Yesterday I posted about choosing the right platform for your blog & your budget.  So assuming you have made that choice what other tools do you need to help you launch your blogging efforts?

The first thing you will want to do is actually get your work read. So promotional tools are the thing you are looking for.  Some of these will be built into your blogging platform, depending on which route you go.  Wordpress has some great SEO plugins that will help you ensure that your blog gets ranked within the search engines.

But don’t leave it all to SEO, there are other tools that will help you get the word out about your blog. Firstly, make it easy for people to get your content. Adding an RSS feed will ensure that you get a broader distribution not just readers subscribing (don’t forget to add the email option as well). Services like FeedBurner are very useful for this.

Don’t forget to use tools like Delicious to occassionally boost your page views - though don’t over do this, you don’t want to appear as a complete self promoter.

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