Starting a New Blog

There are a number of steps you want to take to get some traffic coming to your blog right when you start. Even though you have a tiny number of posts, and there is nothing indexed in the search engines, it does not hurt to put your site out there, you may gain a loyal reader or two.

Here are a few strategies I have been following on getting my blogs noticed.

1. Get an Entrecard. This is probably the best way to get some early traffic coming to your site for free. After you get an account with Entrcard, simply add their widget to your sidebar and this will allow sites to advertise on your site. In turn you are given credits to advertise on other sites. All of this is done for FREE. Also, to get best results, be sure to create an 125x125 image with a sexy babe on it to get males (majority of blog population) to look at your Entrecard. If you drop your card on other sites, about 1 in 10 will pay you a visit back.

2. Sign up for Feedburner. If you want to establish a readership then get a Feedburner account and install the "subscribe" chicklet on your blog. It does not hurt to also place an option that allows people to sign up via e-mail. Both of these can be accomplished under the "Optimize" tab on the Feedburner page. It also does not hurt to monetize your feed. In addition, I also activate "FeedFlare" to allow readers to "Stumble" or "Digg" your posts. I also use "Pingshot" so you do not have to manually update via the different ping services. Note that Feedburner has recently been bought out by Google, so many of their features are currently being integrated together.

3. Visit other blogs, especially new ones, and leave comment on other new blogs. I have found that about 1 out of every 5 comments will garnish a visit or two from the other blog. The chances are higher with a new blog, since the owner is likely to pay a visit. They are not quite as high with a blog that has mid ranged popularity. However, if you leave a nice pithy comment on a high traffic blog, you are likely to get at least a visit and may garner a new reader or two.

4. Sign up for Blogcatalog, and participate in their forums and discussion groups. Leave pithy remarks. You will soon be noticed.

5. Start writing. Posting, and writing. Soon your blog will be picked up by search engines and the traffic will start rolling in.