How to Promote Your Blog Like A ‘BOSS’ (Right After You Launch It!)

Thursday, February 7th, 2013 at 4:01 pm

Note to the SEO Rebel Community: After sopping up this juicy morsel, head on over to Ana Hoffman’s blog to check out my insanely in-depth supplemental traffic case study guest post. You’re gonna love this.

So, you just bought your new domain name and hosting, watched a YouTube video and after about an hour of tinkering, figured out how to install WordPress; finally got a suitable theme and designed it to your liking, sat down and wrote your first post, hit publish… now what?

Well, it’s time to promote, of course!

Effective blog promotion is the thing that is going to get you on the map, fast. But, before you start seeing awe inspiring traffic spikes in your stats, you need to roll up your sleeves and prepare for some serious leg work.

This isn’t one of those posts that’s going to give you some rinky dink, noneffective, yawn inducing steps to follow. No ma’am (or sir).

I’m going to layout a simple (but not easy) ‘BOSS’ formula for promoting your blog and generating bee swarms of traffic.

Prepare to turn your blog into irresistible traffic honey …

Blog Communities

In my experience, engaging in blog communities has been one of the quickest ways to build up some stellar traffic, almost immediately.

The key to promoting your content through blog communities is to actually get engaged and interact with the members (for longer than just the first few hours after you sign up). Just signing up and submitting your links, hoping that people will vote for them and visit your site ain’t gonna cut it.

You have to apply the reaping and sewing concept. As with any inbound marketing tactic, what you put out is what you’re going to get back.

The first blogging community I ever got engaged in was BizSugar. I hopped on this site, saw the awesome potential, and devised a set schedule for myself that was rather simple to follow:

Vote for 10 to 15 submissions per day
Post 5 high-quality comments on 5 submissions
Cross post that same original comment to the actual webmaster’s blog as well, in a effort to build a direct relationship

Simple as pie, right?

This exact regimen is the way I began to interact and engage with the members of BizSugar, which is ultimately how I began to drive traffic and build a community around my blog.

And, guess what?

YOU can do the same thing!

If you stick to this same regimen (or an effective regimen that you concoct of your own), you’ll be pulling in your first gusts of traffic.

Oh, and BizSugar isn’t the only community you can get involved in; here’s a list of some others:

BlogEngage.com
BlogInteract.com
Blokube.com
Inbound.org
SERPD.com

But this is only the beginning…

Blogging Alliance

This is like having your own personal cheerleading squad, only it’s for your blog. A blogging alliance is basically a small group of bloggers that work together to promote each others content in a effort to help one another’s blogs grow faster.

This can be done in a variety of ways including forming a commenting tribe to leave feedback on each other’s blog posts, FB sharing and retweeting each other’s posts. This is a great way to start getting a lot of exposure and interaction on your blog, even in it’s early days.

This type of alliance strategy can even be expanded to include swapping guest posts, link roundup swaps, social media swaps and even YouTube video swaps – more on that in a bit.

So, where do you find people to join your blog alliance?

See step 1… the very people that you’ve been interacting and engaging with on the blogging communities can be part of your blogging alliance as well. All ya’ got to do is ask!

Nearly everyone you ask should be down to be in your alliance because you’ve been putting in the effort to build a relationship with them. Plus, who doesn’t want a chance to get even more free traffic and exposure?

I certainly do!

Guest Posting

I am a huge fan of guest posting. This is by far one of the very best ways to not only promote your blog and generate a lot of traffic, but also build a wildly popular and creditable brand almost over night. Not to mention the list building awesomeness that comes along with it.

There are several ways that you can go about guest posting for a popular blog.

One of the most common ways is to simply pick a random blog (with high traffic, of course), take it upon yourself to write a guest post for the blog, and then submit it by blatantly emailing the webmaster (without actually connecting with the owner first).

I personally don’t think that this is a good way to go about it.

If you’ve hung around me for a while, then you know how adamant I am about building relationships first with authority bloggers. This is especially necessary when you’re attempting to get and stay on a top bloggers radar.

