Blog post promotion... Some people are spending hours on it, and some couldn't care less. What about you? That's the @steem-bounty question for this week.
Source
Blogging Success
Whether you have an external blog, or you are blogging on a platform like SteemIt, there's one thing we all have in common: we want our posts to be read. There is nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of blood, sweat and tears on a blog post, only to find out it no one reads it.
Having a successful blog all comes down to the number of people that actively engage with it.
Audience
When I signed up for SteemIt, I remember there was a line in one of the advertising campaigns that said; 'No need to search for visitors, the audience is already there' (or something alike).
With that sentence, they were referring to all people on SteemIt that were actively searching their feeds, or the tag feeds, that would eventually stumble upon your post and read it.
Another lie, just like the statement that you could earn good money here.
With thousands of posts made on the SteemIt platform every day, the chances they are just going to bump into your post are pretty small.
There's just too much going on for your blog to already have an audience when you start.
Steem-Bounty.
As you could read in the title of this post, I set up a @steem-bounty on this post.
The Steem from the @steem-bouty will be shared among all people who comment with a valid answer to the question below.
Source
How Does That Work?
Everyone who leaves a (top-level) comment on today's question with a valid answer will get an upvote from me. The more valuable I think your answer is, the bigger the upvote will be, and the bigger share of the bounty you will earn.
A small part of the distribution of the bounty is also determined by the upvotes of other community members. If a lot of others upvote your comment,
your share of the @steem-bounty will grow (a little) bigger.
You can see it as an exercise in writing quality comments. Just like last week, there is no right or wrong answer. All I want to know is the answer to the question, and an explanation of why you act like that.
If you want to read more about how @steem-bounty works, or find more posts that will reward your comment with a @steem-bounty, you can visit their website at https://steem-bounty.com.
Bounty Question
So here's my question to you this week:
Are you actively promoting your blog posts or not?
And if you do, what kind of promotion techniques do you use?
Do you just publish your post and wait for people to come and read your post?
Do you use name tags to draw the attention to your posts?
Do you use community tags?
Do you network in order to get people to visit your blog?
Do you promote your links in Discord channels or not? If so, how and why?
Do you promote your post outside of SteemIt? How do you do this? Where do you promote?
...
All of this and more is what want to hear from you this week.
If you've been following my latest posts, you'll notice I started a series on ways to get your blog seen. I will definitely share more techniques that can help to drive more traffic to your blog, but - curious as I am - first I want to hear if and how you are handling promotion of your posts.
Source
Because there is a @steem-bounty set on this post, I'd like it to be fair for everyone. So:
* Comment upvote bots are not allowed!
* No Self-voting
If you break the rules I'll make sure you are disqualified.
An upvote, followor resteem.is not required to enter this contest. However, it wïl allow me to run more contests anf giveaways.
Payout
During this week, I'll be going through the comments and give every valid answer an upvote. The size of that upvote depends on how valuable I think your answer is.
(Don't worry if you don't do any kind of promotion. If you give good argument why you don't, and let us know if it works for you, your answer could be just as valuable as any other.)
When this post reaches payout, @steem-bounty will do all the math for me and will send your share of the bounty directly to your wallet.
Share Your Secrets
So let's get started: I want to hear all your promotion techniques, or why you don't have any.
This is a golden opportunity to learn from each other and maybe uncover ways to make your blog (even)more popular.
So please don't hold back and tell us everything!
I might even have a secret bonus prize to give away...
Join us @steemitbloggers
Animation By @zord189
Dear @simplymike, thank you for the bounty you set, you know after this HF20 it is so difficult for me make anything, post, comments or upvote...
Anyway now i am almost not using any bot, just i use minnowbooster because i do not like to see my posts with 0,xx but this is not at all an investment.
After i discover steem-bounty i cannot stop to use this wonderful service.
You know, there are many people which argue about stupid comments or spam, but in my experience i saw very few people do it, the rest are really good people and expecially @knircky is the best whale in Steemit, because he is not selling his power as upvote bot as many others do, but he is giving all the effords for the growing up of this community. You are the members of our family, i see you are addicted too like me to make bounties, so i am very proud to do my part in this wonderful community.
Would that be 'no' to the question?
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Do you think that Steem-bounty is not post promotion service? And minnowbooster? I think is yes, of course as i can...
If I can give you a tip for the future: try to answer as clear as possible. Don't add more information than is asked for, because if you do, your answer is hard to understand, and you might be taken for a bounty hunter who only hunts, and doesn't contribute.
For example, you could have just answered somdthing like: "Yes, I'm using @steem-bounty to attract more visitors to my posts."
That would have been enough. Nice and clean, with little chance there will be a misunderstanding
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By the way, can you explain how your hard to understand answer manages to get 7 votes?
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I already figured it out. The rules were clear: no self-votes and no voting bots. You broke one of those rules. As a result you are not entitled toreceive a reward in this @steem-bounty hunt. The only way I can make sure you don't get rewarded is by flagging your comment.
Let this be a lesson for next time.
Dear simplymike, first of all sorry for my english, i understood that i write in a way for you was unaderstandable.
As you can see from the imagine, i am doing day by day a fighting with my RC.
I am contributor of @Steem-bounty from the beginning and you can ask to @knircky if you do not believe it.
So i am not a bounty hunter! I am a contributor like you.
Ok i understand you rules to not self upvote, this is what i hate, but regarding other people votes is the only chance i have to grown my SP and then my RC.
It's a pity you downvote me with your 100% power, it was enough to do it with 1% to let me not get your bounty...
I'm sorry, my mistake about the 100%. I didn't notice I could bring it back to 1%. Sorry for that. Bjt you've got to deserve your upvotes from other community members.
