business blogging %%Archives%% - Denise Wakeman

How to Maintain Visibility with Your Blog Audience [Recommended Reading]

You've probably heard a million times that "the money is in the list." And, it is true. Without a list, it's pretty much impossible to build a community of fans who will invest in your programs and services. While you may have an email list and send out an email newsletter or free ecourse, are you using your blog to build a list a well?

This is a huge mistake I often run into on blogs I review…No way for readers to subscribe to get blog updates by email even though email is still preferred by a big margin over RSS. Based on 14 years experience I recommend that part of your visibility strategy include email and specifically blog updates by email. After all, the goal is to encourage visitors to subscribe, get your updates when new content is posted, return to your blog and eventually take action on your offers. Email is one of the most effective ways to keep you visible to your audience.

There are many services that provide blog to email delivery. My long time favorite is Feedblitz because of the depth of features they offer. My favorite feature is the ability to send an automated welcome email and link to a page to download a gift.

Regardless of what list system you use, setting up an email list, managing it, using it ethically, and promoting it can be confusing and overwhelming. That's why I love Phil Hollows, CEO of Feedblitz. He has just released a detailed, comprehensive ebook called List Building for Bloggers. I had the privilege of reviewing the book and I was blown away by the level of detail Phil goes into around three core strategies:

Building your audience
Increasing engagement with your audience
Growing your income

Here’s what you get:

Ten Power Tips to turn your blog into a rocking-socking, butt-kicking, inbox-busting, fully automated email marketing and subscriber retention system.
Three case studies so you can avoid the mistakes even the Big Guys make (these are really eye-opening!)
Easily actionable tips to grow both list quality and quantity.
Chapters on autoresponders so you can market while you sleep, custom fields for personalization, and how to avoid spam traps.
All in easy to understand plain English!

About once a month I host Brag About Your Blog day on my Facebook wall. A couple of months ago over 200 people bragged about their blogs! Not only did the bloggers get a lot of visibility on my Wall, they also benefited from additional posts on Facebook as well as a lot of tweeting about the opportunity.

But the biggest visibility opp showed up a couple weeks later. I started seeing posts on Facebook thanking me for my good blogging karma and I had no idea what was being referred to. When I checked out a post, I followed a link to an article on WE Magazine called 101 Women Bloggers to Watch in 2011. Editor Heidi Richards had culled the list of blogs posted on my wall and featured dozens of the women who had taken the opportunity to brag about their blog. It was so cool! Quite a few of my blogging clients and friends were on the list.

Once again, these savvy bloggers are reaping the rewards with more visibility – shout outs of thanks and congratulations on Facebook and Twitter, comments on the original blog post, and related blog posts like this one which in the end drive more traffic and engagement on their sites.

What are you doing to boost the visibility of your blog? Visibility is what creates trust, credibilty and drives more traffic, leads and enagement on your blog. Like a product or service, your blog requires consistent promotion so your audience doesn't forget about you!

Check out the list of exceptional women and make sure you "like" my page so you don't miss the next Brag About Your Blog Day coming soon!

Recommended reading for more ideas on how to engage your Facebook fans: 6 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans