Promotion, promotion, promotion

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Quillen on February 3, 2012 at 3:40pm

I've been blogging for almost 2 years (it will be 2 years in March) and you know, it's a slow start...I try to just write really great content and network, network, network! 

I gave up on Google noticing me, it was just too frustrating. Just make sure you use an SEO plugin to help you optimize your search result rankings!

Permalink Reply by Diana on February 3, 2012 at 5:18pm

Your site is so nice! You've only been at it for 5 weeks?  Wow - that is a lot!  I've also only been at it since the New Year, too, but I'm completely clueless about getting it out there as well.  Thanks for posting this question -- I love to learn what tips people have.  

Diana

www.justwanderlustblog.com

Permalink Reply by Juliet on February 3, 2012 at 5:53pm

Thanks Jennifer and Diana.  What SEO plugin do you use?  Do you recommend it?

Permalink Reply by federico on February 3, 2012 at 6:24pm

Well, IMO you are going to need a good dose of patience. At 5 weeks you have good things happening, but it takes a loooong (monthS) time to get things going, unless you have spending money.  Try to write a guest post in popular travel blogs to get your name out there (Emily from Maiden Voyage is accepting them, so do Craig and Linda from indietravelpodcast.com...and me too, maitravelsite.com) and then tell your readers that you have published an article as a guest author in such blog , connect via Facebook (there is a great group for Travel Bloggers) with fellow bloggers, etc. As for Google, it took me 4 weeks to get noticed- a way to shorten this is to get a links page and exchange links with other travel blogs that are already indexed. When Google's spyders crawl these sites, they will pick up your link, navigate to it and index it too.

Hope this helps!

Federico

Permalink Reply by Juliet on February 3, 2012 at 9:21pm

Thanks Federico.  I will start working through your suggestions ASAP.

Permalink Reply by federico on February 3, 2012 at 9:56pm

You're welcome Julliet! Hope these ideas have at least helped you out a bit :)

Federico

Permalink Reply by Travel Blogger on February 3, 2012 at 10:51pm

Juliet,  A couple of things:

- You are expecting way to much out of Google.  It could take G 6-12 months to get you into their index.

- You may have brought on alot of content way to fast.  G may see your site as a Spammer.  Sites that have quailty content usually take years to build up.  When they see a big blast of pages I think G gets concerned.

- I don't see a link on your home page to a Site Map.  A required element.

- SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a critical skill.  Having a page title of "Lazy Summer Vacation" will get you zero traffic.  Learn the basics of SEO: http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo .  Also read what Google has to say about it: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer...  don’t miss the links on the right side of this page

- Make sure you are using an outside tool to measure your sites traffic.

Permalink Reply by Juliet on February 4, 2012 at 10:28am

Thanks for all of the feedback.  We have 3 posts scheduled this week, including a guest post.  Monday is our "feature" day as we get hit with the most traffic on Monday mornings -- guess the office workers don't want to start yet.  Is that too frequently?

Site Maps are confusing me.  We use the XML Site Map plugin.  Is this what you mean?  How do I link to it?

We also use the SEO All in One Pack plugin.  I will read the suggested articles about Titles -- I thought keywords were more important?

We use both Google Analytics and Statcounter to log our site traffic.  We also glance at Alexa occasionally.

Exhale...  Well, you've given me plenty to do today.  :o)

Lane

Permalink Reply by federico on February 4, 2012 at 1:28am

I´d like to follow up on the comments by Travel Blogger...

 

In my experience ( I have other websites and create them on a regular basis) it doen not take me more than 3 weeks to have a site indexed by Google. If it takes 6-12 months something is very wrong.

About the content, could be, but there are many blogs that post 1 article per day (problogger) , sometimes more. Have you exceeded this by far?

 

Yup, site maps do help. You might want to use the Google XML sitemap plugin which will create and submit one to Google automatically.

 

SEO is important, but it is more important to write good content that others like. You're probably sick of hearing the phrase "content is king"....but it is true, thought not the only element to pay attention to.  It is true though that a post with that name will not drive much traffic at the beginning- it's OK when you have a bunch of followers, but till then try to surprise, engage or teach readers, and then they will come back for more.

 

One final suggestion: don´t overdue it. If you don't have money for advertising (which would only make sense to spend if you had something to sell) it will take time for your blog to grow, and you´ll burn yourself way before it  happens.  Write posts, share pictures, spend some time with it... but don't live for it! It took me a while to learn this, but it makes life much easier.

 

Oh, and something else! If you have good pictures make sure you join the latest Social Media craze, Pinterest. Some say that it will overtake Stumble Upon very soon.  Every travel blogger you can think of is there already... I recentl set up my account but still have to get myself to actually using it (note to self: do this tomorrow).

 

Have fun!

Permalink Reply by Juliet on February 4, 2012 at 10:32am

Thanks again, Federico.

Some of your suggestions were addressed in our reply to Travel Blogger.  We're adhering to the "content is king" idea.  We have an in-house writer that's previously published.  She polishes articles until they sparkle. 

We are already on Stumbleupon, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Google+.  We've signed up for Pinterest but a glitch is holding back our progress on "pinning".  I believe its still in beta stage and has a lot of kinks to be worked out before we devote more time to it.

Thanks,

Lane

Permalink Reply by Travel Blogger on February 6, 2012 at 7:56pm

Federico, Yes your site may be "indexed" within days, but it could take months of work before your content starts to show on the first page of Google results, a year or more before it makes it above the fold.

Permalink Reply by Ng on February 4, 2012 at 8:04pm

It certainly is hard work.  I try to blog once a day. Many bloggers get bored with themselves so how is it possible to interest followers. It is almost 2 years now and I am still not satisfied with the hits although many titles get me on first page of Google search. http://wishurhere.wordpress.com/

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