Promote Your Blog
Well, you've joined the others and have created a blog. It
is time to tell the world about your online journal. Most blog
services generate an RSS feed. If your blogging software does not
create an RSS feed, consider using software like FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com to create an RSS feed. Like blogs, RSS
is growing in popularity and is a great way to spread the word about
a new blog.
Syndication is conceptually simple. It allows
publishers to distribute content that can be displayed in another
location or context. Using RSS, publishers are able to easily create
and disseminate content feeds that include news headlines, blog
summaries and related links. RSS is the defined syndication standard
that has become mainstream. All types of information are now
available in a syndicated format.
1. Blog Submissions / RSS Submissions
There are a number of blog directories and blog search engines
where you can submit your blog. A large list of sites allowing blog
submission and RSS feed submissions can be found in the left column
at:
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
Similarly, there are RSS feed directories and search
engines like
http://www.rss-network.com . Be sure to submit the URL of your
RSS feeds to the RSS search engines listed on the RSS specifications
website.
If you wish to automate your blog and RSS
submissions consider using Dummy Software's Blog and RSS Submit
Software
http://www.dummysoftware.com .
Like a website, its important to select the
appropriate category for your blog. Use a clear title that contains
descriptive details but is not excessively long. The Blog
description should further expand on the purpose and general theme
of the blog. Incorporate important keywords related to the blog's
theme in both the title and description. This will help bring
targeted traffic that is genuinely interested in the contents of the
blog.
2. Post Press Releases to Online Resources
Write a press release announcing your blog to the world. Keep it
factual and submit the release to the free press release
directories. This will provide incoming links to the new blog and
get it started on its way to popularity. There are a number that
allow for press release posting free of charge. The releases on
these sites are occasionally picked up by publications looking for
information or filler content. Another side-benefit to these
listings is increased link popularity, which helps with search
engine ranking. A list of sites that allow for press release posting
can be found under 'press release posting' . A number are available
at
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/pressreleases.html
3. Post Announcement on Usenet
A number of Usenet groups allow for posting of announcements or
press releases. Most of the announce groups in Usenet contain 'ann.'
in the domain address. If your blog is focused on a specific topic,
search Usenet newsgroups. To locate topic-specific announce groups,
consider searching
http://www.newsguy.com to locate groups specific to related
topics.
4. Post to Forums
Forums also contain sections in which you can post announcements. If
the application is a niche product, consider searching for
topic-specific forums in addition to the general software announce
forums listed below. Be sure to post any announcements in the
appropriately marked 'announce forum' . The following are related
blog forums, some of which allow for posts.
Favorite Feeds -
http://www.feedforall.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
Your Blog Announcements -
http://www.forum4bloggers.com/viewforum.php?f=12
Got Blog -
http://www.blogomania.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=7
Announce Software, Blogs or Relationships -
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5
5. Promote & Auto Detect Blog Feeds
It has become a standard that nearly all websites that have RSS
feeds available use colorful graphics to indicate the presence of an
RSS feed. The graphics were initially bright orange rectangles, but
as the popularity has grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit.
NotePage has made a free online RSS graphic tool available that
allows users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text on
the button and the color scheme of the button. Once the color and
text is entered, a custom graphic is instantly created. Webmasters
can easily match the style of the RSS button to a website's theme.
Graphics experience is not required. Simply select alternative
colors and insert text to personalize RSS feed graphics. The RSS
graphics tool can be used by clicking the following URL
http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm or choose
ready made graphics from:
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-graphics.htm .
Include information in the HTML code of a website so
that RSS Readers automatically detect that an RSS feed exists for
the material contained on the site. Aggregators will automatically
detect RSS on a website if you add a small bit of code in the header
field of an HTML page.
After publishing an RSS feed it is important to let
visitors know that the feed exists. Aggregators will automatically
detect RSS on a website if you add a small bit of code in the header
field of an HTML page. [link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="RSS" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml"]
Be sure to replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml
with the URL to the RSS feed and replace the brackets with "<" (less
than) and ">" (greater than) symbols.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages
marketing for NotePage
http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software
company.
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