The biggest challenge all new bloggers face is getting people to notice them. Even the highest quality of blog posts won’t do you any good if no one is reading them. Building a large audience for a blog takes time, but fortunately there are a number of different ways to quickly gain significant exposure to targeted readers, even for brand new blogs. We’ve probably all read about the importance of commenting on other blogs and linking out, but what else can you do?
1. SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES
Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and Reddit are great for getting thousands of visitors to your blog in no time. Each one of these websites has its own audience with unique preferences. Take some time to study and analyze the types of content that are becoming “popular” on these sites and create your own blog post intended to draw attention from social media users.
2. NICHE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES.
While the major sites listed above send huge amounts of traffic, there’s also a lot of competition for that traffic. Niche social media sites are perfect for reaching a highly-targeted audience. Some niche sites still send very significant traffic, and best of all, it can lead to success with the major social media sites.
3. LINKS FROM MAJOR WEBSITES
Another option for getting a quick rush of traffic is to get a link to your blog from a website with a very large audience. Find some of the largest sites in your market and take a look at what type of content they provide and who they link to. Once you have a good idea of what they like, create a blog post accordingly and email them to request a link.
Be sure that your post provides something of value for their readers. Tell them why it would be valuable to their readers, and maybe you’ll get a link. This is very similar to developing content specifically for social media in that you are starting with a specific audience and working backwards to create something that they will like. An example of a major website that links out to others is Lifehacker.
4. WRITE A GUEST POST FOR A WELL-KNOWN BLOG
One of the best promotional opportunities that is ignored by most bloggers is writing guest posts. Many blogs accept guest post submissions, and those who take advantage of the opportunity can get targeted traffic, a link to their blog, and name recognition.
Take a look at some of the top blogs that focus on the same topics as your blog. Take a moment to email the blogger and introduce yourself. Ask if they would be interested in receiving guest submissions. Don’t stop with just one attempt, contact several of the leading blogs. (If you already know that they accept guest submissions you can just send your article with your first contact.)
5. NETWORK
Probably the biggest lesson I have learned since I started blogging is the importance of networking with other bloggers. Bloggers are human. They help people that they like, and they like people that help them. Other bloggers have the ability to link to you, vote for you at social media sites, publish your guest posts, and promote your products and services. All successful bloggers have built a strong network along the way.
For more information, see 5 Keys to Better Networking at Freelance Folder.
6. GIVE SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR FREE
Some bloggers have used free giveaways to help build their audience. Everyone likes to get something good for free, and because of that, other bloggers will link to you if they like what you’re offering. Downloadable products like e-books and special reports are popular as giveaways. They’re low cost to create and easy to distribute.
Make sure that your free giveaway is good enough that you could actually charge for it. If the quality is low, your results will insignificant.
7. CREATE A UNIQUE PIECE OF LINK BAIT
Every day there are bloggers benefiting from creative ideas that draw links from thousands of other blogs. We looked at getting links from major blogs earlier, but links don’t have to be just from the top blogs. A great piece of link bait can draw so many links from smaller blogs that it all adds up to a huge amount of traffic.
A current example is the Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs list created by Mark at 45n5. In recent weeks and months Mark’s list has drawn thousands of links (including this one from me).
8. SPONSOR A CONTEST
A lot of blogs right now are running contests to reward their readers and gain more exposure. Many of these contests are giving away prizes that are donated by other bloggers. You probably read about the $54,000 giveaway at ProBlogger. Darren gave others the opportunity to donate prizes and get some exposure for themselves. Those who took advantage of the opportunity got a link from ProBlogger and exposure to about 30,000 readers.
9. WRITE A PRESS RELEASE
Press releases are not used very often for blog promotion, but they have the potential to quickly get your blog in front of a lot of influential people. Simply writing a press release to announce the launch of a new blog isn’t going to create attention. You’ll need to have something truly newsworthy to promote.
For more information on press releases see Publicity Insider.
10. DESIGN GALLERIES
If your blog features a very high quality design, you may be able to get listed in any number of design galleries. Many design galleries have large audiences and send a significant amount of traffic to the sites included in the gallery. Some of the leading galleries include CSS Beauty, CSS Vault, and Unmatched Style.
11. HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT
If you are interested in drawing traffic from social media, but you don’t have the time to learn about social media marketing for yourself, there are professional consultants that can help you create the content and the traffic. Lyndon from Cornwall SEO recently published an article Why You Need a Social Media Consultant. Hiring a good consultant is a cost-effective way to get traffic almost immediately (and coincidentally Lyndon is for hire).
12. ORDER A PAID REVIEW
Many blogs are willing to publish a review of your blog for pay. Of course the amount that you have to pay will depend on which blog you choose to do the review. If you are considering paying for a review make sure that your blog is ready. Just because you’re paying doesn’t mean that you’ll get a glowing review if your blog doesn’t deserve it. On the other hand, a positive review from a respected blogger can immediately improve your reputation.
13. BUY ADS
Regardless of what topics your blog covers, I’m sure there are plenty of relevant websites and blogs that will be willing to sell ad space to you. Paid ads can be very effective if you choose the right place to advertise. Search around and find a website or blog that shares your target audience and offers reasonable rates.
14. ANNOUNCE YOUR NEW BLOG FROM ANOTHER BLOG THAT YOU OWN
Of course this is only an option if you have another blog, but it is a big advantage for established bloggers who want to start a new project. Many of your satisfied readers will be interested in your other projects, especially if the new blog also targets a similar audience.
15. PARTNER ON YOUR NEW BLOG WITH SOMEONE INFLUENTIAL
Do you have a great idea for a new blog? Have you ever thought about working with someone else for mutual benefit? You may not have an established audience that you can market to, but others do. Consider approaching some other bloggers about your ideas and see what partnership opportunities may be available.
BE READY FOR THE TRAFFIC
Now that you’ve got some ideas for getting some attention for your new blog, you’ll want to be sure that you’re ready for the traffic.
1. WEB HOSTING
Some of the methods that we looked at above, especially social media, will result in floods of traffic that can have serious effects. In order to survive and avoid a server crash, you’ll need to have quality hosting.
2. HAVE A FOLLOW UP READY
If your promotional efforts successfully get thousands of visitors to your blog, hopefully a decent percentage of them will become repeat visitors. Those that come back to your blog over the next few days will be looking for new content. The quality of that content will be a huge factor in whether they become a loyal reader or whether they never come back again. It’s not a bad idea to have your follow up planned out ahead of time.
3. HAVE SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED
It would be a shame to get a lot of traffic and not gain new subscribers. One of the first things you should do with any new blog is make sure that your subscription links are visible to new visitors immediately.
4. FOCUS ON QUALITY NOT QUANTITY
What ultimately will determine the success of your blog is the quality of content that it provides. All of the promotion methods that we looked at will require you to produce high quality blog posts in order to create the results that you want. New visitors are unlikely to be impressed by the amount of content that you have on your blog, but they will be impressed if you have very high quality, original content.
Of course you won’t be able to put all of these methods into practice on your blog. Choose a few that you think will work for you and go out and get some exposure for your new blog.
63 comments from readers
1 Mason Hipp Nov 5, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Great post — I just kept scrolling and kept finding more good points of information. All told, this is probably one of the more all-inclusive posts about blogging and getting traffic that I’ve seen.
On another note, everyone keeps talking about the social media consultant thing… I have yet to see someone with the ability to get social media traffic using that skill as a consultant. Most of the time it is used for personal benefit, because it tends to be a lot more valuable that way than it is consulting. Who knows, I’m still looking.
Thanks for a great article,
- Mason
2 chipseo Nov 5, 2007 at 10:45 pm
As usual another great post and detailed list. I like the section on be ready for the traffic. This is something we don’t always do, prepare to be successful. Thanks again, Scott
3 TyCat Nov 6, 2007 at 12:33 am
I was just about to google this, But i saved a bunch of time. I needed a bit of a refresh for bloging. Thanks for the post.
4 david Nov 6, 2007 at 12:37 am
Great list there. Going to take a lot of time to fulfill this list.
5 Caroline Middlebrook Nov 6, 2007 at 4:34 am
Great post! But i can’t believe you didn’t mention commenting on other people’s blogs as a strategy! For a new blog in particular I think this works, and I know it does because it has brought me hundreds of visitors as I demonstrated in recent posts.
