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Blog owners know the thrill that comes from hitting the “publish” button. Even after years of being at it, the thrill is still there. Well, who wouldn’t be thrilled? Certainly you would be after spending sleepless nights and tons of edit in order to create a masterpiece you wish to share with your audience.

One thing that baffles me though is how blog owners spend all of their time on the content part of content marketing, and then totally forget about the marketing aspect. This involves blog promotion and post promotion, which they must fine tune to bring success to their blog. It’s not a superiority contest of whether creating content is more important than marketing. Spending equal time on both creating content and blog promotion will improve the odds of bringing your blog in front of the right people.

No one lights a candle and puts it under a bushel. So also, no one spends time creating that perfect blog post with the perfect image and/or video only to have no one read it.

In this post I’ll examine nearly 20 easy ways you can promote your blog posts to help optimize your reach.

1. Blog Comments

This is an old practice yet it helps blog promotion every time. However, commenting should not be done simply with the aim of self-promoting your blog posts. It also doesn’t bring good karma points in the end. Have you read a good blog post and would like to add one or two more points? You can use this avenue to promote your blog posts by commenting something in the direction of, “I just wrote about this topic and added two more points. Read about it here.”

Another style is commenting as an answer to a question the writer has raised. Your yardstick to measure if what you’re doing is right or wrong is to ask yourself if you’re adding any value to the ongoing conversation.

2. Contact Brands And Thought Leaders Mentioned

Many times we use analogies when trying to illustrate a point in our blog posts. And there are times when these analogies are real life situations when we can reference a brand or a thought leader. Once your post is published, take a chance on blog promotion by sharing the post with those brands or thought leaders you have mentioned.

Next time you write about a colleague, brand, website or even a competitor, send them a brief email. Let them know you have mentioned them in your latest blog post, and include a link to the actual post. Remember to give a brief introduction of yourself and your brand, and a brief summary of what the blog post is about. They may share your post with their followers even without you asking, but it doesn’t hurt to ask nicely if they would share.

3. Contact Relevant Blogging Colleagues

Gradually we are steadily shifting towards collaboration rather than competition. After all, together each achieves more in a team. So when you publish your new amazing blog post, do some blog promotion by reaching out to fellow bloggers. Just be sure the content is one that would interest their audience. Simply tell them about the new blog post, and that if they like it, you’d love for them to share with their audience. Be sure you’re open to doing the same.

4. Facebook Groups

It’s rare to find anything that doesn’t have a Facebook group (or thousands) including for blogging. If you’re overwhelmed, consider asking your fellow blogging friends for suggestion on which to follow. To maintain decorum, most Facebook groups have a no blog promotion policy. However, there is usually one day a week set aside for one to promote blog posts. So stay alert and take advantage of blog promotion thread.

Another way to promote blog posts is using it as an answer to a question. This is a smart move. Did someone ask about image resources and tools? You can just say one or two sentences and conclude with your link. That way you can drop your links without appearing spammy.

Related: How To Use Facebook Video To Work Less & Earn More

5. Guest Posting

Although this promotes your blog in general rather than specific blog posts, it’s still a great way to do blog promotion. It’s also a great way to get your name in front of a lot of readers that do not know you. Writing for other blogs means you get a byline with links to your blog. Although before committing to creating a blog post, be sure to review the guidelines and ensure you actually do get a byline with your name and a link to your site. (Not all sites do that.)

To help make this guest post worth it, ideally choose blogs that have a much higher readership than yours. A blog with high popularity will bring you a lot of traffic from your byline. But even a blog with similar traffic to yours can bring a boost, provided it’s the right blog and a great match for your niche.

6. Join H.A.R.O.

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a platform where reporters and expert opinion sources can find each other. Bloggers and reporters use HARO to find thought leaders to quote for their articles. That means one can register as either a reporter or as a thought leader. If you get interviewed by a reporter for a piece that relates to your niche, you can always ask the reporter to link back to a specific blog post or your general website. This helps promote blog posts but also helps give you credibility by being interviewed.

7. LinkedIn Groups

Few bloggers use LinkedIn for anything other than putting “Founder ThisIsMyBlog.com” on their headlines. Nevertheless, using LinkedIn for blog promotion is actually a wise option. Ariana Huffington does this with her posts. Daily natural interaction with contacts is also a way to promote your links.

In addition, LinkedIn groups offer great exposure to promote blog posts. Find those that resonate with your niche, and then occasionally share relevant links with them. You can also drop your links as answers to questions just like on Facebook and sites like Quora.

 

8. Newsletter

Isn’t that what you use your mailing list for? You help build a relationship with your audience through a periodic newsletter. While the content of your newsletter could be anything from an update on an ongoing project, highlights of an event or promoting a product, it can also promote blog posts.

