27 free ways on how to promote a blog

Learn these 27 free ways on how to promote a blog. With so many blogs being created every day, many bloggers wonder how they can make theirs stand out. It’s straightforward. Good content attracts readers, and good content attracts ad revenue. Maybe it’s not that simple… We’ve finally cracked the code to effective blog marketing. Please keep in mind that these methods are not guaranteed to increase your click-through rates, and they will not bring you or your ads good karma. If only I could… Nonetheless, these suggestions should help your blog become more user-friendly, accessible, and content-enabled.

There are many different types of blogs and purposes for blogs, and a few tactics apply to almost all of them, so here is a -short- list of blog marketing and optimization tips:

Choose a domain name for your blog, such as www.myblog.com, or a directory of an existing site, such as www.mysite.com/blog. A subdomain, blog.mysite.com, is also an option. Avoid hosted services that prevent you from using your own domain!
Get and install blog software that you can customize – my favorites are WordPress and Moveable Type.
Customize the look and feel of your blog’s templates, also known as design.
Use Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, and SEOBook Keyword Research to find keywords and create a glossary.
Optimize the blog: * RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, unique title tags, URLs, and a Sitemap are all examples of template optimization.
Include WordPress or MT-specific helper plugins.
Make categories with lots of keywords (reference your keyword glossary)
Enable trackback and ping functionality automatically.
Sign up for a Feedburner Pro account and turn on feed tracking.
Create a Google Sitemap account, validate it, and prepare it for future submission.
Look for authoritative blogs, websites, and hubs to link to for outbound resource links and a blogroll.
Format related and archived posts.
Tracking statistics such as Performancing, Google Analytics, and ClickTracks should be enabled.
Submit your RSS feed and blog URL to the most popular RSS and blog directories and search engines.
Launch a long-term link-building campaign.
If you have podcast or video content, submit it to podcast and vlog directories.
Submit your blog’s URL to paid directories that specialize in blogging, such as Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, and JoeAnt.
Create and distribute a press release announcing the launch of a blog.
In relevant forums and discussion threads, ask for feedback or reviews on your blog. If you have a useful post that will benefit others, include a link to it.
Read relevant industry blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence and comment on them.
Post on a regular basis. 3-5 times per day if it’s a news-oriented blog. 3-5 times per week if it’s an authoritative blog, but each post must be unique and valuable.
Use Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs, and Feeds to track inbound links, traffic, comments, and mentions of your blog.
Always respond to comments on your blog, and if you notice your blog mentioned on another blog, thank the blogger in the post’s comments.
If at all possible, make contact with related bloggers both online and offline.
Always include a link to the source in your blog posts, and don’t be afraid to mention well-known bloggers by name. Use keywords in the title of your blog post, the body of the post, and anchor text when linking to previous posts.
Connect with other bloggers through social networking sites, forums, and discussion threads. They’ll link to you if they like what you’re doing.
Do you recall when web sites were a new concept and the wise advice to print your web address wherever your phone number was printed? For your blog, the same advice applies.