How to promote blog online for free?

There are several ways available online that you could use to promote your blog without spending a single penny. But you need to put in a bit of hard work so that you get a good response. The ways are

1.     Participate in community forums like blogger forum.

2.     Participate in groups like google groups and yahoo groups

3.     Participate in social networks like digg, reditt, orkut,facebook etc.

4.     Participate in entrecard

5.     Write as a guest writer in other blogs

6.     Comment on follow on blogs

7.     Submit a press release in PRBUZZ, PR.COM,PR FREE etc.

8.     Use free advertising in Sales Spider, Kijiji, ABC Sreach etc.

9.     Participate in contests and giveways

10. Start a free giveway for blog

11. Apply for website awards and blogger choice awards.

12. Start a podcast

13. Give free ad spaces to other bloggers

14. Start a contest in blog

How to choose a widget for blog?

Many of us like adding a plenty of widgets on the blog. These dumping of widgets must be arrested to make a blog meaningful. These widgets, which according to me are of no good to many blogs, actually make the readers feel dizzy. Just think of a situation, you are visiting a blog that discuss topics on say health. Now you find a widget that is showing latest economic and political news. Is that something relevant for the readers of the blog? So before you put a widget, determine its necessity from the following questions:
Is the widget provides any information relevant to the topic discussed in the blog?
If Yes, then place the widget else discard it.
Is the widget style and color match or goes well with the blog?
If Yes, then place the widget else discard it.
Do I really need this widget?
If Yes, then place the widget else discard it.
Will it distract or annoy people?
If Yes, then discard the widget else place it.
Is the widget location is proper?
If Yes, then place the widget else discard it.
Will the widget slow down the blog loading time?
If Yes, then discard the widget else place it.
Will my readers have any extra information from the widget?
If Yes, then place the widget else discard it.
Will it gather more traffic?
If Yes, then place the widget else discard it.
Will I be penalized for having the widget?
If Yes, then discard the widget else place it.

6 Best Widgets for Blog

Google Analytics:
This provides information about the visitors like their location, sites that referred to your site, number of page-views and unique visitors, average time spent on blog, etc. It is very essential for your site and can be used as a diagnostic tool for your blog’s performance. There is also a feature called goal conversion, which helps to identify a goal of the site and number of goals achieved per visitor. This widget cannot be used by wordpress.com blogs.

OutBrain.com
This site provides a widget for rating your article on the blog. It’s very helpful readers who can comment as well as rate your performance. One need not register with the site for getting this widget.

Addthis.com
Addthis button on the post helps in social networking, which at present is an essential tool for marketing. Drop down option of the button is the best as it gives the convenience of selecting the site to which one wants to book mark. Moreover with this widget in place there will be no need of put several icons of digg, stumbleupon, etc.

Bidvertiser:
This helps in increasing the revenue from the site on the basis of clicks on the ads from your site. The good thing about Bidvertiser is that its minimum payout is $10 compared to $100 of Google Adsense. So you don’t have to wait too much.

Entrecard:
This is the amalgamation of networking and advertising. Bloggers connect with each other through this network and place ads. You earn entrecard credits which you can later sell for cash.

Project Wonderful:
This is a new advertising platform especially for small bloggers. Advertisers bid for the space on the blog and the bid that wins is shown on the blog. The revenue depends on the number of pageviews. The higher the pageviews, the higher the bid amount your space will receive. It allows other ads also to be placed on the blog along with it.

20 Best Directories to submit your blog

Submitting blogs to directories is essential for driving traffic to your blog. This is essential for your blog popularity and is a must in your marketing strategy. The blog directories also provide you an opportunity to host forums and community. This helps to create a consistent reader base. But remember just putting blogs in directories doesn’t ensure good traffic flow. When you submit a blog always try to put it in the best possible category and have good keywords or tags ready before you submit. These are essential for finding your blog in the directory. Then when you are asked to write about your blog, please write in brief and highlight the subject you are writing. Lastly, don’t submit a new blog because it may be rejected. Submit a blog which has at least 10 posts and 14 days old. The list is given below:

 

1.    Technorati

2.    BlogCatalog

3.    BlogFlux

4.    TopBlogArea

5.   Bloggopaedia

6.   TopBlogging

7.   BlogTopList

8.   Fuel My Blog

9.   Blogarama

10. Bloggernity

11. Blogadda

12. Bloglines

13. BlogHub

14. Globe of Blogs

15. BlogWise

16. Blog Universe

17. Blog Fusion

18. Dmoz

19. Blog Rankings

20. Blogadr

How to get a better Google Page Rank ?

