Sound Off, 1, 2… How To Market Your Blog Without Annoying Your Friends
When you decide it’s a good idea to start your own blog, the first thing you think about is where you’re going to post your blog and share it. You know your friends and family love you, but they can’t be your main audience because it’s going to end up that thing when you’re a kid and you do ballet in the lounge and everyone smiles – even when you’re rubbish. Friends and family won’t tell you the truth all the time, preferring not to tell you if a post sucks and they can also find it rather annoying when you’re constantly talking about the blog all the time.
Expecting your family and friends to take care of making your blog sound great and keep up with it is a lot to ask. Plus, you could have opinions on things that they don’t agree with, it could cause a little family tension. Your blog is about you, and you need to know how to market it to the right people so that your voice is being heard. So, how can you have an audience for your blog beyond your parents?
Comment – A LOT! You need to get online onto other blogs and start following and reading them. The more you engage with bloggers, without leaving your URL everywhere, the more people will engage with you and your blog. Don’t spam your blog in the comment section of someone else’s, it’s tacky.
Get Outside Help. Most people – particularly businesses – use outside resources like Businessary to help them to set a strategy for their blog to market it correctly. If you haven’t had marketing help before, you could get some professional help for a personal blog as much as you can get one for a business one.
Be Diverse. Your blog is going to have one theme for the most part, but occasionally, you need to throw in a curveball to see how it’s received. The one thing that all your posts – no matter the topic – will have, is your voice. You can develop a trustworthy and likeable voice, and once you do the audience will love you.
Guest Blog. Did you know that you could guest blog for others? Find blogs that match yours or have similar topics and collaborate. You post something of theirs and they you and add in links to each others blogs. Not only are you lifting up another blogger, you’re giving yourself a voice in a wider audience than you. It’s smart!
Social Media. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook – all of these sites are perfect to run a blog page all about your blog and what you offer. Stay connected with the rest of the blogging community and you’ll be able to spread the word about your blog.
Your blog should be out in the world and the more you are out there, the more you get extra traffic visiting your site. Take the time to set up the right marketing, and you’ll be successful without annoying the people you love the most.
