There are a lot of places to list your blog for getting the maximum exposure, as well as places where you can receive blog reviews that may be the first impression a visitor may come across for your site. Here are some to add your blog or submit your site to in order to increase your blog traffic and reputation.

For Reviews

Want to get reviews and ratings for your writing skills and your blog? Submit yourself and your sites to the following networks.

Scribnia is an excellent blogging community that lets you connect with and review other blog writers. I was added here as a contributor to Famous Bloggers, and my profile has already brought in some traffic, as well as connections and reviews from other awesome bloggers like Hesham, Andrew, Danny, Francisco, Julie, Meena, Arijit, and Antonia. I will be getting some reviews going for you all soon if I haven’t already.

Alexa offers webmasters the ability to claim their site with a verification code and update additional details for your site on Alexa. You can also get reviews about your site by other Alexa members. I don’t if it helps in any way when it comes to your rankings, but it certainly can’t hurt, especially if someone is already checking out your stats there.

For Top Blog Lists

Want to get listed as a top blog in your niche? Get listed on these sites.

Adding your blog to the PostRank system (if it’s not already there) and under particular topic categories, you can get ranked in the top blogs on that topic based on your blog’s social engagement.

Having a listing on Technorati will allow you to not only get reviews for your site, but if you have enough authority, you will get listed as a top blog in your niche based on your blog’s authority (or backlinks counted by Technorati).

Alltop imports the feeds of popular blogs on a range of subjects (like blogging) for the site’s visitors and those following Alltop’s category Twitters.

For Overall Exposure

Here are some more ways you can get more traffic to your site by getting your blog’s link out there.

Social Profiles

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to add your blog to your social profiles on any network you belong to. To make your link even more attractive to click on, be sure to remember to do things like add it to the information box on the front of your Facebook profile (which pulls from your Info tab’s website contact information) and choose Other instead of My Blog on your LinkedIn profile to include the name of your blog or main keywords.

Google

Do you have a Google account (ie. Gmail, Analytics, Webmaster Tools, etc.)? Login, and visit the Google Profiles area to add your blog (along with your social networks and other websites) to your profile. Depending on how long you have had your account, your profile will probably get all dofollow links.

Blogging Networks

There are a number of great networks specifically built for bloggers for the purpose of bookmarking, forums, groups, and networks. Some that I am particularly fond of are Blog Engage (blogger’s social bookmarking site), Blogger Den (the alternative to Digg for bloggers), and BloggerLuv.

Guest Blogging

Do you accept guest blog posts? If so, head over to MyBlogGuest and connect with other blogs who are looking for and accepting guest posts to increase your traffic and your blog content.

Forum Signatures

If you’re active in forums, such as Bloggeries, ProBlogger, or other blogging communities, be sure to add your blog to your forum signature. Even if it is nofollow or not visible to the public, you will get some significant traffic from other members if you are a valuable contributor.

Also, if you have an option (like in Bloggeries) to add your blog feed, be sure to do so – just like CommentLuv, it will add a link to your latest blog post on each of your forum posts.

Email Signatures

Add a plain text link to your blog (plus social networks) to your blog signature. Or try out WiseStamp, a plugin for Firefox, Chrome, Flock, and Thunderbird, that will let you add not only text links, but social network icons and a RSS feed that will automatically put your latest blog post in your signatures.

Your Blog Listings

What sites do you list your blog on which send great traffic? Please share your favorite blog linking tips, as well as what blogging communities are your favorites.

Related Posts

1. 11 WordPress Plugins to Analyze and Increase Traffic
2. Benefits of Blogging – Becoming an Authority
3. How Blog Commenting Has Made a Difference
4. 8 Best Practices for Collaborative Blog Groups
5. Top 10 Things That Can Hurt Your Blog

This is a guest post by Brian Stephens of Moulin Website Design, a web design company supporting small businesses.

A home business sounds great, doesn’t it? Rolling out of bed in the morning when you wake, rather than to an alarm clock. No boss giving you grief for getting in late. You can do what you want when you want. Life couldn’t be better, or could it?

First of all, there are two ways to work from home. There is working for a company from a home base, and there is working for yourself, self employed and building your own business. Making money blogging as a business venture is a great example of a way to do this.

Working from Home for Someone Else

Lets discuss the working from home for a company option first. This is a real work at home job where you actually are working in your home – not out on the road servicing clients all over the country and not getting home until 8.00PM, exhausted from all the driving.

Here are the pros for a real ‘working for a company at home’ type job.

• Save on the commute time to and from work.
• Have some flexibility in your working hours.
• No office politics to deal with.
• Far fewer work clothes required.
• You have a high level of autonomy on how you do your work.
• You can enjoy a peaceful environment with little or no interruptions (assuming you don’t have others working at home or kids running around simultaneously).

So what are the cons of this type of arrangement?

• You are still working for a company and need to meet their targets.
• Yes, there will be flexibility on time, but the company will expect you to be available if they need to speak to you.
• No human interaction – can you really work on your own or do you need to have contact with people?
• Who is paying for the extra heating or cooling of your home now you are there all day? You need to be sure this is clear.
• You are now responsible for getting your work completed so you need to be self motivated and disciplined.

In a word, working from home for a company will suit a lot of people, but not everyone. For some people, the crack of going to work is what makes life enjoyable: social interaction and having someone tell you what you need to do and when to do it may be your motivation, and you might find that you need that environment in order to function.

On the other hand, if you really can handle the cons of a work at home environment and love the fact that you can stay at home to work and enjoy the benefits that come with it, then it could really be what makes your working life enjoyable.

Working from Home for Yourself

So let’s take this to the next level – working from home building your own business. Clearly some of the pros and cons of working from home for a company will apply equally to working from home for yourself when you are building your own business.

So what are the additional pros and cons that come from building your own business?

• First of all, you really are in charge and you really do get to decide what you do.
• Now you have complete flexibility, if you want to sleep all day and work all night, it is up to you.
• Any profit you make is all yours, and the amount of profit you make is down to your ingenuity.
• The work you put into the business potentially increases its value, and it can become a disposable asset if and when you are ready to move on.

And what are the cons?

• First of all you really are in charge and you really do get to decide what you do.
• You have to provide all your own equipment and deal with your own technical problems.
• You are responsible for your heating and or cooling bills now you are working from your home.
• You have to formulate and implement your own business plan.
• You have to identify what skills you need for your business and whether you require any additional training.

Now that you know the pros and cons of working from home, you can decide whether that is a lifestyle you aspire to. Before you make a final decision, it is possible to test the water. There are many fine home based business that were started on a part time basis with very small start up costs, and now provide considerable incomes for their owners.

