HTML Codes, Auction Templates, eBook Tutorials, & Blog Tips Cool HTML Codes, Auction templates, eBay Tips, Ebooks, & Tutorials

The web is full of articles on how to promote your website online. You can do SEO (search engine optimization), you can swap links, do PPC ads, create youtube videos, banner ads, and all sorts of creative things to increase your traffic.

So I thought I would list a few easy ways to promote your blog or website offline. I don’t think anyone should underestimate these methods.

How to Promote Your Blog or Website Offline: 10 Tips for Blog Promotion

1. Return Address on Letters in Mail–Write your blog URL or domain name above your name on the return address of letters you mail. You might be surprised that you will get hits this way. Just add it to your Christmas cards, bills, postcards, and any other materials you send. This is a quick and effective way to get a few visitors. I also do this with my shipments for eBay and Amazon.
2. Bumper Stickers or Car Logos–How many hundreds of cars (or even thousands) pass you each week? What about each month? You could easily attract more business by displaying your URL or domain name on a catchy bumper sticker. Or heck, why not paint the whole car in a dramatic way to promote your site?
3. Wear Clothes with Logos–Create an awesome T-shirt, hat, etc. that advertises your blog or website. You can easily create your own by getting iron-on transfer paper from Walmart. If you don’t feel up to it, you can always hire a local company to create this for you at a low cost.  Just wear it out in public as much as possible. You may be surprised that this can gather you some traffic.
4. Radio Advertise–Don’t ever underestimate the amount of traffic a good radio advertisement can get you. People listen to the radio all the time, and many successful website owners also have a lot of radio exposure driving traffic to their blogs/websites.
5. Give Away Freebies–People love getting free stuff.  You can create a lot of pens, refrigerator magnets, LED lights, and other inexpensive gadgets bearing your blog or website’s domain name (or URL). People always love free stuff, and perhaps a person will use the pen and decide to check out your blog…you never know.
6. Speaking Events–Like speaking? You can easily be a guest speaker at seminars, local colleges, and more. Go to local blog conventions, talk to people at your local colleges, and more. You could always do a presentation on blogging (or about your blog or website’s niche), and promote your site. This can be a great way to raise awareness of your site.
7. Fliers Still Work–If you have a blog or website that offers valuable information, a service, or a product–then don’t underestimate the power of fliers. You can create fliers for very little cost, and hang them around local colleges, retail stores, parks, and more. This may seem old-fashioned, but people do still pay attention to fliers. So you could always create a compelling flier that stands out, and distribute it everywhere possible.
8. Write a Book–Just think of all of the hits you could gain from publishing a book with your domain and URL promoted in it? I am sure that this could get you a lot of traffic. So if you are in the process of writing a book (either fiction or nonfiction), don’t forget to promote your websites or blogs in the book.
9. Business Cards–It may sound a little cheesy, but business cards are pretty cheap. You can often get thousands made for $50 or so. Create an awesome business card with a logo, place your domain/URL on it, and off you go. Hand them out to everyone you meet anywhere. Also, you can put them up just like fliers at local places. You may be able to drum up some traffic this way.
10. Creativity-Think Outside the Box–Don’t give up on creative ways to promote your blog or website offline. Taking a trip to the beach? Go write your domain in the sand in the sand. Own a farm, create a crop circle. See a tornado, take a picture and submit it to your local weather station with your domain on it.  Have a house? Mow your domain into your grass.

Okay, some of the ideas in number 10 are a little weird, but you get the idea. There are countless ways to promote your blog and build your brand OFFLINE. People are usually so focused on things like SEO and so forth. Yes, seo is important, but you shouldn’t neglect easy and inexpensive ways to promote your blog to others.

Good luck!

Sponsored Links

Posted under Blogging Tips

Saying that someone is an introverted (or antisocial) blogger almost sounds like an oxymoron. I mean, bloggers write content that may potentially be viewed by thousands (or even millions) of people. How could any blogger possibly be an introvert or antisocial?

In some strange way, I have managed to pull it off. I can now say that I am perhaps one of the most introverted and antisocial bloggers/writers on the web. And in case you don’t believe me, I can prove it below.

Proof I Am An Introverted/Anti-Social Blogger

1.  I don’t allow comments (usually)–When I started my online stuff–I used Microsoft Frontpage and I created static HTML pages. That  meant absolutely no comments. I got used to that format, and that I how I worked. I wrote, I published. I wrote, I published. Then WordPress became huge, and I realized how much easier and faster it would be to publish and manage my content. So I made the leap. When I did this, these things called ‘comments’ appeared on my page. Over time, to my surprise, people actually started to use them.

At first, I was intrigued by the whole comment idea.  Over time, however, my views of comments became negative. First, I received about 10 spam comments for every real 1 comment. Next, I would occasionally get a comment that was constructive, nice, or useful. Sounds great and all–but to get that, I would normally have to endure 10 other hateful, belittling, or “I agree or disagree” nonsense type comments. Also, people would continue to comment on severely outdated articles. Like my wife graduated from nursing school, and I eventually went back and turned them off (who wants to hear “congrats” years later??).

Finally, I found myself spending my whole entire day trying to write back to comments, or trying to sift through real vs. spam ones. I would spend an hour or two writing a post, and then several hours managing the incoming comments on all of my blogs. It was a major time-sink.

