need to do is to claim your preferred name on all of the main social media networks. Depending on your niche, some social media channels can be invaluable. Don’t forget, though, that social media (aside from paid advertising) is a place to connect with others, to be helpful to them, and display your expertise. 

Don’t hop in with a megaphone and act like a barker at a circus. Rather, treat social media like a huge cocktail party – a place where you can meet others, trade ideas, and share your content with them. Your aim is to be of value and engage with your current or future blog readers.

You can also look into adapting your content for each social media channel individually. For example, here is how we modify content that we post on our blog for our Instagram account.

52. Add social share buttons to your content.

You can place sharing buttons at the top of your content, at the bottom of your content, or on the side, as a floating widget. Or you can use all of the options available if you wish.

53. Post on social media at the right time.

Knowledge is power and someone who knows when to post, where to post, what to post, and how often to post will get a lot more bang for their buck than someone who just sporadically adds random content to whichever social media platform has their attention.

At least 61% of those investing a minimum of six hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in their search engine rankings.

54. Publish your content on social media more often.

You can get results from posting once a day on different social channels. What if you post more? Of course, every social media channel is different and it depends on who your audience is. However, we guarantee that you will get better results if you publish information more regularly on the social media networks of your choice.

55. Don’t just use headlines when posting on social networks.

Many people get lazy. They only copy the headline of the text, add the link, post it on social media, and wait for a miracle to happen. It’s important to spend time adding additional content to your social post depending on the channel you use. It could be more text to Facebook.

56. Add visuals to your social media posts.

It’s important to understand that adding some visuals or video to your social media post will increase your click through rate and engagement.

57. Ask your team members to share.

If you have any team members that help you to run your blog, ask them to share your content on their own social media networks. It sounds simple, but these small steps will help you to get the word out about your content and whoever likes it will stick around.

58. Thank your readers for reading and sharing.

Take time and thank all of your readers for their comments. Don’t get lazy. It could mean the world to them. Also, thank people for sharing your content on social media. Here are some creative ways to say thank you:

Gary Vaynerchuk using video replies on Twitter all the time. Watch him in action!

Twitter

There are more than 200 million users on Twitter. Some say it is a one-way conversation, with 140-character (maximum) messages getting fired out continuously. They claim there are a lot of people talking, but not a lot of people listening. However, others have managed to build a strong, engaged following to promote their content.

59. Tweet at the right time.

There are different studies available about what is the best time to Tweet. Here is an excellent illustration from Coschedule about what is the best time to Tweet:

You can also do your research by checking your Twitter Analytics account and looking at the stats.

60. How often should you Tweet?

Socialbakers studied Twitter, taking a sample of 11,000 tweets, and concluding that three tweets per day are the point where brands start seeing significant engagement.

61. Use proper hashtags on Twitter to reach more people.

The hashtag is a keyword phrase written without spaces with the pound sign (#). It could be a single word or a combination of any words. For example, #blogging, #ilovefoodblog, #mytraveladventure, etc.

Hashtag works similar to a link; it ties all of the conversations that have used a particular tag together. Thus, if you know what hashtags are popular in your niche, you can use them to get more exposure to your tweets. Check out the Twitter search function to find what’s happening right now and what are the current trends.

Also, check out an article on Madalyn Sklar’s site about 7 Powerful Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing.

62. Use “Click to Tweet” boxes within your content.

This function will let your loyal visitors share your content easily on Twitter. Plus, it serves as a good reminder to take action.

You can quickly add it to your WordPress blog with Better Tweet to Click plugin and start adding it to your content. Or you can use a tool like Click to Tweet and create a tweetable link by adding the text you want people to tweet to the box.

63. Use automated tools to pre-schedule your Tweets.

You can use tools like Buffer to pre-schedule your Tweets to grow your traffic and reach more people.

A good example is a case study from Tami Brehse. She explains what strategies she applied to improve her own Twitter account and got a 50% traffic increase.

64. Use “Twitter cards” to get more engagement.

Twitter explains it nicely over at their Dev center:

“With Twitter Cards, you can attach photos, videos, and media experiences to Tweets, helping to drive traffic to your website. Simply add a few lines of markup to your web page, and users who Tweet links to your content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to their followers.”

