Big Ben PattonDo you know what the main purpose of a social networking website is? If you are an avid internet user, you likely do. Social networking websites are online communities that make it easier for internet users to meet and communicate with each other. If you are an internet user who enjoys using the internet to meet new people, there is a good chance that you already belong to a social networking website. What about an online blog? Do you have one of them? If you do, do you know that you could use your social networking website to promote your blog?
Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog? You can sign up for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will defiantly want to promote it.
When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.
As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.
When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.
Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, and Orkut, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Reddit, etc. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.
As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never know, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way.
Social Networking Websites can be lethal to a blog and I mean this literally. You can get so much traffic from digg that it can crash your server. This is a very valuable weapon indeed.
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Another great post Ben! It has me thinking about joining a couple of these networks so that i can get more readers for my blogs
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@Rob indeed their is a plugin which will cache posts to make them html instead of pushing the power of your shared server or host with php. Its taxing when 1000+people hammer you.
@emmaB Just wait I uncover a secret weapon. An account that has all of your social network accounts within it, and you only submit one time, and it does the work for you! It is part of a series thats set to be posted this week. It is all about traffic generation.
An excellent post Ben, with a lot of very true points and advice.
The only thing I would caution people against when it comes to advertising their blog is over advertising it. Some people simply do not wish such things as to be informed of your website via private messages because they view it as invasive spam.
With so much stuff being thrown at us everyday, in comments, in p.m’s, in forums and in our own blogs a lot of people’s reactions to even what may be viewed as harmless sharing could backfire.
It’s always best to just ask, first, before link dropping at all.
Another good post from ya! Glad to have read it!
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Ben, seriously i have to tell you that you have a great mind and very powerful thoughts always flowing from it. It was a great read
Btw Yahoo 360 provides some good promotion for your blog? I mean its a good social network to promote a blog?(I have never tried it so wanted your honest thoughts on it)
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I would say yahoo360 has the potential to pull as much traffic as the average Digg. It is just another tool to have in the box so to speak. Honestly reddit and stumble seem to bring the best traffic both in terms of how long they stay around and in terms of volume.