Can I ask you a question?
What do you plan on doing after publishing your first blog post?
Most new bloggers believe that focusing all their energy on writing great articles is the way to go.
Wrong!
While writing great content is a must to become a successful blogger, you need to allocate most of your time to getting eyes on said content.
What’s the point of spending an entire day writing the greatest article known to mankind if no one is going to read it?
In fact, you should only spend 20% of your time writing, and 80% getting people to read what you wrote.
But how, you ask?
In this post, I will walk you through the 9 steps you should take after publishing your first blog post.
Following these after-publish steps will ensure that your first blog post goes from an isolated wasteland, to a trendy tourist attraction.
Ready?
Great, let’s get going.
#1. Persuade Influencers to spread the word
Starting out, your blog will have one set of eyes on it: Yours!
Therefore, it is your responsibility to get as many eyes as possible to it.
Reaching out to influencers should be the first thing you focus on after publishing your first blog post.
You might be thinking… What is an influencer and how can I find them?
I could give you my definition of what an influencer is, but in the words of the great Jessica Klenner from blogfoster’s academy:
“Influencers are bloggers and social media users with a strong following and high engagement rate. Characterized by a fanbase of loyal followers, influencers provide trusted opinions and followers take action based on their recommendations. Having mastered the art of managing multiple channels and communities, the term ‘influencer’ has been adopted to describe these ‘stars’ of social media.”
Get my drift?
Getting just one influencer to share your first blog post on social media can be the difference between a couple of views vs a few hundred, or even thousands!
Every niche has its own influencers, it is your prerogative to find and contact them.
Below are three influencers I will reach out to in hopes of having them share this post with their followers:
Neil Patel is the Brad Pitt of online marketing.
He is at the top of mount Everest.
He is the mastermind behind NeilPatel.com and QuickSprout.com. Two of the most popular online marketing blogs.
Just like Brad Pitt; some people love him and some people hate him, but no one can deny the success he has achieved.
Getting a shout out from Neil, guarantees an exorbitant amount of views.
Harsh Agrawal is the man behind ShoutMeLoud.com, a website focused on helping its readers make money blogging.
Today, ShoutMeLoud reaches over 1 million people each month.
Through the growth of his website, Agrawal has also become a highly sought after speaker by companies around the world.
Can you say influencer?
Jessica and her cat Larry have been helping businesses succeed online since 2006.
Her website, BloggingBasic101, is an internationally recognized site that provides tips and instructions for beginning and intermediate bloggers.
Her writing has been featured on well-known sites such as Mashable, Huffington Post, and Smashingmagazine.
BloggingBasic101 is read by over 300 thousand people a month.
Think she can help get eyes on this post?
Remember… not all influencers will share your blog post.
Contact as many influencers as possible and don’t take it personal if they don’t respond.
I will contact 50+ influencers about this blog post and would be ecstatic if only one shared it with their followers.
Don’t get me wrong, that is not the goal but remember…
One influencer sharing your first blog post can be the difference between no views and thousands of views.
Now the question becomes: How do you find these influencers?
Fret not, I got you covered.
Head over to Buzzsumo and search for your blog topic.
Hit Go!
Here you will see your search results:
Click on the Influencers tab at the top.
Click search once again. This will show you a list of the top influencers who share content related to your topic.
Don’t be shy!
Reach out to every individual showing up on your list.
NOTE: Buzzsumo allows you five searches a day and only shows you the top 10 results. To get unlimited results/searches you must pay a minimum of $79 per month.
That’s a steep price to pay for most first time bloggers.
Use their 7-day free trial to search for as many niche-related keywords and find as many influencers as you can.
Once your free trial ends. You can pay up or use my favorite FREE way of finding influencers…
Google!
Google is my go-to site for researching blog topics that I am planning to write about.
Heck, it is my go-to site for researching everything.
Finding influencers using Google will require a little more work than Buzzsumo, but it’s free and will provide you with more diverse results.