Of course there are cons associated with any business development, it would be naive to think there wasn’t. But starting a home based business can be exciting and rewarding and as long as you are persistent and patient. It can be made to work, and sometimes to levels you would not have believed possible.

The Blogging Business

Going back to the ‘blogging for business‘ option that was mentioned previously – all you really need to get started is a computer and access to the Internet.

Many people actually blog using free blogging platforms like Blogspot, for example, to get started. You can see the appeal of this – you don’t have to pay for a domain name or hosting and you can get started straight away including placing ads on your site, promoting affiliate links, or even selling your own products directly.

A word of caution however, if you take the free platform route, you never have complete control of the site. There is no way to recover the value you add to the site and you could, heaven forbid, find that for reasons outside your control your site gets shut down and your income stream can be cut off.

That is why it is recommeneded that you commit a little funding to registering your own domain name and paying for your own hosting. This way, for a very modest cost, you can control the site and add value that is potentially recoverable if you decide to move on, as well as ensure that no one can decide to shut the site down outside of your control.

So to start a home based business as a blogger, using the Internet as discussed, requires you to know at least something about how to register a domain name, where to find a suitable hosting service and how you go about creating your first blog.

This is all described in a free ebook available via Creating a Wordpress Blog. So go take a look and find out how you can start building your own business through blogging, it may be the start of your dream lifestyle.

Your Experiences

Do you work from home for your company for yourself? Is your business based around your blog? Please share your experiences, both positive and negative, about these home based work options.

Related Posts

1. Make Blogging Work for Business
2. Benefits of Blogging – Developing SEO & Internet Marketing Skills
3. How I Got 200 Subscribers in My First Month of Blogging
4. Blogging and Social Media Goals for 2010
5. Keyword Research for Blogging

Somewhere, throughout my vast array of email filters, I must have missed my invitation to try out the new Digg 4.0 beta / alpha system, but this weekend out of sheer curiosity, I logged into new Digg site and got to play around with what is coming up. So, without further ado, here is a look at the inside of the new Digg system.

Finding Friends

When you first login to the new Digg, it will suggest some profiles for you to follow under a variety of topics, including Business, Entertainment, Technology, and more.

New Digg Suggested People to Follow

On the next screen, you are invited to connect your Digg account to Facebook, Google, and Twitter to find your friends on Digg from each network.

New Digg Find Friends on Facebook, Google, and Twitter

If you decide to skip these options when first signing in, you can find popular profiles and check your networks later by going to My News > Find Profiles, and you’ll see a little section for My Networks on the left sidebar along with the topics you can search for popular profiles in.

New Digg My Networks

Followers and Following

One thing that was nice about the old Digg that is not available in the new Digg (not at the moment at least) is the ability to see if a person you are following is also following you.

Old Digg Mutual Friends and Fans

To see your Followers and Following in the new Digg, you can click on the links on the navigation bar.

New Digg Followers and Following

But you can only see if you are following someone – if you want to follow your new fans, you can follow them easily, but you won’t be able to see if people you follow have followed you back.

New Digg Follow or Unfollow

If you want to purge your list of non-mutual friends, you may wish to do so before the new system becomes live, just in case the new system doesn’t implement a way for you to see which of your following isn’t following you. Interestingly, I noticed that unfriending someone in the old system wasn’t reflected in the new Digg system – so if you are in both, you will want to unfollow the person in the new Digg, but if you are not, then doing it in the old Digg should carry over.

Your Profile

Another thing that doesn’t seem to be carried over from the old Digg to the new one is your list of links. To fill out your new Digg profile, click on the Settings option in the nav bar and go to Profile.

New Digg Profile Settings

Next, add your links.

New Digg Links Setting

And your new Digg profile will look like this:

New Digg Profile

Imported Feeds

You may notice at the bottom of my profile is a section for Imported Feeds. This is a feature in the new Digg system that allows you to import your blog RSS feed so that new items are automatically submitted to Digg. You can setup your blog feeds under Settings > Import Feeds.

New Digg Import Feeds

You will have to verify that you are the site owner by adding a code to one of your posts’ HTML.

This brings up an interesting question, brought up in the Third Tribe forums – will auto submitting your content be better than having a “power Digger” submit it in terms of the story’s chances of getting hot on the Digg homepage? When you choose the auto-submit feature, will you have any control over the items that you can change when you submit the items manually (title, description, images, category)? And should you only submit custom RSS feed selections?

Submitting Stories to Digg

Let’s look at the basic submission process for stories on new Digg, which is a lot more simpler than the old Digg system. If you go to either the My News or Top News tab, you will see a Submit a Link field. Just paste in your link, and the information will popup for it.

New Digg Submit a Link

You can edit the title and description, select a photo from the story, and then choose the category it best fits in and then click Digg It. Then you’re all done!

New Digg All Done

Here, it says the story is now shared with your number of followers. Any stories you Digg will be shown on your profile, as well as in the My News tab of all of your followers.

New Digg My News

When your friends submit stories, you will see which friends have Dugg it as well as a comment snippet from your friends on the story. So needless to say, when you submit or Digg a story, make a comment to have it stand out to your following.

Top News

Since the My News tab only shows items that are being dugg by friends, you have to select the Top News tab if you want to see what is hot on the homepage throughout the entire community.

New Digg Top News

Currently, the Top News and the homepage of the old Digg system (which you can be simultaneously logged into, oddly enough) do not show the same stories, but I’m sure that’s one of the many kinks to be worked out.

Disclaimer: Please note that all of the above shots are from the invite only / beta / alpha version. Some features may change once it is released live which should be somewhere around 3 – 4 weeks from now.

Your Thoughts on the New Digg

Have you gotten your invite and played around in the new Digg system? Do you enjoy the idea of just following diggs by your friends, and plan on using the import feeds auto submit feature? What other likes and dislikes have you noticed or foresee?]

PS. Follow me on the old Digg or new Digg.

Related Posts

1. Getting Overwhelmed? Get Organized!
2. Twitterfeed, HootSuite RSS Feeds, and Blog Posting Schedules
3. 9 Ways to Use Social Networking for Blog Promotion
4. A Comprehensive Guide to Using RSS
5. Increase Traffic and Authority by Listing Your Blog

For many bloggers, myself included, the thought of a mailing list is the furthest thing from their mind when starting out blogging. And many others think of mailing lists as only something you need if you are going to be selling your own products or affiliate products to your subscribers.

This, however, is a false assumption. I would say that anyone who is looking to get into serious blogging should start creating a mailing list as soon as possible. This is why!

