» Advice

Is there anything more ironic than using a newspaper to promote your blog? I mean, blogs (and the whole social media revolution) are really pitted as the reason for the decline of newspapers. But with that said, that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of your local newspaper or online publications. Newspapers are always looking for stories, content, and money and will always have open ears and pockets if you’re looking to promote your blog.

First off, let’s look at this from a financial situation. Newspapers need money - always have and always will. If you have the extra money, one thing you want to look into is taking out an add in your local paper. Now, depending on where you’re located (big city, small city) you’ll find a variety of different options and prices. If you’re a sports blogger, you’ll want to take an advertisement out on the sports page. If you’re a entertainment blog, you’ll want to put it near their gossip column. If you’re a business blog, you’ll want to put it in the business section. It’s very important that you match your blog niche to the correct section of the newspaper to make this an effective marketing strategy.

If paying for a full out blog advertisement isn’t something you’re interested in, you’re still not out of luck. As I mentioned before newspapers and online publications are always looking for content - especially free content. What you’ll want to do is contact somebody from the newspaper or online publication and let them know you’re interested in writing a small piece on a relevant topic that matches that papers needs, but, that also compliments your blog. Simply asking what they need in terms of content might not be a bad approach. Making “friends” with your contact is the most important part here. Once they’ve given you a topic to write about, hopefully they’ll publish it in your local paper or on an online publication and you’ll get free promotion using that method.

It’s actually something I’ve seen done before and I can’t understand why it’s not used on a more consistent basis. It’s a very cheap and easy way to promote your blog to thousands of people, if not more.

Give it a try!

When you start a new blog one of the first things you’ll do in the process is get a domain name, or at least, “find” a domain name if you don’t make one up yourself. As you go along, you’ll start to notice that many two, three, four, or five letter/word domains are gone. Why? Because they’re simple to remember. Simplicity is one of the biggest advantages you need to look for when you’re trying to find a new domain. Below, I’ll run down a few important issues you’ll need to keep in mind when selecting a domain name.

1) Simplicity - As I stated above, there is a reason most simple domain names are gone. You need something easy that everybody can spell. In this situation, the shorter, the better. My best suggestion would be to keep your domain name below 10 characters. It’s also best to keep your domain at one or two words. For example, “BloggerInstitute” would be a “two word” domain. However, “BloggerInstituteOfTechnology” would be a “four word” domain and pretty much be totally worthless.

2) Easy To Remember - This is similar to the above need to keep it simple, but you need to find a name that not only you can remember but one that everybody else can as well. Just because “Auatua.com” might be a short name, it doesn’t mean people will remember it. How many websites and blogs do you visit off the top of your head? Many. So make sure you keep it simple and easy to remember.

3) Spelling Issues - This again could be thrown into the first idea of keeping it simple, but, we’re not just saying to avoid incorrect spelling of words. We’re also saying to avoid hard to spell words. For example, a word like “cappuccino” is difficult to spell for most people, so, you’d want to avoid a commonly misspelled word in your domain name.

4) .Com domain - This one is a little tricky in my book. Do I think it’s necessary? Not right off the bat, no. This is something you’d want to look into further down the road if your blog becomes a success. The reason for this however is because people will always think “.com” in their brain when they’re looking for a website/blog. Hosting companies charge a lot of money for available domain’s that end in a .com address, and with good reason. Stick with a .net or .org domain for now, but keep an eye out on an eventual move to a .com domain.

When you first start a blog one of the first things you’ll do is find yourself promoting it. You’ll sign up for all of the blog directories, you’ll start posting on forums, you’ll start visiting other blogs and eventually, you’ll most likely start e-mailing people/other blogs informing them about your blog. And you should, as it’s a great method of bringing in new visitors to your blog but you need to make sure you do it the right way.

The most important idea you’ll need to keep in mind is that honesty is the key. We all get tons of spam mail and we all know what it looks like, so, make sure YOU don’t sound like spam when you send out e-mails to potential viewers.

Many times I see e-mails from bloggers that look like:

“Hello - There is a great new website which I think you’ll enjoy! Check out www.SITENAME.com here!”

That’s really the equivalent of walking up to somebody on the street you don’t know and trying to force some product on them. More times than not they’re going to ignore you and move on, and the same thing is going to happen in the cyber-world. A more effective approach would be:

“Hello Blogger - Today I wrote a posting that really meshes with the article you wrote on *insert topic*, which you can find here (put link in). I’d love to know what you think about it, and if possible, maybe you could share it with your readers as well.”

The blogging community is one of open arms, generally (although you’ll have your bad apples as usual) so, use that to your advantage. Contact bloggers - introduce yourself - say hello - make friends…it’s not difficult at all. It does take some time and effort, but the reward is worth it in the end. Just make sure to respect boundaries and always be honest and upfront. You do this and you’ll go quite far.

When blogging, one thing you always want to do is to keep in touch with your readers. You’ll always have your quiet readers who never comment, etc, but there ways to get them to speak up…without having them actually speak up, which we’ll get into later.

But to the point, it’s very important to connect with your readers to be a successful blog. Because, let’s face it, without your readers…you don’t have much of a blog, do you? There are a few ways to connect with your readers that take little time or work on your part.

The first thing you can do as a blogger is simply get involved with the comments that your readers read. For some unknown reason, many bloggers will read the comments but don’t really take the time to interact with them. I’m not sure why? I mean, in a way, you have a very small “celebrity” type personality when you own a blog, and people do enjoy hearing from you, the blogger…so take the time to write back to their comments, be it a question or not. It’s lets the reader know you are reading what they’re writing and are willing to take time out of your busy schedule to let them know they’re important.

Another important way to connect with your reader is using the “social platform” method, which is simply letting your bloggers know more about you. As a blogger, you should fill out your “About Me” areas of your blog and do so thoroughly. Readers like to know about the blog owner/author and it’s a good feeling for the reader to have more than just an idea or image in their head about who exactly you are. Pictures also work well. A face to put next to the writing really improves a readers perception of you and your blog. In addition to the “social platform” method, you also should take the time out to connect with your readers through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. If you don’t have an account, time to sign up. Make sure you let your readers know you have profiles on those websites as well.

Lastly, use your sites content to your advantage. Through the stats page in your blogging platform, you’ll be able to see the popular postings and what people like. In addition to that, set up public polls that will allow readers to help you decide what types of things will improve your blog. There are many readers that are quiet (as I stated above), that will be more than willing to anonymously help you improve your blog…so let them. Ask simple questions about how you can improve your blog, what they would like to see more of, see less of, etc.

It’s very important that you include your readers in your decisions, because without your readers, you have a journal…not a blog.