Blogging 201: Promoting your blog!

Keeping your blog in the public eye year in and year out, especially during the slow times. I personally think that the slowest time for (especially when it comes to reviews and giveaways) is during the Summertime. There aren't many holidays to write about. Many families are out doing things, and after a busy Winter & Spring, you brain feels fried. But promoting your blog during the slow times is a great way to get ready for when it picks up again!

Before we move onto ways to promote your blog, please know that in order to keep your blog in the public eye, you must promote daily. Yes, I said daily. Even if you just post once that day, promote it as much as you can for the next several days!

NOTE: Do not post the same thing over and over within less than 2 hours of each other on social media. You'll lose a lot of followers and might get reported as spam.

• Twitter- It all depends on you as a blogger, but some have their blog posts immediately posted to Twitter. Be sure that if it doesn't get posted automatically, tweet your post right after it goes live. If you add RT in the tweet, it will most likely get retweeted!
• Facebook- Depending if you use your personal profile for your blog or not, be sure to post it to your blog Facebook page. If you do use your profile for your blog, share it there as well! 
• Pinterest- All posts should be pinnable. If someone searches for your recipe of garlic bread and you added it to Pinterest, it will be found!
• Giveaways- Of course, be sure to add giveaways to all of your social media profiles. But Online-Sweepstakes and Sweepstakes Advantage are great ways to get people to enter your giveaways.
• Reviews- Reviews are a big thing. The company wants maximum exposure to be sure to do all of the above (minus the giveaways), and ask the company if they would share it on their social media. 
• Ask your fellow bloggers if they would mind promoting your post! Most of the time they will do it without asking for the same thing. Even if they don't ask you to promote a blog post for them, do it anyway!
• Add share buttons to the bottom of every post (even reviews and giveaways). I personally use ShareThis but you can also use AddThis.

Promoting your blog, especially reviews and giveaways, can be hard work. Summertime is especially hard since families are concentrated on other things for Summertime activities. But with a little creativity, humor, and work, your blog post can soar!

Which ways do you promote that have been successful?