Here are the simple steps to using Google to find influencers in your niche.
- Go to Google.com and search for your blog topic, niche, or keyword.
Google will now provide you with the most popular results.
Rest assured that anything on the 1st page is getting plenty of views.
- Review the results and click on the most relevant results.
Google does an excellent job providing relevant results, but sometimes your results might return articles from sites such as Wikipedia.com which you have no reason to contact.
- Read the information on the websites and blogs you are taken to and find out who wrote those articles.
Most people will provide a name or a way to contact them somewhere on their site.
Find out the best way to contact that person and send them a quick message letting them know you are a fan and making them aware of the awesome blog post you just published.
Use your imagination!!!
Influencers are everywhere.
I don’t just use Buzzsumo and Google to find influencers. Sometimes I look for them on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, local business gatherings, etc.
Only you can make the decision as to how far you are willing to go to get influencers to share your blog posts.
#2. Create a Social Media Blitz
There are 4.2 billion internet users around the world.
Guess how many are active social media users?
3.397 Billion!
Wouldn’t you like to have a piece of that pie?
I am of the belief that you should master one social media platform, instead of focusing on all of them, but that’s a topic for a future blog post.
For now, I want you to go to your social media profiles and share your first blog post with all of your friends.
No matter how big or small your reach is, do not underestimate the power of sharing your first post on social media.
Share your post multiple times and continue sharing it over time.
Remember… everyone is not online all the time.
Share and re-share your post over a period of time to get the most bang for your efforts.
Here are some ideas for what to share on your social media profiles:
- Headline and different variations of it
- Memorable quotes or excerpts from your post
- Images from your post
- Tag or mention an influencer who you featured in your post
Do this on every social media platform you are part of.
#3. Scavenge for Great Backlinks
Backlinks are like friends. They connect you to others.
The more popular your friends are, the larger potential audience you can reach.
Backlinks are one of the major ways Google decides who is worthy of showing up in their first page results.
Put another way: The more relevant and popular the backlinks to your blog post are, the better chances it has of reaching the masses through Google.
Keep in mind, that not all links are good. In order for this to work, the links must be relevant to your blog post.
How can you find potential relevant links?
Google phrases like:
- “[your blog post topic] links”
- “[your blog post topic] tips”
- “[your blog post topic] resources”
- “[your blog post topic] ways”
- “[your blog post topic] how to”
- “[your blog post topic] guide”
From the results, create a list of blogs you wish to visit and find the contact info of the people in charge.
Next, send them an e-mail explaining that you enjoyed reading their post and that you wrote a similar one. Tell them you would love to get their feedback and if you get a positive response, ask whether they’d consider adding a link to your post.
Expect to receive a 5-10% success rate for your efforts.
Don’t get discouraged if your initial success rates are lower than that.
A few good links can make the difference between never being seen on page 10, and being the star attraction of page one.
#4. E-Mail Everyone you Know
Even though, it might seem that way, not everyone is using social media. Therefore, it is essential that you e-mail everyone you know in order to reach your largest audience.
Now… be careful not to e-mail your boss during work hours to talk about your first blog post.
Aside from e-mailing, you can also let everyone you come in contact with on a face-to-face basis know about your newest blog post.
Don’t be ashamed of sharing your work with others.
You never know who, among the people you come in contact with on a daily basis, will find your post interesting enough to share with their extended network.
Share! Share! Share!
Once finished… Share some more!
#5. Answer Related Questions on Quora
Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered, edited, and organized by its community of users.
Quora boasts a monthly user base of over 300 million active members.
Think you can use some of that?
Visit Quora.com and search for questions related to your first blog post.
See the related questions people are asking around your topic and answer the ones you feel most comfortable answering.
The key to Quora is to make your answers as helpful and informative as possible. Just dropping a link to your blog post won’t do the trick.
Why?
Glad you asked…
Quora uses a voting process to display the best answers at the top. Therefore, if you just drop a link to your blog post which no one is interested in, your answer will be down voted and therefore deemed irrelevant.