So, I suggest that you have some patience and first focus on building a genuine relationship with the blogger first (not just a one hitter quitter, no one likes to be used). Court them, take them out on a cyber date in a sense – with the definite intent of having a long-term blogging relationship that includes more that just guest posting.

You can begin building the relationship by first sharing their content on your social media platforms and by sending them as much free traffic as possible (on a consistent basis).

The free traffic part can be done in various ways:

Start a link roundup on your blog and link to their recent blog posts
Submit their content to blog communities and promote it for them. Be sure to help them get the maximum amount of exposure and traffic by doing all that you can to make their posts go “HOT” on the site (this will bring them much more traffic).

These are just a couple of the relationship building tactics you can use. For more in-depth info about exactly how to do this the right way, see this juicy post.

You may be thinking that this is too much work, but I’m telling you, it is SO worth the effort.

Following this process, I’ve gotten 3 unsolicited guest post spots on 3 highly popular blogs.

There’s a different dynamic and relationship that’s built when you’re the one being asked to guest post for a popular blog (especially after just coming out of the woodworks), instead of it being the other way around.

You can’t be lazy when it comes to blogging super stardom. <– Click to Tweet!

Social Media (Facebook/Twitter)

This is one of the most common ways to promote your blog, but if you’re just launching your blog and are in the beginning stages of building your online presence, it can be extremely difficult to get traffic from social media.

However, there is a secret to getting a lot of it, even with no significant following of your own.

How?

Lean in a little closer so I can whisper the secret in your ear…

Ready?…

By leverage other people’s networks, of course!

When I first relaunched my blog, a good majority of my traffic came from Facebook and Twitter (and still does). But it wasn’t from my own efforts; it was from the shares and retweets of the people and top bloggers I’d built relationships with.

Yes, you do want to share your own content on your own social media outlets, but focus more so on getting other people to share your content. This goes right back to reaping and sowing. If you share others content freely, yours will be shared even more freely.

Oh, and your content can’t be sub-par either. Ya’ know the kind, some pieced together 300 or 500 word article that took you less than 30 mins to write (or someone you paid).

If you want your content to be shared virally on social media, it has to be insanely, out of this world good. I’m talkin’ crack like content.

That’s how you snatch and keep the attention of social media users and the big dogs.

YouTube

Video is a stellar way to not only get fast traffic to your site, but highly interactive, engaging and targeted visitors to your site. Not to mention the residual traffic benefits of it.

I just began to seriously engage in video marketing the beginning of this year and I’ve notice that my audience is responding well to it.

For YouTube to work effectively, there’s a few things that you should do (outside of all the SEO jargon, which I’ll admit, does work rather well for video).

I won’t go into all the techy details. You know me, I’m all about simplicity and engaging directly with the people.

So, here’s my short list of how to bring in crazy traffic with YouTube:

Just focus on being yourself in your videos. Don’t put on a fake front and expect people to flock to you, because they wont. People can smell phoniness from a mile away, even from behind a computer screen, so just BE YOU.
You don’t have to be a video production professional to record videos. You can simply use a webcam or flip cam. You can even use your Iphone or Android to record them. What matters the most is the content of your video rather than the quality. As long as the quality is decent and you can be seen and heard, go for it!

As far as getting views and subscribers to your videos and channel, you can treat it just like you do blogging:

You can contact other channel owners within your niche who already have lots of views and subscribers and ask to do a guest video on their channel.
You can also build a vlogging alliance, and treat it the same way you would a blogging alliance.
You can do video swaps, paid channel promotions for other channels to link back to your channel from their main YouTube page.
You can even do JV YT giveaways with related channels, or a JV video series where each channel does a video about a specific topic over the course of several episodes and promote each others videos.
You can simply embed your videos on your blog within your post to get more views (this is also good for decreasing your bounce rate).
You can also cross promote your blog and your channel. Within your blog posts you can link back to your channel to encourage more people to subscribe and within your videos you can place a simple annotation that links back to your blog. Win, win!

