With millions of active blogs on the Internet and growing, it’s getting tougher and tougher for bloggers to get much-needed attention and traffic. Worse, it’s getting more difficult to land on the first pages of the major search engine. Still, every blogger worth his salt has to continue figuring out how best to top search results, social media and other areas of the web as it stands today. To help you make your blog dominate in marketing in 2014, here are a few tips that could be instrumental to your blog’s success.

Create quality content consistently

Any blog needs to be updated on a regular basis. Aside from the fact that readers will be more likely to subscribe for email updates and keep track of your blog, consistent content creation will also boost the chances of your posts getting picked up by the major search engines. Even better is the fact that more content also increase the potential for its promotion of your content on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks.

Maximise social media presence

There is no doubt that Facebook and Twitter have taken over the Internet. More than a billion people use it every day, and share whatever they find funny and/or interesting on it. You would be certainly missing out on a lot of things if your blog doesn’t have a presence on social media. Many bloggers have already proven that social media does help them build an audience and drive traffic to their own sites, sometimes with record results.

As a rule, every blog should have its own social media account. It would be great if you can post a link to your latest blog without annoying friend on your personal account. You should also engage your audience on social media. Reply to their comments on Facebook and Twitter as frequently as you can. If there’s some information about your blog that you want to relay to them, update them through your Facebook or Twitter account.

Connect with influencers in social media

The world of social media is full of individuals who may not be really famous as, say, celebrities, but are just as influential—probably even more so—on social media networks. Their influence on social media is so apparent that many companies actively seek them to help strengthen their social media presence and reputation.

That said, you have to build connections with these influencers in social media if you don’t want to miss out on opportunities to get niche industry leaders to notice your content. The best places to look for these influencers in social media are LinkedIn and Twitter. While you shouldn’t be too shy to discuss your blog once you get their attention, you should be weary enough not to descend into shameless self-promotion. That would most definitely turn them off. If possible, discuss your blog as objectively as you can, talk about its merits and if you’re brave enough, its flaws and areas you think could use some improvement.

While there are many other factors in the world of blogging that could influence the direction your blog will be heading, following the above tips should be enough to get you started on working to make your blog dominate in marketing in 2014.