33 Useful Ways to Promote & Improve Your Blog

Aug 7th, 2007 by Leonid Shalimov | Scroll down for comments

This is an expanded and improved list based on this article that we published when we launched CashBulge. I have done a lot of research to compile this so hopefully this will end up being the ultimate resource for improving your blog and driving more traffic to it. Let’s dive straight into the mega list.

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1. Comment on other blogs in your niche.

Probably one of the most powerful ways to get noticed early on and to establish ties & contacts with people that have similar interests. Remember, network yourself. Make sure you post relevant comments - meaning that spam is not appreciated, if you’re going to take the time out to comment then do a good job at it.

2. Join forums & communities.

Same as before, join forums and communities that are in your niche. Some useful forums I always reference (for SEO and Marketing) are DigitalPoint and EarnersForum. Be sure to establish a reputation. Be helpful and thorough, people will notice and will be more inclined to visit the link in your sig ;).

3. List your blog in directories and top sites.

BlogFlux is a great blog directory and free to submit to. Start out with this and then expand. Get the most out of it, be sure to fill in description with targeted keywords and such. Here is another great resource for submitting your blog.

4. Promotion & SEO Blog Plugins.

Depending on which blogging platform you are using you should have an array of tools at your disposal. Get the plug-ins that you need and scrap the ones you don’t. Almost every blogging platform has an ‘SEO’ or ‘Keywords’ plug-in, use it!

5. RSS Feed conversion.

Use FeedBurner, its the best in the RSS industry right now and used by all the top bloggers such as ProBlogger and others. It’s easy to use and easy to advertise your feed. Just install their scripts and your ready to go.

6. Use Technorati.

Technorati is a powerful resource for bloggers. You can see who has linked your story and how powerful your blog is compared to others. Have your friends favorite your blog for more visits!

7. Social Bookmarking - your powerhouse.

Getting to that front-page of Digg or Reddit is a gold-mine and will create a tsunami of visitors. A great social bookmarking plug-in is AddThis, it installs itself to the end of every post and looks great. Super easy to use and saves space (no ugly rows filled with icons).

8. Traffic Exchange websites.

Sites like BlogExplosion are a powerful way to drive some new traffic. Basically you browse other bloggers blogs and earn ‘credits’ which you can then redeem for traffic or review posts. It’s good stuff.

9. Linkrolling.

BlogRolling is a link manager service that helps you organize and evolve your list of links. It also makes it easier for people browsing your site to add you with a quick button :).

10. Using Flickr to host your images. Save space.

Well that tag-line basically did it. By using Flickr to host your photos, you can save web space and bandwidth each month and even get a few incoming links depending on how good your photo is. (Remember to always use alt tags!)

11. Blog from your desktop.

Sick of the clutter from writing in your browser GUI? Try out wBloggar, an easy and compact downloadable program that allows you to edit your blog from your desktop without having to open up a browser.

12. Get bought out.

Think that a bigger company might like your stuff? Try and sell it! Here’s one such company: WeblogsInc. Another is b5Media.

13. Review something!

Whether it be another website in your niche or some kind of product/gadget/gizmo just go ahead and let everyone know what you think about it. Especially if this is about another site in your niche, you’ll definitely be getting some backlinks.

14. Widgets & sidebar cleverness.

Get plug-ins and sidebar widgets! Everyone’s got them and for a reason. Stuff like most viewed posts, top contributors and tag clouds make your blog highly versatile and give readers something to do once they are done reading your articles.

15. Guest blogging.

Either you can write a guest article on someone’s blog, or someone can write an article on yours. Either way, both parties get linked so its a win-win! Plus, this kind of thing can get you top notch exposure especially if the person you are dealing with owns a high traffic blog.

16. Interview other Bloggers or people of interest.

Self explanatory really. Contact your favorite blogger and let them know your ideas, why you want to interview them, etc. You’ll be surprised how many people would be interested in this.

I recently interviewed Adnan from Blogtrepreneur which was an exciting way to let readers know more about him and his goals and achievements with his website. Also gave me some great idea’s as well.