I’ve never tried a press release, would have a clue where to start. If you have experience with that maybe a good topic for a post would be ‘How to use Press Releases for Blog promotion’ or something. I’d read that
6 Caroline Middlebrook Nov 6, 2007 at 4:36 am
My apologies, you mentioned blog commenting at the very top and um *blush, very embarrassed now* actually linked to me *blush even deeper now*.
7 pelf Nov 6, 2007 at 7:17 am
This is just sooo timely because I am planning to revive my turtle blog (though at the moment, I am more interested in completing my thesis and submitting it to my Supervisor)!!
Thanks for doing my research for me
8 Lawrence Cheok Nov 6, 2007 at 9:29 am
Hi Steven, another great article. This is especially useful for new bloggers like myself.
I personally like your point no. 5. All the good traffic stuff aside, the networking has allowed me to know many great bloggers as friends and learn new perspective everyday. This really helps in my personal growth through learning from others, including yourself.
Kudos for this contribution.
9 jeanbug Nov 6, 2007 at 9:32 am
fabulous list, thanks for pulling this together
10 Jon - FreelanceFolder Nov 6, 2007 at 11:47 am
Hey Steven, thanks a lot for the link (and for the guest post you wrote too, feel free to send another one anytime)
#10 - Design Galleries, has been a good source of traffic for me, and even after a couple months I still get some traffic every day, definitely worth investing some time to making a blog CSS valid and transitional strict (and all that stuff)
11 Madhur Kapoor Nov 6, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Nice post Steven . I feel commenting on other blogs and writing guest post can get you much exposure . Even particiapting in some group writing project is great.
12 St.Catharines Apartments Nov 6, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I ran a contest on my website last year and it worked great, so I can vouch for that. Also, if you give away t-shirts with your website address on it, when the contest winners wear them, they are advertising for you and they don’t even know it. Just make sure the t-shirt looks cool or it will end up in the garbage.
13 Vandelay Design Nov 6, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Mason,
There are consultants out there who produce good results, but I’m sure there are more of the type that you are referring to.
Caroline,
No need to apologize. Yeah, I only mentioned commenting and linking quickly because I feel like those are the 2 things people think of right away. Your post had some great in-depth information on the subject.
Pelf,
I can see how a thesis would get in the way of blogging. Good luck.
Lawrence,
I agree, networking is really important. Actually, networking opens up opportunities for many of the other things discussed in the article.
Jon,
You’re welcome for the link. I think I remember reading a post you wrote about getting traffic from design galleries. I’m glad it’s worked for you.
Madhur,
Yes, guest posting has been one of the best methods for me to promote this blog. Unfortunately I haven’t had much time for it recently.
14 shelly Nov 6, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Wow, how many times do I have to read the same type post on blog after blog after blog. And then the comments are always the same crap too “great post” and so forth. DONT YOU MONEY MAKING BLOGS HAVE ANYTHING ORIGINAL TO SAY??
15 Vandelay Design Nov 6, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Shelly,
Sorry you don’t like it.
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18 Frank C Nov 7, 2007 at 12:51 am
I’ve been using #6, give something of value away for free, in my case, a free blog review. I’ve done 10 reviews in the past month.
I’ve also worked a lot of social media, mainstream and niche, and this has done well too.
Another place to promote would be on forums related to your niche. This works best if you’re already a member in good standing or if you take the time to build relationships on a forum and don’t behave like a spammer.
19 Selbourne Nov 7, 2007 at 4:23 am
Great and detailed articles. Would just like to add that a great way to get link back easily is to submit to the various directories accepting free listings. Targeting the ones that have PR will certainly boost your websites PR
20 Katie Nov 7, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Wow, this is great info. I’m going to be working on a blog for my company soon, and we’ve thought of some of these ideas, but you’ve got some great suggestions that we hadn’t yet considered, too. I will definitely be pitching them to my boss and trying them out; thanks!
21 Jon - FreelanceFolder Nov 7, 2007 at 2:56 pm
haha, I think Shelly can’t read, isn’t VandelayDesign clear enough? It’s not VandelayMake-Money-Online as far as I remember
22 Popcorn Ninja Nov 7, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve already used a few but any new ideas help! Thanks again.
