Starting and marketing a blog seems like a small, simple job. All you need to do is post to your blog and wait for the traffic to start pouring in. Unfortunately, there's a little bit more to blogging than that. In order to run a successful blog, you really need to invest some time and effort into your blog marketing.
Fortunately, though, blog marketing is not a daunting task. By implementing these easy practices, you will see increases in your blog traffic in no time.
Market your blog via social media.
You'll need to create several social media accounts for your blog--Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram might be your first choices. When setting up your accounts, you want to keep your brand the same across all platforms. Use the same profile picture and the same cover photo so that your readers will know right off the bat that this is your blog's account.
Share your blog post on each social media platform throughout the day. Be sure to engage with readers on these platforms. Retweet/respond to tweets, comment on Facebook/Google+ posts, and pin to Pinterest.
Another great practice is to include social media sharing options right in your post. This will make it easy for readers to share your post themselves--in other words, you're helping your readers to do your blog marketing for you.
Target your blogging to a particular niche.
The best way to grow a loyal and returning audience is to focus blog posts on one particular niche. If your readers know that they can count on you for repeatedly delicious dessert recipes, beautiful DIY projects, or fantastic blogging advice, they will consistently come back.
On the other hand, if your blog is all over the place, it's difficult to garner a returning audience. Know what audience you are targeting and blog for them. The best practice is to determine if a blog post really fits into your targeted audience before publishing it.
Create quality content.
One of the most important parts of blogging is to give your readers a reason to keep coming back. Establish your writing voice, create a content schedule and stick to it, and be authentic. Give your readers what they want and you're golden.
Keep your blog visually appealing and user friendly.
Getting potential readers to click over to your blog is the easy part. Getting them to stay is much more difficult. First of all, make sure that your blog design is simple, pretty, and void of clutter. Use plain fonts that are easy to read and include pictures. You want your blog to be easy for users to navigate through new and old posts.
Title is everything.
Perhaps one of the most important features of a blog is its title. The title not only catches a reader attention with the intent to interest them, but is also what search engines use to find the blog. It is said that ½ of your blogging time should be used to write the blog, and the other ½ should be used to write the title!
By utilizing these five practices in your blog marketing, it won't be long before you see a consistent increase in your blog's traffic. Plus, don't forget to visit our blog!
