How to Promote a Personal Blog: Five Free Ways!

It seems as though everyone has a personal blog nowadays. Blogs are a great way to express intimate thoughts, share information, and keep distant friends or relatives abreast of life's happenings. Some blog for personal reasons, others keep a web log in order to hopefully become lauded for their writing talent in some capacity. Having a successful blog can lead to other writing opportunities and even earn significant money for the author. How does a blogger promote and get their blog noticed in a sea blogs on the Internet, for free?

1. Comment on other blogs

This is a skillful free tool of blog promotion. By commenting on other blogs, readers will click on the hyperlink and will be led to the commenter's blog. The key to using commenting as a blog promotion tool is by leaving comments which are funny, interesting, or clever. Brevity is key, as comments are scanned quickly and one needs to grab a potential future reader's attention in a sentence or two.

2. Write about controversial topics

Bloggers who have a lot to say about taboo subjects, current events, politics, or social issues tend to get a lot of traffic. If they are talented writers, readers will subscribe, and talk about blog entries around the proverbial "water cooler".

3. Utilize social networking sites

Publicizing blogs on networking sites is an excellent way to promote a personal blog for free. Including a link on Facebook or Twitter, with a short request to "pass it along" if readers find the blog interesting, informative, or funny, can draw a lot of traffic to a blog in a short amount of time.

4. Guest Blogging

Guest blogging refers to writing a post on someone else's blog as a guest. This is a terrific way to gain readership. Writing a fellow blog author and offering or requesting to compose a guest blog is a first step to guest blogging. What it will accomplish is exposing their readers to another blog. If they like it, readers are likely to subscribe because it was recommended by a blog they already follow via a guest post.

5. Giveaways

Giving away free stuff is one of the best promotional devices of a blogger. It can be something the author creates, buys, or has available already to give to a reader who typically leaves a comment as their entry into the giveaway. It may require the author make a small purchase (as the giveaway) but for the small price, the promotional value is huge.

Promoting a personal blog doesn't have to cost money. By using these strategies, it is possible to gain loyal readers who will promote a blog through word of mouth, free. Building readership may take some time, but by utilizing these avenues, readership and visitors to a personal blog will only continue to grow.