A while ago I touched on using social media to promote your blog and writing work and the biggest thing we highlighted being that it’s important to not only post your work but create conversations with you readers. Today I’ll go over additional ways to promote you blog (although a few of them also involve social media as well) to try and gain more readers as well as social media followers.
Table of Contents
Host an Event
One big way to get your name out there is to host some sort of event or help sponsor one. These can range from big events such as concerts, classes, or fairs, but small events can help get your name out their too, such as small meetups (MeetUp.com can be a great way to connect with people in your area) such as discussions, book clubs, and more. For instance, a good way for me to start hosting events and such would be to plan a small group trip to the ballet before moving to bigger events such as a tour of the PA Ballet’s studio and more.
Even planning meetups with your fellow bloggers in your area can help you trade ideas and knowledge about blogging locally. Get out there.
Ad Swapping/Blog Sponsorship
Just like you can connect with bloggers in person, you can connect with them over the web too. Swapping blog ads with your fellow bloggers is a great way to promote your blog with spending very little or no money (if you swap ads). PassionFruit Ads is one great way to do this, as they have an option to swap with your fellow bloggers for no or a tiny fee (they’re policies have recently changed, I believe it’s free for August and then a small fee come September). You can also contact bloggers directly or post in blogging forums or networks (and even social media) looking for those who might want to swap ads. Some bloggers even offer reduced ad rates to their fellow writers to advertise if they’re not looking for a swap.
Guerrilla Marketing
Posting flyers, stickers, and chalk drawings can be great ways to drum up attention for yourself, especially if your blog has some sort of a local focus: food, events, fashion, music, or lifestyle. You can contact local businesses like coffee shops and ask if they have a bulletin board or other place that they put flyers (a lot of my dance studios also have small collections of these, so do gyms). It never hurts to ask.
Business Cards
If your blog is a significant part of what you do for a living (or you have plans for it to be so in the future)–it should probably make it’s way onto your business card in some way. You can either choose to add your website to your card (depending on what your current occupation is) or create business cards specifically for your blog. This way, whenever your blog comes up in conversation (I usually bring mine up in every and any networking conversation) you can hand them a card to remind them out your blog and so you can connect with them in the future.
TweetChats
You should be participating in Twitter chats in fields related to what you blog about, as they’re a great way to get your name out there, and “meet people” in a digital sense. There’s a wide variety of them out there, from ones just held by a group of people (I sometimes participate in a dance-related one Monday nights) or product company run tweet chats. Some also fall in between: one of my favorite chats is #RunChat, which is a TweetChat for runners and but is usually sponsored by a running-related company with one sponsored question and giveaways. To me, sponsored is preferable because not all the questions revolve just around one product and you usually make more connections this way versus just answering questions to win prizes.
You can also host your own TweetChats by picking a unique hashtag related to your subject and picking a time (about an hour) to run them during. I took a poll with my readers and Twitter followers to determine the best time to hold one. I’ll post a more detailed post about TweetChats later and how to run them.
Giveaways
Lastly, a good way to potentially find more readers is to host product giveaways. I usually find companies whose products are already being given away and contact the company about doing my own review and giveaway (This ProBlogger post has a great explanation on how to write a pitch). I usually give entries to readers for not only following the product on social media, but also for following my blog and my own social media. Rafflecopter is an easy and simple way to do this.
Giveaways aren’t necessarily the most effective way to gain engaged followers, because most people are just entering to win a prize, but they will occasionally bring in good readers who become interested after discovering your blog.
What out-of-the-box ways do you use to promote your blog?
About Carson Derrow
