There are many ways to market your blog, for example: via search engines, alt text, telling your friends face to face, telling your contacts via social networking sites, and distributing flyers.
Search Engines
It is very important that blog readers find it easy to access your blog via Google or other various search engines such as Bing and Yahoo. Google is the most important search engine and accounts for 50% of visits to websites, Bing and Yahoo accounting for less than 2% each. What actually happens is when a user types what it's looking for into Google, Google searches all blogs looking for the key words used by the searcher. You must ensure therefore that the name of your blog contains the keywords searchers are more likely to use.
Alt text
Alt text is the explanation you receive when you float the cursor over an image. Alt text allows the search engine to know what the image contains. The search engine cannot read the image therefore without alt text the search engine won't use the image to direct searches to your site. The advantages to using alt text are that you can entice traffic from Google images and also blind people can view your site when they are using a screen reader. The only disadvantage is that if you use blogger, it does not provide an easy way to use alt text with your images.
Social Media Optimising
I assume most blog readers have a Facebook or a Twitter page. If not, get one because on average, 8% of traffic to websites comes from social networking sites. Adding features and buttons to your blog such as Twitter, Facebook or Google+ will be benificial. Even better will be the addition of gadgets which allow your reader to share your blog content with their own friends and followers. Have you heard of sharing sites such as Delicious, Dig and StumbleUpon? Your blog would reach other users if the content was shared on sites such as these. A word of warning, beware of spamming on these sites.
Other ways to market your blog
There are many ways to market and advertise your blog. A simple email to all your friends in your account informing them about your blog and asking for their feedback will go a long way. Remember, every little helps.
Whenever you have the time, introduce your blog into a conversation when you're spending time with your friends and family and ask for their opinions on your content.
Create interesting, attention grabbing cards, flyers, posters and leaflets advertising your blog and hand them out to people in the park, shopping centres, or even leave them at places such as pub tables and shop windows.
Find blogs similar to your own and get in the habit of leaving comments on them. Hopefully, the blogger will return the favour to you. Start to submit your URL to magazines and newspapers particularly in your chosen field. You have nothing to loose.
Remember to keep your blog up to date and keep posting new stories onto your blog to keep your readers/followers happy. Remember being patient brings success. So keep at it.
