Blogging for Boneheads (part 3) Exposing Your Blog

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Also see:
Blogging for Boneheads (part 1)
Blogging for Boneheads (part 2) Scratching Your Niche

Promoting Your Blog
You have now created your blog. You are writing and now you need to make sure you get people to read it. There are many traditional and non-traditional ways of promoting your blog. Many of these ideas you probably use while promoting your own web site. Others may not be as recognizable.

Tell Who You Know
The first thing to do when you start a blog is to let everyone you know subscribe to your blog. Ask them to write responses and let them know when you post a new blog. MySpace has a wonderful feature called “Bulletin” that allows you to type a message to everyone on your friend’s list. You can also create a group through Yahoo! or Google and manage an email list to everyone who subscribes to your blog.

Business Cards, Flyers and Brochures
Put the link to your blog on all of your printed literature. Hand these out to everyone that may show an interest in your blog. Literature is not the most effective way to promote yourself on a world wide scale, but as people in your local area become subscribers to your blog, they will tell others and your blog will build.

Email Signatures
Put the address to your blog in your email signature. Many of these accept a link in the signature section. How many emails do you send a day? This is how many more times you are getting your name out.

RSS/ATOM Feeds
Make sure the settings on your blog are set to allow a feed. A feed is a regularly updated summary of web content, along with links to full versions of that content. When you subscribe to a website feed by using a feed reader, you'll receive a summary of new content from that website. The two main formats for feeds are RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and ATOM. It doesn’t matter which type of feed that you use. I happen to alternate the two types on different blogs. The end result is what is important. They broadcast your blog to the world. This is the most important function of any successful blog.

Ping Your Blog
This is not the 1970’s video game. Nor is it half of a paddle game, although it takes its’ name from it due to how it functions. A “ping” is the way a blog tells a server that new material has been posted to your blog, allowing others to come to your posting. Many popular blogs already do this to their own servers, but it is advised to subscribe to other blog servers to ping your blog.

Sign Up For Syndication Providers
This is a third-party service that provides a service to “bloggers” to promote, deliver and profit from the content they put in their blogs. When you look into a service like this, I would suggest web sites like Feedburner.com and Technorati.com. Sites like this can show you how to monitor your progress and use the proper keywords to promote your site. Feedburner even offers a huge network of ads that can help you make money from your blog. You can find some of the other benefits such as RSS/ATOM feeds and Pings on these sites, as well.

Submit Your Blogs to Article Sites
Do you think your blog is professional enough to be published? Look into article sites to send your message to others interested in your niche. Make sure you put your blog address and web site address in the article. One article can be circulated in newsletters throughout the internet in no time at all, bringing people and links back to your sites. This helps search engines find you, which, in turn, adds page views to your blog – increasing its’ popularity.

Press Releases
How can your blog deserve a press release? How about a release about your blog? Make the press release headline exciting as we talked about in the writing section (Part 2) of this series. Once again, as in article submissions, make sure you put the link to your blog and web site in the body of your release. Good web sites to promote your press release are places like www.PRWeb.com and Softwaremarketingresource.com .

Join the Blogosphere
There are blogging groups out there for you to join. Join them. This takes some research on your part, but this will pay off in the long run when you look at your subscription list. Look for groups that are not directly in competition with your niche, but share an economic relationship that can help your business. Within these groups are millions of people blogging their niche. Comment on these people’s blogs. While you are doing that, leave your own blog address for them to comment to you. This is also a good opportunity for you to try and “borrow” people who comment on your competition’s blogs. Why not? You know the interest is there. It shouldn’t have to be said, but do not use profanity attack your competition, or do anything to hurt your own status while you are commenting. The blogosphere – while huge – is a very small global village.

Blog Traffic Exchanges
This service sends people to your blog. By looking through other people’s blogs (something you should be doing, anyway) these services will send people your way. They are usually free to join but often send weak and unfocused traffic to your site. If you are trying to populate your blog, this will help you get started, though rely on your own research abilities for better links. BlogCliker and Blog Explosion are examples of such sites that will offer traffic exchanges.

On a closing note, be sure to avoid FFA (Free for all) sites and scams on the web that seem too good to be true. There are many sites out there like this that are more than willing to take your money. Leave them in your Delete folder.

In part four of this series, we will investigate how to make money from your blog and how to keep track of your own traffic.