10 Tips for Advertising Your Blog
How do you advertise your blog? It’s a common question among bloggers, especially those who are just starting out with their new website and don’t yet have thousands of daily readers or email subscribers. If you want to know how to advertise your blog, first make sure it’s worthy of advertising in the first place! But even if you feel your blog has great content, here are some tips for effective advertising that will get you results.
1) Treat your website like a business
Before you start thinking about how to advertise your website, take a step back and think of it as if it’s a business. How would you go about getting clients? What marketing techniques would you use? What’s your brand, mission statement and unique selling proposition? If you can answer these questions before jumping into advertising, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to market your site.
2) Network with other bloggers
Developing a relationship with another blogger can benefit your site in several ways. First, it’s a great way to get more traffic. Link to each other and share content on social media—both of you will gain from increased exposure. Second, you’ll have someone to bounce ideas off of and keep each other motivated. There are plenty of opportunities out there if you know where to look; it’s just a matter of putting yourself out there and making those connections.
3) Try social media ads
While you can advertise on sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s a good idea to start small with social media ads. Since they’re relatively inexpensive, you can get a feel for what type of return on investment (ROI) your ads are getting. If it looks promising, consider scaling up your ad spend in other areas.
4) Create an email list
Once you’ve decided on a platform, ask your readers to join your email list. This is a great way to build a following and is one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with them regularly. Even if you don’t have something important to say, shoot out an email at least once a month, letting your subscribers know what’s new with you and what they can expect next from you or your site.
5) Use free traffic sources
Search engines are a great place to start when you’re looking to get started with advertising your website. Google, Bing, and Yahoo! will crawl your site and index it; if your site is relevant enough, they’ll send traffic from these searches directly to you. Leverage these free sources of traffic by learning how to optimize your content for search engines.
6) Learn paid traffic sources
Learning about paid traffic sources doesn’t have to be difficult. The best place to start is in your niche. Look at other successful bloggers and pay attention to what they’re doing. If a blogger is driving a lot of traffic, try to figure out what they’re doing differently than you are and see if you can replicate it. Never do just one thing when it comes to online marketing—test new things all of the time!
7) Don’t spend too much on ads
Just because advertising your blog is an option doesn’t mean you should spend a ton of money on it. In fact, if you’re just starting out and are in growth mode, don’t even think about buying ads. You want to be able to focus on growing your subscriber base first before trying to make money from ads.
8) Measure your results
You can advertise your content online in several ways. The easiest is to put a Google AdSense ad on your site. You can also link to an advertising network (such as BuySellAds or AdBrite) where companies pay you to display their ads on your site based on how many clicks they get from your audience. In addition, you can join affiliate programs in which you place links (banners and text links) for affiliate products.
9) Scale your advertising budget wisely
Remember, you aren’t paying to get your content seen—you’re paying to convince people that your brand is a worthwhile place to spend their hard-earned money. If you overspend on advertising, you won’t have much cash left to do business with.
10) Go back to #1
On top of getting exposure on other channels, investing time in social media will help you gain followers who are more likely to engage with your posts. Use #2: On top of getting exposure on other channels, social media can help you gain new followers and improve brand awareness. Use #3: On top of getting exposure on other channels, investing time in social media will help you gain new followers and increase brand awareness.