The 4 C’s of Promoting Your Blog

So You Write Cool Stuff, Now What?

The 4 C’s

Content Cross-Promo Connection Calculation

2

Content

4

Opinion

Expertise

Humor

Do-It-Yourself

Politics

Family

Travel

Sports fashion

Pets celebrity

food

5

Writer’s Block? Don’t Worry.

Breathe.

And now for some tricks

Most important part of your postMake it tweetable (and re-tweetable)

Tips from bloggers and copywriters = formulas work:

The Secret of _________Here’s a Quick Way to __________Who Else Wants _______?

Lots of advice online:18 Resources to Help you Write Better Blog Titles

Use Great Headlines

For Example:

Stores Expecting Big Lines on Black Friday

Or:

It’s Going to Be a Rough Black Friday

Credit: RizzoTees.com Blog

The blogosphere loves a good Top Ten

Can you present your content as a list or in a ranking or a How To?

Top TenTop FiveThree TipsHow to do [blank]How to do [blank] better

What would attract your target audience?

Learn From Letterman

Information provided by Dan Zarella

Get Re-tweeted

1. you

2. twitter

3. please

4. re-tweet

5. post

6. blog

7. social

8. free

9. media

10. help

11. please re-tweet

12. great

13. social media

14. 10

15. follow

16. how to

17. top

18. blog post

19. check out

20. new blog post

Get Re-tweeted and Shared

Can your content be re-packaged in other easy to share formats?

Are there different ways for John Doe (and search engines) to find it?

How would your audience most like to engage with your content?

Does the content include the audience’s point of view?

Can it be made more visual?Is it a good story?

Get It Out There!

Cross-Promo

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There’s a lot out there, but you don’t have to do it all…at least not all at once

16

As you know, know your audience

Ari Seth CohenPhotographer, fashion writer

More tricks

Add your URL to

everything:

Hey, offline is still a place:• blog plaster…it’s stickers—

seriously!• leave flyers behind

• get in event programs

Fish where the fish are:

Where is your target audience online? Go there.

And push them to your blog with your cool headlines,

interesting visuals, and relevant content

Connection

1) Reach : Let them know you’re there through direct inbox or email messaging; comment (but not in a stalker-psycho way) on their posts

2) Relevancy is key - don’t pitch stories to other bloggers that have little or no relevance to their blog. You’ll just be wasting their time and yours.

3) Only pitch your best posts - you will have a much higher success rate at getting a link if you only do it with your best stuff. I would only ever do this with around 1-2% of my posts.

4) Give them an angle – don’t just shoot the link over – tell the blogger what the story is about and why it might be relevant to their blog. Save them a little work by showing how the post might be interesting to their readers.

4) Keep it brief – if the blogger wants lots of details about your post they’ll click the link. Be to the point, communicate what you need to say and then let the blogger get on with their day.

5) Be personal – use their name, their blog’s name and show you are not just spamming thousands of blogs with your email.

Reach Out to Other Bloggers

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DO:

Give credit where credit is due: provide the blogger’s handles, hashtags, etc. if you are using some of their information in your posts

DON’T:

Don’t sell yourself in comments, like linking to your site in their comment section. Tacky.

Be Sure to Mind Your P‘s and Q’s

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Calculation

Thank YouFor more information, please contact:

Allison KnaupeDigital Strategist, H+KAllison.Knaupe@hkstrategies.com@aknaupe