Has the world noticed your blog yet?There’s nothing more stressful, more doubt-inducing, or more enthusiasm-crushing than running a blog that you know is good – but no one knows about.You study everything you can get your hands on, you do your best to write quality content, you promote your posts on social networks – and still your efforts yield little to nothing in terms of traffic or subscribers.At times it can make you want to scrap the whole thing and walk away.Trust me – I know how you feel. I had a blog before this one that crashed and burned.Worse than that… no one even noticed the fire.But things are different for me now here on Reboot Authentic. Things are good!Recently, I’ve had several people ask me a variation of this question…
What have you done to get your new blog noticed so early? What do you think has made the difference?
I’ve been asked that question enough that I thought it was time to write a post about it. Having had a blog that went nowhere, and now having a new one that’s doing well… I’ve taken note of a few things that have really made a difference for me in terms of getting some traction early on.If you’re expecting a lot of over-hyped typical internet “secrets of” kind of stuff, well… then you’re probably going to be disappointed in this post. On the other hand, if you want to really know the practical, unspectacular steps I’ve taken to put my blog on a strong upward trajectory – then you’ll find this extremely useful.Zig Ziglar used to say that you don’t become successful by doing one big thing right – you become successful because you do a whole bunch of little things right.
Seven Unspectacular But Effective Things You can Do To Get Your New Blog Noticed
Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back. — Chinese Proverb
1: Get An EducationI beat this drum constantly, I know. And I’ll say it again… get an education. Fake it ‘till you make it is not a viable strategy. You can be the smartest person in the world, but if you try to limp along and figure it out as you go, the learning curve will be way too steep to get significant momentum build up early on.Prior to my launch of Reboot Authentic, I enrolled in Corbett Barr’s Start A Blog That Matters – and in Mary Jaksch’s A-List Blogging… and they made all the difference in the world. Later I joined Danny Iny’s Audience Business Masterclass – and I’m blown away by all the new, valuable things I’m learning in the course every day.All that to say – learn from the best. I can’t emphasize enough how much impact those three programs have had on the growth of Reboot Authentic. Yes, there’s an investment involved – but in terms of what you can achieve with what you learn – it’s more than worth it.
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. — Helen Keller
2: Form A Brain TrustJoin a group, meet people through social networking, whatever. Because NO ONE makes it in any walk of life or any field alone. You need support, you need feedback, constructive criticism and the interaction that comes from being a part of a brain trust.But most importantly, you need different perspectives. After 20-some years in sales management I can tell you one thing for sure: You don’t see yourself and your own situation like others do. You can try… but you can’t see the 30,000 foot view of yourself.I have a group of people I’ve wound up with who range from A-List bloggers to relative newbies. But they’re all people who I trust and whose opinions I value. They’re always there for me to run things by and they’re always ready to give honest feedback. You can’t put a price on the value of that type of relationship.Get yourself a brain trust.
Easy reading is damn hard writing. — Nathaniel Hawthorne
3: Read And Write Every DayIn addition to any formal education you receive, you also need to be actively seeking self-education opportunities outside of whatever courses you take. Consume content daily. Subscribe to the best blogs in your market and in markets that overlap. Set up Google alerts for topics you write about. Read books. Seek and collect information wherever and whenever you can.Write every day, too. Maybe this is cliché, but it’s true. You can’t become good at anything unless you practice a lot. Write every day.And let me stop all you, “I don’t have time” people right now. Yes you do. If you want to write – then write. Early in the morning, late at night, on the bus, in a cab, at lunch time – it doesn’t have to be a full post or a masterpiece or anything like that. Just write. It’s good practice and it will spawn tons of new ideas. I’m typing in a hotel at 5am right now. I found time today. You can too. Write every day.
Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential. — Winston Churchill
4: Post ConsistentlyAt the point I’m at, I post on my own blog at least once a week. Not daily. And I run an active guest posting campaign. However you structure it, you need to be seen regularly. And you need to be seen in a positive light regularly – not just seen.Just throwing up a half-hearted post to fill space doesn’t count. Post regularly – and post quality content.
If you’re not networking, you’re not working — Dennis Waitley
5: Participate Outside The BlogMake sure you participate on and off your blog. Answer every comment thoughtfully… on your own posts and you guest posts. Comment on other blogs, be active in social networks – be seen “out there” being supportive and offering value – not just broadcasting your own sales messages.
Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood. — William Penn
6: Write To Help – Not To ImpressI am a huge fan of people who write like they speak. It feels like a personal conversation and it builds trust.Readers don’t want to see how much you know about sentence structure… they want to see how you communicate information that can be useful to them. Writing plainly and in common language is much more effective than writing content artificially packed with long, flowery words. No one cares how many big words you know.Break a few grammar rules. Write real. I was an English major – and I violate so many rules of proper English that it’s not even funny. try to write as if you’re at a coffee shop or a bar sitting across the table from someone you like just chatting about your topic. People are attracted to real and are averse to insincere. Write real.
This above all; to thine own self be true. — William Shakespeare
7: Be RealThis is my personal pet peeve online. Maybe it’s why I started a blog called Reboot Authentic, right?There’s enough salesy, phony, fluffy crap out there. There’s enough shock value kind of stuff out there. In fact there’s so much anymore that it tends to fade into the background like wallpaper. You don’t even notice it.Be yourself and be sincere with people. Don’t allow yourself to be swept into the current of sameness that is so prevalent out there.Offer to help people instead of just blasting messages about yourself and your offerings. Try asking someone about their life. Don’t worry about “if it scales” or not. People appreciate being treated as if they matter… and it’s sad to see how surprised they are that someone is actually interested in them as a person.Several times a week someone emails me saying how surprised they are to be contacted personally and directly – because I make an effort to reach out to individual readers whenever possible. I guess that’s the exception rather than the rule anymore – and that’s too bad.Try reaching out just to reach out. No sales message – no schmutz. Just make contact because you’re interested in people and then watch how they react.
8: Bonus Advice – Start Guest Posting!
I’m here to tell you that guest posting works. In fact, odds are that if you’re one of my subscribers – you found this blog because of one of my guest posts.If you’re trying to get your blog noticed, you really need to get started on a guest posting campaign. Without a doubt – I can attribute the upward trajectory of Reboot Authentic to my guest posting efforts.What exactly has guest posting done for me? Only increased my subscriber base more than 14 times over. (Not too shabby, eh?)But here’s the catch: You need to learn to do it right. You can’t just fly off willy-nilly and hope it works for you.There are two programs out there I can personally recommend as top-quality courses. I’ve been in both of them, and they each deliver value far beyond the cost of the program. The links below are affiliate links, by the way.Guest Blogging by Jon MorrowWhat can you say? This program is the guest posting bible. It’she granddaddy of them all. Everything you’d ever want to know about guest posting is here. Especially strong are the sections on relationship building (vital!) and how to target influential blogs. There’s a very active forum, bonus materials, worksheets, and videos galore. It’s staggering, really how much information is in here. It’s full of valuable strategies, tips, tools, and secrets.Write Like Freddy by Danny InyAnother can’t miss course. Danny’s most famous for knocking out over 80 quality guest posts in his first year online. Most of them on major blogs. Obviously to do that, you have to be a pretty talented writer – and be able to write quickly. Write Like Freddy teaches you how Danny became one of the most prolific guest posters in recent history. Of particular interest is his simple copywriting formula and his method of outlining a whole guest post in 10 minutes. (Yes, really!)I recommend them both very highly. They come from different angles, but both will get you moving in the right direction.So what about you?Think of your favorite online haunts. How did you find them? What pulled you in? What keeps you going back? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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