You know that you need to promote your blog, and you know about blog directories and catalogs, but you’re looking for other ways to build links. Blog promotion isn’t limited to directory listings. You can use other avenues to build permanent links to your blog and to your site.

First, look at your business. What do you do when you have more business than you can handle? If you’re like most small business owners, you have built (or are building) a network of professionals you can call upon to handle work that either you can’t manage, or that’s a little out of your specialty.

Business owners always appreciate referrals, and your network is a source for permanent links in your blog promotion campaign. Colleagues are usually quite willing to accommodate a request like this. Don’t forget to offer a link to their site (or blog) as well. Mutual blog promotion works well as long as the subject matter of each blog is directly related. Link exchanges won’t have nearly as much value if your businesses aren’t somehow related.

Second, look at your customer base. Many of your customers and readers will happily promote your blog content as long as it is meaningful. Successful blog promotion benefits from word-of-mouth. Chances are good that readers who value your content know other readers who would also value your content.

Social bookmarking also plays a role in blog promotion. Give your readers every opportunity to promote your blog. Include Digg, StumbleUpon, Slashdot, del.icio.us, and BlogIt widgets in your blog. Make blog promotion easy for your readers.

If you think about it, you’re likely to come up with other opportunities for blog promotion. Professional networks and organizations you belong to may be another link source. Be careful, however. The number of links to your blog is not as important as the number of relevant links to your blog. Relevance is extremely important. Irrelevant links will be ignored, or worse, counted against your blog.

Blog promotion doesn’t happen overnight but if you take the time to examine your circumstances, you may find some very fertile ground for solid link building and promotion.

Photo Credit: Mike Johnson