So, recently I got in touch with around 30 or so bloggers to invite them to participate in an expert roundup post. Out of the 30 invitations I sent, around 23 bloggers responded with interest, and I think you’re going to love this one too.
Content promotion is a pretty big deal when it comes to blogging.
You can write the most amazing content for your blog, but if no one is there to read it and take action on it, then your content creation is nothing more but wasted effort.
I mean, sure, eventually some folks will find it through the search engines perhaps, but the best time to promote and drive traffic to your content is when it is fresh!
So, the question I asked these 30 amazing bloggers was:
What is your favorite method for promoting a brand new blog post?
Here are their individual responses in no particular order.
You are learning what these blogging experts are doing to drive traffic, comments, social shares and perhaps even buyers to their content, products, and services.
If you’re totally new to blogging and want to learn how to get as much exposure to your content as possible, this post is definitely for you!
Let’s get to it!
1. Tor Refsland from TimeManagementChef.com“You have probably heard the following sentence: “It doesn’t matter how great your content is if no one knows that it exists”.
You are probably nodding your head right now.
Because you know that, right?
Then I will share that you should spend 20% of your time creating the content and the remaining 80% on promoting.
Now you are probably smiling, nodding your head even more (like a bobblehead figure), perhaps even giving yourself a high five.
Why?
Because you are on fire! You know this too.
Want to know the truth?
It doesn’t matter how much you know if you don’t apply it.
As Napoleon Hill said in his book Think And Grow Rich: “Knowledge is not power. Application of knowledge is power.”
Who the heck cares about how much knowledge you have, if you don’t practice is?
It’s like being a professor teaching the topic of financial investment in a fancy university.
If the professor really knew his/her stuff, he/she would have been running a successful company, not teaching.
Let’s say that you spent 4 hours writing a blog post including creating the blog picture, that means that you should spend 16 hours (the remaining 80 %) promoting your content.
We can both agree that you don’t do that, right?
Heck, it’s A LOT of work.
If you are wondering how you can promote your content, you should take a look at Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique.
So over to the main question…
What is my most effective method for promoting a new blog post:
I send an email to my friends asking them to share my post.
Note: I only do this, if I know that the topic of my blog post is a good match for their audience. Needless to say, your post has to be truly epic, if you do this.
Does it really work?
I wrote a blog post that generated 20,231 page views in 6 days, 74 comments and 1500+ social shares.
Getting traffic is not really about how big your email list is (yeah, you read correctly) or how many followers you have on social media.
It all comes down to one thing… Who do you know that can promote your awesome stuff?
Two of the influencers I know have a combined following of over one million followers on Twitter.
If you want a successful blog, you need to master the art of networking. That can be a topic for another day.
Getting traffic isn’t rocket science. It’s just a lot of hard work.
Tired of your blog being invisible?
Put a lot of time into your promotion and let the world know how awesome you are!”
2. Kim George from Small-BizSense.com“For me, the most effective method that I use for promoting brand new blog posts is sharing them with my community on Twitter and Facebook.
Those are the platforms where my audience is at, mostly.
I find using some top quality images to promote my posts on social media, and this helps to create way better engagement for me at least.”
3. Don Purdum from UnveilTheWeb.com“In addition to the standard shares on social media, my most effective method for promoting a new blog article is blog commenting and networking.
Networking, is in my opinion, the fastest and best way to get your content out there.
I have a list of about twenty-five bloggers that I follow and comment on their articles. I always leave a comment that is relevant, insightful or helpful to the blogger and his or her readers.
Then I share their article to my social media sites with relevant reasons why someone should read their article.
Within a few days, on average, I will get hundreds of visits just from people clicking through to my blog article from my comments.
To be clear here, I never talk about my article (unless it’s in context to the article I’m commenting on and then only as a reference to add value) or spam in the comment. It’s about value and relationships.”
