If you blog and don’t promote it, no one will see it. We tell you how to become visible – for free or with the help of advertising.
Why promote a blog
Rules for successful blog promotion
Analysis and improvement of promotion strategy
Tips on how to avoid mistakes when promoting a blog
Expert advice
Why promote a blog
Table of Contents
Even if the content is interesting and well-designed, it is not enough to attract an audience. There are millions of blogs and websites on the Internet, and thousands of new ones appear every day. Without advertising and promotion, a blog will simply drown in this sea of information. For example, studies show that 75% of users stay on the first page of Google search results and do not go further. If a blog does not make it to the top results, the likelihood that it will be found is almost zero.
Text blogs are run in different formats. Some use thematic platforms like vc.ru or Habr, others publish content on social networks or create a channel in Telegram. Still others create a personal website and post publications on it. Such blogs are the worst off without promotion for two reasons:
● No built-in audience
Blog platforms, Telegram and social networks have millions of users who can find content by chance or by recommendation. If you don’t promote your site, people simply won’t know about it.
● Competition and ranking
In social networks or Telegram, algorithms can help promote content based on user interests or subscriber activity. Blog sites need to compete for positions in search results with thousands of other sites.
To become visible, you need advertising or at least promotion of your blog on social networks and through SEO.
Read Also:Your Wellness Partner: LifeStance Health
Rules for successful blog promotion
The four pillars that make up a successful blog, no matter where it is hosted, are a clear goal, quality content, SEO optimization , and advertising.
Clear goal
Before developing and promoting a blog, you need to understand what it is about and why people should subscribe to it. This understanding determines the description and name of the blog, content, frequency of posts and the format of advertising to attract an audience.
For example, a lifestyle blog can be about how to create coziness at home or where to find quiet places to work on a laptop in the city. Such a blog is monetized with the help of advertising integrations, and for this you need an audience of at least 1000 regular subscribers.
If the author is a psychologist and wants to sell their services, then investments in the blog will pay off through consultations with clients. But there are many blogs about psychology, so you need to think through the content that will help you stand out from the competition. When the blog has an audience of acquaintances and friends of the author, you can connect targeted or contextual advertising to attract new subscribers.
Creating quality and useful content
The concept of quality and usefulness is subjective – any content will find its reader. But there are several criteria that are important to consider regardless of the topic:
● No grammatical errors
It is more pleasant to read a well-written text, although not everyone pays attention to grammar, and some perceive typos as the author’s highlight.
● The text is easy to read
There are spaces after periods, paragraphs are separated from each other, you can scan the text by headings and understand what it is about.
● The thought is structured
It is clear what problem or observation the author is discussing, what arguments he gives, what his point of view is.
1. If the blog is new, start with an introduction post
tell a little about yourself and the blog’s concept. Pin this post so that new subscribers can better navigate the publications. If the author sells services, in the second pinned post you can describe their cost and how to order them.
2. Create a content plan
this will allow you to come up with topics in advance and maintain regularity of posts.
If you haven’t decided on a direction yet, then the free course “Which profession in marketing to choose” will help you understand which professions are in demand now, what different specialists do and how to build a successful career.
There are two sources of topics for posts: look at Wordstat search queries on the blog topic or rely on audience comments and requests from clients.
Some search queries are ready-made topics for a post or article. Let’s try to find topics for an English teacher’s blog. For the phrase “learning English”, Wordstat gives several queries that can be used in posts.
If the blog is not new and there is activity in the comments, the topics for posts can be taken from these discussions. If there is no such texture, analyze the requests from clients. For example, a psychotherapist can analyze the problems that most often come to consultations.
3. Write articles or posts regularly
In the beginning, you need to do this often, almost every day, so that readers can see that the blog is alive and developing. This is also important for search results: more content means a higher chance of getting into the results. In addition, search engines index articles for a long time, so it may take a month or several months before an article starts generating traffic. When you have 10–20 posts, you can publish less often and focus on your own workload.
It’s helpful to cross-link articles to keep readers engaged with your blog longer.
Read Also:Unlock Learning with Apple Education Tools
Content Optimization for Search Engines
You can’t drive traffic to your blog with content alone. It’s important that the link to it appears in search results more often and preferably in the first ten search results. The lower the site is in search results, the less likely it is that a reader will get to it.
In order for search robots to recognize the site and show it among the first results, you need to set up SEO – optimize the content for the search requirements in Yandex and Google:
1- Use black font on a white background whenever possible. Unusual color combinations prevent robots from recognizing text.