How does these ideas sound to you? Pretty stellar, right? I think so.

Implementing these tactic will be extremely effective for getting a windfall of YouTube traffic and building a more authoritative, creditable brand.

Let me know when you launch your new channel. I’d love to check you out and subscribe. Maybe even do a video collab some time soon.

Blog commenting

This is another simple and effective way to promote and drive traffic,while building relationships. Blog commenting is the staple way I first began to promote and drive traffic to my blog and I still do it faithfully, daily.

When commenting with the purpose of driving traffic and building relationships, for the best results one of the things you should focus on is only leaving high-quality blog comments. Not “one liner farts.” They stink and no one wants to smell them.

When you’re commenting focus on relating your experiences to the content that you’ve read in the post and being authentic. These are the type of comments that perform the best when attempting to promote and drive traffic, but more importantly, build relationships. You can find a detailed video of exactly how to do this properly and more inside of our exclusive members area.

Link roundups

When used properly, link roundups can prove to be a promotion and traffic goldmine. Not to mention, a stellar relationship builder.

A link roundup is basically a compilation of links of the very best content from around the net. Your roundups can be emailed exclusively to your list of subscribers on a weekly basis, or you can create a weekly feature post for the content (which is what I do).

Link roundups work to generate traffic in two ways:

You can submit your content to be in roundups to get traffic to your site
Or you can create your own roundups to draw visitors and authority bloggers to your site (I do the latter).

However, I would suggest you aim for both.

For these to work properly, you have to first create impeccable, world class content. That is, if you want your content to be featured in a roundup. You also should focus on building relationships with bloggers that do popular roundups.

Some webmasters that do regular roundups are:

Kristie Hines of Kikolani.com (you can be featured in her roundup by submitting your best content for the week to the Social Media Examiner group she runs)
Anita Cambell of SmallBizTrends.com (you can be featured in Anita’s roundup by submitting your content on and being an active member of BizSugar)
Ana Hoffman of TrafficGenerationCafe.com (She just started doing roundups. Yay, Ana! To possibly be featured in her roundup, become an active part of her blog community, leave lots of high quality comments and reach out to her directly)
And, myself; I also do regular link roundups as well. (to possibly be included in my roundup, become an active part of the SEO Rebel community, comment frequently – keep in mind quality, share our content and reach out to me directly)

As I mentioned, you can also begin to do your own link roundups as well. This is killer for building fast traffic and getting on the radars of top bloggers. I would suggest that you post your roundup on a weekly basis as a blog post. You can see some examples of how to do this here.

Be sure you’re only including the very best articles you’ve come across for the week and content that you’re sure your audience will benefit from.

Also, be sure to email or @Twitter mention the bloggers you include to let them know you’ve linked out to them. This is also a great way to get even more traffic to your site, because 99% of the time they’ll share your post with their social networks as well. Doing this on a regular basis can also lead to future mentions by a top blogger in one of their own posts, which = even more exposure.

Hand claps for free exposure!

Marketing Takeaway

Isn’t it clear by now???

Build relationships, build relationships, build RELATIONSHIPS!

That’s the true key to building sick server crashing traffic in no time. And, these are the exact things that I focused on to build up this blog so quickly.

Creating relationships with up and coming bloggers and top bloggers in your niche is a mandatory prerequisite for becoming a blogging superstar.

If your desire is to be among the blogging elite one day, you can’t afford to be a blogging introvert. <– Click to Tweet!

It’s ineffective, boring, and if it does somehow work for you, you’ll be turtle walking towards your goal.

So how about it?

Do you think this ‘BOSS’ formula will work for your blog? What are you currently doing to promote your blog? What changes will you be making? Let me know in the comments below!

Also, be sure to “like”, share, and Tweet this post if you found it helpful.

See ya’ around the net!

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

http://gabejohansson.com/ Gabe Johansson

Hey Ti!

But… all this is so much work! lol

I’d rather buy a few WSOs, solo and banner ads and just send emails

On a more serious note, I honestly get junk results from the blogging communities, social media, blogging, and commenting… at least by comparison.

