PLEASE lend a hand- Blog promotion for dummies?

Hi all, I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, comfortable, and prosperous.

I'm hoping this is a good forum to get advice on how to build awareness of my blog. A year ago, I spent a solid hour telling my brother (web designer, database administrator, English professor, HRIS manager, and now author), why blogs are a complete waste of time and attention...

Now I spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to promote my blog: The Recruiting Front Lines

I signed up with Technorati a while back, and haven't gotten indexed or ping'd in over 90 days, due to a system error on their part, which still hasn't been resolved. I've tried to use Feedburner as well.

While those who do read it, and do subscriber have expressed extremely positive feedback, I'm having difficulty getting more people aware of it, and getting people to post comments.

PLEASE HELP! What can I do to broadcast further, and incite more commentary? I am very grateful for any ideas or advice or directions.
Thanks for listing, and thanks for checking it out...

I've had a few people

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Peggy McKee on September 12, 2008 at 10:18am

What have you done so far and how well has it worked?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason C. Blais on September 12, 2008 at 10:40am

I've tried mentioning it on my LinkedIn Account, and in HRblogger.com, recruitingblogs.com, in ere.net, and have sent out links to personal connections, though I've avoided sending to professional connections, as this isn't an employer sanctioned blog, and I want to remain respectful of that professional relationship.

I've also gotten the blog posted on ere.net blogs section.

Of course I'm logged in with technorati and feedburner as well, but technorati hasn't ping'd or indexed my site in 100 days.

I've also set up email subscription and rss feed services.

However, the biggest obstacle I'm facing is how to differentiate my blog and just get people to see it for the first time... any suggestions?

jason

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Slouch on September 12, 2008 at 10:50am

my suggestion is that you just concentrate on writing good stuff. Don;t think too much about the attention. You will absolutely get the attention if you continue on a regular basis to post good stuff on your own blog. You can of course use this site as a way to promote it but really, the key here is to concentrate on writing often and make it good. I have seen this work time and time again. Don't worry about broadcasting it further, it does not work that way.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason C. Blais on September 12, 2008 at 10:53am

Thanks for the advice. I'd be curious to here your thoughts on my content. I agree with you completely about content and good writing. I feel as though I may be getting too long winded, but haven't figure out a good middle ground between brevity and quality. If you've got a free block of time, and are so inclined, I'd appreciate if you took a look at my posts, and offered constructive feedback.

jb

Slouch said:

my suggestion is that you just concentrate on writing good stuff. Don;t think too much about the attention. You will absolutely get the attention if you continue on a regular basis to post good stuff on your own blog. You can of course use this site as a way to promote it but really, the key here is to concentrate on writing often and make it good. I have seen this work time and time again. Don't worry about broadcasting it further, it does not work that way.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Slouch on September 12, 2008 at 12:14pm

I sure will.

JayB said:

Thanks for the advice. I'd be curious to here your thoughts on my content. I agree with you completely about content and good writing. I feel as though I may be getting too long winded, but haven't figure out a good middle ground between brevity and quality. If you've got a free block of time, and are so inclined, I'd appreciate if you took a look at my posts, and offered constructive feedback.

jb

Slouch said:
my suggestion is that you just concentrate on writing good stuff. Don;t think too much about the attention. You will absolutely get the attention if you continue on a regular basis to post good stuff on your own blog. You can of course use this site as a way to promote it but really, the key here is to concentrate on writing often and make it good. I have seen this work time and time again. Don't worry about broadcasting it further, it does not work that way.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dennis Smith on September 12, 2008 at 12:39pm

JayB - just checked out your site - nice job.

Well, you ask the $64,000 question. By the way, how come the Animal hasn't weighed in on this...I'd like to hear what he has to say.

Anyway, consistency is going to be key....and patience. No two ways around it - it takes time. And that "time" will be different for everybody, given the author, given the audience, given the topic.

Slouch once said, "There's few people willing to get up every morning and entertain/educate while expecting nothing in return." Couldn't have said it any better. The giving part will wear you down after a while - but if you truly believe in this medium for reaching your target audience, you'll get up and keep plugging.

