If you’ve been blogging for over a week, no doubt you’ve read countless posts listing ways to successfully market your blog. And they all basically say the SAME thing: Twitter about it, Digg it up, Stumble it, Share it on Facebook, and on and on and on it goes… Once you’ve read one of these articles, you’ve basically read them all! They’re kind of like your average Suggested Wordpress Plugins post. (Seriously, we all know about Akismet already!)
So what about some fresh new Marketing ideas for your blog? Ones that don’t involve social networking sites or sharing plugins. Well, this post is the answer to your prayers… Unless you’ve been praying about world peace, then you should probably go somewhere else.
Here are 5 unconventional ways to market your blog.
1. Comment on Your Readers’ Blogs.
Example: I’m a Type-A personality, tall, deep voiced, athletic male. I do not concern myself with wrinkle cream, trendy perfume, or plucking my eyebrows. On one of my wordpress tutorials, a beautiful young lady named Renee left a very helpful comment. In my curiosity, I visited her blog at BeautyFool.net (for design reasons) and decided to
leave her a comment so she would know I dropped by. From that one comment on a blog that has little do with my niche, I received 125 hits and a handful of subscribers within 24 hours.
While commenting on blogs in your niche is very powerful, don’t be afraid to involve yourself in other communities as well!
Because of that comment, I became friends with Renee and have since posted an interview with her on my blog, generating even more visitors and subscribers. All because of one random comment.
2. Post Entries on Large Networks
While very few of us will ever have the opportunity to write a post for CNN, there are other outlets that we can use. Many local news sites allow users to write uncensored blog entries that are guaranteed to be posted on the site.
Example: TheAdvertiser.com is a news site for the Southwestern Louisiana region. On their site, you can register (for free) and write a blog post on any topic you’d like. Your post will be featured (with your photo) on the front page of their site until another user writes a post. A while back I wrote a sarcastic post about a local news event and included my photo and a link to my blog. Within seconds, I was receiving viewers and comments from that post.
Checkout your local news sites and write something for them, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with your blog! Consider adding a “finish this article at” link at the bottom of your post.
3. Avoid Negative Marketing
If the beginning of every post you write makes a plea for subscribers, you are engaging in negative marketing. While this feature may be useful for new visitors, you must always consider your current subscribers.
Example: A while back, I subscribed to a blog via RSS. It had good content and was very well written. They had a 200 character limit to their RSS Feed (meaning you had to visit their site to finish the article). I understand why blogs do this, so normally I don’t mind. Problem is, they automatically inserted text at the beginning of each post that said, “If you like what you see here, please don’t hesitate to subscribe to this blog via RSS or via Email. Thank you!” Because of that, I could never get an accurate reading of what was actually included in the post. Obviously, I unsubscribed.
To identify Negative Marketing on your blog, ask these questions:
- Does this enhance my product? If so, why or why aren’t my competitors doing it?
- Is this the right place for X feature?
- Will it contribute or detract from promoting my blog?
- Is the price of implementing it worth the potential negatives?
(For you savvy marketing guys, we just worked our way through the 4 P’s of Marketing: Product, Place, Promotion, and Price.)
4. Don’t Forget the Soft Science
As bloggers, most of us love the numbers. We count hits, unique hits, subscribers, referrals, search terms, and much more. Numbers are always exact and easy to interpret. While this is true, we too often forget about the psychology of it all.
No matter what, your presentation will ALWAYS determine your numbers. If your presentation is horrible, then it will fail. Plain and simple.
Example: Why is going to an Apple store more pleasant than visiting Wal Mart? It’s not because it has better prices or a bigger selection. It’s simply because it has the right combination of atmosphere, personality, and service. If you can couple those attributes with content (even average content), your blog’s numbers will increase. Guaranteed.
5. The Customer is NOT always Right.
Example: As a Marketing Guy and a Graphics Designer, I deal with a lot of self-proclaimed experts. One client wants lots of colors in their logo, one client wants a website with 100% flash, and one client wants to use Microsoft Clipart on their publication. To anyone with common sense, all of those clients are complete idiots. I could go along with their requests, but in the long run that reflects negatively on me.
Don’t be afraid to stick to your expertise when you’re challenged by clients or readers. Having the gumption to stand strong will ultimately gain you respect and publicity in your niche.
Now, tackle the world.
Bio: Matt Langford blogs at MattFlies.com about pretty much anything and everything. He has a degree in Marketing from the University of Louisiana and co-owns a Web Design Company in the region. Matt is an advocate of the Thesis Theme for Wordpress, and his posts have been featured on the official Thesis site. He has also been quoted in the Los Angeles Times. You can follow him on Twitter: @Matt425.
I really like this post. Very informative. Commenting on other blogs will give a free traffic. This really help me in increasing my traffic =)
blinkky’s last blog post..How To Subscribe with Blinkky.com
Nice post! I don’t necessarily think commenting on blogs is “unconventional” so much so as “essential for marketing!” Haha. Determining what features to include and what features to X is a really important part of building your overall marketing plan. People don’t want a bunch of bells and whistles, they want a solution.
Corey Freeman’s last blog post..Honest Writing Tip Protects You From Being Murdered In Your Sleep
Corey, I totally agree that commenting on other blogs is essential… What I meant was that commenting on blogs not in your niche is unconventional for many! Thanks for reading!
