Best Blogging Practices, Part 4: The Blog Without a Name

As an author, you’ve probably been told you should be blogging. Blogs are an excellent way to engage your audience and establish yourself as an authority figure. Still, many find the idea of blogging overwhelming and the actual process of writing blog posts almost unbearable. But with a little bit of planning, a few shortcuts, and some tips from the blogosphere, you can be posting and engaging with readers in no time. Here is our five-part series on blogging to help you get started:

Part One: To Blog or Not to Blog (why you should blog)

Part Two: A Blog Without a Cause (what to blog about)

Part Three: Taming the Blog Monster (managing your blog)

Part Four: The Blog Without a Name (promoting your blog)

Part Five: Blog Vital Signs (tracking your progress)

In part four of our series, we will focus on ways to promote your blog. It’s not enough to just create a blog and upload content. All of your hard work means nothing if no one knows about it.

The best way to promote your blog is through social media. Every time you publish a new post, create aquick lead line,attach a link back to your blog,and then share it on your social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. Post them on message boards and in discussions that will interest your target audience, and use relevant hashtags on Twitter to get your post in front of people who will be interested in the topic of your blog. Do this every single time you post. You may even want to post the link 2–3 times in the same media stream in order to capture different people as they view their news feed. Just don’t get too obnoxious with posting links—even it out with plenty of valuable content and personal interaction.

Here are a few more tips to get your blog out there and in front of readers:

1. Comment on other blogs that cover your topic. When you post the comment,  share a link back to your own blog along with your comment.
2. Offer up your posts for syndication to aggregators and other outlets in your genre. Just be sure to prequalify outlets and their practices so you can keep your brand intact.
3. Promote social bookmarking through such outlets as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Social Poster, and more. Most blog services have a widget that will display a bookmarking toolbar for each post. If not, have your web designer embed this type of widget on your blog.

In our next and final post, we cover ways to track your blog’s progress and statistics.