Free Ways to Promote Your Blog or Website Online

The thing is, these days we are very lucky. There are so many opportunities open to us as individuals. We can be whatever we want to be.

If like me, you have a personal blog, you might be wondering how on earth anyone is ever going to read your creative and engaging content. I have a digital media company and I am an online marketing specialist. There isn't much I don't know about free online promotion.

So you have your blog. It looks great, it's packed full of useful information, bit it's only pulling in a few visitors every month. How do you get hundreds of visitors a month instead on 10?

There are so many ways you can promote your blog for free. In this article I will concentrate on these free options:

• SEO directory submission
• Blog platform submissions
• Social Media Mentions
• Youtube
• Bookmark site submissions

To begin ranking high on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, you will need to make sure you have to valuable back-links.

Back-links show the search engines that you have a popularity score. If a good quality directory points back to your website then that's a good thing for your ranking. Search engines like to see that your blog is popular. When a potential viewer types in a key-phrase associated with your particular niche, your blog will have more chance of listing for them if you have some back-links.

These linking directories and will be of great value to you:

• www.tipped.com
• www.a1webdirectory.org
• www.highrankdirectory.com
• www.livepopular.com
• www.w3catalog.com
• www.ellysdirectory.com (recipricol link required)
• www.ontoplist.com (reciprocol ink required)

• link-minded.com

  Google My Places is a great place to feature but it does mean listing your address which is not always desirable for blog sites.

  Moving forward with more of these valuable free linking directories simply type in 'seo directories 2019' and you will find hundreds listed. Just be careful where you list and make sure you list in the right category. I like to see what the alexa rank is before I chose a directory.

The best way to get your blog site out there fast is to list with a blog site that will promote each post you write thereafter. My favourite is Blogarama but I always choose the first paid option for my client's blogs. It's a little over $3 at the moment but this particular platform brings lots of traffic to your blog.

• www.blogarama.com
• www.ukblogdirectory.co.uk
• www.blogs-collection.com
• www.bloggernity.com
• www.fuelmyblog.com

Social media is a great medium for business and personal blog promotion. If you get it right, then you stand to send lots of new traffic to your blog or website.

Hashtags are all important. Don't forget to use search phrase based tags. For example #bestshorthairstyles and then add a link to that particular post on your blog. Twitter and Instagram will be of greater value to you than Facebook when it comes to use of the hashtag.

Offer free stuff! If you can give something away then you are onto a winner as far as social media followers are concerned. Do this by promoting your giveaway on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, but point people to register with their email address on your blog. Email addresses are like gold dust because as long as signees agree to it, you can email out to them in the future.

Make sure your Instagram account is populated with loads of great images and use around 6 hashtags per post. Too much will look spammy and people are less likely to follow spammy accounts.

As I said above, email addresses are like gold dust. If you use them responsibly then you will retain website visitors. Customer or reader retention is overlooked by most of us. In actual fact, a returning visitor is all important. They are far more likely to engage with your content and to share on their own social media accounts. I always tell clients to appreciate returning visitors and to look after them.

How can you do this? Send out emails no more than once a month and make them valuable to your audience. Solve a problem for them. Look up common questions and write a post offering information about how that particular problem can be solved. Obviously make it specific to your audience. Don't go telling them how to dye their hair pink if your website is about dogs!

Run a monthly offer. Give something away. It doesn't have to be expensive. Think of it this was. A free gift worth say £10-£15 is an extremely cheap ad. People love free stuff, it's a fact!

Not only is Youtube a great way to make revenue from ads, it is a fantastic way to point people back to your website.

Talk to your audience as if they are your friends. Be yourself and you will steadily build an audience. Don't expect over-night results. Allow viewers to engage by leaving comments open and don't worry about dislikes! I have a Youtube beauty channel as well as my Evie Sparkes channel and I get some dislikes. I don't care one bit. You can't be sensitive if you are going to make use of Youtube. My son Harry said: You'll know you've made it when someone tells you to go step on lego. He's 18 and lives for that sort of thing though!

There are some great bookmarking sites out there. This is where you register as a user and add websites you love or blog posts that have inspired you. Submit your own site here!

• https://www.mix.com
• http://www.dig.com
• https://www.reddit.com (can be a bit sniffy about self-promotion but well worth it if you can get away with it)
• https://www.weheartit.com
• https://www.pinterest.com

Keep going, even in the face of no traffic. Things will improve if you utilise these free options. Don't give up on what could be great.