With countless number of bloggers around posting new material on the web every day, how can you be sure that your blog will be read by its target audience? This article looks at proven techniques and strategies to ensure your content reaches the audience it deserves.
With blogs written on every conceivable topic of various quality and interest, it can be difficult for readers to judge whether or not to invest time and effort reading. Blogs can take the form of opinion pieces, critiques, personal reflections, knowledge sharing and reviews. Your blog should have a clear identity so that it's clear to the reader/browser what you stand for and what you offer.
Here are some ways to ensure you can improve your chances of getting your content read. Consistently follow search engine optimisation strategies to make sure that your blog is picked up when people search on a topic. The more momentum and activity you can generate, the higher up in the search results your blog will appear.
1. First of all make sure that your blog appears on all the leading blog directories (e.g. Alltop, Blog Catalog) so that readers can find your blog through a search by relevant topic.
2. Fully complete your online profile and other information on the directories and anywhere else you're promoting your blog so that readers have enough information to help them decide whether they want to read your work. Make sure you include your blog URL on every online profile that you have set up.
3. If you are writing to a niche audience, make sure that you have joined relevant community sites and forums. Complete your profile as fully as possible and include your blog URL as your signature line so that your blog is seen whenever you engage with your niche community. Make sure you maintain an active presence on these niche community sites so that people get to "know, like and trust you" enough to want to go on and read your blog posts.
4. Add like/share buttons to your blog site to encourage readers to like and share the content they've just read. Also include social media connection buttons so that you can build up your own niche community of people interested in what you have to say.
5. Make sure your blog posts have the maximum number of tags and category names attached possible so that it appears as often as possible in search results.
6. Use strong SEO keywords in your blog post titles and within the text so that your blog is picked up when a person is searching for information on this topic. Use tools such as Google's Keyword Tool to find out what phrases and words people are using to search on the topic and incorporate them in your content.
7. Link your blog feed to all your social media platforms: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, your website. Each time a new post is available, an extract will appear.
8. Flag up your latest post to your community by creating a series of tweets based on the content of your post and create a shortened URL link to guide people to it. Ensure your twitter feed is connected to all your other social media platforms so that the message is spread throughout your community. Hash-tag the topic theme (#) so that the tweet appears on Twitter topic searches - this raises awareness of your blog to a wider audience.
9. Think ahead in terms of post topics - can your posts be themed to any major calendar events or industry highlights? Writing content in advance will save time and you can schedule posts for automatic release. Releasing related hash-tagged tweets (again which can be scheduled in advance to make the process as automated as possible) will create interest and drive traffic to your site.
10. Interact with other prominent bloggers on your niche topic and create relationships with them. This will help you raise your profile and status showing your audience that you're on good terms with the leading bloggers in your field.
11. Invite prominent bloggers to guest on your site and offer to promote them to your community (in return for them telling their community that they're a guest on your site). You can set up a monthly or weekly slot for guest bloggers and even find some willing to become more regular contributors.
12. Make sure you are creating regular and relevant content that your audience wants to read- keep track of trending topics and burning issues so that you demonstrate that you are up to speed on the key issues that concern them.
These are just some of the ways that you can build up traffic to your blog - regular and consistent application of these techniques will do much to make you stand out from the crowd and create a loyal following of readers.
Sumi Olson is the author of the Amazon five-star rated, " How to Manage Your Social Media Marketing in 30 Minutes A Day", and is an author, speaker and consultant on social media & business development. With 25 years' experience in book publishing, business development, online selling, sales & marketing, Sumi is expert in reducing overwhelm and turning insights into implementation.
If you want to satisfy your publishing or writing aspirations, meet your sales, marketing & management objectives, or achieve your social media & online marketing targets, then Sumi Olson can give you the tools and knowledge you need.
With a young family of her own, she's passionate about helping people create a great work-life balance through practical systems & processes so that they can spend more time on the things that matter in life.
Connect with her on Twitter (@sumiolson), LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sumiolson or visit http://www.learningbusinessskills.com/.
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