Tags: | blog promotion | free | traffic |

2007-04-11 00:00

13 Free Ways I Have Promoted my Blog, and How Well They Worked

Since I am new to the blogging world, I have been spending way too much of my time reading everything I can find about how to advertise, promote, or otherwise drive traffic to a blog. It's obvious that without traffic, you will have no readers, and I have been trying many traditional and non-traditional ways to gain the traffic needed to eventually have a readership. So, here for your reading pleasure are 13 free things I've done so far, and how well they worked (in no particular order):

1. Posted in the "advertise your site here" section of a forum I belong to - this produced a surprisingly high number of visitors, and some feedback from other members, not sure if anyone decided to become a regular reader though. I also added the URL to my signature.

2. Told my family and friends to check out the site - very minimal impact, most of what I write about is boring to them, and I doubt they spread the word to anyone.

3. Submitted my Site Map to Google - this seems to be a very good way to get all of the pages in your blog indexed by google quickly. Before submitting a sitemap, google had only indexed 3 or 4 out of 20 entries, and the day after I submitted my sitemap all of my entries had been indexed. I've been getting a trickle of search visitors on a variety of search terms since doing this.

4. Submitted my URL to the Yahoo Directory and Open Directory Project - at last check neither of them has listed my site. If it was listed in either recently, I've had no traffic from them.

5. Joined and published to Squidoo - created two "lenses", neither has had any views, or produced any links to my blog - I think this site has too many publishers and too few readers.

6. Joined MyBlogLog - I've been signed up less than a week, and I have had a modest number of visitors so far, but I can definitely see the potential this site offers for blog traffic, especially if I continue to explore other blogging sites and get my picture shown in the "recent readers" section of the blogs I visit.

7. Submitted my blog to Technorati - Although it is supposed to be one of the greatest blogger networking sites out there, I have had no traffic from Technorati. My rank, although not horrible, isn't good enough to garner any attention - and my entries have yet to draw in any searchers. I may be doing something wrong here, and we'll see how it goes as I become more "established."

8. Joined the 2kbloggers Community - At first I just saw it as a way to get my picture and blog address involved in an interesting project, but I soon realized that I enjoy being part of the "community" that exists at 2kbloggers.com as well, so I've been participating. I have received a few blog visitors and comments about my blog because of this involvement, maybe not the best traffic generator yet, but it has been valuable in other ways so far.

9. Asked for a review from "Ask and Ye Shall Receive" - I just submitted my site to them recently, so they haven't gotten around to writing a review yet. Not sure how this one will work out but I like getting reviewed, so even if it gives me no traffic or good promotion, I'll get to read a review of my work.

10. Dugg a few of my entries - This generated a fair bit of traffic the night I did it, and I even had four other people digg one of my entries, but since the first night I've had no traffic. I also received two mean spirited comments on the digg page for my "popular" entry - I like digg, but I have little experience with it, I won't give up on it yet though.

11. Participated in a blogging contest, and a blogging carnival - The contest gave me somewhere around ten visitors (I didn't win), and a link. The blogging carnival hasn't finished accepting submissions yet, but imagine it will do about the same, a few visitors and a link - both of these activities gave me ideas for posts as well. I will likely continue with some of these types of blog activities in the future.

12. Posted my URL on my social networking profiles - No one has said anything to me about the site, and my stats show no incoming links, but I imagine if anyone is ever curious, I'll get a reader who is somewhat interested in what I have to say - after all, they are probably already my "friend" online.

13. Submitted my blog to a few blogging directories - this has generated no traffic, but may give me a few "links" for the search engines to factor in. One directory even denied my blog - apparently over at blogcatalog.com, my site isn't actually a blog, and not eligible for inclusion.

I feel that I've planted quite a few seeds, and now I just have to wait and see how well they sprout and help my blog grow. I will continue to search for free promotional ideas, and if I come up with any really unique or effective methods, I will share them. If you know of some great idea that I didn't list here, I would appreciate any tips!

- Kevin
Kevin (at) Upcsite (dot) Net

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