Making Your Blog Popular

No doubt you’ve day dreamed more than once about your blog being the one everyone in your niche talks about.  That’s the raw secret of owning a blog with killer search engine rankings, a huge RSS subscriber list, and profits that keep you out of the poor house:  Everyone’s talking about it.

Here’s how you get people talking:

1.  Be “Remarketable”

Strong, thoughtful, well-written content is marketable.  Your job is to make it good enough to be “REmarketable.”  Does your content get other bloggers talking about and linking to you?  I know it gets old hearing about how you’e supposed to be so great.  But really, you’re suposed to be great!

2.  You Write For 2 Audiences

Remember that writing a blog is writing for 2 audiences:  Your readers and other bloggers.  The most important audience is… both of them!  Other bloggers get turned on when they see something great to point to from their blog.  It makes them look authoritative, in-the-know, ad smart.  Make other bloggers in your niche look smart by giving them something really good to link to. 

Think about posts that have a different take on an issue no one has put out there yet.  Think about posts that no one has done yet (hard stuff, like posts that take research).  Bloggers link to things they wish they had written themselves.  Make it hard to duplicate your effort so that bloggers would rather link to you than re-create what you’ve done in their own words.

3.  Link, Link, Link!

The reason bloggers so freely give away their traffic by linking to others is simple.  Linking to other bloggers sends a message to those bloggers saying “Check me out!  I thought your last post was awesome!”

You typically will get an immedate link back in the form of a “trackback.”  You also go to the front of the line in each blogger’s mind as someone to check out, subscribe to, and possibly link to in the future.

Finally, linking to authorities and other relevant content in your niche helps Google determine how cool and relevant YOU are.  They watch who you link to and compare the content of both yours and the other site to each other to determine relevance.  It really helps to link often to relevant bloggers and content in your niche.

4.  Network, Schooze, Rub Elbows

The three thing above lay the ground work for networking with other power brokers in your niche.  Say you are a new mommy blogger.  You want attention along with a slice of the massive available traffic in your niche.  The expressway to popularity is getting a mention on established mommy blogs who aready enjoy the notoriety, traffic, and attention you are after.

By linking to certain bloggers, commenting often on their posts (thoughtfully and as a TRUE fan), and doing favors for them (like talking about them on your Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and other social accounts) builds a certain rapport with those bloggers over time.

At a point where you feel comfortable in your budding relationship to “pop the question,” ask about doing a guest post on their blog or send them a private message about a great post you did which links to them.

5.  Post Early.  Post Often.

Blogging is hard work.  Not hard like working-in-the-mines hard.  In fact, we are truly spoiled when we complain about how hard blogging is without qualifying our complaints by admitting there are thousands of jobs that would be worse and far less profitable.

But you do have to post often.  You don’t have to come up with a new Pulitzer Prize winner every day.  But you do have t post every day.  Many bloggers post several times per day.  It is no small coincidence that those bloggers enjoy the most popularity in their markets.

Why?  Because every post is an opportunity to hit the search engines with another long tail keyword phrase.  Every post is a new chance at turning on another blogger and making them link to you. Each post you make is yet another “touch point” for you and your readers.  Readers are interested in different things at different times.  More posting ensures you are hitting more hot button topics with more readers with varying interests at any given time.

6.  Think Like A Drug Dealer!

“This one’s free.  The next one is going to cost you!”

Getting someone “hooked” on your blog means that you must develop a habit of checking in and being immediately satisfied.  Your readers should get the shakes if they stay away from your blog too long or if you miss a day or two of posting. 

I know you know what I’m talking about because you are likely a junkie for someone’s blog right now.  That blogger has done their job.  You’re hooked.  You feel lost without a dose of prose from your favorite blogger(s).  That, my fellow prisoners, is what you’re shooting for with your blog.

The key to turning your blog into a habit for readers is dissecting what your competitors and your favorite blogs are doing.  If they have a high readership, the best search results, tons of comments on every post, and tons of links from all over their niche, then they’ve certainly figured out the formula.

Tagged as: Blog Marketing, getting links, Link Building, popular blog, rss subscribers