As a blogger, you should try to get as much traffic to your website as possible. In a world where new blogs seem to be popping up constantly, you need to be creative in how you let people know about your blog.
Fortunately, there are plenty of unusual and clever ways to promote your WordPress blog in 2022. This guide includes plenty of tips you won’t find elsewhere:
1. Email marketing
Email is more powerful and less expensive than newer marketing fads.
Email has an ROI of around 4200%.
Email is still the favorite form of communication for many people. Every account that you sign up for requires an email address.
Email your list
Emailing your subscribers about your latest blog post is a great way to start driving traffic to your site. But you shouldn’t stop there. Ask them to comment, like, and share it with their friends so that you can reach an even wider audience.
It makes sense that people who are already subscribed to your content are more likely to share it with other people.
Use an email signature
Include a link to your blog in your email signature to promote your content. Try WiseStamp for a professional email signature with links to your social profiles and latest blog post:
Email your contacts
Email your contacts to let them know about your latest blog post and see if they would be willing to share it. Be polite and offer to help them in some way. You never know how far the ripple effect of sharing your post could go.
Ask a colleague to email their list
If you have friends or colleagues who work in a similar field, you could ask them to email their list about your latest post. Maybe you could agree to do the same for them in return. But don’t do this for every post you publish.
2. Social media marketing
Even though some people might say that sharing your content on social media isn’t the best way to get more visibility, it’s still an excellent way to increase traffic and shares. You need to have a social media marketing strategy in place:
- Focus on the most relevant social networks for your blog.
- Engage with people on those platforms including influencers and brands.
- Participate in social groups to grow your social media reach.
Popular social networks
Be active on social media and post regularly, not just when you have something new to share. Social media is a two-way channel, so engage with others by liking and sharing their content.
Polls, contests and other types of engagement are also great ways to stand out on each network. To make sure your social media posts are successful on each network, vary the message to fit the network. For example, use a Blog2Social or Sendible to customize your posts with a long or short message, relevant hashtags or mentions, and a portrait or landscape image.
Sendible allows you to recycle content so you can promote it on a regular basis, as well as manage replies and engage with your audience through a social inbox.
Reciprocal sharing sites
All of the following social media platforms function through reciprocal sharing. You gain “credits” for sharing other people’s content, which then allows you to post your content and have it shared by others.
- Triberr is a powerful way to promote your blog. Each of your blog posts will be imported automatically (via RSS), but you can edit the import if you wish. For example, you can add your featured blog post image to make your post stand out in the stream. Remember to get engaged with your tribemates and share their content.
- Viral Content Bee lets bloggers promote their content on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. When you’ve earned enough credits by sharing other people’s content, you can add your post to get it promoted. For best results, connect with and share content from your niche.
Popular social bookmarking sites
Social bookmarking sites allow users to submit their favorite stories, images, and videos, and use tags to organize them. Other users can take these ‘bookmarks’ and add them to their own collection or share them with even more users. Most of these sites also have a voting system so members can ‘upvote’ their favorite posts, which rise to the top and gain more exposure.
- Reddit was never intended to be a directory of links like other bookmarking sites. It consists of smaller interest-based communities called subreddits. Some subreddits don’t allow you to share links, in which case you’ll have to write original content for your community.
- Flipboard is more of a social magazine-style app than a traditional bookmarking site. But you can also create your own magazines by selecting “flip it” to republish posts and share with your followers.
Niche social bookmarking sites
If you share your content on websites that are specific to your niche, you will get more shares and traffic because your content will be seen by people who are interested in it.
Here are a few examples to choose from:
- BizSugar – Small Business
- Zest – Marketing
- GrowthHackers – Business & Growth Hacking
- Hacker News – Startups, Programming, Technology
- Filmwatch – Films
- N4G – Gaming
- Techspy – Technology
- 11×2 – Sport
- DesignFloat – Graphic Design
- ManageWP – WordPress
Social groups, communities, and forums
The ability to contribute, build relationships, and establish one’s authority are all benefits that come from being a part of an online community. However, as with Reddit, simply dropping links into a discussion is not going to be enough to make it work. You have to be willing to get involved in the discussion and add value.
Look for established groups that are active and have good moderation. And use the platforms that suit your niche:
- Facebook groups
- Pinterest groups
- LinkedIn groups
- Web forums
- Quora
3. Content leverage
Content curation
Some sites allow you to add your content to lists and collections. For example, if you are in the gardening niche, you could create a topic on ‘Hardy Bi-annuals’ and then add content to it that includes some of your posts.
Here are a few sites where you can curate your content:
Content aggregators
Content aggregators collect content from other websites and put it all in one place. Plus it’s a win-win:
- Visitors have access to all content in one place.
- Creators get their content in front of a larger audience.
Here are some of the most popular content aggregators:
Content syndication (blog republishing)
According to Search Engine Watch:
Content syndication is a way to distribute your content to other websites, who will then publish it on their own site.
