Okay... how do I 'launch' my blog now I think it's ready?

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[Mr V]

Well... pretty ready...

I know I've been loitering around here a while, but I think with 30 plus posts and various bits and pieces my blog is probably ready to be officially 'launched', or at least put out there for others to start seriously thinking about looking at. My question to all of you who have been at it somewhat longer and with more success than yours truly is... how do I go about doing this?

I've got this MyBogLog thing running... and it's telling me about 4-6 people are wandering through each day (although everyone's given it a wide berth today... maybe my ISP smells...), but I'm probably not using or looking at it properly.

I'm vaguely aware the Stumble Upon seems to be beneficial to getting some sort of exposure, but I don't think I know much more about it than I can submit it myself but that just seems a little lame and highly egocentric.

I've managed to work out Technorati tags, and have started linking posts to other posts and what not.

That may well be all there is to it and I've just put boring crap on there , but you lot probably have more of an inside idea on the workings of the blog community.

So... what's the story? What am I doing right, what am I doing wrong, and what am I not doing at all that Blind Freddy can see that I should?



And then I'll leave you all alone for a while, eh?

[Kelley]

While I am no expert, and others would probably say different, I say get out there and start commenting on other blogs.

That is what I did.  I just wrote for myself and commented on other blogs.  If they found my comment amusing or helpful or whatever they would pop on over to see who I was.

And my readership grew from there. 

Read blogs from the niche your blog is in and comment comment comment!  Bloggers love commenters.

HTH

[Mistress B]

Pretty much what Kelley said.

Announce it on any forums/communities you are part of then just get out there and mingle.

[FormerAdmin]

Pretty much what Kelley said.

Announce it on any forums/communities you are part of then just get out there and mingle.

Yep, what Kel and Bettina said

Twitterpimp the odd post, Digg a few, coRank some, email some friends and let them know the new blog is up. Leave meaningful comments, offer advice, react to positive (and negative) feedback, thank every commenter, work it, baby, work it

I would add that joining new social networks purely to promote a new blog is considered by many to be bad form. But if you are already part of a community, use it as much as you can without annoying people

Put in the work and the numbers will grow.

Cheers, Andrew

PS: I would also add "make it easy for people to subscribe" - a big RSS button and feedburner-managed subscriptions are a good thing.

[FormerAdmin]

I forgot to promote my own blogs in the process, doh

Flagship Blog Project: Week 4 Maintenance and Transition talks about some simple promotion ideas, and Twitterpimping your blog talks about twitterpimping.

Cheers, Andrew

[Mr V]

Heh. Yeah, so it's pretty much what I was expecting... get out there and give it a shake and see if people wander back. Nothing too much more than that. Fair enough.

Finding the niche... struth, have I heard that before! Seems when I go looking for this niche all I find are blogs about homeschooling or autistic kids! Have to search deeper, eh?

And what's Digg and coRank? I'm guessing the first is like Stumble Upon, yes?


Cheers, people. Thanks.

[Evan]

Titles.

The titles of posts are important.  I've found that to put in a number helps.  So if I have a number of points I'll often put the number in the headline.  Six ways to . . . or five reasons to . . . whatever.

But as you will see from Technorati my blog is far from the most popular in the world.

As to niches, there is much confusion perpetrated.  Niches are not markets.  Niches exist in people's heads.  Thus there is car market and a niche for mini's, beetles and so on.  Defining a niche means that people think of you when they think of some slot in their head.  This needn't be particularly brilliant - Virgin is something vague like fun and youthful and I'm not sure anyone knows what Coca-Cola's is, but they both seem to be doing fine.  There are several books (well really one book several times) on this by Al Reis and with his daughter Laura Reis.  Building this takes time and (as the Reis say) is more PR than marketing and different to sales.

If you can offer a free report with good value this should work to.  But, for me at least, it does need to be of value.  However, if you know what you are blogging about this should be easy if you have a topical blog.  If it is a more personal or newsy blog this probably won't work.

Hope this gives you some more ideas.

[FormerAdmin]

Heh. Yeah, so it's pretty much what I was expecting... get out there and give it a shake and see if people wander back. Nothing too much more than that. Fair enough.

Finding the niche... struth, have I heard that before! Seems when I go looking for this niche all I find are blogs about homeschooling or autistic kids! Have to search deeper, eh?

And what's Digg and coRank? I'm guessing the first is like Stumble Upon, yes?


Cheers, people. Thanks.

