Having a self hosted WordPress blog is one of the best ways to get started, but are you marketing your blog to get the best results.
When you market your blog the correct way, you will see your readership increase and this will help you move up the ranks with search engines. You can not just put a blog up and then post to it whenever you want. You need to be posting as often as you can in the beginning, this will help increase your ranks with search engines also. You should be posting at least everyday in the beginning, then you can start posting every other the day.
Once you have started to write posts to your blog on a regular basis, you need to really get started in marketing your blog. To do this, you need to find other blogs within your niche and make some valuable comments on them, join in on the conversation. Almost all comment areas of blogs have a box for you to enter in your link, make sure you are linking back to your blog. Have your own unique look and feel, keep your layout simple and easy to use for your readers. Using keywords and keyword phrases within your navigation area will also help you get your WordPress blog noticed by the search engines.
Use social marketing sites to increase your visitors, this will definitely help you market your blog more effectively. You can use such places as Twitter and Facebook to get started. Don't forget about places like StumbleUpon and MyBlogCatalog these places will definitely help you get going.
You should also make sure that you have some of the top plug ins for your blog. There are tons out there but be sure you choose the ones that will help you market your blog. You can use plug ins such as All-In-One-SEO pack and Google XML Sitemaps these will help search engines find your blog. And make sure to actually use them, do not just install and forget them. Use Them!
Know your market and know what they want or need, and then offer this information to them using your posts. Don't be afraid to get your thoughts out there in any way you can. Get yourself noticed all over the place, the more people that see you - the more they are going to start following you, and referring others to your blog for information.
Find other blogs within your niche and ask the owner about exchanging links with you, if they are not into this, than you can simply add their link to your sidebar. Linking to other blogs with high page rank and authority will help your blog as well. These are some great ways to market your blog that a lot of people do not think about, and if they do, they don't not do it often. The more you do these steps, the better you are. The key here is to always be doing something to get your blog noticed.