How to Promote & Market Your Blog: 10 Fundamental Steps to Growing Your Blog

In the 1990s, when blogs first appeared, they were primarily online diaries, where people would provide personal accounts of their lives. People later recognized the blog format as a marketing tool and began using it to provide information and updates. From there, blogging grew into a new and effective marketing strategy.

There are countless reasons why someone starts blogging today. Some start as a hobby, and some do it for a living. With a blog, you can expand your networking opportunities with professional peers. Through a blog, you can establish their expertise and extend their online reach. I personally have started blogging as a side gig aside, working in my dad's company. Writing related financial content for my blog can be a fun lifestyle that can potentially increase my alternative income when the blog is established. 

I have started my finance blog that you are reading right now since 2019. However, I was not active in writing content for my blog for quite some time. It was just after this year; I started to put more time into it. I hope the contents I wrote can be beneficial for readers and help me improve to become a better investor and businessman. 

Creating a blog is an easy matter that anyone can do. The challenge is being able to get your blog known by others on the internet. There is no point of having a blog that's beautifully made and has interesting content, but having no one coming into your blog. 

Promoting and Marketing your blog is a crucial step to become a successful blogger. Promoting and marketing your blog the right way can expose your content to broader audiences, which could lead to business and career opportunities. I am personally is still working my way to figure out how I can promote and market my blog. This led me to do more research on the internet so that I can be great at it. In this article, I would like to share the information and knowledge I learned to promote and market my blog. 

1. Remember That It Takes a Lot of Time and Work.

You've probably heard many stories about someone being able to stay at home and make a good living by blogging. Some even were able to make a huge sum of money just by blogging. However, what you don't hear is how much hard work is involved in going from zero readers to thousands of visitors each day. Be aware that the process of getting your blog known takes a lot of time and hard work. You are required to be patient and consistently work hard to get there. 

My finance blog that you readers are reading right now is still far from being successful. I still have to put in work and time to write more articles and content into my blog. My goal is to write at least a thousand articles in this blog. I know that seems like an insane goal; however, I believe that having that amount of articles would help make my blog get known. This is because the more content and article you have in your blog, the more significant SEO will work best for you. I'm going to explain more about it in the next section below.

2. Understand the Benefit of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Apply It While You Blog.

When you optimize your blog, you're making your blog more visible to people who are entering keywords associated with your content via search engines like Google. The more contents and articles you post on your blog and have it updated regularly, it will make a huge difference to how your overall blog performs in the search engines. Google does not want to deliver its searchers' outdated information. Blogs that are regularly updated signal to them that the blog is alive and offering fresh content. Moreover, it also gives the search engine algorithms more reason to index your blog more often. This keeps your blog more on their radar over time.

This is the reason why I want to have a thousand articles in this blog. By doing so, I can optimize my SEO for my blog. This will help get more traffic and visitors who are interested in the niche topic of my blog. My blog will focus on articles that cover investing topics, stock analysis, personal finance, passive income, wealth management, investment property, retirement topics, and side businesses, but most important contents that focus on my journey to attaining financial freedom through dividend growth and value investing. I want to create this blog into a blog that can help others with their finances, investment, and career to become wealthy and successful entrepreneurs. 

3. Make Your Site Easy to Use.

You want your audience to quickly and easily understand what you offer. You should ask yourself as if you are the visitor to your blog. Ask yourself whether you like the web template, also see if your website is easy to navigate. If you answer no to either of those questions, you need to spend some time re-doing your site.

Have clear navigation for your website. Ensure that your navigation bar, the content you offer, and the general feel of the whole site are relatable. They need to work together as a whole. If they do not, your reader will most likely close the window straight away.

Remember to place a search box on your blog. Put your search box somewhere clearly visible. This way, your readers have an easy time finding the content they want to read. So make sure this is easily accessible. 

Always remember to have your blog to be mobile-friendly. We live in an era where people surf the website using their mobile devices. Over half of internet searches now take place on a mobile device. Moreover, Google now judges mobile-friendliness as an SEO ranking factor for search engines. So it is crucial to have your blog designed for handheld devices. 

I have spent many hours on the theme template for the FinzWatch blog. I want readers to have an easy time surfing around the website. Most importantly, I make sure that the articles in the blog are easily read. The website is also mobile-friendly for visitors to read on mobile phones. Having my blog to be created neatly and organize is an essential factor to have visitors coming back to my blog. I am planning to update the theme of my blog in the future and making sure that the design is always updated to the current situation of my website. 

4. Focus On Making Your Contents Interesting and Outstanding.

The reason why people visit your blog and continue to come back is a no brainer. It's because they like the contents you wrote in your blog. Take your time to make high quality and exciting content for your blog. This is an essential part of promoting and marketing your blog to the world. 

Having exciting and outstanding content in your blog will attract visitors to keep coming back to your blog. No one wants to read articles or contents that are boring or difficult to read. It's important to make your blog user-friendly. For example, if you have too many ads on your blog, this will make turnoff for visitors to come back to your blog again.

This is the step I'm working on the most at my current journey to blogging. My blog is still entirely new and has not much content in it. Like I say, my goal is to write up to a thousand articles so that visitors have the opportunity to read different interesting articles in the investment and wealth-building niche. Furthermore, I am planning to create YouTube content for my blog in the future. However, that's after I finished writing a thousand articles on my blog.

5. Stay Consistent.

If you are looking to keep your current fans interested and attract new readers, it's crucial to stay consistent with your content production. This does not mean you have to post multiple times a day. You also do not want to end up writing content that is not great for your visitors. However, to have a schedule that works for you and stick to it can help your blog. This way, your readers will know when to expect updates to your blog.

