I’m always up for a challenge and this is no exception…

There are many things I love in this world, my husband, my children, family, friends, chocolate and a great glass of wine.  In my work world, I love creativity, sharing of knowledge, great to work with clients and colleagues, LINK LOVE, subscribers, readership, being a Rainmaker and SEO just to name a few. 

So why am I telling you these things?  I want to take you through my latest challenge, in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.   I think we all realize we can learn from one another and if I can share just a few things that you can do to improve your blogging, increase your readership and become more known in your communities, then I will consider it a good day. 

In task 2 of the challenge, in which I was told to write and post a "list blog", mine was: Are your social networking efforts paying off - 5 ways to know:  I shared some ways you can examine if your social networking is paying off - don't we all want to know if all the time and effort we're putting into something is bringing us the results we want and need? 

Task 3 involves promoting your blogand the advice that Darren gives is that many bloggers direct their readers to the main home page but suggests that you will have greater success when you promote your individual blog posts.  He goes further in depth by sharing 11 ways to promote a blog post and being mindful of choosing your best posts and using the methods of promotion in a way that's helpful to others.  Some examples of these methods are:

• Social Messaging
• Internal Links
• Email Signatures
• Newsletter List

Read more on these 11 suggestions.  

So what methods of promotion did I use for promoting my blog post entitled: Are your social networking efforts paying off - 5 ways to know:  Here are 4 ways that could also work for you:

1. Social Networking Sites:

I have all my blog posts automatically fed to Twitter, Facebook, My Squidoo Page.  Activerain has this function all setup for us.  Simply go to your settings page and put your Twitter username and password and every time you post a blog to Activerain, a notification tweet will appear alerting all your followers that you just posted. 

You can also setup something similar up on Facebook.  For great instructions on how to set it up, see Jason Crouch's post. 

As for my Squidoo page, my free lens about my Marketing Virtual Assistant services, I have my Activerain blog pulled directly into that page via an rss feed.  Here's what it looks like.

2. Article Marketing:

Choose key articles and post them to other sites to further promote your ideas and increase your readership.  My example is posting key blogs to sites like Top Article and Broker Agent Social. 

3. Rainmaker ~ Localism:

On ActiveRain you have the option to sponsor a local community that puts you in direct contact with consumers.  I've had many people subscribe to my blog because I regularly post to Localism.

I also think it's important to say that this is just one of the ways you can become a Rainmaker.  Maybe you've been wondering how some people have pictures come up when they leave comments or why some people have the badge that says Rainmaker.  These bloggers have done one of the following:

• have purchased an ActiveRain Outside Blog,
• they sponsor at least 1 Local Community
• have spent $10 on a listing router campaign.

Why would you want to do any one of these things?

Having a Rainmaker Account provides a super great benefit - your blog post has the opportunity to reach the over 2 Million visitors to ActiveRain that otherwise would not be able to see your blog post because if you're not a Rainmaker your posts are only being seen my AR members.  Rainmakers drive people directly to their posts and at the same time that increases your SEO.

Want these benefits and so much more?

4. Related posts:

Putting links on your current post that link back to previous posts on related topics.  This post is an example of this method.  I posted a link to the original post in this post which takes people over to that post.  This helps anyone reading your post to quickly be directed to that post to further explore the topic you are discussing and hopefully further promote your expertise as well as increasing your subscribers and readership. 

Other great things to do to expand on your linking is right on the side of your own blog by adding:

• Create a toolbox -  a link that takes your readers to one location where all your posts are organized by topic (mine take readers to my website)
• Create links to key sites you want your visitors to be directed to (your website, your squidoo page, social media sites, article sites)

Of course there are many other things I do to promote my blog and services but I can't give away all my secrets can I?

As Darren reminded us, many people feel funny about promoting themselves but leaving your blog post a secret and hoping people come across it by chance may not give you the results you are looking for - put yourself out there and see what comes is advice I'm taking to heart.  Still not sure about how you can extend your reach to consumers?  

I was recently contacted by someone outside of Activerain who came across my blog when she was doing an unrelated search to real estate.  What's interesting about this is, she started to explore my blog and commented that she liked my writing style and that the advice that I was giving could be used in any business.  Guess what?  She's one of my new subscribers.  I was touched to say the very least and I hope by sharing this example you too will realize that we never know who we're going to reach and the impact we can have on our readers.  (Thanks Colleen)

At the very least I hope after reading this post you will do one if not more of these things:

Sponsor a local community on AR (become a Rainmaker - see above for more ways)

Put out great content to increase the chances of connecting with your readers

Link, Link, Link

Join the challenge ~ start building a better blog today ~ and grow this great community and your voice in it.

So let me ask you, in what ways do you promote your blog posts?

Have these methods increased your readership?

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Ready to take your Marketing to new levels? Anne Marie Malfi ~ Malfi Marketing Solutions.com ~ Copyright 2009