5 Wrong Ways To Promote Yourself

Links to products and blogs are everywhere. Etsy sellers take over Twitter with their product URLs. People spam blogs and YouTube videos asking others to check them out. What is wrong with these things? A ton.

There is a right way and a wrong way to promote yourself and the above methods all fall into the “wrong” category. When you actually invest time and energy into effectively marketing yourself, the organic growth will automatically take place. Until then, I encourage you to stop doing any of the following promotional methods, which are actually hurting your reputation rather than building it:

Spamming your link everywhere
Don’t think that posting your link on every single blog post or YouTube video that someone has created is going to earn you any brownie points. Most of the time, you will end up annoying that creator and getting blocked. Being annoying isn’t exactly the first thing you want to do when trying to advertise something. Instead, why not ask those creators if they’re interested in mentioning you in return for something, or if they genuinely like what you’re doing?

Using Twitter exclusively for self promotion
While Twitter can be a great place to share your content or a product, it’s not something that you should use entirely for that purpose. The purpose of twitter is to interact, connect, and share happenings around the world. If you make your profile all about pimping out your products or your blog, you’re not going to reach as many people as you could if you actually took the time to use Twitter.

Hosting non-stop giveaways
Giveaways are fun once in a blue moon, but becoming known as somebody who constantly throws giveaways is not really an image you want to project. The focus should always be on whatever it is you’re trying to promote, and by using skeezy methods to try to attract customers that are only interested in your prize, you will be wasting your own time, energy, and possibly money that could have been spent promoting yourself.

Not building a customer base
If a tree falls in the forest, and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound? This same way of thinking can be applied to whatever it is you’re trying to promote. If you don’t have a following or customer base, will anyone care? Getting loyal customers or people interested in what you’re doing should be a major priority. Set up a mailing list, grow your own community, and put in the hard work!

Advertising yourself in someone else’s Instagram comments
Does this bother you as much as it bothers me? For some reason people think it’s okay to advertise themselves in the comments of another user’s Instagram photo. Somehow they think it will work to their benefit to make that person’s shot suddenly all about them and what they’re doing. Rude. Don’t do it. Bad first impressions last.

Now that you know what not to do, try to think of some positive ways you can grow your own following and reach people organically. Is there anything that really bugs you about seeing people promote stuff online?

Last Updated on February 27, 2024