10 WAYS TO GET NOTICED AS A BLOG

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Ten years ago, it was easy to stand out as a blogger simply because the number of blogs in any niche was limited. Today, this is certainly not the case.

BUT YOU CAN GET NOTICED.  HERE'S HOW:
 

1.) Write great headlines
 

 There’s no faster way to catch the attention of people in your niche than an intriguing headline.  But you have to play fair and have your content match the eye-grabbing headline.
 

The title needs to have keywords that will be noticed by the search engines but it needs to also entice the readers to go to the site to read it.
 

Weak –
 

Do You Need an Editor for your Book? (it has a keyword but no call to action)

Good –

The Top 10 Reasons You Should Get Your Book Edited.
 

2. ) Be controversial
 

People love posts with strong opinions.  But beware: titles like I EAT KITTEN BRAINS will draw traffic and comments ... and really trollish remarks.
 

The post “Why 150 Followers Is All You Really Need” from Srini Rao is old,

but a good example of constructive controversy.

Writing this post, Srini had to have known that some people wouldn’t like it. Most Twitter tips are about how to get more followers.
 

But within the post, he used examples to back up his opinion, and the post was about starting a conversation about why we care so much about quantity and ignore quality.
 

3.) Create other forms of content, rather than just blog posts
 

You really can build an audience from scratch if you’re everywhere doing lots of different things at once.
 

eBooks, audiobooks, guest posts, eZines, anthologies, pod casts, trailers, and speaking engagements.
 

4.) Be the first to cover a news topic
 

This might seem impossible, but if you’re diligent about staying on top of what’s going on in your niche, you can often beat other bloggers to the story.
 

Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and get some relevant quotes from valuable sources.
 

Old school reporting is something other bloggers might be too lazy to do – they’ll just link to you instead.
 

5.) Do something wacky and different
 

Why should someone want to read the same-old same-old?
 

It is why I have the ghosts of famous writers and historical personages drop in for a chat on my blog.  It fits in with the haunted jazz club, Meilori's, that figures large in most of my novels.
 

It's not something you see on any other blog, and it ties in with my other protagonists and storylines.
 

6.) Fill a gap
 

Don’t just start another social media blog. Find your unique spin — something no one else is doing.
 

And if you can, be funny/humorous about it.  You don't have to be a stand-up comedian --

just a little funny will seem hilarious compared with most of the somber stuff out there.  :-)
 

7.) Participate in blog hops
 

These are similar to link parties and specifically set up to help you find new blogs to follow (and hopefully have others find your blog too).
 

Go to Google, write in Blog Hops, and get started.
 

8.) . Write guest posts on other blogs

Individually, guest posts aren’t a big deal, but if you start posting dozens of them across a single niche, people start to recognize your name,
 

which means they’ll be more likely to check our your blog.
 

9.)  Comment on other blogs consistently
 

One comment isn’t going to get you much traffic,
 

but if you become part of a community, others who are fans of the blog will start to recognize your name. 
 

10.) Mention other bloggers
 

If you can’t interview others, at least mention them on your blog, and don’t be afraid to let them know when they’ve been mentioned.
 

Alex Cavanaugh is great at this and at having guest-posters and letting his blog be a spotlight for other writers.
 

I've written entire posts that sprang from a blogger comment to another post and linked their blog in my post.