Contrary to what others may believe, the journey of a single post doesn’t end the moment a blogger hits Publish. Instead, that is where it starts. Well, that is if you’re looking to gain some following.
If you’re simply blogging for yourself, or as others say, for posterity’s sake, then, forget I even said that.
Publish, then promote
I shamelessly call myself a writer. It’s been a dream of mine since I was little and something that just wouldn’t die out no matter what I do. I can sit all day long in front of the computer, pounding at the keys until my eyes get all bloody from eye strain, but the following day, expect me to be at it again.
The moment I publish a post, next on my agenda is share it with my Facebook friends. And since my Twitter account (which doesn’t speak for much since I don’t do much Twitter anyway) is linked with Facebook, the post gets automatically shared through Twitter as well.
And that’s all there is to it, unfortunately.
Social bookmarking, blog promotion
Bottom line, I don’t do enough social bookmarking, not enough blog promotion. Visiting other blogs and leaving related comments should help me get some backlinks, too. But I haven’t been doing a lot of that lately.
Add to that my innate ignorance, or thereabouts, of SEO.
Call me busy. Call me pressed for time. Okay, so call me lazy. Still, not much blog interaction, not much traffic to the site.
And now that I’ve accepted that for a fact, little by little, that’s going to have to change. If I am going to continue blogging, then, I better be good at it. And that would mean publishing and promoting.
No more excuses.
I owe it to the people who stood by me all this time.
Image courtesy of razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
weeee… congrats… i’ve been blogging for 8 years but I don’t promote my posts before until i joined FBW
Hey, thanks. Yes, it can be tough, but if we want readers to read what we have to say, we have to syndicate.
I can so relate
Good to know I’m not alone, Christeen.
I love to promote my blog ever since I started blogging in 2010.No fb group yet by that time.I joined a lot of meme’s that time and gain friends too.I love blogging.
Wow, that’s one Mommy Tess to emulate. And yes, I love blogging, too!
Promoting is the harder part but it’s also good to cross promote with other bloggers as you get to see their insights and ideas.
I couldn’t agree more, Franc.
Yes,I can relate.. I can make posts and then publish them…but I have little knowledge about the ‘promotion’ part which is I think very vital for blogging. Just April or May, I started to explore bloggers.com, pinterest, stumble upon, GFC etc. and it is working.. the traffic is increasing. I still have so much to learn. I still don’t know how to tweet though : )
When I started to blog, I already knew promotion was vital to getting traffic. My mentor friend drilled that into my head really hard. But sometimes, a lot of things get in the way.
I’m blogging for two years and it is hard to establish a name in online but I enjoyed a lot in blogging esp in FBW.
I’m happy to know you enjoy blogging a lot. Rock on!
lol! same here, i actually only have fb and g+, no twitter, no stumble upon, no pinterest and others!!!
.. and it is ok! lol!
” … and it’s OK!”
– Just the exact line I expected to hear from you, Gem. Your blog keeps me inspired, by the way.
“pounding at the keys until my eyes get all bloody from eye strain” –> Relate much.
Personally, there are also times I get lazy to blog but everytime I blog hop, nah.. I am motivated especially when the blogs I read are inspirational
LOL on the quote, Ed. Laziness is such an ass-kicker, isn’t it? You don’t want it, but sometimes, you can’t help it when it takes over you.
Never really thought about these when I started blogging. I merely blogged for myself, and well, I was really lazy too. I guess the interaction with fellow bloggers got me all stoked which fueled my drive to do blog hops and join groups. It’s pretty fun
Blogging for myself was something I always thought would work fine with me. Well, it did for a time. But things got old, and, well, here we are … syndicating …
Yeah that’s one side of blogging which is so important, what’s a site without traffic right? For me too it’s not the earning that’s important for me, it gives me joy when I know people are visiting my blog and reading my post or simply appreciating my photos. priceless right? We need to promote our blog coz if not then google and other search engine won’t be able to locate and suggest our site.
You definitely got that right, Violy!
I didn’t know about content syndication and comment exchange before, and my posts really needed some proofreading.. But all that’s changed. And when I was introduced to blogging groups that helped share what I’ve written, I was super elated. I know it may take some work on your end — writing good content, sharing your posts via twitter/fb/digg/su/whichever.. but rest assured that your blog traffic will soon pick up, much sooner then you expect.
All the best to you! 
Note to self: Install Digg, SU, Pinterest and other social bookmarking buttons on site.
Thanks for the reminder, Mai!
Same here. I didn’t share much of my entries until came FBW. ^_^
Thank goodness for FBW.
well.. this is me too ahahha.. very true.. it really takes an enormous amount of will and effort to overcome what you are saying.. and it sucks overcoming it.. but if it is something of a sponsored article.. I could do it in even less than 5 minutes hahaha..
Manong, LOL on the sponsored article bit.
Sometimes I am too lazy to blog but every time I think of my readers, ginaganahan ako. I am not expecting that my blog will go far kasi dati walang sense lang binablog ko and after months of continues blogging, a lot of unexpected things happened. Kapag nawawalan ka ng puso magpublish, always think of your followers and readers. Read comments and message from them and magigain mo ulit yung energy na kailangan mo.
Indeed, the readers are our inspiration. Salamat sa ‘yong insight, Noks!
It takes considerable effort to establish commendable online presence but the results can be rewarding especially through positive feedback.
Amen to that, Teresa. Thanks for visiting!
Thank you for your post. I got reminded to pursue continuous improvement when it comes to writing.
Kalabasa, I’m glad you found the post helpful.
go on, keep it up and you’ll get back on the track! cheers!
Thanks, Gigi. I’ll keep your advice in mind.
Been blogging for a year now and it never came to me to promote my blog until I came across FBW. Thanks for sharing~
MissGennD, and thanks for dropping by, too!
i love blogging too much and i like to promote my blog too.
it’s nice to have people read your blog and read theirs too.
Right on you are, Athena! So good to see you here.
ngayon ko nga lang din nakasanayan ang ganitong pagpropromote.. gie and take relationship lang
Tama ka, Kiko. Classic talaga ang give and take, ano? Walang kamatayan.
Having a good blog post is not enough to drive traffic to your website. You have to really promote your awesome post, share it with your friends etc. As a general rule, IMHO, content is QUEEN but promotion is the KING.
I think there goes the bull’s eye, Ron!
Agreeing with Ron.. Even though your post is so good, if you won’t promote it well the traffic will not be much
I solemnly agree, too.
awww, I can relate! I don’t promote my blog before, not until I learned of FB pages of bloggers such as FBW and Pinoy Bloggers. Now I get comments and it feels happy to read what other people have to say.
Hey, Lily, so good to see you here. Yes, comments from people who read our posts keep the blogging spirit alive.
FBW for the win!
meeting new bloggers made me blog more.
Ms. Aira, I second the motion!
And I agree, meeting new bloggers can be inspiring.
I’m sure you’ll get to do more blogging soon. Mahirap rin talaga ‘pag busy. Good luck!
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sumi.