Although it might seem like there is nothing much to do after you write that killer content and hit publish, there is a lot of things you need to consider. I have been blogging for couple months and during this time I have learned some things that has helped me grow my blog and audience.

Here are a few things that I have found very useful for myself before I hit the publish button ( please note that these are my personal preference ),

What Time Of Day Do You Hit Publish?

I find this to be very important. Assuming that you submit your post to social media sites to gain some attention, this can make a lot of difference.

Most social media voters are active during night or early in the morning. Why? We all have jobs and other things to do during the day and might not be able to read or vote on articles that we want. Sites like Digg and StumbleUpon have active users 24/7 but still during the night there is more activity. Try writing a killer content and post it on digg at night and see how it does. Again, next time try submitting it during the day and see how it works out. For me early morning and late nights have worked wonders in terms of getting some social media juice.

Should You Submit Your Post To All Social Media Sites?

The simple answer is, No! All social media sites pretty much have like minded people, that’s the reason why they are so active in one site and not the other. Some people are power users on Reddit while they barely visit DIGG. Why? Because they like the content that gets on top of these sites. If you want to write to get on the frontpage of Digg stop focusing on the top 100 lists, as far as I know it doesn’t do as good as it used to. If your blog or post is directed towards politics ( Ron Paul ) and has some good content, it might very well do great on Digg.

Are You Sure You Want to Create As Much Attention?

We would all like to see each and every post to get on top and be talked about by every other blogger. Well, this doesn’t happen as often as you would like. The main thing to keep in mind is how do you want to present yourself and your quality of content to the visitors, that you probably want to convert into readers. If you are writing a post on how John Chow is giving away $500 and submit it to social media sites, goodluck with that. Most people already know about it and it’s not some can of candy that you opened the lid to.

Before you promote your article try and analyze who it will benefit and how it will be looked upon. Every post you publish, you are putting your reputation on the line. Promote only posts that are original, not known by people or provides real value to others.

What About Your Readers?

Whether you have 5 readers or 5000, they are already there because they like what you write and how you write. Don’t always go out of your way to get more readers. Try and meet the expecation of the ones you already have. If your readers are bloggers they will write about your post if you have good content or link to it. Which in turn will bring you more visitors and turn them into readers. Target your existing readers as well, don’t always focus on visitors, meet your readers expectation and more will follow through them. Always remember to feed your own family before feeding the rest of the world.

Should You Email links to Top Bloggers?

Why not? If you have a killer content go for it. Most of the time that’s how you can get noticed. A short note saying “ I had written a post on so and so and thought you might be interested, here is the link “ should be enough. If they check their email and find it interesting they might as well link to yours.

Again the key is to save this strategy when you come out with your best posts. Not everyday. Also another thing, if a top blogger replies to you, never delete that email. Always hit reply when you have to contact them. This way the blogger will be compelled to read the email as they have replied to it before.

You can find more on how to get noticed by influential bloggers by reading this post

What if Your Blog Doesn’t Have a Niche?

Mine doesn’t! Actually it does. As you can see I write about a variety of things. Every post has its own target readers. My blog doesn’t have a particular niche that I follow. I write what I want to write about on a given day. But before I write about something I try to analyze who would read this post. A blogger, check. A student, check. An entrepreneur, check. Try to diversify your blog if you can’t decide on a particular niche to follow.
This strategy will allow you to talk more about things you are passionate about.

Before you think about taking this approach make sure you have a clear view of what you want your blog to be - something that provides value to readers or something that shares your personal life. Either way, as long as you provide value and guidance to readers in some way or the other, in my opinion, you are good to go.

These are some of the things that I think about before publishing each post. Although I wanted to publish this post at night as I usually do, I had to refrain from doing so this one time. The reason - I have to be at work tonight. Trying to pull some overtime so I can keep the means going in the RituVille.

Please share your thoughts on this. Like I had written in the beginning of this post, what works for you might not work for me and vice versa. But let’s share some of our strategy on this matter so we all have something different to try and analyze. Please participate and let us know what you think!

Tags: Blogging //