It’s always tough starting a new blog.

You could spend months writing useful content, but probably won’t get much traffic until you start networking with fellow bloggers and promoting it.

I thought it would be helpful to start a discussion to share favorite blog promotion strategies (especially for those just starting out).

Here are some tactics I’ve used:

• Sharing a blog post link when relevant in a LinkedIn group or answer
• Interviewing a popular blogger in my niche 
• Writing guest posts for relevant blogs
• Commenting on other people’s blogs (when relevant and appropriate)
• Linking to my blog in all social profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn)
• Tweeting new blog posts
• Sharing some of my favorite blog posts in social bookmarking sites (e.g. digg, stumbleupon, clipmarks, delicious, and other niche social networks)
• Linking out to relevant blogs in my niche (because bloggers often pay attention to analytics to see where traffic is coming from). Besides, I want to share great sites that my audience might find useful
• Commenting on relevant Facebook pages or Google+ pages 
• Make sure social icons for sharing are on every blog post
• Sharing in relevant wikis and articles
  

BTW, here are some helpful blogging articles here on SME:

• 5 Tips for Creating Shareable Blog Content
• 8 Keys to Blogging Success
• 7 Blogging Tips from Top Bloggers
  

@mikedelgadodigitalmarketer These are excellent ways to promote your blog!

Another promotion tool I love is Networked Blogs. This is a great way to syndicate your blog content directly to your Facebook page.

And, blogging carnivals are always a great promotional tool as well. If you can find a blog carnival in your niche that is already established you can start submitting posts and offering to host. Starting one up on your own is a little more work, so the amount of time you can put towards it needs to be looked at.

Also, you mentioned Guest Blogging, and I happen to agree and think guest blogging is wonderful. Many times though I get asked “How do I find a blog that is accepting guest bloggers?” A great way to do this is to Google it! Simply type in “write for us” or “guest blog for us” and then your industry into your Google search and see what pops up. And, of course you can always just ask a blog you follow if they would be willing to either write for you or vice versa

@joancrocker Thanks for mentioning blog carnivals.  I’ve participated in a few with my studenthacks.org blog. It’s a great way to partner up with bloggers in a similar niche. I’ve never used “networked blogs” tool for Facebook. Can you let me know more about it?  Does it work well?

@mikedelgadodigitalmarketer Love these ideas Mike. I’m a new blogger. I share my blog through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. I joined several blogging groups and I’ve liked several pages on Facebook devoted to bloggers. I often post links to my blogs on their as well.  Recently I did a Google search for “blog promotion sites”, looking for sites that help you promote your blog.

@mikedelgadodigitalmarketer

A few tactics that I’ve used/seen work have been:

- Guest blogging- Podcasting- Collaborating with others- Creating cornerstone content (ie: pillar articles, ebook, reports, surveys)

Also, you can use the Simple Facebook Connect plug in to get the blog to automatically publish to you Page or your Timeline.  It will also allow your responders to log in with their FB account (which will go to their stream and others will see they commented on a blog) and allow them to comment.

@nickmessenger I prefer using the base Wordpress system plus Commentluv over Facebook. From a commenter’s perspective, if I have a private personal profile that I want to stay private, why would I want it linked to public comments? From a blog owner’s perspective, I still wouldn’t want Facebook comments because the you don’t get access to the commenter’s email address. Plus, I don’t know how it woks, but if Facebook were to shut your app down, will you lose all of your comments?

I am trying to do more guest posting. It is a good way to widen out your audience and stretch my wiring muscles.

@mikedelgadodigitalmarketer Thanks Mile! I’m definitely going to utilize guest blogging as a way to market my own blogs and to gain more readership!

Does anyone here use Technorati to promote their Blog? I’ve seen it mentioned and since I just started Blogging in Nov I have a lot to learn. Thank you to everyone who has shared! Its been very helpful.

Here some things people will not tell you:

Guest Posting – it works but you need to be consistent. Thinking you can write one article and gain traffic is misguided. You need to write a number of articles for each blog your guest post at to really see good traffic. 

The downside, is that you give a lot of content away to other sites. When people do trickle along to your site, you still have to show them you have great content there too. So always make sure you have good and useful content on your site BEFORE you start to guest post.

2) Twitter

Most Twitter strategies include some form of Twitter SPAM. You either tweet your message alot or use the followback system. The Followback is akin to spam, send enough requests and some will follow back. Not a great long term strategy, but for some it works. Again make sure your site is top notch first. I’ve known Twitter ban accounts for this, so use it at your own risk too.

One of the easiest ways to gain traffic to your blog, great comments (hard thing to do) and gain a network of bloggers is what is known as a ‘blog commenting tribe. (Do a search on Google for ‘blog commenting tribe’ and you should find some good sites).

I KNOW of many good bloggers who started with blog commenting tribes, simply because they give your blog social proof quickly. You band together with other bloggers and agree to comment on each other’s blogs twice a week. The very fact that you blog has interactions, both pleases Google (higher ranking and thus more traffic) and excites new members. It is like walking past an empty restaurant compared to a busy one… the busy one automatically feels like somewhere you should spend more time.

So, before you promote, make sure your blog looks like a place that people should be spending their time. I write for well known blogs and I made this mistake before I joined a Blog commenting Tribe. It made all the difference to my site. 

I much pr

I love the blogging carnivals, and Triberr is another great way to get your blogs out there

Creating a Successful Blog is Two Phase Work:
1- Creating A Good And Meaningful Content
2- Marketing Your Blog

You can’t survive with only one.

So if you want to get readers for your blog then you can get it by marketing your blogs, but if you want to hold  those visitors on your blog then you have offer good quality content, if you want to make them click then you have to offer good content.

Content and marketing is directly proportional to  each others. so work for both not for only one.

here’s a list of my blog post marketing tactic which i used to market my blog:

1- Share Your Blog Updates With Your Social Media Presence. ( If You want you can use Dlvr.it For this.)

2- Be Active on Social Bookmarking sites. Ask people to bookmark your stuffs. ( Digg & Stumbleupon etc..)

3-  Create A community of bloggers or be a part of any blogging community. like bloggers, triberr etc…

4- Do interviews.

5- Do some guest blogging.

6- Use Giveaways & Contest

7- Be Active On Q&A Sites

8- Be Active On Forums

9- Do Blog Commenting (Sensible Comments)

10- If you can invest some money then target banner advertising and paid advertising, SEM (Search engine marketing.)

11- Do directory submissions

12- Have Social Media Sharing buttons on your blog. (So your readers easily able to share it with their online presence.)

13- Get engaged with your readers, try to convert them into your loyal fan. because once they gets in love with your blog they will recommend your blog to lots of people.

14- Be wider in content. don’t just stick with single topic.

15- Do some video marketing if you can. if not then do comments on some related videos.

16- Be a problem solver.

17- Use content sharing sites like squidoo, hubpages and others.

18- Share some documents and do document marketing.

19- Have a newsletter.

20- Link Exchange.

In short bro. Be everywhere for everybody. if they have problem, be the solution for him. if they took a wrong way then be the map for him. blog marketing is all about being social for everybody…

The more you visible the better traffic you will get..