Reasons to Create a Mailing List

Here are some great reasons to have a mailing list for your blog, some for even if you are not selling a thing!

1. Announce new additions to your site.

Whether it is a new design, social profile, or new resource page, announcing updates through your newsletter can get your readers excited about visiting your site again!

2. Alert your list when something is awry.

This week, there was a little hiccup in the networks between Cox and GoDaddy – certain people with Cox as an ISP couldn’t see certain GoDaddy sites, including this one and Dofollow. I didn’t know if I was going to have to make an emergency hosting move, but if I did, I would have been able to alert people on my mailing list immediately. It would certainly have come in handy around the time my sites got hacked a few months ago. Fortunately, GoDaddy solved the issue, while demonstrating some seriously good Twitter customer service skills.

3. Let your readers know about your guest blogging or other writing activities.

Sure, there are other ways you can let readers know about your guest posting opportunities by using alternate ways to share the content. But a regular newsletter is a great way to let your readers know about your other content, whether it is on other blogs or on article marketing networks.

4. Help your readers help you.

There are some exciting things that you can be involved in, such as blogging contests and nominations in blogging awards, that your readers would likely support you in if they new about it. A friendly nudge in your mailing list updates can go a long way in getting much needed votes!

5. Inform your readers of special promotions / sales.

If you don’t want to create a blog post about a last minute deal or sale, your mailing list is a great way to send a quick, short update to your subscribers. A list of subscribers to update before Third Tribe changed their monthly rates would have been nice to get the word out.

What to Give Away

If you haven’t thought about creating a mailing list, but now you’re tempted, your next thought may be the fact that you don’t have a tangible product, like an eBook, to give away to entice subscribers into opting in.

But wait – what about, instead of a product, you give a service instead.

The product was the main thing that held me up from creating my mailing list, and then one day I thought about the fact that I am always giving out little tidbits of advice to others about their blogs and websites. So I thought, why not offer a free mini-consultation in exchange for opting in for my mailing list.

With some of my readers’ blogs in mind, some free services you could offer include:

• Web design ideas
• SEO suggestions
• Social media strategies
• Personal development advice
• Career guidance
• Home organization tips

Essentially, you offer a small bit of personalized advice – let readers email you with a particular concern or challenge, and give them a simple way to implement (or begin implementing) change.

This approach, needless to say, has been a success so far for me in terms of offering some web design and optimization tips for new subscribers. I get to personally connect with each subscriber. It helps me get to know my subscribers right from the bat, an added bonus when I am working on my newsletter and determining what content they will be most interested in.

It may not be feasible, depending on how fast you get subscribers. Maybe let them know that there will be a bit of a wait period so you can give them quality information, and as you do so, you will be able to compile a large list of general advice that you can eventually bundle up in a report or eBook for the future when things begin to grow at a larger rate.

What it Will Cost

Mailing lists certainly aren’t going to come for free. The service I use is Aweber, which starts at $19 per month for up to 500 subscribers. MailChimp is another popular one, and is free for up to 500 subscribers, but the rates are higher if you go above that compared to Aweber.

And for me, another expense that I was not aware of was the fact that, since you have to put a physical address on all correspondence to your mailing list and I didn’t want to blast out my home address, I had to get a PO Box. Where you get it and what kind of service you want will determine the price – mine is $75 for 3 months because I chose one that also allowed me a street address as opposed to just a PO Box #.

How to Recoup Your Costs

This is where the dreaded words “affiliate products” come into play. They’re not dirty words, promise. The way I see it is if you are using a service or a product that you would recommend even if you didn’t get commission from the sale, why not make some income off of it? Your mailing list can be a place where you can also recommend things that your subscribers will find useful. If you only recommend things that you yourself use and truly find valuable, then your readers will know that they can trust your judgement and that you are not just throwing anything at them to make a buck.

Think about it. Thesis users, for example, really only need to make one theme sale every 1.5 months to even out their mailing list cost. Chances are your website visits will go up because you regularly remind readers about your site and latest posts, giving you the traffic to offer ad space on your sidebar at a higher rate. These are easy ways that you can feel good about to make up your mailing list costs and reap the benefits of keeping in touch with and helping out your readers.

Mailing List Tips

Here are a few things I do when it comes to my newsletter and signup process.

Theme

Remember, your mailing list should carry across the same feeling as your website. Design wise, I keep it simple so that the main content can be read on a mobile device or without the pictures enabled, but I still include my logo and basic color theme so it ties in well with my site.

First Newsletter

Content-wise, since my goal is to be informative and helpful to my readers, I want to do the same for my mailing list subscribers. So, just like my posts, my newsletters are lengthier than the average, but I believe it is in a good way.

The Opt-In

One thing I see a lot on websites is an opt-in form with no information about what the subscriber is signing up for. Sometimes this is designed with the thought that a regular visitor to the site automatically knows the kind of content based on the blog itself. But you also want to give new visitors to your site a reason to sign up as well – a short and sweet description of their “free item” or service (if offered) plus a bit on what they will be receiving in your mailings will go a long way in helping people who may not be familiar with your site decide to sign up.

Also, going along these lines, really reconsider the idea of having a pop-up mailing list request. I’m sure the conversion rates for those are higher than those sitting in the sidebars, but it is just not friendly to visitors. Especially if it is their first time to your site and your opt-in form has no information about what they are signing up for. Also, these popups come up for mobile users as well, and some forms are absolutely heinous to try to close out of on a smartphone screen, which may mean you are blocking a first time visitor from seeing the value of your site!

Your Thoughts on Blog Mailing Lists

Do you have, or are thinking about having a mailing list for your site? Are you subscribed to mailing lists from other blogs? What are some other best practices when it comes to blog newsletters and email updates?

Related Posts

1. Blog Visitors, Readers, Commenters and Subscribers
2. What is Your Blog About?
3. Top 10 Things That Can Hurt Your Blog
4. 31 Days to Build a Better Blog at 50% Off
5. 9 Ways to Use Social Networking for Blog Promotion

Are there blogs that you read regularly that you find so good that you end up sharing every post on Twitter? Do you hate it when you miss a post from those blogs, and wish that, even when you’re offline, you can promote new posts from those blogs to your followers because you know that each one will be valuable to them?

Twitterfeed and HootSuite offer the ability to take a RSS feed from any site and update it to your Twitter account automatically when new feed items are found.

