There is really no point in marketing your blog until after you have published 15-20 quality posts on your blog. You want people to come back to your blog and if you do not have anything useful or interesting on your blog then your marketing efforts will be useless.
Blogs are so widely used these days that it is not very hard to get traffic to it. You will want to make sure you have already set up a RSS feed through the Feedburner plugin. This is an easy way for people to keep in touch with you.
Here are a several ways to get traffic to your blog right away:
Create Viral Content (Word of Mouth)
People are first attracted to a blog's content. So if you create great content it will spread by word of mouth and people will want to visit you. Some examples of viral content are; How To's, Lists (6 Ways To, Top 10 Reasons, or 3 Must Have), Tutorials. Anything that is new, humorous, interesting or enlightening will usually spread via word of mouth.
Submit To Blog Directories
There are many directories you can submit your blog to. MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog are among the best blog directories. These two blog directories will help your blog get “found” and help you find other blogs to do the next step…blog commenting.
Blog Commenting
If you take a sincere interest in others you can get a lot of traffic from commenting on other blogs. The point of blog commenting is to find posts where you can add value.
Caution: You do not want to come off as “spammy.” So don't just add "great post" or something else generic. Take the time to write a thoughtful comment.
Blog Carnivals
A blog carnival is where bloggers submit a blog article on a certain topic and all of the articles are compiled on the host blog. It is sort of like a magazine in that a blog carnival has regular editions. Being active in a blog carnival can be a great source of traffic depending on your market. Check out Blog Carnival's list of active carnivals or host one yourself.
Link to Other Blogs
When you link out to others in your blog posts you create a “trackback” or ping that lets the other blogger know that you have linked to them. In return, most bloggers will visit your blog. This is a great way to meet new people and establish relationships with other bloggers. Be generous and link often!
Host a Contest
Contests are a great way to get traffic to your blog especially if you have some great prizes. People love to win things so it can be a great way to connect with others and let people know about your blog.
Forum Posting
Discussion forums can be powerful if you take the time to become a regular contributor. It's not enough to pop into a forum once and expect to see people coming to your site. Find a few forums in your market and visit there a few times and week. Seek to answer questions because this will also help you establish your expertise and credibility. Make sure to add your blog in your signature file.
Article Marketing
The more articles you have on the web that point to your site – the easier it is found by your target market.
Write keyword focused articles and find places to submit them to. Try to find established Ezines or Newsletters within your target market that will agree to publish your articles. You can also ubmit them to Ezine Articles or Idea Marketers.
Social Networking
Social media is the all the rage online today. Social networking and bookmarking sites have made it really easy to connect with people and share information. These sites are for making connections and getting to know people. In return you will make friends and these friends can be valuable resources.
The key is to get, and stay involved. You can find social media sites for many different niches. Here are some good sites to start with: Twitter, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, BloggingZoom, Fetch, Linkedin, Ryze, and Facebook.
Press Releases
If you can find something different or unique about your blog it may be news worthy enough to write up a press release. If done correctly, you can get a lot of traffic and if important enough you might get picked up by mainstream media. Submit your press releases to PRWeb, PRlog, and I-Newswire.
Team Blogging/Group Writing Projects/Guest Posting
After doing the above on a consistent basis, you will notice that your visitor and subscriber count will be growing and you will have met a lot of people.
These connections are valuable and can help you grow your blog even more. Find bloggers in your market who are willing to team up and write together or allow you to guest post.
Doing all the things above will also help you create backlinks which will in turn help increase your Page Rank, which is what Google uses to determine the relevancy of your blog. You can monitor your backlinks via Yahoo Site Explorer.
June 21, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Very...very good post. That's really help me..Awesome dude!!
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