Hi,

Niche is, well, niche. I think it is vital, others don't. I've written a heap on it - operating within your niche, adding value to your niche, and finding your logical blog niche - logically.

Digg is like StumbleUpon but way bigger. coRank is a smaller, more intimate community, where it is still possible to form relationships with people you didn't know before you joined.

Hope this helps

Cheers, Andrew

[John Lampard]

I once threw a launch party

[Mistress B]

that works too

[Meg]

You can search blogcatalog to look for "education and Australia". Not perfect, but there could be a few that are relevant.

So too on technorati.

[Sueblimely]

Although you may talk of  a niche topic that does not mean that the niche 'market' is the same. I blog about blogging but I am not writing for those who blog about blogging but a much wider area. A blog about education could be of interest to educators, parents and students so you could comment far and wide on blogs of those who are educators, parents and students.

Entrecard is bringing a lot of visitors to my site - a lot will not be interested of course but some will - you could get active with Entrecard for a while at least. Every little bit helps. Taking part in relevant blog carnivals may help too. If you do this I would check out a few of the past carnivals and see how popular they are and the quality of the entries.

Personal connections are important as Andrew says - find people you already know on the social networking sites and add them as friends. Check the friends of your existing friends and you may find others you know there. Add the SU browser toolbar and ask SU friends to do some stumbling for you - don't bombard them though. I have heard the blogcatalog groups are quite a good way of getting to know people but have not been active in them myself. Perhaps someone else here has had experience of this? 

I think the blogging community is great - you get to know people and in general they are more than willing to help you promote your site but as with any relationship you have to put something into it too and give something back - commenting on their blogs and helping them with their own blog promotion etc.

[Mr V]

You make some good points there which I should really investigate further, but there are things in there that I've not heard of either. Entrecard? Bit of research to be done there. Carnivals and stuff... might have to go search and see what's around there too.

Personal connections are a tricky one. I tend not to move in internet circles too much, so I've not established a social networking presence, even though I've had another website running four or so years. I've just kept to myself more than most, so that's my error of judgement (well... sorta!) on that behalf. Again, blogcatalog.. something else I'll have to look into to find out what it is.

Until then though, reading other blogs and dropping the odd line will have to do, eh?

Thanks for the extra input - I'd forgotten about this thread!

Cheers.

[Mr V]

Hmm... okay. Well that Entrecard thing seems pretty easy to set up and handle. Got myself an account and a widget thingy now... yep. Seems to be working already. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll see if I can dig into making this work for me now.

Cheers again.

[therinofandor]

I'm a member of several "Star Trek" listservs and online BBS's, so when I started a blog that has frequent "Star Trek" (and "Number 96") mentions, I make a point of dropping my blog's URL into a message response, and I made sure it was in my email and BBS sig.

Similarly, I'm a member of several teacher-librarian listservs, so when I started a blog that is about teacher-librarianship, I drop my new blog's URL into a message response, and made sure it was in my email sig.

From there, building a regular audience is a combination of word-of-mouth, commenting on relevant blogs, and using relevant keywords in posts that people will/may type into Google. I have "Site Meter" on my first blog, and it tells me that I can get between 50 and 70 visitors per day, going down to about 35 (if I've been on holiday and had no access to a computer), and up to about 100 if I blog - even briefly - about something that turns out to be very topical, such as the death of Heath Ledger.

In fact, most of my Google referrals are people looking for photographs on Google Images! No matter how bizarre or ordinary a photo may be, it'll attract visitors. I must pay homage to Australian actress Abigail (Bev Houghton in "Number 96"). The pic of the cover of her now-rare 1970s autobiography, which I won on eBay, attracts lots of casual visitors, as do the Google search terms "Abigail topless 96".

People may be very disappointed when they arrive at my blogs, but at least they do find me. And some make a point of returning to see what I'm up to next.

[Sueblimely]

You already have an internet network through this forum 
Check these posts for info on forum members and their social network addresses - you can add your own name to them and add forum members to your own networks:

Who's who on Stumbleupon
Aussie Bloggers using Entrecard
Your blogs Technorati Profile

I will add you to my networks if you do add your details to these. 

[Gemisht]

Excellent Sueblimely, this is a good reminder for me to add details here as I had forgotten those threads on the Forum.

[Sueblimely]

I have been reading some edu blogs since writing my last post - I tend to get sidetracked from what I am meant to be doing!

Have you come across this site - started in Jan?:

International Edubloggers directory