The 6 Guerrilla Blogger’s Marketing Commandments July 8, 2007

Hi, I’m BizGrrl. I’ve been hanging out in the background for a while watching my obscene counterpart write about sex under the thin guise of blogging advice. However, I am the one who has the master’s degree and experience with running a business and fund-raising. Just in case you are interested in something besides sex, I thought I’d add my two cents to this website, so here goes!

I own a wonderful book targeted toward people who have either self-published a book, or who want to give their publisher’s efforts a big boost. The book is Guerrilla Marketing for Writers and is chock full of ideas that also apply to bloggers.

Here is my slightly amended version:

1. Create a blog that you can market with pride and passion.

This means that you are blogging about a subject that you really like, not just because it might make money. Do you have pride in what you have written, or are you frantically cut and pasting snippets from other people’s work? It will show in the long run.

2. Remember that you are in the service of your readers.

If you are reading this, you probably want more readers to come to your blog, preferably on a regular basis. The question you need to ask yourself is, “How can my readers’ benefit from what I just wrote?” If you are unable to answer this question, the delete key may be your best option. If people don’t get a benefit from what you have written, they won’t show up, and if they do happen by, certainly won’t return. So what is a benefit? Ask yourself what your readers want. Humor? Information? Money? All of the above? The answer to this question will vary with each blog, but remember that human nature remains the same.

3. Establish a marketing budget.

I can hear people in the blogosphere reading this and saying, “What? I am doing this to make money, not lose it!” The thing is, with blogging, just like with any other endeavor, you will only get out of it what you put into it. And this most likely means money. That annoying little saying about how it takes bling to make bling unfortunately holds more than a grain of truth. So decide how much you want to put into your blogging endeavor. You may want to try being on the other side of Adsense, purchase a banner on a complimentary site, or buy a review to drive targeting traffic to your site. Unfortunately, in Blogland, you can be the best writer in the world, with the best information, and still enjoy obscurity.

4. Devote the same time, energy and imagination to promoting your blog as you do to writing it.

Actually, I’ve been hearing that spending 70 percent of your time marketing and 30 percent of your time writing is a good mix. Of course, if it takes you four hours to write a post, that formula is most likely not going to work for you. Don’t forget that third adjective, imagination. I see lots of time and energy being spent, but imaginative promotion is not as common. What can you do to make yourself stand out from the herd? Note to self: That would be a nice topic to post about in the future…

5. Foster and sustain warm, giving relationships with your networks.

I don’t think this one applies to the social networking sites so much as more authentic networks that very successful bloggers develop. For example, in ProBlogger’s article, 5 Things You Should Know About My Dad The ProBlogger, it is mentioned that he spends a good portion of every day on Skype, instant messenging or even meeting other bloggers in person. This is a far cry from spamming other bloggers with “Check out my site” messages, or even merely leaving comments on other’s sites.

6. Be a lifelong learner in your field and in learning to market your blog so that you remain competitive.

The only experts in blogging are those who have been doing it longer than the rest of us. The moment that any one of the expert bloggers decides to take it easy is the moment when someone else will step up to the plate. Only you know what it takes to be an expert in your own field, and of course, staying on top of reading, conferences, etc. is key. When it comes to your blog, staying current is equally crucial. If you don’t know what StumbleUpon is, then you are behind the curve. Likewise with the other zillion social networking sites, template plug-ins, RSS directories, etc.

Okay, there were originally 10 marketing commandments. WordPress ate the rest of them. They’ll have to wait for another post, since Bloggrrl is yelling at me to come help carry in the groceries. Meanwhile, don’t forget about your chance to win $50 in the Bloggrrl contest!