If you blog, you might already know your blog can be a great tool for getting your message and name out there in cyberspace. Many bloggers are writers and many wannabe writers are now blogging to help get a message out, get their name out or earn money through blogging. As a freelance writer, I've found blogging to be beneficial for me from an income perspective as well as for self promotion for my writing services. If you want to be among the elite group of successful bloggers who earn a full time living blogging you can use the old adage of dressing for the blog you want instead of the blog you have. Make it look nice. Play with colours and graphics and make it look appealing so people will be drawn to stop and look if they land there. Even a free Blogger blog can look very professional. Diversify your income. Beyond Google AdSense ads, add some affiliate marketing banners, contextual links or referrals too. You can also do paid posting too but try to stick to the theme of your blog and keep it to a minimum. Add a blog roll. Share some love with fellow writers and they will probably do the same. You can also add your other sites to your blog roll and share some link love with yourself. Widgets! Gotta love widgets. They're neat and can be unique and dress up a blog. Some are functional and others that just dress up the site and make it look nice. Regular content. If you only update it once a month, you'll be lucky if you get a few readers. Update regularly to ensure people come back because they know they'll find something new. Don't overdo it on the paid posts. Don't fill all your blogs with these as too much can hurt your readership. People don't want to come 'just' for ads. Try to respect your niche as much as possible. That brings us to the 'find a niche' advice. The only way you can develop a following and subscribers will add up is to find a category for your blog so people can find you. Tag, Ping and social bookmark. Spend seo service doing these things and your readership will rise and your CTR % will too! Plug your blog! Put your blog url in your signature line for forums and for when you comment on other people's blogs. This will help more people find you and help your Google page rank. Read and comment on other blogs in your category. This can bring you links and more readers. Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. Use both of these as they can be an excellent marketing tool and can help you with categorizing, indexing and site statistics (mybloglog is especially helpful for learning who's visiting your site). Spend a few minutes every day or an hour every week promoting your blog and in no time, you'll see a difference in your readership, traffic levels, SEO and potential earning opportunities. The right design and a great readership could result in income and opportunities pouring in for you.