How to Turn Your Blog Into a Cult

Good marketing strategies to market your blog are to avoid relying on typical methods of web marketing. Your blog needs more than link exchanges, pings, RSS feeds, site submit or a catchy blog or article content.

You have to hit the cyber pavement like you would in the real world.

Try some of these marketing strategies to market your blog and shout from the cyber rooftops that your blog means business!

Advertise
Whether you pay for it or not that is up to you. The first thing you want to do is get a domain name for your blog so that it comes up in a relative blog search. That is an unavoidable cost but a creative domain name is worth the investment. I write dating articles and my blog title is different but on topic with my domain name.

Create a compelling idea for your domain name and forward it to your blog address. The more creative your domain name the more likely it will come up in a keyword search for your subject.

It's not surprising when people are web surfing at work they randomly look up domains that pop up in their heads. They may have seen your domain in a newspaper, on a t-shirt, business card, television spot or even on the radio or more likely at the footer of an email.

Make business cards. Nonchalantly when a discussion turns to your blog title don't be afraid to offer up a business card while wearing a t-shirt with your web domain in blazon display.

Guerrilla tactics in marketing would to be sneaking your card into weekly free publications, library books or tucking them into the frames of advertisements on the inside of bathroom stalls.

Do not underestimate the power of underground marketing. Companies actually pay to advertise in public restrooms!

Predictable Blog Content
You can mix it up but keep with your blog content for the most part.

If you write about Web Marketing, doing a CD or DVD review that doesn't have a thing to do with marketing throws your readers off.

The same thing with your advertising. If you write about pop culture and celebrities, placing ads for IT Services or programming are not going to fly too well. Better subjects are music and film, Web 2.0, social bookmarking, retail and electronics.

Keeping up with articles, best way to do this is to have a different focus every day or on certain days of the week. Sounds rather sporadic doesn't it?

Think of it like this: If you create a regimen your blog content will come so much easier to you and your audience will have something to look forward to and drive them to your site.

What will you write about on Mondays? In fact you don't have to write about anything, you can post pictures or other peoples articles that are relevant to your topic every Monday!

Digg has a special way to add content to your websites called 'digg this'. All you do register with the site and from there you can choose articles that will automatically post to your blog or website.

If your article is good and you get a snowball of 'diggs' you will see amazing traffic to your site.

You Tube and Metacafe are good ways to keep people interested in your blog. Think of Fridays as a movie night. Every Friday you post a video that is part of your blogs subject.

Ezine Articles allows use of their articles at no cost through what is known as “article marketing”. You just have to give proper credit where credit is due, and that is to the author. Read their terms of service for publishers. Another great benefit to this, if you post a link to a popular subject it's possible you will get direct traffic to your blog from search engines. Especially if they know what they are doing in the way of keywords.

If you yourself write articles and use your resource box properly those are some one way hits directly to your site.

Read my article: Article Content: Online Articles that Read Well to find out more what publishers are looking for and roll around in all those hits to your blog.

More on predictability...Turn your Tuesdays on your blog into 'Guest Author Day'. Post free content and don't forget to contact the author and let them know you are using their info. You want to do this in case they want to exchange links or use your info, perhaps even do a review on your blog because their site is relevant to your site right? Okay good. Just checking.

Creating predictability also helps to get your readers coming back for more, especially on certain days of the week.

Becoming an affiliate to programs that have to do with your blogs subject also make great posts. You can introduce or review a new ebook each week that you are an affiliate for and then ad your sales URL to your LINKS or BOOKSTORE portion of your blog.

Get rid of the links that don't create any revenue and be on the lookout for ones that you think might in the future.

Trust me. Entertaining or useful content on a schedule can create the cult like status you want for your blog.

Reuse
Here's a way to cheat. You don't short change anyone mind you. If you have an extensive blog, reuse some of your past articles! Especially if they are a series like Dog Trainging in Six Easy Steps: Step One.

Larger websites do this all the time.

How many times have you read the same articles on MSN on how millionaires all have the same traits or "The Worst Traits of the Worst Daters in the World"? It's work to refresh someones memory if they go to your blog often, so don't over do it.

Go back to some of your favorite articles and see if you can't update some of them or make a keyword list and tuck some good phrases into the rewrite. What information have you learned recently that could spruce up the second edition of your article?

One thing you must do to see which articles to reuse is to have a hit counter...which brings us to the next step...

Hit Counter
The larger websites which I mention two seconds ago in step four of this article keep track of popular articles and re use them every now and then.

Why not? The saying is, if it works use it! Again and again and again until someone tells you not to anymore. Seriously. Make sure there is a significant time frame before you use the same article twice, say six months.

If you write about certain topics say around Christmas, again, why not use a popular revised article from last year. Its already written and all you have to do is update it. Pass the spiked eggnog because you just saved a lot of writing time AND posted current and helpful information to your readers.

Get a hit counter and if you are really serious and look at your topics for a particular day and see how many hits there are. Find out what articles are working and which ones are not.

Keywords
This is a typical yet accurate way to hit a marketing target as long as it is not abused. There is a difference between keyword use and keyword stuffing.

Effective use of keywords will help major search engines in their blog search find your blog content more easily.

Keyword stuffing on Google for instance is a major faux pas since Google maps out relevant keywords and automatically rejects Internet marketing articles and other content that use a lot of keyword stuffing.

