So you have another new post, now what?
You've just spend hours and maybe days creating a new post and just hit the publish button.
Do you have a plan on how to help promote the post?
If you don't have some sort of check-list in place for your newly minted creation you could be missing out on its potential.
Unless your blog has a massive following and will virtually share your post in every conceivable way you better get out there and knock on some metaphorical doors.
Create A Post Publish Check-list
Here are 7 solid ideas on things to do to increase your chances of success with a new post.
One of the first things you should be doing is literately telling everything out there you just posted some fresh content. I use http://pingomatic.com/ for my pinging service.
This lets search engines and other services know you just updated your blog. With this I've seen my new posts show up on Google within about 10 minutes. (Results may vary :P)
Do you have social media buttons on your site? Hit em! There's nothing wrong with sharing your own posts, that's what they're there for.
If this is what it takes to get the social ball rolling then so be it. Your one Stumble can turn into a massive load of traffic.
This will help get some more of your target audience especially if your post title is intriguing.
A lot of the more tech savvy forums will have the abilty to add your site's RSS feed which will automatically show your new post.
Find your favorite blogging community and get involved and share your post with them. This is a great way to meet fellow bloggers and have them meet you, a win win.
One of my favorites is Blog Engage it's a fantastic website for sharing posts and can easily become a part of your posting ritual.
Google and Social media should be driving people to some of your old posts, many will never even see your newest post.
A great way to increase your traffic to it and lower your bounce rate is to link to it within some of your old posts. Take a look above to where I linked to my blogging communities post with that keyword. That's the idea.
Apart from more traffic and exposure the SEO benefit of internal linking is tremendous. It's something you should start doing immediately if you don't already.
While on my WordPress blog I came across this awesome plugin that helps with this procedure.
SEO Smart Links lets you set the keyword and the URL you want it to go to and the plugin automatically does the rest. I highly recommend it and absolutely love it!
Did you spend a few days creating one of your best posts ever? Does it embody everything you want your blog to stand for? If you answered yes then use this step.
Put the article in your "Best Of" or "Popular Posts" section.
Having one of these sections dedicated to your best content is a great way to let users see what you're made out of and get to the good stuff more quickly. It should be easy to find and feature about 5 or so posts.
You may see things in a different light, especially the next day. Also if you wrote your post in an editor it may look different on your blog, so don't just look at grammar and spelling, be sure everything looks tidy, well formatted and easy to read.
The great bloggers out there always revise their work until it's on the level they want. So finally if you feel it's ready for its big début then relax.
If you've followed most of these tips I'd safely say you've given your fledgling post a fighting chance.
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