Ever since I left my in-house SEO job to become a freelance internet marketing consultant, I’ve quickly come to realize that I’ve been living in a bubble. For years now, I’ve been reading the top search industry blogs and interacting with other marketers in social media, with very little connection to the “real world” outside of this community.
In the real world, I’ve found that most people know very little about internet marketing, and what they do know is frequently influenced by spammers and scammers. Unless you have a good mentor (or a very highly tuned bullshit detector), you can easily be led astray.
So today, I’m introducing a new weekly feature at the SEO Woman blog called Freebie Fridays. Every Friday, I’ll answer a specific internet marketing question submitted by a reader or found in the wild. Today’s question was discovered on the Yahoo Answers Search Engine Optimization board.
Question
How to market a blog PLEASE HELP?
I have a blog I want to market I don’t have any money. So does anyone have any suggestions. maybe marketing suggestions on free marketing.
Answer
If you don’t have any money, you still have a lot of options in social media.
First, search for some blogs on the same topic and start leaving comments on their posts. Try to write something unique and insightful, rather than spamming your link or just, “Nice post,” and you’ll have a better chance of getting your comment approved.
Join forums related to your topic and participate in the discussions there. Start following people on Twitter, get some people following you, and share your link occasionally when you write a new post. Join a Facebook group related to your topic and share it there.
Again, the goal is always be as genuine as possible. You can’t rush into social situations and start dropping your links everywhere. If you want real humans to visit your blog, you have to treat them like real humans.
Have an internet marketing question for SEO Woman? Contact me here for free SEO advice.
Photo by Lance and Erin.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
We’ve never spent a penny advertising our company online or offline but it powers our traffic and our sales 2 years later.
I think its important to identify where your industry linkerati are hanging out so as to aquire links to your site and build authority and topical relevance so you can rank in Google, and also identify where your customers are hanging out too. Quite possibly two different places.
As you alude to I think it’s better to really participate in a few social mediums rather than them all, so you really can contribute something of value.
If you have a blog, link out often. Be generous and as you say genuine, and people will be generous to you – in most cases.
But it takes a lot of hard work and in many cases it’s about who you know in social media, so make friends, and dont expect to be making a mint from a new blog frm the get go. I’d imagine every successful blog took years to be the blog they are today. There are less and less shortcuts these days.
I’d also say add content to your site and make sure it’s syndicated via rss properly with Google especially – all the time, and try and be focused / unique in voice or in the areas you cover.
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Excellent follow-up advice. Thanks, Shaun!
Of course answering your blog comments (when you can) is another good way of keeping people coming back to your blog
Have a nice day Adrienne
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Yes – it’s a lot of hard work in the beginning, but well worth it when you start reaping the rewards. I am glad it has worked out for you.
Don’t comment for the sake of commenting and getting backlinks. People should realize that building relationships through blog commenting is very important and will over time increase your blog’s exposure, your credibility and making a name for yourself.