Promoting Your Site
It has been a while since I posted part 6 of the starting a blog series, so I thought I better get on with writing part 7 and start to wind down this series; only a couple more to go. In case you’ve missed the beginning on the series, feel free to check out parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
Promoting your site is one of the most important things you can do. You can have the best site in the world but if no one can knows about it then it doesn’t matter. Also, just because people know about your site doesn’t matter. Also, just because people know about your site doesn’t mean they can find it (i.e., it’s not listed on Google). I’m probably not the best person to write this tutorial because I don’t have near as much traffic and comment interaction as I would like. Though I do manage to get a steady stream of traffic each day and have been #1 on Google before. I just wish I could increase my feed subscribers. So, if you aren’t subscribed to my feed, now is the chance. Ok, I admit that was a shameless plug.
Promoting a website requires a variety of tactics. For example, networking with other bloggers though commenting and forums, writing quality content, swapping links, SEO tactics, advertising, and using popular website services. Good design is another important factor often forgotten about. A nicely designed site may not bring traffic to your site (though it can) but a poorly designed site can sure drive traffic away. If a site looks really bad, I have a hard time getting into the content. Something about it just doesn’t make the site credible.
Networking with other bloggers through commenting and forum posts is one of the best ways to spread the word about your site. This is also one of the most time consuming. I read lots of blogs (see my blogroll for a few of them) and try to comment on anything I find interesting or know something about. Leaving quality comments (aka not useless, thoughtless ones) is important. By showing off sharing your knowledge and making interesting statements other commenters are likely to be curious about you and check out your site. The same holds true for forums. I am a regular participant in the Godbit forum and have met and learned from so many great web designers and bloggers. Godbit is my favorite forum and practically the only one I write on. I recommend finding and participating in a forum that interests you and that is related to your site topic so that the forum readers will check out your website (just be sure to include it in your profile or your signature). In the end, taking the time to interact with lots of people from around the world does not only have the potential to boost your site’s traffic, it is rewarding and fun.
Writing quality content regularly is the probably the most important promotional method you can employ. Let’s face it, if you only right about how cute your cat is than your probably not going to have many readers. You must right about things people care about. Actually, caring is not enough…they must want to read about it. I care about a lot of stuff, but don’t necessarily want to read about it all. When you pick your subject don’t just copy what all the big blogs and websites are talking about–if you do, it will be old news to a lot of your readers and they will skip your post. Be sure to take a new perspective on your subject as well. Once you’ve decided on a quality subject to write about, it is time to write with quality. This means using decent grammar and spelling. I’m bad about this one because I’m always too lazy to proof read what I right. :0 Writing with quality also means writing a way that connects with your audience. In most cases, being informal and adding personal touches is a good idea. It makes you readers feel like they know you.
Swapping links is a free form of advertising and a great way to increase your Google page rank. This one makes me reminisce of the webrings of olden web days. The basic idea of link swapping to find related blogs you like and see if the author is willing to swap links with you. You put their link on your site and they put yours on their site. If you’re having trouble finding people to sway, explain how this helps both of you. A cautionary note: be sure not to over do this one or your blogroll will get out of control.
I don’t know much about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one. It is still an important consideration. I will provide a brief definition from wikipedia, “Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings, and could be considered a subset of search engine marketing…SEO is primarily concerned with advancing the goals of a website by improving the number and position of its organic search results for a wide variety of relevant keywords. SEO strategies may increase both the number and quality of visitors. ” What all that boils down to is coding your site in a standards compliant way, writing useful content, choosing words carefully, and making sure your site is listed on all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN are probably the most important ones).
How do you go about getting your site submitted to the search engines? It is pretty simple. Usually, you just look for a page to submit your site. To save you the time and trouble of searching, I dug up the submission pages for Google, MSN, and Yahoo. There are some services on the web that will submit your site to a bunch of different search engines at once. Some of these are better than others and some of them cost money (I don’t recommend paying to do this when you can do it yourself for free). My former web host offered a service like this for free. It worked pretty well too, so be sure to check with your host.
Google just renamed their sitemaps page to Google Webmaster Tools. This is a good place to learn about your Google rank and keyword popularity. I highly recommend submitting a sitemap. I personally feel this will increase your ranking. If you’re using WordPress, there is a super easy way to do this. Just download and install the Google Sitemap Generator plugin. This handy tool will generate a Google Sitemaps compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog and ping Google every time your blog is updated. If you don’t use Google, XML Sitemaps is a good place to go. All you have to do is provide your URL, download the code provided, then upload it to Google.
Advertising is another way to spread the word about your site. Not really sure how much this one works because I’m too cheap to purchase any ads. Plus, I don’t sell anything on my site so what’s the point in paying to spread the word. If you can justify the cost, as many entrepreneur’s can because they are selling something, then and check out Text Link Ads.
Popular web services can provide variety to your blogs as well as giving your blog additional exposure.
Some Examples
Feedburner Just about every CMS supports RSS. Feedburner allows you to manage your feed(s). It offers a nicely formatted page in case someone tries to read your feed in their web browser. It also provides some basic instructions for people unfamiliar with RSS. Feedburner has many extra features. You can publish your flickr photo stream, are you del.icio.us bookmarks, and do many other useful things. Checkout WordPress Feedburner Plugin to make redirecting your WordPress feed to feedburner easier.
Flickr a photo sharing service. You can use feedburner to publish the photos in your site feed. I also use the popular FlickrRSS plugin to put some photos in my sidebar.
del.icio.us allows you to store bookmarks online. You can also share with friends and see who else is bookmarking the same site. ma.gnolia and furl are simliar alternatives.
9rules only allows the best blogs in. Getting in this one will take time, but if you do…your traffic will spike! There are many other blogging communities devoted to specific subjects (ex., MindPetals -Young Entrepreneur’s official Network). Try to find one that you’ll fit in and go for it. Note to self: find a network for myself.
Digg is a user driven news site. No longer is it only for tech related subjects. If you have some good posts you can provide a digg this link. If you are shameless, you can sumbit your own site. As more and more people digg it, your site will work it’s way to the top. The traffic this can bring is so tremendous it even has its own name: the digg effect. The digg effect has been known to bring many a good sites down because of the traffic load.
Technorati…don’t really know how to describe this one. It allows you to track other blogs and see how popular (or not in my case) your blog is.
A bonus trick is to write about Google every once and a while. You know the Google bot isn’t going to skip over something about itself. Do you think my Google Maps API tutorial’s high rank on Google is a coincidence?
If you know of any more promotional methods please share in the comments section.
