A quick and easy introduction

When you have a blog, a big part of making it profitable is marketing. The more you can successfully market your blog, the more traffic you will get. And while massive traffic isn’t everything to blogging success, it’s important.

More traffic means more eyes on your content, and the more eyeballs you get, the more likely you are to find true fans among your readers. These fans and loyal readers are what will ultimately drive your blog to success, so it makes sense to reach as many of them as you can. And that’s what marketing is all about – reaching the right people.

The first step in any marketing strategy

Marketing is all about increasing your blog’s visibility among the right crowd. And before you do that, you need to know who the right crowd really is. That means you need to be crystal-clear on your target audience. Who is your ideal reader and what can you provide for that person?

Once you know your ideal reader, you can do a better job of creating content and offers for that person. You need to be sure that the “implied promises” you make through your entire blog are delivered.

There should be a specific problem that you set out to help (even if it doesn’t necessarily “seem” like a problem), and that commitment should be easy to spot right away. Maybe your problem is not knowing what to make for dinner, or how to save money, or how to take good photos. Know the problem you solve and the person who needs your help.

Once you’re clear about that, you need to make sure that your blog actually helps solve that problem in a tangible way. Check out your blog post. Check your post title and then see if the content you provide actually delivers what the title promises. Too many times, I’ve clicked on a link that sounded great, only to be completely put off by what the actual post contained. If your post doesn’t address the original issue, you need to start over.

The bottom line is, you can’t afford to waste your reader’s time. Make sure everything you’ve got delivers.

Make sure your blog is ready

For any marketing strategy to work, your content needs to be solid and relevant, as we discussed above. But there are some technical and strategic things that need to happen for your blog to be ready. This is called optimization, and there are several things you can do to make it happen.

The first thing to look at is the first impression your blog will make. Does it look nice? Is it easy to navigate? What are you offering your readers when they first get there, and what will you offer as they dig deeper? I’m talking about an enticing opt-in visible and content upgrade on your blog post

Have you made it easy to share your blog and posts? Social share buttons should appear on every post, as well as on your homepage. You’ll also want to have pinnable images for each post – or at the very least, your top posts

Once you’ve got these basics down, it’s time to roll out the red carpet for your readers A key benefit of knowing your ideal readers well and being able to meet their needs is that you will know (or be able to understand) where they hang out, which will be the first clue to where to focus your marketing efforts. Here are some basic blog marketing strategies to get you started!

Social media marketing

There are a few different aspects of social media marketing for bloggers. This is the most important thing to remember as you set up your social media Be consistent with your chosen platform. The key to success with social media marketing is consistency. And for that reason, I would suggest you pick just one or two platforms to start with.

When you’re just starting out and you’re running your own social media, you need to make it as easy as possible to stay engaged and committed. No matter what big name bloggers say and do, you don’t have to be everywhere. Pick one or two that you like best and save the rest for later. Find places where your readers hang out and work to be visible and accessible

I would recommend you to create one of the Facebook or YouTube platforms if you can, because videos are becoming more and more important for bloggers. Facebook Live videos are easy to create on your blog/business page, and YouTube is linked to Google so you’ve got extra search engine power if you use it right. (The key to this is using good keywords in your video titles and descriptions.)

Here’s another little tip to really make your social media strategy work: spend some time each week promoting others. See a blog post or free resource you like? Share and tag the author. Pin some great pins you find. Mention someone you admire and why you admire them. In short, spread a little love, and you’ll find love spread your way too.

Power up Pinterest

Pinterest is a fantastic marketing tool for bloggers, and it’s something (like social media marketing) that doesn’t necessarily cost anything. If you want to avoid subscribing to third-party services like Tailwind, it will take some time, but it’s possible to make Pinterest work for you without paying for the service.

The most important thing for Pinterest marketing (besides relevancy) is really good-looking pins that people want to click, save, and share. If your pins stand out, you’ll get more attention — and more attention means more love from Pinterest

One of the best ways to come up with great pins is to scan your own Pinterest feed and see what stands out to you What colors, layouts, and fonts do you love? How can you apply the same concepts to your own content?

Once you’ve got great pins, you can upload them to Pinterest Make sure to include a solid pin description that’s upbeat, enticing, and contains some keywords or search terms that fit the post.

Take your new pin and repin it to your relevant board(s) as well as any group boards where it makes sense. You get “juice” from the Pinterest search engine. If nothing else, you should have a “Best of Your Blog” board at the top of your page, where you place a pin for each of your original blog posts.

There are entire courses built on Pinterest marketing, but you can learn a lot of the basics by searching for information on your own. If you want a step-by-step plan, here are some of my favorite Pinterest courses:

Guest posts and appearances

A great way to get the attention of a whole new audience is to appear on someone else’s blog or platform. This can take the form of writing a guest post. Maybe, instead of writing a post, you are interviewed by another blogger and the interview turns into a post Podcast interviews and even YouTube interviews are another great way to get in front of someone else’s audience (and invite them to join you, too).

What you want to do with this strategy is find bloggers whose blog topics are related to yours but not exactly the same. You don’t want direct competition, you want overlapping interests. In this way the audience can be easily “divided” rather than having the same type of information from two different sources in front of them.

Optimize your online presence

An easily overlooked detail that can make a big difference in your marketing efforts is your “presence” across various platforms. I’m talking about your profile page and your bios

For each profile page, make sure you have a line in your bio where you invite the visitor to join your circle. Your best bet is to include a link to opt-in, or (when possible) put a sign-up button there. If your profile includes things like a headline or cover photo (like on Facebook), promote your opt-in in that image. Canva There are some great free templates to get you started

Every time you have a guest post or a guest appearance with someone else, the bio you send shouldn’t really be about you—it should be about what you have to offer. Make sure your bio gives that reader or listener a reason to come to your website. You might want to put together an opt-in just for that audience, for example. Make the last line of your bio a clickable link, if possible (and if not, make it a pretty link).

For example, here’s a version of my own bio:

Angie Nelson, Work at Home Wife, loves helping people find legitimate work at home jobs and build home businesses and blogs they love. Visit his site to get instant free access to his top affiliate marketer tips that have helped him earn over $19,000 during a one week affiliate campaign.

You see how it shows who I help and how I help them and then it makes a juicy offer that the right person will love to receive? You want something similar for your own bio.

Bonus points: Use it UTM parameters Easily track how your guest posts perform in Google Analytics.

These are some of my best tips for marketing your blog. Whatever you do, make sure you do it consistently. It’s showing up day in and day out that will really help you get down to earth and get noticed.