By keeping it short and to the point, your chances on upvotes from others will grow. For now I've removed the flag, but let it be a warning for next time
Dear @simplymike, you are an active member of steem-bounty and for that i consider you as one member of my virtual family, if i keep strong to stay in Steemit is thanks to people like you that are in this family and help to grow all of us
Hmm, interesting the way you promoted steem-bounty here. Kind of makes me want to do a tag search, just to find current posts with an open bounty. I have been trying to think of ways to sort of "sell" my comments to people who want them on their posts. Steem-bounty does a good enough job of advertising to everyone which people are willing to pay good money for comments, and makes you compete for it.
What magic technique do I use?
Charm. Authentic. Honest. Relevant. Question. Clincher.
I try to use a combination of these personality traits in all of my posts. As long as I communicate clearly, with minimal typing and grammar errors, I don't have to worry about being poor quality. Write about any topic, and people are sure to be interested in reading it.
People appreciate reading text much more if it has a narrative style, from a person with a real voice and personality. Anytime I can sneak in a personal story into whatever I am sharing, the better.
Charm is easy. Never talk like a sales-person, commercial, or a boring instructor who gives the same lesson every time just like every other teacher who teaches the same lesson. Be slightly weird, hyper, strange, nerdy, narcissistic, or any not-normal personality to slightly enhance your writing persona. This will heighten your personality to a less serious tone, which makes it easier to add your own sense of humor too.
Always include a question, or ask for help, because it connects people together. Everyone wants to have a purpose and feel generous that they can help. So I like to make that offering every time.
A little bit of kindness and courtesy goes a long way, by briefly acknowledging gratefulness to everyone who has volunteered to view, comment, or upvote. Don't be repetitive and use the same words every time. Be genuine, and express your thanks in a regular flow based on how you actually feel in the current moment.
The only thing I never ask for in my posts is for people to upvote and resteem me, because people generally won't do that unless they want to, not because I ask for it. Some people even refuse to upvote anyone who they feel is begging for upvotes, because it is a big turn-off to them.
A clincher is a nice bonus to make your post leave a memorable impression. One last Hail Mary to earn an upvote! It can be an emotional photo, a quote, a joke, or a life lesson learned from the post. Anything positive to contribute to leaving the reader better off than they were before makes a good clincher at the end of the post. Be original and mix it up every post, so that the followers will continue to appreciate following your posts.
I don't have any tricks for promoting my posts to get more followers directly. I gave up on bots and I never give permission for voting services to autovote for me. Sometimes I write posts with certain lucky tags, and it attracts a lot of upvotes because related communities enjoy getting new posts from new writers. Some people like to find out which posts are getting big upvotes from @Curie, and focus on writing related posts that use the same tags as those posts. I don't do this, but I try to post about a variety of subjects each time, to try out a few new tags each time, and continue using one or two tags I think are popular. Just make sure your content is actually related to the tags you choose, otherwise people might get angry and flag you.
Okay, can you see I love giving advice and being helpful? Viewers don't have to take my advice, but it's there if they want it.
Thanks for sharing this steem-bounty @simplymike. That is very generous!
Thanks for your advice, @creativetruth. There was actually such a lot of good advice that I started wondering if you would ans,er the question too. But you did, in the end, lol.
By the way, before I forget:you don't have todo a tag search to find bounties, you can see them all at the @steem-bounty website: https://steem-bounty.com/
Using the right tags is a strategy I see more people mention. I don't really have so many options, since my field of interest, knowledge and skill is pretty limited. But maybe I should try it once: choose a tag before I write the post. Might be interesting... or nothing at all :0)
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I have to tell you @simplymike, I was honestly just going around and commenting on all of the steem-bounties available that looked easy enough to participate in. Most of them looked innocent enough, so I took advantage of the opportunities to build up some engagement with others, and potentially earn some extra rewards.
Unfortunately, there are some people, I later on discerned, only running the steem-bounties because they want to earn the 100 Steem prize being offered for those running a steem-bounty contest. One of those I ran into started harassing me with judgements, and insulting my misfortune of being born from lower forms of life (paraphrasing). I am not easily offended, but I feel bad for anyone else who might fall victim to predators out there looking to lure in comments, only to spread hate and negativity to innocent contributors.
Can steem-bounty creators hijack their own bounty to collect extra rewards?
Thank you @simplymike for being such a helpful steward to others here on Steemit and elsewhere who are sometimes a bit clueless on how things work. It is very dissatisfying to ask a question about something that is causing frustration, and have people write back that you don't deserve an opinion on technology you don't operate or understand.
What? Did this really happen?? Perhaps it is something hou should the guy behind @steem-bounty, preferrably before he pays out his 100 steem., so he can take those people lf the list of valid entries.
Hosts of bounty contests normally get nothing. But with the 100 Stedm bounty contest that is running now, they get an upvote of app 2 steem when they set up their contest, and they will get a share of the 100 Steem.prize pool. So at the moment, there's a lot at stake. (This 100 steem bounty contest is just a form.of promoting the service. It will be gone again soon, and things will get back to normal: host simply pay for the prize money themselves, and the steem-bounty service takes care of deciding who gets how much of the prize pool.
If you want to, I will message him.in the morning, telling him what you just told me. Could you send me the link to the contest (if you prefer Discord, you can find me there as simplymike#5957
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I think the author I engaged with is kind of a wacko conspiracy theorist, and full of hypocrisy, but dangerous enough to dox people based on other posts I am reading. Arguing with him is not recommended, as he does not play by logical rules.
I do not support censorship, obviously. However, I hope he isn't using this contest to be a predator on others in order to grab a prize from people more deserving.
If you are going to change the rules because of abusers, I do not want to be held accountable. I'm just reporting my experience.
https://steemit.com/steem-bounty/@justmeagain/why-i-do-declare-it-s-1861-in-the-steem-world-social-experiment-and-a-civil-war-is-unfolding
I think everything that has happened has little to do with Steem-bounty. The guy is just... (I don't want to write down yhe words I'm thinking right now)
I think you handled that conversation really well, I wouldn't have gone back for seconds. But you did and stood your ground. Very well done.