Here is an example of the Tweet that shows Player Card with 140 characters:

65. Pin Tweet to the top of your profile.

It can be applied to any Tweet that you posted. All you need to do is click on the arrow down button and click on the “Pin to your profile” link.

66. Participate in Tweet chats.

This is a great way to network and connect with other people from your niche. Twitter chats usually happen at a pre-determined time, when a group of users can discuss a certain topic using a preselected hashtag.

Facebook

With over 2.85 billion active monthly users, Facebook is the number one social media network. Chances are, many of your potential readers and future customers already have an account there.

You can launch your blog’s Facebook page and start interacting with the community that is already established. However, be careful about mixing business with pleasure on this platform. Facebook rewards authentic engagement with your followers.

67. Post on Facebook at the right time.

There are different studies done about what is the best time to post on Facebook. Here is an excellent illustration from Coschedule regarding what is the best time to post:

68. How often do you post on Facebook?

Different studies show different stats, but in general, it’s recommended to post at least once a day.

69. Pin important posts to the top of the Facebook wall.

If you want to promote one of your posts, you can pin it so that it will always appear at the top of your wall. To do this, find the post, click the arrow down button, and select the “Pin to top of the page” link.

70. Be active on relevant Facebook groups.

There are many Facebook groups with different flavors and colors. You can find the audience you want to attract by hanging out in groups about your niche topic. For example, if you are running a dog-related blog, a Facebook group of dog lovers with more than 790,000 followers is a perfect place for you.

71. Use videos in your posts to get more engagement.

The one format that is driving significantly higher shares on Facebook is videos. The chart below shows a very significant growth in the average shares per video post.

Ian Cleary believes we are still in the early days of video growth:

“We’re in the early stages of the growth of video content on the Facebook platform, and it’s obvious that Facebook is giving the video a boost through its algorithm. Now is the time to take advantage and leverage it to its potential.”

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the leading social network for professionals. With more than 100 million users, it’s a great place to connect with other bloggers and business owners in your niche. The network has a lot to offer when it comes to business-related information.

72. Post on LinkedIn at the right time.

There are different studies done about when is the best time to post on LinkedIn. Here is an excellent illustration from Coschedule regarding when is the best time to post:

73. How often to post on LinkedIn?

Different studies show different stats, but in general, it’s recommended to post once a day.

74. Use LinkedIn Groups to promote content.

LinkedIn Groups are similar to forums where people with the same interests can communicate about desired topics.

By joining these groups, you can share your expertise about a subject and start building relationships. Many of these people may be associates or potential customers. Thus, LinkedIn groups can help you to develop valuable relationships and get more business.

75. Publish your content on LinkedIn to promote it.

Share your content on LinkedIn. You can do this by opening your LinkedIn profile and clicking the “Write an article” button.

You will be redirected to a page where you can start adding your content.

Here is a case study of how a telecommunication company was able to increase LinkedIn visits by 291% by posting three custom daily posts.

Pinterest

While it is still predominantly used by women, the number of men on Pinterest is increasing. With more than one hundred million active monthly users, the statistics on Pinterest usage are impressive.

76. Pin at the right time.

There are different studies done about when is the best time to use Pinterest. Here is an excellent illustration from Coschedule regarding when is the best time to post:

77. How often should you Pin?

Different studies show different stats, but in general, it’s recommended to do at least 11 Pins per day.

78. Write proper Pin descriptions for more engagement.

The Pinterest team suggests five key points to write better performing descriptions for your pins.

• Helpful details;
• Keywords;
• Can be a couple of sentences long;
• Positive sentiment; and
• Call to action, tell the reader what to do next.

79. Optimize your visuals to get more Pins.

According to Pinterest the best aspect ratio for Pinterest images is 2:3 or 1:3.5, with a minimum width of 600 pixels. Here are examples of the best-performing pins from Buffer:

80. Include a Pin button on your images.

There are over 75 billion ideas on Pinterest.

You can add a “Pin it” button to all of your images to make it easier for your visitors to share them on Pinterest.

You can also use WordPress plugins such as Pin It Button On Image Hover to integrate them quickly with your blog.

81. Use Group Boards to get more exposure.

A group board works like a regular Pinterest board. The only difference is that along with the board creator, other people can also add pins. Pinterest boards can help you to increase your number of followers, boost a number of repins, and raise engagement.

Instagram

Instagram has about 1 billion monthly active users since 2019. This social network allows you to share photographs and images via your mobile device.

