Three Inexpensive Ways to Market Your Blog

One of the best ways to market your blog is by being active in your community. If you’re a food blogger, you should visit, read and comment at other food blogs. If you’re a seasoned blogger, that should seem obvious as does promoting your posts on Twitter, creating a fan page on Facebook or using LinkedIn. (For the less experienced bloggers, I’ll touch on these subjects later here at Mom Central Blogger University.)

But what about some less obvious, but inexpensive or free ways to promote your blog? Here are a few ideas:

• Your email signature – Outlook, Gmail and other mail programs let you set up a preformatted signature that will appear on the bottom of every email you send or reply to, depending on how you set it up. It should include your name, title, your contact email address, the title and URL of your blog(s), your Twitter ID and a link to your LinkedIn profile if you have one.  Phone numbers are optional. If you want people to call you, list it (or maybe give them your cellphone or Skype number). If not, leave it off. They can contact you by email instead.

Also, don’t assume that everyone’s email client lets them see HTML, so include the www.yourURL.com written out instead of linking your blog’s URL. Here’s an example:

Your name
Professional Mom Blogger
me@mycoolblog.com
My Cool Blog – www.mycoolblog.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mycoolblog
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mycoolblog

If you’re blogging for a business, you should include the company name, address, phone numbers, the URL for the company’s main website (if there is one), and so on.

• Business cards – How many times have you gone to a blogger meetup and didn’t have a business card on you? They’re a must especially if you’re going to conferences like BlogHer. You can make your own on your laser or ink jet printer. However, considering the cost of ink these days it’s more cost effective to go with a online printer like VistaPrint, 123Print.com, or Moo Cards.

I love the look of Mini Moo Cards (123Print.com has their own mini version called WeeBees) but they’re problematic for people who like to keep the cards they’ve collected in a business card file or portfolio.
For the eco-conscientious 123Print.com offers cards printed on 100% recycled stock. However, you cannot beat VistaPrint on price, ease of use or the variety of designs. Often you can get cards for free (though you may need to pick one of their standard designs). All you pay for is the shipping, and if you don’t need it rushed, it’s very inexpensive.

When designing business cards, design them to have the look and feel of your blog – same colors, fonts, and graphics. If you have a logo, download it to your business card, as well. Like in your email signature, include your name, title, your contact email address, the title and URL of your blog(s), your Twitter ID and a link to your LinkedIn profile if you have one. Again, you may want to leave off your phone number and address, unless you have a business address/phone you can use.

If you sell something, for example you have an Etsy store, you may want to use the back of the card as a a discount coupon or to promote other blogs your write for.

• Promotional items – Companies like VistaPrint can help you design everything from refrigerator magnets to postcards. If you want stickers, check out StickerGiant. Their basic sticker package starts at $50 for 500. They even have business card stickers (you peel off the sticker and are left with a business card), but these start at $500 for 500.

StickerGiant was recommended to me by Dave Taylor of AskDaveTaylor.com. On his blog he features a four-part series on stickers by John Fischer you should check out:

• Everything About Stickers: Part I: Custom Sticker Marketing
• Everything About Stickers: Part II: Guide To Buying Custom Stickers
• Everything About Stickers: Part III: Types of Sticker Printing
• Everything About Stickers: Part IV: Distributing Stickers

Anne-Marie Nichols is the Social Media Manager at Mom Central Consulting. You can also find her blogging up some healthy recipes at This Mama Cooks!

Anne-Marie Nichols