Here some good tips that I have applied for my blog for getting a good page rank. It has already improved my blog’s indexation. Now the question remains is what should be the qualifying rank for a blog. If you do a little page rank check, you will find having a page rank of 5 or more means the blog is popular.

 

1. Do not have any traffic exchange banner or things like that in the blog. It is going to be considered as paid back link, and hence you are going to be penalized by a lower rank.

2. Use Google Analytics to monitor which pages attract less visitors. Try to promote those pages in Google groups, blogger forum and other social networking sites.

 
3. Try to gather back links from .gov and .edu sites, because Google gives a higher weightage to these sites and the back links could dramatically increase page rank.

4. “Patience is a virtue”. You will need plenty of them in order succeed.

5. Use proper meta-tags and keywords so that pages can be easily found. Be a little spammy when writing these tags and keywords.

6. Content is the king for bloggers. Be focused on the content and try to provide the best articles for your readers

7 Common Mistakes that Bloggers Should Avoid

1. Copying articles from other’s blogs or newspapers

There is no harm if you are inspired by an article and add something new to the topic. But many just downloads the contents from different sites like blogs, newspapers etc. and paste them as their own post. Duplicate content never creates a niche for you and you are seen as just another blogger repeating the same thing over and over again.

2. Using unnecessary widgets in blog:

Many bloggers have the sidebar filled with different widgets. But they never seem to realize that those unnecessary widgets are actually slowing down the blog. Many readers won’t wait that long to read the articles.

3. Spending more time in blog promotion than in writing articles:

Yes, I agree Blog promotion is essential for a successful blog but without great content all your traffic that you find coming are never going to visit you again. If you are using Google analytics you will find the time spend on your blog by visitors is slowly declining.

4. Putting Traffic exchange Links:

These were very popular among bloggers but they actually lower your Google page ranks so immediately get rid of it.

5. Inconsistent blogging topics and irregular posting:

These two factors make you lose your readers. Whenever you change your blogging subject you set to lose previous readers who came for the previous subject and you are always making a new start. Irregular posting also annoys readers .They will not return if you do not post in a regular manner.

6. Trying to make quick money from blog:

Quick money from blog is not feasible. You need to put in your efforts for at least two years or so in a consistent manner with full zeal, even before you can earn something meaningful. Blogging just for money and not for the passion about the subject is surely going to fail. First try to make your blog meaningful to readers and then only think about monetary gains.

7. Promoting blog even before you have posted your first article:

This is detrimental to blog’s reputation though I have seen many doing this. They give out thousands of tags and keywords for their blogs and don’t even have a single post. These blogs readers tend to avoid being cheated once.

How to get more readers subscribe to Blog feed ?

I have seen that some of my friends get a lot of traffic but actually very little subscribe to blog feed. I asked this question in Google Groups, but didn’t get good enough replies. Then after a while I felt that adding subscribers to blog is like making a loyal consumer towards a brand. I mean to say “Brand Management” of the blog is essential to gather readers. Now what actually makes consumers loyal to a brand? Let us discuss them and see how we can implement the ideas in our blogs.

First and essentially the most important criterion for a successful brand is the premium quality. Now what does it essentially points us, we must write articles that are not only of use to the reader but gives him some out of the way thinking, which others have not yet delivered. Essentially articles must differentiate you from the crowd.

Second trait of a brand is, it is extremely customer friendly. We have to replicate that in our blogs too. Like why should we bother the reader in searching the whole blog for getting your subscription link? Make it more noticeable and easily approachable hence more convenient for reader by providing a link at end of each post or highlight the link so that it can be easily distinguished from the rest.

Third each company rewards its loyal customers. Bloggers can also do the same by giving out free e-Books or some interesting articles or whatever one’s feel like to the subscriber.

Fourth is the innovativeness. A brand changes with the change in its customer’s demands or needs. A blog should also have that adaptability and should always change itself so that it benefits it readers. For this even you can ask for suggestions openly to the readers or subscribers.

How to promote blog offline ?

The following offline promotion techniques are quite efficient, to gather attention and drive traffic to the blog.

1. Print blog address on business cards.

This technique is one of the most popular ways to drive traffic. You should not make an ordinary business card for the purpose; try to be more creative and colorful. Add your blog’s logo on the business card. Make your card of plastic instead of paper so that it cannot be easily destroyed and make it so beautiful that people will like to have one.