82. Best time to post on Instagram.

There are different studies done about when is the best time to post on Instagram. Here is an excellent illustration from Coschedule regarding when is the best time to post:

83. How often should you post on Instagram?

Different studies show different stats, but in general, it’s recommended to post 1-2 times per day.

84. Use call to action posts.

With Instagram, you can drive traffic to your website by doing the following:

• Placing your link in your bio;
• Creating call to action posts; and
• Using stories.

85. Use the right hashtags strategy.

Building a good hashtag strategy is essential to succeeding quickly on Instagram.

NeedGrowth team explains how they were able to effectively grow Instagram account @elizabethpittis from ground zero.

Here are steps they used in their approach:

• Step 1: Content is King
• Step 2: Hashtag Strategy
• Step 3: Engagement

For more details check out their case study.

Sue B Zimmerman shares great Instagram insights and tips on her blog – you should particularly check out her article about Instagram hashtag basics.

86. Use Instagram stories and add links for more engagement.

According to multiple brands who have experimented with links in an Instagram Story, 15 to 25 percent of people are swiping on it.

This option was introduced by Instagram to give the ability to add links to your stories so people can get more info about your content within the app. If your Instagram Story focuses on a particular topic and links to an article on that subject, the people swiping on that link are guaranteed to have an interest in that subject. This opens up another opportunity to engage with your visitors.

You can always attract your followers with Instasize! This photo and editing app lets you edit photos, videos and create stunning text visuals all in one place.

YouTube

Now owned by Google, YouTube is huge.

• More than 2 billion users;
• 6 billion hours of video watched monthly;
• 100 hours of video uploaded every minute; and
• Ages 18-34 are watching.

92. Improve your blog content with YouTube videos.

You can add videos to your web page by going to YouTube and opening the video you want, then at the bottom of the video click on a Share button, select Embed, and copy the code. You can insert this code into any page or inside a post.

93. Make your blog content into video content.

If you believe your audience would consume video content better, or if you want to grow your YouTube channel, take your favorite content and convert it into videos. These could be an explainer, screencast, or videos with your face.

If you want to bleed some of the traffic from your videos back to your blog, don’t cover everything within the video. Instead, add links to your blog post below the video in the description. This way people can click on it and learn more at your blog.

94. Rank your YouTube videos in Google search.

When you search for some phrases, you have probably seen that sometimes you will see videos within the results on the first page. For example, if you search for “how to tie a bow tie” here is what you get:

One of the approaches you can take is to create videos for specific topics and work on getting them ranked on YouTube and in the natural search results.

SEO: Promoting your content on search engines

95. Make your content SEO-friendly.

When you’re working with SEO, you need to be aware of the real factors that influence your ranking. These are elements that affect your ranking in either a negative or positive manner. There are two types of ranking factors: On-page and Off-page. To make your content SEO-friendly, you will have to pay attention to on-page factors.

Here is the list:

• Use keywords in title, description, and H1 tags;
• Use SEO-friendly URLs;
• Make a user-friendly layout, use H2 tags, bullets, etc.;
• Use keywords in the first 100 words; and
• Make your design responsive.

96. Submit your blog to search engines.

We suggest a plugin called Yoast SEO. One of the features of this plugin allows you to create a custom sitemap for your blog. You can use this sitemap to submit your blog to search engines through Google Webmaster Tools (for Google) and Bing Webmaster Tools (for Bing and Yahoo).

97. Do keyword research before you write.

Google Keyword Tool is still the best way to identify new keywords.

To create a list of targeted keywords for your content, you can use special tools such as SEMrush, KWFinder, etc. These services provide an opportunity to see and estimate what information requests, and in what amounts are entered into search engines by users on a monthly basis. From this data, you must choose “keywords” that will be most useful for your post.

No matter what tool you use, the selection process can be reduced to two conditions:

• Find a maximum number of unique key phrases within a specified topic; and
• Find the best compromise between the search frequency and keyword competition.

98. Interlink your content between each other.

Interlinking your blog articles between each other is important. If done correctly, this technique can provide you with some nice traffic benefits. If you include links to other interesting articles on your blog, people will eventually click and visit more pages on your blog.

99. Use proper permalinks structure.

Permalinks are URLs that you set up for your blog. By default, WordPress will name your URL with a query string and will give it a number for each post or page you post. It’s important that you make your permalinks user and SEO-friendly. This can be done through settings inside the WordPress dashboard.

