This is a guest post by Onibalusi Bamidele, a 16 year-old entrepreneur who offers blogging and online money making tips from his blog, Youngprepro.com
One of the greatest problems many new bloggers face is getting people to read their blogs, they would work hard and try to give their best in terms of valuable content yet nobody is reading their great posts.
It is a great pity the rule “Build it and they will come“ does not apply to blogging or the internet in general.
Even if you provide such great content that will make everybody want to read and do their best to promote your blog, you will still need some readers to do that.
Below are 5 great and powerful ways to promote your new (or existing) blog.
1. Blog Commenting
This is one of the best ways to get traffic to your blog but it is very unfortunate it is not working for many people due to some reasons. Some people believe it is overrated and many of them believe since they see it everywhere it might not be effective.
Blog commenting is really great if done properly. You might decide to have a blog commenting schedule on which you make a number of comments on top blogs in your niche each day.
Those who get better results are those who do it on a large scale, I mean those who make hundreds of comments every week, nevertheless, it is still as effective as it used to be and can help create awareness for your blog.
2. Guest Posting
Having written a lot of guest posts, I must tell you guest posting is one of the most effective ways to get traffic to your blog.
It is all about taking up the courage to start. You don’t really need to start with big blogs (because many of them take time to accept your post and might even reject it which might make you feel discouraged), you might start with small to medium sized blogs and begin to grow until you build up the courage to start contacting larger blogs.
One of the most important things to consider when writing guest posts is to try and ensure your guest posts are great ones. You might be thinking how you can waste such a great post by publishing it on another blog instead of yours but I can assure you, you are not wasting your post. The better your guest post is, the more viral it will go and the more traffic you will get.
It is also important to have a great byline because that is your call to action and it will most probably determine whether the blog readers of your host will visit your blog.
It is also very important that your blog is ready by making sure you have great content on your blog because this will help you retain a large percentage of your new readers.
3. Blogging Communities
This is also another great and underutilized way by which you can get traffic to your blog.
Another great advantage of blogging communities is that it helps you create more awareness and more value since most of those who use these networks are also bloggers and they will most likely share your posts with their readers if it is great.
Two great blogging communities to start from are Blog Engage and MMO Social Network.
4. Social Networking/Bookmarking
Social Networking and Bookmarking is another powerful way of getting traffic to your website, it involves you sharing your blog posts with other users and if done properly it can send you thousands of visitors overnight.
Social bookmarking is when you submit your blog post to a website which depends on other users vote to put your website on the front page (which leads to traffic) while social networking is when you connect with other users who may be your friends, readers and followers.
Some great examples of social bookmarking sites are Digg and Stumbleupon while some great examples of social networking sites are Facebook and Twitter.
5. Search Engine Optimization
Optimizing a website for search engines is a crucial step every webmaster should take.
I might be a difficult task but the results are far better than that. Search engines have the potential of sending you thousands of visitors only if you can tap into them.
There are several factors to be considered when optimizing your site for search engines, some of which include:
i. On page factors like internal linking, use of appropriate keyword density, fast page load times, etc.
ii. Link Building
Link building is one of the most important exercises in SEO and should not be ignored. The type and number of links to your blog will determine how you will be ranked in the search engines.
Other search engine optimization factors also count and you might want to read more about WordPress SEO.
Discussion
Getting traffic to your blog is not rocket science if you choose to do things the right way. Are there any other unique tips and practices that have worked greatly for you not mentioned here? Please share them with us in the comments below, we would love to hear from you.
Photo credit: jj_pappas423
06/27/2010, 08:28 am
Great post Oni!
Guest Posting is the newest addition to my arsenal of ways to promote my site, and I know for the fact that all of the other ones you included work as well.
Forum posting is also an awesome way to get people on your blog! Great stuff man,
CJ
CJ’s last blog ..Could You Make Over a Million Blogging?
06/28/2010, 11:09 am
Hi CJ,
Yeah! Thanks so much for the nice comment.
I know you were very happy when you discovered the power of guest posting
It really rocks.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/27/2010, 02:41 pm
Commenting on posts is a great promotion tool. In fact, I think that is how I stumbled onto this blog. Someone commented on another blog and I found the commentluv link to post interesting. Nice article Onibalusi.