I’m starting to think it might have something to do with my blog… For example, 100 visitors to my squeeze page is at least 40 new subscribers on my list whereas 100 visitors to my blog comes to around 12 on a good day.

I guess I can’t complain too much as all the traffic I’m getting to my blog doesn’t cost money, but I do invest quite a bit of time for little return.

I’m curious as to what you think of this!

Thanks,
-Gabe

P.S. I notice I get a ton more traffic and conversions when I blog about blogging related stuff, but that’s not what my blog is about. Maybe people just think email list building is boring lol

tiroberts

“But… all this is so much work!” LOL, this line had me rolling, Gabe.

Yes, it definitely is quite a bit of work. However, you can pick and choose the ones you feel vibes the best with you and go for it.

Ya’ know, one thing I’m realizing is there is a difference between being a true Blogger and an Internet Marketer.

You seem to fit the category of Internet Marketer, not a full fledged blogger per se. Like you mentioned, you’d rather throw money out and get a quick return without putting in all time to network.

I would categorize myself as more of a Blogger than an internet marketer, because I actually love and enjoy the whole online networking process. I have a true passion for it and don’t mind all the work that goes into it.

I actually came across an article about this very topic the other day:

http://i-want-to-know-marketing.com/make-money-blogging/internet-marketer-or-blogger-which-one-are-you/

I thought it was pretty interesting. What are your thoughts on it?

Regardless, when it comes to generating traffic online, you’re going to have to invest time or money, you and I both know there’s no way around that.

As far as your blog conversions, they’re actually pretty good. If you get 12 out of every 100 people who visit your blog to subscribe to your list, that’s a 12% conversion rate, which is actually more than most blogs convert at. So I’d say your blog is performing pretty well as far as conversions go.

Plus, consider that you’re generating a higher quality subscriber from your blog because they’ve been exposed to your content before they subscribed to you list. Content driven subscribers are more valuable than paid subscribers; and they’re more engaging and interactive, which is essential to getting more referral free traffic to your blog.

Of course, a squeeze page is going to convert higher than a blog, but the purpose of your blog serves a bigger purpose than just lead generation – as I’m sure you know.

Boy, this response sure is a lot longer than I intended it to be. I think I’ll cut it off right here before it turns into a full blow dissertation.

So, did I answer your question at least? Or did I blow hot air? Lol.

Ti

http://gabejohansson.com/ Gabe Johansson

I checked out the article and there are some good points. I guess it really depends on the goals of the blogger. I’m kind of a mix of both, but more on the IM side. I don’t dislike the networking of course, but when I see 250 unique visitors in a day (brag statement) and only 20 subscribers, its like… what’s going on here? lol

I guess it really depends where you start. Maybe someone who starts blogging then gets into squeeze page marketing will be dazed and confused as to how many more subscribers per visitor are coming in.

It makes me feel a bit better that you think it’s a good rate for a blog, but I’m not done there! Always improving!

About the quality of subscriber I actually think it’s the opposite. I get a dramatically higher email response rate from solo ad subscribers than blog subscribers. Oh and that sale conversion thing too.

Again, I guess it really does depend on the goals of the blogger!

Thanks for your thoughts and thorough response!
-Gabe

http://www.ahaingroup.com/ Sian Phillips

Wow – what a brilliant and comprehensive post. Well done Ti. I will be bookmarking and sharing and of course thanks for putting it up on Bizsugar.com

http://www.facebook.com/tiroberts1986 Ti Roberts

Hi Sian!

So great to see your comment. Glad you enjoyed it. Of course, I’ll always share my content on BizSugar; it rocks!

I appreciate you sharing it as well. Thanks!

Ti

http://billionsuccess.com/ Herby

Hi Ti,

These are some great traffic tips I never heard of Inbound & SERPD so thanks for sharing. Great work.

http://www.facebook.com/tiroberts1986 Ti Roberts

Thanks so much, Herby!

Great to see your comment. I’m glad that you’ve found value in this post.

Thanks for dropping by; have a great weekend!

