Blogging Communities
The next logical step in promoting your new blog is joining a community or network. You can join multiple communities if you like. I decided to sign up with MyBlogLog. If you look in the left sidebar you will notice a “recent readers” column with a few avatars. These avatars show who has recently been on my blog and links back to their page through MyBlogLog. Now, when I go and read other blogs my avatar moves to the top of the list. MyBlogLog not only helps you get traffic, your readers will hopefully get traffic back to their site. MyBlogLog is very easy to sign up for and using a simple text widget you can place the “recent readers” in your sidebar.
Another site I signed up for was Technorati. If you have a blog or read blogs regularly and haven’t heard of Technorati you have been living under a rock. Basically, Technorati is a search engine for blogs. Readers can submit your blog as a “favorite” which increases your “authority”. When you sign up you start out with an authority 1 and this increases as you gain more and more readers.
On top of signing up for Technorati I added a social plugin to my theme. Basically at the end of each post there is shortcuts to submit me to Technorati, Digg, Stumble Upon, ect. I like this plugin a lot because it allows your readers a convenient way to show your blog some love.
The Whatnot
There are a couple other simple tricks you can do to get your blog noticed. Add your blog’s URL to all your emails as a signature. That way, every single email you send out has your blog’s link. Email signatures should bring your blog a little traffic, even if it is from people you know personally (friends and family).
If you are a regular forum poster you should place your blog’s URL in your profile. This is especially true if the forum is within your niche. If you are a respected poster on your forum people will go to your website to see what it is all about. These people will more then likely be interested in your topic if it is within the niche of the forum. This will eventually lead to regular readers.
What about the Contest?
As I mentioned in my first post I am planning on having a contest to kick off my new blog. I have been writing for a little over a week now and am still trying to build up a little more traffic before I have the contest. So, please be patient with me, I still plan on having the contest in the very near future and I didn’t forget about it.
