If you look up–under the logo for Successful Blog–you’ll see the words content that is organized, thorough, and relevant. That means I plan to capture and present the basics for everything. I also plan to make sure that those posts–like this one–offer information for everyone, not just new bloggers. Oh and, my other plan is that these posts won’t be boring. π
Well, it used to say that. Now, we just live it.
I’ve hidden a posting Easter egg of sorts in this one. Hope most of you don’t have it already.
This post is based on Duncan Riley’s Building blog traffic for newbies. If you already know the basics, read the 31 comments that follow the post.
Duncan lays out six main points he pulled together when he realized that people seemed to know little about promoting blogs. I’ll list them here [with my notes], and you can get the detail from the post.
- Don’t use blogrolling for your site links. It stuffs up search engines.
- Pinging is good, but trackbacks and comments are better.
- Offer to exchange links in your links section [in the sidebar].
- Link to small sites without exchange through sidebar or a post.
- Submit your blog to all search engines [and directories].
And what we both agree is the most important one:
- Post regularly, [consistently], and often.
I’d also like to add two if I might.
- Join a forum in your niche. It offers natural opportunities to talk about your blog.
- Find websites in your niche that would like to list your link.
Of course, the best promotion is quality content when the traffic gets there.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
PS. Do we have to use the word “newbies”? Has anyone got a better one?
Related articles:
Turning Reluctant Readers into Loyal Fans
Blog Promotion: Checking Out Curb Appeal
Why DoesnΓΒ’Γ’Β¬ÒΒΒ’t Pete Townshend Need to Do Promotion?
GAWKER Design: Curb Appeal as Customer-Centered Promotion
I’m interested in hearing more about this “don’t use blogrolling” because it “stuffs up search engines.” I’ve never heard this before.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for asking.
Duncan speaks a bit about it in his post. In short I think he’s speaking of the Blogrolling program that takes your links and pack them into one line of javascipt code. It’s unpacking that single line of code that’s a problem.
It’s user-friendly on the front end, but doesn’t pay off on the back end.
I use Blogrolling internally on my blog, because my persoanl blog is on blogger and it’s easier to use blog rolling to organize my archieves than to unpack and recode their meta template tags.
Think it like a stick shift in a car or a porpietary computer system, They make it really easy for you to use, but you always pay for that “ease of use.”
On a personal level, people have linked my blog throw blogrolling months ago and those links still have not shown up on Technorati or Truth Laid Bear. I’ve even inserted the links in through Technorati’s ping form directly–they just don’t take.
Hope that helps,
Liz
Ironically, I’m getting a ‘404 Not Found’ error on your link to Duncan’s post on “Building blog traffic for newbies” (http://www.blogherald.com/2004.11/25/building-blog-traffic-for-newbies/).
I believe the the dot that follows ‘2004’ should be a slash.
Thank you, Yahana, for telling me.
It’s fixed now. I’m back to read my post on checking all your links AGAIN.
(she slinks off in embarraament) π
“Find websites in your niche that would like to list your link.”
I agree. I brazenly asked one of the big blogs in my niche (gridskipper) to check out escapeblog. He did! And he even blogged about my blog. Just need to muster up more courage to ask more blogs. hehe
Well, I’m gonna have to be the bad guy here and ask the obvious.
You say ” Offer to exchange links in your links section [in the sidebar].
Link to small sites without exchange through sidebar or a post. ”
Yet I see no links exchanged here. Whassamatter, don’t wanna share that PR3 ?
You could call a links section ‘Successful Friends’.
( I’m gonna go hide and wait for the backlash π )
Good on you, Melissa. That’s one of the best things about blogging. Most folks understand the value of doing a good turn and how it comes back in the future. Like right now, you just gave them good advertising. π
Liz
Hi Mike,
Don’t those posts with the giant logos and links that also have links on the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers page count? I don’t understand. I checked your links you have a full count link from us, plus a link from another SOB who wrote about hers and the blogs she was listed with. What am I missing?
I’d never hurt you, Mike. I’d let my brothers Angelo and Pasquale do that. π
Liz
I like the word neophyte in place of newbie.
Thank you, Liz; great tips.
One of the mistakes I think I’ve made as an upstart is providing readers with too many links out. Your suggestion about blogrolling is a point well-taken. Time to start paring that list down… π
Thanks again!
Hi Indie, That’s definitely a contender, but still a bit condescending . . .
Would you look a that! Did anyone notice the new logo up at the top of the page? As of today Successful Blog is a member of the 9rules Network! Thanks to all of you we’re Major League.
Hi John! Welcome.
John, I don’t know whether you need to pair the list down. Just don’t use the blogrolling program to list them. Of cours, maybe you want to separate out the ones who are no longer posting. π
Liz
Thank you Jack.
