Content Is King
- Write eye-catching headlines.
- Write excellent content — make a name for blog as a source of informative, useful, funny, entertaining, or inspiring articles.
- Write longer posts — expand on your content, fill out your blog posts and create truly epic content.
- Write shorter posts — follow Seth Godin’s example with short but sweet posts.
- Write more often — the more content you can produce, the better.
- Blog on a consistent schedule so your readers know when to expect new content.
- Write list blog posts — they get more traffic than any other kind of post.
- Write about current news stories.
- Write about topics trending on Twitter and in Google trends.
- Search forums in your niche to see what people are talking about and write an article about it.
- Ask your readers what they’d like you to write about.
- Write about something controversial and start a debate.
- Use link bait techniques to write content that promotes massive sharing.
- Explore your analytics, find out which is your most popular content and create more of the same.
- Interview influential people in your niche/industry.
- Create a “best blogs” list post and let the bloggers know you’ve included them — a bit of flattery can go a long way.
Enhance With Multimedia
- Use eye-catching photos and graphics to draw attention to your posts.
- Create Pinterest-friendly graphics with text on top of images to encourage people to pin your posts.
- Create an interesting infographic and share it with everyone you can think of.
- Upload videos to YouTube and Vimeo — make sure a link to your site is in the description and the video.
- Produce a podcast and distribute it through iTunes.
- Convert some of your content into a presentation and upload it to SlideShare.
- Host or take part in a webinar.
- Transcribe your videos and webinars for extra content.
Be Social
- Create a Facebook page for your blog. Use it to communicate with your readers and post a notification every time you publish a new blog article.
- Tweet all your posts when you publish them.
- Link to your posts on your Google+ page when you publish them.
- Use social media scheduling software like Buffer to post automatically on social media at the best times of the day.
- Link to your old posts periodically from your social media accounts.
- Join a collaborative Pinterest board and tap into the audiences of all the other bloggers pinning to that board.
- Regularly pin images from other sites. The more you pin, the more followers you’ll attract on Pinterest. Make sure your blog address is in your profile!
- Create a Tumblr blog and add content related to your niche as well as re-blogging content from your own site.
- Set up an Instagram account and tell your followers when you publish a new post.
- Comment on other blogs with insightful, useful comments.
- Link out to other bloggers generously.
- Share others’ posts on Facebook and retweet useful information to your readers.
- Reach out to other bloggers through their blog, by email or on social media — build relationships.
- Follow all the followers of other influential bloggers in your niche on Twitter.
- Include social sharing buttons on all your posts.
- Swap sidebar links and buttons with other sites.
- Include quotable phrases in your content and use Clicktotweet to encourage sharing on Twitter.
- Encourage engagement on your blog by ending your posts with a question.
- Link to all your posts with StumbleUpon.
- Add some of the users Twitter recommends you to follow every day — a percentage will follow you back.
- Reply to your comments and emails — show your readership that you’re interested in what they have to say
- Join blogger Facebook groups and communities to share knowledge and help to promote each other’s content.
- Create a LinkedIn profile with a link to your blog and contribute to groups and discussions in your field.
- Submit your best posts to Digg and Reddit.
- Add your favorite blogs to your blogroll – they’ll notice and may return the favor.
- Ask your blogger friends to include you in their blogroll.
- Collaborate with other bloggers to produce and share content.
Guest Posting And Link Building
- Guest post on other blogs — try pitching to one new blog every week.
- Include a link to your blog in every single online profile you have.
- Set up a free blog related to your niche with supplementary content on Blogger, Livejournal,Typepad etc. and reference back to your main blog.
- Invite others to guest post on your blog — they’ll send traffic your way when they link to the post.
- List your blog in as many free blog directories as you can find.
- Do interviews for other blogs.
- Take part in link parties and blog carnivals.
- Include your blog’s URL in your email signature.
- Post helpful information in forums related to your niche and include your blog’s URL in your signature.
- Post helpful articles on sites like Hubpages and Squidoo with links back to your blog.
- Submit articles to syndicated article directories like Ezine Articles. If your article is re-published on another blog you’ll benefit from extra links.
- Write and syndicate a press release linking back to your blog.
- Use a link inspection tool like Open Site Explorer to find where your competitors are getting links from and copy them.
- Add your blog to Technorati.
- Syndicate your blog on Amazon Kindle.
SEO
- Interlink your blog posts — link to old posts from new ones and edit old posts to link to more recent ones.
- Install a related content plugin to link each post to several other related posts.
- Use keyword research tools to write about the things that many people are searching for.
- Install an SEO plugin like All in One SEO Pack or the Yoast SEO plugin and optimize your site for search engines.
- Use relevant keywords in your image file names and alt tags.
- Use keywords in your post title and subheadings.
- Link out to authority sites in your niche.
- Set up Google authorship on your blog.
E-books And Freebies
- Run a blog giveaway or competition.
- Put an opt-in form on your website and send out a free newsletter.
- Publish an e-book and sell it or offer it for free on Amazon Kindle. Make sure your web address is in the first 10% of the book so it shows up in the sample.
- Write an e-book and offer a generous affiliate commission to encourage others to distribute it and link to your site.
- Create a free report and get site visitors to tweet or post about your site on Facebook to access it
- Offer a free e-course or digital product and encourage your readers to tell people about it.
Offline Ideas
- Include your blog’s URL on your printed business cards and give them out to everyone you meet.
- Attend blogging conferences and networking events — distribute your business cards!
- Speak at conferences and special events.
- Tell your friends and family about your blog.
Other Miscellaneous Ideas
- Enter blogging competitions — your blog will usually be promoted on the website hosting the competition and social media for free.
- Answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and leave a link to your website.
- Ping your blog posts with a tool like Pingomatic.
- Create a WordPress theme and include a link to your site in the footer.
- Choose a beautiful theme for your blog.
- Review products and share your content with brands. They may link to your site from their social media accounts
- Ask a bigger blogger to be your mentor and start a case study about improving your blog.
- Submit photographs to free stock photography sites and Flickr and ask for a credit link backto your site.
- Include a link to your RSS feed.
- Include links to read your blog via Bloglovin‘.
- Link to your best and most popular posts from your sidebar.
- Go back to old posts and edit them to update and improve them from time to time
- Optimize your website for viewing on mobile devices.
- Include different ways to access your content such as category and date archives
- Include a search function on your blog.
- Create an app for iPhone or Android.