How to Drive More Readers to Your Blog Posts

None of us writes a blog just to admire our own words of wisdom. We write it to provide information, to bolster our credibility, to illustrate our expertise, to attract new customers … the reasons are many and varied. But they all share the common factor that we want readers.

 

Attracting Readers

Just creating and writing a blog is not a guarantee that it will attract readers.  There are many things readers may find attractive: humor, images, pithy writing, helpful information, insightful analysis, compelling content and more. But if no one knows about your blog, no one will read it.  Just like a website without SEO, it may end up being like a Billboard in the Woods.

Where Do You Get Exposure?

There are a bunch of places to seek visibility for your blog posts. BlogPros.com recently listed 50 of them. Let’s highlight some of the best ones for a small business blog.

• Social Media Sites
  • These are a great source of visibility. Some of my favorites are:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Business Profile
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
• Social Bookmarking Sites
  • Some of these get a great deal of traffic and are worth serious consideration:
  • Reddit
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
• Article Directories
  • These no longer provide link juice to your blog posts like they once did, but they can still drive traffic to your posts. Here are a couple of the best:
  • Blog Engage
  • EZine Articles
• Personal Resources
  • These are a lot more under your own direct control:
  • Your Email Newsletter
  • Your Email Signature Block
  • Industry Blogs
  • LinkedIn Groups
  • Facebook Groups
• Paid Advertising
  • Pay Per Click ads can get expensive, and many businesses spend thousands of dollars a month on them. But they can also help on a much smaller scale for small businesses. These are the top two:
  • Google Ads
  • Facebook Ads
• Specialized Sites
  • These are similar to blog directories and bookmarking sites, but are more narrowly focused. Here are a few examples:
  • Business2Community for business related content
  • BizSugar for content related to small businesses
  • DesignFloat for material related to web design
  • DeviantArt for the art and design community
  • MySpace for music and entertainment related content

Tell us about your success (or lack of it) with these. Is there a technique you’ve found that’s not listed here? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

Need help with your visibility? Rank Magic can help!