Where do you find an audience for your blog?

A couple weeks ago over on Biz Tips Blog, I asked about your challenges around creating and managing your online visibility. In addition to the usual issues around staying motivated and finding time, a couple of readers wanted to know how to get in front of their ideal reader (aka prospect/client).

Here are a couple of ways you can do that. Take your pick or implement them all!

1. The first thing I usually suggest to clients is that they do research on blogs in their niche. You can be sure that if a blog already exists then there is probably an audience and they will be fairly targeted for you. I'm presupposing that you've done keyword research and are clear on your niche and who your ideal reader is. You can use a free keyword tool to create a list of your best keywords.

Next find some blogs.  Check out Technorati.com, AllTop.com and Blogs.com to find blogs in your niche. Find 3-5 blogs that resonate with you. Subscribe to them. Read them when they have new content and COMMENT when you have something valuable to add.

This does two things: 1) creates visibility for you on a site that is targeted at your ideal reader and 2) if you content is useful, will drive those readers to your blog to check out what you have to say.

2. Where does your ideal reader hang out? Facebook? Twitter? (I have no doubt that your ideal reader is on twitter so don't ignore this.) Forums? You need to know this in order to hang out with them and that's the key. Be where your reader is.

3. If you're not already on Facebook, join it now. Then, do a search for groups that relate to your ideal reader.

Let's say I'm a weight loss coach and have a blog on the same subject. I might do search on "Weight Watchers" and find a couple of groups to join and then start participating in the discussion.

 

You can "friend" others in the group and get to know them. I would also start my own group and a "fan page" and start inviting people to join. You can feed your blog posts into pages so your blog is getting exposure with your targeted group.

[NOTE: I took a break from writing this post to listen to the keynote by Gary Vaynerchuk for Social Media Success Summit. He spoke directly to what I'm writing about in the context of creating personal brand equity and finding the conversations about your niche. It's the same process as finding people to attract to your blog. When it gets down to it your blog is your home base and that's where you want to drive the traffic.]

The more you connect with the folks who are in your groups, the more likely it is they will be paying attention when it's time to feature a blog post.

4. Twitter. If you're not on twitter, join now.  Use search.twitter.com to search keywords in your niche and find the people who are talking about your topic. Jump in; join the conversation. Follow those people and respond to their questions or contribute to the discussion.

You can also use tweetbeep.com or the alerts feature on tweetlater.com to have emails sent when your keywords are mentioned on twitter.

Make sure your blog posts are being fed into your twitter stream by setting up twitterfeed.com. I'd say about 40-50% of my blog traffic now comes from twitter.

5. Forums. I don't participate much on forums much so I'm directing you to a post on Problogger called Build Your Blog with Forum Traffic.

6. Other social networks. There are gazillions of niche social networks on the Web. Do a search with your key word plus "social network" and see what you get. For example, I put running + social network in the Google search box and several social networks for runners were on the first page of results. If I had a blog about running, I would join those sites and start participating.

The bottom line is that the more you participate ... the more you are helpful ... the more you show you care and want to help people, then the more traffic you will generate back to your blog. And, that traffic will be pretty well targeted and qualified for what you're blogging about. And it takes time, work and perseverance. But this is about your business, right?

If you have proven tactics for getting in front of your ideal reader, I'd love to hear them. Post your ideas and tips in the comments below.

For more tips to attract more blog readers, download my free audio program: How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Blog.

Comments

[sherry]

Yahoo Answer! is another place where you can find your audience. There's a lot of question posted there.Check the question and if you have an answer,then answer it. Put your site link is at the source box is a good way to get a backlink.

[Seoblog Central]

Thanks for the post!!! When you post or promote your blogs in a particular categories in the forums, and make a discussion about it will make a richer promotion than the others. Seoblogcentral.com allows you to share and place the links of your site to promote them.

http://www.seoblogcentral.com

[Denise Wakeman]

Sherry, great suggestions. Which reminds me, you can do the same thing on LinkedIn. Make sure your blog posts are being pulled into LinkedIn so people can get a sense of your content.

Then peruse the Answers area for questions you can answer to demonstrate your expertise.

Do NOT add a link to your blog unless it's highly relevant to what your answering. If you're answer is valuable, people will click through to your profile and explore and find the link to your blog.

[Willy De Castro]

Great content article,

I am always looking for ways to bring content to my blogs and sites.

Commenting on blogs and adding topics of interest is one great way to bring traffic to your site and content to the host blog.

[Josh Auriemma]

I semi-buy the notion that commenting can build traffic/followers, though I think the effect is somewhat less than we'd like to believe.

I think the largest effect is actually building a relationship with an established blog's writers through comments. So maybe I make some genius comment that Denise picks up on and decides to check out my blog and likes it. I think that's the ultimate best case scenario.

[business loans]

the blog must be promoted with SEO, if u wanna get most of it

[Chad]

Great Article! Really helpful!
By the way, take a look at this site: http://www.vismomedia.com and get paid for hosting cool videos in your blogs. If you have another site, please share it to me, I'll be glad to read from you.

[Reverse Mortgage]

Hi,
Just for the sake blog promotion and getting more Goggle Adsen clicks.It will be helpful if you promote your blog by using SEO techniques.

[Health and Happiness 4u]

Thanks Denise .. excellent article like always. Using SEO, and social techniques is a nice combination.

Thx

Jackie
http://www.HealthandHappiness4u.com

[Health and Happiness 4u]

Also article and blogs are awesome for traffic purposes

love, peace and happy eating

www.healthandhappiness4u.con