I agree with Melissa about approaching a bigger blog to try to get a leg up – you’d be surprised at how approachable most are.
Yeah Martin,
There’s opportunities with both blogs and websites. And websites are almost uncharted territory. π
Liz
Good points. Always one for using reverse psychology, another way to promote your blog is to let people shamelessly promote their blogs on *your* blog. Doesn’t work for everyone, but when it works, boy does it work!
PS: try “starters” in place of “newbies”.
Hi Blogfather,
There’s a good point in your use of hyperbole and it’s well in keeping with the unstated credo of blogging–be generous and it will come back to you. Allowing people to promote themselves on your blog is a great example of that–as long as they contribute something you value too–which in your case they do.
Starters is a possibility . . .
I was thinking Beginning Oustanding Bloggers, but then they’d be BOBs. π
Liz
Another blog promotion tip:
you can also send blog updates/news tips to :
news@gabbr.com
Thanks DrDel.
Nice of you to stop to leave that tip. It was polite of you to close your link.
With DrDel’s permission, I opened the link so readers could click through.
Liz
OWWWW !
Tell Guido & Angelo to leave my legs alone !
You are right about the link love you’ve sent and I truly appreciate it π
What I was wondering was if the Scriv-man had you guys on a no links-to-those-I-love policy.
I see that must not be the case, as I see some other Fine ( or is it Nine ) Fools blogs have links sections.
The best part of all this is: I found the other FF blogs I’ve been missing and now will be reading Escape, Chef and maybe a couple of others.
BUT, remember this…SuccessfulBlog is my favorite !
Now will you tell Angelo & Guido to let go of my leg ?
Mike,
Actually, I was getting to know the lay of the land and thought I’d get to know my readers first. My thinking was that until there was thriving content and life on the blog–a hundred links in the sidebar wouldn’t matter. I only had so much time to get and keep your attention. π
BTW, one of the reasons you’re having a problem is that his name is Pasquale, not Guido–Angelo and Pasquale. Pasquale is the one who used to call me with a whistle. π
Liz
Okay guys, let him go. He’s got a family.
Thanks for the mercy and I understand the I’m-not-ready-yet links thing. Thought that was what it was, but we love to hear you say it.
Just checkin’ on ol’ Scrivs…making sure he ain’t holdin’ back all his link love.
FF is a pretty fair lil network…don’t wannna get steamrolled by that blogmeister Scrivs π
BTW – Pasquale reeks of garlic….hmmmm.
Nah, Scrivs, hasn’t told me a thing about how I share my love. π
Did you not notice my linksloving reader that as of this day your favorite FF blog now carries the 9rules logo?
We’re in the major leagues now!
Ah datta boy Pasquale, he does like his linguini and clams.
Liz
O.M.G. ! I’ve been conversing with a star !
Well, now you’ve gotta move that link outta the FF listings. I don’t think it’s legal to be in 2 networks at once. Some kinda guvmint thang.
That Scrivs is a blogmeister and I know it.
Now that you guys are chums, tell him to stop by and see me every now and then. Maybe he’ll snatch up summa our talent and make ’em into big timers !
Does he know I’m the big boy of golf blogs ? The guru of sales blogs ? Has he seen Hollywood Yesterday ? Chinese-Wisdom ? We got it. Dream blog ? Only us.
And he get’s all de hoopla. You know why ? Cause he deserves it ! FF and 9r are both doing a great job and he’s doin’ a great job of steering the ship. I hope to tag along and watch the master and learn.
Oh, by the way…..Congratulations ! This blog is gonna be one of the places to be…if only to catch my comments ! π
Honestly, I must disagree with the Forum suggestion, unless it’s a forum for bloggers. I used to be a ‘big hit’ at one small business forum (still go) and spend lots of time and try to help lots of people and learn from other people etc etc and so on … then I started blogging….
(1) It’s hard to come back to the NON-blog forum atmosphere ..
(2) The NON-blog forum readers .. “Just don’t get it” .. No offense, but I stopped linking my websites and blog URL to promote them in those forums, because well .. those readers would be reading blogs if they knew what blogs were in the first place. Fortunately, I’ve got 33 fingers and toes to count all the people that may have come on a ‘good’ day (or a ‘bad’ day) and just look at the one page they see from the blog link URL and .. get turned off and don’t bookmark you or come back to read you.
For this reason, sometimes a more appropriate term for the ‘newbies’ might be –> oblivious
PS.. Nice blog “ME” .. it will be a nice daily read!
