“You got a nice looking blog.”
“Great!”
“You got all the important plug-in installed.”
“Hmmm…impressive!”
“Your content raises the quality bar for niche.”
“Wonderful!”
“What? Hardly anyone comes around to read it? Oh boy…!”

Do not mistake the above conversation for a conversation between an expert and a newbie. It is not a typical conversation, it’s far from it, but it captured the essence: if you do not have traffic, nothing else matters. It is like being a politician or a movie star without any follower. How good is the website which no one reads except your spouse and your mother!

So, everything boils down to traffic, isn’t it? If you have been around for sometime then by now, you must be sick of listening this term. Getting traffic to one’s website sounds like some trickery, some magic, which you do not know; rather you are compelled to believe that this knowledge is so esoteric that only a handful of people is supposed to know it at any point of point.

I know I have exaggerated it, but believe me, there are people who thinks like this, and this article is to shut them up, and help them work their way upward.

Marketing plan for a blog

I said it before in other article, I am saying it now, and will shout it thousand times over because a keyword is the lifeblood for all the activity you undertake to promote your blog on the Internet. While writing this article, I am assuming that contents and all the on-page SEO goodies are in place, and that your blog is ready to embark.

In the following paragraphs, I will share the tools professional bloggers use to promote their blogs. These tools, if used effectively, are all you need to become a successful blogger. Let’s begin our journey with SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Despite all the changes in the Internet, search engines are still the major source of traffic for the websites, and till the time it continues to play such an important role, we marketer will have to work our way around search engine result pages (SERPS).

The goal of every SEO activity is to bring your website on the first page of search engines. This is not an easy task, it takes a lot of hard work and patience before it starts delivering the result. The SEO process starts with conducting a keyword research for a website, and it continues till the website remains in existence. SEO is not a one-time process; it needs continuous attention.

There is only one way to rank in a search engine, and that is through linking. Links are the language that a search engine understands. If internal linking tells the search spiders about the interconnectedness of our web pages, inbound links tell them about the reputation our content enjoys on the Internet.

For the sake of discussion, I will divide SEO activities into two broad groups. These groups have a mixture of both on-page and off-page elements.

• SEO activities that prepare ground for rank building.
• SEO activities that build rank.

SEO activities that prepare ground for rank building

• A keyword optimized title tag (on-page element)
• 3-4 keywords (on-page element)
• Keyword optimized description meta tag (on-page element)
• Keyword optimized Anchor text (both on-page and on-page element)
• Keyword-rich Alt tag (on-page element)
• Keyword-rich heading tags(h1, h2, h3, etc., [on-page element])

SEO activities that build rank

• Internal linking using proper anchor text (on-page element)
• XML Sitemap (on-page element)
• Forum signature (off-page element)
• Inbound links from blog comment (off-page elements)
• Directory submissions (off-page element)
• Article marketing (off-page element)
• Press releases (off-page element)
• Social media submission (off-page element)

Directory submissions

Backlinks and traffic are what you are looking for when you are out there promoting your blog on the Internet, and everyone knows that directory submission is an efficient way to get one-way links.

There is one caveat though, to this marketing tool, and that is the diminishing use of website directories by the Internet users; still, to be on the safer side you should consider submitting your blog and RSS feeds to respective directories.

Type of directories

• Website directory– Used for website submission.
• Blog Directory– Used for blog submission
• RSS directory – Used for RSS feed submission

You need to follow the following guidelines, to get the maximum result from your submission effort:

• Do not use any automated software to submit your blog. Do the directory submission manually.
• Provide as much information as you can about your blog. This is done to prove that you are real human, not some spammy software.
• Read the directory’s guidelines before submitting your blog, and follow them.
• Use proper category and sub-category to submit your blog and RSS feeds. Improper submission may result in failed submission.
• You should have some content on your blog, before you attempt to submit it to different directories.

Content marketing

Content marketing is another tool that you can use to bring users to your blog. When I say content marketing, I do not mean the content you have prepared for your blog. What I mean by content marketing is the kind of content you write for other websites, which gives you couple of backlinks for your blog. Content marketing primarily involves:

Article marketing

Article marketing involves writing articles for article directories like ezinearticles.com. The articles you write for such directories get picked by various online publishers, which make your article famous and get you some backlinks. You should follow the following guidelines to ensure that your articles are picked by the article directories and publishers.

• Target micro-niche keywords with your article
• Write a keyword rich headline
• The article should not exceed 300-word mark
• Include maximum 2 links in the resource box
• Use two different anchor texts for the links
• Follow the guidelines set by the article directory you are submitting your article to
• Make your article scannable by breaking it using heading and lists
• Use call to action in the resource box

Press release writing and submission

Press releases works similar to the articles. The only difference between the two is the nature of their content, and places where each of the two is submitted.

Like article directories, there are many free press release submission directories as well, which you can use to build one-way link for your website, and to ascertain that your press releases are picked by the directories (called newswire or prwire) and news aggregators in your niche, you will need to keep in mind the following things:

• Use a proper inverted-pyramid structure to write your press release.
• Put the most important information at the top followed by second most important information.
• Do not overload a press release with too many links. Provide maximum of 2 links, and each links should be at least at a distance 120-words from each other.
• Write your press releases in the third person.
• The language of a press release should be objective. It should not look like a sales letter or promotional material.
• Provide a brief description about your blog towards the bottom of the press release.
• Follow the guidelines set by press release directories (newswires or prwires).
• Stick to the standard press release format
• Put ### symbol at end the press release

Social media participation

Social media participation is another important tool to promote your blog, and by social media participation I mean forum posting and commenting on blogs in your niches. By actively participating in relevant forums and posting comments on blogs in your or related niches, you will not only get backlinks, but you also will build a reputation for yourself, which helps you in getting more traffic and forming networks with different bloggers.

Do not spam blogs and forums with the comments and replies that don’t hold any value for readers. This is a sure-fire way to get banned and market spam in forums as well as blog owners. If done correctly, you stand a chance of forming an alliance with power bloggers.

Leverage the power of a network

Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Twitter, ident.ca, digg, reddit, del.icio.us, etc., are the currency in which we trade in the web2.0 environment. The good old days of virtual seclusion is long gone, now everyone is connected to everyone else in the real time, and they are sharing stuffs there as well.

Social networking sites

The social sites can be classified into two groups: social networking sites and social bookmarking sites. Websites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, FreindFeed, Orkut, hi5, etc., are social networking sites, where we form network, communicate with friends, and share things with each other. This tool can be used to build community around the brand or blog you are marketing.

Social bookmarking sites

Websites like digg, reddit, del.icio.us, flocked, StumbleUpon, etc., are called social bookmarking sites where we bookmark the news, articles, videos or anything that we like on the Internet. These bookmarks are then shared with other users. Any user of a social bookmarking site can see your bookmarked articles, if you have set the status of the bookmark to public. This is a great tool to make an announcement about the recent updates.

Micro-blogging tools

Twitter, identi.ca, plurk, status update of Facebook, MySpace and Orkut, etc., fall in this category. A website like twitter allows you to use 140 characters to say what you want to say. You have to be very judicious in using each character because this is all you get.

Micro-blogging sites are a crossover between a social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, and social bookmarking sites like digg, del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon. These websites can be very useful in making announcements.

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