Matt Langford’s last blog post..100 Resources for Thesis Wordpress Theme Users
Agreed. Commenting on other people’s blogs has no doubt played a HUGE part in how popular Teenius is at the moment in regards to comments and traffic.
Interesting perspective on marketing a blog. I like the term “The Customer Is Not Always Right”. It’s true sometimes the customer is not always right. But in order not to offend them, it’s best to provide them a better solution or idea.
All in all, great post.
LithiumMind’s last blog post..Revisiting The Basics Of Google Adsense
LithiumMind, You’re right, if there is a better solution or idea, then providing that is ideal. However, at times, a customer’s request could diminish the quality of your work instead of enhancing it… Lowering the quality of a product to make a single sale could hurt your potential multiple sales in the future!
Matt Langford’s last blog post..100 Resources for Thesis Wordpress Theme Users
Very good point. There are a lot of other people out there that will offer the same service as you, so it’s important to get a good reputation amongst them.
By doing low quality work (even if the customer requested it), it’s going to look bad on you. However, if you offer a practical solution and then make it better, you’re bound to get recommendations and a good rep in general.
I’d just like to thank Matt for leaving the guest post. It was really great to read and a very nice article.
Thanks for the comments so far guys, I’ll try and get Matt in here to reply to them
Thanks for the invite! It was a pleasure to write something for Teenius!
Matt Langford’s last blog post..100 Resources for Thesis Wordpress Theme Users
And rest assured it was great to have you here
I really love your writing style and the way you clearly put a lot of personality into your articles makes them so enoyable to read. I would recommend anyone to have a look at Matt’s blog!
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Nice job, Matt! Excellent article, especially #5.
Also, Teenius, I’m not sure what this is below the ‘leave comment’ button. I’m just going to leave it on the default selection.
Jeremy’s last blog post..Photoblog: Family Evening at Lake Palourde
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment, Jeremy. The little tick box under the ‘leave comment’ box is for a plugin called CommentLuv. This comment basically pulls your latest post from your blog and displays a link to it at the bottom of your comment.
Great point, commenting on other blog is the best way to increase backlinks and traffic.
Thank Simon!
clickktdotcom’s last blog post..Patience To Be Successful
Agreed. Blog commenting is one of the most powerful things you can do for your blog. Also, whilst I’d love to take credit for this article, Matt Langford wrote it
Great ideas here. Thanks for the share, I’m keeping them in mind.
The negative marketing can really turn away people. The worst part is that word of mouth negative marketing can really kill you. You don’t want one person telling other peoples about the stuff they don’t like about your Blog.
Wordpress SEO’s last blog post..3 Ways to Help You Build Backlinks
You’re very right! In fact, studies show that people are 10 times more likely to talk about a negative experience than they are a positive experience…
Matt Langford’s last blog post..100 Resources for Thesis Wordpress Theme Users
I’m so with you when you say that the Costumer isn’t always right. There a lot of people out there that want to hurt you or your business so we must always be careful and avoid being succumbed to peoples threats.
Asswass’s last blog post..Using Avatars to Brand your Company, Blog or Yourself
I like this post really!
Negative or bad press is not bad, if it’s coming the natural way… Most people do it intentionally and I think it’s retarded as it could easily do more harm than benefits
Melvin’s last blog post..Can Ebooks Help You Make Money?
You’re right in saying that negative publicity isn’t always bad. The main problem, though, is it is very hard to control negative publicity and spin it into something useful. And it depends on your industry! Much easier for Britney Spears to take negative publicity to increase album sales than it is for Microsoft to take negative Vista publicity and increase OS sales. You made a great point!
Matt Langford’s last blog post..People Never Change, or At Least I Don’t
I am really loving your posts recently… Great advice for a noob or experienced old bugger like me!
I never tried the local news submission but think I try and implement the others…
Hey, first time here and am loving your site. Nice design.
About the post…though I am relatively new to blogging, all these tactics are intuitive to me. But I love the way you present your views and the way you have written the post. I gained something from the negative marketing part. I myself was thinking about placing a “Greet Box” on all my posts, but I think I’ll give it more thought now.
Got here from Shoutmeloud. Do visit my site, I am relatively new. Your suggestions would be highly appreciated.
Zubin’s last blog post..Google Wave-Open communication Channel, will be launched soon
In-depth post. Marketing really isn’t my thing, and I have learned a lot. It is very true that the customer isn’t always right. You need to get the customer’s input then decide what to do with it.
Jake | Web Journey’s last blog post..Why I Choose My Domain
Agreed. Marketing is more than just driving mad traffic to your site… it’s knowing how do drive QUALITY traffic to your site
Both of you are correct here! Most people confuse Marketing with Advertising, but it’s actually much more similar to psychology. You MUST understand what your customers are thinking and WHY they are thinking that… Very tricky, but very fun!
Matt Langford’s last blog post..Another Tabbed Widget for Thesis Tutorial (Better!)
“All because of that one random comment.”
*bows* Thank you, thank you very much.
Thanks for the shoutout Matt, and Simon, great site as usual. Love the new look.
Renee
Thanks for dropping by Renee, and thanks for the kind words!
Finding local sites and forums to post on is a great way to promote your blog. Smaller sites can have great PR and authority but be more open to link trades.
Thinking outside the box will always yield results.