Littlemummy.com

Thanks to Emily of Babyrambles for this post. Emily’s a finalist in the MADs for Best Baby Blogger.

How do you get your blog noticed in the ever-crowded blogosphere? I joined British Mummy Bloggers last summer, and since then almost 1,000 more people have joined. I?ve cleverly worked out this means there are 1,000 more blogs in the parenting blogosphere.

There?s no doubt that finding readers for your blog was easier a year ago. And if your blog was good, you hardly needed to promote it at all. Things have changed a bit now. You can write some amazing, entertaining posts which everyone wants to read, but they have to find your blog first.

Self-promotion doesn?t come naturally to everyone, it?s easy to worry you?ll sound big-headed banging on about your blog all the time. But if you want to grow your blog?s readership then it?s fairly essential. And it can be done with subtlety.

Listed below are some ideas on how to promote your blog. There?s quite a lot you can do. If this is all new to you, then don?t feel overwhelmed. Just decide on a couple of things to try and see how you get on. Doing all these things all the time could be a full-time job!

1. Commenting on other blogs is a great way of sharing your thoughts and directing people to your blog. It also helps you get involved with the blogging community. After a while people will visit your blog in return and hopefully they?ll become regular visitors.

2. Twitter is a good place to promote your blog: tweet new posts and tweet people to thank them for their comments on your posts. Be careful how you use twitter though, if you only paste links to your blog then people will become disinterested. Chat with other bloggers on twitter and that will help build your presence in the blogging community.

3. Set up a Facebook page for your blog and add new posts to it. People will hopefully stumble across your posts in their Facebook timelines and have a read. Facebook has a facility called Networked Blogs which it?s also worth adding your blog to and people can follow it there.

4. Add your blog posts to sites such as British Mummy Bloggers and parenting sites like Mumsnet, Gurgle and MumsLikeYou. If people like what they?re reading they?ll come and visit your blog. Registering your blog with sites such as Blog Catalog, StumpleUpon, Blog Frog http://theblogfrog.com, Fuel My Blog http://www.fuelmyblog.com, British Blogs, Technorati and Wikio (to name a few) could also grow your readership.

5. If your blog has a theme to it such as cookery or crafts then look for similar blogs and websites and introduce yourself. You can make arrangements such as a link swap or manage to get someone else to write about your blog. Take part in blogging carnivals and guest posts and that will introduce new readers to your blog too. The Writing Workshop and The Gallery are good to get involved in.

6. You can also use a technique called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which can help your blog posts get returned high up in searches people do on Google, etc. To do this repeat a few choice words or phrases regularly in your posts. For example, if a theme to your blog is home education then get this phrase, and similar ones, in your posts as often as you can.

7. Spreading some blogging love is helpful, include links to other blogs in your posts and before long people will return the favour. Maybe blog about posts which have inspired you or made you laugh. Some bloggers like to write a post once a week about other blogs they?ve enjoyed.