Pros of Automatic RSS Feed Updating

Aside from missing out on your favorite bloggers’ posts, updating your feed automatically with one of these services allows you to:

• Have your social networks updated often, even when you’re offline. Great for vacations or for tweeting blog posts from international bloggers who post at odd hours for you, but good hours for their audience!
• Provide your followers with relevant content that is valuable to them without having to constantly monitor someone’s blog or Twitter account for their latest updates.
• Support your favorite bloggers and show how much you love their posts, especially by attaching @blogowner to your tweets.

Cons(iderations)

I wouldn’t call these cons, but here are some things to consider when choosing an RSS feed to automatically update to your social networks.

• Does the blog always post content that is valuable to your followers? If there is occasionally questionable content, you may want to only tweet posts after review and not automatically.
• How often does the blog post new content? Keep this in mind when setting post frequency so you don’t bombard your readers with 5 posts or more per hour from the same site.
• If you like to have particular status updates stay at the top of your account for longer periods of time, those could be bumped off by a latest RSS feed update. So if you have your feeds updated every hour, post other status messages at 10 minutes after the hour to stay up for awhile.

Now, let’s take a look at Twitterfeed and HootSuite RSS works.

Twitterfeed

Twitterfeed allows you to setup your favorite RSS feeds to post to Twitter and other social services automatically when new items are added. Simply register an account with Twitterfeed and Create a New RSS Feed to begin.

Step 1

The first step is entering a name and RSS or Atom URL for your feed.

Twitterfeed Feed Setup

If you have multiple Twitter accounts that you will be feeding different RSS items to, it might be a good idea to label them by Twitter account and blog name so you can find them quickly for editing later.

Twitterfeed Dashboard Feed List

You can continue on to Step 2 from here, but first you should take a look at configuring some of the Advanced Settings options.

Twitterfeed Advanced Settings

Update Frequency

Here is where you can set how often you want Twitterfeed to look for new items from a particular RSS, anywhere from every half hour to every 24 hours, as well as how many items to post at a time. If you are grabbing a feed from a site that updates heavily (like Mashable) you may want to have it check every hour and only do one post at a time, otherwise you might bombard your users with 5 posts at once, which is usually not that lovely).

Post Content

I usually go for title only, as you never know what part of the description is going to be picked up, it is going to get cut off, and it will mean that someone has to edit it when they retweet to remove the excess characters to include the RT @yourusername.

You can also choose your preference of URL shorteners – I leave that at bit.ly so that I can see statistics on how many people click on the posts when I tweet them (a nice indicator on whether the feed is popular with your followers or not).

Twitterfeed Click Statistics

Post Sorting

Generally, this setting can be left as pubDate. If the feed does not seem to be updating to your social accounts, you can try to switch it to GUID. Sometimes that gets it to work – there has been one feed (so far) that I have had to use HootSuite RSS to update my accounts with for some reason as neither setting in Twitterfeed worked.

Post Prefix & Suffix

This is text that you can append to the beginning and end of any feed items that is posted to your social accounts. For example, if you have a feed going to Twitter, you can put RT @blogowner at the beginning, or via @blogowner at the end. You could also (if the blog is always on one topic) put hashtags at the end of the tweet, such as #seo.

Keyword Filter

Let’s say that you wanted to setup a feed for Mashable, but your audience is only interested in stories about YouTube. That’s not a problem with the keyword filter – just check the box add YouTube as a keyword – this means that only posts with YouTube are posted to your social accounts.

Step 2

In this step, you setup the social accounts you want new feed items to post to.

Twitter

To select a Twitter account for RSS feed updates to post to, simply use the dropdown for Twitter accounts that you have previously authorized, or use the Authenticate Twitter to connect the feed to the Twitter account by logging into Twitter and using the OAuth system.

Twitterfeed Twitter Account Authentication OAuth

Next, you can set custom UTM tags. The default settings of for Twitter accounts is twitterfeed and twitter, which will append ?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter to the URL of feed items click on from a Twitterfeed link, and it will show up in Google Analytics as Twitterfeed.

Twitterfeed UTM Tags

Learn more about UTM Tags for Google Analytics tracking.

Click on Create Services to save this RSS feed to update your chosen Twitter account. To have it update to additional Twitter accounts, click on Twitter again and follow the same above steps. Once you’re finished, click All Done.

Personal Preference

I usually just post items to Twitter because I prefer using the link attachment features on Facebook due to the fact that you can add a thumbnail and extra details along with the post’s summary, which stands out in the newsfeed and on your profile more prominently than a simple status update.

Facebook Status Update vs. Attach Link

You can also connect Twitterfeed to update new RSS feed items to Facebook, Ping.FM, Statusnet, and HelloTxt.

HootSuite RSS Feeds

HootSuite is my favorite tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts. You can configure RSS feeds to update your status when new items are added from there as well by going to your menu > Settings > RSS / Atom.

HootSuite RSS Feed Options

As you can see, there are far less options available for HootSuite RSS feed setup, which depending on your preference and your desire to keep everything in one place, may be a good thing.

To setup a new feed, simply enter the Feed URL, how often to check for new posts (from every hour to every 12 hours), how many posts to tweet at a time, and what text to prepend to the beginning of the tweet (such as the RT @blogowner). There is also a checkbox to “Include some post text…” which I uncheck, again, so that only the title is tweeted to shorten up the usage of characters.

In HootSuite, you can send RSS feed updates to any profiles you are managing through their tool, including multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Ping.fm, etc. But again, I like to not have the same update going everywhere simultaneously, and I also like to use the more advanced link attachment options, especially with LinkedIn because of the additional visibility of having the thumbnail + extra details that you can add to the update.

LinkedIn Attach Link vs. Status Update

Why Blog Post Timing Matters

Bloggers should note that with these types of services that blog post scheduling matters now more than ever. Many people setup their RSS feeds to update their account every hour, therefore your post could be tweeted by influential users who follow you within the hour that you post. This should be taken in consideration, as you would not want to post something at odd hours and have most of your Twitterfeed or HootSuite RSS followers auto update their accounts at a time when less of your targeted audience is likely to be online.

Beyond Blog RSS Feeds

Keep in mind, RSS feeds aren’t limited to blogs. You can use the RSS feeds from your article marketing networks, job feeds from sites such as oDesk, news feeds from CNN, your own Delicious feed, and so on. Any site that has an RSS feed can be used with Twitterfeed and HootSuite RSS!

Your Thoughts on Social Network RSS Feed Updating

Do you use one of the above services, or a different one, to automatically update your Twitter or other social network with the latest posts from your favorite blog (or even your own)? What other benefits do you see from using these services, and what other things do you take into consideration when setting them up?

