Free Long Term Marketing Methods for Blogs, Events, and Venue Spaces
By: Juan Castillo
Tags: Blogging, Blogging Tips, Content Marketing, Event Planning

The marketing methods described in this article are written to mostly help those who have a blog or business website. Both blogs and well-implemented business websites are one of the lucrative sources of free leads once they start ranking on google. Here’s a short list of good practices when pursuing this path.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Before Marketing any blog or website, you must first understand your target audience. What country are most of them from? Do they have money to spend? Where on the web do they congregate? What online services are they most likely using? What are their hobbies? What are their needs? What are their wants? What keywords are they searching? These are fair questions that should be answered before going down the rabbit hole.

People naturally gravitate toward being comfortable. The moment you invite them into a situation of uncertainty, they feel uncomfortable which is a no-no when it comes to marketing. So how can you market your blog without being random, pushy or annoying? the answer? A free value proposition! lure visitors by giving value for free as soon as possible. Have you ever noticed a youtuber offering valuable information via a video and towards the end they hit you with the “oh, and please subscribe” or “oh, be sure to follow on Instagram to keep updated”. When it comes to building a free value proposition, the first step is figuring out what people are interested in. Second, is determining how competitive the market is for such keywords or audience targeting.

Due to recent changes in SEO, sites like Google prefer long and detailed articles anywhere from 2000 to 2500 words. This should tell you something, as time continues, it will get harder and harder to set yourself among the gods. This is why I live by the quote “If you’re going to do something, do it today because tomorrow it will be harder“. It’s a good thing that you’re reading this article now because in a few minutes, you should be able to start or continue your blog right where you left off.

Successful blogs are more than just a name or a brand, they are a resource to others. If you can’t figure out how to provide valuable resources, then please think about that first.

Answer this question:

People will come to my blog or website because __________

For example, I created a site called WeShareNotes some time ago. The reason as to why people will use WeShareNotes? Well, People will come to WeShareNotes because it will serve as a broadcasting tool for creators. My aim “broadcasting tool” is a very broad concept, but for a blogger, it’s much better to narrow down on your focus group. For example, people will come to my blog because they need help with preparing vegan food.

After you have that core idea in mind, then everything that’s posted on your blog should tie back to that idea.

Here’s a step by step actionable plan to increase conversions:

Step 1: Create something of worth & value to others. This product that you will create has to be offered for free and must be of quality. The last thing you want is people associating your blog with crappy content. The subject has to be about something that you know more than the average person. Most popular medium for delivering your product will be an eBook, podcast, Youtube video, an online course.

To drill this idea even further, here’s a real-life story:

Sara is a graduate student who managed to graduate in Economics with a 3.9 GPA. As a result, she now wants to share her tips and tricks on how to do the same. She thinks that a Youtube channel would be a good medium but she later finds out that her personality is not up to the task. She has a very serious persona and lacks the ability to attract and entertain people. As a result, Sara decides to go the eBook route. She writes a 30 page eBook on “How I graduated with a 3.9GPA in Economics”. Days later she publishes the eBook and offers it for free on both her website and Amazon. Using this eBook, she attracts readers who are most likely starting a degree in economics and who can make use of her know-how. As a finishing touch, she concludes her eBook with a page that persuades the reader into signing up for her email list by offering something of “higher value” for free. This concluding page must be very persuasive and must offer something of great value to the reader. Her readers are now very comfortable and likely to buy or subscribe to her email list because she has established herself as a guru within that domain of expertise without being pushy or demanding.

As a finishing touch, Sara keeps her email list active by sending useful tips and letters of encouragement. She also slips an affiliate link here and there about products that she values in order to make some money from her followers. The End!

Step 2: Tie the product that you have created back to your brand or website. For example, if you decide to create a free eBook then at the last page of the eBook, pitch your viewers something of value that will convince them to visit your site. At this point, they should be comfortable and interested in your product. It’s your opportunity to ask for their email in return for something else.

