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Author Topic: A question about getting exposure  (Read 2596 times)

mike.online

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A question about getting exposure
« on: August 31, 2009, 03:57:19 am »

Hello All,

First let me say that I'm not a big fan of people shouting out about their new blogs, looking to just steal traffic.

However, I've been running mine for about nine months now and I wanted to discuss what people do to get exposure. So far I have a decent base of family, friends and the related parties that are covered, about 150 visits a month (using google analytics).

While my blog started slow I'm been traveling in Europe and Africa for quite some time now (about 3.5 months), and I am now settled into a job in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which allows me to travel within the country a fair bit. Hence I have been adding a decent amount of content and will continue to do so (four more are written, just getting a friend to upload them as blogger is blocked here).

So, now to my point. I think that more people might be interested in reading the blog, but I'm struggling to figure out how to break beyond my own social network. With a million blogs (or more) out there on the net how do you access a larger audience without being a nuisance? Naturally you need to have solid content and be able to communicate it well, but then what?

I appreciate any ideas of comments,
- Michael Martin
(blog link in signature)

ErikKaffehr

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A question about getting exposure
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2009, 04:08:39 am »

Hi,

If you have interesting articles in your blog you can just post a link on this forum, at DPReview or any relevant forums.
Registering with google helps, but I don't know how...

Best regards
Erik


Quote from: mike.online
Hello All,

First let me say that I'm not a big fan of people shouting out about their new blogs, looking to just steal traffic.

However, I've been running mine for about nine months now and I wanted to discuss what people do to get exposure. So far I have a decent base of family, friends and the related parties that are covered, about 150 visits a month (using google analytics).

While my blog started slow I'm been traveling in Europe and Africa for quite some time now (about 3.5 months), and I am now settled into a job in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which allows me to travel within the country a fair bit. Hence I have been adding a decent amount of content and will continue to do so (four more are written, just getting a friend to upload them as blogger is blocked here).

So, now to my point. I think that more people might be interested in reading the blog, but I'm struggling to figure out how to break beyond my own social network. With a million blogs (or more) out there on the net how do you access a larger audience without being a nuisance? Naturally you need to have solid content and be able to communicate it well, but then what?

I appreciate any ideas of comments,
- Michael Martin
(blog link in signature)
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Erik Kaffehr
 

Justan

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A question about getting exposure
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2009, 10:32:53 am »

Contact some local news papers and see if they want you to blog for them. I do that and it helps bring people to my web site.

feppe

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A question about getting exposure
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2009, 11:11:43 am »

The sure-fire way to get search engine traffic is to write about interesting subjects. Google some SEO (search engine optimization) articles, especially written by google themselves, and apply. Some bloggers claim that being part of typepad or another such site helps with getting linked through tags and backlinks, but I'm not that familiar with it.

Another good way is to get involved in the online community you target. If you write about Africa, I'm sure there are numerous forums and sites with African travel, human interest, environmental, etc. themes.

You don't have to spam or link to your site every chance you get - I'm just as annoyed as everyone else about that kind of behavior. Then again, more aggressive marketing might be prudent especially if you plan to make money from blogging.

edit: took a quick look at your blog. Nice photos! Two suggestions:

  • Include tags, such as [location], [agriculture] etc. This makes it easier for search engines to categorize your posts, and for people to find content that's relevant for them
  • Split the posts with "click for more." Now you have each long post on the front page - it's generally better to have a paragraph or two of introduction (and a photo), so people can read it to see if they'd like to read further. If not, they'll check out the next post. Also, you have no way of telling which ones are the most attractive through click rates.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2009, 11:31:32 am by feppe »
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mike.online

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A question about getting exposure
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2009, 12:54:19 pm »

Quote from: feppe
edit: took a quick look at your blog. Nice photos! Two suggestions:

  • Include tags, such as [location], [agriculture] etc. This makes it easier for search engines to categorize your posts, and for people to find content that's relevant for them
  • Split the posts with "click for more." Now you have each long post on the front page - it's generally better to have a paragraph or two of introduction (and a photo), so people can read it to see if they'd like to read further. If not, they'll check out the next post. Also, you have no way of telling which ones are the most attractive through click rates.

Thanks, I'm going to look into that for sure, I'm sure that there is a way to do it within blogger, but I'm not quite sure how. As for tags, I've been trying to put them in but often I forget.

Also thanks to the other posters suggestions, I might try to see if a newspaper back in Canada wants to publicize any of this, who knows?

cheers,
- Mike
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