Related Posts

1. HootSuite for Blogging – Twitter Management for Bloggers
2. How to Promote Your Business, Blog or Website on Twitter
3. 9 Ways to Use Social Networking for Blog Promotion
4. Increase Traffic and Authority by Listing Your Blog
5. Backup Your Blog for Peace of Mind

In the spirit of the FamousBloggers and ComLuv blogging contest, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the various blogging sponsors contributing to one of the largest cash prize blogging contests who have, of course, CommentLuv enabled blogs.

I know that most of my readers are well aware of the reasons to love CommentLuv, including its great benefits to blog owners, readers, and especially commenters with the ability to promote blog posts and articles on article directories and networks such as HubPages, Squidoo, EzineArticles, & more.

CommentLuv Enabled Blogs List

Without further ado, here are the contest sponsors with blogs enabled with CommentLuv for your content pleasure!

1. The Home of CommentLuv – The ComLuv Network

One of the top sponsors spearheading this contest is the network behind ComLuv itself where you can download the plugin and register your site to have your latest 10 blog posts / articles available to you when commenting. They also have a blog filled with contestants’ entries and great tips on how to use the CommentLuv system on your own site and when commenting. So if you are not yet taking advantage of this great backlink building and traffic generating blog commenting system, be sure to register now and start commenting!

2. Learn How to Blog at FamousBloggers

FamousBloggers is a great site to find lots of informative bloggers who know how to educate their readers on the art of blogging, social networking, and making money online. It is a friendly community that knows the importance of interacting with readers by responding to comments and reaching out to find quality writers to share a new wealth of information on how to succeed at blogging. It is also home to the other half of the entries for this contest.

3. Great GoDaddy Coupon FAN3 30% Off Coupon Codes at Longest

Longest.com’s goal is to provide useful marketing information and valuable discounts & promotions for startups, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs looking to run successful online busineses. The blog is CommentLuv enabled through the Intense Debate commenting system.

4. Advice on Perfect Gifts for Business – Find Great Business Card Holders & More

This online business selling executive gifts shows how business blogging is done by offering advice on how to pick the best gifts for holidays such as Christmas and Father’s Dayand informative posts on what business card holders say about you to help you choose what product is right for you.

5. FiddyP Blog – Personal Musings

This blog by the creator of the CommentLuv plugin includes personal thoughts on and experiences with everything from coding to affiliate products to cosmetic surgery.

6. Chinese Takeaway Lancaster Makes Unique Use of CommentLuv

This Chinese food restaurant uses their blog commenting system to get reviews on their menu items, including some yummy vegetarian dishes that I would certainly try if I were on those neck of the woods.

7. Millwork Architectural Mouldings Talk Home Improvement

For businesses who wonder what they can write about when they focus on a very specific niche, take note from this super example of a blog that expands upon their industry to attract readers interested in DIY, home restoration, home renovations, and home improvement.

8. Top Blogging Guide for Making Money Blogging

This dofollow and KeywordLuv enabled blog is home of great articles on affiliate marketing, blogging, and Internet Marketing. Owner Andrew Rondeau is also creator of the Income Blogging Guide that I just started this week, which has so far proved to be just as valuable as I had suspected it would be in my review.

9. Entrepreneur Business Blog for Branding

Big Girl Branding has one of the best mission statements – To bring forth quality info to readers, who can then use said info and apply it to their own biz, branding, and marketing shenanigans. May contain info unsuitable for overly sensitive people. Dork label required. You can find a variety of posts on everything from business & marketing strategies, email marketing, and much more. Blogger Cori Padgett also wrote a great post here on self promotion without being a narcissist.

10. Direct Sales Marketing Coach Shares Marketing Strategies

This blog shares information about Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, blogging, and offline marketing, as well as runs contests often which can be entered by simply commenting! The latest winner got an signup for life under their affiliate ID for Aweber!

11. Home Based Business Resources

This is a great blog that covers a plethora of topics that are a must for those looking to make money from home, including affiliate marketing, blogging, making money online, and SEO. It also features a weekly roundup of great posts that everyone should enjoy.

12. Blogging Tips & Tricks for Better Blogging

We Blog Better offers bloggers a great guide to a better blog with lots of great posts on blogging tools & resources, monetization, writing, networking, social media, and much more, including a weekly recap of the top 10 must read posts for bloggers.

13. Simple Home Organization – Helping People Get Organized

The Simple Home Organizer blog covers topics such as cleaning, planning ahead, preparedness, recycling, saving money, spring cleaning, and clutter to help everyone become a home organization pro!

14. Great Tips on How to Promote Your Blog

Tycoon Blogger serves up a great line of posts to help monetize your blog and then promote it as well as reviews on products that will help you do both.

15. Small Business Ideas from the Social Media Virtual Assistant

This blog contains some highly informative posts for small businesses who are looking for some guidance in the world of online marketing. Recent posts on the benefits of Aweber and an alternative to Paypal highlight this site’s ability to get you just the information you need to make a decision on a product or service.

16. Guidance to Help You Make Money on the Internet

Does $41K from Amazon in one year or $2K from one blog post sound good to you? Then head over to this blog and learn some ways to make money online from someone who does it quite well. Also, don’t miss the best blogroll plugin that adds nofollow to your blogroll everywhere on your site but the homepage, making those links that much stronger.

17. Grow Your Online Business with GrowMap

Although this site is not an official sponsor, GrowMap has been a important part of the contest as part of the ComLuv network, writing entries about contestants as well as promoting bloggers who have entered and sponsors who make the contest possible. This site offers a lot of great content on business blogging and the benefits of CommentLuv and KeywordLuv for both bloggers and businesses.

More Great Blogging Sponsors

Not every blog on the list is CommentLuv enabled, although I would highly suggest it (if it works with their platforms). Here are more blogging sponsors of the contest.

• Social Implications – exploring the impact of social media.
• Scribnia – a blogging community where readers can review writers.
• SEO Writer – a professional SEO consultant’s blog on SEO and website marketing.
• Auto Monster Cars Blog – cool news on cars from Canada and around the world.
• Real estate blog – a very in-depth blog by Realtors offering Kennewick homes for sale.
• Zoomit – a social bookmarking just for Canada site with a blog on social bookmarking.
• Location Villa Costa Brava – offers a travel blog for visitors to Spain.

Find More CommentLuv Enabled Blogs

Looking for more CommentLuv enabled blogs? Try the dofollow commentluv blog list with over 150 blogs and the search engine on ComLuv site. You can also search your keywords and CommentLuv on Google to find even more posts.

