In my never-ending quest to attract readers, I’ve come across several free tools that assist bloggers in marketing their blogs and attracting even more readers. I thought I’d share.

1. StatCounter.com: StatCounter is a little bit o’ heaven I stumbled upon about a year ago when I was setting up some private websites and wanted to know if anyone was even going to the sites. With StatCounter it’s free to sign up and get emailed reports of the daily traffic to the URL you set up. You can run multiple campaigns and get various different types of data from this website. If you want more in depth information you can always pay for an account, but it’s not necessary. My favorite part are the e-mailed reports… I’ve set up weekly reports that let me know how many visitors my site has had. And I’ve never had a problem with any strange incorrect data.

2. Twitter: When I first heard about Twitter I was in Miami attending the Affiliate Summit East. I was like a sponge with the things I learned in the sessions I attended and wanted to apply all of my knowledge right away. So I came back and started to read Twitter. I have to admit that at first it seemed pointless, but as I’ve immersed myself into “mini blogging” I’ve started to get it. Link to the blog to remind people to read. Reach out to people with similar interests if you see something they’d be interested in. If your blog addresses that interest, even better. It’s a fun little community I’m happy to be part of.

3. BlogRush: This is a new one I just started using last week, and I’m happy to say it’s worked just a little bit. The service itself is relatively new to the blogosphere, but the nifty little widget I like. A few pretty reputable blogs I know of, including Marketing Pilgrim where I first learned about BlogRush, have joined the link exchange so far. There’s really nothing you have to do once it’s been installed in your blog and it’s totally free. Since it is in it’s infancy, some reporting features are still having the bugs worked out, but I have faith that this will be a good little widget to have.

4. ArticlesBase: I admit… I haven’t poked around much on ArticlesBase yet, but so far I’m fascinated. You can create your own submission and read other articles based on keywords. I love tagging and keywords myself, so this is a great tool to submit your article (for free) and to find other articles that you’ll enjoy reading.

I’m always looking for other freebie marketing ideas, so let me know if you know of any other great tools out there.

Read more at http://www.TrishaLyn.com

Much deliberation has been done about your site’s design and layout. Rich, quality content has also been written. The fact that your blog is presently on the net, and that you have exhausted all the means needed to keep it in good shape, your queries about ‘marketing my blog’ will then surface.

Marketing on the real world entails reaching out, physically, to your intended market. Much goes the same way with internet marketing. Like in the real physical set-up, you cannot expect people to come up to you to ask what you have to offer. In the internet, people will not visit a site they do not know exists, and this is where your concerns about ‘marketing my blog’ emerges. To let people know about your site’s existence, there is a need for you to actively join communities and announce the virtues of your blog. The reasonable method would be to choose those communities that are in line with your blog niche. Through this way you will meet a lot of people with concerns and questions you and your blog can provide answers to. There is no better way to gain exposure and visitors than answering forum questions with your site link attached on your signature. You will soon discover that the best solution to your problems about ‘marketing my blog’ lies heavily on self-promotion. Go ahead and put your best foot forward. A direct invitation towards your site is hard to ignore especially if you are able to provide interesting and useful responses.

Visiting other blogs and leaving informative comments is another productive method to create networking. This is a good method to market your blog by encouraging other people to link on your site and be exposed to their respective groups. You will realize that it takes a lot of work to address your concerns about ‘marketing my blog’, but once properly done, the exposure can grow exponentially on its own.

Once you have your marketing foundation laid, you will then have extra time to spend on other time consuming but effective means for site promotion, that of submitting your feeds to several sites. You can create your account and submit your feed to blogbunch, bloghop, getblogs or blogtoplist. The list for feed submission site is endless and useful if you have the time to spare. Extra traffic is also assured if you cater to social bookmarking. Propeller, Technorati and Digg are among the top social bookmarking sites along with Yahoo, Google and MSN. A social bookmark site allows members to keep a list of favorite links which can be shared to their groups of internet connections, friends and family members. Submitting your URL to these social bookmarking sites allows your product to be included in their lists and be a part of the circulating sites for sharing.

