Tips for promoting the blog section of our eCommerce site

[ChrisHolgate]

Hi,

With the recent Google updates we're thinking that unique content is more important than ever in order to gain high quality, natural links from genuine users.

As such we're thinking that our blog (http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/igloo/) might be more important than ever.  Don't be put off by the lack of Page Authority or Google Page Rank; we've only just moved to this address from the subdomain igloo.refreshcartridges.co.uk.

The content is certainly rather niche; an article like http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/igloo/how-to-the-reset-purge-counter-on-a-brother-printer-with-a-numerical-pad/ will be helpful to thousands of users who own this particular range of printer but it's debatable as to whether it is sufficiently mainstream to be openly shared and linked to.

We ping to sites such as Technorati, produce videos to accompany much of the content (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxmm4-blN8&list=UUH93Kwax4CcEIAOsXWb6CiA&index=1&feature=plcp for example) and provide easy sharing buttons.  I do however think that we could be doing more to actively ‘push’ this content on to potential customers.

I'm not naive enough to think that niche articles like this will be enough to get hundreds of links and tens of thousands of reads but printer news, reviews and support is pretty much the only thing we can write about while being relevant to our core business.  I would however like to get the best exposure that we can for these articles which is why I’m asking for your advice today.

I would really appreciate any ideas you may have as to how else we could gain the best value from these unique articles and videos.  I apologise for this being such an open ended question but any and all advice on how to maximise this resource would be appreciated.

Many thanks!

[benjaminspak]

Network with bloggers and social media users who:

• Are computer or tech friendly/technicians
• Advertising firms that specialize in print
• Graphic Design Firms
• Office Equipment Websites/Blogs
• Business Bloggers

By network I mean

• Share tips/experience
• Share funny yet professional stories about your industry/pitfalls
• Interview people in those industries
• offer to write a guest post for their blog

[MagicDude4Eva]

I would share your blog posts on all social networks. I would also consider creating a newsletter which goes out to your user base.

Promote and engage your audience on your blog with competitions and give-aways. You could also try and engage the other end of your demographics - I would assume that the majority of your users are male - kick off a Pinterest competition to engage with the female audience.

I would also feature specials/recommended products (links to your main-site) from your blog posts as well as feature excerpts of certain posts on your product- or category pages.

[ChrisHolgate]

Many thanks guys; very much appreciated