Written on July 30th, 2007 at 12:07 am by Darren Rowse
Guerrilla Marketing Tactics for Your Blog
Aaron Brazell has put together a post Guerrilla Marketing Techniques that Anyone Can Do which have some less common tactics to get word out about your blog.
I doubt any of them will bring in a deluge of traffic - however sometimes it’s the small ways of building traffic that add up to make a blog popular.
What small and less common techniques do you use to build traffic to your blog?
An Example of a Guerrilla Marketing Tactic
I met a blogger recently who had a blog with a very local focus. His Guerrilla Marketing Tactic was to do a deal with three internet cafes in his area to make his blog the home page on all of the computers. In return for this he gave them some free advertising on his blog. The same blogger made a similar deal with the local library who also made his blog the home page of their public internet computers. This worked particularly well for him as his blog was on his local area.
40 Responses to “Guerrilla Marketing Tactics for Your Blog”
RT the fitness guy
July 30th, 2007 12:18 am
Great idea! Limited potential but everything counts. My girlfriend hands out business cards of my women’s fitness site to women who come into her book shop looking for fitness stuff. I am amazed at how many of them get involved in the site.
RT
Sabrina's Money Matters
July 30th, 2007 12:45 am
Wow that’s a good idea. I’ve given thought to putting a decal along the bottom of my back windshield with my web address… as I drive 100 miles round trip to work everyday.
Philip
July 30th, 2007 12:46 am
It’s silly I know but when I’m in any consumer electronics shop, especially my favorite Apple shop, I fire up all the browsers and point them to my url. Most recently was in a Harvey Norman and I did see a little traffic in my stats.
Paolo Amoroso
July 30th, 2007 1:06 am
The good old viral email signature works well for me. It’s a very simple but effective tool.
Kent
July 30th, 2007 1:22 am
One of the tactics is print my website address on my name card.
My name card is print with my photograph for easy remember who am I.
kshippychic
July 30th, 2007 1:36 am
Well that is a great idea. I wonder now if any of our cafe’s would even consider something like that?
cooliojones
July 30th, 2007 3:01 am
The idea you posted here was excellent! Another example of thinking outside of the box. I would love to implement that where I live.
Jimmy
July 30th, 2007 3:10 am
Good Day,
I looking for a web host to start my blog but searching for a reliable web host is a tedious task.
Based on this website ranking on “make money online”, I assumed that you need a dedicated server.
I do not need dedicated server at the start and whether I need one in future depends on the traffic attracted.
Since almost every web hosting company got an economical shared web hosting plan, can I know which web hosting company you used?
Thanks.
Regards,
Jimmy
Community Building Blog
July 30th, 2007 3:43 am
I don’t think the example used in this article is a particularly good example of ‘Guerilla Marketing’ - rather it’s just a good marketing idea.
Guerilla marketing examples I like include Richard Branson flying a Virgin Atlantic balloon over British Airways’s London Eye when they were having trouble lifting it into position. The Virgin balloon carried a slogan stating ‘BA can’t get it up’.
Another good example can be seen in this BBC article.
- Martin Reed
OneYearGoal.com - $100,000 online in one year
July 30th, 2007 3:45 am
That’s actually pretty evil genius. I’m going to shoot an email to my local library and give it a shot.
One Man. One Year. $100,000 online. How’s he doing it?
http://www.oneyeargoal.com
Glen Allsopp
July 30th, 2007 3:51 am
While I rarely disagree with the things you say Daren, infact I admire a lot of things you say and i think the example was good marketing it was not exactly guerilla marketing i nmy eyes.
Thanks Community Spark for the links
Patrick
July 30th, 2007 4:12 am
That’s a good idea except they are no more Internet Cafe’s where I come from but a lot of local coffee shops provide wireless and do provide place to put business cards and flyers. I normally put my business cards in these places but the site in my link is more educational and may be a better gateway for potential readers.
Mike Dammann
July 30th, 2007 5:10 am
I’d be worried if the blog has adsense on it. Is Google familiar with the fact that there will be multiple users from the same IP clicking on ads? I would contact Google first if I was to do that with a site featuring adsense.
RC
July 30th, 2007 6:57 am
So Guerrillas are not actually Marketing? This posts topic is misleading!
Anyway, I never thought about marketing my blog before, but my big brother came up with perfect locations for mine, Coalinga State and Delmont Private Hospital. He thinks they’ll be crazy about my blog!
marquis
July 30th, 2007 6:59 am
I tried this tactic at my local library a couple of weeks ago, and they politely asked me to leave. lol
http://alltalksports.wordpress.com/
Brad V.
July 30th, 2007 8:00 am
I place my blog url as the signature for all my emails. Then, my offline marketing tool is I print out a bunch of cheap business cards with my blog web address on them and a short description of my blog. Then, where ever I go, I just drop a card: bookstores, coffee shops, libraries, etc. (my blog is literary focused).
The key to marketing is just to be creative. The readers are there, you just have to find them (I know, easier said than done!).
Thanks for the great post!!!
Jason
July 30th, 2007 8:07 am
Hmmadee… That’s interesting, but it doesn’t seem like stuff like that could work for just anyone, namely myself.
Wendy
July 30th, 2007 8:20 am
We attended a wedding recently where bride and groom had their respective urls printed on the invitations as well as on the thankyou cards. It had the potential of being really tacky, I thought it was cute and well done.