06/28/2010, 11:12 am
Exactly,
Blog commenting is really great and I have also gained some loyal readers using this method.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/27/2010, 03:27 pm
Along with the five methods you’ve mentioned, I’ve found a great deal of traffic coming from forums. You need to be very active in order to get any traffic from forums, but if you do, you can easily get a TON of traffic coming your way.
Great post!
06/28/2010, 11:17 am
Yeah! Forum traffic is really great and almost instant, you have to be an active member of the community before you get great results.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/27/2010, 03:59 pm
Nice job Onibalusi, it’s always good to go back to basics!
06/28/2010, 11:20 am
Exactly Dennis!
The basics might sometimes be the only thing you need
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/28/2010, 05:18 pm
Most times they are, which is why the “guru’s” never speak of them…..you can’t make money selling them.
06/27/2010, 04:38 pm
I totally agree with all you’ve post here. My fav includes Twitter and commenting. Done a few guest posts and am determined to do more.
Thanks,
Clara.
06/28/2010, 11:22 am
That is great Clara,
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/28/2010, 02:11 am
Yah ! !!! You have mentioned good points and i agree with your post . I love twitter and facebook will try to get traffic from there
06/28/2010, 11:24 am
Hi aatif,
That is great, thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/28/2010, 11:16 am
Another great guest post! I very much agree, however the search engine optimization is my priority. And then blog commenting is also great way, i suck at social networking lol need to improve it. Thanks Onibalusi!
06/28/2010, 11:29 am
Hi Kimi,
That is great
Search engine optimization is really great and one of the best type of traffic.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
06/28/2010, 12:47 pm
all good points which reminds me, I need to get to doing another wave of guest posts!
06/29/2010, 08:52 am
I have a license plate frame on my car for my road rage site, and drive a lot. Being that visitors can rate their road rage by location, I can tell the frame did little good if any.
06/29/2010, 11:05 am
Hey Onibalusi,
Glad to see you here. Guest posting and blog commenting are my best ways to get targeted traffic, backlinks etc. SEO is something that i should focus on..
Thanks for sharing another great Post. Keep rocking.
~Dev
07/02/2010, 08:47 am
I had the same mode of thinking, but then I realized, twitter isn’t a mailing list. You don’t send a message once and then all your followers choose whether or not to read it..Thanks for sharing this cool post…….
07/06/2010, 03:10 pm
Blog commenting and Social networking combined together can prove a great tool for getting quality traffic. If used properly, sites such as Digg and Stumbleupon are sure to bring in some visitors. I am yet to see for myself how good guest posting is. Hope to make get my first guest article online in the next weeks.
07/07/2010, 12:24 pm
Hi All,
The guest posting helps converting a blog into a brand name.
Thanks
07/09/2010, 04:25 am
I saw many tips but, I never seen these sort of tips. Really great tips. Tips are very useful and helpful. Whoever will see these tips, will become successful. If he/she follows these tips. I’m Very Very Very thankful to you.
07/10/2010, 03:27 am
Wow, I guess there is a lot to do for me. Up go know I just used web directories and wrote a few articles. Thanks for the List. Good to have an overview of what is possible.
07/22/2010, 06:14 am
I will change my blog to auto approve after reading this post, i never looked at it that way.
07/24/2010, 05:04 pm
Seo should be one of the biggest parts of promoting your blog especially if you are a coming up blogger but for other it may be harder than you think . Great post keep up the good work
09/04/2010, 04:10 am
Commenting on posts is a great promotion tool. In fact, I think that is how I stumbled onto this blog. Someone commented on another blog and I found the commentluv link to post interesting. Nice article Onibalusi.
09/21/2010, 05:17 pm
These are time tested ways to promoting one’s blog. They really work any day and any time.
09/26/2010, 01:25 am
Blogging is definitely an awesome way to promote your blog, but you gotta be an honest and real commenter, if you are not the chances of you getting on the bad side of bloggers is good and that could possibly lead to you getting on akismet’s bad side too
then you wouldn’t be able to leave anymore comments!
Till then,
Jean