Hey Mike,
No worries I’m not forgetting where I got my start. I tell Scrivs of your affection every chance I get. I can see that you’re the salesguy of the universe. I’m delighted that you’re going to stay right with us. I’m thinking though we’re going to have to come up with another phrase to replace the use of “tag along.”
Thanks for your good wishes. We’re very pleased.
Liz
Hi HART!
I catch your point about forums completely. I think I unconsciously assumed that it would be a blogging forum–but of course I didn’t say so. On the other hand, I didn’t have your experience, so maybe not.
Thanks for bringing that to the discussion. Especially since at this very moment I’m working on a post on using forums. π
No, oblivious is not a better word. Yes, I know you weren’t being serious, because you’ve obviously read enough to know I’ll passionately defend all of my readers. (Well my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale will.)
Thanks for that nice PS for ME. I hope you’ll keep joining in the conversation. I get really tired of listening to me talking. π
Liz
erm … well, I might have been watching “Spike TV” when I suggested ‘oblivious’ π (you know, the game show that you don’t even know you’re on?)
Hi HART,
Now you’re making me laugh. That’s cool.
No worries. We’re all oblivious sometimes. π
Liz
See that HART, I’m citing you. π
Liz
Thanks Mark and Congratulations on your new blog.
Liz
Thanks for the ‘cite’ π
I probably should add a few more comments, to be clear though. I’m not anti-forum. I still participate in the forums and I’m not sure I would say that that the wrong forum is worse than being in none .. I just speak for me, and my forum activities in my PRE-blogging days are quite different than it is now. I basically started May 31, 2005. In my case, going through my forum bookmarks and my participation used to be a daily event, now I might go once a week or once in a blue moon and ‘catch up’. I’ve got enough blogline feeds to catch up. AS you know, you never get caught up because the feeds keep coming π I used to link my websites and then I used to link my blogs as a tagline/signature – I don’t anymore. The forum could be about e.g. bookkeeping, then people go to my blog and see blogging topics. They won’t bookmark me.
On the other hand, in my POST-blogging days, I have joined, read and participate in blogging type of forums, or ones that a lot of bloggers participate too – I often leave my PetLvr.com blog signature and tagline when I post. For these comments and self-promotion, I hope some readers will subscribe to my feed and maybe give me a try.
Did that make sense at all? I find it’s a different mentality altogether now.
Hi HART,
That makes perfect sense to me and it’s basically what I got from your shorter comment yesterday. Though I do think that the elaboration helps, especially for people who have no experience with forums. Jennifer was just asking over at the ofther article about blogger forums and I told I’d research some for her. Can you give her any direction where to look?
Liz
My .02 tips:
In addition to leaving your links on forums…
. Leave comments on blogs (the curious will click)
. Write articles with seasonal themes (I got lots of hits last month with “great pumpkin charlie brown”
. Do a quick recast of news in your subject with some well searched keywords or companies(ebay news, microsoft’s latests gadget, Car Insurance…etc..)
. Mention a pseudo celebrity/ (minor ones will get you more links than bigones)
Hi esearing,
Yes, we’ve been talking about the value of legitimate commeents. The rest of your tips will work for many niche blogs. Thanks for adding them to the conversation.
Good ideas are what keeps blogging going forward.
Liz
Liz: What about Rookie in place of Newbie?
BTW, regarding blogrolls or lists of links, I’m generally blind to those, a bit like ad-blindness. Unless the name of a blog particularly stands out to me, I’m not that interested in blogrolls.
I’m much more likely to click through on peoples comments though. Was wondering how many others are like that?
Hi Gerard,
Rookie is getting closer. . . I still don’t know that I’d like to be called one. π
You know, I’m the same about blogrolls. I only look at them when a link shows up on Tehnorati and I don’t know who gave it to me. But some people do look. I know this because this week I took some light-hearted teasing for not having a blogroll up yet on this site.
Click through is what I do too. I’ts certainly the most efficient “point of purchase” way. works better in some places than others. But it works better from some platforms than others–Google built blogger in such a way that all signatures click through to the profile not the site–avoiding in-link issues I wonder?–so any blogger names are a double click.
But to answer your question, basically at least one other–me–is like you. π
Thanks Gerard, want some coffee this morning?
Liz
Thanks Martin for the post a Home Office Voice.I appreciate your support for what’s going on at Successful Blog.
Liz
Does newbie, rookie or other “I’m new to blogging” titles matter? Not to me as long as each person practices common etiquette when posting.
I’m new to blogging, both in creating a blog site and sharing comments, but not new to posting online in other environments.
The blogging promotion basics are much appreciated, especially the main points which clear up some of the terminology that’s not always explained.
