Promotion

Gooch

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I know that a large number of the bloggers here are not so worried about promoting their blog, using it as a creative outlet/brain dump. But, I do know that there are some here that may have done this in the past.

With my blog, I use it to primarily review older horror films, etc. and have a lot of fun with it. However, I would eventually like to draw some attention, such as a magazine or newspaper, etc. that might be looking for a freelance writer for just such type of fare.

As of late, I've started to read up on the subject of blog promoting, (probably not the correct term) so when I get to a point where I want to draw some attention, I'll be ready for it.

As an experiment, I've been doing things such as, technorati, I've been accepted to Blogburst and have even had two reviews picked up by one of the news papers there. I've been submitting my reviews to digg.com, and even tried deli.ci.ous which I don't understand in the least. I've even gone so far as a myspace page associated with my real blog, since that crowd could have a heavy user base of people that would be interested in the subject matter.

For those of you that are interested in promotion of your blog, what steps do you use to get your word out and about, and help drive in readers to your site?

Just as a recape, I'm aware of:
Blogburst
Technorati
Digg.com
deli.ci.ous
myspace

Are there some other important feed sites that I'm missing?
 

Georganna Hancock

she's back!
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Is your blog listed in all the many blog directories, the Open Directory Project, indexed by the three major search engines and any specialty ones dealing with your subject matter? Do you contribute articles to other websites, taking care to list your blog with your signature? You can always buy advertising, too. The cheapest is probably Google's AdSense. Is your blog listed on similar blogs/websites?

Just a few notions off the top of my head.

Good luck!
 

Gooch

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I have been starting to comment on other blogs a lot, with my link back attached to the post. Especially on similar themed blogs, film blogs etc, and that's helped quite a bit.

I've added to a few of the blog directories, but really have no idea what the big named ones are outside of technorati and Blogburst. Aside from that, I've been a bit gunshy about cold emailing other sites and asking about a link exchange, etc.

I've recently started looking into submitting reviews to other sites, but I've barely scratched the surface on that side of it. As far as search engines go, I haven't submitted anything directly that I remember, although I do know that I turn up on on some searches, however not at the top usually, and I do get traffic from the big search engines.

My biggest thing, is that I'm pretty new to this, as far as trying to drum up traffic, so it's all a bit of learning experience for me. The subject matter being a bit of a niche thing makes it more challenging as well :)

Thanks for the ideas though, gives me some things to start looking into!
 

L M Ashton

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Personally, I hate it when people email me asking for links when

a. they haven't had any previous contact with me and have never read my site (they don't even know my name, nor do they have a clue whether my site is appropriate for them or vice versa.)

b. request a link and say they'll link to mine after I link to theirs (if they want to link to my site, if they find the information interesting and relevant, then they should, regardless of whether I link or not. Plus it reeks of manipulation.

So I, personally, thank you for not spamming random people with link requests. :)

You could also consider learning more about SEO - Search Engine Optimization. The short version is that there are specific strategies you can use to get yourself to the top of the search engines using key words and such. It's a fairly detailed topic and I know only a very leetle bit about it. There are free courses you can take that'll teach you this.

And hang around here. Get involved in the comment chains, blogging chains, Flash Fiction Friday (I had to throw that in, don't'cha know? :)) and that sort of thing. It'll bring you more exposure.
 

JulieB

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Just a quick word or two about SEO:

It's cool stuff, but you have to learn to do it the right way. If you go about it the wrong way, it can actually hurt you in Google.

It boils down to two commandments:

1. Thou shalt not spam thy keywords.
Google wants relevance. It's okay to have your name and/or certain words on the page several times - especially when those words are well-integrated into your content. Every post on my blog has a byline. I didn't do that for SEO purposes, but discovered that it raised my Google ranking. Use meta tags, but use them with caution. The "description" meta tag is your friend.

2. Thou shalt be selective in thy links.
There's nothing wrong with a huge sidebar of links, but each link should be selected by hand. The word here again is relevance. Google likes links, but an inbound link from Bob's Blog will be more relevant than an inbound link from Jane's Link Farm, even though Bob's Blog has less traffic. OTOH, if Bob's Blog is very popular and he links to you, that can help you even more. Don't go submitting your site to every submission bot on the planet. You'll end up on link farms. Want an example of relevant links do? Google Barbara Bauer or PublishAmerica.

Google is constantly changing its ranking algorithm, but as long as you obey the two commandements, your rank will improve.

If you really want to get geeky about SEO, start at http://searchenginewatch.com/. Click on the Resources link for helpful information.