Got A Blog? Get The Word Out There With These 10 Free Platforms

By Amy @BubbleJobs

So, you’ve taken the time to set up a blog and you’re blogging relentlessly but you don’t seem to be getting any visitors. The problem with a blog is that finding the energy to add fresh content regularly is now only half the battle – you also need to find the energy to promote it – and promote it well!

Think about it; in 2012 when there are over 70 million blogs worldwide (and that’s just the ones using WordPress!), it’s easy for a blog to get lost or overlooked – this is where promotion or marketing comes in. Using a few simple platforms you can announce your blog to world wide web and hopefully attract a few visitors in the process!

Think blog promotion costs an arm and a leg? As you’ll probably have guessed from the title of this blog, it really doesn’t have to! In fact, rather than a lack of money, it’s going to be your own enthusiasm and commitment that could hold you back when it comes to marketing your blog. Here are 10 platforms that you can use to regularly promote your blog and the best bit is, they’re all 100% free – woo hoo!

Facebook: First up, it’s good old Facebook. Perfect for promoting your blog to friends, Facebook is easy to use, however we should point out that the number of friends you have in your network will limit your potential reach on this platform.

Twitter: My personal favourite for blog promotion has to be Twitter. Ridiculously simple, Twitter lets you write a short, compelling intro into your blog (no more than 140 characters) and list a link and unlike Facebook, the use of hashtags and retweets means there is no limit to how many people can find your blog this way.

LinkedIn: Think LinkedIn is only useful for networking? Think again – it’s also a great way to get your work seen by the key players in your industry. Join some related groups and post your blogs into the ‘Discussion’ section to encourage group members to click though and comment on your blog. Don’t forget to post it on your own LinkedIn profile so your own network can see it too!

Google+: If you’re not already using Google+ for blog promotion then you’re definitely missing a trick. Posting links to your blogs here is an easy way to share your content with those in your ‘circles’ and sharing your links ‘publicly’ means they can also be found by anyone else that has a Google+ account.

Pinterest: If you thought that Pinterest can only used to promote images it’s time to get educated – in a way it can also be used to promote your blog. Choose your blog image carefully, upload it to your Pinterest board and embed a link back to your blog. If you can write a compelling message underneath and your image is good/interesting enough, there’s a good chance some traffic may be driven to your blog via this platform.

Reddit: A bit like an international content ranking system, Reddit is a social news site where registered users can submit news links (and links to their own blogs) and other users can then rank the submission based on the link’s quality, content and style. Submitting a link to Reddit is really easy, and because you can submit your link to a ‘subreddit’ (category), it’s easy for other users who are interested in your industry to find your content.

Delicious: When it comes to blog promotion and social bookmarking, Delicious is hard to beat. Delicious allows you to ‘bookmark’ your favourite links, pages and websites on the internet and add your links to an existing ‘Stack’ so other users can find them. Quick and easy, there really is no excuse not be using Delicious when it comes to blog promotion.

StumbleUpon: A bit like a search engine, StumbleUpon finds and recommends content for its users based on their personal tastes and interests. All the content on StumbleUpon (currently around 50,000 pages are added every day) is submitted to the site by users who can rate and recommend the content which is offered up to them.

Digg: Recently rebuilt from scratch, Digg is a bit like Reddit in that it allows you to add content which users can then vote up (digging) or down (burying). The great news is you can now connect your Facebook account to your Digg account so you can promote your content on two platforms but just post it on one – woo hoo!

Technorati: Last but not least if you have a blog, there’s no way you can ignore Technorati. A bit like a Google or Bing but for blogs, Technorati features an advanced catalog of blogs which users can search to find blogs in a related field. The site ranks each blog based on its authority and the number of other blogs which link to it over a 6 month period. Whatever the topic of your blog, signing up to Technorati is definitely recommended!

Tags: blog promotion, blogging tips, social bookmarking, social sharing

About the Author

Amy Edwards Amy Edwards is the SEO Manager for Bubble Jobs. With a strong background in online content and copywriting, Amy is responsible all the on-site and off-site SEO of Bubble Jobs and the Bubble Jobs blog. You can follow her on Twitter here or add her to your circles on Google+ here.