10 Surefire Ways To Promote Your Blog… For Free!
By Bryan Clark on Jul 16, 2007 in Uncategorized
More often than not, this is the one area where new bloggers (myself included) struggle. I’ve composed a list that may help you draw new readers to your site. I must insist that this list is only here to attract new readers… keeping them is up to you and your ability to write good content.
- Get Your Link Out There - There is no other way to bring traffic to your site. Your primary goal as a new blogger should be to get your link out to as many sources as you can. Not only does this bring you new traffic, it also increases Google Pagerank.
- Join A Blog Community - My Blog Log and Blog Catalog are the two most popular, but there are many more out there. These communities exist solely for the purpose of connecting bloggers with readers. Go find some similar blogs, post in the forums, make some new friends… stay active!
- Don’t Forget Friends And Family - I read somewhere that the average person has approximately 200 people that they interact with on a somewhat regular basis. If your friends and family aren’t involved… think of how much traffic you could potentially be missing out on.
- Comment… Comment… Comment… - Make sure you are staying active in the blog community. You want to read and comment on as many blogs as you can find. It’s free promotion, and it allows you to learn a thing or two while doing it. Have fun with it, make some new friends. Remember if a blog is “Do Follow” it’ll also provide a linkback to your site every time you comment. You can find a list of “Do Follow” Blogs here and here.
- Show Blog Love - Like it or not, the blog-o-sphere is a community. If you don’t show your neighbors some love, what makes you think they’ll show you any? Make sure that you are linking to other blogs, helping others with questions, and promoting their blogs by linking to relevant stories. You have to give to get!
- Join A Blog Carnival - These are essentially giant lists of blogs, much like a blog community. You can add new friends or join someone else’s neighborhood, just by clicking a few buttons. You can find a list of Blog Carnivals here.
- Be A Good Stumbler - Read the article here.
- Form A Partnership With Other Bloggers - Make some friends along the way. Work together on a topic, ask each other questions, do a link exchange! Having blog friends are keys to success in blogging.
- Have A Contest - Getting blog traffic is all about generating buzz. What better way to generate buzz than by giving something away? This is a great way to gain new readers and it doesn’t have to cost you a dime. Who says you have to give away a new laptop computer? How about a review on your blog for free? That’s pretty valuable to a blogger as well!
- Be/Have A Guest Blogger - Guest bloggers are a great way to gain new traffic. Usually a guest blogger will link to their article on their site and that will generate traffic to yours. Being a guest blogger works the same… Write an article and link to relevant articles on your site. The introduction blurb alone is a valuable way to generate traffic. “This is So and So and their site is here… check out their guest post… blah blah blah”
These are just a few of the ways to generate more traffic for your site. Many more exist, but I thought we would go over the most common ones first.
What do you guys do that helps your blog generate traffic?
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26 Comment(s)
By AndrewPatrick on Jul 17, 2007 | Reply
Great post bro!! I need to start commenting more..like this.
Gonna check out some blog carnivals too..I forgot all about those.
andrew
By Taz on Jul 17, 2007 | Reply
=)
Interesting Post mate! I’ll be sure to try and utilise some of that =). Blogger had some interesting tips too. One that stuck in my head was to include your blog address in your email signature. You could also use it as a signature in forums as well if you were active in them =).
By Jymsym on Jul 17, 2007 | Reply
These are are all great ideas. Ones I had to learn slowly! This should help newbie bloggers get going well.
Jim
By Deathsweep on Jul 17, 2007 | Reply
Hey Dude, glad I finally got a chance to look over your new material. This stuff is good. What’s surprising is that I’ve been trying to do a lot of these things with no coaching; now that I have the Dude on my side I can expect a lot more. I just feel it!
DS
By Pipe Smoking on Jul 17, 2007 | Reply
I think I’ve used all 10 of these when promoting my blog. Commenting on tons of blogs consistently is tough. Stumbling the ‘right way’ can pay off in a big way.