I think the conclusion should be: stay away from controversal bounyty post by ****** people, lol
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Damn, i managed to lose my very lengthy reply. I'm not going to retype now, I got to get some sleep, but if you send me the link to the contest, I'll let the guy behind @steem-bounty know about this and make sure she doesn't get a reward.
@jmhb85, maybe you should already read the comment above this one in which @creativetruth has been obviously a victim of @steem-bount abusers
@creativetruth, send me the link, if you want to, feel free to use Discord. You can find me there as simplymike#5957
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I used to work with voting bots quite a while ago but stopped completely.
Now I'm happy when I have the time to finish a post, and answer to the incoming comments. Unfortunately comments re becoming more and more seldom these days.
Never used discord to promote my post, somehow I feel that doesn't make sense of all.
When I used steem-bounty engagement is much higher, of course the bounty is lurking people to comment.
Recently I'm more and more wondering if the whole platform is doomed to fail, I can't see any reason now for new people to join. Especially after HF 20.
Time will have to tell if SteemIt will survive...
When I first joined steemit, I used to use bots for my 'really great fictions'. Nothing big. Usually 1 Steem sent to smartmarket or minnowbooster.
Then I realized most curator guilds won't consider my stories if I use bots so I stopped. That was a good move as usually I get a major curie upvote once a month.
I haven't used the promotion tab coz I rarely even check it. Besides, using bots doesn't seem like a good investment these days.
The only promotion I do is to drop my links in post-promotion rooms on discord servers.
But that's just for me. I'm mostly a contest guy so I get audience from the organisers of the contests, other contestants and a few regular visitors
Congrats on getting a regular curie vote. Now I just have to go and take a look at your blog :0)
Hiiiiiiiii your awesomeness!! ❤
Great question! We do need this now more than ever.
Hmmmmmm.. i actually use bots to like my posts but on a minimal amount only because i dont have much. Though I am not really after the payout but i am rather after the growing of my SP.
My posts do not earn much and i do not mind because its really hard to get noticed these days.
However, the one thing that I do to promote it is by getting the crowd in! The more people come in and keep commenting down that is what matters to me. I love it when people engage a lot in one post. Through it, somehow your post gets promoted for free because friends who comment in sometimes resteemed it.
The question is, how do you attract people to your post? For me, i try to make lively post, i avoid the serious talks and shits! Sorry! I like it more when you get to share your personal insights into the post and add a little humor. I use so much bitmoji to express my true emotions hahaha.. and soooo out with the boring posts too.
For me a quality post is promoted if people talks about it. Bots votes are just additional bonuses. Thank you! 😂🤣
Sometimes too tagging friends helps the promotion! Hahaha
Also, if you go around commenting to other people's post. They do the same to you. I think it is a mutual understanding to give back the love we give..
Hehehe..
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Writing a post that is nice to read is of course one of the most important factors if you want to get an audience. And so is networking. The more people you know, the more people will be looking out for your new blog posts.
yessssss... true! I am always contemplating what to write. Before HF20 I have so many ideas what to post. But after, I kinda slowed down a bit. Maybe because I am a little busy too at work. Slowly, my enery is coming back.
its very important to draw in the crowd. Its important too to keep moving around, I believe that it can be contagious.. hehe
I used steem bounty a few times and I saw a spike in quantity of comments that I received but not necessarily the quality. Bounty hunters just go in all posts tht have bounty and write some generalized comment.
Then it is up to the bost of the contest to not reward these generalized comments.
Only quality comments and valid answers get an.upvote from me.
In the past, people could post a spam post and use a comment upvote bot to vote on it. The system was too easy to rig - that's the reason I stopped using the service.
Meanwhile they have updated the system a lot. The upvote of the host is the most important facgor now. I think upvotes from the community only count for 5% now.
This means that as a host, you have a lot more power and you can give more complete, valid answers in which good arguments are used a bigger upvote than comments of low qualitt, which will reflect in the bounty rewards at post payout.
For myself, I decided to flag every comment that doesnt comply with the rules: self-votes or comment bot votes are forbidden.
Compared with 6 months ago, the system.is a lot harder to misuse...
Btw dus you see the easy going elephant?
Do you really do nothing else to get the word out about your posts?
Not really.
I dont do much. I try to use appropriate tags and I usually promote my posts in the minnowsupport discord channel.
I see that you use the smartvote banner. How are you related to this project?
I delegate a little to it in exchange for a vote
I have created a similar service, but that one pays 100% of the gains to the delegators: @zero-profit. If you are interested please have a look here.
I generally don't promote my posts. Because i have been tooo poor! @Dustsweeper nad @moonbot have been the only tools i have been using. Oh and also a memeber of school of minnows.
I wll definately look into this now that my account is growing though! Any suggestions will be welcome!
Schoolofminnows is an awesome initiative to get the word out about your posts.
And there are some Discord communities that can be really helpful.
I suck at promoting myself, I want to join Discord but that place confuses me. I can't wait to hear how other people promote their work so I can use their ideas. I try to use good tags, but I'm pretty sure I'm not doing a good job.
The one thing I do do (ha ha. I said doodoo) is engage other Steemians as much as possible to foster reciprocation, and I enter contests.
Once you join one Discord server, it will become easier. It's the one thing I wish I did sooner.
I think engaging with other Steemians is one of the most important factors when it comes to internal promotion, so I guess you're on the right path :0)
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Very interesting article @simplymike, so good to read more about steem bounty. Good to know it's still running and strong. I wasn't really sure what it's all about and stumbled upon it several times. Now I know more. Definitely, a very good idea to have a post where people can engage and have fun.
