Robert Scoble recently posted about getting your blog noticed. That's a goal of mine - sort of. I also don't want to do things just to get noticed. I would like to think that I have enough interesting content to be appreciated without shamelessly going after publicity. But there are some valuable lessons to learn from his insights.

Why is getting noticed important to me? Well, it really isn't although I think I could provide some people with some decent content that they may be looking for. Some people. Not everyone. Another reason to try to get noticed? Sagestone has started a fresh blogging site for employees, and it gets very little traffic right now. Sagestone is an awesome company, but no one knows about us. Of course, I admit our blog content isn't very good right now. Everyone is just starting out there, so it'll probably take some time to get good content out there, which is what will really allow them to take off.

Anyway, here's a short summary of what he says will get you noticed. His quotes are in italics, and not complete quotes. Not taken out of context, just not complete quotes. There'd be no reason to follow the link if I quoted everything right?

1) Link to other people. Lots of them. And then click each link on your own blog. I'm horrible about this. I rarely post anything that relates to what others say. Why? Most of the time I agree, or someone else has beaten me to the punch to disagree. So why post to say "I agree." Of course, I guess some may not have seen it. I should get better at this, and I know it. It would also help me get in to more of a groove of posting regularly, something I also struggle with.

2) Email a blogger you like. Don't just go for traffic. Go for the quality. I whole heartedly agree. For example, my content probably isn't interesting to Scoble (for the most part). He doesn't seem to be a coder, and I've never heard him mention football. That's basically what I post about. Some things, maybe. On the other hand, people interested in continuous integration may find some of my stuff useful.

I don't usually email other bloggers though. I just post a link in the comments of their blog. Most get an email anyway. I have received a couple of emails, and am always more than happy to answer them too. One rule: don't beg for a link. Interesting - by commenting, the other guy doesn't even get a chance to decide if the content is worth a link or not. Maybe email is better.

3) Put your blog in your email signature. Done.

7) Write comments in other people's blogs. The last time Robert noticed my blog was when I said I would start posting blog posts rather than comments on other blogs after reading a post of his. Now he's saying to comment again! Of course, I still comment every now and then, so I do this too. And hes' right - it has to be an intelligent post.

8) Appeal to your favorite blogger's Feedster and Pubsub searches. Good bloggers are building lost of Feedster and Pubsub searches. I'm not a good blogger! I've never used a feed search utility. Time to check it out I guess!

I'd add more to this: If you are a popular blog, link to someone you know who wants (or you think deserves) more traffic. For instance, I linked from my Geek Dojo blog to this one, and to my Sagestone blog. Now, I'm not the reason that Geek Dojo is as good as it is, but a link from there generates traffic.

I've never had huge plans for my blog, so getting traffic is a "nice to have." If I was the only one reading this, I'd probably still do it. And that's how I think it should be looked at: if you think about only you reading it, you're much more likely to post exactly how you feel. And if the readers come, they come. If not, oh well. It's all the same.