22 Resources To Make Visitor Blog Promotion Easy – Day 3 of 7 Days To Making Your Blog Blossom

7 Days to Making Your Blog Blossom > Day 3! 

Morning!

The sun is shining (okay, barely, it’s 5:42am), the birdies are tweeting (definitely – Twitterbudgies always awaken at the most inopportune hours), and yesterday, I completed Day 21 of my 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog tutorial!

Goodies I revealed included the feed subscription incentive I added (there’s a neat RSS footer plugin that lets you tack on a line after every post – in my case, I provide the secret location to my complimentary download of 24 Hour eBook Digital Product Creation), plus I also wrapped up how to package and sell your best posts.

Then I commented today at Are you in the Business of Misery? and Sibling Rivalry, and…..and….

And that means…it’s time for Day 3 of Making Your Blog Blossom!

Remember in our last lesson, I gave you 32 resources to help you make your blog welcoming.  Today, I want to take that a weeeeeeee step further, and discuss how to make specific visitor promotion easy and effective.

Here are the 6 blog-blossoming goals on which I’m focusing:

• Getting more subscribers to your RSS feed
• Getting more commenters
• Having more blogs refer to your articles
• Bringing in more money
• Being viewed as a Subject Matter Expert
• Building your own personal community

So!  For each goal above, how can you help compel visitors to tell their friends about you?  

It’s easier than you think!  And no, you don’t even have to use Semaphores like this Monty Python Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights!

Let’s start off with:

Before you begin – Given your goals, what’s the WIIFM ANSWER your readers would crave?

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and ask, what’s in it for them to tell their friends about you?

Hmmm?   Well.  Let’s see….there are lots of ways you can approach this!  For:

Getting more subscribers to your RSS feed:

The goal here is to get readers to tell THEIR friends about signing up for your feed.  Offer them a bonus – ie, if a subscriber drops you a line saying, Bill Gates referred me, you’ll send Bill Gates a complimentary copy of your ebooks, special posts, etc.etc.etc.etc.

Also highlight how their friends will be sure to thank them for referring them to your site (which of course would be true, as you showcase stellar information).

You can also use eMail and Tell A Friend Scripts like:

• WP-eMail
• Tell a Friend
• cForms II Tell a Friend

Getting more commenters:

The goal here is to get readers to tell THEIR friends about commenting on your blog posts.  Besides making commenting fun (ie, having all the commenting plugins to which I referred in the last lesson), set up communities/teams who compete against one another (ie, whichever team comments the most in a week will win a focused blog post about each person or their goals or an Amazon gift certificate etc.).

This way, people will contact their friends to ask them to join their team so they can all win.  Again, remember – you always want to showcase the PERSONAL benefits one will receive (as everyone instinctively looks out for number one).

Resources for building a community (and ideally, more commentators) around your blog include:

• Building a Community Around Your Blog
• How to Build Community on Your Blog
• Creating Community

Having more blogs refer to your articles:

The goal here is to get readers to tell THEIR friends to WRITE about you.  You can offer a blogging contest that provides two prizes – one to the winning blog post, and the other to the person who TOLD that person about your contest.

This contest would be for people to write about their favorite article on YOUR blog (including a link to it, of course) and offer their own take, or maybe critiquing your blog, or….you get the idea.  Perhaps you can consider hosting your own Blog Carnival or competition as well!

Resources for blog carnivals and how to make blog competions include:

• What is a Blog Carnival?
• Wiki Blog Carnival
• How to Run a Blog Competition to Find New Readers and Make Your Blog Sticky

Bringing in more money:

The goal here is to get readers to tell THEIR friends to visit your site and ideally buy something from it.  This is easy – simply offer an affiliate program of your popular books and such, and encourage readers to join your affiliate program to make money by adding links to your products on your site.

My posting Package and Sell Your Best Posts – Day 21 of 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog goes over this rather well. 

And….

Remember, subscribers to my feed get a complimentary copy of my 24 Hour eBook Digital Product Creation book!

Being viewed as a Subject Matter Expert:

The goal here is to get readers to tell THEIR friends you’re the one to follow and to whom all should listen.  This is generally a byproduct of delivering quality content again and again….your name starts to become known in your industry.

You can also actively particpate on forums and include your blog link in your signature, as well as join all the social networking clubs that relate to your industry.  Just like everyone in recruiting knows Bill, and everyone in women’s historical fiction knows Donna, so you to will become known by your first name as well.

Resources to assist you with this include:

• Becoming a Subject Matter Expert of Your Coaching Niche! Part One
• How to become an Expert
• If You’re Not the Go-To Person in Your Niche, Then You’re Just Another Peddler
• How to become an expert

Building your own personal community:

The goal here is to get readers to tell THEIR friends to visit your site and participate in any way, shape or form.   This could be accomplished by incorporating a forum on your blog like AuthorityBlogger.com.  Make it warm and friendly and encourage interactions between members.

Resources to help you build a forum community around your blog include:

• How to successfully run a forum
• Community Building and Social Networks forum
• vBulletin Community

One you’ve set the above into motion, make certain:

Step 1 – Enable Social Bookmarking of your posts

Always make it easy for people to comment about your posts on Digg, Stumblupon, etc.  Here are some useful Social Bookmarking plugins and widgets:

• ShareThis
• Social Bookmarks
• I Love Social Bookmarking
• Bookmark Me
• Add This Social Bookmarks Widget

Next,

Step 2 – Do the same thing with your RSS feed

If you’re using Feedburner, you can log into your account, select your feed, click on Optimize and then Feed Flare like so:

AClick on Optimize first (highlighted in blue) and then FeedFlare second (highlighted in red).  You can then select what goodies you want to show up at the bottom of your feed.  Here’s what mine looks like:

And then finally:

Step 3 – Announce your changes at your social networks

After all, that’s one reason why we participate in social networks, isn’t it?  You can alert your network to your blog enhancement and ask for evalutation and constructive feedback. 

Wasn’t that simple?  Now whenever anyone new comes to your blog, they’ll see copy and content that compels them to tell their friends about your posts…and come visit themselves as well.

Nice, eh?

And that brings me to:

In closing

In this lesson, you learned how to slant your blog towards compelling people to tell their friends about it.

And of course (you really didn’t think I’d close a post without this now, did you?)  an opportunity now arises! 

(remember, there’s no such things as problems in real life – just misunderstood opportunities)…..

HOMEWORK -  Are you the only person blogging about your topic?  If not…how on earth do you stand out from the thundering herd?

How can you accomplish this?  Hmmmm? 

Thus, until tomorrow!  (and don’t forget, if you think any of your friends would benefit from these tutorials, please do share them!  They’ll thank you for it…guaranteed).

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: Don’t be shy about accomplishing YOUR OWN goals as well as satisfying your readers.

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: Add a forum community to your blog to help grow your network.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Like this post? Please feel free to tell your friends and Digg It – I very much appreciate your time!

ps – speaking about promotion,

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1. 32 Resources To Make Your Blog Warm and Welcoming – Day 2 of 7 Days To Making Your Blog Blossom
2. Define “Blossom” – Day 1 of 7 Days to Making Your Blog Blossom
3. 16 Resources To Give Readers Their Own Edge – Day 6 of 7 Days to Making Your Blog Blossom
4. No Hype, Just What Works – Barbara Blueprint: 7 Days To Make Your Blog Blossom
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