Unfortunately, I never thought about a true marketing strategy. Never planned to have my blog successful in a way. My goal was to meet new people who are on the same wavelength mainly. Thus I search for interesting and unique quality content and comment on it. See who is behind. Engage.
I think my marketing strategy is to be honest and authentic .... mhhhhhh .... is this really a marketing strategy? :) lol
Have a great day, everybody!!!!!!
I write as good a post as I can and hope for the best!
Well, that's almost true. I use hashtags for some communities - #asapers, #ccc, and #newbieresteemday. They have all been good to me.
I don't understand bots, or Discord, although I have joined two groups there. I love #pifc but sadly haven't been participating in it lately. I am very glad I joined #dustsweeper and #sbi is a wonderful help too.
I am feeling sad that I haven't been promoting my posts all this time, but reading the comments here is giving me hope that I can do better!
Reading through the comment section here will probably give you some very useful ideas.
Hi 👋🏻 @simplymike, I always learn something from your posts. I joined steemit only for my pleasure of blogging, and now I am a crypto enthusiast. Go figure! Don’t know much about bounty stuff, but I can share my methods of promoting my posts. Within steemit platform, I engage through comments, contests and communities. Discord channels are fun and I love participating there too. Steemitbloggers, Qurator, Asapers are my favorites. Occasional post promotion with a bot or two is acceptable to me. Now Kryptonia is in the works, just started to create some tasks, not sure yet about the outcome. I also share on social media, but with not much success, as my Twitter and FB followers are not familiar with the platform. Lately I cross promote on WEKU and Whaleshares but to be honest, I don’t know where this will take us to. So, that’s about it. 😊
That's quite some promotion you already do, compared with what I read in other people's answers
Well, I am doing as much as I can. I believe in marketing. 😊
I do love steem-bounty though I don't often remember to go and look for posts that have a bounty on them. I've definitely played bounty hunter before. :-)
I try to keep my tags accurate. I didn't find much help in tagging communities (and with only 5 tags to use...) so I don't do that anymore.
Discord is very useful and though it's not a pure form of organic following, I actually appreciate the groups that ask for a certain amount of engagement before dropping links (but I find I can't manage that every post, so often, it's in a different group.)
I also drop links on Facebook groups for the purpose, though those seem to have very low engagement.
I even use my Google+ account to organize my links so they're not lost and gone forever once they're past easy scrolling.
But what's the best way to promote? Becoming engaged with others! That's my no. 1. Regardless of whether you do this through Discord, contests, communities or off Steem, it's the best way to let people know you care - and to get them to check you out. If you're down on upvotes/follows, that's the first thing to try. (If you don't have the RC, there's always Discord.)
I don't have ANY secrets, lol! I do three things:
Comments!
I post and start my commenting round, I know and have experienced that commenting is the way to get comments and possibly upvotes in return! I also like to 'reward' myself by reading other posts after I posted myself - if I lost myself in reading only I would never post again ;-)
Discord communities!
I post my URL in Discord channels but have been getting more selective in that since they flooded with post links anyway. I don't feel this is the most effective promotion tool but in a few rooms it does work once in a while - especially the smaller communities might still read the postpromo rooms and prioritize posts from fellow community members.
Community tags!
I use community tags when I feel it's appropriate.
The last one is not really 'promo' maybe but joining community challenges enhances the possibility you get curated in an overview or 'winners' kind of post which might get your name out of your normal/regular bubble. So that's sort of a bonus tip for those who are reading the wise words from this almost-Steem-grandma (I mean, in 2 months I'll be a 1-year Steemian, that's grandma level in this place!)
This one is a smart cookie. I love cookies🍪
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OMNOMNOM!
Promotion in the promotion rooms of most Discord channels is indeed not always as effective.
You know, I never even got to write my application for #thealliance. I started three times or so, But I'm terrible when it comes to 'selling myself', lol.
Last week I read they changed the rules, and that you needed an invitation to get in. Haha, I'd better written that application when I had a chance :0)
LOL! Well - don't think you won't come in you would be a great fit! If you apply I'll gladly 'second' your application :D If you need help or some motivation hit me up on Discord I'll gladly help :D
Thanks. I will probably keep you to that promise :0)
I spend about an hour promoting my posts in the various Discord communities I'm a member of. That involves reading and upvoting other people's posts, and commenting on them. Like this one. Some of the groups, the quality ones, require this activity in order to drop a link. I consider it a small price to pay, and the benefit is I get to enjoy some great content and meet new people on the way. That in turn grows my followers and earns me new fans. Post promotion is essential.
I have tried about everything from bots to buying SP and voting myself and at the end of the day the thing that works best for me is being the bad kid in class that acts out for attention. I don't want to do it but at the end of the day doomsy needs to get paid.
So that's your strategy, lol
Everyone has a niche in life i guess.
:)
Lol
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Cool idea! Especially at times where the HF20 has chased some users away or some just decided that it was a good time for a break. Hopefully, in the upcoming weeks, things will get back on track around here.
So how do I promote my posts on Steemit? Well I have adopted a methodology I apply every time I post:
So that is pretty much it on what goes for my promotion. Hope it can be helpful for any other Steemians here :)
You're the first one to mention external promotion, like sharing on Twitter, Facebook and Medium.
Do you have an idea if you're actually reaching people doing that?
(I do it myself, sharing on other platforms - on a lot more than those three. But the main idea about it is SEO-related: the more backlinks the better. I have never actually paid attention to whether this actually brings in visitors.)
I haven't done a deep analysis of the stats yet but will do so soon. I'm studying in Digital Marketing, so it would be worth to test out my own promotional capabilities.
However, Twitter has helped reach an external audience on certain topics, like cryptocurrency and digital analytics. I've found some followers that happen to be on Steemit too :)
As for Facebook, well, seriously it's hard to get people to read on that platform. I'm going to be creating a page soon, it might help reach more audience.
