Marketing Your Blog Outside Of The Web

I think its important during the first few weeks or months of your blog to get a few people you know to check it out. This helps to not only raise your commitment level but also to establish a bit of readership. These people being your friends, will probably know to believe you, being that glowing bundle of knowledge you are about that subject, and will also not be afraid to hold you accountable for any lapses in writing or fact checking. Friends are great, but sometimes even better are other people in your community or people that you are professionally acquainted with. For instance, I am the president/general manager of an IT consulting firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. I've been doing this for a while, so I have a list of literally hundreds of clients to use at my disposal. I fired an email off to them, and within a few days, increased my initial traffic by 200%. This may or may not have been normal, as many of my clients are small business owners and are by nature, interested in multiple streams of income and other ways to monetize their time. So if you belong to any entrepreneurial minded organizations, be sure to take advantage of that link.

Now that you've exhausted your personal and professional contacts, it's time to move outward a bit and start advertising to people you don't know. There are two methods for this, direct and indirect. If you were in the gas station buying a soda, and heard someone talking about blogging, or something appropriate and were to suggest your blog to them, that would be considered direct. Indirect is something impersonal, like a bumper sticker, cleverly made t-shirts, yard signs etc. Being in my business (the IT consulting business), I've learned that direct marketing often yields stronger results, as you can throw a bit of personality in to the mix. People like comfortable relationships , i.e.: the happy cashier or the friendly free software giving computer guy. Often times, if the person you're speaking with is not in need of your services or services provided by your blog, they'll be happy to refer you to a friend or family member that is, whether they disclose this or not. So it is important that you treat every person you engage in conversation as a potential customer, regardless of their level of interest.

The traditional print methods of advertising probably won't do a whole lot for you, unless you are also offering services to local buyers. If you had a blog focusing on SEO, you could offer custom designed websites to local businesses with a guarantee of excellent search engine placement. In this case, the blog would be great to refer people to, as this would help establish your credibility as a service provider. Just be sure to think carefully about any purchases and calculate an estimated ROI and see if it's a viable option. If you're unsure about how to do that, contact the company selling the ads or services, they'll be able to provide you with statistics.

If you're going to commit to a blog or website, commit to it by forming a company. The easiest way of doing this would obviously be sole proprietorship, or possibly DBA, but as with everything I'm involved in, I recommend LLC. They're so easy to file these days, and have great liability benefits, as well as taxation benefits (over the inc that is…), that I'd recommend them to almost anyone for any purpose. Do be careful if you're a single member LLC, as this has a hard time holding up in court, since its organization is so close to that of a sole proprietorship. It isn't that bad to own your own business, just make sure to buy something like Quickbooks or Peachtree to help keep the books. I wouldn't outsource this one until I was making well into the six figure range, (which I do, but still don't outsource..).

Anyway, just a few ideas on how to market your blog or website outside of the web. I'd like to hear some suggestions, so feel free to comment, or email me @ t dot godier @ gmail.com. Want more information or related articles? http://www.octoprofit.com