Personally, I have been lazy writing content and articles for my blog. This is the reason why my blog has been empty still. It was just after this year; I decided that I should set a goal towards my blog. I now dedicate my time and effort to write at least one article a week. This way, my blog can slowly build up and get recognized on the internet. 

If I can write an article once a week, this will make my blog to have 48 articles in one year. Furthermore, I am planning to increase my writing goal twice a week, probably by next year, so that I'm able to have 96 articles in one year. By being consistent with writing articles, your blog will be filled with useful and engaging content for visitors to read.

Don't set too high of a goal in the beginning. Just try by writing once a week in the beginning. Once you can stick with that, then you can increase your target later on. It is similar to working out at the gym. When you first started, you should not force yourself to bench a really heavyweight. You could injure yourself during the process. You should start with a lightweight and slowly increase it over time. This is the same as writing articles for your blog. Once you get used to it, you can contribute more articles later on.

6. Build Your Subscribers for Your Blog.

If you are serious about growing your blog, a strong email marketing list is crucial. You need to own it and use it to your full advantage. Through your email list, you can build powerful connections and market your work in a trustworthy space.

To make the most of email marketing, you obviously need to gain those subscribers. You need to put in the time and work in order to have many subscribers to your website. Once you build a pool of email in your email list, you can broadcast your latest article to subscribers who sign up for your blog. This way, the reader will be updated on the latest article you have written.

As for now, the FinzWatch email list is still new. I do not have that many people subscribing to my blog. I hope with the work and time dedicating to producing quality content that someday I will have a list of subscribers signing up for my blog. If you are reading this article right now, and find it valuable to read the content I have written, please subscribe to my website. This means a lot to me. 

7. Leverage Social Media.

Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and many more can be powerful tools and go hand-in-hand with building your blog readership. Every time you post a new content article on your blog, you should promote it across all of your social media channels. This way, your blog will have more exposure to the internet, and people will notice the content you wrote in their social media newsfeed. If you happen to have a relationship with someone who has a large following, consider asking him or her to promote your content on their social media. This way, you can increase your readership to your blog content.

I personally have used social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and even Pinterest to promote and market my blog contents. Every time I finish posting a new article in my blog, I automatically spread the link of the content in all the Social Media Apps. I was able to get more traffic and visitors to my blog because of this method. In addition, people interested in my blog would follow my social media accounts so that they automatically update when I post a new article.

I also include my blog link in my social media profiles. The idea works particularly well if you're sharing content on Instagram. You cannot actually include a link back to your blog post from the Instagram posting. So a method that I've seen people done involves sharing a sweet graphic from your post, then mentioning that the link to the post is in their profile.

8. Re-promote Your Older, Most Successful Content.    

Promoting your older content that is successful can help boost traffic to your blog. Do not just spam your old content in social media, but by re-promoting content with many visitors reading. If you simply spam your old content on social media, you can experience a traffic drop from your social networks. However, when you shared only your best content, you can grow your traffic. 

I personally have not tried reposting my older content article on social media. I only post content on my social media platform after I posted an article on my blog. I only want to post content that is new and fresh in social media. However, if you think an accessible older content you have can be a repost, you should give it a try. 

9. Collaborate with Other Bloggers.

Creating content in collaboration with another blog means that you are able to tap into each other's audiences. It is a win-win situation. You will get new readers from his/her blog, and he/she will also get the audience from your blog. You are required to work with blogs within the same niche as yours. Start by messaging bloggers, you have an existing relationship with and ask if they would like to work together.

Personally, I have collaborated with other bloggers that are within my niche. We decide to put each other's blog link on our website. This way, the reader from my blog will notice the other person's blog I'm working with. At the same time, his or her audiences will notice about my blog as well. 

Re-Think Wealth Blog is an example of a blogger that I collaborate with. The blog is owned by Christopher Lee, a value investor and a mentor to his online course. I am planning to work together with him in the future. Our plan is to share the same Teachable platform he is currently using for his online courses. I am planning to sell online courses to the audience who are interested in learning something. However, this is still a future plan, but I plan to execute this one day. 

10. Monitor Online Conversation for Opportunities to Promote Yourself.

People talk about all sorts of things on the internet, such as in Facebook Group. You should join groups on social media like Facebook that is within your niche. This way, you can exchange ideas as well as promoting your content in the comments section. This is a very engaging way to promote your blog since you have a conversation with others who talk about the same topic.

A scenario online conversation I use to promote myself is when people are discussing a stock topic. People in the group like to mention the stocks they recently purchase, or it can be a stock they are interested in. Since the group I'm in has a topic that is within my blog niche, I can reference them to read an article about a stock analysis I had written and share it with them in the conversation. This way, they can go into my blog to read the content I have written. 

Wrapping It up

Becoming a blogger can be a hobby and a fun activity you can do during your free time. A successful blog can generate income that you can use on the side. However, to make a successful blog that generates income requires hard work and dedication. You are required to promote and market your blog strategically. 

I hope this article I have written can help you readers have a better understanding of how to promote and market your blog. Also, I'm currently making my blog more noticed on the internet at the moment. I have done most of the steps that I have written above to generate more traffic and visitors. 

Hopefully, with my hard work and dedication, my finance blog that you are reading right now can be viral on the internet. If you are also working on your blog, the steps I mentioned above can help your blog's traffic and visitors come in. Of course, not all of the tactics I mentioned will be suitable or work for you. You will need to experiment and find what works for you. Marketing is about trial and error, but you have to keep repeatedly going until you succeed. 

Remember always to be patient! A successful blog requires time and effort to build up its audience. But once your blog is established and known out there, it will be even easier for you to scale up your blog. I hope the best for those bloggers out there and wish you will succeed in the blogging world.