4. Ryan Biddulph from BloggingFromParadise.com“Sharing my blog post through as many channels as possible is #1 for me.
I may drop the link to my latest post in 60 plus spots, from Twitter to 20 or 30 GPlus Communities to 5 or 10 Facebook Groups to inbound.org to Triberr.
Sharing my posts in as many spots exposes my blog to all sorts of folks, who prefer to read their content through different channels. I share over a period of 1 week, so not to rush dropping these links.”
5. Soji Fagade from SojiFagade.com“For me, the most effective method has been simply using social media.
I get most of my traffic from Facebook, both my business page and Facebook community groups.
I also like to boost posts occasionally (in a carefully targeted way) and it has brought me some interesting results.”
6. Enstine Muki from EnstineMuki.com“I can always feel the excitement when my new post is ready to go live.
Once I hit the submit button, while I share on social media, the most effective method to quickly generate some noise around the newly published post is from my email list.
It has never failed me and I know it will always generate positive results.
If you are blogging without an email list, you are making a mistake. Social media platforms can lock you out, Google can go crazy and make you go mad but your list will always be loyal to you.”
7. Nicholas Scalice from Earnworthy.com“My single most effective method for promoting a new blog post is distributing it to my tribes on Triberr.
For those who may not be familiar with Triberr, it is an influencer marketing platform, where you can connect with like-minded folks, form “tribes,” and mutually share content from each other on Twitter and other networks.
It is a great way to get that initial burst of social activity on a new piece of content. Yes, it takes time building strong tribes, but once you do, it pays off.
For example, I’ve been on Triberr for many years now, and have joined over 62 tribes, with over 4,000 tribemates, which gives me a total potential reach of over 70 million.
The best part of all, you can jump in and start sharing for free. I highly recommend checking Triberr out.”
8. Donna Merrill from DonnaMerrillTribe.com“While I can get a bigger number of people to a blog post by promoting it with a paid “boost” on Facebook, that’s not the most effective method.
I’ve found I get a much more targeted and responsive crowd to my new blog posts by commenting on other people’s blogs.
Now, to do this, I would, first of all, consider what my target audience is. If my new blog post is about YouTube marketing, for instance, I don’t want to spend a lot of time commenting on blogs that focus on SEO. I’d rather focus on blogs that target video marketing in general, YouTube marketing specifically.
When I comment on those blogs, it draws attention to my new blog post, especially when my comment is congruent with the topic of my blog post.
So, I might leave a comment on an article about getting free traffic by uploading your videos to as many video sites as possible.
The comment could basically say something like this:
“YouTube is really the best site to use. For all the time it takes to upload your videos to other sites, I’d stick with just YouTube because your message gets the greatest exposure for the least amount of labor when you optimize your YouTube videos correctly.”
Then, I might say that I show how to do this in my latest blog post, or just post a link to it, or simply expose folks to my link via CommentLuv.
To make this method work most effectively, I need to find the best blog sites to comment on.
(1) I want to comment on articles that are highly targeted to the crowd I want to position my new post in front of; and (2) I want to comment on blogs that are active and get lots of engagement from readers.”
9. Jane Sheeba from ProBloggingSuccess.com“Emailing my subscribers is the one most effective method that works for me whenever I promote anything; blog posts are no exception.
It all depends on how effective the email list is. Just having a list of 100K subscribers won’t do the trick, although I’m sure it would help immensely. You have to do everything necessary to engage with your list and send them highly useful stuff.
Assuming you do that already, I can guarantee you that this will work :)”
10. Erik Emanuelli from NoPassiveIncome.com“For me, it’s definitely sharing a new post on blogging communities and networking.
It’s not about the link back to your content either, or the traffic you are going to get from these sites, it’s about creating new connections with members of those communities, who share the same interests as you.
The online marketing world is all about building relationships, and that’s what drives my blog promotion.”
Among the communities I use, I recommend the following sites:
11. Maxwell Ivey from TheBlingBlogger.net“To me its all about building relationships online.
We know you can have thousands of twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections and sharing with them can have little or no results unless the people you are connected with are loyal followers.
