Getting started: Publicize your blog
Once you have:
- decided to try your hand at blogging
- started believing that you have something to say
- set up your blog
- figured out how you like to write
then it’s time to get some eyeballs on your blog.
Why?
Because while it’s my opinion that writing is a good thing to do whether people are reading or not, it feels more fun sometimes when you know someone else will get to see what you’ve done.
In other words, no one wants to sing to an empty auditorium.
Here are a few ways to gain readers for you new blog:
Email a few close friends and family members. Send them the link to your blog and a quick message saying that you’re trying your hand at blogging and would love for them to be among the first to see what you’re creating.
Comment on a few of your favorite blogs or blogs similar to yours. Bloggers love to hear that other people are blogging. Anyone who’s not a complete jackwagon will be excited that you’re dipping your toe in.
Comment on my blog. If you comment here, I’m guaranteed to click over and have a look at your blog. And if you want me to, I’ll share a link to your new blog as long as it’s not about boiling puppies or Two and a Half Men.
Link to your posts on Twitter. When you publish a post, pull up your Twitter account (if you have one) and insert a link to your blog post in a tweet. You can do the same for Facebook.
Those are four simple ways to draw some visitors to your blog. Once you have a few people reading and commenting, you’ll begin to sense community forming. That’s the real fruit of all of this.
My list is intentionally short and sweet. What ideas do you have about how to draw a few visitors to a fresh new blog?
I’m really enjoying reading your blog. Rachel D. actually is the one who encouraged me to do this last spring and I’ve really enjoyed it, but just last week took it to FB. Before just keeping it between me and a few close friends. This is my question for you- I am at Blogspot/Blogger but want to move to wordpress- is there an “idiot’s guide” for this? Let me say that I am not a “computer person”….so maybe a “super idiot’s guide” for this. Maybe this doesn’t matter. I guess I am a visual person and I like the clean look of wordpress.
Thanks for all of your blogging help!
Loy – Moving from Blogger to WordPress is very easy. If it weren’t easy, I couldn’t have done it, because I have zero tech skillz.
I hear you about the visual side of things. In my opinion WordPress is leading the field in providing nice-looking, ready-made themes for folks to use.
All you have to do is create a WordPress blog for yourself. Once you’ve done that, there’s a place in the menu bar on your Dashboard that says “Import”. If you click “Import” it gives you a list of places you can import content from, with Blogger being one of them. All you have to do is enter your Blogger login information and it will take care of the import.
All of your posts and comments from your Blogger site will load into your WordPress site.
You should give it a shot!