Have you seen great informational posts on how and where to promote your blog?  I have!  They always give great social sharing sites and useful ideas.  What about the ways that people promote themselves that truly comes off desperate and selfish because they seem to want to simply get the word out about their blog without really ever taking the time to grow relationships and share other’s content.  When we all first starting out, not knowing how to promote can definitely come off this way if we aren’t careful.  In most cases, I will say that people aren’t being selfish, they just don’t know.  I’ve come up with a list of ways I’ve seen people promote that is a big no no.  Without further ado, here is the list of 3 ways NOT to promote your blog:

1)  Oversharing.  You don’t want to overshare your content and make it completely unbearable to follow you.

a)  How many times do you think it is necessary to share your newest post on Twitter?  Definitely not every hour.  Perhaps a few times in a day will suffice.  To get even more savvy about it, you can use analytics on sites like Master Flitter in order to determine when the best time is to share things on Twitter.

b)  It’s funny to think that this is possible but you can do the same thing on Pinterest.  Repining your own pin too many times is a bit over the top.  I have several boards where different posts apply so I put them on there maybe once a day or so.  But not all at once.  It has been said that Sunday night is a great time to pin things on Pinterest since that appears to be the most active time of the week.  You can take that into consideration when you want to share things on there. 

c)  Sharing posts a million times on Google Plus and it showing up on the posts section of your profile.  It looks even more desperate when you have Google Plus comments and that shows on your posts as well.  I’m not a huge fan of Google Plus comments, but if you are going to use them, you definitely want to be aware of how this looks.  As far as what you are sharing in different communities on Google Plus goes, you can easily, in settings, fix  your activity from displaying on your profile so people don’t see where and what you shared on your profile umpteen times.

2)  Not following rules on blog hops so you can link up your giveaways and linky parties.  Some blog hops, depending on the rules, will allow you to link up these types of posts.  If they do, more power to you.  Share away!  But on a blog hop like mine, Countdown in Style, where it is a favorite post linky party that is supposed to be bloggers sharing actual content, these types of posts are not allowed.  I’ll be honest, we outline the rules pretty clearly so it has become an extreme pet peeve of mine to have to go and delete these links from the party because people are too busy trying to promote that they don’t follow the rules.

I think another reason why this is a pet peeve of mine for my linky party is because unlike the stereotype that linky parties get that you don’t necessarily get traffic from them especially the big ones, April and I commit to visiting every single linkup so people know they are going to get traffic when they participate.  I think it is also taking advantage when we say, only link up no more than 2 posts because we are taking time to visit ALL and people linkup more than 2 posts.  Another horrible way to promote your blog.  Be considerate and respectful to other bloggers.  It pays to do this in the end.  Trust me.

3)  Asking people to follow you back on a comment or on social media.  There is nothing wrong with leaving a comment on someone’s blog that pertains to the content but then letting them know that you are a new follower as well or that you are new to this person’s blog.  It does, however, look desperate when you tell them to please follow you back or that you followed them on each individual social media site they are on.  If you like the post, let them know and comment on what you liked about it.  Share the post on social media.  If you share it on Twitter and mention the blogger’s Twitter handle, they can actually see that you shared it for them and may thank you.  Doing this one time does not guarantee this person will follow you back or that they will go back to your blog and comment.  These things take time.  Be patient.

I think all of these things that people do are an attempt to grow their blogs really quickly and to be honest, if you are trying to do that, these ways of promoting yourself and your blog are not the way to go.  Making money on a blog and growing it, along with your followings on social media, take time.  Research the best ways to promote your blog and begin to comment and share posts from bloggers in your niche.  I hope this was useful to someone out there!  I’m just sharing what I learn as I continue on this journey.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

XoXo,

I love all of my readers.  In this post, I’m specifically talking to the ones who are bloggers.  You all probably know by now that I’m committed to sharing what I learn as I continue on this blogging journey.  I’ve always been the type of person that has always wanted to just do things the right way the first time.  But as in life, with my blogging, I’ve come to terms with the need for me to accept the process.  Here are some things I’ve learned, recently, that could have been harming my reputation in the blogosphere or with Google so I wanted to share them with you all.  Some of them are tips that I’m sharing just because I’ve seen it and I know that if people read a post to tell them otherwise, perhaps they would fix it or add onto their to do list to grow their blog.  As you plow through these points, I hope you will be able to determine if you are hurting your reputation with Google and other bloggers?  Hopefully, you aren’t and if you are, you can always make changes like I continue to do!

1) Is your gravatar picture showing a default face as opposed to an actual photo of you when you are making comments on other blogs?  I’ve been actually blogging since March 2013 and I noticed that when I would comment on some blogs, there wasn’t a picture for me, but for others, it was.  Right before I made the switch to WordPress, I was convinced that it was like this because these individuals were on WordPress.  Well, after reading a commenting rules list on another blogger’s site, I learned that I didn’t have a picture because I didn’t have a picture or account set up with gravatar.com.  This site is powered by WordPress.com.  Many bloggers want to connect with you and see your smiling face to know who they are replying to on their post.  I felt very silly for just realizing that this was the reason why I didn’t have a picture.   Either way, I’m glad I have one now and I hope someone who doesn’t have one will register on that site to get one too.  It took me 2 seconds to do it.

