OFFLINE BLOG PROMOTION STRATEGIES MYSTIFIED-- PART 2

In this post I discuss techniques 5-9 for offline blog promotion strategies.You can read 1-4 from part 1.

5. Go Postal

One morning a good blogger went to his PO Box to find that inside it was a rather large parcel. Inside was two things – a book and a T-shirt. He didn't know the name of the person who sent them to him but on the accompanying business card and note was the name and URL of a blog which he checked out later on that day.

Promoting yourself to other bloggers can be effective but many of them are being ‘pitched’ with ideas all day everyday. Sometimes to break the ‘virtual’ zombie like state that these pitches can leave people in it can be effective to send them something physical.

This need not be expensive things (although they could be). Over the last year I’ve been sent quite a few things including T-shirts, hats, books, ipod shuffles, electronic picture frames, birthday cards (many), memory cards, letters, USB memory sticks, trophies (for awards), food, diet supplements…. etc.

6. Mainstream Media Exposure

In the same way that you as a blogger are often left scratching your head wondering what topics to cover on your blog, mainstream media outlets (TV, Radio, newspapers, magazines) are always on the lookout for story ideas to cover.

Why not pitch them with a story idea about you and your blog?

This doesn’t always work but I’m always surprised by just how many of my own ‘pitches’ to mainstream media have worked.

The key with this is to give an angle for the media outlet to work with. Don’t just contact them saying that you’d like them to write about your blog – contact them with something that is story worthy. This takes a little work and at times creativity – but put your mind to work and see what you find.

Don’t just pitch big media outlets – put feelers out to local, national and international ones. When you get a nibble, develop a relationship with the journalist so that if a future story idea comes to mind you can develop that contact.

Sometimes these relationships can even develop into ongoing relationships. I’ve seen a few bloggers negotiate regular columns or ‘expert spots’ on radio. Similarly once you get known to journalists they begin to seek you out for quotes on stories.

7. Internet Cafes

I met one blogger a year back who had a blog with a very local focus. He negotiated deals with three local internet cafes in his area to make his blog the home page on all of the computers. In return for this he gave them some free advertising on his blog.

In a similar way the blogger made a similar deal with the local library who also made his blog the home page of their public internet computers.

This worked well for him because he had a local focus but it could work for blogs of all shapes and sizes.

8. T-shirts

Getting T-shirts printed up that promote your blog can be useful in a number of ways. For starters and as mentioned already, wearing a T-shirt can can reinforce your brand (and promote it) at conferences or meetups. You’ll be amazed at the conversations that wearing a T-shirt with your name and URL can open up.

Secondly, giving T-shirts away to readers can also have an impact both on them and their networks. I saw this at SXSW earlier in the year when I spied one of my readers wearing a ProBlogger T-shirt. He told me that he’d had a lot of people come up to him as a result of seeing the T-shirt.

9. Offline Publications

Many bloggers are protective about allowing their content to be republished but I feel that good bloggers should give it a go. One such incident that made me a loyal reader of a blog is that a person someday asked a good friend of mine to publish his articles in his monthly magazine on upcoming trends in bollywood and new faces.He decided to let them publish that for free that post.Many of whom decided to check out the source of the post became loyal readers of the blog

Magazines and newspapers are often on the look out for people to submit articles to them and will usually give a byline as part of their payment for the article. You’ve got the content just sitting there on your blog, why not submit some of it to an offline media outlet?

Stay tuned for one last post on the topic of offline blog promotion which will include 4 more of my strategies plus 7 from my readers.

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OFFLINE BLOG PROMOTION STRATEGIES MYSTIFIED-- PART 1

Its possible to promote one's blog offline.To do that follow the following suggested steps carefully

1. Conferences and Conventions

One of the first times I learned about the power in attending conferences was in 2009. I had no idea what to expect and had little time to prepare but decided to head up and see what I could learn.On arrival I wasn't expecting much but quickly found that the convention center was literally packed with opportunities on many levels, including finding new readers for my blog. Everyone at that convention was there because they had an interest in photography – so it made sense for me to position myself at this real life event.

Interestingly there was one other photography site represented at the event. I got chatting to them at one point and we marveled at how few of our competitors were there and how we’d struck gold by attending.

If there is a conference that relates to your topic that you have the ability to attend, do everything in your power to get there. When there, be bold, have something to promote your site (cards for starters), have something to say about your site (an elevator pitch), make friends and get them to introduce you to their contacts and be ready to make the most of every opportunity that might arise.

2. Business Cards

This is perhaps one of the more obvious tips that I’ll give today but a business card is essential if you’re going to do offline promotions. They are great for conferences, meetups, promoting to friends etc.

One thing I’ve learned about business cards is that if you can make them stand out in some way you can really grab people’s attention and open up doors to talk about yourself and your blog.Make sure your card has not only your contact details but where people can connect with you online (email, blog URL (and name), twitter etc).Get plenty of cards printed up and give them out freely.

3. Blogger Meet ups

Is there a local network of bloggers in your area? If so, make sure you connect with them and attend their events.Each time I’ve attended a blogger meetup I’ve come away with lots of great new contacts and potential promoters of my blogs. The great thing about bloggers is that they have readers already and if you can find ways to promote what each other does you can really see your readership grow.

Of course finding readers with a similar topic to yours is best – but even promoting across different niches can at times work if you find natural ways to do so.

4. Stickers

A couple of years ago I saw the power of stickers to promote a blog. One blogger showed up at the meet up (I don’t remember who they were) and instead of giving business cards gave out stickers.

