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How to Market Your Blog

Whether you really love writing, or you’re just passionate about a particular issue, many students like you are inspired to start a blog while still in high school. Over time, blogs have expanded from just being on a handful of common platforms to taking up a huge presence on social media as well. But, no matter how many Instagram accounts you start for your blogs, it can’t function if each of them have just 2 followers. Plus, you want your blog to look good in your college applications! Boasting impressive quantifiable data such as audience numbers or views or likes per post definitely helps show your impact. So, it doesn’t matter whether you run a recipe blog or a film blog - you’re here because you’re wondering about how to market your blog.

It may seem like you’ve got a long journey ahead of you and this can lead to a lot of questions. When do you begin? What should your first post be? How do you gain followers? Take it one step at a time. To help guide you through the process that hopefully results in your site gaining  followers and boosting your file during the college admission process, I have provided 10 tips on how to market your blog. 

Make Sure You Have a Niche Topic

Don’t wait until senior fall to start your blog - it might not grow fast enough to gain you a following by the time your applications are due. Ideally, formulate a plan early in your high school career, around 9th or 10th grade so that you can build a steady and loyal audience. 

Before you get too deep into reaching out to followers, you should first sit down with a notebook and a pen - or a Word document - and hatch an outline of what your posts will cover. To attract a faithful group of readers, your blog shouldn’t just tackle random issues that have seemingly no connection to each other. The best approach to a blog that captivates people and leaves them wanting more is to make sure you follow a theme. What are you passionate about? Do you want it to have a connection with the rest of your college application? Make sure your topic isn’t extremely broad - instead of having a generic blog on music, a site on female vocalists or the evolution of pop music over the years would make more sense and be easier to manage. Conduct research and see what has been done already so that your blogs will turn more heads.

Once you know what you’re writing and talking about, it’s time to think about how to market your blog in the initial stages. It’s important to start off strong - so hook your readers with a powerful introductory post. This can include who you are, what you love about the topic, and different ways in which your blog will discuss it. 

Check Your Formatting 

Another step to take before actually reaching the stages of publicizing your content is to make sure that your blog stands strong in terms of readability and is marketable in the first place. Pick a visually pleasant color scheme that you want your posts to have and stick to it. Take advantage of images - there’s no need to clump a lot of text together. Make graphics and charts, use GIFs, link to relevant videos. People will definitely appreciate a multimedia experience. For example, if you’re talking about a particular song or film, it can help to have a clip that emphasizes your argument so that people know what you’re talking about and understand the point you’re trying to make.

Other things to keep in mind would be the size of text - if people can’t read what you’ve written then all your effort will have been in vain! Use a readable serif font such as Garamond, Times New Roman, or Palatino, rather than more quirky fonts such as Comic Sans or Papyrus. 

Take Advantage of Social Media

Now we get to the actual marketing part. The quickest way to spread the word out there about your page is to use tools that you already are familiar with - your social media accounts! You might be used to posting on Facebook or Instagram for personal reasons - to connect with friends and family members, but now it’s time to make separate accounts for your topic blog - and then use your personal blog to promote it! Below, I’ve outlined how to use three of the most popular apps, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when thinking about how to market your blog. 

• Facebook - Facebook is arguably the biggest social media platform in the world and it’s the one where you’re likely to have the most access to different kinds of people. You should definitely make a post that lets your family and friends know about your blog - and make the post public so that they can share with their friend list. You can also take advantage of Facebook groups, which makes generating topic-centered promotions much easier than on other platforms. Find groups that discuss topics relevant to your blog, and outline in a post what you’re hoping to do and how you’ll be different. You might meet a lot of other similar content creators through these groups and they can help promote your work as well! (More on that shortly.)
• Twitter - Twitter might take you longer to figure out, but this site is helpful when it comes to getting your audience’s attention in a matter of just a few characters. If people don’t have a lot of time to read, you can summarize an article on your site for them, then include the link in the tweet, and Twitter users can bookmark it to read later. When you have a new post, you can also pin it to your profile so that more people can easily view it. Twitter is also great because you can easily see what topics are trending on the app, and curate your latest blog posts to suit those so that you get more engagement. A retweet from a big account can make a lot of difference!
• Instagram - When it comes to how to market your blog, one of the easiest ways to reach people who might be interested is to integrate the use of hashtags. Each industry comes with a series of hashtags that are probably necessary if you want to make your mark on the applicable Instagram scene, such as “#foodphotography” for your eats or “#ootd” for fashion posts. Not using at least a few hashtags will lead you to missing out on potential followers. So, as you post content and link it to your blog (you can include this in your bio), capitalize on those hashtags. Instagram also allows you to share new posts to your stories so that your followers can know when you’ve posted something. You should also follow other accounts that are like yours so that they are more likely to follow you back.

