Once you've got one or more posts written and published you will want some visitors to come to your blog to see what you wrote. Remember, people have to know your blog exists first before you can expect
anyone to read it. If you have family and friends you can tell, that's a great place to start! Most likely you will want to start getting other people to read your blog too.

Commenting

An effective and easy way to let other people know about your blog is to leave comments on other people's blogs. On most blogs when you leave a comment to a post there is a place on the form to leave a URL
for your blog.

You most likely already have a list of favorite blogs that you read – those would be a good place to start. Also, if you can find other blogs about the same or a related topic to yours those can be a great choice. Most bloggers check to see who is leaving comments on their blogs and may very well visit yours. Bloggers who are really popular and have hundreds of people leaving comments are less likely to follow the link to your blog. It's nothing personal; they just don't have the time. People who read those blogs and will see your comment may also be interested in reading your blog.

Remember though – make sure the comment you leave is relevant to the post you are leaving it at. The better the quality of your comment, the more it will help you. Become part of the blog's community. And
don't just leave a short meaningless comment with a link to your blog – that will just be seen as spam.

BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog

Social networking sites like BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog can also be helpful.  Both of these sites can be used to connect with other bloggers, make friends and find more readers.

With BlogCatalog you first open an account and then submit your blog. Blogs have to be reviewed by someone who works there before they are listed. They are usually reviewed within 24-48 hours. Don't get worried about whether or not you will get approved, if your blog has real content you shouldn't have a problem.

One of mine didn't get approved the first time – they said it didn't have enough content yet. I waited a few weeks and then submitted it again and didn't have any problem. You will also want to add a picture to your profile page at BlogCatalog and a short bio about yourself. You can also add friends, join groups and neighborhoods and other things typical of social networking sites.

On MyBlogLog you can do many similar things – create an account, add a picture and bio, add friends, join communities, etc. It also provides some basis statistics for free, more are available for a fee.

Both sites provide a widget for you to place on your blog. A widget is a small piece of code that in this case can display recent visitors to your site (MyBlogLog also offers some other widgets). This can be very helpful especially when you are just starting out with your blog. You can look at your blog's widgets and see other BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog members who recently visited. You can then visit their profile pages, add them as friends, visit their blog, etc. It's a great way to make new friends and get more readers for your blog too!

In Summary

So there you have it – all the basic things you need to know to get you started with a blog: Part 1 Choosing a Topic, Part 2 Hosting, Part3 Installing and Using
WordPress and Part 4 Let the World Know. In future posts I'll discuss some of these topics in more depth and share resources to help you create an effective and successful blog!