Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Blogging can be used for a variety of purposes. Whether you’re trying to drive traffic to an eCommerce store or simply enjoy writing, blogs are widely used on the Internet. However, not all of them share an equal popularity. In order to drive traffic to your site, there needs to be some form of marketing. But, is it wise to invest in marketing for just the blog? That may actually depend on your reasons for having the website in the first place.
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Reasons to Invest in Marketing the Blog
Not all blogs are developed to generate revenue. In fact, a very large portion of blog sites are not monetized at all. They are used mostly for sharing stories, information or otherwise being sociable with others. Here are a few reasons I could understand why you would want to invest in marketing your blog.
eCommerce Sites
A lot of eCommerce websites will host a blog for the purpose of driving traffic and boosting online reputation. Since there is a greater potential for income from product or service sales from the primary site, spending a few dollars to market the blog might be beneficial. However, many people are more likely to spend the money to market the eCommerce site itself rather than the blog portion.
Trying to Drive Traffic
The most obvious reason to invest in marketing for a blog is to increase traffic to the site. Unless you have some kind of monetized aspect to the website, such as a paid membership system or something to sell, this may be somewhat impractical. There’s really nothing wrong with paying money to help boost the popularity of the website, but there should be some way that this boost of traffic can at least pay for itself. If you pay $100 per month to advertise your blog, will it make that $100 back in some way? If you’re just building a blog to share your life without implementing monetization such as Google Adsense, then the investment in marketing could be more akin to a hobby expense.
A lot of people would love to quit their regular jobs and blog full-time. I know I would. The problem with that is my sites don’t pay what I need to keep the lights on. I don’t blog because I need the money. I write because I love to write. It would just be nice if I could do this full time. If I invest in marketing, I could probably grow my traffic exponentially. There’s just no guarantee it would be financial sound for me. And that is where most marketing campaigns lie – is the return on the investment worth the expense?
Can Free Marketing Work Well for a Blog?
In reality, the only thing I invest in marketing is time. To be honest, none of my websites generate enough money to make advertising a worthwhile expense. Since my money goes to pay bills, I also don’t have the funds to boost this “hobby.” Everything I utilize is free to use except for my web hosting server – which I have been paying for over the past seven years for other reasons. I wouldn’t mind paying for some of the Pro versions of things like templates or plugins, but I just don’t have the money to do so. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s not an effective use of my time.
Take Advantage of Free Tools
There are many tools that offer limited accounts that can be very beneficial for marketing a blog. For example, I use the free version of Buffer for my fitness blog to cut some time off of updating social media channels. Lately, I’ve been adding the blogs I have to directories – which haven’t been overly effective, but I’ve only started doing this. Although it may take a bit of time to find these tools, the boost to your site may be worth the time you invest in marketing on these platforms.
Free Social Media
Never underestimate the element of social media. Even though I don’t have much of a following on sites like Facebook or Twitter, there has been a small impact by visitors to my sites from the posts I create. I don’t doubt that it will grow over time. It may just take a great deal longer than if I was to pay for marketing services.
There are countless blogs on the Internet. If you want to build something that can gain quick popularity, you may want to invest in marketing. However, you should also make sure that you’re getting something in return that is of equal value. If you just want a popular site and pay out of your pocket each month, then this may be worthwhile. Personally, I’m going to wait until the sites make more. Without having supporting income, I just don’t have the cash to drive large amounts of traffic to the site.
It All Depends On Your Goals
Your goals will dictate whether you want to invest in marketing the blog or not. What drives you to continue developing the site? Do you make money on eCommerce sales? Do you want to attract a large number of visitors, or do you simply love to write about anything people are willing to read? I’m not saying that putting money into your site is a waste. I’m saying that you should make sure you’re getting something out of the experience whether it’s financial or social. It can be quite the expensive hobby if you’re just looking to share the moments of your life through your blog.
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