17. Take your stats and use them.

In your site statistics, you can see what keywords people are using to reach your site. Use that to your advantage! Use those keywords more often to send targeted traffic.

If you don’t have site stats, here are some links to free stat counters:

StatsCounter
EasyCounter
Free HTML Counter

18. Add a “you like this?” link to your posts.

Edit your blog template to add a “If you liked this post, subscribe to our feed” to the end of your posts, you’ll be surprised how many readers you get if you write content well.

19. Lists, kinda like this one!

Top 10, 8 Secrets, 4 Tips, 21 Ways, etc. These types of lists are popular and great linkbait, use em’!

20. Try to get a blogging award.

You may try for a blogger award from sites like Bloggies. If you end up winning that will give you a massive amount of exposure.

21. Video blogging, use YouTube to enhance your site.

Posting videos on YouTube and then re-directing to your site or embedding can you a great boost in popularity (as well as interactivity). This way, your reader’s will get to know you for you.

22. FeedForAll

FeedforALL allows you to display other sites feed or feeds in a search engine friendly format. Helpful if you want additional content to supplement yours. You can also contact other’s in your niche and exchange RSS Feed displays, etc. Good way to network.

23. Organize yourself and set a standard.

Set a standard for your posts. Whether they be intense and solid articles or personal ‘fluff’ type articles, make sure you stick to your guns and stand behind what you write. Organize your thoughts and make your content more cohesive.

24. Check your websites load time.

If your blog loads at the pace of a snail, be sure to check what’s slowing it down and either remove it or fix it. A lot of blogs and websites in general are strewn with video clips, games, pictures and other things that slows old browsers way down. Keep it clean.

25. Use sitemaps.

Sitemaps are crucial. It updates your posts and lets all search engines and crawlers know about it. You can get the Wordpress plugin from this site.

26. Use drafts to jot down notes and ideas.

Ever have that great idea that you just can’t get to yet? If you’re worried about forgetting it, quickly load up WordPress and write a new headline title with a reminder to yourself to write the story. Save it as a draft and don’t publish it. Now this story will be displayed everytime you login so you know what you have to do.

27. Don’t rush things.

While you should post often, it’s not always the best strategy either. I like to switch it up, some articles will take me 2-3 days to finish and write while other ones may take 30 minutes. It all depends. There should be a coherent mix between long and short, ‘fluff’ and intense articles. The main point is keeping your blog fresh with great content (not as easy as it sounds :-P).

28. Word of mouth.

Tell your friends, co-workers, and family about your projects. More often then not they will be supportive and happy to hear that you have set goals for yourself and took a risk to start your own project. You’d be surprised how far word of mouth can spread.

29. Create a few newsletters.

And then send them out to your readers! Maybe a monthly or bi-monthly or even a quarterly newsletter with updates and announcements about your site would be a great idea to keep those people who ‘forgot’ about your site to be coming back.

30. Join MyBlogLog.

Join MyBlogLog to be able to make contact with other MyBlogLog users and develop relationships. Reach out to the other webmasters and readers and let them know what you’re up to.

31. Write your own e-book.

If you think you have enough useful knowledge on your niche, why not write your own e-book? It would be a great tool to market and if it starts selling you could get a lot more traffic (and extra money).

32. Create some PodCasts.

Include podcasts as part of your blog to show off interviews, informational pieces and hot news items. This would give your blog some needed interactivity if thats what it is lacking. Definitely a great way to get reader’s to come back for more.

33. Start a contest!

Have an old book that relates to your niche and its just sitting there gathering dust? Why not give it away free as part of a contest! For example, take one month and to the person that comments the most on your blog without spamming could win the book with free shipping! That would stir up a lot of comments and traffic as well.

Phew.

Ok, what a list. Hope everyone enjoys this post and refers back to it every now and then. Let me know if you have anymore ideas or comments! Be sure to Digg it and share it on other social bookmarking sites.

Leonid Shalimov posted this article under Blog Improvement on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 10:40 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site. View Technorati Linkbacks.