Of course as the night progressed the stickers ended up being ’stuck’ on people. In fact during the night the stickers became one of the ‘features’ of the night. They appeared in loads of photos and even got mentioned in blog reviews of the evening.

In my next two posts I want to continue the focus upon offline blog promotion and will share another 9 techniques from my blog promotion tool belt as well as a number of tips from other bloggers. Stay tuned for part 2 and 3 of this series.

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5 New Trends In Blogging

After seeing an outburst in 2010, 2011 is going to be nothing different.People are diving in the blogging ocean like anything.But what lies ahead and what re the new emerging trends in blogging.This is what this post discusses about.The five new trends that are most prevalent in blogging right now and holds the key in the future are

• Multi-Author Blogs
• Multi-Topic Blogs
• Blogging through social networking
• Blogs interlinks with other sites
• Indirect Monetization through various modes

Its a trend that is observed after visiting many sites.You have a query or a good suggestion then shout out loud in the comment section.

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HOW TO DEVELOP AND NURTURE YOUR BLOG

Its sometimes a great downer for anyone who writes his post for others and has no one to read and comment on.But all great things start from the scratch and all good blogs were having little to none in followers and readers when they started as we are now.But one's effort never goes in vain and it is just a matter of time before your hard work pays off and you do get readers coming to your blog.

The best thing that any beginner can do is to find out the best blogs which are having similar content or are in the same niche.Try following and commenting on their blog posts to have their attention on your side.This is certainly obtained after you comment on their blogs regularly.Also you need to join some forums where you can find the same kind of people over there and participate actively in the discussion.This does mean that you have be very precise and honest in commenting so that you are adding some value to your blog and not just spamming to get readers commenting on your blog.

To keep readers come back to your blog again and again you have to keep providing them something interesting and fresh almost every time.You find that so many well developed and popular blogs are in the same category but still enjoy fair share of readers.Thus being able to serve something interesting and relatively fresh content regularly is something that helps you to have a long term readership from people that re already following your blog along with the new ones.

It is sometimes interesting to find out that your blog has low readership or it is because of what you post on your blog.People sometimes get confused on what to write on their blog when they initially start.Most of the blogs on which personal views are expressed do not get much appreciation as not everyone has the ability to bind people up with their words,the mesmerising expressions and suitable use of sentences and figure of speech.

We always want to write something that comes naturally from the heart and also that creates a bit of enjoyment for your own self.When things are written for the right reasons and in the good frame of mind, the content is always appreciated by many.If an article or the blog is for sole purpose of money making then people do realise it who visit your blog and you do not get the popularity that you expect yourself to achieve in a certain amount of time.

So try to be full of positive and never say die attitude when you turn to blogging and share goodwill and set up a good example of human nature from your blogging style.This is the best way to develop and nurture your blog as I see it.

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HOW TO ARRANGE BLOG POSTS ON YOUR SITE EFFECTIVELY FOR READERS

Although this post might seem irrelevant to my blog for some time as I am trying out dew things to get the blog in a better shape,If you have the posts arranged categorically correct on your site then you can have a variety of readers reading your particular section though one page only.This requires some initial planning but once you are ready then the blog seems excellent to you itself in the first place.Following are some ideas on how to get the tricks right for your blog.

1.Interlink to the earlier posts

This is an excellent way to help readers reach out to the other posts which you think can supplement readers on the entire topic which they are interested in.In a way this also helps in search engine optimization for your blog (particularly for that post).

2.Rookie area

If you have a particular section for the beginners in the blogging world,then it may add that little x-factor to your blog with targeted visitors approaching your blog.I am looking forward in getting this section of blog archive ready on my blog ready in near future.

3.Posting regularly on blogging basics

It is always important to revert back to basic stuff once in a while to get new readers on your blog plus keep your regular readers also interested.

4.Long term readership

Try having some guest post about basic blogging tips if you think you have had enough of those stuff by yourself.By this way you are developing long term readership as well as loyal friends for your site's future.

5.Advanced section

If you think that there is something special that is required to be conveyed for readers who are in the blogging for some time now then try having a section for advanced steps in blogging for them to make go to that one step ahead.

Ideas mentioned above are possible through constant research about various topics, good amount of content on your blog archive and seriously good writing style.Its also a fact that you cannot keep everyone happy.So do not try and keep everyone happy and interested who comes to your blog because believe me you cannot.Try improving you blog each day with something to add to your blog every once in a while.

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HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG POST FOR SEARCH ENGINES

When you write down a post its essential that you have the most appropriate content.Not only this the appropriate keyword is required for proper indexing of the page in the search engines.But still sometimes you find out that your page is not there in the top search results after so much efforts and choosing appropriate keywords.

One thing you have to understand that mere just writing a god quality post with appropriate keywords not going to help you out in any way.You are not not writing the stuff on your blog for robots.Before any page gets recognized by google(or any other search engine) as the most appropriate page for the search query,the page should have some linking to other sites and some interlinking posts on that same is required.Not only this some comments is also much appreciated.

So even though you are a new blogger and want to get your page on the top of search engine query result page then following the above things are the prerequisite.Also participating in other similar posts discussion and if possible getting a link from that post to your post is what important for your post to rise up the ranking.Try having people to your blog and comment because that is what that is going to help you.So invest sometime (from 20 minute to 1 hour of your time) on commenting on other blogs and participating in discussions on the forums to get more people commenting on your blog. This will increase your google page rank and thus your page will be displayed in the top page of search query.

We are always thinking of ourselves to get ahead of the others existing in the world and hence it is not bad at all to devote some time and energy to help your blog reach the top.Keep at at this new year and I am sure that many will become successful this year.

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