We’re all bloggers because it’s something we enjoy doing (hopefully). I enjoy writing and connecting with my readers and sharing my thoughts, passions and experiences. Making your blog a fun “place” to be is a great marketing tool.

There are several ways to make your blog a happening place. First is to use your blog design as a way to have fun. If you’re using one of the free templates from one of the blog hosts, they are fantastic, but there are other designs that you can take advantage of.

My friend Stephanie of Green Kiddos, began blogging with a canned template but gained a strong following early on and decided to “pimp” her blog. She found a WAHM who was doing blog designs for an extremely reasonable price and got her blog done. The theme of her blog is green living and her design matches that theme. You can also find scrapbooking websites that allow you to do the design work on your own….many of them for free! Scrapblog is one of these sites that has many, many choices of fun designs to choose from.

Another way to make sure your blog is the place to be is to host contests. This doesn’t have to cost a lot of money (or any). Try to find a product or service that you can get donated. You may have to write several emails or make a few phone calls to various companies and individuals before you find someone willing to sponsor your giveaway, but it can happen with some persuasion.

Make sure you know the stats of your blog and be prepared to share with whomever you’re working with! When hosting a contest, run the contest for approximately 2 weeks and give readers an extra entry if they blog about your contest on their blog and link back to you. You might gain new readers this way, too! Contests are fun! People love to win (or have a chance to win) things!

One last way to make your blog a fun place, is to host polls on your site. The author of one of the blogs I follow, Teacher Turned Mommy, was recently having her second baby. She knew the baby was a boy and her and her husband had chosen three names that they liked, but they were super undecided.

She posted about this and didn’t promise to choose the name that her readers voted for, but shared all three and allowed them to vote. She got an amazing response and ended up choosing the name the reader’s chose (and the one I voted for!). Give your readers input on things and your blog will be a fun place!

So, you’ve got your blog, you’re posting daily, but you’re still not getting very many readers.  You’re posting meaningful comments on other people’s blogs and you’re searching for other blogs to be a guest blogger on.

Want to do more?  You’re in luck!  You can very easily start a “blogroll” on your site.  A blogroll is simply  a list of blogs that is most commonly featured on the sidebar of a blog.  I have one on Babywearing Buzz and when I find a blog I like, I add to it.  It’s a very simple idea, really.

How can this help you reach more readers?  When you add a blog to your blogroll, it’s usually (in the blog world) common courtesy for that person to link back to you and add your blog to their blogroll.  This will give you a link and help you with search engine optimization.  More importantly, it will give you organic traffic and help get your blog more name recognition and more exposure.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been reading someone’s blog and have clicked through interesting sounding blogs in their blogroll.  That is how I’ve found some of the blogs that I follow.  When you decide to add a blog to your blogroll, don’t do it because you think you’ll get them to link back to you.  Do it because you genuinely believe they have a good blog and you like reading it.  If you like reading it, chances are, others will, too.

When creating a blogroll, you should link to blogs that are similar to yours in topic or style.  Your readers come to your blog to read what you write about.  They find that subject interesting.  They are probably looking for similar things to read about…and that is where your blogroll comes in.  If you don’t already have one, adding a blogroll can give your readers something fresh and new to see and use on your blog.

When I first began my blog, I didn’t know much at all.  I began my blog as a way to promote my business and to keep family updated on our goings on.  I didn’t ever really begin reading blogs belonging to other people…and it showed.  I didn’t have many visitors to my blog…at all.  If and when I did get visitors, they only stayed for a few seconds, according to my statistics.  I felt that if I did get a visitor, it was by mistake because they left so quickly!

One day, someone found my blog and left me a comment.  Yeah!  You’ve got to love comments, right?  So, I was naturally curious about her and checked out her blog, New Mommy Rant.  I loved it and was immediately hooked.  I enjoyed reading about her experiences as a new mom with a daughter and comparing them with my own.  I began reading her blog daily and leaving her comments as well.  Other people that read her blog began to see my comments and I guess curiosity got the best of them as well and some of them made their way over to my blog as well.

As time passed, I began subscribing and reading more and more blogs daily and I always made sure to leave comments.  If you don’t leave a comment, how can someone reciprocate the visit.

When you leave comments on other bloggers blogs, you are not only “inviting” them to your blog, you’re inviting all their readers to visit your blog as well.  This number grows exponentially, each time you leave a comment.  You gain an immeasurable amount of exposure simply by leaving comments on other people’s blogs.

When leaving comments on blog posts, do not leave comments like, “Wow!” or “Fun!”  These comments are not thought provoking and do not add value to the blog.  Put some thought into the comments you are leaving and leave comments that will get readers thinking, “I thought I was the only person who felt like a kill joy when disciplining my kids.  Now, I don’t feel so alone!” “I tried this recipe once before and it seemed a little too salty to me.”  Follow these guidelines and you may just gain subscribers or steady readers.  When leaving comments remember that not only the author will be reading them.  Readers of the blog will also have access to them as well.

Next in the series: Becoming a Guest Blogger- Marketing Your Blog Part 3