Marketfederation

We all promote our blogs online and we should because this is internet (no shit Sherlock) but have you considered promoting your blog offline? I mean, internet is not everything, you need to do some marketing outside the 19″ box, you need to step outside and get in touch with people. Real life counts also you know.

Business Cards - You can always get a good deal somewhere near you or even on the internet. Printing business cards is not that expensive and they can make you look more proffesional and serious. They don’t have to be big and fancy, small and simple business cards work the best. A title, one line description and your personal name with an URL is all you need on a business card. Carry a bunch of them all the time with you because you never know when you can run across another webmaster, possible customer or a business partner. Blogging isn’t just writing, it also means business and a good businessman always makes contact whenever possible.

Flyers - Give them to people, throw them around the block, spread the word about your blog. Flyers can be made cheap, you can even print them at home and copy them a hundred times. Flyers are good for promotion, especially if you have something special to offer like an ebook, computer software or a service. They work as a linkbait. You don’t want to tell people everything on the flyer, the goal is to get them to your blog so they can research the area themselves. Remember my post about How To Write Linkbait Articles? Here’s a proper time to use that knowledge. Toss them around at an IT event and your local school, use your imagination.

Newspaper Ad - You can never miss with a newspaper ad. I know they can be expensive sometimes but they give you maximum exposure. You can always post an ad under the jobs->offering section with a short text explaining what is it that you do. You probably have craiglists in your town so why don’t you try that and see if they work offline as they do online? You can’t know if you don’t try, sometimes offline traffic can be of a bigger value than your internet visitors.

I have listed three most widely used offline promotion tactics but there’s so much more than business cards and newspaper ads, your imagination is the limit. Print your logo on umbrellas or lighters, give away practical accessories like pens with your blog description and URL on them. Pay homeless people wearing signs with your blog address, it’s a thought. Never skip important IT shows and gatherings in your area because those are the best places to meet people with similar interests and exchange business cards or even phone numbers. Get in touch with people.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.