1st Turning Point

Posted By Christina Arbini on July 7, 2010

Christina Arbini, Writer

by Christina Arbini
1st Turning Point Staff Columnist
Copyright © 2010 Christina Arbini

You’ve finally set up your blog and are ready to share your thoughts with the entire blogosphere.  But now what?  How do you get people to start visiting your blog, and better yet, following it?  Even well established bloggers often feel as if they’re just talking to themselves.  So, how do you ensure you are getting both attention and return followers?

There are many ways to promote your blog.  That said, there’s also a fine line between successful promotional tactics and over-exposing yourself—numbing your potential audience with a barrage of daily (or even more frequent) announcements about your various blog posts.  If your audience continues to be bombarded with the same message, they will eventually tune you out.  So, how do you attract more readers to your blog without being obtrusive?  There are some very simple, yet effective ways.

Here are five covert ways to promote your blog:

Be intriguing. Make an effort to leave comments on other people’s blogs or online articles.  Be thoughtful and insightful—whatever will pique others’ interest, so they’ll want to find out what else you may have to say by following you back to your blog.  However, while it’s easy to get sucked into a thread of conversation, take care not to let your comments be construed as negative.  We all have our opinions, but it’s important to step back and think about what you want to say and how you say it.  The one constant about the internet is that nothing ever disappears.  Those negative comments have a way of coming back to haunt us.  And while we want to pique interest and attract attention, we don’t want it for the wrong reasons.

It’s all about them. Send someone a compliment.  While it sounds so simple, just think of how many times you’ve received a compliment from someone you don’t know and you immediately click on their blog or website link to learn more about them.  Always make sure your blog URL is in your signature line when you do send these emails.

Create a dialogue. Respond to others’ comments left on your blog posts.  Sometimes people who comment will return to see what others have said, especially if it turns into a discussion thread.  It validates their comments when they see that the blogger has chimed in as well, making it more of a two-way dialogue.  Even if you are simply thanking someone for leaving a comment, be sure to have a presence on your blog, well past the initial post itself.

Tactical tweeting. Retweet others’ interesting blog or article links that are similar to yours, and then insert a link to your own blog somewhere in the mix.  More times than not, if someone sees that you’ve retweeted their tweet, they’ll reciprocate, which means that many more people will see your next promo tweet.  Also, include tags in your tweets that could help you reach your target audience even outside your list of Twitter followers, along with a link to your blog (i.e. Insightful post on resurrecting your #muse at insert-URL-here).  I’d also recommend using tinyurl.com to shorten your direct link to your blog post—this also helps keep your post covert until people click on the link—a little less blatant “shameless self-promotion.”  Just make sure the pay off is appropriate at the other end.  In other words, don’t tease with a tag to drive people to your blog, only to discover your post is talking about something entirely different.

Step out of your comfort zone. Broaden your audience outreach by participating in outside discussion threads on sites that have nothing to do with writing.  Simply by connecting with people on other topics, you are opening yourself up to that many more potential followers.  If they like what you’re saying about your shared interest, they’ll be more apt to seek you out in other venues.  However, don’t show up and immediately hoist up your personal billboard.  You won’t be looked upon favorably if people think you’re only there to promote yourself.  Be genuine and sincere in your participation.

While there’s nothing wrong with the tried and true methods of promoting your blog—we all do them, and most of the time they work well—it’s not always necessary to jump up and down and wave your hands to draw attention.  Sometimes you can get the same, or better, payback by covertly slipping in and slipping out like a promotion ninja.

Christina Arbini has worked in Public Relations for 16 years in her day job for a global branding and interactive firm in Seattle, helping to promote the firm’s partnerships with national consumer brands to world-renowned icons. She is a firm believer of not just talking the talk, but walking the walk, and has applied her PR knowledge to her own self-promotion as a pre-published author. She is a steadfast evangelizer on the importance of self-promotion at any stage of a writer’s career.

Outside of her day job, she is actively writing and seeking publication for her own fiction novels—mostly women’s fiction and paranormal “with attitude.” She is also a long-time member of RWA National, as well as several local writers chapters. You can find her online at www.christinaarbini.com, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Categories: Advertising Basics, All authors, Branding, Christina Arbini, Email Promotion, Marketing, Name Recognition, Platform Building, Social Networking, Staff, Websites
Tags: 1st turning point, author blog, blog url, blogosphere, Christina Arbini, dialogue, email, internet, link, online articles, promotion, return followers, signature line, tinyurl, tweeting, Twitter