Make friends with fellow bloggers. That means follow their blogs, be helpful, get to know them, and comment intelligently. Don’t ask for links up front. Don’t expect instant acceptance. Don’t be irrelevant. And don’t nag!
Use photos. The right photo triples the impact of a good post. Take them yourself, find them at Yahoo Flickr already permissioned at www.flickr.com/creativecommons (2.7 million and counting), or spend a dollar each at http://istockphoto.com.
Post your photos at Flickr. People are interested in seeing themselves and other people. If you take digital photos, post them to Flickr and include a Flickr gallery on your blog (Google “Flickr Gallery” for the right widget for your blogging service).
Participate in newsgroups. While newsgroups have faded in recent years, you’ll find at least one very active newsgroups covering just about every topic imaginable. Dive right in. And don’t forget to include your blog’s URL in your signature line.
Use Squidoo. Build one or more lenses to showcase your best blogs about a given topic, or which together form a great tutorial, or just to establish your reputation as someone who knows a thing or two.
Convert old posts into new ezine articles. What’s the difference between a great post you did on a subject six months ago and a free ezine article that drives traffic to your blog? About ten minutes’ effort on your part at ezine sites like iSnare (www.isnare.com), Ezine Articles (ezinearticles.com), and especially the SiteProNews directory of article directories (www.sitepronews.com/article-directories.html).
Guest post. This technique worked for me when I started ToDoOrElse.com. Offer another (more influential) blogger guest posts to keep the content rolling while that blogger is on vacation, overextended, and so on. This technique presupposes you have some sort of relationship going, that the other blogger has either asked for guest posts or seems ready for the idea, and that you have at least a few posts that would fit the bill.
Provide answers. In just about every area, there are current questions that need answers. Think about the subjects you blog on. What questions could a little non-blog research or data-gathering answer?
Use photos. The right photo triples the impact of a good post. Take them yourself, find them at Yahoo Flickr already permissioned at www.flickr.com/creativecommons (2.7 million and counting), or spend a dollar each at http://istockphoto.com.
Post your photos at Flickr. People are interested in seeing themselves and other people. If you take digital photos, post them to Flickr and include a Flickr gallery on your blog (Google “Flickr Gallery” for the right widget for your blogging service).
Participate in newsgroups. While newsgroups have faded in recent years, you’ll find at least one very active newsgroups covering just about every topic imaginable. Dive right in. And don’t forget to include your blog’s URL in your signature line.
Use Squidoo. Build one or more lenses to showcase your best blogs about a given topic, or which together form a great tutorial, or just to establish your reputation as someone who knows a thing or two.
Convert old posts into new ezine articles. What’s the difference between a great post you did on a subject six months ago and a free ezine article that drives traffic to your blog? About ten minutes’ effort on your part at ezine sites like iSnare (www.isnare.com), Ezine Articles (ezinearticles.com), and especially the SiteProNews directory of article directories (www.sitepronews.com/article-directories.html).
Guest post. This technique worked for me when I started ToDoOrElse.com. Offer another (more influential) blogger guest posts to keep the content rolling while that blogger is on vacation, overextended, and so on. This technique presupposes you have some sort of relationship going, that the other blogger has either asked for guest posts or seems ready for the idea, and that you have at least a few posts that would fit the bill.
Provide answers. In just about every area, there are current questions that need answers. Think about the subjects you blog on. What questions could a little non-blog research or data-gathering answer?
