Moxie Reviews wanted me to write a post about how a person new to blogging can break through and start to get heard in the online world.
You’ll think I’m pulling your leg, but factually – I can’t really answer this question. It’s not that I don’t have ideas on how I can increase how I get heard. It’s not that I can’t remember how I got from my very first blog post to where I am now (wherever that is). But the truth is that this journey is different for everybody. Everyone has to figure it out based on their own objectives, their own goals, and all of that jazz.
Proof for my non-answer
How do I know it’s different for everybody? Well, I’ve started three different blogs over the last year, and each one was completely different.
Take this site here. I started out by blogging and tweeting at the same time. I didn’t really do any promotion on Facebook or LinkedIn, and I only tweeted once a day. That’s how I started the long journey of driving traffic to my site.
When I started my second blog, which focused on online safety, I figured that if I did an expanded version of what I did for this site, I’d be golden. So, I began the site and I also launched a Twitter chat. More engagement, more traffic, or so I thought. In fact, I never could get that blog site going.
Finally, there’s The Blog Library. It’s not your typical blog site so it may not be fair to compare it here, but in the case of that site, Facebook has been far more effective than Twitter in driving traffic, and a new factor, Google Plus, has also helped. I discovered all of that via trial and error.
So what advice can I give you?
I don’t want you to leave here empty-handed, so I’ll toss some ideas out that have worked for me in terms of starting to get my voice heard.
1. Do NOT approach other bloggers and relentlessly ask them to tweet out or promote your posts. People get tired of that super duper quick.
2. Participate in #blogchat. Sunday night, 9 PM EST. Not only will you learn a ton, you will also meet other bloggers who may be learning just like you are. That’s how I met Stanford Smith, aka PushingSocial
3. Get a feel for what your readers like and what they don’t. I know that you tend to come here for “how to” posts because those are the posts that tend to do best for me. The ones I like writing the best, my floatey, not really social media-related philosophical posts, tend not to do as well, so I don’t write them as much. I want you to be interested!
4. When your traffic is small, look at how many tweets, comments, likes, and other stuff you’re getting. You might only have 3 tweets and 2 comments on a post, but if you have 100 visitors, you’ve got a 5% response rate, which is nothing to sneeze at. Look on the bright side of the numbers.
5. Try to guest post on other peoples’ sites – off them the opportunity to post on yours as well. This doesn’t just mean trying to get posted on Copyblogger. It means finding people who are in a similar boat and helping each other out.
6. Establish a pace that works well for you and then stick to it. If you don’t want to write daily, that’s fine. If you do that’s fine. But try to be consistent so that you can establish expectations for your readers.
7. Add subscription options on your site. People may not read your posts when they go live, but they may go through their Reader and hit ya later.
8.Don’t try to be “the next.” Find your own voice and your own style. Nothing else will seem right or natural.
9. Promote across channels – but if you know you have a lot of the same followers, try not to post your update all at the same time. Otherwise people will be getting your promotional updates all at the same time, and that can be kind of annoying.
10. What is your number 10? What are you trying or what do you want to try? What has worked for you? Help Moxie out!
Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/michaelaw