The Value of Promoting Your Blog
By Andy Horner

As a salesperson, your blog is at the heart of the value you offer your customers. It's the "open 24 hours" expertise hub, where your customers can gain wisdom, advice, and solutions that will help them make more money. The value of your blog posts influences their appreciation for you and their loyalty to your personal brand. Your blog helps separate you from your competitors - you know, the order-takers. It's the platform where you slowly but surely establish yourself as a guiding force and go-to leader in your market.

But first, you must build a readership from your customer base and your social media network. If you promote it, they will come!

Start promoting your blog...

1. In your ezine and emails. After you add a new post to your blog, it's time to promote it. Feature it in your next ezine or email it in a Branded Email from Ace of Sales. Ask your recipients to post a comment and make sure you include a subscription link to your blog's RSS feed, so they can get your blog posts as soon as you post them.

2. In partner ezines. Chances are, several of your partners are forward-thinking enough to publish their own ezine too. Offer to promote them in your ezine, for the opportunity to publish your article (one of your blog posts) in theirs. A little back-scratching will help you fill up your ezine and give you exposure to a new contact base.

3. With your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube accounts. To drive traffic to your blog, tweet your blog post titles with links to your blog! Do the same thing on Facebook and LinkedIn. Video yourself introducing a featured blog post and add it to your YouTube channel. Add a link to the post in the video title or notes area. Here's another idea - tweet insightful comments posted to your blog by your readers along with a link to your blog.

4. By networking on other blogs.Participate on other blogs in your industry or region by becoming a regular commenter. By contributing to their community and conversations, you'll earn the opportunity to invite them to visit yours. Many blogs will allow you to enter your website when you post your comments. Enter your blog's web address or the link to one of your specific blog posts. The key here is to attract others to your blog because of the value you offer. Do not post comments like this: "Nice post, visit my blog here..." That's not networking. That's spamming.

5. On your business card. Most salespeople only include their company website on their business cards. But does your company website demonstrate to your customers that you're an articulate professional, a thinker, or an expert who can help them make money? Get your blog address printed on your business cards! When you hand your card to a new contact with great customer potential, tell them to visit the blog tomorrow for a special message. That afternoon, post a shout out to them on your blog (first name only) and email them a link to it.

6. On EzineArticles.com. It's a popular, widely-used Internet service that allows anyone to submit articles to their site. If they approve your article, it's added to their repository and categorized by your industry. EzineArticles.com allows anyone to publish your article in their ezine for free. It's like an open, public syndication. Why would you do this? EzineArticles.com requires people who use your article to credit you and include a link to your website in their ezine. This is a great way to gain widespread exposure to your blog.