This is a guest post entry by Melvin Dichoso
Back in the days, making a blog popular was a bit hard. Before, as a webmaster you don’t have that many option. In fact most bloggers before rely mostly on goodwill and link exchanges. That was way before, but now it has become easier.
Thanks to social media, forums, and just the whole internet, promoting a blog or website has become much easier. I couldn’t argue that these days, its quite a bit saturated out there but like I always said, saturation is good because it means there is competition and competition means there’s money.
Ok now back to the main point of this post. The downside of marketing your blog these days is that it’s so easy. I mean most people just get contented with trying to get as much people as possible to their blog without really having the intention of leveraging them. Another problem is that because the internet is so broad, most bloggers simply target the wrong demographics.
I can relate with that because it was one of my mistakes when starting out blogging. I would oftentimes go to a big site/ network and promote my stuff. The problem is that these people really don’t care about my site because they’re doing other stuff so what happens is that they would just bounce off quickly and leave. Even back then, I was not familiar with the Analytics stuff so I was just like flying blind.
The misconception here is all about getting traffic. I agree that getting traffic is hard especially if you’re just getting started and bloggers work real hard to get considerable amount of traffic. The problem is that oftentimes, we so much care about quantity that we forget the quality of traffic. We target the wrong people, promote our blogs to wrong demographics. All in all it’s useless.
You can notice it yourself by looking at your stats and you can easily see the spikes and inconsistencies in traffic. Just because you get a hundred hits by spamming your link BlogCatalog’s discussion area, doesn’t mean you’re gonna get the same (or even half) by tomorrow.
The worse thing is that it leaves a bad reputation to you and your blog because you’re pitching them something they don’t want nor care about. And obviously once a reputation has been tarnished, it’s hard to get it back.
I don’t really have a magic bullet for you here in terms of finding the right people to read your stuff but there are always proven methods on how to do it so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. First is to try to avoid mass marketing. Mass marketing is simply marketing and promoting your blog in front of a wide and broad variety of people. A good example we illustrated above is the BlogCatalog’s discussion area. Because it’s so targeted with bloggers and caters a very huge traffic most people do the mistake of just promoting themselves aggressively there.
Another example is in forums. I see it a lot especially in digitalpoint where someone would create a new thread just to tell people to visit their blog. Do you really think that works? If it does then probably most blogs are getting good traffic but that’s never the case.
Getting the right people for your blog is no easy. You have to constantly test and test to get the right combination of tactics that you are going to implement. Let’s say for every 100 visitors that landed to your blog. 30 of them are the people who may probably be interested in what you’re talking about. If that’s the case, it makes a lot of sense to just let those 70 people who are uninterested go away. Instead, focus on cultivating your relationship as a blogger to those 30 people and try to build something between you as the expert and them as the reader. That way you are going to get the best bang for your effort.
How many times have you heard this? It’s funny because up until now bloggers still don’t get it. Blogging, like any business online or offline is all about converting your audience into customers. That should always be the main goal. Of course it doesn’t happen right away. You may first want to have a conversion goal of them leaving a comment, then subscribing to the RSS, then to the newsletter and etc. But having a conversion goal even from the start is a must.
That will never ever be possible if you don’t have the right people in front of your blog. My blog gets fewer traffic than most of the internet marketing/blogging blogs out there but I manage to build a good community around it. That being said, it’s really hard to sell something or make them do a thing if they’re not really interested in what you’re talking about. By promoting to the proper demographic, you are maximizing what your blog can do for you. And believe me 10 audience that are willing to listen to you is better than 100 bouncing ones. What do you think?
This is a guest article written by Melvin Dichoso who blogs at MelvinBlog Dot Com. He has released a freemium product about marketing blogs competently which is free for newsletter subscribers.
You are absolutely right. I think, blogging is one of the best way to share the ideas, thoughts and experiences with the others.
You are right bro, Blogging does not mean only money or traffic
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I usually build websites around quite specific keyword terms – this helps a lot with my conversion rates and I'm able to target traffic very well. you've raised some very good points in this article – thanks for sharing it.
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I just had to stop and say the Title of this post was brilliant! The post itself was good too, but the title really made me chuckle!
What a good read! When it comes to blogging sometimes slow and steady wins the race. Oftentimes bloggers get in a big hurry to promote their blog and succeed at getting traffic to their site but not sale conversions. Also, if a blogger would just slow down, a lot of mistakes could be avoided. My advice is to continue to post to your blog but take time to read what others are saying about blogging.
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Absolutely right; as with most things, quality is better then quantity.
It just takes patience, instead of hitting all social networks and spamming the hell out of yourself to people that don't care, take a little time to find areas that are for your specific niche.
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Hey Melvin,
Glad to see you here.. Another great Post man.
"Just Getting Pageviews Isn't enough" Exactly right bro.
It's better to have 10 readers that will going to read your blog instead 1000 readers who just click away in a few seconds..
Thanks for sharing this great Post. Rock on.
Btw. how is your "Best marketing tip" Contest going on?
@Dan
New logo is looking killer. Btw. i think you should you also change favicon to something similar to your logo.
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Thanks Dev! Good advice on the favicon …I will do that tonight..
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You are quite right bro, having a good relationship with readers is certainly the most important point. And on top of that if you really have a good relationship with readers then they frequent your blog and the conversion is more
Thanks for sharing with us, and thanks Dan for bringing in guest bloggers. It's always great to share the love. But Melvin my question is this: What kinds of targeted marketing have worked for you? You mention several things that don't work and those are right on. You also say you don't have a magic bullet. That's fine, no one does or at least they don't give it away for free. But what have you been having success with? What do you do to reach new readers and what do you do to engage them once they get to your site?
Hi Melvin,
Great Post. I agree. You need to have targeted visitors. Build a relationship with your visitors.
You need to provide value, in order to build a relationship with your visitors.
If you do that, you can be sure of visitors that convert.
Kindest,
Nabeel
P.S.Typos in article:
Before, as a webmaster you don’t (didn't) have that many option (s). In fact most bloggers before rely (relied) mostly on goodwill and link exchanges…
Getting the right people for your blog is no (not) easy.
Not really that its sure but by building relationship, you're halfway there..
BTw, thanks for correcting me.. Dan didn't proofread my post..
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my bad
I am falling down on my editorial responsibilities.
My recent post Promote your Blog with Linkedin – Part 2
I agree with you completely, 10 audience that are willing to listen to you is better than 100 bouncing ones. Promoting blogs and site thisday is very easy than before, because lots of related related blogs are now online, all you need is to look for nice and good partners to exchange traffic with
True. And since blogging is all about building relationships, its all about taking advantage of that and making connection with others
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You are right bro, Blogging does not mean only money or traffic but it also means to get to know other bloggers and webmasters and build a good business as well as personal relationship with them.
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Hey Dan, thanks for posting my post here in your blog. I appreciate it.
To everyone else, if there's anything you'd like to clarify or ask , feel free to do so. Im going to be staying here in Dan's comment form..
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Melvin- Thanks. This is a great post, very informative and adds a lot to my blog. I have been focusing much of my content on blog promotion lately and this fits in beautifully.
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Hi, Yes, social media has made it easy for many to make their sites popular.
A lot of guys are also using spamming. Can u discuss about that in any post?
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Sure if Dan wouldn't mind, I could do a guest post on that topic soon.
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