And finally, for Medium, I just started posting on it. I looked at their stats and seems my audience reach has been improving but it's really hard to get claps on Medium and followers if you aren't already a well-established blogger.
I know.
There are quite some Steemians on Twitter, and there are plenty of FB groups.
I have been cursing on the fact that SteemIt offers no visitors stats, but now it suddenly occurs to me that I can use link trackers for my external promotion....
So I need to find a different system to set up. Most of my promo campaigns are automated through IFTTT, using my RSS feed URL. But I don't think I can get a tracking link in there somewhere
How do you measure reach and conversions?
I'm not really measuring anything yet. Just started blogging back in January 2018 here on Steemit and on Medium in August 2018. I started my Digital Marketing course in March 2018, but had a baby in June 2018. So basically, I have plans to implement analytical strategis to my Blog posts, but I'm not completely there yet!
Sounds like 2018 has been a year full of new beginnings. Congrats with the baby. I guess you have your hands more than full at the moment :0)
Hi @simplymike
I do promote my posts and could probably do more but here is my routine.
A photo is worth thousand words
I try to get a nice thumbnail related to my content. I take the photo myself and then use Canva to add some title and effect to it. A good thumbnail will make a post stand out in the feed. I really should take my DSLR out of the cupboard but I’m too lazy these days and prefer using the iPhone for everything including the editing.
Formatting is important
I try to learn advanced Markdown syntaxes and content layout to make it easy and comfortable to read thru my posts.
Relevant tags to attract relevant readers
I choose tags that are relevant to my post and I would use some specific community tags (#ulog #teamaustralia etc...) when I target them.
Promotional boost when needed
I occasionally use Smartsteem to promote a post that I think needs more attention but I don’t often have liquid currencies so this is not happening often.
Communities
I would then post my post to some Discord servers such as PAL, Team Australia, Team Vietnam and depending on the topic I would post to different servers like Earth Tribe or the Global Homesteading Collective for gardening and other environmental content or the French servers for posts in French etc...
I’m my brand
I also promote myself not just the post because if people find you interesting, helpful, fun, friendly etc... they will come to your profile and see what you write about without the need of you promoting your content. So I try to participate in conversations on various Chat services and try to help where I can when I can.
External promotion
I occasionally make posts to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube with a URL of my Steemit profile as a watermark to photos or videos. My dormant newsletter will be soon awaken with issues linking to some of my Steemit articles. I will probably use some push notifications to push to external users who have signed up to read my content.
It's a shame the bounty has been paid out already, because this is a reply full of good tips.
Personally, I like the watermark idea - I haven't used that trick before, so I steal the idea ;0)
The last two paragraphs in particular have made me curious about what you have been doing in the past. I'm guessing you're not new to some kind of marketing: you have a mailing list, but it's also your choice of words.
Anyway, I can only agree the things you say. An appealing photo, a nice layout, the right tags... all very important factors. And it is absolutely true that on here, you are your brand. Networking is extremely important, maybe even the most important marketing technique of all. Once people get to know your name and like the things you say or do, they start looking out for your posts.
Thanks for this interesting reply
All good, I just wanted to contribute :-)
Another idea for marketing is if to add your steemit link with or without a kind of catchy logo in the email signature. So every single email you send professionally or personally is also promoting your Steem profile.
I've worked with a communication agency before, not as a marketer but I still learned some tricks and ways of thinking. Also sitting with designers for marketing project is helping with understanding stuffs. I have a mailing list and also have some email marketing automation going on things like if one of my newsletter subscriber goes to a specific page of my worm farming website, then it will trigger an email to advertise for a worm product etc... if they click on it, it will send another one two weeks later blablabla.
ALERT! I don´t promote my posts very much, but I understand I important it is, because I have a degree on Economics and Marketing is one of the main keys to succeed at anything in today's world (as long as it needs others to buy/read your product/content).
Answering directly to your question, the best methods to have feedback on your Steemit posts is to share them inside the community, and for that there are not many famous ways (like instagram or facebook) to do it, but Discord groups are a very good way to share your posts.
I said the best way is to share them inside the community, because outside there are still too much ignorance and people are scared of visiting your posts outside the "usual" sites they visit.
I couldn't agree more; it's hard to attract people from outside the community, but think it's not impossible. The thing is that because they are not part of the community, and thus can't vote or comment, it's hard to keep track of how many people you actually reach with external promotion.
I think SteemIt should be implementing a traffic analytics feature.
Since you have a degree in marketing, don't you think it's frustrating how limited the options are when it comes to reaching a broader audience?
I am trying to actively promote my posts via several Discord channels, but I have to say, it is a quite a bit of hard work! Other tricks that I try are to not stick to the same tags all the time, in a way, you are preaching to the choir.... The Steem bounty has been useful, but sometimes I just get bounty chasers who aren't interested in anything other than the bounty....
The title should be striking, as they say there the first impression is what counts. And I usually share my publications on social networks like facebook, where there are different Steemit family groups.
And another secret is the labels, then, in this way is that you can reach the people who are interested in the subject.
Blogging without promotion is an almost useless effort, haha.
I remember in my early steemit days, I have no friends at all in this platform. I was swimming alone in this big big ocean of content. But then I start to reaching out some big account on the Trending page. I left one or two comments there. I hope they would notice me. And of course I failed with that strategy. Although there were some whales kind enough to tip me a little $ on my comments...
Then I realize that people are using discord a lot in this platform. I never use it before. I gave it a try. PAL was my first server, their upvote bot is nice. From PAL, I met several steemian, and I found out that there are many other groups, with their #self-promotion channel.
From PAL, I also hear about steemitworldmap, because I was writing about travelling back then. Steemitworldmap is an app that let your post tagged in a map. The great thing is, they have their curators, so they will look at the post that use the app, and featured it if the content is good. This is very cool way to promote our post. And their curators are friendly. I remember one of their curator was telling me one or two thing in comment, to make my post better.