The best thing you are doing is poking your head in this community. You'll see how many different people are achieving the very thing you are targeting.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason C. Blais on September 12, 2008 at 12:46pm

Thanks for that Dennis! I think you nailed it, though, or Slouch did... I think I was feeling this week that maybe writing this blog is just a wast of my time if no one cares about it... Am I that self centered to want to write just so I can see my own words published on the web?

Alas, the winds have shifted. I maintain a second blog for an HR conference I'm on the board of in NH. Because of the specificity of that resource, and the captured audience who has agreed to get updates, I'm getting really positive feedback. It reminds me of the value of these types of resources.

I'll keep on posting, and keep trying to add my two cents into the cosmic consciousness... I'm thinking back to a quote from Deepak Chopra, who said that the internet is a manifestation of the cosmic consciousness- unlimited possibilities.

Thanks for the encouragement...I'll get back to the recruiting front lines and keep everyone updated!

Dennis Smith said:

JayB - just checked out your site - nice job.

Well, you ask the $64,000 question. By the way, how come the Animal hasn't weighed in on this...I'd like to hear what he has to say.

Anyway, consistency is going to be key....and patience. No two ways around it - it takes time. And that "time" will be different for everybody, given the author, given the audience, given the topic.

Slouch once said, "There's few people willing to get up every morning and entertain/educate while expecting nothing in return." Couldn't have said it any better. The giving part will wear you down after a while - but if you truly believe in this medium for reaching your target audience, you'll get up and keep plugging.

The best thing you are doing is poking your head in this community. You'll see how many different people are achieving the very thing you are targeting.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ivan Stojanovic on October 22, 2008 at 1:03pm

Hi Jay,

Here are the few starting points:

1. Your blog is ugly. People like to read nice looking sites. RecruitingBlogs is nice. The logo is nice and modern. Simply copy the stiles from here and apply to your blog.
2. Blogspot is not the best domain to host it. Actually you should host it on your domain. Register a domain (make sure it contains the keywords you want to be found for), and purchase a hosting package. It really is dirt cheap nowadays, and the benefits are tremendous.
3. I suggest blogging on Wordpress (free – open source).
4. Install all relevant search engine optimisation plugins
5. Install all relevant social bookmarking plugins
6. Link to other blogs
7. Leave comments on other relevant blogs
8. Write interesting articles.
9. Do you really need AdSense (especially since you do not have the traffic)
10. You have broken links on the blog – images not showing. It look ugly and kind of ... not maintained.
11. Get a nice WordPress Theme +3000 available for free, and a custom one will cost next to nothing as well.
12. Make sure it is SEO – optimised. (Search on Google how to optimise a WP Theme for Google.
13. Use tags, use tags, use tags, use tags!!!!
14. Submit your blog to ALL the social bookmarking sites (it does not pay to do it yourself since there are people who WILL do it for you for the price of two pints in your local pub, and yes it’s a few days work really).
15. Exchange links with other relevant blogs.
16. Write regularly! It does not matter if you write a single line as a blog post, but d write regularly (get Google excited every time it visits you).
17. Install Google Analytics to track your visitors
18. Setup Google Webmaster Tools to track your ranking
19. Use Google Keyword tool to determine what keywords to write about (hat ones are searched for and WILL bring traffic.
20. Show of your success right here and on other relevant forums. It will bring even more visitors.

I am guessing this should be enough to get you going?
See some samples for inspiration:
Jobs Ireland Blog
Jobs Blog
SEO Consultant
HR and Recruitment CVs and Interviews
CV 4 Jobs Jobs News
Careers and Jobs
.....

I could go on and on.

What to expect?

If you do as specified above – within a year you will have 1000 unique visitors from Google every day. If your content is interesting and well inter linked you will have more than 5 pages read by the average visitors – so 5000 page views a day. Even AdSense becomes interesting monetization option at that stage. Your Google PR will be 4.

This just made me thinking,... perhaps I should start selling services like this? :)

You just blog your way, and I will do all the rest for you. How about that?