8 Non-Electronic Ways to Promote Your Blog

In the Internet kingdom, we all know that there are multiple ways to promote your blog. Banners, PPC, online classifieds, link exchanges and forums are just a couple examples of this. There are many more worth mentioning, but it would take me hours to compile a complete list.

Now of course, some of these methods are more effective than others. Some work great and others not so great. Most of us spend quite a bit of time trying to build up that magic word, "traffic." It goes without saying, without a decent amount of steady traffic, most, if not all blogs would ultimately fail. Hours upon hours are spent trying to come up with more ways to draw in more traffic, and it's a never ending process for most of us.

I try to be one of those "outside of the box" thinker types most of the time, and I started wondering about other ways to promote my blog for some extra traffic. I glanced back to my various sales gigs in the past, and I thought, "hey, I can use some of the lead generation tactics I learned back then to promote this blog".

So I wanted to share my "old school" ideas with you today on how to promote your blog outside of the tech world. Obviously, these tactics would be supplemental to your regular routine, but I think they are at least worth a mention.

In no particular order:

1. Business cards. If you plan on someday drawing enough revenue from your blog that it puts food on the dinner table, then guess what? It's a business! Why not have a card to hand out to make people aware of your business? Business cards are a great way to show off your name and your website, and overall a very inexpensive way to advertise. Also, handing someone a business card is a more personal way of getting someone to your blog, which could lead to them coming back again, in comparison to someone that just clicks on a link, has no personal relationship with you and then never visits your site again. It could seal the deal for some long lasting subscribers, since they've seen and met you, even if it was briefly. Business cards are also a great thing to leave on the table at restaurants, social gatherings and so on. Drop them from an airplane into the streets of New York for the most effective approach .

Here are a couple of well known places to order them:

Fed-Ex Kinkos.com
VistaPrint.com
GotPrint.com

2. Fliers. Custom fliers with your Web site name on it is more of a targeted approach. If deployed correctly, this can be a major lead generator. I think fliers would be geared more towards local area blogs - such as real estate, bands, financial services and similar businesses. Fliers are pretty inexpensive overall - especially if you order them in bulk. You have a couple of options as far as distributing them. You can be like me and hire your younger cousin/brother/sister to get some friends together and send them door to door, and pay them a few cents per house. Of course you can also hand them out yourself (tiring though!) or there are companies that will do flier campaigns for a fee. There is usually a minimum of 5000 fliers before they even entertain the thought. However you do it, on a solid product you usually see about a 2-percent response, so if you're not trying to sell them something then that percentage will probably be a bit higher.

3. Car Sticker. Sounds funny, but these days it's hard not to see vehicles driving down the highway with sponsors on them. Now I'm not talking about covering your car with a huge sticker thing, but just something small that you could put across your back window or bumper. If you drive enough, somebody just might see it and wander on over to your site when they get home. It's fairly cheap to have a custom one made, and will last quite a long time if taken care of. For the price, it very well could be worth it.

You can get a custom car sticker made at:Decaljunky.com
Edecals.com
Casad2.com
Carstickers.com

4. Magnets. Yes, you know all the magnets on your refrigerator door? Why not have one with your blog name on it? These are great little novelties to stick in letters and packages. Hand them out at work, school, family functions. Everyone always needs more magnets, so why not provide them with one and get some advertising out of it .

Some places that make custom magnets are:

Magnets.com
Magnets-4-Less.com
Fridgedoor.com

5. Newspaper Ads. This one could be huge. I live in a fairly small town where everybody knows everyone else's business (personal and professional!) If I ran an ad in one of the three small newspapers about a local who has a nice blog on the Internet, I guarantee half the town would at least check it once. Those that know of you might even keep coming back. It could easily be a huge boost in your feed subscriber base. Ads in the local paper usually run very cheap, and often you can cut deals with the owner to give you discounted rates by putting up their website on your blog, or even a 1 for 1 swap. Meaning if I write a review on their paper and plug the link, then they might offer a free month of advertising. I've cut a similar deal before with local paper owners, it does work. All you need to run is a business card size ad, and it could give you a huge return on traffic for the little bit of money it costs. Definitely worth a mention.

6. Key-chains and Pens. This fits in with the refrigerator magnets idea. A key-chain or a pen is another novelty you could use to promote your site by giving them to friends, family, and co-workers. I haven't personally used this approach, but if I did, I would come up with the craziest, most stand out key-chain or pen that I could design! People always hold on to interesting pens (or at least I do!) Create something that will make people ask you about it. Create the buzz, right?

Here are a few places that sell custom key-chains and custom pens:

Branders.com
Atlaspen.com
Bandmonster.com
DiscountPens.com
Pens.com
Pensxpress.com

7. Direct Mail campaign. No doubt that direct mails works, we see it in our mailboxes on a daily basis. The only reason I wouldn't use it is because of the cost involved. Direct mail for my blog would make no sense at all. However, if you had a real estate blog, or maybe a blog about a specific service that you offered, setting up a direct mail campaign that targeted your key demographics could be very successful. Again, for the average blogger this wouldn't be cost effective, but it has tremendous potential for return for the right type of blog.

A couple companies that offer this are:

Infousa.com
Postcardmania.com

8. Word of Mouth! The most important one of all. In casual conversation, I always somehow mention my blog. If they are interested, they'll ask more about it, if not, then no big deal. Funny how the most important way of advertising is the one that takes the least explanation. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, and if they like it they'll do the same thing. It could start some nice chain reactions. Even if they only visit once - it didn't cost you a dime! So get the word out, it can only help you.

I hope some of this information helps you along the way with building more traffic. These methods work for just about anything that needs to be sold or promoted. We often are too focused on designing the next Google campaign, or buying more and more links. Try some of the above ideas out and see what happens.

You might be surprised at what going "old school" can do for you!