How To Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul

So you’ve just created your blog with WordPress. You’ve got a nice theme, added some plugins, and have published your first post.

Of course, your blog looks a little lonely without visitors, so you have to promote it.

WordPress offers some features to get the ball rolling, while you’ll want to spend some time on social networks, too.

WordPress Works for You

WordPress has some default settings that can help promote your blog. Settings > Writing allows you to specify a ping service. For example, you might use Ping-O-Matic, which updates sites whenever you write a new entry. If you’ve linked to someone who allows pings, this can get you backlinks.

The Reading settings include an option to “discourage” search engines from visiting your site, which you don’t want if traffic is important to you. GoDaddy’s CEO Bob Parsons tracks his ads daily via software that tracks traffic and customer conversions. Then, he uses that data to pull the advertising that isn’t working.

Finally, consider permalinks. Using date and name-based structure enables your visitors to browse content by year or month, while you get to use keywords in your titles that search engines can use for indexing purposes. Plugin developer and SEO guru Yoast recommends using just post titles, and he’s even developed a plugin to help you improve SEO on your site.

If you’re new to the web and want to learn how to create your online presence with WordPress, visit FirstSiteGuide

Get Social

The good news is that it’s also easier than ever to promote your websites via social media. Create pages for your websites on Google+ and Facebook, publish blog updates with services like TwitterFeed and NetworkedBlogs, and join groups of your fellow bloggers on LinkedIn or Facebook. Those bloggers are often willing to leave comments or promote your content in exchange for the same favors.

Avoid coming off as too spammy or relying solely on automation tools because people on these sites want to know that you’re a real person. That’s how Tumblr founder David Karp and Bob Parsons, do it. In every interview and social presence, you get the sense that they are real people, just like you and me.

Give the same impression to your followers. Engage them in YouTube comments, on Facebook walls, and in Google+ Hangouts.

Don’t just throw your link at people incessantly. One method you can use it to post your blog with the original title as soon it goes live. Then, post the link with another caption/title later in the day. If you want to draw attention in a few days, let your followers know what they might have missed earlier. Put a Facebook Like box on your blog, so that people can get updates whenever they sign in to the network.

Focus on two or three social sites that your readers are likely to be using. Everyone is on Facebook, while techies often head to Google+. Business-minded people sign up for LinkedIn, and bloggers and PR reps are all over Twitter.

Although time management and being personable is important, do not mislead consumers. The Internet has provided a plethora of new ways for you to advertise, but don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s not regulated.

The FTC is really cracking down on companies that have abused social media. If you receive products or services to talk about on your own blog, you absolutely must post a disclaimer showing your affiliation with the company. The same goes for sponsored posts and tweets.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find a routine that makes promoting your blog efficient and maybe even a little fun, too.

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How To Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul

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