You've just spent the entire night putting the finishing touches on your newest blog post, foregoing sleep to make it absolutely perfect.
Then, before going to bed, you hit publish, hoping in the morning to wake up to 1000s of shares and backlinks.
The next morning, you check your stats, and you've got 3 page views, and 1 nasty comment from someone who thinks you should delete your blog.
I've been there, and I know it sucks. You pour your heart and soul into your blog, and get no results.
This used to happen to me every time I published a post - that is, until I re-educated myself and learned how to truly promote my blog and its content.
So now, whenever I slave away on an article, I know my job is not done.
Once my article is published, I need to promote the heck out of it to ensure it gets shares, backlinks, and all the other good stuff that comes with running a successful blog.
I've put together a proven list of the steps I take, and the steps experts take to promote their blog every time they publish a new post. These 11 tips will help boost your content performance and get more readers to your site.
1. Use Buzzstream to find an influencer and ask them to provide a quote for your blog post
You may have an influencer in mind already, or you may need to do a bit of research beforehand, but the added bonus of having a direct quote from someone who already has some pull in your niche will take your post from zero to hero in no time.
Influencer quotes do a few things for your piece.
For starters, they add some validity to what you're saying. Beyond that, even the most famed influencers will appreciate a little free promotion. You're able to promote your article with their name, and in return they receive a quote and link to their website in your blog post. It's a win/win for both parties.
So how do you find these influencers?
Chances are that you already follow a few bloggers in your niche. If that's the case, feel free to reach out to them either via social media or an email (I suggest email, as there are no character limits and your influencers are more likely to get back to you in a timely fashion).
If you have no influencers in mind, don't worry.
Products like BuzzStream, which more or less enable you to find influencers, are well worth their money.
Buzzstream enables you to choose your influencer by any number of criteria, such as their Twitter followers, location, domain authority, etc.
If you don't want to pay for the service, they do offer a free option here - it should be noted, however, that you can't narrow down your results unless you pay.
Choose several influencers that you feel are a good fit for your blog, email them, and await their response. Make sure that the body of your email thoroughly explains what you want from them and how you feel they can help heighten the quality of your post.
Once they agree, don't be afraid to email them the final result and suggest that they share the post if they'd like. More free promotion for you!
2. Use Buffer to easily share your post across all social media platforms
Sharing your content on social media is a no brainer. These days, everyone and their mom has some kind of social media account.
Whether we're talking Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, or some other site, there's no denying that people enjoy commenting on and sharing social media posts.
That being said, it can easily become overwhelming to share your posts in a timely fashion across all social media sites.
That's why products like Buffer exist.
Through Buffer, you can schedule to automatically post to all of your social media accounts whenever you create a new blog.
Even better, Buffer will tell you the optimal time that you should post your content to increase the chances that someone will see and click.
By scheduling your social media posts, you can set and forget it. This leaves you with plenty of extra time to promote in other ways
3. Turn your post into a YouTube video
Videos are going to appeal to a completely different audience than your actual blog post itself would. Some people, for one reason or another, simply don't like to receive their information from a blog.
You can easily remedy this by creating a video and uploading it to popular video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo. All you have to do is create a video, upload it with relevant keywords, and wait for the views to start rolling in.
You'll reach people who may have never heard of you otherwise all because you dipped your toe into another media forum. This is free promotion for you, your site, and the hard work you've done at its finest.
If you need a little help to get started, watch some YouTube videos in your niche and get a feel for how others are doing it.
If it's the technical aspect that is troubling you, here is a great tutorial by Digital Trends on how to make a YouTube video for yourself.
4. Create a $5 infographic with Fiverr
Instead of reading paragraphs of bulky text with no end in sight, a person can merely glance at an infographic and receive the same data in a more time efficient manner.
This works great for promoting your content - people are far more likely to look at a visually stimulating infographic than they are to sit down and read a 10 page blog post.
Unfortunately, many of us (myself included) are not all that talented in the way of graphic design.
To remedy this, I introduce to you Fiverr.
Here, freelancers offer their work for cheap - typically just for, you guessed it, $5.
All you have to do is provide them with the information you want in the infographic and they'll turn it into a visual work of art.
From there, you can promote your infographic on social media and link your written post as a "complete guide" for those who want a more in depth analysis.
If you want extra bells and whistles you should expect to spend about $25 on your infographic, which is still a complete bargain.
5. Seek out people who could use you as a source
Let's pretend for a moment that I wanted to implement this strategy to promote this exact blog post.
First and foremost, I would search Google for articles that are similar to my own. Google has this very cool feature where you can see when posts were published. The reason this is so important is because we want to find posts that are old and potentially out of date.
The internet changes at the drop of a hat., websites come and go, and very few products have the longevity that they used to. So, if we were to find a post on promoting blogs from 2011 or 2012, there's a good chance that the information provided inside of it would be out of date.
