Having a blog on the Internet is great.  It is enjoyable.  But why do you have a blog on the Internet?  If it is your personal diary, why would you have it out there for everyone to see?

If you have a blog on the Internet, it is because you want people to see the blog, read it, and get something from it.  You may share your personal life experiences so others can find hope and help through reading it.  If you are selling something, you want them to read about what you are selling, see that it would be a help  in their life, and buy it.  If you are very knowledgeable in an area – an expert – you want to present this information and share it with others.

Your goal cannot be reached if the traffic, the other people on the Internet, can’t find your blog.  And to find your blog, they have to be looking for it.  So, if no one knows that your blog exists, why is it there?  That defeats your purpose.

In the brick and mortar world, how would you let people know your new store exists?  Signs, talking to people, leaving your business card, ads in the newspaper, on the radio, on the TV – these are some of the ways.

How can you do that on the Internet?  One way is to work your way up through the search engines.  If you do a search on the main point of your blog, you will find there are hundreds, even thousands, of sites listed there.  This is a little hard to climb through.  You could spend hundreds of dollars trying to purchase a more visible position and then still not get traffic.

One way to drop business cards on the Internet is to comment on other blogs with subjects that relate to yours.  Leave a link to  your blog – but don’t try to sell your blog.  Instead, make the link part of your signature.  Go into forums and do the same.

Another way is to make friends on the Internet.  Join Stumbleupon, Digg, Mixx, Delicious, Technorati, Twitter, Plurk, Blogcatalog – these are just a few of the social networks on the web.  Join in discussions, vote up others submissions, gather friends.  If you don’t believe this is powerful, try googling your name or online nickname after you  have been doing this a few months.  You will be surprised how many links you will find.

The more your name and URL is on the Internet, the more visible your site becomes.  The more trust you get from others and recognition of knowing what you are talking about, the more people will want to go to your site.

Just jump in and start joining.  A word of caution – watch what you disclosed about yourself personally.  And about what you leave as comments.  I guarantee there are things you don’t want published in a search engine when your name is googled.  Also bookmark your site URL where-ever you can.  Good luck!

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the social networking online that I don’t get my writing done.  Have you ever been in that situation?  I have been told one of the cures for that is to write several posts at once, then publish them later.

While this seems to be a good idea, I find that I write the posts, then schedule them, and then forget to continue to write posts even though I have some ahead.  For this blog, I use whatever is going on at the time, so it would be hard to write ahead.

My newest craze started yesterday with SezWho. I had a chance to get it with blogcatalog.com, but I didn’t understand what it was.  When entrecard announced it I finally got it.  So I registered all four of my blog sites.  I have been ‘meaning’ to get out there to some of my more favorite blogs and comment.  Since I am kind of a shy person (yes it is true), I have procrastinated.  At least this newest craze will help me get into the commenting habit.

Another new online activity I love is the HerProBlog.com social network I posted about in my last post.  The actual community blog is now live at HerProBlog.com.  Go check it out!  It looks great and promises to be one of the biggest resources for bloggers online.

I never could get into Twitter, but I love plurk.  I haven’t used it to share URL’s yet, but I love my dancing banana!!!   Be sure to look me up whenever you are there.

One craze I guess I must be a bit burned out on is Yahoo Answers.  I finally figured out how to use it and how to contribute quality to it.  It’s really not hard.  Due to my ’shyness’ I  haven’t ventured into forums yet.  I will get there.

Another good multi-author site is 5minutesforspecialneeds.com These authors write about their experiences with their special needs children and loved ones.  They offer hope and help.  They offer tips on how to handle situations, resources for information and help, and let other parents they are not alone.

My goal is to post here at least twice a week.  I hope you will visit and join in the 9 sites I mentioned above.  I think you will have fun with them.  What are some of your favorite places to spend time online?