WE often read about popularity in social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. But how many times do you ask yourself how popular your blog is? The measure of a blog’s popularity is the audience it reaches. That includes subscribers, visitors and links to your blog (from other sources).

In fact, according to Technorati the most popular places in the blogosphere are those with the most links!

And you thought it was the ones with the most readers! Well, actually, they are the same thing. Because in order to get the “blogferrals” (also referred to as link love), someone’s gotta first read your blog and then tell others about it.

Just why would you want “blogferrals?”

If you offer products or services for sale or have affiliate links that generate income, then the more eyeballs that view your blog, the more traffic you generate; the more traffic you generate, the greater your chances of selling something… and so on.

Here are some common blog linking tactics I recommend you  employ to increase your blog’s popularity:

Blog, RSS directories – is an index directory of weblogs as submitted by their authors. Check out the list of 100 Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog published by WE Magazine Although the list is more than 2 years old many of the directories are still relevant.

TopRated also has a Big List of Blog Directories which you will find relevant.

For more great ideas on increasing your “blogferrals” read the article 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website.

To see who made the list of the most popular places on the blogosphere check out the Blogger Choice Awards. Two of my 8 blogs; WE Magazine for Women AND Quirky Marketing Calendar have both been nominated (by me of course:). You too can nominate your blog!

Blogrolls – a listing of websites that often appear as links on weblogs. This list of links is used to relate the site owner’s interest in or affiliation with other bloggers.

Comments – are replies or feedback that a reader can leave in response to an entry on your blog.

Guest Blogging – “When you guest blog, your blog post is a resume you are putting out to the world that publicly states who you are, what you can do, what you know, why you are good at what you do, and why should people come to visit you for more. ” (Source: BlogHerald.com).

With so much information online and so little time to actually capture it, bloggers are looking for ways to expand their reach by inviting guest bloggers to write for them. I recommend you see which blogs your own clients read or write and find out if they would like you to contribute an article (or several). I regularly write for BigChefOnline.com, Bank Atlantic Blog, Design is Everywhere and others from time to time.

Surf the net looking for bloggers who have a similar audience to yours and ask if they would like you to write for them. I have done this successfully on several occasions and my blog posts are all over the net. And yours could be too. Guest blogging is a great way to get links back to your own site without having to ask someone for them. Be sure and send them a sample of your work or better yet, an article you would like them to post. This alone could increase your chances dramatically as bloggers appreciate content (that is good and relevant to their audience) and Done for You is almost always welcome!

Refer others. This is different than blogrolls. It is often referred to as Linklove. Linklove is when you write a post and mention other bloggers (in a positive way) to your readers. Another way to refer other bloggers is through your social media sites by mentioning their posts with a link to read the entire article. The more interesting or enticing the headline, the greater the chances of others in your network clicking on the link, subscribing to their RSS and “telling their friends” about the blog too. And you may even get a mention. On Twitter they call it “retweeting” so when you mention a blogsite, and others retweet, your name also appears in the “tweet.”

Search Engine Optimization – While SEO is a very broad topic in terms of anything to do with making your blog get found in the search engines, there are a couple of simple things you can do to make your blog stand out immediately. One is to properly tag each entry or blog post. Tagging – is organizing content organically and without a pre-determined structure. That means to write your article with the intention of optimizing it and then adding the proper tags that are included in the article, words that people would naturally search for to find the resource or information you are presenting.  Another important part of internal SEO is descriptions. Writing a description for each entry is much like copyrighting. It takes a little practice but once you “nail it” you will see tremendous benefits in your search results. The descriptions are what people see when they surf the net looking for content. Here is an example:

 

Notice the yellow highlighted area. That is the description the search engines pick up from your site. If you don’t put a description, they will create one for you based upon the beginning sentence of your blog post (which is often not what the post is about).

To help you master your SEO on your blog, check out this FREE resource by Women in Ecommerce: WordPress SEO Mastery. There is more than hours of video training on everything SEO including how to optimize posts, pages, categories, video and much more! Check it out here:

Social book marks – is tagging websites to save for later viewing to send to a friend. It is like taking the bookmarks in your web browser and sending them out to the web. Social book marks are also a great way to look at what other people have found interesting enough to tag. Delicious is just one of hundreds of Social Bookmarking sites.

Trackbacks – one of three types of Linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Some weblog software, such as Movable Type, Serendipity, WordPress and Telligent Community, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published. The term is used colloquially for any kind of Linkback (source: Wikipedia)

If you are using other blog linking strategies that we should know about be sure to leave your comments below. And remember to check out the Worpress SEO mastery (totally FREE) with my compliments!

Heidi Richards Mooney is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of WE Magazine for Women, a WordPress Web Designer, the author of a dozen books and a social media consultant and trainer. Heidi has interviewed hundreds of experts on Social Media Around the World. In 2003 Heidi was named one of 50 women shaping the Internet by the International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce. In 2009 she was named a Twitter Woman to Follow by Only2Clicks.com. She works with solopreneurs, professionals and small businesses in ecommerce, direct sales and retail. Follow Heidi on Google Plus