Running Into Oncoming Traffic Will Get You Noticed

Your mother told you not to play in the street.
This is not your mother writing.
Find the busiest avenue you can and step recklessly into it, eyes wide open.
You will get the attention you’re looking for.
Getting noticed, by the intended audience is one of the elusive pieces to the puzzle for most new bloggers.
If you are blogging down a country road, where daily rush hour can be tallied on one hand, it’s time to build an exit ramp for that local highway o’er yonder.
The real estate industry is writing and reading blogs at a furious pace.  If the former is you, without the latter, it’s time to start risking your neck on major traffic avenues.
You have found your writing chops over the last few months, you’ve got a handle on your core message, the blog looks sweet… you’re ready for some serious readership.
Take that knowledge to the streets.  Hit the most traffic’d blogs in your industry and start participating.
One of the surefire ways to gain an audience is to stand in front of them, not waiting for them to find you.

Look for high traffic areas online that are populated by the readers you would want to visit your site.

Examples could include:
Trulia.com/voices
Zillow.com/advice
Facebook.com local real estate groups/pages
Local newspaper websites
Topix.com
Outside.in
Local community forums
Craigslist housing section
Craigslist Discussion forums (relocation, housing, tax, travel, home improvement, etc)
ActiveRain.com blogs in your area
Local competition real estate blogs
Local community blogs
Google Maps (trust me… check it out)
Why?
In the case of advice websites and forums, the audience that you are jumping in front of will take notice if you are providing something of value in your participation, and they will want to know more about you and your message.
In addition on the blogs:
1.  The moderators will begin to notice you and your blog.  If either is worthy of mention, it will happen
2.  Readers will begin to notice you and your blog.  If the latter is worthy, it will be noted and you will gain readership.
Beware, you are going to get the truth.  If you are ignored, it’s not because they didn’t read what you wrote. If readership doesn’t steadily increase it’s not because they didn’t check out your blog.
Find your voice, find the audience, and give yourself a chance to be heard.