Another big discord server that really help me would be Curie (yeah, they really dig into their #self-promotion channel, at least, I always do that). Whaleshares also do a really great job on curating post on their #postpromotion channel ( I got my post picked once).
And of course, A.S.A.P.E.R.S, I really love their server. It's a great community that will make our blog have worthy comments and engagements.
So, to conclude, to promote our blog is to reach out other blog/community via comment, or discord.
P.S. Lately I curate a lot. And I start to abandoned my blog and my engagement... But turns out, curating cool content to get better rewards is a fun thing to do.
Curating can be just as rewarding as blogging, if you are good at it - which I'm not, lol.
Thanks for reminding me about steemitworldmap. I used to use their tag a couple of months ago, but I completely forgot about their existence :0)
i WISH my caps lock wasn't on... haha it would have been easier to backspace ::rolling eyes::
2nd attempt...
I wish I was a Wiz at promotion, but I'm not.
I have tried discord a few times, but it really didn't work well for me. Maybe part of the reason is when I first got involved I read tons of how to succeed on Steemit post. Most, if not all, said get on Discord. My reaction was, >>>THIS<<< is a social networking platform, yet you have to use an external chat service? Ugh, my personal sites have had chat for YEARS.
I do try to tag properly.
I also use my footer as a post promotion area. That's probably my #1 way I promote.
I do try to link to previous articles even if they are beyond reward, if I'm writing a post that is related.
I did a steem-bounty and I felt a bit like that kid whose mom tied a steak around their neck so the dog would play with them. haha I got 2 comments for a 1 Steem bounty. ::shrug::
Interesting questions ok, bring them on!
i do wait definitely for comments as not only that they cheer me up, i want to know what people have got to say about the contents of my post. we can learn a bit of their experiences, their thoughts, likes etc this way... More often than not, things they cant relate too are new experiences that they are reading. It doesn't take long and it's worth that extra mile to meet new followers and friends if you get lucky.
Using name and community tags is quite important in a way that you are sharing things that may be relatable, useful, educational or beneficial to a group of Steemians who share the same issues.
Networking. As a steemian since 2016, networking is me checking my feeds for posts that interest me and interact. One way or another, this for the same reason like your first question. Although the number of one's followers doesn't mean that this is the same number of people that reads one's regular posts.
Promotion. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on my posts' contents.
As a co-founder of @walkofhope, promoting what we do on Steemit Philippines, plus updates not only is informative of our events for possible steemians to join us but also any support is very important to its' success.
Outside Steemit, a big YES! Having faith in the platform regardless of steem price is necessary to be able to proudly promote Steemit. I say this because i have seen the ups and down of the platform, the changes it have brought, the influx of new users...when people left for a reason or 2.
I was here when Steem was only 15 cents. Am still here regardless of not understanding all those dapps and HF20.
Am in facebook, twitter and IG...are they better that Steemit? NOPE...so why will i NOT PROMOTE our platform? Cheers!
Do you promote your own posts outside of SteemIt, or just the SteemIt platform?
Oh ianswered that with a yes, mine and other steemians' posts that i think are important to people. Our platform have facebook and twitter links that connect to our own social media accounts, making it easy to promote. Our @walkofhope account have the same account name and steemit link in my Instagram.
There was a steemian who thanked me as he bacame a member in steemit after seeing my steemit post in twitter. That was cool!
Cheers!
Making a post on steemit and not promoting it in any way is like throwing a stone in the ocean and hoping someone somewhere sometime will find it :D I take promoting very seriously and I mostly use discord servers for it. There are many people who do not visit steemit feed at all, let alone the trending page, they find posts on discord exclusively. This is why I am a supporter of active engagement on discord whether it is in writing or talking form.
I must admit I am one of those people who pick up most posts from Discord channels. Promotion of my own pots in Discord channels would have a better effect if I would have the time to be an active participant in the different channels, but unfortunately I simply don't.
This is the question I have been searching since one year...since i joined into Steemit promoting my post and getting its visivibility alwsys worried me. In initial times were days when i even use to get any upvotes on my posts. No one to blame, as i never get support.
Promoting steemit post is alwsys a headache especially in case yoy are newbie and not enough wallet balance to spend on BID-BOTS. Gradually i learned the importance of usibg #hashtags . the hastags must be accordance to your post. For example If your post is travel related suported by beautiful picture and detailed description then must go for related hastaf like, travel , photography, blog rest you can choose any of your choice..later i understood the importance of community development...so i started to look for some community and slowly i made it into few awesome community groups.
Once i make a post i put the linkbin all the #post-promotion channel in discord. So till now hashtags and different community are the only option of my post promotion......Bid-bot is too far off to even make it to trending page......still i am learning few tricks to promote my posts. Still my post lacks much visibility as no whales ever voted me.....so once i started to get some whsle attention i would say i succeed in promoting my post.
Posted using Partiko Android
I have 15 mistresses.
Is that not the kind of secrets you are looking for?
Lucky me that I was just kidding 😜
I think you already know that I don't believe in promoting posts. Tagging could help a little. But bid bots are totally useless. So I only spend Steem on bid bots to make a profit. I never had the feeling that sending money to the bid bots for me any additional spectators.
I hear people say it brings in more visitors, but I haven't really tested that out myself.
And about the mistresses... you've got me. That was actually the kind of secret I was looking for. Maybe I should do my next bounty post with a question like that ...
The technique that I use to promote my post, is simply to share it with a small community of friends that I have in Steemit and that I have achieved over time.
I use labels from some curators with the hope that they read and vote for my post, I also use discord in some healing channels but I do not do external advertising, outside of stemit it is difficult to get an audience or that is my perspective.
