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You’re writing blog posts, shooting videos and recording podcasts, but no one gives a crap. Or at least it appears that way, since nobody’s reading, watching or listening. The fact is that no matter how amazing your content may be, you need to take the extra steps to put it in front of people. I know you want the comments, the traffic, the email list and ultimately the money, but it’s just not happening unless you promote your blog. And not just your blog, your blog posts and every page you have online. Other than putting content out there, promotion involves search engine optimization, email marketing and social media. So here are 5 easy ways to promote your blog:

1. Email Marketing

This one will only help you if you’ve got an actual email list. As really, if you’re not using your blog to build an email list, you’re a complete and utter fool! That’s the whole reason I blog, apart from the fact that I like to express my opinions. If you have an email list, send out a quick email telling your subscribers to go checkout your latest blog post. As your list grows, email marketing will become a great way of instantly driving traffic and starting lots of conversations in the comments. If you’re not already building a list, start immediately.

2. Bookmarks

Social bookmarking is a well known link building strategy, but hardly anyone uses it for traffic generation. There are hundreds of popular social bookmarking sites. They are essentially sites people go to bookmark and like/share their favourite websites or webpages. A lot of your stuff can actually go viral on social bookmarking sites, that’s where the real traffic is. If your posts get enough likes or shares, you can get featured on a home page and receive a tsunami of traffic. The reality is that bookmarks aren’t fantastic backlinks, but they do in fact drive almost instantaneous traffic. I’d advise you to bookmark your new posts/videos & even podcasts on Delicious and StumbleUpon. There are a lot more, but analytics tells me 95% of my bookmark traffic comes from those 2.

3. Social Media (Ping.fm)

I guess you could say bookmarks come under social media, but I’m talking about social networks. Sharing your posts on social networks is a fantastic way to drive traffic, build buzz and gain backlinks. I used to share my stuff manually on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but a free tool has emerged that simplifies the task. It’s called Ping.fm, it’s totally free and allows you to share messages & links on 30+ social media sites with the click of a button. Here are just a handful of the sites it posts to:

You can do some really cool stuff with Ping.fm, it really is essential for your blog. The cool part which I recently discovered is that there’s a WordPress plugin that automatically submits your posts through Ping.fm as soon as they’re published. Sending you an instant burst of traffic, readers and backlinks. It’s a set and forget thing.

4. Use NetworkedBlogs

NetworkedBlogs is a Facebook application that allows you to automatically share your blog posts on Twitter & Facebook as soon as they’re published. I’m sure they’ll add more sites over time, and I know Ping.fm does this for you. But… NetworkedBlogs allows you to connect as many Facebook groups, pages and Twitter accounts as you like. So you can eventually have it auto posting to 100+ Twitter accounts, and however many Facebook pages or groups you wish.

5. Blog Commenting

I know I’ve ranted on about blog commenting one too many times, but it really works. You know that thing called CommentLuv, that thing that allows you to link back to your latest blog posts? Well find blogs that have CommentLuv enabled and comment on their latest stuff. Make sure you tick display link to your latest blog post. This will immediately give your new posts a couple of ever lasting backlinks and continuous traffic!

In Prosperity,

David Wood

P.S. Like my stuff? Go ahead and join the email list by putting your details in the form below. Also feel free to leave me your comments, thoughts and questions in the box below.

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