In general, I would say advertise your blog anywhere and everywhere! That doesn't mean to say you should be spamming your blog to the extent you become blacklisted, but that there are key places or sites to focus on!
1. Article writing - many bloggers have got where they are because they have submitted useful articles to directories such as ezine articles and articlebase that become linked to by other sites, followed on Twitter etc and become known as 'an authority' on this particular area.
2. Search engine submitting - Now this might seem an obvious point, but rather than waiting for Google and other sites to pick up on your blog, submit it manually, as it usually will get indexed a lot quicker. There are sites that will do this for you, but if yours is a pretty mainstream blog, I would suggest submitting them manually saving you both time and money.
3. Social media - Sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace have really taken off and are a fantastic resource for advertising your blog. Aside from being able to message friends with updates on your blog, Facebook in particular offers paid advertising which you can use to target certain groups, you can also set up your own groups inviting like minded people, or join groups yourself. Twitter can be used for posting announcements about you blog, and following other like-minded people in the aim that they will also follow you. If you don't wish to target people in this way, Youtube allows users to post videos of interest while at the same time advertising their content.
4. Forums - Again, forums, like social media can be used to target people with similar interests. In most forums you can create a signature which appears in your posts (I would advertise checking though so it doesn't seem like spamming), and as you gradually build up a presence on the forum, you can introduce your site into your posts. This is a longer term method however so that it doesn't come across as spamming your site.
5. Classified Ads - Another useful method is Classified Advertising. Sites such as Craigslist provide a method of posting an advertisement advertising your site rather than advertising goods themselves, but can be used in the same way. Another UK based option is gumtree or Adtrader.
6. Digg.com - Digg is a site allowing users to publish news items, videos and images of interest to the general public in the form of original content you have published on your site. By submitting it, the more 'diggs' (hits) an item gets, the more likely it is to appear on the home page or become one of the more popular items.
7. Signatures - Linked to forums to some extent, but that can also be based around your email, are signatures, providing both a link and some relevant text to your site.
8. Link exchanges/submission/rss feeds - These vary, in that link exchanges are exchanges with other sites of relevance to yours, generally I would aim for higher PR ones, the higher the better, whereas link submissions are submissions to link exchange sites without having to provide them with a link back on your site. I would limit both these though as Google can sometimes see it as link farming.
9. Paid advertising - In some cases this can work, using methods such as Facebook, or Google adwords, but you need to word your adverts very carefully, and do the same with keywords, otherwise you're targeting the wrong people with the wrong keywords totally.
10. Press releases/ news items - Sites such as searchbyheadlines.com, as well as many others, allow you to submit your own press releases to them which are then distributed to various companies.
About the Author
Having never been into designing websites, advertising etc over the past few months I;ve found that I've really got into it, finiding news methods that work etc. These are my top 10 tips for advertising your site online.
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