By webd360 on Jul 17, 2007 | Reply
I agree about commenting and staying active in the blogosphere. It is very important and I actually find it entertaining to read posts and put my input into them, which is why I love blogging and prefer it over normal webmastering (if thats a word
)
By Contamination on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Well, I am happy that the top commentators widget has been installed. Now I MUST come back and be involved….
By scorpius on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
hyi,
neat stuff.realy helped me out here as i was searching for this info for quite some time,esp the blog carnival.in the beggining i could not make out heads or tails of it,but now,thanks once again,by the way,i DIGG also!
By Mosley on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Great post I am going to link to it on my blog I am doing post about blog promtion post on other sites. I guess you call it speed linking.
By Bryan on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
I’m glad everyone seemed to enjoy this post.
Hopefully this helps you to generate new traffic, and I know you are all capable writers that will keep them coming back!
By Millionaire Secrets Exposed on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
I’m new to the blogging community so your post was extremely invaluable to me. Thanks
By Jason on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Nice tips. While I do most of these things, I’m too lazy to submit to all the blog carnivals and what not. I’m just beginning to understand the powa of guest blogging. Probably be my next venture.
Nice blog.
By yustiawan on Jul 19, 2007 | Reply
I’m a new comer in the blogging community. I think that’s such a good tips and help me to generate new traffict. thank you…!!!
By dorischua on Jul 20, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for dropping by my blog and the comment. This is definitely a helpful list for bloggers who needs an increase in web traffic. So here am I, visiting your blog cos you came to mine - comments do work
By Jag on Jul 20, 2007 | Reply
Hi Bryan,
Good points. Especially the one on contest.
That is sure to generate interest especially if the prizes and incentives are good.
Cheers,
Jag
By internetgenius on Jul 21, 2007 | Reply
Excellent advice! I think the key to all of this is consistency! All of these tips are great, but I think if you want to see long-term results, you need to be consistent in your efforts. In other words, you are much better off spending 15-30 minutes (or more) per day commenting on other people’s blogs than you are spending one entire day per month.
By Sly from Slyvisions.com on Jul 21, 2007 | Reply
Very very very important points that you gave out there Bryan. With all those things applied, a blogger can have all the organic traffic they can ever get.
By swollenpickles on Jul 22, 2007 | Reply
Here is an interesting review exchange thing that I got on board. It’s another free way to promote your own blog, whilst also sharing some love around.
By Lewis Empire on Jul 23, 2007 | Reply
These are great points. It feels like you’re late for the party when you first start but as time goes on you start to have more fun and make some blogging friends and colleagues.
By A.J. - IAmFacingMillions.com on Jul 24, 2007 | Reply
I agree with most of your tips there. Most of them are effective ways to build traffic.
But remember, this is just half of the equation. For example, take the blog contest item. That in and of itself won’t drive any substantial amounts of traffic. Promoting the contest will. There are entire blogs that are devoted only to listing blog contests out there. So merely running a contest without promotion will only generate activity from our current audience (and the net results of the contest if you can get links from it or reviews or whatever). But a properly promoted contest for a desirable item will draw in new readers… A relevant give away will draw in well targeted new readers.
By S.J- Wedding Planning Secrets on Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
Thank you for your tips. I learned alot! Great blog, by the way!
By Bryan on Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
Thanks! Glad to see a new face
By michael penalba on Aug 21, 2007 | Reply
Your article is very informative especially to someone who is new in this thing. I hope to use them to generate traffic to my blog.
By blogdemic on Oct 21, 2007 | Reply
i thought everyone might find blogdemic useful (http://www.blogdemic.com)
Blogdemic is a new service that allows blogs to trade imps, base on related topics etc.
Blogdemic can dynamically/automatically create your advertising banner using your RSS feed and we also allow our users to setup default tags (like google adsense) to be disable along with our blog users tags (you can set the percentage)
By Bob on Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
I have just found your post and have to say you have offered some great tips on getting traffic, I will implement some of them.
By Prashant on Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
Hey nice post. and nice tips too. Thanx