17 Ways to Get Readers to Your Blog - Eyeballs are Everything!!

It can be discouraging to put your heart and soul into starting a blog with shiny new content, only to find that it has been viewed by three people and two of them are you! There are many avenues to generating traffic to your blog. Here are a few for you to start.

1. Use Twitter to announce your blog post. You can schedule a few tweets about it, spacing them out over a couple of days. www.hootsuite.com is a great utility to do that.
2. Post your blog entries on your Facebook page - both personal page and business page. You can schedule automatic postings to both Twitter and Facebook with Twitterfeed.
3. Find blog or online business directories for your industry and join. Most have basic listings that are free.
4. Join social and professional networking sites relative to your industry. They will always provide opportunities for you to post your blog.
5. Join blog rings - do a search on Google and see how they work.
6. Put your blog URL in your email signature to everyone.
7. Start a business/store e-newsletter and always add your blog.
8. Join forums specific to your industry to network with others and always put your blog URL in your signature and profiles.
9. Every place that you join has a profile – photo sites, social networking, professional networking, directories, etc. Don't forget your blog URL.
10. Give-away something small of value on your blog and use those who leave comments as your drawing base - promote this give-away on your forums, boards, and e-newsletter.
11. If you purchase online advertising, be sure to add your blog URL.
12. Volunteer for industry calls for a variety of things, such as designing a page for a calendar, give-aways, or co-promotions. Always include your blog URL.
13. Your blog URL should always be on your business cards.
14. Do you have business brochures? Add your blog URL.
15. Promote your blog on your own web site.
16. Ask other web site owners that you know to post your blog on their web site and you do the same for theirs.
17. If you qualify, take advantage of blog owners who put out calls for features. Often blog owners will ask for interested parties in forums and on boards.

This is not an exhaustive list but is a list of things you can do NOW. Remember, a journey of 1000 miles begins with one step. Make this your first step to your online future!