Creating a blog is really easy. Creating good content is a bit difficult. But the most difficult part is gaining traffic. Traffic cannot be gained if you rely only on search engine optimization. You need to do something else. You need to promote your blog. Promoting a blog is not an easy task but is not much difficult too. You just need to know what you have to do. The following are the “free and easy” ways to promote your blog. Follow them and you will be surprised by the results you receive.
- Blog Networks
Build relations with other bloggers. Try to help them in their blog. Provide some useful tricks to them so as to impress them. Building relations with other successful and similar bloggers helps in the long run. It helps in sharing traffic. But if done too early when the blog is not complete, it can affect the blog adversely too. - Comments
Comment on other blogs. When commenting on other blogs you usually are offered to provide a link to your website. You can take full advantage of it. Leave meaningful, useful and quality comments on blogs that interest you. Don’t post comments like “I like this post” or “This is awesome”. It will be considered as a spam comment. Each time you comment, you leave a link to your blog. You are also forming relations with the blog owner. Just check if he comments back on your blog. - Chat Rooms
If you use Yahoo or MSN messenger service, you will be familiar with chat rooms. These are the hidden treasures. No one thinks of their potential and often ignore them. But they can generate considerable traffic. You can join chat rooms related to your blog niche and inform a lot of people in a really short time. You can send messages to the online users and inform them about your blog. This is a good way to launch your blog. - Social Networks
If you use services like MySpace or Facebook, you can inform your friends about your blog and post about your blog on the bulletin. You can also post on community forums related to your niche. It is the best place and will surely gain traffic. - Email Signature
You surely email a considerable amount of people in a week, month or year. Use email signatures and include a live link to your blog. Also try to insert a brief introduction to your blog in the e-mail. This will make it easier for the recipients to visit your blog. - Blog Announcement
When you have formed relationship with other bloggers, you can use them. Write an honest article about your blog discussing about the subject, matter, and purpose of your blog. Include a link to your blog and RSS feed. Send the article to other bloggers and request them to publish it on their blog. Don’t force them. They will publish it as per their will. It can be on the same day or when they don’t have anything to write about. - Blog Reviews
You can write reviews of other blogs. Before doing this you should contact the owner of the blog and inform him about it. He might be interested in writing a review of your blog too. But remember to write an honest review and not a review that just impresses the owner. - Forums
Participate In forums and post a thread about your blog with a topic like “review my blog” and ask the users to review your blog. You might discover something you never expected about your blog and also gain some useful tips. This might also help you in forming relations with similar bloggers. - Freebies
Contact the owner of any other blog similar to yours and request him to write a post on his blog about your blog. Provide him something for free like an advertisement space on your blog for some time or a software created by you or any kind of reports or analysis which might be useful for him. - Blog directories
Submit your blog to blog directories. It is easy and free and can boost your traffic. Put your blog in a suitable category and you are ready to go. - Guest Writing
Write an article that you think might benefit other bloggers. Make it related to their niche and not yours. Make it useful and keyeord rich. Keep it brief. Mention about your blog and provide a link. Submit your article to other bloggers and tell them that they are free to publish it and redistribute it without altering the contents. You will be surprised to know how much traffic you can receive. - Bartering
Contact some blog owners with the same subject as yours. Ask them to swap links with your blog. This is a free and useful advertisement. What you have to do is just insert a link to their blog on yours. You can also exchange banner advertisements. It cost nothing and you get free traffic. - Contests
Hold a contest for your readers on your blog. Be sure to be creative. Ask them to promote your blog or tweet any of your post so that you gain more traffic. Give an item for free like one year hosting service, blog theme or anything that they might wish. This will surely create a buzz. - E-books
Write eBooks, reports or analysis about subjects you know and post them on Scribd or some related website for free. Never charge a fee for it. Include a link to your blog. People finding your book useful might be interested in visiting your blog for more. - Podcasting
Create videos of reviews of gadgets or something related to your niche. You can also create video tutorials. Upload your video on sites like YouTube and Metacafe and provide a link to your blog in the description and at the end of the video. You might gain a considerable amount of traffic if you have a considerable amount of audience. - Advertising
Advertise your blog on other websites. You can use a Google program at Adsense. You can also use Pay Per Click advertising programs. They might not always provide quality traffic but sometimes they do. You can also purchase advertisings on popular magazines or e-zines. - Business Cards
Get business cards with your domain printed on them. Make them as creative as possible. Pass them out to your friends, colleagues, staff members and everyone else. The more creative the card is, the more likely it is that the people will visit your blog. - Surveying
Conduct a survey on a topic which is turning a lot of heads. Make sure it is based on a hot topic in which people are interested. After the survey provide reports on the results obtained. Hold similar surveys on your blog from time to time. You can provide your readers with some free stuff with the participation in the survey like reports, tricks, suggestions or software tools. It will create a greater buzz. - Amazon
If you use services like Amazon or EBay to buy books or any other stuff, then post honest reviews of the products you have used. Give useful suggestions and some tips and tricks on the usage of the product. You can always insert a link to your blog at the end and even give a brief description about it. - Squidoo
Create a squidoo lens on Squidoo of an article you think might prove helpful to others. Make sure it is relating to your niche. Make it attractive and professional looking. Take it as another micro blog you use. Insert a link to your blog at the end. Readers who find it useful will surely want to visit your blog. - Affiliate program
Start an affiliate program. Make sure it fits in your budget. Let your affiliates bring in the traffic. This is better than link exchange programs as the affiliates have to convince users. This makes the traffic quite worth and provides loyal readers. - Press Release
If you want a big launch for your blog or something like that, then write a press release and submit it to PRWeb. It is capable of providing enough publicity and a lot of traffic. - Yahoo Answers
If you are an expert in your field or even if you have enough knowledge to help others, then sign up for Yahoo Answers service. You can provide solutions to problems you know about. After answering, you can use the source box and insert a link to your own blog. This way you establish links with others and gain traffic too. When a person whose question you have replied falls in a similar problem again, then instead of posting his questions on yahoo, he would prefer to visit your blog. You can also visit Answers. It is a similar service. - Keywords
Make your content as keyword rich as possible. Optimize each of your post for a particular keyword or search phrase. Use Google Keywords Tool to search for suitable keyword suggestions or any other keyword suggestion tools you prefer. You can use the most searched phrases in your keywords. This gains a lot of traffic. - Domains
Buy a domain which is short and memorable and relating to your niche. Buy misspellings or variations of your domain and of your competitors too. This will reduce the chances of losing the traffic to your blog and redirect your competitors’ traffic to your own blog.