Together, utilizing these three social media sites not only supports your blog marketing, but also slowly builds your brand. The more your target audience starts to see your posts appear on their feed, the more they’ll familiarize themselves with you, and the more likely you are to gain website clicks!

Build Relationships with Similar Content Creators

One of the most effective methods when it comes to how to market your blog is to seek help from other already established creators in your fandom or field. This can include a content exchange - you might write a guest post for a different blog and vice versa. Writing for another site can help your views reach a different audience that isn’t aware of your blog yet - especially if the other blog has a lot more viewers.

You also don’t have to limit your exchanges to other blogs. If you know podcast hosts, YouTubers or Instagram influencers, these can also be people who feature you. If there’s a popular podcast that covers the same or a topic related to your blog, see whether you can be a guest on it. Utilizing your connections with people who appreciate the same topics but have an established audience can help you gain quick exposure. Don’t forget to plug your own blog with your social media handles when you write or speak on another platform!

Reach Out to Family and Friends

Alongside asking your loved ones to share your social media posts, you can also seek offline help from family and friends as you think about ways of gaining traffic and followers for your blog. You might know someone who works in an industry similar to the one your blog covers, and they can help connect you to professionals in the area. There could also be a relative or family friend who may want to sponsor your content or give you a shout out on their platform. People who know you can ask their communities and networks to check out your blog or connect you with others who can help you promote your content. Word of mouth is a powerful element, so don’t underestimate it!

Make a LinkedIn Account

High school might seem early for most students to start a LinkedIn account but when you’re trying to learn how to market your blog, pulling out all the stops doesn’t hurt. LinkedIn is a wonderful resource for grouping people by where they went to school, which industry they work in, what kind of job they hold, etc. If you’re trying to narrow down your audience - or meet people who live near you or work in a particular field - making an account can help you connect with them. You might look for content exchange, or you may just benefit from their guidance and tips.

You can also make public posts on LinkedIn, which allows you to detail what each of your blog entries are about and use hashtags to make sure the right people find them. You never know who may stumble on these or finds your work helpful. Plus, this can become another channel that makes way for more website clicks and increased traffic for you.

Create an Email List

Alongside following you on Twitter or Instagram, another way you can keep your followers/readers up to date with fresh content is by sending them regular emails or newsletters. When you create your blog through a platform such as WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr, make sure there’s a form where visitors can put in their name and contact information so that they can subscribe to updates from you. Don’t bombard them with emails everyday - you can make monthly digests or emails that include new posts, cover the latest news surrounding the topic of your blog, and any other relevant facts. 

As you send your blog posts, make sure that your email automation tool (such as Mailchimp) allows for social shares directly from the email. This way, your readers can post about a blog that they like on their own social media platform. And don’t forget to link each of your blog posts that you talk about, alongside your social media links in each email so that your subscribers can follow you on those!

Answer Questions in Forums

Since you hold a formative opinion and have developed an expertise on topics that you discuss in your blog, you can convey your knowledge by contributing in forums. Sites such as Quora allow people to ask different questions on various issues. Reddit is another platform which has “subreddits” on different niche topics where you can scout for queries you can help people with and generate traffic for your site. 

These help with how to market your blog because when you answer a question that someone asks, you can include a link to a blog post that elaborates on the answer. This will increase website clicks - and hopefully gain you some more followers. Make sure that you word your answer carefully, demonstrating how much you know, so that the readers are genuinely impressed, and curious to know more about what you have to offer.

Attend In-Person Events

The best methodology for how to market your blog lies in the connections that you make. Over weekends, the summer, and spring breaks, look out for conferences you can attend, such as TedX Youth, where you can apply to speak! If you don’t want to present yourself, you can still attend as an audience member and meet people who explore topics similar to what you tackle in your blog. Attending such events not only allows you to meet others, but you’ll be able to actually speak about your blog and what you’re trying to achieve with others who have similar interests. 

Post Regularly and Keep Up Follower Interest

Finally, one of the most important parts of having a blog is maintaining the momentum. Don’t give up after a couple of posts if you see that you haven’t gotten any new followers or likes. If someone stumbles upon your blog and finds it interesting, only to discover that the latest post is three months old, you’re going to lose out on a potential follower! As you gain early followers, make sure you keep the content going. And of course, reader feedback matters - Interact with people to see what they like, dislike, and want to see more of from your page. 

As you continue thinking about how to market your blog, remember that your site may not grow dramatically in a day - and that’s okay. Most blogs and successful platforms often have slow starts and take time to reach their full potential. What’s important is that you don’t give up and continue creating content. And don’t forget about making connections, social media promotion, and reaching out to anyone who you think may appreciate your work. Once you’ve established a following and hopefully start racking up hundreds of views per post, your blog can hold an impressive spot in your Common App activities list. Good luck!