New Media Initiatives

• Join groups & mailing lists, drop your URL in responses

The easiest and most no-pressure way to get more readers on your site is to leave comments on other blogs. Unless a blog is very high traffic, most blog owners (and other readers!) sift through comments. If you've left a useful comment with your URL, the blog owner might check out your site. Intelligent comments on another blog with your URL left is a guaranteed way to generate more traffic. You can't blog in a vacuum.

Other Suggestions that might work

• Answer questions at Yahoo Answers, making sure to leave your URL in the answers
• Make and share videos and photos (Flickr and YouTube)
• Join groups & mailing lists.

• Make sure Technorati and ping services are working

Topical Blogs\\

Leave Comments

Asking for a link

I've been reading your blog for a while, especially enjoy the posts on nnnn-topic-nnn. Your post on nnnn-thing gave me great info for our nnnn-project. I've been writing about a similar thing over here on my blog: http://blog.mymuseum.com/. Thought you might like to check it out or maybe shoot me a link in the future.

• Make sure Technorati is tracking it
• Make sure

Use technorati or google blog search to look for blogs with topic that align with your or are tangental.

Leave Comments

The easiest and most no-pressure way to get more readers on your site is to leave comments on other blogs. Unless a blog is very high traffic, most blog owners (and other readers!) sift through comments. If you've left a useful comment with your URL, the blog owner might check out your site.

Asking for a link

A much more direct way of getting a link is to email the author of a blog you're targeting and ask for a link. Some suggestions for asking for a link:

• Keep it short, Be direct
• Flattery is OK to a point
• Give your recipient a reason why they should send you a link or check out your site
• Include a link or two they could use
• Be personal, blogs are often personal

Here's a short example of how a such an email could be composed.

 
Hi John,

I've been reading your blog for a while, especially enjoy the posts on nnnn-topic-nnn. Your post on nnnn-thing gave me great info for our nnnn-project. I've been writing about a similar thing over here on my blog: http://blog.mymuseum.com/. Thought you might like to check it out or maybe shoot me a link in the future.

Regards,
-Me

Many authors appreciate suggestions for posts or topics, since it can be time consuming and difficult to generate new content.

Local Blogs\\

Low Hanging Fruit

One easy source to get linked from is other online media that you control or can edit. Here's a short list of other places on the web that are easy sources of links:

• Wikipedia entry for your Institution
• Flickr Page for your institution
• Myspace/Facebook pages
• Other pages on your institutional site
• Submit your blog to DMOZ

Links from other Blogs

One of the best places to get incoming links from are other blogs with readers similar to those you desire for your blog. If content on your blog can get featured or linked on somone else's blog, you will see some crossover in readership. If you want to get incoming links from other blogs, you have to know blogs that you want links from.

Read a lot of blogs
The more blogs you currently read, the more informed you will be about what other blogs are writing about and what topics people find interesting. When you know the subjects another blog is covering and their general domain of topics, if it meshes with your blog, you can ask for a link.

Local Blogs'
Look for blogs that deal with your particular geographic region. Neighborhoods, cities, metro areas, and states. There are many blogs that focus specifically on these areas that may have interest in some of the topics on your blog. Many local blogs will have interest in community events at your institution.

Topical Blogs\