I have 87 subscribers to my email list but I get 30 percent opens and 10 percent click-throughs.
But going back to relationships, the best place to make them is in the comments section of other people’s blogs and podcasts.
Even commenting on their social media feeds and sharing their posts can be helpful as long as you link back to your site or post or have links to your site in your social media profiles.
If I’m not mistaken you and I met through Adrienne smith’s site Fabrizio, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m big on blog commenting.
If you read their posts with an open heart and mind and leave a sincere thoughtful memorable comment; then that can lead to discussions.
These online discussions can lead to emails or phone calls. These can lead to the site host offering you the opportunity to write a guest post, be interviewed for a podcast, be mentioned in a roundup article, etc.
It takes time, and a lot of people are looking for a quick and dirty answer to borrow a phrase from the computer programming world.
If you build up these relationships, then you will have loyal supporters to help when you have a new post that you absolutely need people to read.
If you have a product launch or need a book reviewed, then having these friends online is the best way to get help making that push.
I believe in blog commenting enough that I generally only join social media groups that encourage or insist upon reciprocal commenting.
Video can help.
Being mentioned by a top blogger can help more.
How do you meet these top blogging superstars? leave comments and share content.
So to take a page from Jon Morous’s book there is no quick way to promote a new blog post. It all takes consistent hard work. I believe in being honest.
So, I’m not going to tell people there is something they can do as a brand new blogger that will make a post go viral and end up being reposted on the home page of Google or Yahoo, like that would happen anyway.”
12. Sherman Smith from ShermanSmithBlog.com“The single most effective way I use to promote a new blog post is to leave comments on blogs that are within your niche. There are a few things I would look for in a blog
Also, I use an indirect approach as well. I like to make sure that I mention the author or owner of the blog each time I share their posts on social media. This is a great branding practice to put yourself in their radar.”
13. James McAllister from HelpStartMySite.com“I believe the most effective way to promote a new blog post is to leverage the audience you already have. Utilize your email list and send out an email blast with a brief introduction to your post, and a call to action that encourages the subscriber to click through and read the rest of the article.
The great thing about this strategy is that if you have an email list that’s engaged with you, you can tap into that and practically send traffic to your articles on demand. Not to mention, this influx of fans will lead to numerous comments and social shares, boosting the perceived credibility and authority of you and your post to people that arrive later.”
14. Adrienne Smith from AdrienneSmith.net“I know this will come as a shock to most but my single most effective method is still ‘blog commenting’.
It’s the best way to get in front of your target audience without sharing your content and saying “look at me”.
Instead, you’re on their blog reading their content and sharing it on social media. It’s been the most effective way for me to make genuine connections and build up a loyal following.”
Note from Fabrizio: I recommend checking out Adrienne’s awesome and insightful
online course here, where she will teach you how to build a killer blog community like she successfully has with her blog.
15. Ileane Smith from BasicBlogTips.com“I started blogging back in 2009 and what worked back then is the same thing that works today when it comes to promoting a brand new blog post.
If you want to get your content shared and promoted by others you need to join a high-quality blogging community.
Let’s face it, by the time you put in all the hard work that it takes to create a really valuable piece of content you want to make sure it gets shared. You’ve done your research, you’ve added the right keywords and headings, you’ve even taken the time to create a visually appealing image for your article – the last thing you want to happen is that nobody reads it!
Being part of a blogging community means that have a place where you and your friends go to find and share each other’s relevant content with their followers. Some of my favorite blogging communities that I always recommend are Triberr, Social Buzz Club, Viral Content Buzz, and of course Blog Engage.”
16. Joy Healey from JoyHealey.com“I find the best place to promote my posts is in blogging communities.
One of the best known, with almost 400 members is Aha Now!
Because I’m rather time-challenged I mainly frequent some of the small ones where I have been able to build up more “one-to-one” relationships.
One of these sites is Power Affiliate Club (PAC), which readers can learn about here if they wish to.