I think that it is indeed difficult to get an audience from promoting outside of SteemIt, but it has its benefits regarding SEO
I think how or if you promote your posts depends a lot on what exactly that post is about. Who your target audience is, and whether there is a need to push it out there.
For example, my output varies a lot in the type of content I produce. Some is sports related (usually AFL), some is Steem Monsters related, some is contest related and some is just life in general - then there's the ones that combine one or more of these elements as well.
Each "genre" of posts have a different target audience, and even a different desired outcome.
Some I'll post on Twitter (not many though), some I'll share with a few mates via an SMS or two, some will get a run on Discord (and the channels I promote in will vary a lot there too), then there's the hashtags, trying to make them relevant, without your blog being lost in a sea of shitposts that are tag-spamming is always a challenge.
So really, it does vary for me a lot, but I also find that in the time I've been here, my post types also picked up some organic followers (I think this has been helped a lot by trying to engage with people by replying to comments or reciprocating by commenting on their own work.
Seems like your doing good :0)
Primarly being part of @steemitbloggers helps with this problem. Secondly I often visit other discord groups, many of which have a post promotions section often used by the members of each group.
This helps and often members of curation groups/initiatives frequent those halls so sometimes your post gets spotted :-)
Finally using the free minnow support/PAL servers upvote bot can give a useful boost to posts. This is limited and not excessive so use with care :-)
I agree SteemItBloggers is indeed a great community, definitely when it comes to attracting people to your posts. I'm so happy I joined them.
I've tried resteem bots they are very hit and miss, to be honest the best way to promote was to use a bounty, drop your link in steem.chat and discord link promotion groups and also to literally just tag people whose opinion you want or send them a memo to ask them to comment.
That way you get feedback from some people you value in combination with people you didn't expect and it gives you a good mix to build your network from
I've never even used Steem.chat. Maybe I should give it a go some time :0)
To promote Steemit post, I use relevant tags and community tag. It will help you to reach your content to the right audience. I try to engage with people in the comment section. It is a good way to get to know each other. Hope they will come and check out your blog.
I have not promoted my Steemit posts outside of Steemit that much. I shared my posts on Facebook few times. There are many contests on Steemit. Sometimes I participate in the contest. It will give you a little more exposure. The most important thing is, whether you win or not, you always learn something from contests.
At the beginning of my Steemit journey, I did not spend much time on Discord channel. Now I think I should have spent more time over there. Anyway, I'm active on Discord now. I share post link in the post promotion channel. Sometimes I participate and chat in general chat channel. Discord is really great to meet people all over the world. You can share what you know and learn from others.
Discord is indeed a valuable tool. Not only for promotion, but for building your network too.
Using bots works to a point. It gets really annoying, but it does support investors.
I think best method is be consistant with quality , timing, interesting posting, and care for your curators. Who is upvoting commentig and sharing your posts? Keep them happy and try to appeal to a broader audience without leaving them behind.
Contests are also good when appropriate, but no one only wants a contest full of strangers answering awkwardly or contests for the sake of contests where prizes are random and without merit.
...Or invest 100k in steem power and become a whale.
Ultimately you get out what you put in. And if you find a way to get ahead differently good for you, but bad for steem.
I really like what you are doing for the community and I have no doubt you will continue to do better.
Thanks for the kind words. :0)
I think that's one of the most difficult tasks around.
I certainly am ...
I use some of the cheap resteem bots and free resteem services. I sometimes notify repeat readers to any series articles / games I may put on. I also try to visit the blogs of those whom I see in my comment section to try and give support to those who give it to me.
Do you have any idea whether those resteem services deliver results? If I use resteem services, I only use the ones that are human bloggers with a resteem service on the side - they have an actual following of real people.
For contests, games or series, you can definitely use nametagging, but it's not a recommended technique with regular articles.
I honestly have no clue. I mainly only use two and both give me an upvote along with a resteem and are cheap enough that if they don't give any results then its no big deal. @resteemr is one that I use and cost just 0.01. I think its manual resteems as they can take a couple days to receive after payment. They other service is a free resteem bot that also offers a paid for subscription ( 14 resteems ) for just 0.10. If you use his free service you have to visit / post in his topic daily. The paid for options lets you keep your MANA and Resource credits you would have other-wise spent commenting daily. Well worth the 0.10 fee I think.
Dang I just got the out of RC message ... I am lucky that I joined this place when I did. It will be very very difficult to grow as a complete newbie using this new RC system.
I usually just write a post and share it with minimal promotion. I do sometimes share a link on discord or tell some friends about it though.
Also to help try to grow my follower base, I try to make well thought out comments for others' posts. I figure if someone appreciates the comment, they might follow me. And it helps promote conversation, which is at the heart of steemit right?
I don't usually tag a user or a group in my posts, so I don't get extra attention here. Is it ok to do? I thought it was a little taboo.
Actually, you shouldn't be tagging, but if it's like a recurring contest, people want to be notified when a new edition comes out. You just shouldn't overdo it.
Hello @simplymike, I definitely see this post that you have done as a virtual classroom in which we could learn from everyone.
Particularly I have little time on the platform, and yes, I use tags from some communities that give votes to use their tags, besides that some can make recommendations to improve your post.
Something that I think is that a post that has almost no votes or practically nothing of profits happens to be little visible, for that reason, when writing a post and publishing it I am directed to www.steembottracker.com, and through some of the many bots that are active I send a sbd or steem for the bot to vote my publication, that brings as a benefit that my reputation grows, even a little bit, besides my Steem power also does it, and makes more visible the post I just published .
I also use bot to resteem, in order to have the possibility of reaching more users, at least that is the intention.
Since I started in steemit I am part of the @emeeseese trail, they apart from supporting the good comments, they also do post promotion of some of the members of the trail, it is a help since the founders of that trail are very seen in the Spanish-speaking community
I also publish in both English and Spanish, since that allows my posts to be seen by users who speak one of the two languages.
