Using Google Alerts To Promote Your Blog
For your new blog to go big, you want people to link to it. It helps
if they are important people, but every link, from whomever, helps.
Here’s how to use Google Alerts as a tool in getting links to your
blog.
- Think about things you are interested in writing about that are
both a) subtopics of your blog’s core topic, and b) not too commonly
blogged about. - Create a Google Blog Alert which looks for your search terms. (Did
you even know Google now lets you ask for alerts that search only
blogs?) - Wait.
- When you receive the email alert that someone has blogged about your subtopic, go read their post.
- If it is a good post, immediately blog it to your own blog, adding
your own thoughts. (Tie it to your core topic if the tie isn’t
obvious.) Trackback and/or pingback if it is allowed.
Here’s an example of how I’m using this technique:
Thought leaders (my core topic) have a stake in seeing ideas through
to realization. Groups of various kinds will be involved in the process.
Therefore thought leaders need to understand group dynamics.
Therefore, “Kurt Lewin” and “Wilfred Bion” are sub-topics which
thought leaders ought to know about. Therefore, now and then I will
write about them. And what’s a good way of deciding when to blog about
Kurt Lewin? If your blog is well established and widely read, any old
time is good. But if you’re new, stow away some of your thoughts on
Lewin until someone else opens up the topic. Your Google Alert will
tell you when this has happened, and that’s the time to blog, linking
your own thoughts to the other blogger’s post.
Chances are good that the blogger you link to will ego-surf (as we
all do) and find your post. Chances are decent that he or she will link
back to you. Even if it stops there, you’ve gained a link and possibly
a reader. But you’ve also greatly upped the likelihood that your post
will be part of a real conversation that will involve others. The Holy
Grail!