Blogging: Where to Start & Ways to Promote Your Content

I started blogging a bit over four years ago and since then I learned quite a lot of things about what it means to be a blogger. When I started I didn’t consider all the things that included life as a blogger – the things I know now for example. I started blogging because I wanted to have somewhere to vent, speak about my feelings, a place of my own.

I never ever considered that someone will actually read , like and follow this blog. I never considered/ I don’t consider myself a successful blogger (at least not as successful as other fantastic bloggers out there that really have a message to communicate to the world.

Anyway, if you also thought about writing a blog and want to know what you need to do to be successful at it – have someone read your blog – then do continue reading.

Find your voice and niche – Identify why do you want to start a blog.

Is it because you just want to write up things or is it because you want to eventually make little money about it? If it’s the first part than don’t worry too much.

You don’t need very much – cash or be very techy. You can very well start a blog on a free platform on Blogger or WordPress by choosing the name that you want and then start writing. 

If you want to eventually make some little money out of it or you just want to have a website that has the name you choose without it including blogger or wordpress than consider buying a domain, hosting and choose the right platform. On this side of things you need to be a bit more techy or you need a bit more money to do it all for you.  However, there are lots of tutorials out there so if you want to do it yourself than you only need to research.

Here are a few posts/websites that have advice:

http://www.wpbeginner.com

http://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/

http://staceycorrin.co.uk

http://www.britmums.com

http://www.tots100.co.uk

http://loveallblogs.com

SOCIAL MEDIA

One easy way to promote your blog is to use social media. There are several platforms for social media now days. You can use all of them or just choose the ones you already enjoy.

Facebook – You probably already own a Facebook account (as most people do nowadays ) but a more effective way to promote your actual blog is to create a Facebook Page. I am still quite a beginner when it comes about using my blog Facebook page as I have under 500 likes. Most surely the high majority of views that come from Facebook they are probably from people that follow my Facebook profile. It takes quite a bit to promote and schedule your posts. You can choose to use a plugin to have your post shared automatically on Facebook but in my opinion is better to personalise every single update. Like that you make sure that your post will sound more interesting which means you will get a lot more people visiting your blog.

Facebook Groups – They can take quite a lot of your time but they are also very useful. Joining groups in your niche will allow you to share ideas with people that share your passion. I also learnt a lot by being part of these groups. You will definitely find some bloggers that have a lot more experience and might also help you and teach you how to do things better on your blog. So make sure you interact and maximise your time sharing ideas and getting information. Some groups might even allow you to share your articles. But don’t make a rule out of this because you could also be kicked out of a Facebook group if the admin notice that you don’t interact with the rest of members. If other blog posts are shared on the group why not visit those articles, comment and say how you find their blog. Bloggers usually reciprocate and they will come and visit your blog too. Also if you really like a post why not share it on your Facebook Page and try and tag the owner – this will definitely make you fellow blogger friends.

Twitter – I discovered this platform about a year after I started blogging ( I know quite silly) but very soon I become addicted to it. I am not using it as much as I do now but I still keep a special place for it in my heart. Anyway, post and schedule tweets that can direct traffic to your blog. Again you will have to maybe change your title to become a little more catchy. If you share the same post over and over with the same title people will soon become bored of seeing your tweets and unfollow you. Follow twitters from your niche and/or similar interests ,  interact with them and start conversations. If you find interesting blog posts tweeted you can visit and comment on their blogs and of course let them know you follow them on twitter.

Instagram – One of my favourites social media platforms at the moment as it helps me share pictures I take during the day with my friends, family and followers all over the world. On Instagram you also have the opportunity to share the pics you take even further – Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr etc. Some share their blog pictures on here but I stay away from that(most of the time). I feel like instagram is a more personal social media platform. Of course you can add your website link there but try and not clog it with website promotion as people will just unfollow you.

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Pinterest – I use it and think of it like my public library of websites, things I like, recipes, places I want to visit, fashion and home designs to inspire me. But for blog promotion I have to think about differently. As this social media platform is so driven by photographs I have to make sure that my photos  are of great quality and my content are things that people want to read. Images need to be vertical and quite big and as much as possible inviting.

YouTube – Until a couple of years ago I didn’t even think of YouTube as a blog promotion platform but this has now exploded of brand new users. More and more bloggers, chefs, designers are using youtube to promote their website. I even started to use youtube more although I am not natural born speaker or video editor. But my daughter is quite good so I am promoting her channel more than I promote mine.

StumbleUpon – There was a time when I used to used StumbleUpon more by these days I used it less and less probably because of my love for Pinterest. However I find that there are quite interesting posts to be found here and unlike Pinterest you can see the whole post. However because you can only browse by categories you can never know what you might stumble upon. You can stumble your own posts but if you want to get blog views from via stumble other people need to stumble your posts too so again make your posts as inviting and as interesting as possible.

Google + – Is the social media platform I just can’t get used to. I don’t like the way people interact over there or how you need to share your posts. However, like with the rest of the social media platforms the images and content you use need to be high quality. One of my fellow blogging friends Aly Hodge shared this guide to Google+ so if you want to know more than this is the article for you. Here is how a post of mine looks on Google+

But if you want to see how a really popular post looks on Google+ you should check out Red Ted Art profile. She gets so many shares and +1. She is a craft blogger so I guess that helps too and her images are always enticing.

LINKIES – This is another way to promote your blog/website to other blogs. They usually have a specific theme like parenting, food,craft,photography etc. or their purpose is just to promote blog posts. And if the blogs where you post your link have a wider audience than your blog has then you can get noticed by their readers. Also if you are the one hosting and you can get enough people to join in then your page views will increase. However if you join in with these you need to make sure you follow the rules of the linky. Don’t just dump your link there and run. They might stop you from joining in later. I join in with a couple of linkies and I host a Pinterest Parenting Linky on my blog too.

GUEST POSTS – Now this is when you guest posts on other blogs or websites. I guest posts on a couple of blogs and even on Netmums about Depression in pregnancy. Posting on Netmums actually had me featured in one of Huffington videos about pregnancy and of course got me a few more views on my blog too. So go for it too! Even if you don’t get approached you can approach the editor of any online magazine and who knows they might say yes.

BE AN ACTIVE COMMENTER – If you come across a blog post you like than why not comment under your own name or your blog name. Most of the comment forms let you add your website so if you leave a nice comment than the owner of the blog/website might pop over your website too. But comments are not only for blog posts. Comment on posts on the social media platforms too – Facebook, instagram are the best for it. Oh and if you join in with a linky make sure you comment on the host blog post too – it’s just polite after all you just dump your link on their website. If you guest post on someone blog than make sure that you can reply to any comments made by any of their readers – again that is the polite thing to do.  Same goes for your blog – if a comment requires a reply than make sure you do so.

BLOG POSTS VIA EMAIL – Make sure you have the form available for all your readers and that is also very visible on your website. I started to add them at the end of the blog posts too and this increases your chance of a reader clicking “Subscribe”. There are plugins you can use for that or you can just pop it in a widget.

EMAIL NEWSLETTER – I am still to improve on that as I have no newsletter going out to my subscribers yet but I am trying to implement MailChimp or Aweber on my site. Not sure yet which one is best but will definitely comeback here with advice.

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This is my advice on blogging promotion but if you have anymore I am happy to add your advice at the end of this blog post so please do contact me via email otilia.stocks@gmail.com.