Being one of those “newbies” to blogging, I’ve been searching for information on promoting my blog, and I’ve also been looking for other quality blogs around the Net. To say that I’m discerning in my picks would be about right, but I recently stumbled upon 9rules. Through that site, I ended up here, and I must say that I’ll probably be stopping back here quite regularly. Thanks for the quality advice and content!
Hi Shirley,
Thanks for joining in. We need to hear every voice around this discussion. Be sure to ask or shoot me an email if I miss term that’s not explained. I know what it’s like to feel like you’re flying in the dark.
Thanks for your words of encouragment.
Liz
Hi Chaz,
Welcome to Successful Blog. Feel free to look around for a while and if you find anything missing click over to my About Me page to shoot me an email. I’ll see if we can remedy the situation.
It will be nice to have you around.
Liz
I agree that newbie and n00b are both generally used in a derogatory sense, so it’s not something you would want to be called. But I think rookie or beginner are appropriate terms. They don’t carry any negative associates, they simply indicate that the person is new to the field. No sense in being offended by someone using a term that’s accurate. Of course, if it really sticks in your craw, you could try “student” or “apprentice” or something along those lines.
Hi Scott,
Welcome, join the group.
I’m with your thinking on the first two points, can’t go with the last. Student suffers from the problem that anyone who wandered in later would wonder what the heck we were talking about and whether we meant college students. I think apprentice has the same problemm as rookie. I’m back to thinking we need to coin own name so that everyone knows it’s not intended to be a word from some other context.
The only real term so far that anyone has suggest to me is “new guys,” but I worry that sooner or later someone would take offense at that. Maybe I shouldn’t care about someone offended that easily, but in this case, since my purpose is to improve the term, I do. π
I’m getting close to am idea. I just know it.
As they say, watch this space for more! π
Liz
Liz: Wonder why we didn’t think of it before – Check the thesaurus! I’m liking Freshie or the more unusual Tenderfoot.
Too late for coffee now, isn’t it? Anyway, being from Northern Ireland I’m a die-hard tea drinker π
Good Morning Gerard,
Thanks for the recommendation. I am pleased to say I already did and found it woefully lacking in this deparment as it sometimss can be.
However, I feel good that I was able to say that, because of years of having said to editors who worked for me, “If I can chedk the reference books, so can you. ” π Which means I haven’t lost my habits –yet. π
Liz
technorati tagging/pinging seems to have improved. at least it shows now when you update your blog. I am not sure though I really want to keep all the Technorati Tags in every entry I make.
i’ve been around the net since 1990 (fido generation :o) and still am learning something new every day.
Hi ihad,
I don’t blame you for not wanting to tag every post you make and I’m not convinced that you have to. On my personal blog, I find that I just sign every post with my name and that’s enough to tag every post to me. I suppose if I wanted people to search for certain keywords and have readers follow those keywords home to my blog I would tag for them only. That’s how I would work tags. But Technorati isn’t the biggest search engine Google is. I use Technorati for the Blog Finder Categories.
Congratulations. I bow to your experience. π We need you around helping us out.
Liz
What if you gave away a $10 iTunes card if someone can guess the 10 samples of song clips in a montage made from the highest rated songs in your library?
(no this isn’t spam)
Hi Pete,
You have an I-tunes blog, so that might work, if you can get a deal on the cards. It’s an interesting proposition. But then, of course, you have to promote your promotion, that is, you have to get the word out that you’re giving it away or it won’t work.
Liz
Excellent stuff. But you were right here, Ironically comments gave me more insight then the article ieself!
Thanks Manish,
I appreciate you stopping by and your comments. A nice word is always appreciated. π
Liz
Great template, did you pick it out. I love the content here. Can’t wait for some more posts.Much appreciated :0).
Hi Australian Voip phone service,
Welcome, have a virtual drink from the sidbar.
Thanks for the compliment. Yeah. I picked out the template, and then we did some serious mods. I’ve still got some changes in mind . . . But I appreciate knowing you like where it’s at.
Thanks for the content conversation too. Every word of encouragement makes it easier to work harder. π
Liz
Nice web page! Very sharp. I love the content of this page. I will add your blog to my favorites.Thank you so much.
Wow, as a newbie i found this “comments” section so very interesting. It seems like there so much to learn for me about blogging. Thanks to all who are sharing their know-how with us.
Hi Johnny, Welcome,
I’m glad you found this page and the comments here too. Be sure to check out the New Blogger page up in the Pages section at the top of the side bar.
Dear Liz,
Thanks for the promotional tips.
I just started http://zodiacastrology.blogspot.com
I will use your tips in my Blog
Regards
G Kumar
http://www.eastrovedica.com
Liz you are great. We just started a new blog, and this post helps
Thanks Troy,
You’re bringing back some memories of some very good times. π