Your CommentLuv Favorites

Do you visit any of these great sites or want to recommend another CommentLuv enabled blog to visit? Please mention it in the comments below! Also, don’t forget to participate in the blogging contest – entries are accepted until July 7th! Plus be sure to promote your favorites by sharing on Twitter and leaving comments.

Related Posts

1. Reasons to Love CommentLuv Blogs
2. Vacation Proofing Blogs and Social Networks
3. Branching Out and Gaining Focus with New Blogs
4. Does Size Really Matter?
5. Benefits of Blogging – Building a Community

This is a guest post by Benjamin Sappey, editor at InternProgram360.com and A2X Consulting, a website which help small business growth.

Finding relevant keywords for your website/blog and having the ability to analyze your competitors is a major key to success. The first step is to determine your subject matter. This will help you to understand and analyze your competitors as well as establish the direction of your content. These factors are essential in helping you improve your Google Rank!

Before starting your research, it is important to note that there is no “magical” process which assures you the top position in a search engine. Some factors in determining your rank can be strange and remember that companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo guard their secret algorithms in a secure place.

Step 1: The Idea

The idea is the first thing to consider. If you want to create a website or improve the rank of an existing one you should already have a subject matter in mind for your site.

Dogs? Football? Soccer? Olympics games? Fashion? Blogging? You know these words, but there is one problem with them – they are too common. The competition from many other websites are too well known and will beat out your Google rank. You will have to find some other, more targeted keywords related to your subject that has a lower level of competition.

Step 2: A List of Keywords

To find relevant keywords, start by writing every idea you have, every word or phrase you find about your subject. Search the web, seek ideas on Google, on social media sites, etc. Cast a wide net and aim for at least 25 ideas – there should be no limits. You may just need blogging inspiration. When you have determined your idea, you will need tools to generate thousands of keywords related to your subject.

How to Generate Keywords

Using Google Adwords Keywords Tool, enter one of your words (example: “blogging tips”).

Google Keywords Adwords Tool Search

Google will generate a long list of keywords related to your idea.

Google Keywords Adwords Tool Search Results

Do not waste time checking the results one by one as another software will filter the results for you later. Export your results into an excel spreadsheet and repeat the process with other keywords on your list. At the end you will probably have an extensive list of words and expressions. In your final list, some keywords won’t match your idea and others will generate a low number of daily searches. As these are not valuable, eliminate them.

Step 3: Analyze Your Keywords

To analyze our keywords, we will use Market Samurai, a powerful software which will help you determine what keywords are the most relevant in terms of traffic and competition.

Editor’s Note:

The link above is not an affiliate link, and the following examples are done with the free trial version of the software which gives you 15 days worth of access.

This post will not describe every detail of the software. It is covering just one strategy to decide your keywords, and there are so many ways to determine keywords. I suggest you watch the Market Samurai video tutorials, especially the ones for “Keyword research” and “SEO Competition” which have transcripts and screenshots right below the videos. These tutorials are really interesting and they will give you a global vision of SEO.

In Market Samurai, click on the section “Keyword Research.” Add every keyword you have (you can add thousands if you want). Click on “Add Keywords,” and then “Analyze Keywords.”

Market Samurai Keyword Research

Market Samurai will open a new window and give you the following information about your keywords, based on the options you selected.

Market Samurai Keyword Research Results

The two most important columns are SEOT (Traffic) and SEOC (Competition) (see the glossary for more details). SEOT gives you the maximum traffic generated for a related keyword if your website is at the top position in Google.

Use the checkbox at the top of the screen to select factors you want to apply. As an example, (SEOT: 80 and SEOC: 30000 or 50000). There is no perfect rule about how these numbers work. In order to understand how they work, try checking off different filters to get a sense of how the results vary. If this process is confusing, try asking for help on forums. Based on your personal experience, you will be able to determine what the best options are.

When you apply all filters, you should have a very low number of results. From one of them, select your keywords. To do that, click on the “key picture” on the left, it will open a new window in which you can generate new keywords.

If you decide to focus your analysis on the first results, now is the time to analyze your competition. To do that, click on the “key picture” – it will open a new window, then click “SEO Competition” and “Generate Results.”

Market Samurai will analyze the top 10 results on Google and show you a lot of indicators such as the Page Rank (PR), the number of Page BackLinks (BLP), etc. For a complete analysis, it is important to understand every indicator and you can find a description of each one on Market Samurai’s website.

Market Samurai SEO Competition

To resume, and if you want just a superficial or quick overview of your potential competition, focus on PR and BLP. The lower is the PR, the easier it will be for you to compete to a top position.

Additional Tools for Keyword Research

If you don’t succeed in finding valuable keywords, you can try to determine what your competitor’s keywords are by visiting websites such as Keyword Spy or Google Keyword Tool.

When you think you have a good keyword, you can use other tools to confirm your opinion, such as SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty (paid tool by SEOMoz). This will give you the following information about your chosen keywords.

SEOMoz Keyword Difficulty Tool Results

You can spend a lot of hours searching for a relevant keyword and you may discover the best one by accident. Do not focus only on the current tools you are using. Keep looking for the latest news and information about your subject. Is there a new concept? New trends? The latest model? While all of these technical tools will give you some valuable results based on existing researches, unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be) it can’t give you what people will search for tomorrow.

Your Keyword Research Process

How do you do keyword research when it comes to your main blog, blog posts, or article marketing? What tools do you use – do you like the ones mentioned above or prefer something else? What other ways can you think of to make your keyword research more valuable when it comes to getting better rankings in search engines?

Related Posts

1. Benefits of Blogging – Developing SEO & Internet Marketing Skills
2. Benefits of Blogging – Becoming an Authority
3. Blogging Writer’s Block
4. HootSuite for Blogging – Twitter Management for Bloggers
5. Benefits of Blogging – Enhance Learning & Strengthen Interests

This is a guest post by Aqeel Syed, blogger and Dahn Yoga enthusiast.

The idea of constantly sitting in front of computer has never appealed me. But it is a source of livelihood and because of that one reason I have agreed to put up with conditions that aren’t necessarily healthy for me. I believe that I’m not the only one to go through this on daily basis.

Have you ever felt that your work no longer appeals you? Or you found that what you dislike about your job seems to overshadow what you enjoy? You may be experiencing burnout and these are some of the common symptoms. What we must understand is that a job that entails sitting at a computer for hours may require increased effort to keep both our mind and body healthy.

Previously, Kikolani featured a post on living a healthy lifestyle. It was a great article in which a guest blogger discussed natural ways to improve health. I have also few tips to share that have helped me keep a decent body and mind regimen. Using these simple steps I’ve even noticed some improvement in my energy levels and I no longer feel as tired as I used to.