100. Focus on building links to your content.

Links will help search engines to find and rank your content. Because of this, it’s important to grow links to your website. Make sure you don’t participate in any shady schemes or try to manipulate search engines by getting links in an illegitimate way. Build your links by creating great content and promoting it.

101. Link to other authority sites.

Linking to the expert website in your niche will help you to build a relationship with them. It won’t happen overnight, but once you establish your authority you will be noticed and these same experts could link to you as well. This will mutually benefit both sides.

Collaboration: Promote your blog through partnerships

102. Share your content with bloggers from your niche.

If you build relationships with fellow bloggers within your niche, you can ask them to share your content with their audience. If your content is exceptional or you have done some proper research, you could also request a link. Not only will it get you some referral traffic, but links also help you to rank higher in search engine results.

103. Ask experts to contribute to your content.

If you are creating in-depth articles or studies, sometimes it’s important to get a pro opinion on certain topics. For example, if you are advising writers about what tools to use, you can ask some pro writers about what tools they use and include their responses in your content. This information will be useful for your audience, plus you can share that content with the people who contributed.

104. Do interviews with authoritative people in your niche.

For every article that you publish, make sure that you have a solid blogger outreach plan. Compile a list of dozens of relevant bloggers that you can email your article to and ask them to share or link to your article.

One of the best examples of great interviews would be the approach that Tim Ferriss takes. He invites people from different knowledge fields to his podcast, interviews them, and shares the resulting information with his fans. He was even able to write a book, Tools of Titans, containing information he has collected over the years.

If you want an easy hack to help you get in contact with influencers for interviews, check out GrowthMentor, a platform where you can book calls with some of the leading influencers in the marketing and startup space without breaking the bank.

105. Create roundup articles.

This one is similar to asking an expert to contribute to your content. The only difference is that this material usually consists only of feedback from experts that you collect and present on your blog. Here is an example of a roundup article we created about Blog Monetization Tips.

106. Mention influencers in your content and let them know.

By doing “expert roundups” in which you interview a group of experts and ask them one or two questions to be compiled inside one article, you can massively boost your blog traffic.

Here’s another easy tactic to build relationships and earn links from top bloggers: You don’t have to ask them for any contribution or opinion. You can simply add one of their quotes somewhere within your content, then reach out to them to let them know that you admire their wisdom and that you included it on your website.

107. Build a relationship with journalists and writers (HARO).

These connections can be a great help when you want to promote your content or even some products. Writers are always looking for a good piece of information, and if you have one, you need to find a way to get it to them. Of course, one of the approaches you can take is to manually look for journalists who cover material close to your topic.

Find their contact info and reach out to them. Warning…it’s not always easy to get an answer from busy writers.

You can also use services like HARO, which comes in handy when you want to track down some journalists.

108. Ask to be invited to podcasts.

If you have some favorite podcasts in your niche, ask the host if you could join their podcast. This way, you can tap into their audience. Make sure that you share some valuable wisdom with them so that they would want to learn more about what you do.

109. Partner up with other bloggers and work on projects.

As mentioned earlier, working with other bloggers is always a great choice. You can work together on various group projects, such as writing an eBook, where several bloggers can make equal contributions. Having an ongoing collaboration with influential bloggers can really help you, so you should use the opportunity to its full potential.

110. Ask your partners to share your content.

If you have any partner companies, you can ask them to share your content. Or you can ask them to include your logo and links on their website. Write a testimonial and ask them to place it on their website.

111. Try cross-promotion and marketing.

These days, cross-promotions are everywhere. Big and small companies team up to offer discounts. For example, local dry cleaners and tailors give discounts to each other’s customers.

See if you can find bloggers to team up with for cross-marketing purposes.

Paid promotion: Promote your blog through advertisement

112. Using search engine ads through AdWords.

Online advertising with Google AdWords is one of the most efficient methods to reach more visitors. However, before you start, you need to know how to use this tool, because you can spend big money on it fast. The Google network reaches approximately 90% of global internet users.

Remarketing campaigns are used to show ads to people who have visited your blog. You can get much better results with remarketing. The average click-through rate for regular ads is 0.07 percent, and the average click-through for retargeted ads is about 0.7 percent.

