Oliver Fritsch´s MarketingBlog

Blink!

For everybody who missed this exciting Page One story in the Idaho Statesman today, I reprint Jim Lyons’  (JimLyonsObservations.blogspot.com) and my secrets for promoting your own blog. (Or read the full article in the Idaho Statesman´s business column on March 3 2007 here.)
I just love it when traditional media embraces the new media.

Why?

The Idaho Statesman, (owned by The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI)) is the most widely read newspaper in the great state of Idaho, reaching 129,287 adults per weekday.The fact that they placed a link from their highly trafficked site (Alexa Rank 35,000) to ours at www.cendesic.com (Alexa Rank 135,000) increases our findability and our credibility with Google’s (GOOG) and Yahoo’s (Nasdaq YHOO) Search Engine Spiders a lot.

My advice: if you are a new media company and get a chance to collaborate with a traditional media company: JUST DO IT!

And now – spread the word please! Here are our 8 secret rules to promote your blog.

Reprint them!
Steal them!
Use them!

8 secret rules to promote your blog by www.cendesic.com

1. Write well. Content is king. Think like a journalist. Write headlines that capture your readers´ interest. Provide human-interest stories. Don’t be politically correct. Speak from the heart. Be passionate, but have your facts straight.
2. Make it personal. Register your own domain and link it to your blog. Add a photo and a description of your interests and passions. Your readers will want to know who the person behind the writing is.
3. Energize yourself. Install free Google analytics software (analytics.google.com) on your blog to see who reads your blog, which corners of the world they come from, and which topics and links they are most interested in.
4. Promote your blog. Add your blog address to your business card, Web site and e-mail signature. E-mail all your contacts with requests to pass your blog address on to anyone interested.
5. Register your blog. Register your blog on Technorati.com, which makes your blogs instantly searchable and findable. Popularize your blog by registering it at specialty search engines and notification sites like Pingomatic.com, del.icio.us, Feedster.com, Findory.com, Blogarama.com, and BlogTopSites.com. 
6. Get subscribers. Go to Feedburner.com, register your blog, implement its RSS code on your Web site and share the link through e-mails and on your Web site. This will let readers subscribe to your blog with one click. It will also tell you how many people have actually subscribed to your blog and read it frequently. 
7. Link to others. Read other peoples´ blogs, comment on them and link to them from your blog. Sooner or later they will become interested in what you have to say about them and will link back to your blog. This will increase your traffic.
8. Optimize for search engines. Increase the findability of your blog by including keywords in your headlines and links. Choose proper categories and meta tags, which provide information about your blog and key words that can be recognized by search engines. Register your blog address with regular search engines like Google.com, Yahoo.com, Snap.com and MSN.com.

By the way: We are offering a one-day clinic in Boise, Idaho on March 19, 2007 about blog promotion and search engine optimization. Call (208) 854-1208 or e-mail info@cendesic.com to register.

This event is sponsored by the Boise State University! — Just in case you have lived behind a rock for the last few months - or you are not an American (like me) and don´t have a clue what this means, here is why this is cool:

On January 1, 2007, the undefeated and untied Boise State Broncos became the 2007 Fiesta Bowl Champions by defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime. The game was called one of the best college football games ever played, due to the combination of an underdog team, Trick plays, comebacks and a thrilling overtime victory.