1. Reduce Backache by Changing Sitting Posture

There are standard body positions those have been proven to reduce pains and aches associated with poor postures. You may have been practicing bad postures for a long time. Even I was surprised when I first read about them. I had no clue that I was slowly feeding my body with bad habits. A habit that most of us might have is a caved in back while sitting.

Surprisingly this has much to do with the type of chair you use. The required chair needs to be able to hold your back in an upright position.

Invest in a chair that is appropriate for your height in the sense that it will leave your feet placed firmly on the ground. This will also mean that your hips and thighs are parallel to the floor and your wrists are at the same level as the keyboard. As humorous as this may seem, you may be the type of person who has naturally rounded shoulders and in the wake of trying to follow the concept that sitting up straight is the proper posture, you may actually end up throwing your spine out of alignment. This is because it is naturally not supposed to be that straight. So knowing your body type can also help you a great deal.

2. Adjust Your Monitor

Do you know that distance and height of your computer really matters? Surprisingly enough, I had to adjust the distance of my own monitor after finding out that it could be a possible cause of bad posture. This may happen when you sometimes find that you are bending a lot to see the screen better.

3. Place Things That You Need Nearby

Have you ever found yourself always twisting around and reaching for items that you need but they seem to be far? I know that has happened to me countless times but I’m sure you too didn’t know as well that this constant twisting actually puts strain on our backs. This is because we suddenly lunge to get to these items that we need. Putting these items nearby has saved me a lot of time and has lessened the amount of strain I place on my back. I’m sure it would be easier for you too to have the things you know you will need during the time you are working.

This also includes keeping the phone within reach. Some of us cannot operate without a phone so it would be wise having one nearby. For those of us who own built in telephones we could invest in extending our power cords instead. It might cost us a little but at the end of it all we would be comparing an extension cord to our medical bills, and I’m sure the choice would be the former.

4. Move Around A Lot

Sitting in front of a screen for a long time isn’t easy and our bodies can get too used to this position and that is why after a day’s work, our bodies feel too stiff. We feel like moving a joint or a muscle takes longer than usual and slight pain is involved. Do not sit for long time continuously. Take break after regular intervals. Have a little walk, relax your tensed muscles a bit and then get back to work.

5. Occasional Massages or Acupuncture

At this time it would be wise to invest in massages or even acupuncture. It would be a farce for me to say that I’ve ever tried acupuncture and to be honest, the thought of needles being stuck into various parts of my body literally scares me but I’m sure there are some of you who are brave enough to try it or perhaps have done so. If you have, I’m sure you can attest to its wonderful benefits as so many others have.

On the other hand if you are like me and you aren’t too keen to invest in needles, a simple massage will work wonders for your back. It will relieve you of the tension your muscles have and allow for free energy to flow hence you will leave the place feeling highly rejuvenated and this is needed because of the amount of time spent before the computer.

6. Invest in a Computer That Has a Touchpad

While some of us would like to remain traditional and continue using our mouse, research has proven that continual use of a mouse can cause back pain. This is due to the fact that we keep reaching for the mouse and moving it around.

Although we might not know this, various muscles are used when we move our hand on the mouse including those of our backs. So when we constantly put them to work by endlessly clicking and dragging of the mouse we are simply putting ourselves up for aches. This can all be avoided if you would invest in a keyboard that has a touchpad as this will drastically reduce your hand movements.

7. Yoga Pose Suggestions for Bloggers

I’m a yoga enthusiast so let me share one final tip with you (also on Kristi’s request). You can practice yoga sitting at your desk. A series of simple yoga positions can help you stretch wrists and shoulders.

Start with natural posture, sit at edge of chair. Lift your ribs, and roll your shoulders back to open the chest. Feel a slight arch to your low back. Your feet placed at hip distance to each other, your heels should sit right underneath your knees. Inhale and exhale evenly for five counts each. Repeat as many times as you’d like all the time concentrating at relaxing your shoulders.

Wrists play an important role while blogging/working online. Regular wrist stretches can prevent musculoskeletal disorders. To stretch wrists, make fists of your hands and place them on your desk with thumbs up. Slowly stretch your fists to the right and then to left, without moving your lower arm. Support your lower arm on desk.

After this lift your arm up and make slow circles with your wrist, keeping your hands closed as fists. Circle your hands in both directions. After doing this, release your fingers and place them on the edge of your desk. Press your fingers to desk, try this first with fingers together and then with fingers spread. This will release stress in your wrists and fingers.

Don’t sacrifice your health for successful blogging. Enjoy healthy successful blogging!

Your Healthy Tips

What things do you do to make sure you stay healthy while working in your home or professional office environment, blogging or otherwise?

Related Posts

1. Living a Healthy Lifestyle
2. 10 Habits of Effective Bloggers
3. Make Blogging Work for Business
4. 6 Qualities of Successful Bloggers
5. 5 Tactics Bloggers Should Borrow from Traditional PR

Lately, I have been reading more and more advice about how bloggers and article writers should be writing shorter, more concise text in order to make it more attractive to readers. I’m sure that a lot of this will eventually boil down to why you write and read articles, but first, let’s start with some basics about article length.

Pros and Cons of Length Variety

From informational value to bookmarking to readability to comments, here are some of the pros and cons of posts at different lengths.

Pros of Short Posts

• Short posts are easier to read, so visitors have more time to continue to additional posts on a site.
• Short posts are faster to write, giving the author the opportunity to write more posts for their own site or others.
• Short posts usually leave a little to the imagination, which can lead to comments with questions for the author.

Cons of Short Posts

• Short posts usually lack a lot of information, making them not live up to their headline.
• Short posts are usually very simplistic in terms of giving concepts and ideas, but not necessarily applicable detailed information.
• Short posts are so easy to write, so they can be outsourced to less than qualified writers (or put through bad spinning software) leading to lower quality articles.

Pros of Long Posts

• Long posts typically fulfill their headline – if it is a how to post, for example, you should be able to follow the steps and accomplish the objective.
• Long posts get a lot more bookmarks because people save them for future reference (or to finish reading later).
• Long posts demonstrate the in-depth knowledge and expertise of the author.

Cons of Long Posts

• Long posts take a while to write and format in order to break up the text, leaving the author with less time to write more in volume.
• Long posts may not get as many comments because they do not leave openings for questions, as they answer everything someone may want to ask.
• Long posts may turn off readers who are looking for a “quick fix” of information in smaller, easier to digest bites.

