So far in this article series, we've been discussing ways of personalizing your blog, most notably by the use of a profile picture and an about page. We've also touched on how a profile page, provided by an online service can be used to great effect in lieu of a self-hosted about section. And I briefly mentioned Gravatar's avatar hosting, Intense Debate's and Disqus' commenting systems as ways to get your face online and have them be associated with your blog. (You'll find the full list of the articles at the end of this post.)

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All the techniques we've explored so far, are excellent ways to personalize your blog, to humanize it, and give your blog a recognizable face. But now that you've done that, it's time to take your face online and make some meaningful connections. It's like dating, your choice of potential mates only grows if you get out there and mingle.

Follow up:

Same thing with your blog, your potential readers list only grows when you get out there where people can see you. Your goal is to build a web of connections online, ideally these connections should lead back to you and your blog or blogs. Ah, free blog promotion at its best.

One of the most important things you can do is put your profile picture everywhere! Don't stop at just displaying it on your blog, on your about page and on comments you leave around the web. Take it a step further, really promote yourself and by association, your blog. You're aiming to make your image a high profile commodity. This isn't hard to do, all it takes is a little time and effort, plus the use of some free online services that you can't afford to ignore.

I'm going to take great pleasure in telling you where to go:

1. - Join And Participate In  Social Bookmarking Sites  - Generally speaking, most social bookmarking sites give you a personal profile page where you can upload your avatar or profile picture, include a link to your blog, add a bio and some personal interests. Of course the other great thing is that you can submit your favorite posts, your own and from other sites as well. In most cases other members can vote on these and if they are popular, can end up on the front page of the site. Don't go overboard only post your best stuff and things you think are truly outstanding from other sites as well. You'll gain a reputation as a quality social bookmarker and other members will check your links often. Remember quality over quantity.

Here is a list of my 10 personal favorite social bookmarking sites:

Digg		Dofollow
Reddit		Dofollow
Mixx		Dofollow
Mister Wong		Dofollow
Folkd		Dofollow
Propeller		Dofollow
Spurl		Dofollow
Sphinn		Dofollow
Searchles		Dofollow
Buddymarks		Dofollow

Page rank buttons courtesy of Page Rank Checker: http://www.prchecker.info/

You may notice that there are some popular and well known sites missing from my social bookmarks list. That's because I'm only interested in posting links that will have a high visibility to the search engines. As a result I only post on do-follow sites with a page rank of 5 and higher. You can still benefit from sites such as StumbleUpon and Delicious, but you must work very hard to get the attention of other users to boost your links' popularity  and visibility.

2. - Join And Participate In Blogging Communities such as, Blogged, Bloghology and Entrecard. The value of interacting with these communities is something I've posted about before. But I want to point out that these services provide you a profile page where you can post your picture, your blog link and personal information. In addition, many of these sites have groups you can join or form, discussions you can engage in or start, messaging systems to connect with others and usually the ability to friend or follow other users. As a bonus sites such as Entrecard and Adgetize let you earn advertising spots across other users sites. Remember, your level of sociability will correlate directly with how many people find you and visit your blog. Here's a list of blogging communities for you to check out:

• Bloghology
• Blogged
• Blog Catalog
• Linknami
• Entrecard
• Blog Engage
• Adgetize
• Blog Clicker
• Networked Blogs (You need a facebook account for this one.)
• Linkbacklink
• Blogger Community
• Fuel My Blog

4. - Join And Participate In Forums - whatever your blogging niche or blog topic, there are probably forums galore related to your niche. You just need to type your blog topic with the word "forums" into a search engine such as Google and it will spit out tons of options. If you are not familiar with forums, simply put, they are sites designed to let users interact with each other around a central theme. People go to foums to have questions answered and share with other like-minded individuals.

Once you've joined a forum, they will probably give you the option of setting up a typical online profile with your picture, your website or blog url, a signature and possibly a bio and interests section. Great, fill these out, pay special attention to your signature. Don't just sign with your name, but make sure you add a link to your blog as well. And don't leave yet, you're not finished. Poke around some and see what people are discussing. After all, this is about your blog topic. Here's your chance to join in, contribute your opinion, answer some questions, help people and make yourself known. When you do this you will reach a whole audience of people who might not otherwise not ever know you or your blog. Forums can be powerful promotional tools. If you are truly helpful with others you will gain a reputation for knowing what you are talking about and people will think your blog is worth visiting.

You'll notice that each of the options above are all prefaced with the same words, " Join And Participate In". Social bookmarking, blog communities and forums can all be powerful tools to promote your blog, but if you don't join or you join, don't add an enticing profile  and do nothing with them, they won't get you anywhere. Your aim is to be knowable, personable, helpful and accessible, everywhere you go online. Relax and take a little time to be sociable, you will meet some great people, make some awesome friends and connect with your colleagues.  And all the while, you will be promoting yourself and your blog. Maybe it seems like a lot, just start small - just join a few key sites to start with.  Be organized about it, if you slot this kind of social networking activity into your blogging schedule on a regular basis, your blog will indeed begin to attract a great deal of interest from across the web.

Bonus ideas for getting your personable little self and your blog out there:

• post articles on article submissions sites
• exchange guest posts with other bloggers (I'm looking for guest authors - contact me!)
• micro-blogging on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Zannel, etc.

Well, that concludes the series on personalizing your blog. I hope you found it useful. You should now have a better understanding of how to personalize your blog, establish a profile and promote yourself and your blog through various free online services. Here are the first 5 articles in the series, just in case you missed them:

1. Putting A Face On Your Blog - Don't Be A Mystery Blogger
2. Choosing & Using A Blog Profile Picture - Putting Your Best Blog Face Forward
3. Your Blog Profile Page - Blog Authors Should Be Knowable
4. Online Hosted Profile Pages - Alternatives For A Blog About Page
5. Put A Face On The Comments You Leave Around The Web