by Susan Fenn

Created on: October 21, 2009   Last Updated: October 22, 2009

Blogging is a promotional tool used by many professionals and non-professionals. Those that work the blogging system know that it takes more than a What did I do last summer blog entry to attract and keep readers.

The more readers you have, the more popular your blog. The more popular your blog is the higher potential income available. Before your blogging can make you money you have to make your blog known.

The first step of blogging happens before you find a site to host your blog. It's before you start researching, and pounding on the keys, reaching for the depths of greatness. The first step is making a game plan. With blogging, you need to find a topic, and stick to it. For example, if you're an expert on shingles, then blog about shingles. Don't blog about shingles one day, then your best friend's best man speech the next.

When people are performing searches on shingles (a how to blog would be great!), you want the search engine to see your blog as a valuable source of information. For writers who blog about writing, they need to have every blog refer to writing. Not writing one day and how much it sucks not having an agent the next.

The second step, decide how frequently you're going to blog. If you're too busy for everyday blogging; how about once a week or once a month? Even when you don't have readers, you need to blog consistently. If you don't, when readers start to appear, they won't stay around for long. Bloggers and their readers like consistency. Take magazines for example, if you had a 12 month subscription for a magazine, and one month they sent out two volumes and the next two months they didn't send out one at all, are you going to re-subscribe?

To help boost interest in your blogs, use other social networking sites. If you're on Facebook, post a link to your blog with your updates. If you're on Twitter, tweet a link to your blog with a mini intro. If you made your Myspace professional, you could even use their built in blog service. The point is, you are your best advertiser, don't wait on the search engines to pull you to the top.

When your following grows ensure that you are responding to your reader's comments. Out of anyone who reads and comments on your blog, you should comment the most. It shows to your reader that you care about their opinion and that you appreciate the time they've spent reading your blogging.

Still, the most important aspect of the art of blogging is patience. When you first start, don't expect to have a following like Miss Snark (http://misssnark.blogspot.com/). You can't control who reads your blogs, you can only control the content you post and your comments to them.

Looking for places to blog? Try these: www.blogger.com, www.thoughts.com, www.blogsite.com, www.livejournal.com

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