Having a blog will not ensure profitable returns without a sensible marketing plan. Choosing ones that will work and spending the right amount of time and effort in sustaining a good blog is the smart technique to use whenever one is faced with concerns about ‘marketing my blog’.

Blog is the most popular thing in the web market. Many small entrepreneurs make use of blogs for promoting their business. Blog is usually considered to be the first step of getting into the internet business. Many small entrepreneurs earn huge money from their blogs. Let us learn the top 10 reasons to use blog marketing for promoting your internet business.

1. Cheap or Free way of Marketing

Many blog hosting services are free. At the most they are cheap. Blog is a good way of promoting your website as well as products. It is the most cost-effective option of internet business. Blogs are informative and directly interact with the viewers. Therefore, blogs give authenticity to the web business. Blogs help in creating brand name for any internet business. No wonder this reason tops our list of top 10 reasons to use blog marketing

2. Brilliant platform to create a wide network

All kinds of internet businesses need to maintain interactions and network with other corporations and consumers. However, remaining in touch with all of them is not possible. Therefore, maintaining a blog that is updated regularly will come in as handy. Blogs can reach thousands of targeted readers at any time in any place.

3. Superior company presence

Blog marketing increases visibility of your internet business or brand. Whenever anyone is looking out for a particular product or service, your brand will come first in their mind. Other than this, if you have a blog that it is attached to your main website then it can contain links to other pages of your website. On the other hand, a non-attached blog is directly linked to the site. When you get familiar with blogging you can also exchange links with other high PR blogs for getting good search engine results and quality traffic.

4. Enhanced product or service popularity

Blog marketing give popularity to your products. People trust blogs more easily than they trust your website. Blogs can be the main window for educating consumers or clients about your products or services in a very effective manner. You can also add interactive features to your blog for making it more user-friendly and thus, enhancing your credibility.

If you don’t have the time for maintaining such a blog then hiring bloggers for this purpose will prove to be highly beneficial. These bloggers who have a good professional experience can give engaging and proper information of your products and services.

5. Ameliorated brand or company name

Blog marketing accelerates personal interactions with the consumers. The tone and style of the blog articles and the blog introduces as well as forms a connection between you and the consumers. This makes them get closer to you and gain an in-depth understanding of the kind of products that you sell or the services that you offer. A regularly updated blog builds a strong relationship with the consumers. The relationship gets even stronger if the comments are answered regularly.

6. Increased consumer communication and bonding

One of the main reasons to use the blog marketing is to know your consumer opinions, likes and dislikes through comment feature. If your products or services need improvement of any kind then you will not have to conduct any survey or research; you will come to know it directly through your comments section. Other than complaints, you can get compliments as well.

7. Pulling heaving heavy relevant traffic

Blogs always increase your website, product, internet business or any business popularity if the links are placed in the blog posts. Of course, for getting traffic quality posts are a must. But the traffic that is sent from your blog is usually convertible. Blogs actually sell products and that is why many companies hire bloggers for selling their products.

8. Viral effect through mouth publicity

When people read about your product, if you are able to convince through your blog posts; you will get free publicity when they tell their friends. So, this viral effect will increase your sales. Word of mouth marketing is very effective and you can capture this market with the help of your blog. If you share personal experiences with the readers, you can create affinity between your readers and you, and this affinity will help you to increase the sales of your product.

9. Improving the search engine presence of your site

A very well search engine optimized blog that is attached to your website adds to the search engine presence of your site. Content containing quality information and specific keywords will give your internet business or website an extra edge. You must make use of appropriate tools to spot specific keywords for including in your blog posts. Your blog title and posts both must contain the main keyword.

10. High rate of viewers converting into buyers

Blogs that contain specific or targeted keywords and have engaging informative content provide traffic that ends up buying your products or services. Search engine optimized blogs provide traffic or readers who are looking out for specific products or services. If the content or blog posts are able to build relations with the readers such readers are easily converted into buyers.