One of the most frequent questions I see about sites is how to effectively promote them. With so many websites and blogs out there, how can you get people to follow a link to yours?

There's a fairly simple way. Make a list of ten fairly popular blogs whose readers you believe would also enjoy and (hopefully) benefit from reading your website's blog. One way to determine the popularity of a blog is to check the comments. If there are plenty of comments, you're virtually guaranteed the blog is fairly popular. The reverse is not necessarily true, but we won't worry about that for now.

Next, you need to start reading these blogs on a daily basis. You'll watch for two possible opportunities.

The first is the most frequent. Leave comments on their blog when you can think of something to say that would contribute to the discussion. If you don't have anything to say that would make a nice contribution of information, don't bother. If you do, make sure you plug your blog. This one is easy to do, and can happen fairly often.

The second is somewhat rarer. Watch for a blog entry that talks about something you have personal experience with. When you find one, you have a great opportunity. Write a blog entry on the same topic, both talking about your personal experience and mentioning/linking to the other person's blog post. Go over the blog entry again and again, fine-tuning it even more than you normally would. Finally, email the person who writes that blog and let them know you have personal experience in that area. Send them a link to your blog entry.

Now you sit back and wait. There's a good chance they'll mention your blog entry on their site. But if not, don't fret. Keep it up, and eventually the popular blogs will start linking to you. Just take extra care with those particular blog entries, making sure they're the best you have to offer.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_Priebe