If you're already blogging and promoting your blog via the main social networking and social bookmarking sites, you're well on your way towards building a strong readership. How do you take your blog to the next level? How do you become a well-known blog that people subscribe to and comment on frequently? Here are some next-level strategies.
Go Deep, Go Wide - don't just promote your blog on a few social networking and bookmarking sites. Go for lots of them. Here's a good list. - Comment Like Crazy -find lots of good blogs in your area of interest and subscribe to their RSS feeds. Monitor the new posts every day. Read the ones that interest you the most, tweet them and comment on them. You will receive inbound links that help your Google ranking and you will attract other readers and commenters to your blog.
- Timing is Everything - publish and promote during prime time. If you are in the eastern U.S., for example, publish between 11 AM and 12PM so you will reach the west coast when they are getting to work and you still have a shot at the folks in Europe before bed time.
- Mix it Up - don't blog about the same thing every day, keep it fresh with new topics and ideas. Some days be helpful, other days "preachy", and still others downright ornery. Keep them guessing.
- Stick to the Facts - it's ok to express your opinion, but people are more likely to subscribe if you do your homework. Reference your sources and explain why you feel the way you do. We all hear way to much pontificating.
- Leverage Relationships - build relationships with other bloggers through social media, comments and get-togethers. Reference their blogs in yours. Ask if you can guest blog on their blogs and offer an exchange. Some folks even build blog alliances to co-promote each other.
- Don't Forget the Keywords - your blog should be a catalyst for SEO success. Social media promotion will help get you lots of inbound links and drive up your ranking, but adding important keywords to your blog title, headings, image "alt" tags and meta keywords will take you even higher.
- Finally, there's no substitute for quality. Check your spelling and grammar before you publish. A well-written blog goes a long way. An interesting, well-written blog is gold.
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