Do place a link to your article within your answer to provide readers with a more in-depth answer to their questions on said topic.
#6. Post to Aggregator Sites
Content aggregator sites don’t produce content. Instead, they collect content from websites all over the internet and “aggregate” it into one location.
Readers of aggregator sites visit them because they indulge on a variety of content in one spot.
How does that benefit you?
The best aggregator websites are respectful of the content you provide them with and link out to you as the original source.
Think of it as window shopping… you don’t go into the store unless you like what you see from the outside.
Below are my favorite aggregator sites:
- Reddit
- By far the largest aggregator site around the globe.
- Digg
- One of the largest news aggregator sites around the world.
- Alltop
- Popular news aggregator on all topics
- Popurls
- Another very popular news aggregator on all topics
- Techmeme
- Probably the best technology news aggregator around.
- Travel Blogger Community
- Great for travel bloggers. This community brings together travel bloggers from around the world.
To submit to your first blog post to any of the above mentioned aggregator sites go to Google and do the following search:
- “[Aggregator site name] submit”
The top results should guide you on how to submit your post.
Don’t spend too much time on this step. It’s the only one on this list that I would only recommend doing for your first blog post.
Remember, we are trying to get as many eyeballs as possible to your first blog post.
There is no harm on doing this for every blog post you publish.
However, if you are short on time, it’s better to focus on the other steps for future posts.
#7. Respond to Every Comment
Now that you have finished reaching out to influencers, blitzed social media, scavenged for backlinks, emailed the world, answered questions on Quora, and submitted your first blog post to the best aggregator sites….
It’s time to interact with your new fans!
This can be nerve wracking, but if all the above steps are done correctly, you are bound to get a lot of eyeballs on your first blog post.
Some of which will decide to leave comments on your blog or maybe even reach out to you on social media.
Do yourself a favor….
Engage with your readers by answering and thanking them for every comment you receive.
Everyone loves to be acknowledged and your new fans will appreciate you noticing them.
Done properly, you can expect most to continue being valuable members of your blog.
#8. Comment on Other People’s Blog
Did you follow every step in this blog post up to this point?
If so…
- You already know who the influencers are in your niche.
- You have accumulated a list of relevant blogs to your specific blog post.
Now let’s use that information to leave comments on other people’s blog.
Why you might ask?
The most important reason is that people in your niche will start noticing you even if they never visit your blog.
People are curious, if they see you somewhere providing useful information they will want to know more about you.
… And guess what?
Most blogs allow you to provide a name and/or link with each comment you leave. Therefore it won’t be hard for curious Joe to find you.
#9. Remind Yourself to Refresh Constantly
Google takes into account the “freshness” of your content. Therefore, it is essential that you keep it fresh.
Update your first blog post with new information on a regular basis.
This will ensure that your post keeps providing the best information to your readers, and boost your chances of keeping or exceeding your Google rank on said topic for years to come.
So set yourself a reminder to go check on your post after a year and see if it warrants refreshment.
Below are some ideas on how to refresh your post:
- Revise outdated information.
- Add new tips… for this article, maybe a new social media platform takes over the world which I can discuss in details.
- Verify that all links still work and if not, remove or add a new one.
- Add or update images, screenshots, graphs, etc.
- Revisit comments section to see if there are unanswered questions.
Give Your First Post the Best Chance to Shine
Don’t think your work is finished once you click “publish.”
What you do once your first post is published is more important than what you do before.
Taking your foot off the gas can mean that all the effort put forth writing your first blog post goes to waste.
So instead of focusing on cranking out the next post, spend some time on the above tasks to make sure your post reaches its targeted audience.
Follow these steps every time you publish a new post, but especially for your first blog post as it is possibly the most important one you will ever write.
Don’t neglect old posts. Remember to keep updating them.
And before you know it, you’ll see your fan base grow to the point where you can start making money from blogging.