Preference, Need, and Goals

Whether you like short or long posts really depends on your preference and your need. If you are in a hurry and are only looking for posts that get your brain going in the right direction, then short posts are what you are seeking. If you have some time and want to learn how to do something, then long posts are the ones that will fulfill your needs.

For bloggers, you have to evaluate your audience, as well as your goals. Do your readers come to your blog for concepts and theories or how to’s and advice? Do you want lots of comments, bookmarks, and social shares?

The best route would be to try a little of both short and long posts to see what your readers respond to – if the results are what you are looking for in terms of getting more subscribers and reactions to your post, then stick with that length. If not, try changing your amount of content to see what happens.

Successful Examples of Lengthy Posts

My preference, in case anyone hasn’t noticed from reading my blog or my guest posts on others sites, is for the longer posts. I can’t help it – I feel like I’m not fulfilling my duty as a blogger if I do not cover a subject thoroughly.

A recent example of lengthy writing is my post on boosting article marketing results with CommentLuv for the Famous Bloggers + Comluv blogging contest. The post itself is over 1,200 words, which is what I would consider a long one.

Not only that, but I went to the extent of making sure each of the networks (HubPages, Squidoo, Bukisa, EzineArticles, and GoArticles) was covered in detail by supplying a specific supplemental guide for and on each network as well (each linked in the main guide) which range around the over 1,500 word count. Not that I wrote 5 separate 1,500 word articles, but in the supplements case, each one is modified to fit with the specific network. Ezine, Bukisa, and GoArticles are just text whereas HubPages and Squidoo include photos and video.

While it sounds excessive, I can almost guarantee that if you visit those articles, you will know, by the end of reading them, not only why you want to implement this strategy, but exactly how to do it. The main guide has generated plenty of tweets, comments, and a rating of 7.0 on Postrank.

If that doesn’t work convince you, just consider the success of Social Media Examiner posts. They require a minimum of 1,000 words, and some of their least popular posts get 300+ tweets. My first post on their site on social media crisis management received almost 800 tweets, which was phenomenal.

Your Preference

As a blog reader, what do you prefer in terms of post length? Do you like articles to be simple and concise, or lengthy and detailed? As a blogger, which do you prefer writing, or feel that your readers like better? Please add in your vote, and then discuss your reasoning in the comments.

Related Posts

1. Is Closing Blog Comments a Good Idea?
2. Top 10 Things That Can Hurt Your Blog
3. On Writing for the Web
4. The Pros and Cons a Home Based Blogging Business
5. Blogging Writer’s Block

This guest post is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, an online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab a free copy of the Big Press Release Book – Press Releases for Every Occasion and Industry.

Bloggers have been hailed as “citizen journalists” and powerful influencers for years. But bloggers have another, less frequently discussed role – they’re also citizen PR experts. Bloggers who intend to stand out need to manage their brand, interface with readers, snag media exposure wherever possible, and craft compelling messaging.

If you’re interested in taking your blog to the next level, consider these lessons from the public relations world.

1. Network, Network, Network

Networking is a big deal in the PR world. Clients who pay through the nose to work with a big PR firm are paying as much for the firm’s contacts as for its employees’ technical skill.

As a blogger, you’re probably practicing DIY PR, which makes networking even more critical. You might not be able to afford ad space for your blog, but you can definitely afford to call a friend, write a thank-you note, ask a pal about guest posting, or attend a social event. Take time to maintain existing relationships and build new ones.

2. Plan Ahead – Way Ahead

Most bloggers respond to current events as they happen. PR pros also have to respond to news events rapidly, but they also take time to plan for what’s coming next. A Christmas pitch might well be perfected by July, leaving plenty of time to work on placing a client’s product in gift guides and other holiday-related editorials.

Top bloggers plan ahead without sacrificing the spontaneity that makes blogging unique. If there’s a big event coming up in your niche in the next few months, you should already know what angle your coverage will take and how you’ll publicize your posts. You should also be reaching out to other bloggers who plan to cover the same story.

If you want to interview anyone who is speaking/competing/doing something else important at the big event, get in touch with them (or their PR people) well ahead of time. Tie this in to your blog marketing plan to keep yourself on track and focused on goals.

3. The Art of the Press Release

As founder and president of eReleases, I’ve seen press releases on just about every subject imaginable. There’s no PR tactic more iconic or more broadly applicable than the press release. If there are a handful of people interested in a subject, there’s a reporter somewhere covering it who can be reached with a press release.

A great press release can help you promote your blog. If you’ve also got truly great content and a perspective found nowhere else, media coverage might help you turn a moderately successful blog into one that pays your bills and more.

Take the time to craft your blog’s press release carefully and distribute it effectively. Don’t issue a press release just because your blog exists; wait until you have something newsworthy to say. Do something innovative and exciting through your blog. Then craft a press release around that news.

4. The Talk Show Circuit

When celebrities have something to promote or want to respond to criticism, they suddenly pop up on every talk show in town. You’ll also see them in weekly magazines and hear them on morning radio shows.

You can use the same classic PR tactic to draw attention to your blog. Use HARO to locate reporters seeking sources in your niche.

Consider reaching out to local radio shows and offering yourself as a guest, especially if you’re a genuine expert who blogs about a subject which the show’s hosts frequently discuss. If you’re friendly with a group of bloggers whose blogs are similar to your own, you could turn the tables and ask to interview them on your blog.

Editor’s Note:

Interview series usually go over very well, especially if you can get them on video and promote them on YouTube.

You’ll create interesting content and your interviewees will help to promote the posts featuring them.

5. Get an Angle on the News

PR pros love using current events to their clients’ advantage. When Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, separated recently, newswires were deluged with releases relating to divorce. Would you be as interested in a scientific study about how divorce spreads through social networks if the story weren’t tied in to news about the Gores’ separation and that of their daughter?

Great bloggers might be even better than PR pros at using news to promote their expertise. Even the slickest PR firm has to give journalists a little lead time. As a blogger, you can publish a story immediately, just as interest in related news is peaking. Don’t just comment on every news story that makes waves. Make sure you have unique expertise that allows you to add something to the story.

Your Thoughts on PR and Blogging

Do you implement any of the above PR strategies or others for your blog? Do you utilize press releases for things such as changes on your site, contests, and other blogging news? Please let me know in the comments below how these techniques have benefited your blog.

Related Posts

1. 10 Habits of Effective Bloggers
2. 6 Qualities of Successful Bloggers
3. Improve Your Work Habits – Healthy Living Tips For Bloggers
4. HootSuite for Blogging – Twitter Management for Bloggers
5. Simple On-Page Tag Optimization for Bloggers