The first time you set up a remarketing campaign, you’ll also complete a 2-step process to create your remarketing tag and lists.

Alternatively, you can use the help of specific agencies to assist you in managing your ad campaigns. An agency such as Smarketer lets you speed up the learning curve in mastering Google Adwords.

Using this service, you can swiftly develop a personalized strategy for your business needs. Smaketer not only streamlines the process but also puts you in control of pricing and budget with its transparent success monitoring.

114. Promoting your articles through content advertisers.

Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising where ads appear on sites as recommended reading content. The ads are selected and provided by automated systems based on the identity of the user and the content displayed.

Here is an example of sponsored content displayed on Time.com magazine through the Outbrain platform.

Here is the list of 10+ ad networks for publishers that you can check.

115. Advertise your website through other channels.

If you have a budget, you can boost your initial traffic through paid advertising. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have advertising platforms to help you to drive traffic to your blog and blog posts. You can also consider advertising options on other blogs in your niche that receive a lot of traffic. This would be in the form of banner advertisements or sponsored reviews.

• Facebook ads page
• Instagram ads page
• Twitter ads page
• Buysellads network
• Reddit ads page

These are just the top channels, but there are more ways that you can advertise your blog.

Other: Miscellaneous ways to promote your blog

116. Create an RSS feed account.

Feedburner is a service owned by Google that allows you to track the number of subscribers to your RSS feed. Use it to offer your blog visitors a way to subscribe to your blog in their favorite RSS reader such as Feedly.

117. Look at what your competitors are doing.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to promoting your blog. Just look at what your competitors are doing regarding marketing strategy. You can use SEO backlink tools to show you the links your competitors are getting. This will shed light on their strategy with social networks, directories, guest posting opportunities, and other online marketing tactics. SemRush has a free Backlink Explorer that you can use for this purpose.

118. Run a scholarship for students.

You can start a private scholarship. It’s not that hard to do, just follow these steps:

• Set the budget;
• Determine the criteria;
• Create the application;
• Set the deadline; and
• Select the winner.

Scholarship pages are a great way to attract visitors, even though it’s seasonal and not all of them are targeted. It is also an excellent way to build some quality links from .edu websites.

119. Syndicate your content to blogs.

Previously, we discussed paid content delivery opportunities. There are also many websites where you can syndicate your content. It’s not easy to promote your blog by syndicating your content, but it’s proven to work for some bloggers.

120. Create free stuff and give it away.

Giveaways always work great to get floods of traffic and build a following. You have to be smart about it and correctly set up your giveaway campaign.

Here are five creative ways to build a following by giving something away.

121. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

Today, having a mobile-friendly website is a necessity. The overall number of mobile phone users reached 4.57 billion in 2019. This figure is expected to grow to 4.78 billion in 2020.

Going mobile will provide your visitors with a better user experience. Make changes and keep up with the pace of change, as Google will reward you with a higher ranking in the search results.

122. Try to get mentioned on local media.

Local media are often looking for material to cover. They can be an excellent target if you have a good story related to local communities.

123. Translate your content to other languages.

Translating your website to different languages can give you great benefits. Here is an experiment ran by Neil Patel on his blog: 

He translated his blog to 82 languages. Within three weeks, he saw a 47% increase in his search traffic.

124. Setup analytics and measure the results.

You’ve done everything in your power to attract new readers and keep existing ones. But, how can you tell if your blog is successful or not? To improve and grow, you need to have clear insight into your performance. Setup Google Analytics to track your visitors, where they come from, and which are the top content pages on your website.

You can measure the following metrics to improve your traffic:

• Total visits;
• New subscribers;
• Average length of stay;
• Page views per visit; and
• Social shares.

125. Implement web push technology on your blog.

Website push notifications are clickable messages that are sent by a website through browsers. 

Here is an example of an opt-in box asking people to allow notifications:

When a visitor becomes a subscriber and agrees to receive notifications, you can send them push notifications from your website that would look like this:

Useful Resources to help you maintain and grow your blog:

• Maintain a clean and properly functioning blog
• Create focused and helpful content

Conclusion

We have just shared a massive number of tips to promote your blog, but if you use your imagination, you could think up even more! No matter what direction you choose, your best bet is to start small and make adjustments to your promotional strategies along the way. Always remember to focus on the fundamentals, and keep your goals for your blog front and center.