Another very friendly place that deserves more time than I have given it is this Facebook group.
So for me, those are just a few of the community sites that I tend to use to promote a new post on my blog and drive traffic, readers etc. I hope those communities will be helpful to other readers as well.”
17. Reginald Chan from ReginaldChan.net“There are two ways that I promote a new blog post effectively. If I am writing something really good, I always go for paid promotions (Facebook, Twitter etc).
If it is just a normal post, I go with freely sharing on social media sites. I share a few times per day for the first few days, and then slowly reduce the numbers as time passes by.”
18. Sue Ann Dunlevie from SuccessfulBlogging.com“The best way to promote a blog post is blogger outreach. And what I mean by outreach is to actually write emails to other bloggers you know and ask them to share your current post. I get more engagement and social shares on my posts when I do blogger outreach.
The easiest way to meet other bloggers for outreach is by sharing their content, commenting on their posts and sending them a helpful email before asking them to share anything of yours.”
19. Sylviane Nuccio from SylvianeNuccio.com“It is better to use as many venues as possible to promote a blog post, but if I had to mention a single most effective one, I would say that it’s promoting my post through the most popular social media platforms.
Why so?
Because once you do, your blog post is bound to be shared over and over by your followers.”
20. Nathan Ambrose from NathanAmbrose.com“As a person who doesn’t enjoy promoting my own posts or building a large social media following, I don’t promote my own work nearly enough. Therefore, I prefer to leverage the following of other bloggers.
To do that, my single most effective method of promoting a brand new blog post is by using Just Retweet. Many of my favorite bloggers promote their posts there, so I read and share several of their articles every day.
The platform allows me to gain credits for sharing their posts, which I then offer to them for sharing my posts with their followers. As their followers are on various social media platforms, I can reach readers who would not otherwise know I exist.
It’s a nice feeling when a person that I wasn’t aware of before turns up to comment on my blog post.”
21. Andrew Warner from ShadeOfInfo.com“At first, my main method for promoting was post it on Google+, Facebook, etc. but I smartened up. My main methods of promoting content is two-fold. Blogger Outreach and Email Outreach. I mostly find past content that’s fairly similar to what I wrote and reach out to those that shared it — in hopes, they would consider sharing mine as well.
It’s a tedious process but I do get a fair amount of shares of my posts that way.”
22. Mi Muba from BeAMoneyBlogger.com“I don’t stick to any particular method of promotion for each of my blog post, and it all depends upon the topic of my post to decide which one should be its most effective method.
For example for a post on traffic generation methods and tips, I focus at all online places where most of those people come who yet to get a huge number of visitors on their blog.
For a post on unique tips to improve content writing I share it massively on those groups and circles online where people who are yet to get expertise on content writing mostly visit.
In short, I can say overall my single most effective method is using social media and more particularly Facebook, Twitter and Google+ where I share my post to most relevant groups, lists, and communities according to the topic of my post.”
23. Fabrizio Van Marciano from Magnet4Blogging.net“The main strategy that I use to directly drive traffic to a new blog post is to launch an email campaign. My list always gets to know about new content on my blog first, so usually, I send out an email campaign a few hours after the post has gone live.
I don’t have a huge list, around 500+ subscribers at present. However with a high open rate and above industry average click through, I can rest assured that my content is always targeting my list.
I’m also big on using web push notifications, and I have around 3,000 subscribers. It’s the simplest and quickest way to drive traffic to new content and I believe in the future will give email marketing a run for its money!
After the email marketing and web push notification is done, I start getting a few social shares and comments. I then go on to use my trusty “Blog Post 7-Day Promotion Checklist” to begin my marketing onslaught and promote to a wider audience.
What an awesome collection of blog post promotional tips and ideas, wouldn’t you agree?
It’s clear to see that if you want to drive more targeted traffic, attract new readers and promote engagement on your blog and new content, there are 4 critical strategies that stand out amongst them all here.
So, let me ask YOU, my lovely readers: What do you do to promote a new post on your blog?
