Promote your blog: technique 2

From July 1- August 1 I am participating in Blogging Idol. A competition set up by Daniel Scocco that pits bloggers against each other to see who can gain the most subscribers. Here are some of the techniques I will be employing to get me ahead of the pack.

This article was preliminarily subtitled “Comment like mad”, and this is because the most sympathetic audience you will find is your fellow blogging community. Utilise them.
Just like when you are promoting any other website outside links are invaluable for driving new traffic. This is because you will get traffic directly from people clicking on this link, and because search engines will pick them up and elevate you in the search rankings. Rather considerately standard comment forms on blogs have a field for you to enter your web address, so you can generate a natural link to your own blog simply by commenting on others.

Curiosity killed the cat, and may gain you some traffic

We as people are naturally self-interested and also naturally curious. If you comment on someone else’s blog then you will probably prompt the owner to discover who you are. And if you’re lucky they may even subscribe to your feed.
Another method is to write something controversial, this will probably encourage further discussion from other readers and may take on a life of it’s own. However remember there is a fine line between being controversial and being obnoxious. Be sure to tread it carefully.

Find like-minded people

If you are going to comment, try to find blogs which cover similar subjects to your own. This way your comments can add to the discussion, rather than the, always appreciated, but somewhat banal, “nice post”.
So, if this post has been of any help to you, please add a comment. Banal comments are accepted!

References

• The proof is in the pudding: Darren Rowse with the help of some site analytic software, and a screencast, demonstrates the power of comments to drive traffic
• Some great tips from LifeHacker to take note of when commenting on other people' blogs
• ProBlogger lists some techniques for how to encourage commenting on your own blog
• University kid covers this topic thoroughly in his post, "Make Money Online Blog Commenting Part 2"