Want to advertise, but don’t have an ad budget? Or, you do have an ad budget, but want a free month’s worth of testing?
USA TODAY wants your blog in their Blogger & Podcaster Guide.
Here’s what your ad will look like. This screen shot is from the business page. Right now, I’m at number one – don’t know how that happened or how long it will last. And, I also don’t know blogs get rated. I do know that my friend, Christina Hills – The Shopping Cart Queen comes in at number three. I’m in good company.
When I got in on this offer in November, I replied to an email suggesting that only 50 free spots were open. Really, nothing happened – at all – until yesterday when I got an email letting me know that major revisions happened between then and now. I’ll say – wow!
You can change your ad at any time, which appeals to the edgy upgraders out there. Although I don’t yet have a blog logo – it’s set to be conceived and born sometime next month – I came up with this quickly dashed off logo using Word and Snag-it to cut out the image.
Looking rather lame, especially since I copied the wrong image [it was supposed to be a purply heather background with white text], I decided to use my file photo.
Comparing my ad to the others, you’ll see it’s the only one [for now] with a call to action:
“Create business for your business. Sharpen your competitive edge. Feed into Wired PR Works, your always-on marketing/PR resource center. Published for you by Barbara Rozgonyi, a communications visionary and founder of CoryWest Media, LLC. Blog mentioned in “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott. Special offer: free $97 Power PR Secrets Guide at www.PowerPRSecrets.com. Need a new”
Have to snip of the last three words, but you can see it’s stuffed with keywords and a bio carefully framed into reader benefits.
Here’s how to get your free 30 day ad up and running.
- Go to http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/usatoday
- Select “New User” and go through 6 Step registration process
- In Step 2 be sure to select Option #4 and enter `BP‘ in Coupon Code box.
After you upload your ad, check back here and leave a link.
One thought on “USA Today Gives Bloggers Free Ads | How to Get Yours”
Barbara, glad you like the changes to the guide. We’re working really hard to try and make it easy for mainstream America to find blog/podcast content. In answer to your question about ratings — any registered user can rate a blog or podcast according to our “5 Star” system. Also they can leave comments. We’ll be adding functionality shortly that will allow users to sort on the basis of: Rating, Alphabetical and Newest. I’d love to hear any suggestions to as to what we can do to improve The Blogger & Podcaster Guide. Email me at lgenkin[at]larstan[dot]net. Keep up the great work!
– Larry Genkin
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine
http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com