6 tips for getting your blog noticed

I read lots of social media blogs and participate in some great blogging communities and one of the most often-asked questions by bloggers is "How can I get more people to notice my blog?" While there are books and entire consulting business built around answering that question, there are definitely some basic, self-help tactics that can make a huge difference. I work with thousands of bloggers and here are six easy tips that seem to really help:

1. Twitter
If you are a blogger, it really pays to learn to love Twitter. Its a great way to share your new posts with a large audience and find other blogs to comment on. You can also search Twitter by topic (i.e. "teenagers" or "day care") and share your posts with people who are looking for info you might have blogged about.

2. Use Categories and Tag on your posts
Both Blogger and Wordpress let you add keywords to each post (and WP lets you add categories). Assigning a category to each post helps your readers find "buckets" of posts that were written about the same topic. If they liked your posts about "disciplining a toddler" or "getting toddlers to each vegetables", they might like your other posts about toddlers. Also, take a few moments with each post and think about what terms someone might type into Google. Adding those keywords helps search engines connect your blog with people who are looking for topics you've written about. Here's a great article from Problogger on Using Categories and Tags Effectively.

3. Comment on other posts
Not just a quick "hi - love your pics!" but a genuine, thoughtful comment that tells that blogger you really connected with their site and looked around. Your comment can add value to that bloggers post by providing even more info for their readers. Make your comment as interesting to read as the post.

4. Guest post on other blogs
Most sites and blogs are always looking for more content and posts. It gives the blog author a break for a day and exposes your writing to new readers. Its tempting to think that your efforts would be better spent on your own blog but giving to others ALWAYS comes back to you.

5. Link to bigger blogs
I'm not suggesting you go link-crazy but its helps your Google rankings when you link to larger blogs that have high "credibility" ratings with search engines. So if you are posting about something at Target, go ahead and hyperlink to their site. If you blogging about a product, store, celebrity, quoting from a news source, visiting a city - link to their site.

6. Add social tools to your blog such as BlogFrog
BlogFrog is a network of almost 20,000 bloggers who all link to one another via widgets. So when you visit a BlogFrog site, your blog actually shows up on their widget for ALL their readers to see. It drives reciprocal traffic. You can even add an instant community to your site that lets readers interact, which draws more traffic. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of the founders of BlogFrog. Members have shared many stories about how their traffic has increased after signing up for BlogFrog because more people were discovering their blogs so I thought it appropriate to share).

Just wanted to share some tips that bloggers I have worked with seem to really like. If you have tips or advice you'd like to share - please comment!