2)  Do you have backlinks on your blog that are not relevant to your niche?  First of all, I had no idea what backlinks were or how they worked.  Two ways that I have learned that you get backlinks is by people referencing your site on theirs and also by people leaving comments on your blog.  This was a real eye opener for me when I learned a little about this one.  Many bloggers create buttons and like to swap with others.  As long as people are within your niche, having them link to you isn’t a bad thing.  It actually helps your reputation with Google.  This was definitely a point where I had a sigh of relief because I have many topics that I blog about.  If you haven’t already noticed, check out my pages up top that can give you a list of posts under those specific categories.

3)  This brings me back to comments on your blog.  You know now, if you didn’t know before from number 2, that comments provide your blog with backlinks that can really help your site.  But what if the comments are not relevant to your post or if people who are not within your niche are commenting?  Both of these types of comments can hurt your site.  When someone leaves a comment that is irrelevant to your content, they are more than likely just trying to be seen.  Because it hurts your blog anyway, you might want to rethink approving these types of comments.  You know the ones where someone is telling you they nominated you for a blog award, or “thanks for hosting” on a post that isn’t a linkup or bloghop.  How about the ones where someone says they are a new follower.  I can respect the new follower comment if the person actually takes a moment to comment on the post that I put so much effort into composing.  If you are a blogger who is doing these things, you are also hurting your reputation in the blogosphere.  I’ve been guilty of a few of these types of comments in my early months as a blogger, so don’t feel bad.  If you want to be seen and grow, just be more engaging by taking the time to comment on what people are saying in the post and then, share it if it is within your own niche and you think it will help your followers on social media.  Before you know it, people will be returning the favor and you not only will begin to gain more followers, but great friends and faithful readers.

4)  I’ve seen plenty of posts that address how to fix the “no-reply” blogger issue for people, but I wanted to mention that typically this happens when someone isn’t signed up for Google+.  I just want to tell you that not being on Google+ is like shooting yourself in the foot as a blogger.  First off, when you have a blog, most will tell you that Google Authorship is very important for helping you to show up in search engines.  Google Authorship happens by your site/e-mail address showing up on your Google+ profile.  If you don’t have an account, how will you set this up?  Also, Google+ is apart of Google.  You probably gathered that by the name.  The connection to being able to make an impact with SEO on Google is as easy as sharing your post on Google+.  This isn’t the only SEO technique, but it definitely is one of many that you can easily grasp simply by having a Google+ account and sharing your content.  Forget the steps to fixing the “no-reply” blogger issue.  Just sign up for Google+!

5)  Speaking of social media, are you on just one form or none at all?  If you are a blogger, if you want to grow, you definitely need to be on more social media sites.  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Google+, Youtube, Instagram…am I missing any of the main ones here?  We’ve already discussed the significance of Google+. Pinterest is one of the top traffic sources for many and Twitter is the easiest way to share and connect even within 140 characters.  Facebook has recently admitted to making it difficult for fan pages to reach their fans.  I’ll admit it does look like a ploy to get people to pay in order to get their posts seen.  I post to my fan page and then also share the posts with my personal account friends.  That usually helps my reach a little.  I also have my Facebook personal profile connected to my Twitter page so everything that is posted on my personal page, by me, gets updated to Twitter as well.

6)  A lot of people don’t know much about Stumbleupon.  It is a social bookmarking site.  Social bookmarking is pretty powerful for your content and helping your page views and rank.  Share all of your content on social bookmarking sites.  Here are some I’ve come across: blokube and blog interact.  Share. Share. Share.  Join networks like Triberr, too, as I’ve said before to get more bloggers sharing your content as well.  Keep in mind that sharing encompasses more than you just sharing your own content.  People will respect and trust you more when you share even other useful and helpful content that comes from other blogs.

These are just 6 tips I wanted to share that I’ve come across recently.  I hope it has helped someone out in some way.

Did you know all of this? 

Did I forget to add anything?

What’s a blog tip that you haven’t seen that you would love to share with others?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

XoXo,

So I finally made the switch to WordPress! It has been the topic of discussion for months now and it is finally official! I also had great help from a blogger buddy of mine Taryn.  She helped me create a new design because let’s face it, my design needed a facelift and a more personalized look.  You can google pros and cons for using Blogger and WordPress, but the bottom line is, you have a lot of limitations with Blogger. To become self-hosted and to create your blog on wordpress.org is like opening a door to endless opportunities for your blog, as far as I’m concerned.

Many times in the blog world, you will come across people with large followings and as new bloggers, this is always very attractive. And then you may attempt to interact with one of these people and to your surprise, they are unresponsive. In this post, I want to share how to turn your followers into readers.