Impulse Blogger

Blog Promotion

One thing required to make anything of your blog is some form of blog promotion, I will list a few methods of proven promotion for your to partake to aid in the promotion of your newly acquired blog, or maybe you just want to boost the traffic to your blog.

Search Engines:

This is the very first step to Blog Promotion! You should submit links to at least all of the major Search Engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask.com etc…). These sometimes don’t bring traffic into your site, but often aid in the page rank and alexa rank build up for the future of your blog.

Directories:

There are so many different varieties of directories, from Tech Directories, to Weblog Directories to Paid Directories and Directories that will list any link you throw at them. Many of the Directories require you to place a reciprocate link usually into your sidebar, many off buttons for placement onto your sidebar.

Good ways of finding various directories involves paying attention to the surroundings of a blog you visit. Many have the reciprocate button in their sidebar, so you can follow through from there. You could also search for them using a search engine.

Some good ones I’d recommend: Blogdigger, BlogTopList, Blog Catalog, Blogarama.

Forums:

Any forums of which your a member of, if you’re permitted to, place a link to your blog in your signature. Some Forums have points exchange systems, one good way of promotion is paying other users a fair price (in forum points) for them to include your link in their signature.

However, many forums (including the ones which I run) frown upon ‘over promotion’ as it is considered to be spam. Mention your blog in your introduction thread, and maybe if there’s a showcase for websites you could mention it there, but don’t start putting the link into your posts where it could be considered Spam!

Link Exchanges:

Possibly the best method of promotion, having link exchanges with other bloggers gives both parties benefits of incoming links. Many link exchanges come about when one blogger admires another’s writing style, and has a similar writing style and theme to their blog.

Another form of link exchanges, is purchasing links on anther blog for a monthly fee (varies of their rankings) these are great ways of incoming traffic for new blogs - although it’s really only a feasible if your blog has some form of income to cover the expenses of this option.

Word of Mouth:

Another good way of ‘organic traffic’ is through word of mouth. If you’re writing good quality, interesting, and unique content people are obviously going to tell others about your blog - having a ‘Tell your Friend about this Blog’ form somewhere on your blog could be a good idea!

Another thing to fall under word of mouth, is the new form of blog promotion - business cards! Since Vista Print have been giving away free Business Cards, bloggers are giving their business cards to everyone they meet - I’ve a drawer full of my own and others from other bloggers!

Adwords:

This would really only be an option if you are earning from your blog, although Bidvertiser are offering a $20 voucher for those who sign up to their advertiser network - I suppose it’s good to gain more traffic, but don’t forget to disable the advertiser function or else your credit card will be charged once the $20 is used up.

Others:

Eventually as blogging progresses, new methods of promotion will be invented, old will be renewed and improved, and maybe we’ll have automated systems (available for free!) to do the promotion work for us!

Until then, we have to do it the somewhat old fashioned way!