How To Market Your Blog For Free in 2022? 8 Tips That Still Work!

Hi friends. I wish the year 2022 brings you lots of happiness and success. May your blog’s traffic skyrocket to newer heights & crash your web servers! There is no denying in the fact that content is the king. But without the right approach to market your blog, it won’t reach your target audience and the right eye-balls. Results? You’ll be demotivated as you see your time and efforts in creating that unique content that no one reads. This is where the need to learn how to market your blog gets pivotal. And it doesn’t necessarily means spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisements and paid search. You can market your blog for free without even spending a dime. I will teach you how with these awesome marketing ideas that will surely work to your success in 2022:

1. Learn Search Engine Optimization

I can’t emphasize this enough: Without learning SEO, you can’t effectively market your blog. Search engines play a huge, huge role in your promotion and marketing strategy. Why? Because they send the most relevant visitors to your website. The visitors are already in search of some information and if your blog listing on Google search attracts them to visit your website, you’ve won the game. It is the traffic that converts and sells. It is a lifeline for your blog. And did I mention that it’s free? There are a lot of incredible resources online where you can learn how to do SEO. My preferred choice? Backlinko, Moz, Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal. 

2. Time Your Social Media Updates

The importance of social media in your blog marketing strategy

Social media plays a key role in marketing your blog. In-fact, when you’re just starting out with a new blog or a website, it is social media only which helps your articles gain the initial attention. Moreover, it acts as a cushion which guards your blog during those times when it gets hit by sharp swings in search engine results.

Organic traffic is volatile. Some days, you’ll see your rankings soaring to the first page of Google, and there will certainly be times when those results will be pushed deep behind by the complex Google algorithm. This is where the importance of social media gets amplified. Every successful online entrepreneur started with a zero number on the social media. Here are some tips to help you grow these numbers and market your blog: 

• Invite/Solicit help from your existing network of friends. This will help you overcome the zero mark. 
• Be consistent in sharing useful and engaging posts, not only just from your own blog, but also take time to appreciate the work of your peers. 
• Publish a variety of posts like articles, videos, posters & quizzes. 
• Use hashtags wherever necessary, but don’t overdo them. 

A great social media utility that’s worth mentioning here is Viral Content Bee by Ann Smarty. It’s an incredible free tool that helps you market your blog posts to a vast network of social media for free. And, if your article is so useful and unique, who can stop it from going viral? To know more about Viral Content Bee, please read my review here.  

Why timing your social media updates is important?

People are more likely to scroll through their Facebook feeds either during early morning, afternoon or in the evening. So, it makes sense that you post your social media updates during those times only when people are most likely to be online to see and engage with your content.

Almost same logic goes with Twitter. During weekdays, from Monday to Friday, these social media websites are most often scrolled when people are temporarily disengaged from their work, like for example; during early morning commute (8 am to 10 am), lunch (1 pm to 2 pm), tea break (3 pm to 4 pm) and while commuting back to home (5 pm to 7 pm).

If you’re wondering how to maintain your social media updates with such timelines, you can take help of social media automation apps like Buffer and Hootsuite.

3. Launch Giveaways 

People love gifts, offers, and discounts. Offering such freebies on your blog is an effective way to market and promote your blog. Although this may cost you some money, there are many ways that your giveaway can be hosted for free. For example, you can try offering your latest e-book, free membership/discounts to your paid courses/workshops (if you have any). The most widely used service to host giveaways is Rafflecopter. This is how it works:

• You specify certain pre-qualification activities like leaving a comment, sharing your website, following you on social media or becoming an email subscriber
• Completion of such activities qualify for valid entry points.
• People enter your giveaway and with an intention to score the maximum number of points, they complete all such essential pre-qualification activities.
• Once the giveaway ends, Rafflecopter sorts the entries according to maximum number of points and randomly picks one lucky winner.

To see a demo of how Raffecopter works, please check this demo presentation.

4. Start a podcast

Podcasting refers to delivery of content through recorded audio. This is a fairly new form of blog marketing strategy that has gained ground in the blogging industry, especially since the last two years. The benefits of podcasting over the traditional text-based content marketing are that it brings with it an element of connection and builds up trust by connecting your voice and feelings directly with your audience.

I personally have little experience with podcasting, however, in the backdrop of its benefits, I also intend to start my own podcast very soon. To help you get started with podcasting, here is a nice video tutorial by Pat Flynn. This will surely help you get started with the right tools and equipment to launch your own podcast.

4. Update older/outdated posts

No one likes to read outdated content. Tips/strategies/product reviews that appear anachronistic must be updated at regular intervals of time to maintain the interest of people reading your blog. You can adopt either of the following ways to do this:

• Update your older posts by adding new resources and tips that work today
• Completely overhaul your older posts with fresh content, media, resources & relaunch them as brand new posts.

5. Market Your Blog Posts On YouTube

A step ahead of podcasts, marketing your blog through YouTube helps build, maintain and grow your loyal readership. People feel connected to audio more than text, and even more to video than any other form of media.

Promotion through YouTube works best for those who are more into review or tutorial kind of business. Provide a good teaser video recording of the review and then direct the visitors to your blog post for a full comprehensive review. My photography blog still gets a good number of visits through some photo editing tutorials I’ve uploaded on YouTube. This works 🙂

Recommended to Read: Difference between blogging and vlogging?

6. Guest Posts

Shady and black hat SEO tactics come and go, but the rock-solid foundations like guest posts are here to stay! If you’re new to the concept of guest post, you should perhaps spend a few minutes to learn what it is. Well, even in 2021, guest posts work wonders in increasing your blog’s visibility, traffic and acquisition of a loyal readership. On my blog, I’ve discussed a lot about guest posts. Here are some useful resources to help you get started:

• Where To Submit Your Guest Posts? [INFOGRAPHIC]
• 4 things to do after getting your guest post published
• Offering Sponsored Posts Disguised As Guest Posts: Clever Marketing

7. Email Signatures

Do you know that you can promote your latest posts through professional email signatures as well? WiseStamp is a browser extension that automatically adds your desired signature (a professional looking one!) whenever you compose or reply to an email message. The exciting part is, it also allows you to add your website’s RSS feed in its setup, promoting your latest post automatically! Have a look at my present email signature setup with WiseStamp:

Not only does it help market your blog for free by promoting your latest posts in every email, but also encourage people to visit your social media profiles and connect with your brand. However, if you wish to gain more control over the look and feel of your email signature, you can always opt for the pro version which costs only $4.80 per month.

8. Format your blog posts well

This is an indirect way that encourages your blog readers to promote your content. If your blog has a well-defined format and a clear layout, it not only looks easy on the eyes but also keeps the visitors engaged and connected. After all, a satisfied and happy customer is more likely to promote your business than unsatisfied ones. Agree?

How do YOU market your blog?

What strategies do you follow to promote your blog? How many of these ways are you using to drive traffic to your website? Is there any other strategy worth mentioning here? Express your thoughts in the comments below 🙂