The best way to publish your blog is to wait a few days until Google has indexed your post so it will be easily found, and then republish it on other platforms such as Medium and LinkedIn.
Content repurposing
Content repurposing is when you take your original blog post and turn it into another format, like an infographic, a video, a podcast, or a Slideshare presentation.
To reach an even wider audience, publish an infographic on another site in addition to the initial blog post. In one example, a blog post received over 5,000 visits and 2,000 social shares, and the infographic has brought in an additional 35,000+ visitors.
4. Sponsor a podcast
Podcasts are excellent mediums for enjoying content on the go. They’re also available on various well-known platforms, including Google Play, iTunes, Spotify, and even YouTube. Maybe that explains why over 100 million Americans listen to podcasts every month.
Podcasts are the perfect way to connect with new readers because of their huge audiences. Additionally, there are many ways to get involved with podcasts.
With many podcasts relying on sponsorships, you might lend financial support in return for an advert or byline.
Having yourself featured on the podcast as an interviewee, guest, or expert is a great way to promote your blog. By presenting yourself as a knowledgeable and interesting person, listeners will be more likely to check out your blog.
When it comes to finding these opportunities, you may want to check out a podcast’s website for more information. Alternatively, most podcasters are actively looking for partners via social media.
We recommend finding a niche podcast that appeals to your target audience, rather than getting distracted by high viewing numbers. You may find it helpful to use a directory such as Listen Notes, during your search.
5. Speak at events
Because blogs are digital, you can promote them in person by speaking at events or virtual conferences. This way you can connect with potential new readers who are in the real world.
To reach your target audience, find events they are likely to attend and give a great presentation. If you engage the audience, they may be interested in your blog.
Joining relevant social media groups can help you discover events that would be interesting to write about on your blog. Some examples of social media groups you could join are Facebook, Slack, or LinkedIn groups.
There are even sites that specifically promote events, such as the Meetup site.
If you want to make the most of your speaking spot, there are a few things you can do, like promoting your involvement across social media, writing blogs about your experience, and vlogging the event. Sharing your experience with others can help them find your blog and see you as an industry leader.
6. Turn your content into YouTube videos
YouTube is used by 74% of people in the United States, which is a large number of people.
We recommend that you repurpose your blogs as videos since you will be able to produce high-quality clips in less time.
The process of including blog highlights in a video description and including a link to the related post encourages viewers to check out the blog.
You can create original content by taking the best parts of several different blog posts. This is called “cherry-picking” and can help you generate content that is even better than the original posts. When you cite multiple posts as your inspiration, you are more likely to attract even more traffic.
7. Partner with influencers and micro-influencers
An influencer is someone who has a significant online following and can help promote your blog to their audience. They may feature your blog in their latest YouTube video or share your content on social media.
The key to successful influencer marketing is finding the right partner. The best results come from working with an influencer whose followers represent your target audience.
It might be tempting to chase after influencers with the biggest followings, but you might get better results by working with a micro-influencer who is focused on the same niche as you. Micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates than their more famous counterparts, especially on TikTok. On that platform, micro-influencers get 17.96% engagement, while mega-influencers only get 4.96%.
To find the perfect influencer partner, look through relevant hashtags on social media sites. Another way to find influencers who are looking for partners is to use a platform like Fiverr.
8. Build a member’s area
After completing the registration process, your audience may feel invested in your blog, and therefore be more compelled to keep coming back. This is a great way to transform one-time visitors into loyal repeat readers.
You’ll collect members’ contact information as part of the registration process so you can target them with email marketing.
For example, you might create a newsletter with a roundup of your latest posts:
If you use a membership plugin with advanced features, you can restrict access to your content based on roles assigned to different membership levels. This gives you complete control over who can see and do what on your website.
Using social media platforms to create a sense of exclusivity can help drive engagement.
9. Post your blog highlights on TikTok and Snapchat
Some experts think that attention spans are getting shorter, and whether this is true or not, you may get people to pay more attention by summarizing your latest post into a short clip.
You can increase the likelihood that a user will watch your full video by catching their attention with a rapid-fire video, and then including a link to the full post in your profile.
If you’re looking to promote your blog to a wider audience, using video-sharing platforms could be a great option – especially if your blog targets a younger demographic, as these sites are particularly popular with this age group.
Seventy-five percent of TikTok users in the United States are teenagers.
Start promoting your blog in 2022
There are a lot of bloggers in the United States, so your blog will have to compete with many other blogs. However, you can use some strategies to make sure that your blog stands out.
Identify one or two blog promotion strategies and implement them to gauge their effectiveness.
Experiment with different methods until you find one that works for you.
One blog post might require a different tactic than another, depending on the content and audience. Try not to eliminate a strategy too quickly, as some might take longer to work than others.