In fact, most content management systems (like WordPress) use a plugin that supports blog promotion. That means that once a post is published, it is immediately broadcast via a newsletter to your subscribed audience.

Another option is to collate popular posts and share them with your subscribers at the end of each month. This way, loyal readers will be able to catch up on anything they might have missed. This can also help give you regular content for your newsletter.

9. Periodic Link Roundups

Those who belong to groups like Facebook groups or forums can use this option to promote blog posts. The way it usually works is that someone in the group (usually an administrator) asks everyone to drop links to a recent blog post of theirs that addresses a particular topic. Depending on the groups, these link roundups could be done weekly or monthly.

10. Pinterest Group Boards And Tailwind Tribes

Other than general blog promotion after a new blog is published, use Pinterest group boards and Tailwind Tribes to increase your reach. Search for and join these groups and tribes that interest you and align with your niche. After being accepted, be active on the groups, and share and pin relevant content. The same rules that apply to Facebook groups apply here as well. Of course, avoid spamming.

11. Publish Slides To Slideshare

This is one road that is less travelled. However, more and more people are getting on board the LinkedIn bandwagon because of its focus on professional profiles. Depending on your niche, converting your blog posts to slides and sharing on Slideshare could gain a lot of traffic for your blog.

Rather than simply copying and pasting blog post text into a slide, minimize the words and use more graphics to convey your message. Of course, those interested in further information can always use your provided link back to your blog. This is a quick and easy way to promote blog posts or your blog in general.

12. Question And Answer Sites

Quora is a great example of this. Just like group and forums, the same applies to Question and Answer sites. First find a question you’re knowledgeable about. Then answer the question with a sentence or two and send readers to your blog for detailed explanations.

Some question and answer sites are specific to geographic locations and others are specific to subject. So be sure you’re aligning with the appropriate sites before giving your answers and dropping your link.

While this will generally promote blog posts rather than your entire blog site, use other blog promotion tools such as related posts to refer them to other posts once they arrive. This should help get readers interested in your site in general, especially as they see you have multiple articles related to what brought them to your site to begin with.

13. Reddit

As a hybrid between a search engine, content aggregator and social media, Reddit helps people group their discussions into subreddits. Get involved in general subreddits that relate to your niche. It’s helpful to join some smaller groups very specific to you niche, as well as ones with at least 10,000 users. Stay active, and again, don’t be spammy in your blog promotion. You can ask for help from friends and colleague to help you get some initial upvotes to help get the ball rolling.

14. Related Posts On Your Blog

In this post, I’ve made reference to other posts that are related in topic that may be helpful. These are called related links and they help promote blog posts. There are plugins like Shareaholic, Link Within and others which help you handle this without stress.

However, manually referring your readers to related content is a better option. Doing this helps in multiple ways. You make Google search bots love you more, you offer additional related helpful content, and you get readers to read old blog posts. This all helps remove any doubt from your readers’ mind about you being an expert in your niche.

15. Social Media

Before you roll your eyes at the obvious fact that ALL bloggers surely MUST be using social media to promote blog posts, you should be prepared for the contrary reality. A large number of bloggers do not use social media for blog promotion.

Fortunately, technology advancements have made things easy and you can schedule instant blog promotions and go to sleep. And as a reminder, there are WordPress plugins that will automatically schedule your blog posts to go out on all of your social media channels immediately after you click publish.

16. Stumbleupon

Meeting the needs of both the consumer and a contributor, Stumbleupon can help you discover new content and also share your own content. As an aggregation site, it collates contents that it thinks a user will find useful based on earlier selected interests. Just like any other content site, spamming will not bring anything good. So temper down the self-promotion and try to maintain a balance as a consumer and a contributor.

Related: 5 Top Tips To Earn Money Blogging

17. Submission And Aggregate Websites

A branch of the content industry that is gaining popularity is content aggregators. On these websites, one submits the links to their blog posts which are then voted on by viewers. Submitted posts with more votes would have more shares and consequently more reach. Check out the following as some examples:

• BizSugar
• Digg
• DoSplash
• Growth Hackers
• Inbound
• Kingged

18. Syndicate Your Content To Top Blogs

There are several top blogs like Huffington Post and Business Insider that allow an already published blog to be republished on their site. This may be a great option for promoting blog posts that fit their criteria. Reach out to them, pitch your blog posts and watch your traffic skyrocket.

19. Twitter Chat

Invite industry thought leaders, fellow bloggers and even your audience to a Twitter chat with focus on a particular niche. During the chat, you can refer participants to a blog post for more details. If you can’t start your own Twitter chat, you could join others and promote blog posts as an extra. Always ensure your contribution is adding value to the conversation and not just a way for you to dump your links.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BLOG AND YOUR POSTS?

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