Blog Tips: Promote Your Posts

Writing a blog post usually doesn't take 10 minutes and then you're done, ready to publish. Typically you spend hours writing it up, finding or making graphics, uploading and positioning photos. Sometimes a post develops over a couple of days. So when you hit publish, you want to make sure that you're getting the most out of your blog post - the most out of all that work - by promoting it as much as you can. I'll show you a few ways to do that to gain maximum exposure. 

Tagging - You want to make sure that before you even publish your post that you have tagged it appropriately. Take key words from your post, title, and subject and use them as tags. One word tags are best, as they keep it general and not too specific. The more specific you get the harder it is for your post to come up later. Most blogging platforms let you search for blog posts related to specific tags, which opens your posts to the entire blogging community. Not just that, but tags allow your posts to get exposure in Google searches. The more popular your posts get, the higher up on the search list they become. This is the biggest and best way to promote your posts.

Google+ - The first thing you're going to want to do after you hit publish {if you have Blogger and it  prompts automatically} is to share it with your Google+ peeps. When I hit publish on any of the blogs I write, a little box will pop up with a comment form for me to write a brief description of my post and who I want to share it with on Google+. I just fill that out and hit share. The people in my circles will get a notification that I shared a post with them and they'll go and check it out. If you have Blogger and that little box doesn't automatically pop up, head on over to your posts section and underneath the post you just wrote click 'share' and that box will pop up. What's great about sharing on Google+ is that Blogger makes it very easy for you to spread your posts to the people in your circle. It's almost effortless because there is no copying and pasting links. If you don't have Blogger, but are on Google+, simply head on over to your Google+ profile and share the post on your 'wall'. Everyone in your circle will see your update and will check out your post. 

Twitter - Once you've shared on Google+, you're going to want to share with your Twitter friends too. The best way to do this is to head on over to your posts and underneath the one you just wrote click 'view' and a new tab will open with that post. Scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the Twitter share button. It will automatically share your post title with the link without you having to copy and paste anything. We like effortless, don't we? If you don't have that option of sharing at the bottom of each post, simply log in to Twitter and paste the link URL and share. If your Tweets are automatically shared on your Facebook wall, then great! One less step for you to promote your post.

Facebook - You can share on either your personal Facebook wall to let all your friends know about this awesome recipe you just put together or if you have a Facebook page for your blog, share it there. Or you can share on both accounts. My posts are promoted on both my personal and my blogs' pages so that my posts get maximum exposure. Your friends might get a little tired of seeing it on your personal page, but hey; they're your friends! They should support you, right? 

Pinterest - If your posts consist of images and/or graphics at least half of the time, you should create a board for your blog on Pinterest. We have one for B.You {a group board} that we each pin to that gets a lot of exposure. What is great about Pinterest and promoting your posts on it is that your pinned image for your post can get seen by not just the people following you, but by the entire Pinterest public as well with two ways; repins and your descriptions. Lets say you write a blog post about a recipe for a crock pot apple pie {does this exist, cause if it does I am soooo making it!}. You write up the post and include a photo graphic to pin and pin it to your blog board. In the pins description you write 'B.You: Easy Crock Pot Apple Pie Recipe'. Someone hops on Pinterest and searches either 'easy crock pot recipes' or easy apple pie recipes'; your pin will come up. People will check it out, love it and repin it. The more repins it gets, the more popular it becomes and the more exposure it will get. And chances are that if someone has taken the step to visit your pin, they're going to check out the rest of your blog too. 

Instagram - So, remember that awesome post you wrote about an easy crock pot apple pie recipe? Take that photo graphic and share it on Instagram. Write a comment saying something like 'Shared this easy apple pie crockpot recipe today on the blog! Check it out! (Link in profile) #crockpotrecipe #applepierecipe #food #byou #foodblog #desserts'... you get the picture. Your friends are going to see it, they're going to want to check it out, maybe even share it and recommend it to their friends. And all those hashtags you used? People who don't follow you will find your photo, like it, then head on over to your blog post to check it out. I've gained a lot of followers and views on Chevron Stitches just by using hashtags in my photos. It's like 'tagging' on your blog posts, but for pictures. 

Digg, Delicious, and Reddit - These bookmarking sites are great to promote your posts on because like Google search, your posts becomes open to the public searching for related posts. Submit each post and you will start seeing your traffic pick up within just a few days. 

Contacts - Belong to a group on Facebook that is a community of bloggers and networkers? Share your post on the wall. Have a list of blog contacts? Send out an email with your latest blog post to them and ask them what they think. Add your latest blog post to the signature of your email. Are a part of a blogging community like the Better Blogger Network or Networked Blogs or Blog Catalog? Share your post with your friends or exchange links with other bloggers. 

Other Blogs - Maybe you have a chance to guest post on another blog; share a post from your blog on theirs linking back to your blog. Another way to promote with other blogs is by commenting on relevant blog posts linking back to your post. Remember to keep it genuine and authentic - that blogger isn't going to want to visit your blog if you sound fake. 

Other Websites - There are websites out there that will allow you to submit your blog for their visitors to see. Amazon, IFITT, Alltop, Syndic8, and Demand Studios are examples of websites that allow submissions of blogs and posts to be distributed and shared with other websites. Amazon will even pay you if someone reads what you have submitted through their Kindle Vendor section! I highly recommend visiting these sites and checking them out as a way to promote your posts. You could also search for 'syndicate websites for bloggers' and a whole list will come up with other websites to submit your blogs on. Remember to also visit those blog network sites to gain a following like the ones mentioned above in the contacts section as well as Bloglovin'!

It might seem like a lot and incredibly overwhelming, but you don't have to utilize every single option here. More than half of these options have scheduling posts, updates, etc available which will give you more time to brainstorm more posts! 

Check back soon as we will share with you how to schedule posts, updates and more or multiple social media websites!