I’ve been blogging now for 3.5 years, but I’ve had websites since 1995. Over all the years that I’ve been a webmaster I’ve learned how important it is to promote your site.
Now back in 1995 when I started my first website it was a heck of a lot easier to promote your site. There was less competition and since my website was in a very specific niche I was able to join (and fully participate) in forums specific to the topic, which of course, was a great way to inform people about my site.
Every time I start a new site I also make sure that I get it listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN and basically all of the best web directories that I can submit my site to for free. I’ve never paid for site submissions. I just don’t feel it’s worth it. However getting your site listed in a general directory or even better one that’s specific to your sites niche is still important and worth spending some time doing.
Over the last couple of years I’ve read that Google doesn’t give as much credit for directory listings as it once did – but hey, a link is a link, right? Plus if people are actually visiting a website directory to find sites that discuss specific topics it’s another way to get a few new visitors.
When it comes to blogs one of the best ways to promote your site is to visit other blogs and leave comments on their posts. If you leave a decent comment that adds to the conversation not only will the blog owner be more likely to visit your site, but so will some of their readers.
I used to be really good about commenting on other blogs. Over the last year or so I’ve fallen behind on commenting on my favorite sites and posts. I still visit my favorite bloggers and the blogs of those who leave comments but I just don’t seem to have the time anymore to concentrate on visiting sites and leaving comments. I guess I have too many sites to maintain and of course my health problems get in the way too.
It’s a shame because commenting on other blogs is a great way to build a community, get new visitors and of course get back links to your site. I really have to figure out a way to make more time to visit and comment on the posts I enjoy.
What do you do to promote your website or blog? Do you do the basics that I’ve suggested above? Have you ever paid to be listed in a directory or elsewhere?
For my two blogs, lots of reading and commenting on other blogs, networking on Facebook and Twitter. And for pure traffic, for better or worse, I use Entrecard.
My husband has a sports blog. With his blog, Blogburst has driven tons of traffic. What they do is allow associated press and other syndicated news services to pick up his posts. Talk about exposure. It doesn’t work for every blog, but it when it works, it really works.
Thanks for this post on blogs. I have always thought of them as kind of amorphous things of dubious value, but recently I am finding them very interesting reading! I don’t think it will replace news sites but blogging definitely supplements them.
Something new in my world is a tumbleblog. This is a small, easy to throw together minisite that functions like a blog. I am just wondering what is the value of such a thing as opposed to a traditional blog. Ideas?
In promoting a blog you really have to work hard on it,
if you’re purpose is to make money on it or if you wanna make your blog
famous.
But we really have to promote our blog harder to make
it more alive.
Oh, yes, I tried those ways you mentioned and I also make sure that I give my reviews/comments in very popular forum websites such as ‘Shopping and Sales” where there’s high daily traffic.
Hi Tricia,
I stumbled across your blog when I was in Google searching for a course on WordPress in To. I just started my blog 6 weeks ago, and am spending way to much time trying to understand all the little in and outs. That is why I was looking for a course. I live in downtown Toronto, but have a house out of town that I head to every weekend, so time is limited. Just wondering if you have any suggestions?
Thanks for your help
I agree with Ricky…You really have to work hard if you want to be successful in promoting your blog. If its an online diary or a journal, if you use it to promote products, ideas, and even information. No matter what your blog’s purpose is….you have to work hard to make it more alive.
Hello Sir,
Its interesting to read all these comments and the post as well..
I see that you are a veteran of several websites and i am a newbie in all senses struggling to find a place for my new and only site which is a tech blog..
your post has given nice clues to start my blog promotion activity and getting this advice from such an experienced hand is truly a nice feeling..
thanx for sound advice..let me try your suggestions..!!!
and wish you good health always !!
thanks again.
Promoting your blog is really hard these days,like Tricia said commenting on other blogs can get you some traffic and some backlinks but that won’t be enough to get a successful blog,you need search engine traffic..while i did a few tests i noticed that article submissions work really well..but you need time to write unique articles or re-write articles which will take very long. Submitting 3-5 articles per day for a few weeks with your link in the author are and in article(with your keyword as anchor text) could get you some quality backlinks and for sure will boost your search engine rankings.There are a lot of ghost writers that re-write articles for a really cheap price.
Another way is social bookmarking but is really hard to hit digg,reddit front page,depends a lot of your blog..
Hope this helps:)
It’s no kidding, promoting a blog is hard work. Especially if your tight on cash. I currently promote via commenting on other blogs and also do some bum marketing. I only do like one article per week cuz it just really hard to think of related article topics and to write every week. As you can tell by now writing is not my strength.
Promoting any kind of website is a lot of hard work. Fortunately, I love reading blogs and have found some that I am addicted to.
I found this site while looking for blogs to comment on for my newest website. I was also looking for information on WordPress. While I write for my websites Monday through Friday, I have been itching to start a blog. I just have a lot of stuff to say and share that doesn’t fit my websites but is related in many ways.
For my websites, I have never paid for a directory listing but I can see that changing in the near future. Article writing takes me almost as much time as writing a new page for a site.
Anyway it is nice to find a blog where blogging is actually discussed.
I haven’t paid to be listed on a directory yet. I stick to the free ones.
And I do comment regularly on other blogs, mainly ones that are photography related.
There’s a lot of talk about ‘nofollow’ and ‘dofollow’ blogs etc.. but, and maybe I’m wrong here as I’m no SEO expert, I saw no difference in pagerank results.
I’ve been commenting on both types of blogs regularly and managed to climb get to page 2 on Google SERP for my chosen keyphrases.
As a result, I just continue to comment on blogs and forums I find interesting, regardless of their ‘no/dofollow’ status.
I have also read a lot about how directory listings carry little link value but it’s not all about link value as you rightly point out.
I get a lot of traffic from directory listings. More importantly, I get a lot of well qualified, targeted visitors.
Now days I am even quite happy to post my business details on a directory where you don’t get a link because at the end of the day I’m here to do business. Who cares where it comes from.