Susan Suarez

Marketing your site is very important, just as much the design and layout. Most bloggers build a site thinking that the crowds will come automatically but are sadly stricken with discouragement when they later find out that’s not the case. In reality, they find their traffic is low or non-existent.

Getting the word out there that your blog exists and then obtaining traffic can be a bit challenging.

A successful marketing campaign can seriously improve the quantity and quality of visitors to your site. There are several ways to promote your site.

1) Get Listed – List your sites on communities like MyBlogLog for instant visitors and submit to your site to blog directories.

2) Trade Links - Trade links with similar blogs or try out free services that will allow you to request free link exchanges with other websites, such as Link2me.com or LinkMarket.net

3) Ad/Text Link Exchange - Add your site to ad/text link exchange services that will display targeted ads on your site and in return show your ad on thousands of other networked sites. You can use a free service like AdGridwork. You add your site to their network and it will then appear on thousands of other networks. If you have a banner, you can participate in free banner exchanges. There are many services out there.

4) Submit to Search Directories – It’s a good idea to submit your site to directories but as the internet grows it’s getting harder to achieve high rankings.

5) Bookmarking - Because it can be very hard to get noticed in the growing number of websites on the internet, it’s great to use bookmarking services… Digg is a bit hard to get your foot in as the site is much larger nowadays but you can use the front page results to your advantage. If an article related to your niche hits the front page, try writing a post on a similar topic and submit it to Digg. It’s worked for me in the past and you should receive some additional visitors from it.

I highly recommend signing up with StumbleUpon and submitting your site. It’s a great way to ‘jump start’ the number of visitors coming to your site and Stumbleupon’s service is a great tool to have. I find many interesting websites that I wouldn’t have otherwise found through Google.

6) Pay-Per-Click - Although it’s not the best option for starters, it can be a good tool if you run an affiliate product site. If the cost per click is lower than the Return On Investment (ROI), it works great. I wouldn’t waste my money on this avenue with most blogs but Google, MSN, Yahoo and Bidvertiser are running some free click programs right now, so if you can sign up for one of those it may be worthwhile to see how many visitors you can bring in.

To sign up for free Bidvertisers clicks, you can sign up with a free service on Addme. It actually works out to your advantage as the service allows you to submit your site for FREE to 14 search engines. You’ll be asked if you want to hear about Bidvertiser’s promotion to get free clicks/money. Just check yes and that’s it. You’ll receive an email with details. Also, BlueHost is offering members free MSN and Yahoo money (publishers who haven’t setup a prior account with either companies). If you are looking for a good web hosting company, you could sign up with BlueHost and take advantage of the promotion.

There are so many marketing techniques to promote your site but as a blogger stay true to your service and content, and you really shouldn’t have a problem bringing in visitors. Word of mouth is the best advertising.