How to promote your blog?

[Jaakko Wallenius]

Every writer needs readers. I would personally like to know what avenues have members of this group taken to make known that their atheist blog even exists in the vast universe of the internet.
I would also like to know if you have had specific audiences in mind when writing your blogs?

[Richard J. Collins]

Over at Atheist Nexus, another social networking site for atheists there is a group for bloggers. I think about 150 writers have listed and described their blogs.

http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/bloggers

Another social networking site for secularists is:

http://www.secularearth.com

Joining is easy and you can list and describe your blog in the links. Write to the webmaster if you want to publish and article. New areticles appear on the main page for a time.

[E.K.Virtanen]

Hi Jaakko.

"I would also like to know if you have had specific audiences in mind when writing your blogs? "

I dont actually think what kind of peoples might read my blog. It is more like a diary of my thougs. Also my skills in using right terms[1] in english, is pretty bad. That's why i write only simple stuff.

E.K.Virtanen

[1] In scientific and theistic terms. What comes for programming and IT generally, im fine.

[Sarah Trachtenberg]

Good question, Jaakko!
Since I'm blogging to promote a book project, getting readers has more to do with practicality than self-confidence. I took a class in book promotion and, just like the key to a long life is lots of friends, the key to getting the word out is lots of connections.
I've made a few mistakes listing my url for my blog in places that I didn't know I wasn't supposed to (honest mistake), but if you leave comments on other people's blogs, messages on amazon discussions, youtube etc (You can't put your url on those, so people will have to click on your username if they want to know more about you), and the like, then it's all supposed to add up.
Apparently, "death by a thousand cuts" is supposed to be more effective than an expensive PR campaign.
I hope that helps.
Yours,
Sarah

[DangerousTalk]

For me, I use many of the non-atheist social networking sites as well as some of the atheist specific ones. I get most of my readers from MySpace and Facebook. It helped that before I moved my blog to DangerousTalk.net, I blogged on MySpace. When a lot of people on MySpace read you blog there, it moves up in the rankings and gets more exposure. Now, I still post a blog on MySpace, but it just links to the DangerousTalk.net blog. It is my way of driving traffic to my site and playing off of the work I have done to create an audience on MySpace. Now I also have a second blog through Examiner.com (http://www.examiner.com/x-8928-Philadelphia-Atheism-Examiner). I posted a link to my other blog in this one and vice-versa. If anyone else is interested in creating a second blog on Examiner let me know (so I can get the referral bonus). They pay you a penny per/hit. Not much, but it does sometimes add up if you have a story that gets picked up on other sites.
-Staks
http://www.DangerousTalk.net
http://www.examiner.com/x-8928-Philadelphia-Atheism-Examiner