From here, you have two options: If the website is still being updated regularly, you can email them with your article and say that you were inspired by their (outdated) one. There's a good chance that, so long as the information is correct and relevant, they may be willing to share it.
If the website is no longer kept up with, you may want to consider leaving a comment on the outdated post itself so that others who are seeking this information will see your updated one and potentially click.
6. Use LinkedIn to promote your articles and reach out to potential influencers
LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for your blog's promotions. There are so many ways that you can promote yourself and your message on the site, but we're going to focus on just two.
For starters, LinkedIn offers "groups" that members can be a part of. Don't join the very first group you find in your niche - shop around and look for one that's both active in posts AND comments.
If you join a group where everyone promotes and no one reads, you're basically wasting your time. If you can find one where most posts get at least one comment, you're virtually guaranteed to garner a little more traffic to your site.
Another way that you can go about using LinkedIn as a promotion tool is by sending direct messages to those people you feel would find your blog post particularly informative.
If there's an influencer out there you'd like to share your post with, Linkedin's a great way to bridge the gap and reach out to them.
Don't be afraid - remember, people are just people at the end of the day and even if they never respond, you can feel confident in the fact that you tried.
7. Make sure your posts are easy to share on social media
Yes, it's important for you to promote your content on your own social media accounts. But that's only half of the battle.
The other half - sometimes the more difficult half - is to get OTHERS to share your content on their social media accounts.
The fact of the matter is that people will share information that they find to be particularly helpful and informative. You, as the blogger, need to make that sharing experience easy for them. Having "social share" buttons right in your article (whether it be above, below, or off to the side) can make all the difference.
If all a person has to do is click the button that represents their social media forum of choice to automatically link the article, they're far more likely to do it than if they have to copy the article, go on the social media website, paste it, etc.
For those of you unfamiliar with WordPress techniques, you're going to want to add a widget from your Cusomization screen.
It isn't too difficult to do, and the set up should only take you a few minutes in exchange for a lifetime of more social media shares.
8. @Mention your influencers on Twitter
If you managed to get that influencer's quote for your article, don't be afraid to mention it to your social media followers in order to get a little extra attention.
I assure you that it's not at all some kind of cheap tactic. If the influencer offered you a quote, they'll no doubt be happy to be mentioned in the article's promotions.
Furthermore, you'll probably garner some attention from their loyal following, and this will mean you have attracted more people to your site simply by association.
9. Make sure your content is SEO friendly with Yoast SEO plugin
If you're a blogger, then search engine optimization should go without saying - it's one of the first things you're told to do when starting your blog because it can be the difference between you receiving a ton of hits from search engines and none at all.
Because most blogs are run on WordPress, it's important to discuss Yoast SEO. Easily the most popular SEO plugin on the web right now, Yoast makes search engine optimization painless and easy for the blogger.
Just in case you're unfamiliar with how the plugin works and you want to get started, take a look at this in depth tutorial that will teach you everything you need to know about SEO and Yoast.
10. Consider creating a niche blogging clique to promote your content and improve comments
Anyone who says that they became successful in the blogging world completely on their own either has a wildly inflated view of themselves or they're lying.
Having someone (or several someones) on your side helps. Period. That's why I suggest forming your own little bloggers clique/wolfpack/whatever you want to call it.
First, you need to find other bloggers in your niche who have some success, but not TOO much success (you want them to be able to benefit from this partnership as much as you do, which means that they can't already be at their peak levels).
To do this, I usually Google the niche I am looking for + "blog". From there, I search for blogs that have a few comments per post (2-10 for the most part) and leave them a lengthy, in depth comment.
A few days later, shoot them an email.
In the email, you should be sure to mention that you appreciate their work. Cite something specific in one of their posts and leave another rave review. Then hit them with your suggestion.
"If you'd be up for it, I think we could work something out where we comment each other's posts to add some validity and garner traffic to our blogs."
If they see the time and effort you put into your comments, they'll most likely agree. If they don't, it doesn't hurt to try.
Once you have your blogging wolfpack, you're guaranteed comments. Comments on posts prove to readers that you have a following and that adds some merit to your words. Free publicity.
11. Contact bloggers who do weekly article roundups and recommend your article
Weekly roundups are pretty cool - especially when you're involved in them. The concept behind them is simple: Bloggers will round up some of the best articles they saw that week and promote them in a weekly roundup spot.
It isn't always easy to get yourself into these posts - some would say it's simply a matter of chance - but it can't hurt to reach out to those who create these roundups and promote your post to them.
Don't simply word it as "This is my post and I would like you to include it please" because no one likes a beggar. Instead, flatter them a bit. Tell them how much you enjoy what they do and how informative you have found their roundups to be. Then, at the end of the email, drop a small line about an article you wrote recently and that you would love their feedback on it.
If the article really is THAT GOOD, chances are that they'll share it with their audience.