The Invisible Blog?

I’ve been blogging my little heart out for quite a while now and wonder if the blogging world even knows I’m here. How do I get noticed? How do I get on the blogosphere map? When I was first doing research, if I had a question, I went to the library. But in this brave new world, when I have a question, I Google it. So I Googled “how to get your blog noticed” and struck gold. Here are some of the many suggestions for experts out there:

From 13 Tips to Get Your Blog Noticed
at JohnTP.com blogging & online money making tips

JohnTP lives in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and has a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSc IT) in India. He has been a full-time blogger since November 2005 and currently receives over 9,000 unique visitors daily and 15,000 page views. Also check out DigitGeek, his blog on hardware reviews and tutorials.

1. Place a link to your blog in your signature, so that any posts to Forums, Outgoing Emails, etc, will promote your blog.
2. SubmitExpress.com will submit your blog free to the top 20 Search engines.
3. Submit your good articles to EzineArticles.com.

From Branding 101: How to Promote Your Blog Like the Big Guys Do
by Leo Babauta of Write to Done

Leo Babauta created Write to Done as a way to share some of what he has learned the craft and the art of writing. A life-long writer, he blogs about journalism, blog writing, freelance writing, fiction, non-fiction, getting a book deal, the business of writing, the habit of writing. And so on.

1. First, figure out who your target audience is. Who are you trying to help with your blog? Who do you want to attract? It’s good to have a clear picture of exactly who these people are …
2. Next, figure out what desires you’re going to be tapping into. Every reader goes to a blog for a reason — some desire they have that the blog will potentially fulfill.
3. Then figure out what message you’re going to send to them that will tap into specific desires. This is key: every blog sends an unstated message to the reader.

From How to Get Your Blog Noticed Quickly and Widely
by Gregory White on EzineArticles.com

Greg White, Internet Marketer, Author, Consultant, and Project Manager has been running successful web projects since 2001. His sites and blogs cover Blog Marketing Tactics, Internet Marketing Tactics, and a variety of 'Niche' topics, in addition to starting and marketing profitable web project.

1. Sign up for a free account at BlogExplosion.com and register your blog there: http://www.blogexplosion.com/
2. Submit your blog to all of the directories listed at http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/blog_lists.html
3. Sign up for a "My Yahoo" at http://my.yahoo.com/ and attach your blog to your own "My Yahoo" account. This will get your blog included in Yahoo very quickly. This is worth the effort to stop what you're doing right and do it, since Yahoo has a PR 9.

From Amazing Blogging Skills
By Axel g

Axel g was born and raised in Sweden. He is a meditator, who was ordained as a junior Buddhist monk in Thailand in 1993. His meditation practice has also taken him to Japan, Malaysia, the UK, and Sweden; and he has lived in numerous monasteries around the world. Axel now works full time in the field of personal development.

1. Write about topics that really interest your readers. Focus on providing information that your readers want and do your very best to help them along the way.
2. Freely share what you know, that's one important key to successful blogging and offer your readers useful information. If you have genuine knowledge about the topic you're writing about, share everything you know about it with your readers and they will love you for it. As a pro, you should also be able to explain things in simple language.
3. Web surfers love blogs with character. Relax and show your readers who you really are! This way you will also quite naturally establish a personal relation with your readership.

Think about the words, World Wide Web. It truly is, and, if you doubt it, consider the bloggers who contributed these 12 great ideas.

10 steps from obscurity to #3 on Google (under “book writing coach”)

I’ve heard it said that having a website no one knows exists is like having a billboard in the middle of the Sahara dessert. I believe it. I’ve had a website almost as long as I’ve been in business, and it was the world’s most expensive (and confusing) online brochure. Now, it generates viable leads every week. It didn’t happen overnight. It took time, advice from experts, lots of learning, and, most of all, doing.

1. It began at an SLPA meeting at which a marketing expert named Bobette Kyle knocked my socks off with her presentation. She offered the audience a free marketing workbook and 30 minutes of consulting time. I signed up. Her first suggestion was to redesign my website to reflect my new goals.

2. I’ll spare you the details of starting over from scratch. It was a series of false starts and frustrations. In the end, I bought DreamWeaver and did it myself. Of course, there were so many things I didn’t have a clue about, such as how to do, like making buttons for my navigation bar or settin up a template. Basic stiff.

3. I hired Pat Weaver, a computer wizard from the Webster school district. She became my fixer and teacher. If I wanted to learn DreamWeaver, she was the best.

4. Finally, I went back to Bobette for a brainstorming session on marketing planning — an essential step! I had to have a marketing plan, and it really wasn’t all that mysterious to write one when a marketing exert was asking all the right questions, and all I had to do was think through the answers.

5. My overall goal was to build my business as a ghostwriter, book-writing coach, and editor. One strategy was to expand my online presence. Tactic #1 was to write and submit articles in my area of expertise to online marketing sites. So, that’s what I did. I wrote them; Bobette submitted them to about 30 online sites, including EzineArticles.com, the gold standard. At the bottom of each was a little blurb explaining what I do and how to contact me. At this point, there are close to 60 articles, which are also on my website in two formats: web pages and PDFs.

6. In the meantime, I kept adding to and improving my site. I did the design and writing; Bobette did her magic behind the scenes. The key was obtaining quality inbound links from authority Websites, like relevant directories or topical Websites. This helps search engines find and list my site and potential clients find me. A novice could do that, I suppose, but it’s so worth it to pay a consultant who knows what she’s doing. I started showing up on search engines, and potential authors started contacting me. To me, that was a miracle.

7. Tactic #2 was to join social networking sites like Gather, LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Eons, among others. That took a lot of time; and, truthfully, it is my weakest link. Networking sites can become so addictive and time-consuming that I forget to work. Obviously, I still have a lot to learn about that aspect of Web 2.0.

8. There has to be a way to encourage people to e-mail and then capture their addresses when they do. And, even more important, then, I have to give them something free — information, reports, eBooks, anything that will benefit the reader and compel them to make contact. So, we set up a way to do that on my home page. The e-mail addresses go to EzineDirector, which automatically sends out the eBook I offer. It will also send out a regular newsletter and do all kinds of other things, automatically, if I set them up.

9. I struggled with the idea of doing a newsletter. I feel that a newsletter should be full of news and other helpful messages. Doing the requisite research is a big job, so I finally decided to send one only when I have something worthwhile to announce or share.

10. I don’t know what took me so long, but, eventually, I discovered blogging; and I love it. I set up my blog on BlogSpot, which is free, easy, and basic. I keep discovering new things I can do and adding them to my blog. My topic, of course, is writing; but, unlike articles, I find blogging gives me more flexibility. It is personal, so I can reflect on a whole range of writing-related topics that don’t fit in the article format.

Those are the basics. In between the numbers are all the things I have done wrong while learning to do them right, and, believe me, there have been many. There is so much to learn and so much to do, it could consume most of my day. But, when you are a writer who sells services as well as words, that is your full-time job. Marketing is how you get to do it.