23 Vandelay Design Nov 7, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Hey Jon,
Thanks for pointing that out. I think I’ve written about making money twice. She’s free to have her opinion though.
24 Internet Tips Nov 8, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hi
Thanks for such great tips for blog promotion. In my view, Networking can be a very good source of traffic. If one can have a large networks of bloggers, it will surely help you gain traffics and links.
Moreover, bloggers in your network will be referring your blog to others and hence the traffic will keep on growing.
I think the best way to build your blogger network is to start commenting on other blogs with interest in common to yours and webmaster forums can be a real good place where you can meet hundreds of bloggers easily.
25 Netvestor Nov 8, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I’ve been reading the blog for some time from rss feed, which is too bad as it doesn’t show how wonderful the design of the blog is. I like it!
Thanks for the article, nice one!
26 Vandelay Design Nov 8, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Netvestor,
Thanks for your compliments.
27 Karthik Nov 8, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Having follow-up content is definitely important - Good points.
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32 Selbourne Nov 14, 2007 at 6:35 am
even technorati.com is a great place to list your blogs. Dont know about the traffic they send though
33 Addmoi Nov 17, 2007 at 3:57 am
Some of these just might work for me. Thanks
34 Andrew Nov 17, 2007 at 11:29 am
Nobody seems to mention “ping” (or did I miss it?). I was my understanding that getting weblogs.com to notice you “ping” helps to bring the blog to the notification of crawlers, such a google - where else can you get that amount of traffic. That said - I’ve no measure that it works and find very little written about “pinging”.
Anybody have anything good on “pinging”?
Andrew
35 Vandelay Design Nov 17, 2007 at 11:41 am
Hi Andrew,
Yes, pinging is important for getting your blog’s content into search engines, but it is set up by default in most blogging platforms. When you start a new blog and just publish content the pinging should happen automatically, although you can add more search engines to be pinged. FeedBurner also offers the option to ping.
36 Andrew Nov 17, 2007 at 11:50 am
Wow, thank you. FeedBurner is something I’ve not come across yet and it looks very robust - I’ll give it a try.
37 Drazen Nov 17, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Thank you for a great post. Many ideas which did’t occured to me.
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39 Braintrove.com Jan 2, 2008 at 12:09 pm
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42 James Jan 28, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Vandalay…lol
43 J VanOoyen Mar 8, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I won’t say “great post” but great info for a Blog neophyte like myself. Just curious about the Vandelay name, fellow Dutchman or a Seinfeld takeoff?
44 peri oyunları Mar 9, 2008 at 12:24 am
good post but it’s hard to do all of these works.
45 iyinet seo Mar 9, 2008 at 5:23 am
Great post,
thanks for all
46 enfopedia Mar 16, 2008 at 11:02 am
I think its a great post and definitely a bookmark.
47 Saad Baig Mar 17, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Thanks for the Great Post . I think you hit on all the key points here.
48 Mar Matthias Darin Mar 18, 2008 at 11:20 am
Very good points. There are a few here I didn’t know about. Thanks.
49 english beefeaters Mar 20, 2008 at 12:28 am
even technorati.com is a great place to list your blogs. Dont know about the traffic they send though.Hm
50 Valeriideas Mar 28, 2008 at 4:40 pm
You won’t believe me people, but today I’ve got four time more visits than average following these steps! Many thanks for the great post.
51 Clifford Mar 31, 2008 at 6:59 am
This is a very interesting article, Some nice pointers. Will take some of your advise.
Thanks
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53 Mary Apr 27, 2008 at 11:26 pm
What a great article. Very interesting thanks..
54 Romeo Abdo May 12, 2008 at 5:14 pm
nice
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59 Micah Jun 6, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Hey, this is by far the best “how to help your blog” post I’ve ever read. I’m going to employ a few of these for sure
Also maybe I’ll be trying to write a guest post for your blog soon! Look for the guy with the “Will blog for links” sign outside your window tonight!
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62 robert Jul 9, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Good Article.
63 Oyunlar Jul 24, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Hosting is very important thing for a website. Your hosting company must handle your traffic.