Do you Market your Blog?

[butterflyexperience]

And if so how?

I'm slightly envious of these blogs that have a zillion people following them and wondered how they were acquired.
Not that blogging is competition of course!
Just makes me feel slightly inadequate

I'm not sure what you mean, which probably means that I don't. I have a fair amount of readers (a couple of thousand with all the different subscription things added together) and am coming up to a million page views but I keep things simple so I just post to the Facebook page (which then updates Twitter) when I've made a post and, er, leave it at that.

I think most of my readers come to me because they've either read my books, are interested in history and have googled something that I've posted about and liked my take enough to stick around or have seen my blog mentioned on a history/writing forum.

I tweet a lot, and have been busy joining all the blogging networks which seems to have increased my readership

Mmeg - your marketing seems a very organic way which I like but imagine takes along time to get to that point.

Babywife - yours sounds like active marketing which I think is what I may have to engage in for a quick result. Bit sure how retainable it is though.

I can't generally be bothered with joining things and drumming up readership (too much hard work and over-thinking when I'd rather focus on the actual writing instead) and do really prefer to build things up organically as it feels like I am attracting people who genuinely want to read my stuff rather than shamefacedly clobbering the indifferent over the head with it! ;)

I've been writing this blog for about two and a half years now and am quite pleased with how it is coming along. I'm not massively ambitious about either my blog or my books but both seem to be taking off despite this, which suits my inherent laziness very well!

MmeGuillotine I like your style . I think you have a great niche, and are a great writer, so no wonder you have so many subscribers! I enjoy reading your posts (studied English & History at uni and love good historical fiction so I find your blog fascinating!).

Butterflyexperience I find the whole "marketing" thing a bit scary. I blogged years ago about books - kept it going for about a year before other things in RL got in the way and I stopped. Blogging was so different back then - still a v friendly community but no twitter, facebook, marketing, mummy bloggers, PRs (actually, I used to get lots of free books to review so that's a bit of a lie!). Still, I'm getting into twitter and am slowly acquiring followers (but don't want to do that follow 10,000 just to get a 1,000 followers route. Am following people/organisations I'm interested in and following back anyone who follows me that's bona fide...and interesting to me...as I figure slow and steady is more enjoyable!).

A new year's resolution is to get into my FB page but keep putting it off . In fact, really I guess my new year's resolution is to just keep blogging! Which means I should probably not be on MN but on my blog instead

Inherent laziness + success = ideal!!
:)

I really like your blog mmeg and if you have a real talent for writing and a passion for your subject which comes across in your blog.

Think I'm going to try for a combined Marketing and hope I build a loyal readership base

Lowimpact - I agree all that active marketing is scary and a lot of work an it's time I don't really have.
Think what I would really like is to make some connections an make some blogger friends
Not really bothered about zillions of followers but sometimes feel a bit of a blogging loser for not having zillions of followers iyswim?

blush Thank you! :)

That isn't to say that I don't work hard at it, because I think I do. I just um pick my battles and putting myself Out There isn't one that particularly appeals right now. :)

butterflyexp I am glad its not just me that is in awe of writers with thousands of followers. Ive been writing my blog for over 2 years but have only ever told friends about it until joining mumsnet. I only have 9 'followers' which is frustrating as I know I get more readers than that. so it looks a little pitiful on my site.

I have also only just starting to use twitter but am not interested in following all and sundry. So I guess I will just have to keep writing and if its good the readers will come and if its not I will have to rethink.

I think getting feedback is harder in the early stages too in that you need it more to improve, but havent got enough readers commenting to learn much about what works and what doesnt.

I think if you comment on other blogs that helps. Also, reviews and topical commentary (v rare for me) always boost my hits. I'm rubbish at Twitter, I pop in and say a few bits but nothing dedicated. But then I'm not aiming to grow my followers really, just document stitchy love really. Also, any mention on MN bumps up traffic.

Great thread!

I have been blogging for two years in April and have steadily increased my following and comments. I still have a long way to go but my blog and the following it has makes me happy.

I recently went on a trip with Not Quite Nigella (Lorraine) www.notquitenigella.com.au and she taught me so much about the business of blogs. I realised at that point that I was not as dedicated as she was and I was happy to grow slowly.

