Blog marketing is different in many ways from marketing a website. Building relationships with your readers and networking with other bloggers is key to your success. Some rules for marketing a website still apply, but your strategy is more labor intensive when it comes to blogging.

Link Building

The more high-ranking websites and blogs that link to you, the higher your blog will rank in Yahoo!, Bing and Google. When you conduct a search, the first two pages in a search engine will consist of the top web pages and blog posts that are relevant to your search terms. These sites are considered to be the authorities on the subject and the most relevant. Your goal is to try to get them to link to one or more of your blog posts.

First, you have to write good and useful content. Then, you can ask them to link to you by sending them an email, sending them a direct message on Twitter or sending them a press release. Many times, these sites may link to your post if they come across it on their own, due to your other marketing efforts.

Blog Comments

Another way to market your blog is to leave comments on other blogs. Find blogs that are relevant and related to your blog with lots of readers. Leave insightful comments on those blogs, and readers may be curious enough to go to your blog. When you leave a comment, there's usually a way to list your url, or your name might link to your blog. Don't spam other blogs with useless content and links. You may be banned from leaving comments and become known as a spammer. There is a blogging community, and you'd be surprised how easily the word spreads about other bloggers.

Email Marketing

One aspect of email marketing that is unique to blog marketing is asking other bloggers to post your articles. When you write a post that would greatly benefit readers of another blog who is not a competitor, you can email the blogger and ask them to post it. The benefit to them is one less post they have to write. It also helps them to be known as the "go-to" blog for certain information. You benefit from your bio and the link to your blog. You'll also get more unique visitors from the audience you want to reach.

Guest Blogging

Sometimes bloggers are unable to maintain their blogs due to illness, family obligations, other business activities or they need to go on vacation. The blog still needs to be kept current, and they may not be able to pre-schedule posts for various reasons. They'll need a guest blogger to write posts while they're away, and in exchange, the guest blogger can promote their own blog. Some bloggers will write a post looking for a guest blogger, and you can apply for it just as you would a freelance writing job. Many times, you'll be asked to become a guest blogger as a result of networking with bloggers.

It's never too late to kick start your blog marketing strategy. Whether you're in the early or middle stages of blogging, make the above marketing strategies a frequent habit and you'll meet your traffic goals in time.

Daphne Mallory, Esq. is the co-owner of Mallory Writing Services and has written more than 100 articles helping home based business owners and entrepreneurs start and market their business. You can learn more about her here.