Monthly Archives: May 2013

There are millions of blogs. How are you going to get found? The first way is, of course, to write compelling, valuable content that matches what your community is searching for on Google and other search engines. If you’re not doing that, you’re not likely to be able to attract many readers no matter what else you do.

The second-best way to get found is to get linked to by more-influential blogs. Build relationships with respected bloggers in your community. (We talked about this in the post Study Existing Online Communities and in Synergistic Promotion Activities). Link to them, comment on their blogs, and engage with their audiences.

One common way bloggers collaborate is to guest-author posts on each other’s blogs. This has the benefit of offering a blog’s audience a change of pace, and can result in increased readers for both blogs.

Recently, however, a powerful new way to promote blogs was introduced: the Facebook Like button. As we discussed in the post Add a Like Button to Your Website, this new replacement for the old Share button can help your Website or your blog go viral. Typepad, a popular blog hosting platform, reported in mid-2010 that the installation of Facebook’s new Like Button on the sidebar of a blog boosted bloggers’ referral traffic from Facebook by up to 50 percent. For some blogs, adding the Like button to the blog’s footer boosted traffic from Facebook up to 200 percent.[1]

Figure 1 — Referral Traffic from Facebook Like, 2010

Combining the Like button with a campaign on Facebook can boost traffic even further. This way of coordinating your efforts between social sites, described in the Triangulate Your Social Media Presence post, can yield big dividends.

Next up: Publicize Your Blog 

Good Blog Topics

Once you start blogging, one of your first concerns is going to be, “What do I blog about?”

Chances are you have plenty of possible topics. But what’s going to connect with your community? Once again, you’ll have to figure this out for yourself, but here’s a list of suggestions that may work.

• Create Top N Lists — Creating blog posts that offer top 10 (or whatever number) lists is a proven winner. It promises a quick, easily-digestible take on a subject. Google the phrase “Top 10”[1] and see 450 million great examples.

• Top People/Products — A variation of top n lists that adds the promise of celebrity

• Be Contrarian — Disagreeing with established opinion can be a draw. People often seek this type of alternative to accepted wisdom

• Be Controversial — But not too controversial. You’re looking to stir up debate, not trouble.

• Answer FAQs — FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions. Every field has them. If you promise to answer them, people will be likely to read.

• Ask Questions — One pastor we know uses this as an ice breaker: “What’s your favorite movie?”

If this short list doesn’t do it for you, there are lots of good blog posts that offer ideas for what to write about. Here’s a list of great recommendations:

• Social Media Content Creation Process[2] by Geoff Livingston of Now Is Gone

• Discover Hundreds of Post Ideas for Your Blog with Mind Mapping[3] by Darren Rowse of Problogger

• 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write[4] by Chris Brogan of ChrisBrogan.com

• 8 Must-Dos For Aspiring Writers[5] by Amber Naslund of Brass Tack Thinking

In addition to these bloggers and their sites, check out Dosh Dosh, Buzz Bin, Ittybiz, Copyblogger, Remarkable Communication, Remarkablogger, and Problogger. [6]

Other ways to find blog topics:

• Read something new every day
• Dedicate 20 minutes each day
• Follow Alltop[7] for ideas
• Ask people for ideas, especially your community
• Keep a log of potential ideas
• Bookmark sites you visit
• Use Delicious[8] or Digg[9]
• Read other bloggers
• Find interesting and relevant photos
• Use Flickr[10] — be sure to look for the Creative Commons license so you can reuse them
• Stuck? Try a “Best of” post
• Remember: Fast is better than perfect, and perfect is the enemy of good

Next up: Getting Your Blog Found