Building, launching and posting to your blog is not enough. You need to get your blog some exposure. You need to get your blog noticed. There are a number of way to do this. Some of them work better than others. However, you should not overlook any of them. I am going to list the ones I use the most, there are others. This list is not exhaustive and I welcome all of you to add the ones you are using in the comments to this post.

• Read and Comment on other blogs in your niche. Remember the conversation we keep talking about. You should engage in the conversation being offered on other blogs in your niche. Read those blogs to see what is being talked about there and than comment on at least 3 different blogs per day. But, when you do leave a comment, leave a comment that adds something to the conversation. Engage the blogger and the other commenters in the conversation. Why should you do this? Because on almost every blogging platform, when you leave a blog you also leave a link to your own blog. I know when I see someone has left a comment on one of my blogs and there is a link to their blog, I will visit it. I may like what I see and will continue to visit and/or subscribe to the blog. Once you start to engage in these conversations you will start to build a relationship with these other bloggers. Posting, conversation and relationships is what is so wonderful about using social networking or social media like blogging to promote and market your business or service firm.
• Link to other blogs in your blog post. If it fits with the post you are writing, you should include quotes to other blog post in your post. And when you do, link out to the blog and the post you are quoting. When someone links to my blog post, I always go and visit the post and the blog to see what their post is about and to see what the blog is about. And if I like it, chances are I am going to keep reading it and eventually link to them too. In addition to this, I will leave a comment on that blog and join in the conversation taking place on the post which linked to me. By linking out you get noticed and you get exposure. And it doesn’t hurt your SEO either.
• Guest post on other blogs in your niche. Most bloggers welcome guest bloggers. A guest blogger relieves them from having to think of a post topic and from posting. I have done guest post and I have welcomed guest bloggers myself. Guest posting on other blogs exposes you to a new set of readers. You have the opportunity to show your “stuff” to a whole new audience most of the time. When you do guest blog, give them your best stuff. Write some of your best stuff for the guest post and you will get exposed. Usually when you do a guest post, the blogger you are posting for will include a very brief “about you” sentence or two and a link to your own blog. And if you have the opportunity to guest post on a blog that gets more traffic than you do, even the better. However, don’t strive to only guest post on the “A-listers”. Building a relationship with blogs which have similar stats as your own can provide you the opportunity to grow an audience together.
• Join forums and email listservs in your niche. Follow the conversations taking place on forums and listservs and participate in the conversations. Provide help, hints and tips and you will get noticed. And since most forums allow you to put at least one URL in your signature, chances are your blog will get noticed too. And when you participate in an email listserv, make sure you have a short email signature with at least your name and URL in it. You will get noticed and you will get visitors to your blog. But keep one thing in mind. Just as you should do when you comment on other blogs, you should only comment on a forum or listserv when you have something relevant to add to the conversation.
• Use social networking tools like twitter and post your new blog post in twitter with a link to the post. But don’t just do that. Twitter is one of the best social networking tools for joining in on conversations. It gives you the opportunity to really interact with other “thought leaders” in your niche and other areas of interest. By participating in the conversations you will get noticed and your blog will get noticed too. Don’t overlook the usefulness of a tool like twitter.

These are only a few of the methods you can use to get your blog exposure and in turn visitors and readers. And that is why it is called “Part 1″. Leave your comments on other methods you might use and we will do “Part 2″ with your suggestions and more that I have too. We have not even touched on those things you can do offline to promote your blog and get it exposure.