Ti

http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

Thanks for reminding me about the importance of building relationships. I know the power of them but I do let my introverted side take over (which is crazy because you can barely shut me up when I’m hanging out with people).

Thanks for being so encouraging and being a great example of what to do.

tiroberts

Hi, Jeff!

So great to see your comment. Welcome to the community!

Yup, relationships are definitely the way to go when aiming to build a popular blog and brand.

If new bloggers would spend the hours that they put into SEO and trying to rank on the front page of Google into relationship building, they’d see results MUCH quicker. It takes just about the same amount of time and effort, but the rewards are much greater.

The same principals that apply to building an offline business applies to online business, they both require networking and relationships.

I wish more newbies could grasp this concept; I aim to spread the message and make it as clear as possible “how to” do it for those just coming on the scene. So I appreciate your input and your sharing this post – you did share it didn’t you?

Again, welcome! So glad to have you and I look forward to seeing more you.

Ti

http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

Thanks so much for this awesome response. I’ll admit that I was one of those guys putting all that time into SEO and I completely lost sight of the big picture. I see a big point of growth for me being bringing my ability to build great relationships offline to the online world. This is challenging me beyond belief which is crazy!

I did share the post, absolutely.

Jeff

tiroberts

I appreciate you sharing, Jeff!

Yes, engagement can be challenging but I urge you to keep pressing forward!

I’d love to help out in any way that I can, so feel free to contact me if there’s something you need.

Keep me posted on your progress.

Ti

Barry Overstreet

Hi Ti!

Great post! You’ve provided a very thorough list.

This is my first visit to your site. I found you from your guest post over at Ana’s TGC. That was a stellar post as well!

I really like the way you provided multiple actionable steps for each category. You really walk people through step-by-step.

I’ve gleaned quite a few nuggets here that I’ll be putting into practice in the coming weeks and months.

And you’re right, it isn’t easy. But if success was easy, everybody would achieve it. We know that’s not the case so there must be a reason. The biggest reason is that people aren’t willing to put in the work for the extended time necessary to make an impact.

Thank you for sharing such valuable tips! I hope you have an outstanding weekend!

I’ll be back again soon!

~Barry

tiroberts

Hi, Barry!

Wonderful to see your comment. Welcome to the community!

I’m happy to hear that this post was easy for you to follow. That was my goal when I sat down to write it, so thanks for letting me know I accomplished it!

Definitely, networking and building relationships is not easy, BUT it is well worth the time and effort – as you saw in my case study post.

Thanks so much for sharing your input; I truly appreciate it and I look forward to seeing more of you!

Ti

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1751655036 Doug Pretorius

Hey Ti, just wanted to thank you for a great post, I plan on implementing most of what you mentioned little by little. I’ve been doing the whole SEO thing for the last couple of years and although I’ve made some money it’s just not any fun I would SO much rather make a living by sharing what I’m passionate about (which changes some times from day to day LOL!) and get back to building my internet business through relationships and just being helpful and social.

Thanks for showing it that it’s possible.

tiroberts

Hi, Doug!

Awesome to see your comment. Welcome to the community!

Yup, I know that there are many others around like you who’ve been bummed out from SEO. I aim for this blog to be one of the best resources to show them how to break away from it and revive the fun in blogging!

Who knew blogging could be so much fun once you took away all the restrictions? I know I didn’t.

I’m glad that you’re embarking on a new journey and I wish you much success.

Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be happy to help out if I can.

Thanks for sharing your input and I hope to see more of you.

Ti

tiroberts

Hi, Emp!

So glad to see your first comment on my blog! Welcome, officially, to the community!

Being new to blogging, it’s definitely going to take some time to get the hang of it. But like you’re doing, learn as you go and begin to implement as soon as you catch on.

I look forward to seeing your progress. As always, let me know if you need anything.

Ti

P.S. Thanks for the video kudos; ‘preciate it!
http://www.facebook.com/peter.mutiso1 Peter Mutiso

Hi Ti,

Thanks for sharing this awesome post. Engaging in blog communities is the best thing that happened to me. (Thanks for voting my submission at Bizsugar – you made my submission become hot).