Step 3: Not everyone is going to take you up on the offer so don’t be discouraged. Just like many things in life, an online business is a maths game. If you notice that 10% of users are subscribing to your email and your goal is to obtain 5,000 emails then you should be figuring out how to get your eBook or value product in front of 50,000 people. 10% of 50k = 5,000 subscribers.

Step 4: Now, how do you exactly get traffic and visitors to see or download a free eBook or product?

This is probably the most important step after creating quality content. I must warn you, this step is everything but easy. But don’t worry; there are many ways to go about generating traffic to your site. Here are my most successful methodologies.

For the following methods that I’m about to show you, I recommend that you use Bit.ly to analyze from where your traffic is coming from. For those of you who don’t know, Bit.ly is a site that will tell you how many times your links have been clicked and from which social network or web page it was clicked. It’s very easy to configure, all you need to do is take the URL link from your blog post that you would like to share and insert that URL into bit.ly

Bit.ly should spit out another URL like this

You can now take this URL and share it on all social media platforms and monitor the location from where users are clicking your link the most. If you noticed that a large portion of users are coming from one specific location, it’s recommended that you focus on promoting directly on that platform. Don’t waste your time promoting your brand on sites that are not referring traffic to your site or blog.

Marketing Method # 1: Collaborations

Probably the best way to rapidly increase your ranking both in google and traffic is by collaborating with other quality bloggers and having them post an article about anything that connects their users to your blog. Important! If you’re lucky enough to persuade bloggers to write or post about your article on their blog, then be sure to place a “Dofollow” URL.

Fact: “Dofollow” URL are links that tell Google “hey, this blog is amazing and should be ranked higher because people are sharing it”. “Nofollow” URL are links that when posted on a blog tells google “we don’t represent this brand” which it terms signifies that others are not endorsing your work and thus google won’t rank you higher on their search engine.

- Update: it’s now against Google’s terms of use to directly ask bloggers or sites for a “Dofollow” link.

Marketing Method # 2: Use Facebook Groups

Facebook is a great resource for contacting and sharing with other bloggers. Many bloggers have created a Facebook page which allows you to message people without being connected as friends. This is great because you don’t have to go out of your way searching for emails and emailing gazillions of bloggers.

Marketing Method # 3: Use Semrush

Semrush does something really amazing that any professional blogger should take into consideration. Semrush gives a very thorough analysis of websites, from growth metrics to who’s linking to these sites. Why is this useful? Because you can use these features to analyze your competitors and see for yourself how they are managing to acquire traffic and leads. Once you analyze your competitors and see what they are doing, then you should try to replicate those exact processes to achieve an equal amount of result. For example, a few days ago I had to help a customer with improving his SEO, the problem is that this exact customer was in a very competitive niche and he had no idea where to start. We used Semrush to analyze his main competitors and we found that their sites were posting very eye-catching ads and receiving visitors mostly from Quora which was unexpected. To compete, we replicated their high-performing ads and hired a virtual assistant to answer Quora questions. Every question answered on quota referred leads to our customers' site. Even though we were performing in a very competitive space, we managed to see an increase of 34% in incoming traffic and a 20% increase in organic traffic within a period of 3 months.

Marketing Method #4: Use Quora

Quora is the new kid on the block, well, at least it was. It’s a question and answer community that’s highly regulated by the staff. As a result, their database of knowledge is more accurate than something like yahoo answers. Quora is a platform that usually attracts educated, high-income people. The large difference between Quora and something like yahoo answers is that Quora will monitor the quality of every answer. Now, how can you use this platform for your blogging benefits?

Well, you can create a profile and add your blog link to the description. Answer as many questions relating to blogging as possible. As a result, viewers will read your answers and look into your description and ultimately land on your blog. Not only will that help you with leads but over time, viewers and readers start associating you as a leader within the industry.

Marketing Method #5: Pinterest

Pinterest is a great platform for referring users to your site but over the years it has received so much attention that it’s getting quite difficult to extract any significant traffic. That was a fair warning, now, it’s still a great platform to post and get out there, I’m just saying that it won’t be as easy as it was 1 or 2 years ago. I highly recommend Pinterest if you’re both creative and can capture breathtaking pictures. In many cases, Pinterest users are highly educated and are most likely looking for creative ideas. So the more creative ideas you can provide, the more results you shall see.