So when I decided to update some stuff on my sites, I turned them off. Suddenly, I  felt empowered. I thought, “WOW- I can actually write content all day, and not deal with those pesky comments.” It was amazing–as if I had a ton of bricks lifted off my little blogging fingers. I found that  my blogging was more productive, and I could write without fear of criticisms. I actually had time to do other stuff, like SEO. After this, I decided to never bring them back (except for a rare occasion). Did it affect my income? Not one bit! Comments do not affect your income at all (in my experience).

So now I belong to a rare (and perhaps dying) breed of bloggers who don’t have comments enabled. Seth Godin is one. There are a few others. But I am certainly one of a few rarities. This upsets some people. On problogger.net, there was a discussion about comments, and almost everyone said a blog should have them. Some even got offended at the very idea of a blog not enabling comments. I thought that was odd. In any event, I don’t like them very much. The negatives far outweigh the positives in my opinion.

My personal comment philosophy goes like this:

• Static Websites are for content/articles (written in a more unbiased/encyclopedic format)–comments aren’t expected
• Blogs are for personal opinions and commentary/articles (written from a first person/biased view)–comments are optional
• Forums are for discussion–comments/replies are expected and even necessary

So when I want to talk to others, I enter a forum where discussion is expected. Unfortunately blogs now have a connotation that discussion is expected. I disagree with that. I think blogs are a way for a writer to express their opinion, share experiences/advice, and so forth. Blogs are an intermediary between a forum and a static website.  Comments are 100% optional. Some bloggers love them. I loathe them in most cases. Forums, in contrast, are expected to arouse discussion. That is the point of a forum. I enjoy discussion on a forum. Not so much on most of my blogs.

2. I Don’t Social  Network–People seem to be so fanatical about social networking. I couldn’t care less. I have no twitter, no myspace, no facebook, and I never will. I don’t want to be contacted by old classmates, 100,000 friend requests, and all of that other junk.

My wife doesn’t either. We are private people, and I don’t particularly like posting my pictures and private details. If I have something to say, I write it on my blog. Of course, my blogs are different because I earn an income, and maintain a level of secrecy. I don’t have my picture or real name published, so I can say what I want. My own family (aside from my wife) has no clue I even write online and have a tiny blog empire. Pretty cool, huh?

3. I Don’t Nework with Other Bloggers–My blogroll contains my other sites. I never attend seminars or “blogger” conventions (probably never will). I can count on my 2 hands how many other bloggers I have even spoken to directly (in some capacity) within the past year. Is that a little odd? Perhaps. But I enjoy my privacy and solitude. I read a lot of blogs from time to time, and I certainly appreciate a lot of the bloggers on the web. But I rarely feel the need to get involved on a personal level. When I do, I go to a forum where it is mutually expected to engage in dialogue.

On some level I do realize that my antisocial/introvert tendencies do interefere with blog traffic/success. I would probably  have a higher PR if I rubbed shoulders with people more and did link exchanges. But I don’t really care because I think building backlinks sucks anyway. It’s counterproductive.

4. I Don’t Promote Myself–Most big bloggers are great at building their brand and promoting themselves. Names like John Chow, Darren Rowse, and Shoemoney are almost immediately recognized by folks in the blogosphere. You can find pictures, videos, ads, links, articles, and more by these people easily on the web. This is a great strategy for building your brand and increasing your blog/site traffic.

Unfortunately, I have zero interest in that. I am more like a J.D. Salinger type–the guy who is a complete recluse in most cases, but writes/blogs because he enjoys it. I would probably faint at the idea of seeing myself plastered all over the web for all of eternity. So while I do realize I could be a more successful blogger by promoting myself, it is way too far out of my comfort zone to ever even consider something like that. I write because I enjoy writing, and I earn an income. I don’t want to gain notoriety or fame. I want traffic coming to my site for one reason: I have something useful for the reader. I also earn a small income from blogging, which I appreciate.

Whether it is a tip about making money, or if they Google, “Introverted blogger” to see if anyone else is like them, I want my articles to provide some benefit or value. For that reason alone, I want traffic. I don’t want traffic because my nosy neighbor or former classmate wants to see what I am up to, or because I am spamming or promoting myself.

I have never even sent 1 single link request email in all of my years as a webmaster. I simply don’t care.

Conclusion: Introverted Anti-Social Bloggers Do Exist, But They Are Rare

I think there are some antisocial and introverted bloggers in the world. We are a minority for sure. We may even risk going extinct one day (like an old crusty dinosaur). But I am not changing. I am like a cockroach when it comes to survival. I will do whatever I can to succeed, while still maintaining my introverted/shy/antisocial tendencies. I cannot compromise them.

If I was handed an ultimatum between blogging with comments, and not blogging at all—I would quit blogging instantly. If I had the choice between blogging for $100,000 per year (while being social), or blogging for $10,000 per year (while maintaining privacy), I would do maintain my privacy.

I will never be the social type of guy (online or off). I enjoy writing. I enjoy solitude. I enjoy privacy. I enjoy them even more than I enjoy money. So this is my oxymoron lesson for the day: I am an antisocial/introverted blogger. I talk to no one, yet thousands of people read my thoughts every day. Wow, that’s weird.

Sponsored Links

Posted under Blogging Tips