When it comes to survival in blogosphere, it’s all about connections. All those links and good word thrown in by happy and loyal readers and visitors do wonders for promoting your blog and spiking its traffic. And then, there are those e-mail listings – e-mail addresses and names of people who just might be interested in becoming regular recipients of information and news from you. If you want to give your blog a fighting chance, here are 4 tips on how to promote your blog using e-mail listings:

Target, target, target.

If you have to start promoting your blog now, then start right. Carefully determine your ‘market’ – the type of readership you want to focus on and the type of visitors you want to bring in. This can vary greatly, depending on the main theme of your blog.

Look at your main subject and the sub-topics you regularly write about. Who would want to read your blog on a regular basis? What kind of topics would they want to find in your blog? Once they find their way to your site, would they stick around and look at your other entries?

Would they participate in any polls, discussion boards and forums you might offer or at least leave a comment? Furthermore, would the people in your e-mail listings be willing to promote your blog to others or mention it on their own blogs? With a targeted e-mail listing, the answer to these questions is a resounding yes.

The point here is simple: the market for your blog is already out there. It’s now up to you to let them know who and what you are and where they can find you. By focusing on promoting your blog to highly targeted e-mail listings, you can avoid marketing to that segment of blog visitors that: a) are totally uninterested in what your blog has to offer, b) are only partly interested and cannot be relied on to stay for long and c) have vague interests and may or may not be willing to participate or sign up for your promotions.

Offer relevance at all times

If you are unable to use relevance in your invitations, it will be like throwing thousands of invitations to a violin concerto in a gym full of wrestling fans. You probably could hit a few bull’s eyes and some might be even willing to give your invite a try but the meager results will not compensate for the sheer effort and resources you will be using.

Avoid wasting your precious energy by ensuring that when you promote your blog using e-mail listings, it will be relevant enough for the recipients to respond positively to.

Be clear about your motives

The people who belong to your e-mail listings may be very familiar with the industry by now. When promoting your blog, make sure you state in clear terms what the blog is about, what subject(s) will be offered and how they can respond.

Don’t hide behind vague terms or try to be mysterious. Remember that your e-mail list has plenty of other options out there, blogs that are willing to state their offerings in clear, understandable language.

Allow your e-mail listings the freedom to opt out

So maybe you’ve garnered some terrific responses from your initial foray into opt-in subscriptions with your e-mail listing to promote your blog. Does that mean risking a percentage of that number to unsubscribe by offering an opt-out option? Definitely.

Allowing new members obtained from your e-mail listings to opt-out is not only polite, it also shows professionalism on your part. Withholding the opportunity for subscribers to unsubscribe is considered rude and makes you seem desperate for readers.

If you choose this method of retaining your readers, you risk being ridiculed in the industry. If word gets around, you could risk losing even more potential leads for your e-mail listings. To gain respect and eventually, a loyal following for your blog, promote it with your visitors’ interests in mind.

Check my latest posts on Promoting Your Blog Through Forums and Blog Directory for Your Blog’s Victory

Do a little research about the types of programs available before joining an affiliate program. There are some questions you should ask.

Every program is different so ask when they issue the commission checks. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Many affiliate programs set a minimum earned commission amount. An affiliate must meet or exceed this amount in order for their checks to be issued.

What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale. This factor is extremely important because this tells you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.

How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and how long do they remain in the system? This is the only way you get credit for a sale so you want to be confident the program will track people you refer from your site. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Find out if you still get credit for the sale if it is made at a later date.

Are affiliate stats available online anytime you decide to check them out? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. Check your individual stats constantly to know how many impressions,hits and sales are generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.

The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site. Research the company. Know the products.

Is it a one tier or two tier affiliate program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for your sales and also pays you a commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor.

What is the amount of commission paid? 5% – 20% is the commission paid by most programs. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.

After choosing your affiliate program, you need to promote it. Unique Article Wizard is an article submission service. When you write an article about your niche, the Wizard turns it into hundreds of unique articles. Your articles are then submitted all over the web for you. Your search engine ranking and credibility will increase and you will be rewarded with targeted traffic.

You do not need SEO “gurus”, dangerous “Black Hat” tactics, and expensive PPC campaigns. Unique Article Wizard is the only stealth strategy you will need to totally dominate your niche. Rocket your affiliate programs to the top of Google. Even in the most competitive of markets.