What you need to do AFTER you publish your blog post

So, you’ve spent some time planning out your blog content. You’ve researched all the relevant keywords, you’ve crafted an amazing title, and you’ve written the piece using great-looking sections (each one titled, of course!) and paragraphs. Now, how are you going to get people to find it, read it, and share it? Fear not, dear reader – I’m about to tell you my top tips for what you should do AFTER you publish your blog post.

Why do I need to do anything at all?

Writing blogs takes a lot of time – why can’t you just leave it there and wait for all those hordes of people to come and find your beautiful masterpiece? 

Sadly, it isn’t quite that simple. Because no matter what you write about, and how many blog posts you’ve written before, you have a lot of competition. There are literally thousands of other blog posts with the same theme as yours. Google it, if you don’t believe me.

Your brand-new shiny blog post is too young to compete with those that have been published several months or years ago – many by prolific companies who spend thousands on hiring specialist marketing agencies to produce and share their content for them. Yours will be waaaaaaay down the ranks, if it actually appears there at all.

Nope, I’m afraid if you want people to read your blog post, you’re gonna need to work for it. Sorry.

Step 1 – BEFORE you hit publish!

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here – before you even get that blog post out into the world, you need to do a couple of things to make sure it’s ready.

I’ve kind of touched on some of these things, but I’ll mention them again. First, do a thorough check for spelling and grammar. Personally, I use a couple of tools for this. First, I copy the whole thing in to Grammarly (I use the free version, but the paid one does a lot more) and check for general errors. Then, I use NaturalReader, where a robotic and very bland voice plays back my text so that I can hear it. It’s amazing what you pick up when you’re not just using your eyes, trust me.

Next, I glance over it one last time to make sure it looks pretty, has all the headings and keywords in there, and then I’m almost ready to publish…

The last thing I do is add an image to the header, plus any other images that I think are relevant to illustrate my points. THEN I publish!

Step 2 – things to do AFTER you publish

Hit up your mailing list

If you don’t yet have some kind of regular email or newsletter that you send out, it’s so simple to set one up, and it gives you an amazing ready-made audience. Because they’ve opted in to receive news from you, they’re much more likely to read your blog, and some of them may even be willing to share it with people they know.

If you need help setting up a newsletter for your business, I’d be more than happy to write it for you, and give advice on how to set it all up.

Share on social media

Pop a short teaser along with the URL to your new blog post to let your audience know it’s there. This is probably the easiest and quickest way to get people over to your blog – and don’t forget, you can share it multiple times by just tweaking the description, adding an image, or if you’re feeling brave, posting a quick video asking people to click the link to your post!

Use Pinterest

I know, I know – you don’t understand Pinterest and you don’t see the point in using it as yet another social media outlet. But wait – here’s why you should consider it…

Unlike other channels like Facebook, Twitter etc. Pinterest is fully searchable. That means that if someone Googles a subject that you’ve written about in your blog, any ‘pins’ that you link to it from Pinterest will show up. So you get a bit of a 2-for1, you could get ranked on Google for your blog post directly, AND your Pinterest site. Good, eh?

Pop it in your email signature

How many emails do you send in a day? Most of us send at least a few – even if that’s just a quick reply. Why not create an email signature (perhaps you already have one?), and have a line where you update the link to your latest blog post? It takes just a moment to update your signature each time, and could work wonders in getting more people interested in reading your future blog posts!

It might sound like a lot, but if you can get into the habit of doing at least some of these things every time you write a blog post, I promise that you’ll see your stats rise over time. Don’t expect quick results – blogging is a long-game, and it takes time, no matter what action you take. But it’s always better to write a few great blog posts and promote them well, than to write loads of blog posts and do nothing at all.

About me

Tereasa Hedges, freelance copywriter for creatives, designers and makers.

I’m a freelance copywriter who specialises in writing content for creative people, helping you to reach larger audiences through blogging, web content, email marketing, and a little bit of social media for good measure.

Want to work with me? Contact me for a chat via shirecopywriting@outlook.com