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The Art of Evangelizing a Blog

By Sharon Sarmiento

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Published: 03Dec2006
Word count: 1441
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So, you've got a brand new shiny blog. You lovingly tend to it, writing posts with the perfect mix of warmth, humor, irony and insight.

You write, you post, and you wait.

Crickets are chirping in the silence as you start to wonder, "So now that I have a blog, how do I actually get people to look at it?"

If your traffic report for your site is like a flat line on a graph, don't fret.

Unless you're Guy Kawasaki or Seth Godin, it's not likely that your blog will shoot to the tippy top of Technorati overnight. For us non-famous folks, it takes consistent, patient, strategic work in order to build up our blog traffic.

Building blog traffic is all about creating useful content for your readers and making contacts within the blogging community.

It's kind of like when you move to a new city where you don't know anyone. Little by little you build relationships, you meet folks who introduce you to other folks, you make connections, make a name for yourself, and you become better known in the community.

It's the same with blogging, except it's a different type of party and you make your connections in different ways.

Here are 7 techniques that savvy bloggers use to make those oh-so-important connections and pump up blog traffic:

1. Focus on a targeted niche. Decide who you're writing for, what you're going to write about, and then stick to it. Don't be all over the place and have one post on marketing, another on dog training, and then another that's a review of the movie you saw last weekend. A blog with multiple topics is disorienting, not just to readers that stumble upon it, but to the search engines as well.

You see, the Google robots are easily confused. If they visit your blog and see that it's a mish-mash of information, they don't know what to make of it. But, if they stop by your blog and see that the words "marketing" and "small business" (or whatever) are sprinkled steadily throughout, they think, "Aha! This blog is about small business marketing. Whenever folks google the words "small business marketing", we'll know to include this site higher up in our results!"

Not only does having a very specific topic for your blog make it search engine friendly and result in higher rankings, but it also gives you the chance to become known as an expert in your field and have readers coming to your blog for their daily fix. The tighter you can make your niche the better.

2. Post as frequently as you can. When you first start your blog, it can feel a little overwhelming to have to write posts all the time. That's normal--you just need to focus on getting into a regular writing schedule. Trust me, after a few weeks your mind will start to think in "blogging mode", and you'll start to come up with ideas for blog posts everywhere you turn.

I've noticed that most of the pro bloggers post almost daily, and oftentimes several times a day, but don't feel pressured to mimic the pro bloggers Herculean blog writing stamina.

That would be like trying to go from couch potato to marathon runner overnight. Blogging is supposed to be fun, so don't hurt yourself. And really, if it's not fun, you're not going to stick with it, are you?

You can start off by setting a goal for yourself of writing 3 posts a week.

The posts don't have to be long essays. They can be short, compact posts that relay tidbits of info (often linking back to other people's blogs) that your readers find interesting and are great conversation starters (which causes folks to make lots of comments).

3. Link to other people's blogs. I try to link to other folks' blogs as much as I can. This means that I see a great post at so-and-so's blog, and then I write a post on my own blog that has a link to their post.

When my readers click on the link to go to the other person's blog, that blogger will notice that he's getting traffic from my site, and he'll really appreciate it! I've had a few bloggers contact me to say hello and leave comments on my blog.

There are 50 million blogs out there (literally), but the blogosphere can be an incredibly small world. When you show a genuine interest in what another blogger is writing about, then that peaks their interest in you. You've just built another link in your community. Linking to other blogs also helps with your search engine ranking.

4. Comment on other blogs. My goal is to post thoughtful comments on at least 5 blogs a week. (If this sounds too much to you, start out smaller. The important thing is to get into the habit of commenting on other blogs.)

I look for interesting blogs in my genre (online business, marketing, productivity). I keep up with what they're writing about, and when one of their posts catches my eye, I post a relevant comment. (You can research blogs within your genre at Technorati.)

While some people like to post anonymously by just leaving their first name, I include my first and last name and a link to the URL of my blog. I do this because I want to build name recognition within these communities.

5. Use Trackbacks. A trackback is like leaving a remote comment on a person's blog. When you reference a post on another blog, you use the trackback address for that post and enter it when you're creating your post. When you create a trackback to someone's post, you'll see an excerpt from your post with your URL appear under their post in the trackback area.

Trackbacks are often the forgotten step-child in blogging, but I've found them to be the most effective means of making connections within the blogging community.

I've even had a journalist from a major newspaper contact and interview me as a result of a trackback I left, which led to another journalist finding me and interviewing me for her article, which led to me being featured in articles that were published in more than 20 different newspapers in the United States! How's that for a big time payoff for one trackback?!

6. Blogging customer appreciation. Whenever a new person leaves a comment on my blog, I send her an email thank you note to let her know how much I appreciate her input. And if someone is sweet enough to talk about me on their blog and link to me, I go to their blog and leave a comment thanking them for giving me the attention. Also, when people write about me on their blogs, I make a post on my own blog ("Look who's talking about me. Go see what they're saying..." sort of thing) to bring attention to it and send traffic back to the other person's blog.

7. Beef up your blogroll. I look for interesting blogs that cover similar topics to my blog, then enter their links on to my blogroll. When my readers click on those links, the folks on my blogroll can see that they're getting traffic from me. It works the same as when you link to other blogs within your posts. It's another way of letting the community know you're there and that you're interested in what they're saying. Some of the folks on your blogroll might even reciprocate by putting you on their blogroll. Who knows?

If the thought of implementing all 7 of these tips makes your brain hurt, don't fret. Maintaining a blog is an ongoing process, so start off by picking just a couple of these tips to work on, then when you feel comfortable start working on another.

Out of all of these tips, I would say that the easiest ones to start with are 1, 2 and 3-- streamline your post topics to focus on your targeted niche, post as frequently as you can, and link to other blogs.

I've heard pro bloggers say that it can take 6 to 9 months before seeing a noticeable increase in traffic, so don't feel disappointed if you don't see immediate results.

Evangelizing your blog is really an exercise in patience, with consistency and longevity being the keys. Thankfully, it's a fun, creative exercise, and if you stick with it you'll have a blog that's a source of joy for you, as well as being an excellent marketing tool for your business.

Sharon Sarmiento is a Virtual Assistant who specializes in helping folks with internet technology & web media companies explode their businesses to the next level. She organizes, oversees and manages the million tiny details that go into the day-to-day operations of online businesses. For free resources on how you can work less and have more free time while still making more money, visit Sharon's blog, eSoup, at: => http://www.eSoupBlog.com .

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