Chris Dowell
July 30th, 2007 8:38 am
Awesome idea! This has got me thinking of some unique ideas.
Josh
July 30th, 2007 9:47 am
Excellent idea to go along with the local paper. Loving the ideas that come out of this place. Being new to the blogging scene, this site has given such an informative view on blogging. My next form of advertising is going to be my magnetic ad sheet for the car.
White background, black letters: http://www.stillbloggin.com
Darrel
July 30th, 2007 11:54 am
I have been blogging on home groundwater drainage techniques for only 30 days, and I am pleased to find your wonderful site from technorati. I have articles on groundwater removal and french drains in particular on technorati. Thanks for the information on resources for selling space on my blog. I would be interested in anything that you might be able to teach me with respect to that subject. You may see my work at: http://www.aaahomedrainage.com If you ever have a drainage problem on your home, you will be happy to know about my site. I am a licensed, bonded and insured drainage contractor in the Portland, Oregon area USA. Keep up the good work. I am going to investigate the advertising partners that you suggested in your blog. Sincerely, Darrel R. Lundeen / Drainage Contractor.
sister2brother
July 30th, 2007 12:32 pm
I think that every little bit helps!
With each kind of different niche/theme that a blog has comes the opportunity for the blog’s author to find different ways of promoting their blogs!
So many people think that their blogs don’t have any adsense potential but they are so wrong. As long as your blog has some sort of niche/theme there are so many possibilities for it.
You don’t necessarily have to “pimp” your blog just because it has adsense on it. Use adsense to enhance your blog.
I just made a new blog for a client and I told him to advertise his blog everywhere that he can - including adding his blog’s address on all of his business literature and business cards!
You never know where your next site visitor is going to come from!
David Mackey
July 30th, 2007 12:35 pm
I’m a fan of guerilla marketing, but only when it can be done ethically. Much of guerilla marketing seems to require a certain sneakiness or playing loosely with the truth.
Samir
July 30th, 2007 8:33 pm
In french, we have a proverb: “Little brooks make big river”
So, all tactics are welcome :-)
Franck Silvestre
July 30th, 2007 9:30 pm
Wow, I like the idea with the Internet cafe. Genius stuff.
Brennan Ryan
July 30th, 2007 10:58 pm
I could be (hypothetically) the person who (allegedly) places our blog’s business cards into business books at any book store i happen to be browsing in………allegedly :-)
I dont know if it has worked yet, nobody has actually told me they heard of the site through finding it in a book they read.
I ask everyone who participates in the forum how they found us, but as for the blog subscribers and the forum lurkers, who knows?
As our site involves business tips, i also leave a card secretly on the counter of any business who gives me crap service, i figure they need it :-)
Leon
July 31st, 2007 12:31 am
Dude I love your blog, this is the first blog I’ve seen where every post is worth $
Great tips for the local blog advertising
Modern Worker
July 31st, 2007 5:03 am
Now THIS is an awesome post. These tactics have inspired me to do some original marketing of my own. Cheers mate!
The Buxr Widget
July 31st, 2007 5:20 am
Great post. Record companies are experts at Guerrilla Marketing.. They use “street teams” to promote up coming releases with everything from bumper stickers, freebies, graffiti.. you name it!
Why not websites too?
Alex (intellimind)
July 31st, 2007 9:25 am
ive been talking with a lot of local small bussiness owner that have computer with internet access. I think one important factor is whether or not your blog is the type of blog for such advertising. It must apply to the people that actually frequent those places, otherwise its uselss.
John
July 31st, 2007 4:43 pm
In my industry (maritime/shipping) people always forward emails with photos of the latest maritime disaster, newest ship, coast guard rescue… these are always a pain because you get an email with 15 attachments that need to be opened and since ships have strict bandwidth restrictions I always get a lot of bouncebacks when I forward them on to my friends.
So this time when I got the email I combined all the photos in photoshop and forwarded it on with my logo attached. Here’s the final product (click on the photo to expand): http://tinyurl.com/yotkl7
David
August 1st, 2007 2:40 pm
I like running across ideas that think outside the box. Offline can be very effectively used to promote an online business. Most of the time, we think only about cyberspace. Thanks for the ideas!
Geoff Ruddock
August 2nd, 2007 8:19 am
I didn’t know Gorillas could market my blog…. I should hire one.
Martin Neumann
August 2nd, 2007 10:51 pm
That’s some damn good advice about the internet cafe tactic - especially for more localised blogs. Sorry, but I gotta steal that idea. :-)
John Lampard
August 16th, 2007 10:13 pm
I’ve dabbled a bit with the idea also. Hasn’t been the greatest generator of traffic (well, so far) but it’s been fun trying some offline promotion!
http://www.disassociated.com/2007/08/16/inline/
Home
November 20th, 2007 6:55 am
Great ideas that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Mustang
November 20th, 2007 7:00 am
That’s thinking outside the box and creativity is key.
Paul
November 30th, 2007 3:44 am
I think that it’s a great idea for local businesses if you can get people to agree to it.
Michael
February 29th, 2008 6:02 am
Another great idea. I guess one could also use a google adsense search bar on their blog so they could be creating another income stream as well(since you would be a hompage for these cafes)
krista
April 8th, 2008 5:27 am
Wonderful idea! Great concept.
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