Do you have a product to sell or a message that you would like to share? Are you interested in expanding your target audience? If so, you should consider setting up a virtual blog tour.

OKAY, BUT WHAT IS A VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR?

Virtual blog tours allow you to travel the internet, meet new people and share your expertise without ever leaving the comfort of your home or office. As the tour operator, you prepare guest posts for blogs that you have previously researched and identified as appropriate for your message. On the days that your blog posts are published, you visit the blog to comment, maybe ask questions to encourage discussion, and otherwise converse with the audience.

WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT?

You might want to go on a virtual blog tour for several reasons, including:

* Virtual blog tours save you the expense and inconvenience of travelling to meet personally with your audience. (Imagine if you are an author on a traditional book tour.)
* The likelihood of connecting with your audience is higher than if you were to actually meet with them in person. While someone may miss an in-person event, anything published online tends to stay online for awhile if not forever. Someone could find you months, maybe even years, later.
* You can do the tour right from your home or office.
* You can reach more of your target audience in a relatively short amount of time.
* As you interact with members of the audience, they get to know you personally, and you gain more credibility with them.
* After they have formed a connection with you, they may decide to visit your website, opt-in to your mailing list, and/or purchase your products.

HOW LONG WILL I BE ON TOUR?

That’s really up to you, but I won’t lie to you. Preparation for your tour takes some time, and that time is in addition to the tour itself. You will want to give yourself a couple of months at a minimum to prepare.

When deciding how long your tour should be, you will want to be sure that it lasts long enough for you to adequately connect with your audience. In general, tours that last 12 to 21 days are about right.

WHO TAKES A VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR?

Virtual blog tours are perfect for published authors, speakers, business owners, activists, event promoters, and basically, anyone with a message. Regardless of who you are, it is necessary to follow through and connect with the audience, not just through your blog posts but also in the comment area as well. It’s very important to plan for the follow-on discussion and visit the blog several times during the day so that you can interact with the audience.

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

First, you will identify which blogs to contact, focusing on those that have the audience that you target and that will welcome your message. Then, you will write your content and contact the blog owners to set up your tour.

Keep in mind that this is just a general overview of virtual blog tours and not a step-by-step plan for executing them. However, it is important to point out that planning is vital to a successful blog tour. You must set up a schedule of when and where your guest posts will appear, submit your blog posts in advance, and be ready to comment on the day that your blog post is published.

If you follow the proper steps, you will share your message with a wider audience, gain more followers, and maybe even sell more of your products. Now that would be a very successful virtual blog tour!!