Ideas to Advertise Your Blog

A Blog is just like any other type of business. If you want to be successful not only do you have to have an excellent product (your blog’s content) but you also have to have an excellent marketing and branding strategy. Without it you can have the most exciting, interesting and value-filled Blog in the world but, unfortunately, very few people are going to see it.

In this article, I want to get you thinking about the many different ways that you can advertise your blog.

If you know you have a great blog but it’s not generating the traffic or income you expect then, the creative and economical promotional techniques that you’re going to read here today should help you to bring it back to life. Most can be done quite easily and for very little cost, if anything, and will ensure that you get the one thing that every successful website needs in abundance; web traffic.

Promo Technique #1: Use a Wider Range of Platforms to Advertise your Blog Articles. 

Let’s face it, everyone and their mother is using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the rest of the “big” social media websites. While it’s certainly a good idea to use these social media behemoths to get the word out about your Blog, if you want a competitive edge you should be sharing your content on smaller social media websites too.

A few of the smaller networks that you could use include;

1. Empire Avenue. This site is one part social media marketing and one part social networking. Empire Avenue uses “gamification” (game playing) to let their users broadcast their blog content across a wide variety of other social media outlets. Small business owners, social media professionals and, of course, bloggers are their main members.
2. Tumblr. Recently acquired by Yahoo, Tumblr is a very popular microblogging site with a younger and trendier user base. This makes it an excellent platform for sharing new ideas, products and services that are more niche-based.
3. Quora. Created by two Facebook employees, Quora is a “Question and Answer” based website with a unique twist; all of their content is not only created but also edited and organized by the users, most of who lean towards small business and academics.

The point of this promotion technique is to get you thinking outside of the box when it comes to the various methods you can use to advertise your blog. I’ve given you a few simple ideas above, think about the approach and you will certainly be able to come up with a few more on your own. After all, you should be running your blog as a business, it should be fun, entertaining, and profitable.

Promo Technique #2: Use Video, Audio and Images to attract viewer attention.

While sharing a link to your post is always a good idea, it’s no guarantee that someone will click it. On the other hand, using compelling images, videos and even audio clips to grab their attention can work quite well. For example;

1. Use Vine to create a Preview of your Blog Post. You can use this excellent iPhone app to make a six second “looping” short video and give viewers a mini trailer to your blog post. One of the best benefits of using Vine is that, like Tweets, Vine videos are 4 times as likely to be shared!
2. Use SlideShare to create an Outline of your Blog. With 5 times as much business owner traffic then Facebook LinkedIn or Twitter, a SlideShare slideshow embedded into your Blog post is an excellent way to attract visitors to your website using their nearly 52 million monthly visitors. Not only will your finished slideshow be searchable from within SlideShare, extending its reach using Facebook and the rest of the big social media websites is easy.
3. Give web surfers a short Audio Intro using Dubbler. And app that can be used with either iPhones or Android phones, Dubbler gives you an easy way to record a 60 second audio clip that you can use with an image to give your visitors a quick “soundbite” that will give them an idea of what your Blog Post offers. Dubbler is simple and fun and, since it’s so brief, is something that will entice a large amount of people to click and listen.

Promo Technique #3: Use Pinterest and images of your product to attract attention.

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites and allows users to “pin” photographs of anything they like to an online “pin board” for all the world to see. As a member you can pin photos to any contributor’s pin board and their fans will see your images and, if they like them, click them and follow the link to your Blog.

Using Pinterest is easy and people love looking at pictures. Here are a few fantastic ways that you can use it;

• Pin an interesting or thought-provoking image with a link to your Blog
• Make sure to add Keywords to the image description
• If you can make them relevant, use Hashtags as well
• The Title of your Blog should be clearly visible on the image
• Use @ to mention someone from your Blog on Pinterest
• Don’t just advertise your blog,  post an interesting picture from an article on your blog

Promo Technique #4: Use Instagram to share an image.

With over 100 million visitors a month, sharing an image on Instagram is an excellent way to drive “organic” traffic to your Blog site. They also happen to be very “#” Hashtag Friendly and if you use the same image from Pinterest you can easily take advantage of their huge amount of web traffic. If you’d like to do that, below are some simple instructions.

• First, save the image you want to use to Dropbox
• Next, use your mobile device to access Dropbox and your image
• Uploading the image to Instagram is next
• Add your #’s, and the URL, to your Caption
• Use Bitly to reduce the URL and also help you keep track your click throughs
• @ mention any person you might have mentioned in your Blog
• Share liberally on social media including Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr and and other aforementioned social media sites

The fact is that when it comes to advertising your Blog you need to get as creative as possible. The good news is that, with all of the apps, websites and new technology emerging every single day, it’s getting easier and easier to do just that. Keep in mind that even though no one else may be doing what you’re doing that does not mean it isn’t an excellent idea. With a little bit of trial and error you’ll find tactics that resonate with your readers, increase your web traffic and help your Blog to grow.

If you liked this article and would enjoy hearing about some additional ideas on how you can advertise your blog then comment below. We enjoy reading your comments and having you share your thoughts with our readers.

Happy Blogging