However, i must admit it takes sacrifice to achieve results through your good proposed methods

tiroberts

Hi, Peter!

So great to see your comment. Welcome to the community!

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed this post and found it helpful. Blog commenting is definitely one of the best staple activities to hit all the blogging hot spots.

Yup, it does take quite a bit of effort but the rewards are SO worth it. Why not work hard AND smart at the same time for the best results?

Totally awesome that your submission went HOT! So glad I could help out.

Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving your input. I hope to see more of you!

Ti

https://plus.google.com/105076725141939280120/about Stephan Hovnanian

Great tips, I’d also recommend selectively adding a link in blog comments to posts you’ve written on your own blog that can supplement/complement the topic. I’ve found that when I do this on high-trafficked sites, I get a significant amount of new traffic.

Today most commenting platforms (DISQUS included, which is what you use here) add no-follow to links, so the old “SEO juice” you used to get from posting links in comments is gone. There’s nothing wrong with that, because the reason you’re posting a link is to add value to the actual blog post, not to spam. The writer will appreciate that…but again, do this selectively and always add value.

tiroberts

Hi, Stephan!

Awesome to see your comment. Welcome to the community!

You just shared a fantastic tip right there! Adding a link that is related to the content of the post you’re commenting on is a great way to further demonstrate your expertise and add true value to the conversation.

I’ve definitely clicked through on links plenty of times before when I saw that they were directly related to the content I’d just finished reading. And, in many cases I went on to leave comments on their posts as well.

Something similar that you can do (and that I’ve done before) is right after you publish a new post, search for and comment on freshly published posts that are directly related to your latest post.

Of course, you want to make sure the blog has decent traffic and an engaging community. It’s also good to comment on blog posts that use either the Commentluv of Disqus commenting system.

I go into more detail of how to do this in one of my earlier post: http://tiroberts.com/10-random-tips-spike-traffic-stats/

Thanks for your input; I truly appreciate you sharing that awesome tip.

Glad you dropped by and I hope to see more of you!

Ti

http://twitter.com/MysPalmer Mys Palmer

Wait what was the takeaway again?

Build relationships=the only way to blog!

Me agree witcha lovey! I think it’s so important to treat our businesses with the same dedication we treat a 9 to 5. It takes work and isn’t going to pay off without earning relationships.

So there, what she said!

Build relationships that’s your online marketing mission. Choose to take it!

Have a great week Ti!

tiroberts

Hey, hey, girly!

Great to see your comment again.

I LOVED what you said “It takes work and isn’t going to pay off without earning relationships.”

You hit the nail on the head with this one! You have to EARN relationships, not just expect them to be handed out to you.

Just because you retweeted “so and so’s” post that one time way back when doesn’t mean you’ve automatically built a relationship with them.

True relationships are built over a time of continuous effort and there’s no set time frame of when it’s “officially been built” and you stop.

It’s an ongoing process and if you’re serious about blogging you have to commit to consistently nurture the relationships you create.

Thanks for dropping by, chica! It’s always a pleasure to have your bubbly personality grace our comments!

Ti

http://www.maxthatmarketing.com/ Bonnie Andrews

love, LOVE this post and your articulate approach to… just about everything you put your head into it seems! Looking forward to connecting more in the future. Thanks for the great tips!

tiroberts

Hi, Bonnie!

So glad to see your comment. Welcome to the community!

Stoked that you’ve found my post helpful. I try to pour my all into the posts I write so I’m glad to see that it’s appreciated.

I’m am definitely looking forward to connecting more with you. I’ve enjoyed your activity over on BizSugar and your blog is awesome too. Great original writing style and tone.

Thanks for dropping by and I’m looking forward to seeing more of you!

Ti

Dianne Dixon

Excellent post, Ti! I’m going the guest posting route big time. I rediscovered a niche that I love and am working it big time. I’m not sure I’m ready for YouTube yet but I’m working on another media before year end.