10 Ways to Promote a New Blog Post

I think blogging is one of the best ways to build your brand. Why? It allows you to showcase your voice or personality through your writing style (or audio or video style, if you don’t like writing). It allows you to amaze your customers with your expertise and insight when you share valuable tips and ideas. And, by using specific keywords that attract customers, it helps people find you.

“If you build it, they will come” is just movie magic.

However, it took me a long time to figure out that writing a great blog post that offers value and attracts customers is only half the job. You need to promote the post to drive readers to your blog site to get the most bang for your buck from your hard work. Sitting back and waiting for search engine optimization to drive traffic takes too long! Don’t be afraid to promote your posts to get noticed.

Here are 10 Things You Should Do After You’ve Written a Blog Post

1. Promote the post on your social networks. Share teasers on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Don’t just do it once. Promote the post a few times of day, most days of the week. Ask people to share.

2. Highlight it to your newsletter subscribers. Promote your posts to your list of interested fans. Tease them with the title and a short blurb about the post and then provide the link for them to click through and read more.

3. Use social bookmarking sites to expand your reach. Highlight your post on StumbleUpon, Digg or Reddit to get some additional exposure.

4. Scan social forums or communities for your topic. Then add value to the discussion by answering their question and providing a link to the blog post to learn more.

5. Reach out to other bloggers. Start creating a list of other bloggers in your space. Start commenting on their blog posts or retweeting their posts to get their attention. Send them an email asking if they would be interested in a guest post. Offer to do the same on your blog.

6. Submit your article to directories. Depending on the blog post you might consider submitting your blog post to online article directories line eZine Article or GoArticles, which allows people to pick up and publish your article on their site as long as they give you credit and a link back to your site. I wouldn’t do this for every post, but if you have a good post that seems to be drawing traffic to your site, consider giving it a little more reach through article directories.

7. Repurpose it. Take a look at your blog post once it is done and think about other ways to share the information. Can it be broken up into 3 smaller posts? Can you turn it into an infographic? Can you read the post and make it a podcast or a video? Can you turn it into a list or quick tips? Basically, brainstorm new ways to repurpose the hard work you have already done in creating the content.

8. Consolidate posts. If you have a variety of posts on a certain topic, consider consolidating them into a free downloadable e-book that you give readers when they share their email address with you. This helps you to look like an expert in your field.

9. Promote it everywhere. Add a link to one of your best blog posts to your email signature. Entice people you talk to everyday to come visit your blog. Once there, hopefully they will click around to see other content.

10. Interlink your post. Look at your analytics and see which of your posts draw the most traffic. Now check and see if you can add an organic link within the text of your popular post to the new post you’ve written. Interlinking new and old posts helps to get people to dig deeper into your library of content.

What did I miss? How do you promote your killer blog posts?