So You Wrote A Great Article, Now What?

 In Blogging

You have spent hours writing the perfect blog post for your website. It is SEO optimized, the keywords have been carefully chosen, even the artwork is spectacular. You hit the PUBLISH button and then you wait for the flood of traffic to hit your website. If only it were that easy.

If all you do is walk away after you publish a post your website will never gain the traffic it deserves. If you want your site to be successful you need to actively promote each and every piece of content you put on there. It is an involved process but the rewards will be worth it. If you would rather hand this process off to someone else there are some excellent agencies the specialize in content marketing that will do the heavy lifting for you.

But if you want to roll up your sleeves and do the work yourself there are a few steps that will get your content in front of readers that are eager to see what you have to say.

Get Social

It goes without saying that you should promote your content on social media, but still there remains many companies that are flat out ignoring these platforms. Social media is free and it works. But you need to do it right.

For instance, You may only have room for your title and URL link on Twitter so the title needs to hook the reader and make them want to read further. On Facebook you can add a short excerpt to entice readers to click through to your site.

The time in which you publish a post to each social media site matters as well. In a recent study Buffer determined that the best time to tweet in order to get more clicks was between 2am and 3am. So if you want more visitors you need to schedule posts for that time frame. Get to know the idiosyncrasies of each social media platform and you will have success.

Social Bookmarks

Another good source of web traffic is social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Stumbleupon and Delicious. Reddit is the most popular and can really give your site traffic a boost.

They all work in the same way. You go to the site and place you content URL, along with some keywords, and it becomes discoverable to other users. Reddit has an active community and they will comment, discuss and share your content if it is valuable and interesting enough.

Apps like Onlywire will allow you to submit your content to dozens of social bookmarking sites at once for a small monthly fee. You could do this by hand but the time saved may be worth the price.

Use Your Email List

Your email list is essentially a captive audience who have already expressed interest in your business, either by purchasing something from you or downloading some content. Each time you publish a new article you should send out an email to your list inviting them to read and share it.

By keeping your email list well informed you not only increase your web traffic but you will certainly create more sales as well.

Get More Comments

Having lots of comments on your blog posts is a form of social proof. When new readers come to your site and see that others have taken the time to leave comments they will view that content as more valuable and are more likely to share.

Getting comments is not an easy thing to do, especially if your site has little traffic. One of the best ways to get comments is to place comments on other blogs in your industry. Find a site whose posts do not have many comments and leave a thoughtful comment of your own. Make it something better than, “Good post!.” It should be relevant and show that you have read the post.

A few days after you comment, contact the blog owner and let them know how much you like their content and that you recently left a comment. Then invite them to take a look at your site and leave a comment as well. This is a slow process but it works.

By consistently following these steps, you’ll be exposing your content to an ever increasing audience. Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. The firms that specialize in content marketing have taken years to hone their craft. But with enough practice you can become an expert in marketing your own content.

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