8 Great Offline Ways to Promote Your Blog

Promoting your blog offline is a great way to draw in readers that might otherwise never find your site, because it brings your site off the Internet and into the real world, lending it a sense of tangibility. As with any website promotion technique, the bigger your budget, the more people you can reach, but here's some great, cheap offline blog promotion tips to get you started.

Promote Your Blog By Talking To People
The cheapest and easiest way to promote your blog offline is to simply talk to people about it. Bring it up in casual conversation, especially if the topic of discussion turns to matters that you cover on your blog. People are still somewhat enamored with the idea of a blogger, and meeting someone serious about blogging is still rare enough that they'll probably ask for the link, just to take a look.

Trade Posts For Readers
One way you can promote your blog is to write posts about offline organizations or stores related to your niche. If, for example, your blog is about model trains, consider seeking out a model train hobby club in your vicinity and offer to write a post about them. Most of the members will want to read what you've written, and a single post like this can earn you several new long-term readers. The fact that these new readers will have a personal connection to you, the author, will keep them coming back.

Business Cards Are A Great Way to Promote Your Site
Take some time to print up a set of business cards with your blog's logo and URL. You'll want to give these away like they're on fire: give them to business associates, friends, leave them at restaurants, whatever. You never know when someone you meet will be interested in the topics your site covers, and if you can place something in their hands with the link, they're more likely to follow up on it. Look for local businesses that cater to a demographic similar to your blog, and ask if you can leave a stack of business cards on their counter. For example, if you blog about hiking and backpacking across the Appalachian Trail, leave your cards at sporting goods stores and camping supply stores.

Contact Your Local Newspaper
Contact your local newspaper and ask them to write a feature about you and your blog. While the New York Times might not pick up your story, the Shelby County Reporter most definitely will. Small newspapers are almost always looking to write features about local up-and-comings. While it's up to the journalist and/or their editor, most newspapers will list your URL at the end of the feature, which might draw in some other readers.

Promote Your Blog Using Your Laptop
If you're one of those bloggers, like myself, that does a lot of their writing on a laptop, consider making a laptop cover with your website's logo and URL. Whenever you're out in a coffee shop or library somewhere working on your next post, your logo is up for all your fellow patrons to see, and you'd be surprised how many will come over to ask you about it. Why advertise for Dell or Acer when you could be promoting your blog?

Wear Merchandise With Your Logo
If you have the means, consider making t-shirts or other pieces of merchandise with your website's logo and URL to wear around in public. Our clothing speaks a lot about who we are, and people are generally curious about unusual clothing they haven't seen before. Even better, if someone likes the design, they may ask where they can get one of their own, and the more people wearing your t-shirt, the more free offline advertising you get. Don't just stick to t-shirts: stores like Cafe Press make it easy to create lots of varied merchandise, including coffee mugs, key chains, mouse pads, and more.

Make Flyers With Pull-Off Tabs
You see flyers like these a lot on college campuses advertising rooms for rent, but the principle can easily be adopted for promoting a blog. Make a flyer with your logo, and maybe some text describing what your blog is about, but leave room at the bottom for a fringe of pull-off tabs (this is fairly easy to make in a program like Microsoft Word). Normally, these tabs would have a phone number, but you'll use them as a place to put your URL, so people who see your flyer can take the link with them.

Promote Your Blog With Stickers
Consider making stickers to put up in various places, including the back bumper of your car. Place one on the outside of your mailbox, and hand them out to friends to put up. Be sure to ask permission before you put them on anyone else's property, though.