The Promotion of Blogging 101

I know that as bloggers we are more than a little familiar with the business of blogging, both the writing and the promoting (or at least we should be) and I also know of the amazing popularity of blogs in the last couple of years. CNN even has a piece they add to their news shows called, "What the Bloggers Are Saying" particularly when their is something major going on in the world.

So you'd think that would mean that the whole world knows what a blog is, but....it seems they really don't. I have discovered that a good many people really have no understanding of what a blog is, how it works, or what kinds of things they might find on a blog. Sometimes I think that some folks are reading them and really don't recognize them for what they are, figuring they are just another website.

So...that said, if blogs are to become an important medium in the world, we need to get the message out every chance we have, to educate people about your blog, what it is, what it's about and what they can expect from it, let them in on the secret.

Now I'm not suggesting that you convince all your friends to start blogging. What I am suggesting is that you educate your friends about blogging, and try to develop an interest in reading blogs, yours and others.

This is really blog promotion, only on a little larger scale than just promoting yours. I am talking about promoting the art of blogging. Blogging is popular now, and some would say it's at it's peak, or past it's peak, but I disagree. As a medium, blogs are just getting off the ground, but as more and more join the fray, and others drop out, the medium gets better. Better writing, better photography, and better advertisement options to pay us for our work.

Do what you can to promote blogs, tell your friends about them, put a bumper sticker on your car, hand out business cards that identify you as a blogger, a bit about your blog and the address of course. These are ways to find traffic for your blog and get the word blogging into the heads of the masses who may not be particularly internet savy. Just think about the number of people who read newspaper columns with a passion every day, not wanting to miss one word written by their favorite columnist. These are the same types of folks who, once hooked, will read your blog with amazing frequency, not wanting to miss one word out of your fingers....think about it.....

Let's get the word out that blogs are informative, enlightening, thought provoking and entertaining and not just for geeks and other bloggers. Never miss an opportunity to pass along something from a blog, or if you hear someone talking about something you either read or wrote in your own blog, step in and say, something like, "that's interesting, I read a an article about that very thing this morning on the internet, at www.insert the blog name .com you should read what the writer said about...." Now that is blog promotion...one person at a time....

Wow...talk about a rant tonight....