Things to keep in mind:

● Best hour to pin is 2PM-4PM or 8 PM to 1 AM

● Make all the images on your blog pinnable

● Pinterest rewards those who post a lot, so be prepared to either hire someone or spend a lot of time scheduling, pinning and repinning.

● Make images on your newsletters pinnable

● Use keywords in pin titles, descriptions, and image files

Marketing Method #6: Meetup Events

If you live in a big city but can’t travel, one great option is to join a few Meetups. If you go to meetup.com you can find Meetup events happening around your area. If you do end up attending an event, you’ll quickly realize that you’re not alone in this crazy world of online blogging or online marketing. Try to leverage others into helping your cause by collaborations, money or even bartering services.

Marketing Method #7: Twitter Advanced Search

Twitter advanced search is a wonderful tool for finding leads. I have used it in the past to contact people with an interest in blogging near a set location.

Marketing Method #8: Find Low Ranking Keywords and Create a Youtube Video on that Topic

This method is a big one that should work magic if done correctly. Here’s the logic that makes this method shine. Have you ever search google for a certain phrase or term and it then spits out a video within the search results, like this:

Well, these videos get a ton of traffic from google search because they have been optimized to rank on google by the inclusion of a well thought out title, long description, tags, and custom thumbnails. This is just an overview of what is needed to rank a video. I’m sure you can find more information on google on how to structure everything around. Sorry but this is not a step-by-step tutorial but more of a general guide with the intention of opening your horizon with marketing ideas.

Marketing Method #9: Use Google Trend

Google has an application called google trend. Google trend analyzes current trends based on the popularity of certain search terms such as “Kardashian”. Many large companies extensively use this tool to write about trending topics. The faster they can post an article relating to such terms, the higher the chances of appearing on top search results for those keywords.

Marketing Method #10: Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is both a free and paid service. The great thing about Buzzsumo is that you can search for a keyword relating to your target audience and receive some of the most shared articles on that subject. Since these articles are highly shared, it means that people enjoy the topic. I have noted that many bloggers use these highly shared articles as inspiration. In many occasions, I’ve been bloggers rewrite the same articles. As a good rule, it’s important to improve the article by Including more pictures, videos, soundtrack, descriptions, and tips. After re-writing the article, share it or pitch it to a high traffic site that can net you some “Dofollow” links.

Marketing Method #11: Physically Meet Your Audience (Travel) / Word of Mouth

I was debating whether or not this should be under the free marketing section. Traveling is a big step for any sort of business and in most cases, it’s nothing but cheap. In this case, let’s substitute traveling with word of mouth marketing.

Let me share a small story about myself. Some time ago I decided to visit Thailand from New York in order to experience the upcoming “digital nomad” culture and meet online entrepreneurs. When I decided to travel to Thailand from New York, I had very little knowledge on what I was getting myself into. In a sense, my dire desire to travel, to build a business and meet others echo noises in my head saying “do it”, “do it”. Every day it got louder until wallahh, I bought a ticket. Little did I know that traveling was probably the best investments that I have ever made in both business and self-development. While staying at hostels and traveling across cities, I have had the privilege to meet so many amazing people and cultures. I have made an incredible amount of connections and have improved my online business by word of mouth 10,000 folds. The thing is that while you’re back at home, you’re comfortable. You’re most likely living the comfortable life, meeting the same people, doing the same things, and following a daily routine. The thing about traveling and staying at hostels is that everyone is there for the same reason which is to travel, make friends and enjoy life. My number one rule that I had and the one in which I followed was that no matter how comfortable or how amazing the people I meet at hostels, I had to keep moving. The more you keep moving, the more social you get, the more people you meet, the more subscribers interested in reading your blog and interested in your storyline.

There are other more advanced methods for gaining traffic and marketing your business, but for now, I’ll leave that for another article. If you like our content, feel free to subscribe, Wink wink :)