Job #1 For Marketing Your Blog?

[Discussion-For-You]

Ok, here's a blog marketing theory. Please share your thoughts.

It seems the number one marketing job should be to entice the visitor on to a mailing list, or RSS feed.

Wow, have you noticed, there are a LOT of blogs out there!

And some of them are pretty darn good.

And there are only so many hours in the day, even if your entire day is dedicated to visiting blogs.

It seems that the blogs that win this eyeball rat race may be the blogs that figure out some way to engage the visitor enough, if only for a moment, to get them in to the "new post reminder" system, whatever that is.

Most blogs have such a device, but few seem to give a lot of thought to making it a central part of their offering.

Your thoughts?

[Bloggeries]

I think the first part of marketing your blog is often overlooked. Many people will make suggestions about different things from getting back links to getting traffic.

Before you do anything build the best blog you can; it's not your marketing will mainly be in vain. Make your blog worth linking to make it worth subscribing to make it worth sticking around.

as there are only so many hours in the day; only start actually promoting at once your blog is top-notch and basically best it can be. To every person a visit your blog you only have one chance at first impression...

Once that is done; form posting your niche is a good idea; comments on other quality blogs in niche and some directory submission are all recommended from me.

best of luck,

[sukosaki]

Yeah if you rock the best content you can, you will pick readers up along the way and then when the promotion starts the readership will really pick up.

[Discussion-For-You]

Rob, I would surely have to agree creating a quality blog is Job #1. Good point! You are correct to remind us of that.

Once that all important job is done...

There are a TON of webmaster related blogs, forums and sites on the Net. Thousands upon thousands of them it seems. Millions?

So, given all the choices I have, why did I return to THIS webmaster site, and type this post?

Yes, this seems to be a good forum, and that does matter. But, there are other good forums too. So why did I come here this morning?

I received a thread update notification email. That is, this forum reached out to me, tapped me on the shoulder, and reminded me to return. Thread update notices are a great "push" mechanism, for active users.

But, the thing is, most visitors to any site are lurkers, not posters. So thread update emails probably won't connect with them.

We've worked hard to build our traffic, to create an audience. Once we have an audience, how do we hang on to them, given all the other choices and distractions that all of us find online?

In the case of a forum, of course we're all on the member list. I've seen some forums send out regular mailing that list active threads and so on. That seems like a pretty good idea.

But overall, it's surprising how few forums do this. Most never mail their members, ever.

Food for thought, and discussion. Thanks for your comments!

[cklords]

I agree with much of what DFU wrote, a website should 'gently' remind users that new content/threads, etc. is available for them. Definitely not spam, however I will admit that it's why I am here today too. Ultimately it's the users decide who is successful on the internet. Whether it's a forum, a blog or an ecom site, user activity generates more user activity. As a web publisher, webmaster, etc. You need to ensure that the users needs are being met. This could be great, timely content, appropriate forums (and rules- like the 10 post rule which discourages spammers), rating systems or PM/Thread functions. That's why I love vBulletin based forums like this one and Digital Point Forums, they add a lot to the user experience. The great thing about the web is its' 'pseudo democratic nature'- users can vote you out of office simply by NOT visiting your site. The horrible thing about the web is its' 'pseudo democratic nature'- users can vote you out of office simply by NOT visiting your site. :-) A double edged sword indeed.