Old School Marketing Can Help Low Traffic Bloggers

Everyone has an ebook about blogging now. There is so much free information out there that I can't keep up. But how can you, just starting out, get the word out about your ebook. I have a way.

Well, I haven't tested the method on a blog yet, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I have used the method on a multitude of other sites. I am not sure what my twist on the ebook would be. Probably just about how you get things done online when you work a full-time job and have a family. But, if your ebook to promote your blog didn't fly off your site, then you probably aren't John Chow. If you don't have hundreds of readers, releasing your new free ebook only from your blog may not have the effect you expected. It's about the same issue that BlogRush presents. Traffic snowballs and if your snowball isn't rolling yet, it's going to need a push.

I started out on the internet as an Ebay Seller/Shareware Author. Yaro Starak already covered how using Ebay can bring traffic to your blog. It is something marketers have been doing for a while. I sell out our old inventory for low prices on Ebay to bring people back to All About Doors and Windows. Affiliate marketers have sold one high ticket item at a loss and then linked to the description of the product via an affiliate link. Why? People who have been watching the auction and then lose at the very end just might buy the product anyway, at the affiliate link provided. But I digress.

I meant to talk about the Shareware Author part of my history. Shareware developers have a linking tool that not many other marketers have heard of yet, even though it's been around forever. It's the PAD file. And what it is xml file with all the information you need to list a product you are selling. No need to fill out a form to list your software on a shareware site. Just submit your PAD file, pick a category, click "submit" and repeat. How many sites are PAD file enabled. Oh, only somewhere between 700 and 3000. New shareware sites pop up weekly. It's why I have a list of PAD enabled sites on this blog.

And what does this have to do with traffic? Well a guy like John Chow or Yaro Starak can just give away an ebook on his site and get massive amounts of traffic because he already has a following, while some of us watch a trickle of traffic come by for our free offerings. Instead, get your ebook out there to a larger audience and get hundreds of links to your site when you launch. It's easy.

First, zip your PDF up in a zip file. Only files with zip or exe extensions are valid as a download link in a pad file. Second, download a free Pad File creator. You can find one at the site I linked to above. Third, fill in all the details needed in the pad file. This is the only long form you will have to fill out in the whole process. Fourth, upload your finished pad file and zipped ebook to your site. Now, just start submitting to PAD enabled sites.

Although this sped things up a bit, there are other ways to make it even quicker. Get an automatic pad file submitter that will submit the pad file to 3300 sites automatically. The money you pay for this software is worth the time saved. Plus, you can use it for the next ebook you write.

There are some pay shareware sites out there and some that have forms instead of using PAD files. Some may be worth paying for. Download.com is one I found worth paying for. Just check the Alexa rankings of the site before you pay. When you are done, you should have hundreds of more links pointing at your blog.

P.S. Name your ebook well. The title of your ebook will be the anchor in the link to your site. You may even try creating multiple versions of PAD files and ebooks with different titles and descriptions to mix it up a little.