2- Maintain the hierarchy of headings: H1 should be larger than H2.
3- Write in simple language without complex phrases, maintain logic in the narrative, and support theses with facts rather than emotions.
4- Add keywords on the topic to headings, text in sections, and pictures. A group of keywords is called a semantic core . You can find keywords, as well as topics for posts, in Yandex.Wordstat.
Attracting an audience to your blog
Even with an audience of 100-200 people, you can plan to promote your blog. There are two ways: paid and free.
Paid
1- Advertising in Telegram.
2- Targeted advertising in social networks.
3- Advertising integrations with bloggers.
For free
1- Tell about the blog in all available channels: on social networks, directly to friends and acquaintances.
2- Ask friends to tell about the blog.
3- Promote yourself through commenting. For example, with a premium subscription to Telegram, you can comment on posts in other channels on your behalf. It is important to do this without blatant advertising, otherwise the account may be banned.
4- Participate in interactive events. Authors of large blogs sometimes offer subscribers to tell about themselves in the comments. This is a good opportunity to advertise the blog
For advertising to work, it is not necessary to spend hundreds of thousands of rubles. In small channels with up to 1,000 people, you can test advertising for 1,000 rubles or even less. If the channel is original, with interesting content and a live audience, advertising in it can be more effective than in publics with 100,000 subscribers, where the audience is usually less involved.
Analysis and improvement of promotion strategy
Different platforms have different tools for tracking blog statistics, but the success metrics are roughly the same: publication reach, engagement, comments, and reads.
In Telegram, you can view channel dynamics: changes in the number of subscribers, the number of reactions to posts. In addition, there is the TGStat service – in it, you can view statistics on publications and track citations in other channels and the effectiveness of advertising.
One of the key indicators for a Telegram channel is engagement rate by views (ERR). Low ERR means that the channel has a large audience, but few subscribers read it. One of the reasons for this situation is that the channel was promoted through mandatory subscriptions, such as contests or folders. People subscribed for the prizes, but the channel itself is not interesting to them.
The concept of good ERR may be different for different types of channels. The For example, for a channel with 100 people, engagement over 100% is normal. For an expert channel with a complex topic — 20–30%, for a live channel — 30–50%.
For blogs in Zen there is a separate office – “Zen-studio“. In it you can see not only impressions and views, but also readings of the material.
Statistics for a VK page can be viewed in the “Profile Statistics” section. The service shows the reach of publications, audience characteristics, and engagement.
Blog sites are usually not developed from scratch, but use constructors – for example, Tilda. They have built-in statistics tools, and all the data can be seen in the personal account.
When one of the indicators drops, it is a reason to think about what can be improved in the blog promotion strategy. If publications are liked and commented on, but the number of subscribers does not increase, it is worth investing more in promotion. If subscribers do not respond to publications, review the content plan or the format of presentation.
Read Also:Discover Elon Musk’s Education Path
Tips on how to avoid mistakes when promoting a blog
1. Be prepared to maintain your account regularly
Regularly — not necessarily every day. Once a week is also regular. But it is also important to set aside time for such a schedule in the blog. It happens that there is a desire to start, but the blog is not a priority. It is more important to get the child ready for school or finish the summer cottage season. With such a schedule, the blog is often abandoned before it has really started, and then you scold yourself for the fact that nothing worked out. If you have urgent and important things in your plans, it is better to put the blog aside. When it is calmer, return.
2. Focus on your pleasure and interests
You should enjoy blogging. To do this, you need to choose a topic that you want to talk about for a long time, a style and format that are pleasant and easy to work with. When you want to share something, there will be no problem with regularity – you will find time for posts and articles. You should not waste time filming videos and recording voice messages for a Telegram channel just because one of your competitors does it. If you don’t like this format, it will only complicate the preparation of content or even discourage you from blogging.
3. Don’t go straight to monetization if the idea for a blog has just appeared
If something goes wrong with the blog, high expectations can kill motivation. You can start with an experiment – make a small content plan and publish when it’s convenient. If the blog finds a response – organize work on it more seriously.
4. If you have time, try different platforms
At first, it will be more efficient to spend all your resources on one platform. This way, you will get the hang of it and estimate how much time you spend on your blog. But over time, this approach will increase the risks. If one of the platforms stops working, the blog will lose its audience and you will have to re-launch it on another platform. In addition, a blog on different platforms will be able to reach more people. For example, those who do not use VK will read publications on Telegram, and vice versa.
