Promoting your blog with little budget
This article is intended to make you aware of some methods on how to promote your blog without spending a lot of money. We all know that there are expensive ways to promote your blog such as Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and more, but some ways can be accomplished with just having a little budget. Let's look at some tips on how you can conduct these free promotion campaigns.
1) Use social media ads: These are effective because they extend the reach of your ad thus making it cost effective because its reach is so wide across the internet and it’s a whole lot cheaper then Google Adwords or Facebook Ads. This type of advertising is easily found in most social media platforms like Reddit, Instagram and Twitter among others.
2) Use Facebook ads: The majority of our users are found in Facebook, so why not use the platform to promote your blog. Facebook Ads have a lot of method to choose from and you can even create your own. You can promote your blog by targeting these people with interests in the topics that you've written about. For example if you had written an article on "X", you would target those people who are interested in "Y". It is better to include an image as it will capture their attention more than just a text ad.
3) Use Bookmarking sites: This method is not for everyone but it’s very effective when used right and with good content, i.e. you should have a lot of back links to your articles. Some of the most popular bookmarking sites are Reddit, Stumble Upon, Digg and more. You want to gain some traction before using this method because if they are not tagged properly or don't have a lot of good content then it will be marked as spam and you will get a lot of negatives rather than positives.
4) Commenting: This is an old method but it still works today. The trick here is by commenting properly on other’s blog posts where they allow comments and link back to your blog when relevant. This method can work well because if the topic is relevant to your audience, then you will acquire new readers through this method too.
5) SEO: SEO is a very important part of promoting your blog and a lot of people get it wrong because they use the same old methods when in fact, you shouldn't be doing that. You have to change your way of thinking and stop looking at SEO as a separate entity. Instead you should think of it as an extension of your blog because most likely, people will search for something on Google and they will land up on one of the top results provided by Google which happens to be from your website because it has been properly optimized.
6) Having a podcast: This is not for everyone but it’s very effective for bloggers who want to become successful. You can gain new subscribers and viewers due to the fact that it’s a form of content that people don't mind watching. This is also a great method to promote your blog because it is free and you will get discovered.
7) Direct Email Marketing: The most important thing in direct email marketing is making yourself easy to contact. Think of a subject line which will catch their attention and make them want to read your email. You should also include some kind of incentive such as listing their name in the footer of your email just like how Thank You emails work today.
8) Pay per Click: If you want to spend money then I suggest that you use this method because it's very effective and will get you an instant push of traffic to your blog. You can also use paid search engine advertising like Google Adwords or Facebook Ads. The aim here is to drive traffic to your blog and make sales as well.
9) Behind the scenes videos: This method is very popular among many bloggers today but not all are taking advantage of it. Creating behind the scenes videos on something that interests your readers will give them a feeling of being part of something and this method is great for building relations between you, them and your brand name.
10) Cover photos: The cover photo is commonly used among other social media platforms on social media sites like Reddit, Instagram and more. Apart from using it on your Facebook profile, you can also use it when promoting your blog through a page with an image of your blog's cover the banner.
11) Frequent Commenting: This one is for everyone who has a blog and doesn't want to post once every two weeks or so but wants to build up a reader base. You should comment regularly on other’s blogs located in the same niche as yours. Commenting will drive more people to your blog and you can even exchange back links if the blogger is willing to. Be sure to leave a link in your comment to your blog.
12) Google Hangout: One of the most popular social media groups on social media sites like Reddit, Instagram and more is Google Hangout (also known as YouTube hangouts). You can use this method by creating a hangout on Google hangout with a topic that interests your audience or directly invite people by email through their blogs. The aim here is to get them interested in what you have been working on and hopefully they will subscribe after that.
13) Group blogging: If you have good content then using this method can get you some results. Instead of writing one article and promoting it on your blog only, you can share the content into a group blog. This method works especially well because most people love sharing content with others who they think may have good information as well.
14) Product Placement: Another method of gaining new followers is to make a product placement in your blog post. For example if you had an article about "A" then you can make a product that is related to "A". If the reader happens to see your product on their next shopping list, then they would be swayed into giving your site a visit to check out what else you have written about.
15) Collaboration with influencers: The collaboration with influencers is a very effective way of promoting your blog. Simply approach an influencer in your niche and see if they can partner up by writing articles together or one of you write an article while the other comment and vice versa. You can also give away free products to partners who share and promote your blog at the same time.
16) Keyword research: When you do your keyword research, you should think about the niche audience and what are their interests, what does the audience like, what are they looking for, how to get them interested in your content and so on. Once you have the keywords, make a list and start creating your blog post around that topic.
17) Getting a book published: If you have written a great book or even want to publish a book, consider using Amazon as they are ranked higher than any other search engine. Use keywords that are related to your niche and also things in your niche such as the name of someone else's blog. After that create an author page on Amazon and link it to your personal website URL.
18) Becoming friends with influencers: Influencers can help you promote your blog because they already have an audience who are familiar with them and read their content each day.
Conclusion:
You now have a good idea about the step by step methods of growing your blog and using the tips here to your advantage. I hope that this information will help you reach your goals of blogging and reaching new audiences.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Benjamin Bullen
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