Big Blog Exchange.org Changing the world using the power of blogs

Blogs are quite often set up as a means of sharing your interests and inspirations with friends, keeping long distance family members updated with your life or as a place to voice your opinions. Or, all three. But wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could share your blog with 100, 1000, 100000 or 1,000,000 people. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could share your blog with the world?

As a blogger myself (I blog over at scarlettlondon.com), I have personal experience with promoting my own blog, although initially, I never meant for it to be read by anyone but myself. To date my blog has had 150,000 readers worldwide, and was recently nominated by Cosmopolitan Magazine for ‘Best Newcomer Blog of The Year 2012’. I’m by no means an expert, but below I have shared a few little tips regarding getting your blog noticed, that I have learnt along the way!

1. It is the small things that count

Although you might not think they make a huge difference, the small things really do count and spreading the word about your blog doesn’t have to be in the form of a huge promotional campaign. Add your blog’s URL link to the bottom of your email signatures, add a link to your personal Facebook, your LinkedIn account or hand out business cards at the next social event you attend. It’s all about being creative!

2. Get involved

Brands, charities and projects with a large following (or potentially a large following) are great to get involved with, especially when initially starting your blog. Sometimes a tweet from a brand or a company can give your blog that little boost of exposure that it needs. Of course, it is still important to maintain your integrity when blogging, rather than just doing it for the coverage – but if you have enjoyed a service recently, taken part in a project or loved a new product a brand has brought out, why not write about it? The Big Blog Exchange is a great starting point for bloggers wishing to expand their reach a little more, as you will be adding your blogs profile to a brand new and unique online community!

3. Social Buttons

If you blog on Wordpress, BlogSpot or another popular blog hosting site, the chances are they will provide you with a selection of free ‘widgets’, which can be used even if you don’t have a premium account. One of these widgets is the ‘social sharing’ one, which allows people to easily embed it to their Facebook or Twitter accounts and ‘like’ it. Not only does this provide a little recognition for you that a post has gone down well with readers, but it also will appear on friends’ timelines and feeds, so it’s definitely a strong promotional tool!

4. Be yourself

Blogs don’t necessarily gain a huge following overnight (unless you happen to be someone famous), so please bear in mind that building a loyal readership might take a little while – but once people know about your blog, it can spread like wildfire. YOU are what makes your blog unique and personal, so just be sure that it stays true to your interests and passions, yet offers a different perspective – or a different opinion. Offer something personal, yet unique.

5. Get involved in the blogger community

One of the best ways to boost your readership is by interacting with other bloggers. By sharing, commenting, tweeting or linking their posts, the chances are they will take a look at yours too – and if they like what they see, you have a brand new follower! Make sure you aren’t just commenting or sharing their post for your own benefit though, offer them your opinion and hopefully they will offer you theirs.

6. Social Networking

Social networking sites are one of the key traffic contributors when it comes to blogging, especially if you provide a link to your blog in the ‘bio. Then, when you post a new update, post it on Twitter too, and use hashtags to ensure the reach for your tweet is as much as possible! If you have posted something about what you wore on a certain day, why not tweet a link with #fashionbloggers? In addition, other social networks worth considering are Lookbook, Facebook, Hello Cotton, LinkedIn, Instagram, Vine, Keek and Google +.

7. Social bookmarking

Getting your blog listed on social bookmarking sites such as Bloglovin, Technorati, Stumbleupon and Digg is a really effective way of promoting your posts and spreading the word, as many prospective readers search for certain topics and genres directly from these sites.

8. Guest posts

guest posting is not only a great way to discover new bloggers and writers, but also fantastic for promoting your blog, or helping others to promote theirs. As blogs are personal websites, you have to be careful when asking whether you may guest post on another blog as quite often writers are not keen to have another person write something for their readers, however if you have something unique and exciting to say, make sure you advertise this!

9. Interview other bloggers

if you are a keen blog reader yourself, why not interview your favourite bloggers? Whilst the bigger, more popular bloggers might not be able to answer all your questions, I am the smaller/medium sized blogs which you admire would be more than happy to answer your questions, which you could then feature the answers on your own blog. Then, why not tweet a link to your post, including the twitter feed of the blogger – and promote it that way?

10. Enjoy!

Blogs are not supposed to be a chore, so make sure you enjoy every minute, and if you’re not, don’t pressure yourself into keeping it up! Treat your blog as your own little personal corner of the internet. Make it yours and enjoy the process of doing so!

If you have any further questions, please email TBBE@hihostels.com with your query.