From time to time I like to read topics like ‘how to promote your blog’, ‘how to promote your website’, ‘how to promote … (put anything you want)’. All of these rules are similar (of course we are talking about promotion of web-based ’something’), however some of them… are simply useless and could waste your time. Today I will write about some rules of promoting, based on my own experience, as well as e.g. this news.

Maybe first… look at these rules. Yes, I know – this post is old. However… I don’t care. Lots of the rules from 2007 are up-to-date today, as well.

My first question (to the author of this blog): where are the rest of the points??? Topic is: ‘99 Ways to Promote (…)’. I can see 31 points. Where is the rest?

Whatever…

Let’s talk about these points:

Exchange links with other bloggers

Very important!

Talk to other bloggers, try to be into their blogrolls, recommended sites, try to exchange links, etc. Try to be contained into the posts with the collection of well-designed/well-programmed/well-promoted/well-anything-you-want websites or blogs.

Use BlogRush; Submit to RSS directories; Submit to blog directories

Don’t waste your time for these rules.

BlogRush – I don’t use it. It’s shutdown all the time.

RSS directories and blog directories… there are about 2-3 interesting blog directories where you should add your blog (I will write about it in one of the next points). Rest of them are useless. Don’t care about them!

Submit to general directories

“Backlinks are a huge part of being successful when you’re a blogger. The more links you have, the higher you rank and the better PageRank you get.” – that’s true. However – if you don’t want to spend your money for automatic submitting – just don’t waste your time for trying to add it everywhere. There are thousands of directories where you can put your link. However… most of them are simply useless for us. They have low PageRank or the search engines simply don’t care about the links from these sites.

If you can spend some money for promotion – hire SEO specialists – they will add you whereever you want. They will add your site to all of above directories.

If you can’t spend any money for promotion – just remember about submitting to dmoz, yahoo directory + local directories (popular sites from your country and/or city).

Start a 2nd blog and link to yourself

No!

You need to have a time for writing (we are talking about good writing!) on more than one blog. Really important is to have links to your blog on popular websites/blogs. If you want to have popular blog for linking – you need to spend a lot of time for promoting this blog. It’s dead end.

Create and give away blog themes (with a link to your blog in the footer); Create free plugins

Yes! If you can.

If you are good in something… you should promote yourself/your blog by your work. If you are a web designer – create blog themes and layouts; if you are a web developer – create plugins, addons, web-based applications; if you are a movie-maker create some video for youtube, etc. Just promote yourself via your job.

Create link bait

Of course yes!

One of the most important things is to “create” links everywhere you can. Create link bait… and what is really important – create SEO-friendly links.

Participate in blog carnivals

I don’t really know what author wanted to say by that. I don’t use it and I don’t recommend it.

Comment on DoFollow blogs; Comment on other blogs in your niche

Yes, yes, yes!

First… these blogs have high PageRank.

Second… there are lots of people who can be interested in what you are saying.

Third… you can meet interesting people, you can talk to them

WordPress Backlinks Plugin

All kind of plugins, scripts, functionalities for backlinks, trackbacks are worth to install/implement.

You should show your readers that you are interesting (that’s the reason why other bloggers link to your website).

Join communities at MyBlogLog; Join communities at Bumpzee; Join communities at Blog Catalog; Start a community at any of these sites

I don’t use Bumpzee (I think that it doesn’t exist anymore!). However… the rest of them are worth-to-do!

Email your friends and contacts about a new blog post that may interest them; Email your readers to say “thank you”; Email other bloggers to introduce yourself

Hell yeah!

Inform other people, that you started new blog, that you write about something interesting, that you changed something. Even if they are not interested in topic – they will remember about it and maybe, maybe… they will tell someone else about it.

Link out to other blogs

Yes!

First… bloggers will know, that you are linking to them and they can check who are you and even they can link to you.

Second… your readers will see that you know who is good, and who’s not; who’s interesting and who’s not. They will see that you are not an egoist; that you know that other people could be interesting, too.

Digg; del.icio.us; StumbleUpon; Reddit; Netscape; Magnolia; MySpace; Facebook; YouTube

Of course yes!

You should add your site/blog posts to the most popular social media sites. There are people, there is a lot of people… all of them could be interested in you.
Try to not be banned.

AuthorityBlogger

Forums – yes. AuthorityBlogger – not really.

You should write on forums, as well as comment on other blogs. You should be interesting, you should put link to your blog in your signature, you should put link to your blog on your profile on this forum.

Now it’s time for my list.

Best Ways to Promote Your Blog For Free

in my opinion…

1. Submit blog to technorati
2. Try to be visible on technorati (comment, add to favorites, etc)
3. Submit blog to MyBlogLog
4. Create community on MyBlogLog
5. Join communities on MyBlogLog
6. Submit blog to Blog Catalog
7. Submit blog dmoz
8. Submit blog to Y! directory
9. Submit blog to local general directories (on popular websites from your country/city)
10. Add your blog to alexa
11. Add your blog to aboutus
12. Exchange links with other bloggers
13. Promote yourself via your work (create blog themes, comics, illustrations, plugins, addons, web-based apps, movies, etc)
14. Create link bait everywhere you can (remember about SEO rules for links)
15. Comment on other blogs (on popular blogs, on not-so-popular blogs in your niche)
16. Install or implement plugins for backlinks
17. Create fan page on facebook
18. Email other bloggers to introduce yourself
19. Tell your friends and your family about your blog
20. Link out to other blogs (in blogroll and – what is really important(!) – in entries on your blog)
21. Submit newses to digg.com (digg other newses, too!)
22. Find friends, build relationships on digg.com
23. Submit newses to StumbleUpon
24. Submit newses to reddit
25. Submit newses to niche social media websites (for designers I recommend: inspiredn.com, webdesign-ne.ws; for web developers I recommend: dzone.com, ycombinator.com)
26. Add your blog (and your posts) to delicious
27. Figure out what is plaxo and register there.
28. Join ad networks (buysellads.com, adtaily.com) – you don’t need to sell ads via these networks. Just be there.
29. Register on twitter, write on twitter, link to your posts via twitter
30. Be an editor on other blogs, link to your blog on other blogs, promote yourself as a writer, not a blogger
31. Go to conferences, meetings in a real life. Meet people, talk to them, introduce yourself
32. Build your profile on all the websites, where you are registered – add links to your websites and blogs, upload your photo, put some bio
33. Add your photo to gravatar and MyBlogLog
34. Join groups on LinkedIn. Talk to other people. Answer to the posts. Try to not be a reader… try to be a writer, as well.
35. Join groups on the sites similar to LinkedIn and talk to the people there
36. Try to add your blog to Alltop
37. Try to join 9rules.com
38. Build SEO-friendly URLs
39. Ensure your whole blog is SEO-friendly (meta tags, h1, h2 headers, etc)
40. Use tools like feedburner to check popularity of your RSS feed
41. Use tools like google analytics to check popularity of your blog
42. Find good (by good I mean fast, with good support) hosting/VPS/dedicated server for your blog
43. Optimize and speed up your blog

And at least…

1. Design your blog – try to create something unique! Free (or even premium) public themes are good for start and only for start.
2. Content is a king! You need to have a content, you need to write. You need to create good content!

At the end:

“Don’t Expect too much too quick”. It’s a hard and often a long-term work.

I just found it: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/03/13/how-to-promote-your-blog-through-networking/. Interesting.