Some days, you just don’t feel like promoting your home business or blog. From experience I can tell you this can quickly spiral out of control. It is similar to exercising. You can either get started and find out you are willing to push yourself a little further than you thought, or you can take the day off and later realize your day turned into a week. That is why I love these marketing tasks that only take a few minutes. They often snowball into greatness.
One-Time Tasks
Create an Automatic Email Signature. This feature is available everywhere these days. Take a few moments to set up a signature that will be automatically added to outgoing emails. It should include your name, website URL and any social networking profiles on which you prefer to connect with your readers or customers. It does not need to include them all, just your favorites.
Create a YouTube Channel. As a Google product, your YouTube account can be easily integrated with your Google+ profile and other Google products. You can also claim your website and it will be linked to on your Channel.
Rinse and Repeat Tasks
Write and Submit a Press Release. Regardless of if these garner journalist attention anymore and the fact that they serve no SEO benefit, they can connect you with search traffic if you are optimizing them correctly. If your business has recently introduced new services or products or your blog has undergone some reader-friendly changes, consider taking ten minutes, if that, to create and submit a press release.
Promote Your Email List. We often take for granted that if people want on our email list, they know where to find it. They forget. Maybe they don’t know your email subscribers get special perks. On a regular basis make sure you are promoting your e-newsletter to your social networking followers and beyond. Getting people into this funnel should take precedence over sending people offsite to receive updates (i.e. social networking sites).
Join Local Interest Groups. It does not matter where you live on this earth, there are likely people in your community or area connecting somewhere online. It may be on a forum, Facebook Group, Meetup Group and more. Connect with the locals on a social level – no selling – even if your business operates primarily online. There is likely at least one person in need of your products or services.
Post a Craigslist Ad. Your business or blog probably fits in at least one category on Craigslist. Relevancy to the category and abiding by the site’s Terms of Use are the keys to success here. Browse around your city’s categories for inspiration if needed.
Accomplishment can be a great source of inspiration. By taking on one small, simple task, you may find your can’t-do attitude actually got a lot done.
Do you submit to procrastination or face it head on?
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Angie Nelson
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hi Angie. i am also a mom like you who prefers an online business. i have a question, since my website mainly focuses on blogging and internet business, what category does my site best fits in craiglist?
Hi, Marilyn. If you offer personal assistance or coaching, that can certainly be listed in the Services section. If you are hosting an online webinar or offline meetup, or even offering a sale on a product you created, that can be listed in the Events category. Take a look through the categories and what is being posted there. There are so many of them.
I believe it is against Craigslist TOS to post affiliate or referral links, so stick to those products and services you offer personally to avoid any repercussions.
Posting comments on other blogs in and out of my niche has been helpful and takes less than 10 minutes. Thanks for the list of suggestion to keep promoting our blogs/businesses.
Commenting is always a great quick task, Tracy!
Hi Angie
You have shared some really useful information and to add to this article I would suggest bloggers to share their article on article directories as well.This helps in spreading the awareness among the people and right group of people.Nice Blog
Thanks
Maria
Thanks for the tip, Maria.
Pleasure.I would love to be a part of your blog..:)
I am a big believer in blog karma! Not only do I regularly try to comment on other’s blogs both in and way out of my niche, it has given me lots of inspiration to write on my blog. I got inspiration from a very nice photography blog and used that to make a post that fit my niche, that one post ended up going viral and bringing me more traffic than my whole site’s stats combined! You just never know where the inspiration comes from!
I think I forget that not everyone is out commenting and being social all day. It is such a rewarding activity. I guess it has become such a habit that I don’t really think about it as marketing anymore.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing, Isra. I need to get over there for some avocado bread!
My biggest problem is getting too distracted! I need to explore a few of these more.
I hear that, Darcy. One thing at a time.
Great post. I have been meaning to get a press release created and submitted but I keep procrastinating lol. But, since it made your list that is definitely a priority for Monday.
I often procrastinate for a while then tackle it. I often end up doing different tasks and it become overwhelming. But I do need to get back to posting classified ads.
One task at a time, Lea.
Thanks for stopping over!
Wow, I’ve yet to use Craigslist for any of my websites Angie. Does it really work that well for new products? I’m always thinking use items like a flea market, etc. Interesting ways to generate some traffic.
I use it for promoting a number of my sites and in a variety of ways, from promoting an individual post that is relevant to a particular category to advertising my services to promoting my blog as a whole in some instances. Your best bet is to browse through the categories, take a look at what is being listed and identify how it relates (or doesn’t) to what you have to offer.
It is free! There is no reason to not try a few times.