As you guys know, Google updates Page Rank every 2-5 months. You might think, why can’t it get here sooner? But as an SEO enthusiast starting out a new blog (like me), you would know that it is just ample time to get a blog started and kicking. I had a newer blog last February that got to PR 3 in 50 days and I was pretty happy with my accomplishment. I don’t know if that is the usual or not, still glad. Mind you, I heavily promoted it and such so I would assume that a not promoted blog would achieve less.
So what lesson have we learned here? Promote heavily (after approximately 5 posts), but wisely. Most would think that it’s just about getting backlinks everywhere and forum postings, what’s more to think about? If you have a lot of time, money, and a whole team in your hands, then this is really no problem, but chances are is that you have limited time and resources. All your time is already spent posting quality content (you do post those right?) so you only have a bit of that left to actually promote. You have to remember that posting is just one half the battle, promoting is the other. That is why you have to also choose where to promote and budget how much time you will allocate for that particular promotion.
As a Newbie Blogger and being only 21 years old, I have no money in my name. That is why I don’t use Ads or PPC to promote my site. All the strategies I have used so far are free namely because I am broke; but don’t get me wrong, these promotion techniques can be just as effective. Of course, if you have the cash to spend, then you can opt to use paid advertising along with free ones; mixing them up is obviously the best way.
In any case, remember that you have only a few months to do this before Page Rank update sets in, and after that you would have to wait approximately 3 more months to rank up again. Can you honestly wait that long, knowing full well that you could have done better? I would personally hate myself.
So my advice, Promote your Blog for Free Right Away! (You have nothing to loose really, except perhaps time.)
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BACKLINKS, ADVERTISING, SOCIAL MEDIA
Backlinks are the heart and soul of your promotions. The more backlinks you have, the higher you are in Google’s search engine list. There are actually a lot of free ways to achieve this.
Bookmarking
One obvious way is too submit to bookmarking sites. A lot of you would already be familiar with popular Bookmarking Sites. Not all bookmarking sites are Do Follow though, so you might want to check first if you prefer those.
I am not saying that No Follow Bookmark Sites (like Digg) are no use as they will also be crucial for driving traffic through your link if dugg enough. So it is best to submit to a lot of these, Do Follow or No Follow, also to have a more even and natural link distribution, that looks more natural for Google Bots.
Commenting
Lots of people are quite lazy to do this but I think it’s good to let people know that you are interactive, can’t hurt to get the free backlink either. A tip would be to write your name with your site or whatever keyword you are promoting that does not look spammy. Using your name only is not building up your keywords even if you are gaining links. Using the keyword only might be trashed by the moderator.
When commenting, Do Follow Sites have more worth as they pass on link juice, but that does not mean to say to forget No Follow Sites, as these are also composed of good sites that can build your reputation. People will see you as a person that is not just after links but actual interaction. Also, if you provide a good enough input to the discussion, people might even click your link.
Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for Commentluv sites as that would mean double links for the price of one. Don’t forget that a lot of blogs that use Commentluv is also Do Follow. Checking out for Keywordluv is also good so you will be sure that your good comment with a keyword gets approved.
Link Exchange
Remember to do this ONLY if your site is REALLY relevant to the other and that you would be able to expect traffic to actually come from the other site through your link there. There is no actual link value here as Google cancels out Reciprocal links.
I have one site that offered me a link to a PR 3 blog. I was like wow, that’s so nice of him. But then I realized that this guy runs a sort of Link Farm in his SEO blog, seeing as he has about a hundred other Reciprocal Links. I’m pretty sure being related to Link Farms can be bad for your reputation with Google and you can even go way back their Search Query. So yeah, really bad idea, don’t exchange links with this kind of guy.
When Exchanging Links, people most of the time check the PR of a site because this can also be reflective of how much traffic that site actually gets. Mind you though, this is not the only thing you should check. Also consider how many actually comment in the other site and if there really is interaction, so that there is a possibility to bring that interaction into your site. Even a PR 0 blog is worth something if it has lots of traffic and people who actually interact. Personally I think this is better compared to a dead PR 4 blog.
Submitting to Web Directories
This is actually not very effective but still a Backlink nonetheless. Thousands of sites are in directories so chances are you won’t get much link juice out of it. It still can be pretty useful though especially if the blogs are sorted into Niche and someone might stumble in your blog if you are placed in the right one.
Posting in Forums
Some forums allow a couple of links in signatures so it is best to tap into that. Mind you, some forums require a number of posts firsts before you can place links in your post. It’s also not just about the links but also actually advertising your blog within your posts to gain some traffic from that forum. I have to warn you that some sites actually BAN accounts or IP Addressees for ruthless advertising, so be careful and remember to read the terms and conditions before posting anything. I would recommend Digital Point Forums and Webmaster Forums as these (from experience) result to a lot of interaction whenever you make a post.
Using Gain Traffic Programs
Although not Web Directories, Entrecard and LinkReferral are also sorted into categories. It serves a double purpose of sorting your blog for people to find and gaining traffic for your blog. Other Gain Traffic Programs include Adgitize, BlogExplosion, and TrafficSwarm, among others.
For Entrecard, you can also actually use this as a free banner advertising platform. All you have to do is drop on blogs to gain Entrecard Credits (EC). You can then use these credits to buy Banner and Text Ads from other Entrecard users that have the widget. I highly recommend this program and I am very happy with their service so far.
Guest Posting
(This is my first guest post in my life ever! Yay! I’ve been meaning to post sooner but I thought that I have to make a relatively good one when submitting to Blog Engage. I like this Guest Posting Site best as I can actually feel the interaction and community.)
Anyhow, some blogs allow duplicate content, but even if the Guest Posting Blog demands for unique content, you have to see this as an investment. A really good blog can help convert readers into your own blog and make people read other posts in your site just by ‘sacrificing’ that one post. You can also gain links from this from the signature and within the post. Remember to use Hyperlinks relating to your site so the keyword can be counted by Google. This is true for anywhere, even forums and comments. Try to Guest Post in as many sites as possible to spread the word of your awesome existence. Guest Posters actually carry some sort of status and people see you as quite the expert in the topic you are talking about.
Using Social Networking Sites
Facebook has at one point exceeded Google in traffic as lots of people proceed directly to facebook to check their profiles several times a day. I really have no idea how they were able to do it as I am not an avid facebook user, but I bow to them as this is quite a feat. I mean, people use Google several times a day too right?! And that links you to millions of sites! So you can just imagine how good facebook has to be to defeat Google. Twitter, on the other hand, has reached more than 10 billion tweets, which is more than the number of people in the world, now that’s also something. It would definitely be a SIN not to use these Social Media platforms. They don’t work? Get over yourself. They don’t work because you don’t know how. 
Start small by just linking or tweeting your posts, even a complete newbie would know how to do that. In time, you should actually learn to pick up other good posts to link or tweet so people will be more motivated to follow you.
So that’s it, my entire Cheapskate Promoting Strategy. I hope you guys were able to learn a thing or two. I am relatively new to SEO so I hope the experts don’t roll their eyes thinking that it is another “How to Promote Post”; I know you guys might have already read something like this a million times over. Being an even newer blogger before though, I would have loved to read something like this, so that is why I wrote about it. If there are any objections to my methods I would be more than happy to hear about them. Thanks for reading!
Until Next time,
Tini | Inzone Internet
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