Some of the pointers I gleaned: If someone does comment on your site you should always go to theirs, read their work and comment too. Ie: I should now go to each persons website that commented on this thread and build and interaction.

Ask a specific question at the end of your story to encourage comments.

Chose your stories carefully, know your audience and your style and don't alter it too much. Keep your stories on the shorter side (I am not good at this and NQN commented that neither is she.) Always be honest on your site and gracious. Help others coming into blogging, it really isn't a competition, plus the ones you help will talk about you and your site and may ended up inviting you places in the future.

Blog regularly, it doesn't matter if it is daily, twice weekly or weekly but you need to commit to a regular pattern so that your follows know when to look for a story from you.

Don't just post a story and hope people find it. Announce it on your facebook page and tweet about it. You are your own publicist! Find any social media outlet you can to announce your story to.

I have a PR company who found me, they provide samples, giveaways and the odd trip so I want suppliers to get their monies worth from my site. That means I need to talk about my website to as many new people as I can so that readers will also see any adds or product endorsements I am running.

I hope some of my ramblings are useful.

Gourmet, that's a fantastic post. Its sort of what I was going to say myself as well. And you got to meet NQN, she is possibly one of my most favourite food bloggers. Please tell her that the Zuni Cafe chicken is my absolute favourite recipe from her site.

I do a heck of a lot of active marketing. I ran a little experiment recently. I blogged a recipe and did no marketing at all. None. Just posted it on my blog and left it. The next week I did another recipe, then marketed the (pardon language) shite out of it. Facebook, Twitter, Email, FoodGawker and associated sites, also got a few friends to pin it and retweet.

The difference? That post is now my bestseller. The other post? Got a measly 200 pageviews.

Unfortunately, blogging is a matter of self publicising. I am not the world's best marketer, but I've figured out a strategy that keeps me with a level number of readers for every post. So its a matter of finding what works best for you and keeping it consistent.

Surprisingly I don't have many followers. But rather than advertise that fact, I've actually decided to hide the follower tab. I now go on pageviews + feedburner (email lists) to get a better idea of how many people my blog reaches. I still don't have anywhere close to the number of readers I'd like, but I am getting there.

MmeG is a great example of growing your blog organically. I am more of an example for marketing.

And finally. You HAVE to enjoy what you're doing. If you don't and see blogging as just a job, then it will come across in your blog and you'll struggle to attract readers.

scatcatshoo. I'm showing off my stupidity now... but hey.. what does "pin it" mean?

Other than that, I think the point about not advertising how many followers you have or haven't got is a good one to start with. In fact I'm going to take it off my blog now. I prefer to watch my 'returning visitors' stats, which I have a good ratio of. I figure if people keep coming back, then I must be doing alright! (maybe... )

YummyMummy, its a way to pin the post/ picture on the virtual pinboard called Pinterest. There seems to be a surging amount of interest in it right now, and its awesome for hits.

I get pinned a lot, and it drive s alot of traffic back to my site.

Here's how it looks -

pinterest.com/source/foodfootballandababy.blogspot.com/

I have a pinterest board too, but I am not as active on it.

pinterest.com/michpetersjones/

Damn, links.

pinterest.com/michpetersjones/

pinterest.com/source/foodfootballandababy.blogspot.com/

In the end you have to blog about what you enjoy. If you are changing your style to get followers then that kind of defeats the object of blogging.

I blog mainly for several reasons:
To get accolades for my crafty work/erudite opinions (attention seeking)
To share crafting ideas
To chanel my creativity into improving my writing

Scatcat 200 views is a v good day for me! But your blog is amazing so fair play to you.

I have posted a couple of stand alone threads on mumsnet sharing some of my projects & that gives me a massive bump. That's ok in the art & crafts section but not sure about the ettiquette elsewhere on Mn.

Someone tweeted me the other day to say they had fallen in love with me & read my whole blog in one night, sharing it with her husband. That to me is worth more than 1000 page views!

Dilly what a lovely comment to receive! That is definitely far more precious than page views.

200 page views would be amazing for me! I've made it over a 100 some days but not often. Still, the comments and likes and retweets are much more important to me. It still takes my breath away a little that someone has taken the time to read what I've written and comment.