Craigslist
Rule number one is advertise. What better way than to use a good old fashioned bulletin board. Craigslist is the ultimate in guerilla marketing because a litte creativity will get you one way hits to your site.

In the real world when people are running errands, a certain type of person always checks the bulletin board a their local grocery store, coffee shop or sometimes at a privately owned restaurant or pub.

Who looks at bulletin boards? People looking to purchase information, a product or service and home based business owners wanting to know what the competition is up to.

Why should on line be any different? You want other bloggers who scope out the competition to visit your blog and those who scope often.

Craigslist users love telling others about great deals that they find on CL. Has anyone ever told you “go to Craigslist” anytime you were looking to purchase a hard to find item?

Again keyword searches are relevant in the world of Craigslist but again you have to be careful how you use them. A decent post on Craigslist Los Angeles with keywords that work will set you apart from the sea of advertisers on Craigslist.

There are several ways you can achieve this and still stay within terms of Craigslist TOU or “Terms of Service”:

o Respond to a post

Register at Craigslist and hit the forums.

Your email should include two things. Your targeted email you@yourdomain.com or have link to your blog in the signature. Yes. People will naturally be curious and want to know what Dave does at dave@blogsthatmakemoney.net.

In my opinion the best place to drum up subjects is in the Rant and Raves section.

Warning: Rant and Raves is a virtual showcase of cyber opinions and let me tell you how just about anything goes.

People ramble and post their thoughts on just about everything from politics, to dog parks, to religion to a favorite book they finished reading to just being happy about someone holding a door open for them when they were having a crummy day. Their opinion is important to them and guess what, if you either invite them to your blog or they seek it out on their own, they will more than likely post comments. That equals feedback for you and more content for your readers.

Note: You can also be voted off the island so to speak in the Rant and Raves section as spam. Trust me you get lots of hits before that happens so its absolutely worth it!

o Post in the Small Biz Ads or Lessons category

Remember I told you I wrote dating articles? I posted in the lessons section “How to Date Online” and got about 50 hits and four phone calls in the next few days begging me to teach them the art of dating online, and about 70 emails in the next week wanting to know more. Who do you think replied with either a link to their blog or answered their question with a targeted email address?

With the exception of Small Biz, outside links are prohibited on Craigslist. You have the option to anonymize your email or not. Do not make it anonymous if possible! A simple info@bloggityblog.com will do.

Who in their right mind would not look at bloggityblog.com?!

Watch the traffic come pouring in.

One last comment on Craigslist classifieds: Post in one city per week! That is all they allow. Posters take advantage of over posting or "top posting" which in reality is another form of SPAM. Don't be one of these annoying posters to clutter up cyberland.

If you write an effective ad in the right city you will get plenty of response without coming across as amateurish. Not only that, search engines adore Craigslist and send there little cyber spiders invading on a regular basis.

o Use the forums and use them often

When you sign up for a handle, in which you will choose one that is the same subject matter of your blog and the forum you are in, you have the option to post a URL in your profile.

Craigslist users hate SPAM and SPAM email. It leaves a very bad taste in their mouths and they will do all they can to flag and get rid of and punish you for it.

It is very hard to get banned in the forums so ignoring nay sayers while remaining cordial and participating in discussions is the way to go. It is not SPAM if you include a URL of your choice to be in your profile. That is putting a face to a name.

Chat Rooms
When you build rapport with people in your life, they are more willing to buy into the ideas you have to sell them.

Chat rooms work the same way. You are making Internet friends and those Internet friends will tell others about your site if they,

a) find the content an enrichment to their lives and

b) trust where the content is coming from.

How many times do you catch yourself telling someone at the office or over coffee that you “know this person” who told you about a certain blah, blah blah and you are really talking about a person you chatted with on line? You don't know them, but your on line persona and theirs are old pals.

Use chat rooms (and other forms of social bookmarking which is an entirely different topic) and use them often. Make friends and spread the word.

Give Lessons
Going back to ealier when I mentioned offering lessons on Craigslist, do it!

Currently I am offering “blogging lessons” in which I answer questions for free and will even optimize an monetize for a trade: a back link and Adsense ads under my publisher number and one affiliate program with my affiliate number attatched.

That way for every site that I help create and spread my SEO voodoo all over, they will be carrying my Adsense ad to all the visitors that I'm going to tell them how to generate. Not only that I will back link to them and if someone leaves my site and goes to theirs and clicks on some ads well hell....

Tell me does that work or not!

Free...
Give something away for free.

Most ebooks and special reports offer (don't forget those free lessons) a place to leave your testimonial after trying their product and in return they will provide a back link to your site.

Those free offers can also translate into a sale. The free programs almost always offer more info for a fee. Do your research to see which programs you yourself would buy or review products that you have already uses.

Make sure you don't sell products or send people to sites that have all those annoying pop-ups and make you run around in circles just to get to the goods. I know you know what I'm talking about too!

Another advantage is that when you are an affiliate and sign up other affiliates who sell items you get a kick back. How bout that!

Implementing one or more of these strategies should get you some serious blog traffic and help keep you competitive in the blog arena.

On that note. Let me tell you the difference between competing and staying competitive:
Competing is putting down your competion and always fearfully trembling in their shadow wondering how you will ever be as good.

Staying competitive is to be the competition and be the best you can be while doing what you love.

Remain untouchable!

Summary:

o Advertise
o Predictable blog content
o Reuse articles
o Hit counter
o Craigslist
o Chats and forums
o Give Lessons
o Free...