How to Promote Your Blog (There Are Only Three Ways)

After fractional a decennary of blogging experience, I’ve learned that erstwhile it comes to promoting your blog, determination are lone three ways.

No substance however galore listicles you browse, each maneuver you spot falls into 1 of these 3 categories.

Imagine being capable to stock your contented with hundreds oregon thousands of radical with 1 click. That’s the powerfulness of gathering an audience.

Building an assemblage means getting radical to travel you truthful you tin scope them astatine immoderate time. For example, Gaetano is subscribed to our newsletter. We tin scope him whenever we privation by sending an email.

How tin you physique an assemblage from scratch? Here are immoderate tactics you can use:

Get email subscribers with pb magnets

If determination was 1 audience-building transmission I suggest you put in, it would beryllium your email list.

The reason: Your email database volition ever beryllium to you. You tin interaction your assemblage anytime arsenic agelong arsenic they let you to.

To physique an email list, you request to springiness your blog visitors a crushed to subscribe. Most blogs usage pb magnets—a escaped assets successful speech for the visitor’s email address. For example, idiosyncratic concern blogger Nick Maggiulli gives distant the archetypal section of his book:

You don’t person to beryllium an writer to entice radical to motion up. Anything tin beryllium a pb magnet arsenic agelong arsenic it’s invaluable to your audience. You tin adjacent person much than 1 benignant of pb magnet. It could beryllium an eBook, course, template, checklist, report, oregon thing other you tin imagination up. Check retired our post connected much pb magnet ideas you can use.

Once you person your pb magnet, you’ll privation to beforehand it arsenic overmuch arsenic imaginable (but not truthful overmuch that it ruins your blog’s speechmaking experience). For example, we person a elemental “sign up for our newsletter” call-to-action (CTA). We’ve added this CTA astatine the apical of our blog posts and arsenic a sticky opt-in container astatine the side.

“Subscribe” CTA successful our menu bar

Sticky opt-in container successful our sidebar

Once you commencement gathering your email list, support successful interaction with them frequently. You tin nonstop an email whenever you people thing caller (as we utilized to do) oregon collate them into a cadence you’re comfy with. For example, we nonstop a newsletter each week.

Start a backstage assemblage connected Facebook

Anyone tin commencement a radical connected Facebook. It’s escaped and casual to acceptable up, and anyone with a Facebook relationship tin articulation your radical immediately. You tin besides leverage the Facebook algorithm to beforehand your group.

For example, SEO Signals Lab is 1 of the astir fashionable SEO Facebook groups, with much than 75,000 members.

You tin past beforehand your blog by posting a nexus to your caller posts oregon posting ideas from your station natively, similar what this idiosyncratic did:

When it comes to communities, more is not needfully better. Facebook groups endure severely from the tragedy of the commons—unfettered entree tends to destruct them owed to spam, grifting, and each sorts of mediocre Internet behavior.

So, I highly urge making your radical backstage and gatekeeping imaginable members. For example, 1 of the reasons wherefore Ahrefs Insider, our backstage Facebook group, is high-quality is due to the fact that we lone let our customers to join. We guarantee this by making everyone taxable the email code tagged to their Ahrefs account.

That said, you’ll inactive request to put successful moderation. Just due to the fact that idiosyncratic has tegument successful the crippled doesn’t mean they won’t grift. You’ll request to measurement successful regularly to delete unsavory posts, region abominable comments, and prohibition spammers.

Build a pursuing connected X (formerly Twitter) oregon LinkedIn

I urge X and LinkedIn due to the fact that these are the apt places that volition thrust postulation to your blog. (I mean, radical connected YouTube and TikTok privation to ticker videos, right?)

Here’s the thing, though: Unlike the bully aged days, you can’t conscionable station links to your blog and expect clicks. Social media platforms privation to support you connected their grounds, truthful they’ve taken to throttling the scope of posts with links.

Look astatine this tweet of mine. It lone got 189 views and a pathetic 8 clicks:

If you privation to physique a pursuing connected X oregon LinkedIn, I urge creating zero-click content. This is contented that offers valuable, standalone insights without the request to click. You don’t person to bash this from scratch either—just repurpose the tips, insights, and tactics you person from your existing content.

For example, I re-posted each acquisition from this post arsenic idiosyncratic ones connected X and LinkedIn:

From there, you tin adhd a nexus backmost to your blog station astatine the extremity of the thread oregon successful the comments. You tin adjacent thrust them to your email list, similar what Justin Welsh does:

You cognize the meme astir however you request acquisition to get a occupation but you besides request a occupation to get experience?

Blogging is similar—You request visitors to physique an audience, but you request an assemblage to get visitors. Unlike the occupation conundrum, you tin hole this by ‘borrowing’ audiences.

Borrowing an assemblage means uncovering places wherever your people assemblage already hangs retired online and getting your contented successful beforehand of them.

Here are immoderate tactics you tin usage to do this:

Optimize your contented to fertile successful Google

Google is the champion spot to get an audience. Search postulation is predictable, compounding, cheap, and targeted.

To get postulation from Google, you can’t constitute astir random topics. You request to constitute astir topics radical are searching for.

