What to Do When You’re Finished with a Blog Post

What to Do When You’re Finished with a Blog Post

Steps to Take to Ensure Your Finely Written Content Gets the Attention it Deserves

You’ve written a fine piece of content marketing post. After posting the entry on your blog, you wait for the comment box to be filled with reactions about your piece. You’ve checked it again a few days later and no forthcoming comments appeared except one that says, “Good work!” (And this came from your loyal friend whom you’ve asked to keep up with your writing).

What do you need to do to make your post popular and sought-after for wonderful content?

According to Brody Dorland, there are 12 steps to take to fulfill your blog popularity goals. Here are those steps:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Keyword Integration

Search engine optimization is all about enhancing your website or web page’s visibility in the search engine’s natural search results. This Internet marketing strategy can help boost up your ranking and drive up your website traffic.

An SEO campaign is not complete without applicable keywords to beef up your content and make it more “searchable.” Check out free applications like Google Adwords. Start studying how keywords work and integrate some of them in your article. In addition, learn more about meta description, tags and other related subjects to make your campaign work.

To illustrate what Google Adwords looks like, here’s a screenshot:

2. RSS Feed

Experiment with your Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed tools. Learn how to automatically post updates on your social media sites (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) every time you post a new blog entry. This will help you expand your reach and expose your work to other people who might want to get more information about your topics of expertise.

3. Link Shortening

Make the post to your link shorter and, thus, more manageable. Shorter links help you link your post in status updates, comments, email messages and more. Sites that offer link shortening usually allow users to see how many clicks the shortened link has gotten. Check out goo.gl, bit.ly, ow.ly and cli.gs for your long links.

4. Status Updates

Sometimes, it can be tempting to just paste the link and leave it on your wall or profile for others to read. This is not the way to do it. Give your readers some incentive to read the link you pasted. Create a snippet that would adequately tell what the link is all about to tease the readers into reading. Schedule posts to appear on the times when your readers are most active. This will make them notice immediately that you’ve updated your blog.

Another thing to remember is to avoid posting the same status update to all your social networks. Each social media site has its own set of rules when it comes to posting status. For example, Twitter has a 140-character limit for tweets while Facebook allows posts more than 60,000 characters.

5. Content Teasers on Other Sites

Post some snippets of your blog posts to social networking sites and forums. Follow the rules of posting such content to avoid being denied or suspended. Try pasting snips in LinkedIn group forums, LinkedIn Answers and other group to attract new viewers.

6. Social Bookmarking

Make use of social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumpleUpon to promote your blog posts. This will draw considerable traffic to your blog. This technique helps users to manage and store bookmarks of Internet resources. Try out sites for this particular function.

7. Look for other blogs with similar topics and comment on them

Connect with other writers who write the same topics as you do. Look at their work and give constructive comments with a link to your blog posts. This would generate more interest toyour blog, help you touch bases and exchange information with your fellow web content writers. Try this out, and maybe you will find a blogger to collaborate with.

8. Seek-and-Assist on Twitter

Earn followers and create a strong Twitter base with this technique. Look for posts from people seeking help on your area of expertise. Give them advice on what to do with a link of your blog post at the end of the tweet. If you managed to solve their problems, chances are they’ll follow you back with more questions. Always remember to ask them to retweet or share links to your blog posts to increase the number of your followers and your social clout.

9. Email signature

Send emails with a signature including the link to your latest blog post’s headline and link. This will spark interest among your network and entice them to check out the link for themselves. This creates more awareness about your blog. If they really like the content (which they will if you create well-written copies every time), they will surely comment and share the link to their own friends and acquaintances.

10. Share your blog post with target customers.

Sometimes, target customers need a nudge to read your content. Send them an email saying you wrote a blog post, which they might find useful. This will make your potential clientele be interested in seeking your expertise in solving their problems with content marketing. Once you get their attention, ask them to refer you to businesses that might need your services.

11. Add blog posts to your e-newsletters.

Include your blog posts to your newsletters and use some analytics to see which posts got the most clicks. Knowing which posts garnered the most interest will give you an idea about topics you can broach on further. Writing about these topics will get you more clicks and boost your content popularity.

12. Collaborate with other bloggers to talk about your posts.

Work with other writers to mention and promote each other’s work. Doing so will help you improve your write-ups and make it easier for everyone to achieve readers’ attention and maintain interest. This group effort can provide you with huge returns in terms of blog traffic, RSS subscribers and high search engine rankings.

 

References:

Content Marketing Institute

ZDNet.com