2. Advertise through Internet Cafes.

I have seen many people writing their blog’s name and address on T-Shirts and wearing them. I have innovated over the same idea. First go the internet café and tell them that you want to organize a contest among its customers. If they allow you, then organize a pretty easy contest and then give out gifts in forms of T-Shirts and Collectibles on which you have printed your blog address and logo.

3. Give out leaflets.

Print leaflets and give it out to people so that they become aware of the blog. I have seen people distributing leaflets but I really wonder how many people actually visit the blog. Instead of writing only your blog’s name and address on the leaflet, write a small article in line with the topics that you discuss on the blog. This way your prospective visitors already know what your blog is all about and you will also get more visitors who actually participate in the blog by making wise comments.

4. Participate in blog seminars and expos.

Participation and discussion with the other bloggers also enhance your blog’s credibility. You will find that others also promote similar ideas and write about them regularly. Try to make friends so that both of you help each other in your blog promotion.

5. Submit an article to newspaper.

Many times local newspapers hire freelance journalists. Grab this opportunity and write about the issues that you discuss in your blog with a blog address at the last. This helps grab attention of the interested visitors and your blog makes a niche audience.

How to earn from your blog ?

There are several ways to earn from blog, which I have seen from visiting other’s blogs for sometime now. It is quite wonderful to see how they have managed to earn. The ways are listed below:

1. Using Advertisements:

This is the most common and easiest way to earn. Popular among them is Google Adsense. There are many others like Bidvertiser, Clicksor etc. It is easy to signup and place ads on your on blog. They share revenue when someone clicks on the ads shown on your blog. Minimum payout varies from $100 to $10. You must also abide by their rules otherwise they have controls to check false clicks and you may be banned and lose whatever you have earned.

2. Selling Ad Space:

This is also similar to previous one, but it differs in one way, you are paid for the number of page views and not when your ad is clicked. It is only good when your site has a good traffic. You can then ask for sponsorship directly. Even small bloggers have the opportunity. But as they don’t have enough traffic, its best not sell directly but involved in agency that manage the selling of your ad space. One such is Project Wonderful. They have only one criterion for joining, i.e. you must have 30 posts before you join.

3. Joining an affiliate Programme:

You can sell through your blog and earn a commission. But make it sure that products that you endorse should be in line with your blog topics. Say if you write about books or authors you can sell books. This is a must to earn otherwise your audience will not be interested enough to even to have a look and your reader base to gradually decline.

4. Get paid to post:

There are certain websites like PayPerPost and Sponsored Reviews that pay when you write about the advertiser’s products. You should endorse them or even constructive criticism is allowed.

5. Selling an e-Book or Article:

If you are expert in a field, say marketing and have been writing about it for sometime and hence have a reader base you can offer a consultancy or an e-Book or an article that your readers will be interested to buy.

6. Using Ad links within post:

This is much better than other advertisements because they relate to the context of your writing. Use WidgetBucks and your ad links will be shown in the post itself. When a reader will click on them you get a revenue share.

7. Asking for Donation:

Get a Paypal button on your blog which asks for donation. Ask your readers that if they have found the blog helpful to donate money in your Paypal account. Bloggers use different types of buttons like “Buy a beer” or “Buy me a coffee”. Use buttons that suits you best and you will get some money from your benevolent readers.

Best of luck and hopefully you will find this post helpful. Please comment if you have any more interesting ideas.

How do bloggers earn their living from blogs?

I have been visiting blogs for a time now. Most of the bloggers seem to blog because they want to earn money from their blogs. Indeed blog is going to br the next medium after the websites to deliver informations to consumers.
Now, why blog is going to be more popular in future than websites. Blog has two distinct advantage over a general website ---- first is the personal touch in the form of advice and guidance from the blogger and second is the niche marketing oppurtunity, one of the best ways to reach target audience.
This is what a blogger should concentrate on. First and foremost try to create a niche blog, on a subject that you are comfortable with and also love to write about. Why I said so , I will discuss in a moment. The niche blog also have specific target audience. Then put ads that are suitable or relate to the topic you are discussing about. This makes more readers click on the ads and increase your revenue.
Now, why I said a you to have a subject that you will enjoy writing about. The reason is a blog takes a long time to get recognition and to gather a good number of pageviews each day. Until that time it’s your passion for the subject that should drive your writing.So have a brainstroming session before you actually write start blogging. Best of luck and please do comment about our views