Here’s however to find topics radical are searching connected Google:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
2. Enter a taxable applicable to your blog (e.g., if you ain a blog astir the ketogenic diet, participate ‘keto’)
3. Go to the Matching presumption report
4. Switch the tab to Questions

Look done the database and spot if determination are immoderate imaginable keywords you could target.

Once you’ve selected the topics, you’ll privation to fig retired wherefore the searcher is looking for the peculiar keyword. Knowing this ‘why’, aka search intent, tin assistance you make contented that the searcher wants to see.

You tin fig retired hunt intent by looking astatine what’s already ranking connected Google. The easiest mode is to participate your people keyword into Keywords Explorer, scroll down to the SERP Overview, and click Identify intents. For example, if we bash this for the taxable “what to devour connected keto diet”, we tin spot that searchers privation a database of allowed foods connected the diet.

So, erstwhile penning our article, we’ll privation to align our blog station to reply the questions searchers person astir this topic.

Offer to update different people’s posts

If you tin find posts connected different websites that are declining successful hunt traffic, it mightiness lone instrumentality an update to reclaim rankings and traffic. By offering to bash these updates for them—and subtly linking to your contented wrong the updated post—you tin beforehand your blog to perchance thousands of radical every month.

Here’s however you tin find contented that’s declining successful integrated traffic:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
2. Search for your topic
3. Set a minimum Page postulation filter (>500) truthful you tin lone people pages worthy your while
4. Toggle Filter explicit results
5. Set a Language filter to your people language
6. Check Exclude homepages and subdomains
7. Set the Trends dropdown to Last year

Go done the database and look retired for pages with declining leafage traffic.

For example, this nonfiction from PureWow looks similar a bully candidate:

Reach retired to the exertion and spot if they’d beryllium funny successful updating the post. Sweeten the woody by offering to bash the enactment for them and optimizing it to fertile higher connected Google, similar what Irina Maltseva, the erstwhile caput of selling astatine Hunter did:

Share barebones posts connected Reddit

There is simply a subreddit for astir anything. If you bash it right, you tin get Reddit’s monolithic assemblage and thrust tons of visitors to your blog.

But you can’t conscionable waltz in, driblet a link, and expect to get a flood of traffic. Redditors hatred advertizing and selling much than anything. If they drawback a whiff of self-promotion, they volition not hesitate to propulsion you retired and ban you.

However, Reddit does emotion utile content. So, to bypass the hatred brigade Redditors whitethorn present your way, stock a barebones mentation of your content. Strip everything out, particularly your interior and outer links. Leave lone a nexus backmost to your archetypal station astatine the bottom, truthful anyone who’s funny tin cheque it out.

For example, here’s what our Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Tim Soulo did connected r/bigSEO:

Four years later, this station is inactive 1 of the apical posts of each clip successful the subreddit.

Build relationships with amplifiers

Influencers, podcasters, YouTubers, journalists, and newsletter writers volition person important audiences you tin borrow.

Source: Sparktoro

But these radical person an assemblage for 1 reason: They consistently stock absorbing and prime content—not conscionable thing from anyone and everyone.

So, to ‘borrow’ their audience, you request to cultivate bully relationships with these people. You request to signifier what my person Visakan calls ‘good reply game’.

You privation to enactment their work: by consuming, sharing, and complimenting. But you don’t privation to fawn implicit them (everyone does this) oregon dependable similar an AI.

In fact, if you disagree and stock your sentiment intelligently but not belligerently, you volition drawback their attention.

Building a relationship with amplifiers doesn’t mean expecting them to stock each nonfiction you publish. That’s transactional and radical tin odor it from acold away. It’s a surefire mode to suffer friends.

You’ll privation to stock lone your champion enactment with them. Do that with nary expectations. If your enactment is good, you’ll find that they’ll people stock it with their audience, conscionable similar Rand Fishkin did unprompted erstwhile we published our article connected podcast advertising.

If you person capable wealth to lick a problem, past the occupation doesn’t exist.

So, reaching an assemblage is not a contented if you person the budget. You tin wage for eyeballs via Google Ads, societal media ads (e.g., Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok), oregon newsletter ads.

If you’re caller to blogging, you whitethorn deliberation this is retired of your scope and you don’t person immoderate fund for paid advertising. But don’t forget: No maneuver is genuinely free. Even if you’re not utilizing wealth to execute, you’re utilizing time. And clip is money.

Think astir it: If you could walk $100 connected an advertisement and thrust a guaranteed 1,000 clicks, would you bash it? Compare that to spending 10 hours repurposing your contented for LinkedIn and leaving your destiny to the algorithms. Sometimes, it makes much consciousness to tally the advertisement and usage your invaluable clip to bash different things for your blog.

Final thoughts

In blogging, each roads pb to Rome. And the “Rome” successful the blogging satellite is owning your audience.

When you ain your audience, you tin scope them anytime. You’re nary longer reliant connected the whims and fancies of different radical oregon algorithms.

So, adjacent if you’re borrowing oregon paying for an audience, marque definite to funnel those efforts into gathering your ain audience.

Got questions? Ping maine connected LinkedIn.