If you’re trying to make money online whether it be from a blog, writing, or another type of freelance service you’re going to have to promote yourself – that is if you’re serious about your business.
If you’re new to self-promotion it can feel a bit awkward at first. With a little bit of practice and a lot of repetition you’ll begin to enjoy self-promotion and get the results you want.
Let’s take a cue from a pro when it comes to marketing yourself. Here are 5 solid self promotion strategies to help you market like Jon Morrow.
# 1 – Guest Post
There is no stronger form of self-promotion in the online realm than guest posting. Landing a guest post on a popular blog could bring thousands of new visitors to your blog. These visitors could turn into subscribers or loyal readers enhancing the popularity of your blog.
If you’re a freelance writer guest posting can expose you to possible clients. You’ll gain respect and get your name out there. Best yet, you can use your byline to link back to your writer’s website or “hire me” page.
# 2 – Optimize Your Landing Pages
The link you get in a byline on a guest post has to go somewhere, right? Why not make it go where it counts. If you’re a blogger this would be to a special email subscription page or product sales page.
If you’re a freelance writer, editor, or web designer this would be to your portfolio or hire me page. Make sure your landing pages are set up for success.
# 3 – Giveaway Valuable Information
One of the reasons Jon Morrow is my favorite blogger is because I consider him to be ingenious when it comes to marketing. As a loyal reader and email subscriber I can attest for the fact that the information he gives away in reports, emails, and webinars is full of insane value.
Giving away extremely useful information is a surefire way to increase subscribers and loyal readers. If you’re a blogger consider giving away an eBook, special report, or niche download to your email subscribers. And, make sure your emails are helpful not just a way for you to sell.
Giving free information works for freelance writers as well – only in a different form.
Have a certain site in mind that you would love to write for? Chances are you know the site well. You know what areas could potentially use a little work and which areas are already awesome. Drop the owner an email giving him praise for the great aspects and constructive criticism (along with suggestions) in the areas that are lacking. If you are able to help the site owner identify a problem he’ll probably agree that you can help him to fix the problem.
# 4 – Craft Killer Headlines
Since reading Headline Hacks last winter I’ve been pretty obsessed with improving my headline writing skills.
Whether you’re writing a blog post, sending an email, or pitching a story idea the headline has the potential to make or break you. For bloggers your headline could be the difference in your search engine traffic. After all, no one is going to click on a lame headline.
For freelance writers your email subject line could be the difference in whether your email gets opened or not. And, if you get freelancing jobs you want your posts to stand out. Practice headline writing.
# 5 – Build Relationships
Having a mentor is awesome. A wiser, more experienced mentor can pass on invaluable information to you. The best way to find a mentor is by reaching out and connecting to those you look up to and respect.
Building relationships with other professionals in your field can strengthen your brand and knowledge. Professional relationships can also help you earn more money, get more clients, and gain more readers.
You can build relationships with others in your field by connecting on social media, leaving blog comments, and emailing them. Just remember to build the relationship before asking for anything. You should have good intentions.
Market Like Jon Morrow
While there are many other ways to promote yourself online I’ll take a cue from a pro and mark these as my top 5.
If you’re serious about building an online business you have to dabble in a bit of self-promotion. Take these 5 strategies and practice, practice, practice. It takes ongoing effort to grow an online business but if you can commit to working these five strategies into your marketing routine you’ll be able to accomplish anything you put your mind to.
What are your top online marketing strategies?
Hey I just did finally write a guest post! I’ve written only two in the past year, but I know it’s an effective way to market your blog. I think that building relationships is crucial as well. I owe a lot of my success to the people who I’ve built relationships with since stating my site.
I owe a lot of my success to the help of others as well. If not for the help of other bloggers I’d doubt I’d be as far as I’ve made it today.
Giving away valuable information is definitely the key to attracting readers. Whenever I think of the first 1-3 blogs I visit every day and am let down when they don’t have any new posts, they all have one thing in common – some sort of juicy tip or lesson that I can use to make myself better. Just like when you visit Jon’s website, if I can pickup some good stuff that will help me to make my blog better or develop more income, then I become a reader for life.
I feel the same way. That’s why the big blogs have gotten big – they offer insanely valuable info for nothing. There are definitely some blogs that I wish would post everyday.
Love this, Alexa! Interesting about giving away valuable info – we’ll have to work on that!
Thanks, Laurie!
Thanks for the info, Alexa!
You’re welcome!
Great points. I’ve just started venturing into the world of guest posting. It can be difficult to write enough content for my own blog and for guest posts but its worth it!
It can be difficult to come up with content at first. It does get easier with time though. You start to see you ideas at all different angles and can easily relate your everyday life to a blog post topic.
Building relationships is very key with just about everything. Guest posting can be hard but it has helped me gain more exposure for my blog.
I agree.
Alexa,
Thanks to your consistently motivating posts (and those of other bloggers who have helped nudge me, like Cat at Budget Blonde) I finally have a Hire Me page and I am reaching out to find writing gigs. I’m bookmarking this page to come back to as I’ll need to put more of these into effect soon.
You’re welcome! I am glad it helped. There’s no doubt in mind that you’ll succeed at whatever you set out to do.
Great advice. Just downloaded Headline Hacks and looking forward to reading it tonight!
You’ll love it!!
I love the tone of your motivational posts. I could certainly do better in the whole marketing department. I did a ton of quest posts early on, but have kind of slacked off. Hopefully, I can start that up again soon.
Great post, Alexa! I’ve never visited his site. I’ll have to check it out!
I could certainly do better in the marketing department as well. I feel like I am running on empty just trying to keep my head above water most of the time =/
Thanks for giving away valuable information Alexa! I need to check out Headline Hacks because I think I need to improve on that. I also need to guest post, but I’ve had a hard enough time consistently posting on my own blog. I’m also hoping to build better relationships with my fellow bloggers.
Hey Alexa and thanks for the awesome tips concerning self-marketing/promotion. I have recently started guest posting and hope to scale that up a it more. I am also going to be creating a “Hire Me” page once I have a few more guest spots under my belt and then take it from there.
Your post is greatly appreciated and take care. All the best.
Lyle
Killer headlines are something I love doing. As a production editor for my high school and college newspapers, headlines are something I have plenty of experience having to come up with (writers didn’t always make good titles) and to this day it’s my favorite part. 🙂
I’m noticing that building relationships is probably the most important strategy of an online business. Caring for your audience and really helping them is what will sustain you permanently. People have built up a resistance towards nonsense these days and the world is a little colder because of it. Genuine entrepreneurs are winning the day due to the lack of this authenticity.
Awesome post!
We have had our blog up for around 7 months and are starting to generate a following. We have done a few guest posts on some of the blogs that inspired us before we sold everything, paid off our debt, and moved to Thailand so it has been really great sharing our story with people that are in the same type of situation we were in prior to changing our lives.
We are complete rookies at trying to promote our services, so you hire me page is a great look into the things we need start working towards. Thanks for the motivation and helpful tips. We are always learning.
Great blog Alexa!
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