A couple of months ago I discovered bla.st – a visual "card" directory. Basically bla.st lets you upload a "business card" for your website, allowing your site to be discovered on their main website and throughout their network. I instantly fell in love with the entire concept, as it was not only a great way to get traffic to my sites, but also a great place to casually browse the internet for new and exciting websites.

To promote and advertise your website on bla.st you have two options. The first option will allow you to add a card absolutely free, giving you some traffic, but ranking your sites near the bottom of the list. Neupix has been listed as a free card for almost 100 days, and has had only 38 click-throughs.

The second option allows you to bid and pay on the placement of your card on a per day basis. I have had most success with the second route, paying only $0.20 / day for my Creative Binge listing, totaling only $18 for 60 days. This has proved successful for me – with nearly 100 click-throughs and almost 14,000 impressions since my card has been online.

In addition to uploading cards, bla.st has also recently launched a referral program. Allowing you to post a bla.st widget on your own website (see our widget to the right) you can help promote bla.st cards and earn a profit as well. In addition to earning a hefty referral fee of 50% of bla.st advertising costs, the widget adds to the overall presence of your website and looks a hell of a lot better than Google AdWords.

If you have a website or service to offer, I highly recommend that you visit bla.st and upload a card. It is a truly unique service and a cheaper alternative to traditional advertising methods. It can also be really cool to browse through.