It is important that you do, because really, with so many users, being able to read is something complex.
Little I have used discord, I think it is a weak point that I have, I know that through these channels many relationships are achieved. Basically for reasons of time.
Steem bounty also use it from time to time, since many people participate in this site, and also allows you to be visible.
The other thing I do is that I answer almost everyone who comments on any of my publications, because if they took the time to read and make some judgment, they deserve to be answered, in addition to reviewing their post. That's part of interacting in steemit, it's very important too.
@simplymike has set 3.000 STEEM bounty on this post!
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I have a couple of groups where I try to utilize their post promotions. Mostly I get out and meet people. I guess I do it the old-fashion way. When @terminallyill was active and was starting to help me out he told me my goal for comments should be about 20 a day. It blew my mind, but if you look at @abh12345 Engagement and Curation League, with people like @janton it shows you engagement is everything that you should be doing more than 20 comments a day. I have a few people that urge me to use the Discord post promotions more.
Especially the Discords where you have to comment and upvote on other people's posts before you can drop your link can bring in a couple of people (Channels tht I know of: Qurator, Asapers, Pay It Forward)
What do you mean with:
I have to say that at the beggening i was not specting that you would talk about Steembounty!! Nice one!!!
You got voted by @curationkiwi thanks to simplymike! This bot is managed by Kiwibot and run by Rishi556, you can check both of them out there. To receive maximum rewards, you must be a member of KiwiBot. To receive free upvotes for yourself (even if you are not a member) you can join the KiwiBot Discord linked here and use the command !upvote (post name) in #curationkiwi.
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Hi @simplymike!
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I spend hours on creating blog posts because it is necessary to make it easy for the reader to enjoy. Only in this way do I want to promote the blog post. I would not want to promote something that is not nice looking with valuable content. Therefore the time spent on it is worth the promotion and I would spend hours to promote great blog posts created.
But how exactly do you promote those little masterpieces then?
Great way to promote this!
:0)
I try cute pictures with a saying....
"Feeling boxed in by life?"
I absolutely promote my posts. When I started on Steemit, my first few posts didn't get many votes at all. It was only after speaking with one of the mentors in the @promo-mentors Discord group that I discovered curation trails were the way to go. Initially, I had a mentor turn me on to three or four different Discord channels. Promo Mentors was one of those. However, over time, I've joined quite a few more.
My promotional efforts begin with writing quality posts, however. Most of my posts take at least an hour to write, format, and publish. By spending the time up front to ensure my posts are the highest quality possible, I have received personal invites to other Discord communities, one of which is #steemitbloggers, which has very strict rules regarding posting and supporting other members. Their intense emphasis on quality is the reason it's such a great community.
Another thing front loading my posts with the upmost quality does is put me in the running for getting picked up by curation trails. I get @curie votes fairly often as a result. I've also been picked up by @ocd, @qurator, and other curation trails out of the blue. It's because I spend time crafting high quality posts.
After creating the posts, I visit my various Discord communities and share my posts, use the upvote bots where they are available, and make sure I support others in the community. Many of the groups have rules, such as, in order to post your link you have to upvote and comment on two others (some only require one). These rules ensure people aren't just link droppers. And the expectation is to leave quality comments, not just "hey, good post" and leave. So I make sure I follow all the rules and look for posts that I would actually be interested in reading. Sometimes that is difficult, but I make the effort to support other Steemians.
While in my Discord groups, I try to make a point to find people to support who I have not read before. That way, I get my handle in front of people who are not familiar to me and to whom I am not familiar. I have picked up new followers that way.
I am a member of more than 30 Discord groups, so it takes me about an hour to go through that process. On any given day, I'll share a link to over 20 of those groups and read anywhere from six to a dozen posts from others, leaving comments and upvoting. It's probably the most important thing I do. On some days, before I go through all of my groups, I have anywhere from 50 to 100 upvotes on my post already, and I'm sure that this is because many of the people in those groups follow me and watch for my posts (because they know they are high quality), and some are probably following curation trails I'm a member of.
In the past, I've used bidbots. I haven't used them after HF20. But I waited two or three days before doing so and was careful which posts I used them on. I didn't want to ruin my chances at getting a @curie vote.
Sometimes I share my posts on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. I don't do that with every post, just on ones I want to give a broader reach to. Of course, doing this also promotes Steemit as I don't expect many of the readers on those websites to also be on Steemit. From time to time, I'll share a post in a Facebook group specifically geared toward promoting Steemit posts. But that's low-level promotion, in my opinion.
I am also very particular about how I use tags. I make sure my primary tag is the most appropriate one for the post. I use the other four tags to give my posts a broader reach. I make sure I use the #steemitbloggers tag because the curator, @jaynie, will often choose posts for her daily appreciator or Steemit Bloggers curation post and she only chooses posts with the Steemit Bloggers tag. I've also promoted my posts with #theluvbug tag. I also don't limit myself to five tags. I will use tags within a post if I think I can make it relevant and reach a wider audience.
If I want a particular Steemian to see my post, I'll tag them in it. This often draws them to comment on a post and will often get me resteems.
One final thing I do is, I make sure I respond to all comments on my posts. It's mostly to acknowledge the individual for stopping to comment, but I also get into some good discussions that way. And it keeps people coming back for more.
In short, I start with making a quality post. Secondly, I support other Steemians and use the Discord channels to my advantage. I make sure I treat Steemit like a social network and not just a blogging platform.
I just realized I've already responded to this and upvoted it. Then I realized it's 13 days old, and I received a bounty from it already. Ha ha. I thought it looked familiar.
Great answer. It's a shame the bounty has already been.paid out...
I know, right. But I got some of that too and forgot about that. I'm getting old.