Boost Your Blog // Offer Freebies

You know that saying, 'the best things in life are free'? Well that totally applies to being an awesome blogger, too.  People are selfish (sorry 'bout it, but they are).  They wanna know what you will give them for coming over to you blog.  Whether it's awesome content, cool DIY's, or totally free things....they want it all.

Click here for the high quality printable download!

This post is about offering freebies on your blog.  A good way to stay active with readers & just be plain old nice, is to offer things unique to your readers.  If you have readers, chances are they want to interact with you more! Here are some tips on successfully offering tid bits & freebies:

The key to free things is to focus on your niche.  If you are really big into planning your family's meals & share that every week on your blog, people probably want to know exactly how you do it & how they can do it too.  A great incentive for people to love any post you do on this is to share your awesomely designed recipe binder or family meal planner.  Don't want to share the one you made for your family? Draw up another one in other colors or designs.  Give a base for the reader to build off of on their own accord.

Staying with in your niche will allow your readers to get the best out of why they come to your blog.  Believe me, people will admire you & want you to teach them the ways!

Offering freebies is an incentive.  This may seem sneaky, but offering a freebie for signing up for your monthly recipe newsletter will sure as heck get those emails rolling in.  (I still haven't mastered this yet, but hey I sign up for things if you are going to give me things in return!)  Offer a complete recipe/meal planning template for those who sign up.  Something totally not available to regular readers.  There is some debate onto whether this really helps or not, but sometimes you just get some much more out of sharing with others.

Freebies are a way for you to connect with new readers.  You know that thing we love to hate & hate to love called Pinterest? Well, if it's done correctly you could have some links back to your freebies on there.  Some bloggers (me included) like to link to awesome freebies that they've found on blogs or through Pinterest. (If you want to my humble opinion, please check out this post on being original on Pinterest).  If someone really loves your recipe binder, you may even find yourself mentioned on their blog with a link back to your download.

If you have a link to your freebies on your site that will also increase the clicks around your website.  new readers will stay longer & you'll have a better shot at making an impression.  If you find yourself poking around the blogs you read, evaluate what they have that keeps you clicking.  It could be awesome links to cool DIY's, freebies, or other helpful hints.

Freebies help you learn more.  Did you just learn a really cool technique & you want an excuse to show it off to the world & make more? Offering up the cool new filing system for your awesome family recipes along with templates for the dividers you made is a way to play around with the technique more & share it in a better blog post.  'We love hearing what you did, but we'd love it even more if we could do it to & make it look as good as you,' says Reader McReaderson.  So whip up another template color.  Make a blank one for those who'd just like to print, cut, & use.

Obviously, I chose a blogging niche outside of my own because I am not a food blogger!!  But this could totally work for anyone! Do you have a way you plan your outfits? How do you plan your camping trips or document your travels? How about your blog inspiration?  Do you like messing around in photoshop & creating really sweet printable posters you'd like to share?  People love seeing what others do & they love it even more if some of the blogger's awesomeness is tied up in something free.

I love doing freebies & used to do them quite often over on Cross My Hooks.  (if you go read it, please dismiss the fact that I thought I was the bomb but really didn't have anything awesome to say!)  So, since I don't really know my set niche I am going to go ahead and say that my niche involves helping you blog better. And along with that I want to offer you some awesome opossum blog backgrounds.

Free Background Tiles

I love seamless tiling patterns for blog backgrounds.  A great blog element can really spruce up a plain blog design.  Sometimes you don't need super fancy equipment to make a blog look nice.  Blogger has some really nice things built right in.  Adding a background can be just the thing that makes your blog stand out.

Just right click & save the image to your computer then upload to your blog template.  I prefer pretty simple layouts, so my suggestion with these is to not go overboard! Make the background they only crazy part of your blog.  Stay away from over designing. It's kinda like the take one accessory off before you leave the house sort of deal.  Here in the future I hope to do a screen cast of how to make your blog look pretty snazzy using just a good header & blog background.

*Feel free to use these how you want to but please don't sell them.  They have been created, with love, for you.  So use them for good & not evil, eh?


Do you offer free things out of the goodness of your heart? Do you like to share your tips & tricks with others?