I am a tee shirt designer and try to eek out a meager living entering contest hither and yon. I find myself in need of votes, on a weekly if not daily basis. This makes me needy, and not in a good way. I don’t want to be a bear hugger, the thought of me being “that guy” makes me shrivel like a sun dried grape.

I have even taken up the desperate tactic of airing out my financial wows in hopes of pity clicks.

Thank you for the complementary advise.
[rq=162846,0,blog][/rq]the cranium and the mandible

I found this article by searching about shameless promotion, so this is a sign that your blog is well positioned concerning this matter.
Although all of the things you mention are correct, I’ve come to the conclusion – everyone knows this already, of course – that the best thing to have visits built upon a good base, is quality content and regular updates.
Also writing about something “exclusive” makes it more probable for the engines to find one’s website/blog ie. the number of people searching may not be so much, but there are less competitors.

Kind regards,

José

Between Brogan, BizBox and now Jorge Olson (www.jorgeolson.com) this has become Suzemuse’s most read and commented-on post ever.

Thanks for the link love, guys! You rock!

I like your point on “The #1 Way to Shamelessly (and subtly) Self Promote”. Wow, 5 to 10 blogs per day. You get around!

That’s good, usable advice. I’ll make sure to add you to my RSS and you’ll get a link from my “unselfish self promotion” blog.

Thanks,

Jorge Olson

As Stephen says, we are promoting ourselves whenever we are connecting with others online. It’s perhaps our motivations that are different – be it business connections/opportunities, to learn new things or, to have new friendships.

What I think is most important is that our interactions are transparent and not over-bearing. The success I’ve had building business and personal relationships online has come mostly from just being myself.

It might not be for the purpose of selling something but then again, aren’t we always doing that? If you put up a profile on LinkedIn, you’re selling yourself, in hopes of making a connection with someone who might lead you to an opportunity of some sort, right?

So, I beg to differ that we are not necessarily tooting our own horn – I think we’re doing that regardless since we’re putting ourselves up for worldly display. Some do it more aggressively then others but still it’s self promotion – no way around it.

My two cents.

Happy reading is true. That’s a great book!