When I initially thought about this blog post, I was going to create a list of more than 5 things. But sometimes that will overwhelm people. So instead I decided to focus on the 5 most important things that you must do after publishing a blog post.
This keeps it simple where you can actually take action rather than having too many steps that you need to take. Here are the 5 things:
- Post it on Social Media
- Bookmark it on sites like Digg.com or Reddit.com
- Announce the post to forums and other blogs
- Send a link to the post to your email list
- Where your budget allows, submit a press release about the post
Post It on Social Media
This one may seem pretty obvious but you'd be surprised at how many people ignore this step. This can really give a boost to your traffic. You should be aware however, that this surge does not last but on occassion can go viral.
Bookmark It
This is very similar to social media but there are some differences. It's not as effective as it used to be but it still can give a traffic boost, albeit for a short period of time.
Forum and Blog Announcements
Forums and blogs offer a great place to let people know about your posts. You need to be careful with this and make sure that you find forums that are relevant to your niche. And you should not simply spam the boards as you will very likely get banned. But if you write about your blog post in a way that is helpful to the board, you will get a good reception from this. This method can also be longer lasting than the others.
Send Link to New Post to Your Email List
Subscribers to your email list signed up for a reason. They want valuable information. So give it to them. But only write a small snippet that serves to entice them to click through to your blog post. People make the mistake of simply giving all of the information within the email. Your readers will have no incentive after that to go to the post. Remember, that the more you can get repeat visitors to your site, the more love you'll get from the search engines.
Submit to Press Releases
This method is one of the best ways to get a lot of traffic fast to your blog posts. However, this is not a free option. There are free press release services but they are not nearly as effective as the paid services. You'll have to weigh including this into your marketing mix with the return that you get. That's why it's crucial that the posts that you use for this are top notch, high quality written material.
If you were to consistently use this 5 steps, you should see a dramatic improvement on your traffic to your website. It takes so little effort to do them but the effects can be positive. The key word here is consistency. You should be blogging consistently and you should be following these tips.