After blogging for 15,000 hours over 10 years, one blog promotion mistake catches my eye.
This is a biggie; bloggers who simply share their blog posts across a wide range of networks to promote the post, and do absolutely nothing else. I mean, nothing. No networking. Drop a link to your post in a bunch of spots, then, RUN.
Hey; I actually suggest doing this via my blogging course.
I advise sharing your blog post in a bunch of spots. But I also delve into the most powerful way to promote your blog – networking generously to build your loyal blogging buddy network – in addition to the simple, prolific, free sharing method.
The biggest blog promotion mistake: publishing a post and simply sharing it to a bunch of spots online then exiting those spots without doing any engaging.
Imagine sharing your latest blog post to:
- Facebook Groups
- Twitter sharing threads
- LinkedIn Groups
- Pinterest Boards
All you do is tap a social bookmarking button, add a little text, as a summary, and share the post. Then you leave. That's it. Then nothing happens in these 10, 20 or 60 spots. No one clicks your links. No one reads your posts, follows your blog, shares your posts or buys your stuff, through the posts. Why would this be? Nobody cares about you or your blog. Why does nobody care about you and your blog? No one cares about non-social, non-engaging bloggers who drop links and run. Of course, I do this sometimes. But I get away with it because I spent thousands of hours building my blogging buddy network through:
- commenting genuinely on blogs for years
- retweeting fellow bloggers for years
- Facebook sharing fellow blogger posts for years
- mentioning fellow bloggers on Blogging From Paradise for years
- mentioning fellow bloggers through my guest posts for years
The blogging buddies I helped through these strategies do the same for me, daily or weekly, for years. I publish a post; 3-5 people share it on Twitter within a few hours. Blogging buddies share my posts on Facebook and LinkedIn routinely, or at the very least, I get a few Likes. Blogging friends invite me to guest post on their blogs, offering me another channel through which I help people, promote my blog and promote my businesses. Friends promote your blog far better than you can promote your blog.
The best way to promote your blog is to make a bunch of blogging buddies – by being generous and genuine persistently – who promote your blog around the clock, for a long time.
The worst way to promote your blog is to social share your latest blog post link to a gazillion spots and leave without engaging other bloggers, making friends or forming bonds….or….without sharing OTHER blogger's content on the groups, in the spots, routinely. This is the secret. This is the key. This makes everything go. Promote other bloggers. Ask for nothing in return. Expect nothing in return. Bonds form organically. Other bloggers help you, promoting you, increasing your traffic and profits swiftly. But if you drop a link and leave pronto, nobody clicks your link, no traffic flows to you and you drive no blogging profits, either.
Hey; maybe you observed a few Facebook Group Link Graveyards over the years. Yep; you know exactly what I mean. Facebook Groups seemingly littered with links from bloggers who drop a link, then leave without engaging or chatting or Liking or sharing, allowing their link to die in a graveyard of ME focused bloggers. Step out of the Graveyard of Links. Before posting your link, read and Like a few Facebook Group updates. Comment on a few Group posts. Perhaps Share a helpful blog post update or heck, any update, in the Group, to your FB wall, if Group permissions allow for this.
Being generous opens a world of promotional doors because the friends you make by helping people bring your blog to place you could never imagine. I still pinch myself when I see how awesome bloggers like Joy have promoted me, my eBooks and my content, through social media and by allowing me to guest post on their blogs.
Be generous. Help people. Make friends. Allow your friend network to promote you and your blog posts around the clock to tap into the wonderful power of your blogging buddy network.
