I was wondering if anyone could give me some good tips on marketing a blog. Of course, entertaining, keyword-rich content is the most important thing, or no one will want to look at your blog anyway. I submitted mine to blog directories, linked to it on forums, and made comments on other's blogs using my blog link.

What is your existing traffic like? What is the point of marketing your blog? Is it for PPC ads?

Well, I have just started from scratch, so my existing traffic is nill. The point of marketing the blog is making money through various means - PPC, affiliate programs, plus advertising of other websites.

Just looking for some basic blogging tips.

Are the forums you're posting on high traffic?

I know of an online forum community where keeping the blog in your sig line might generate some interest. They tend to have some high volume traffic in their political and debate forums.

Well, seeing as my blog has absolutely nothing to do with politics or debate, I don't think that would work.

Don't you think it a good idea to market on only sites that have comperable topics and interests to your site or blog?

I don't think it's a big deal. I know of a bunch of people who post on those forums and include their blog link in their sigs even though they're usually unrelated to politics and debate.

That seems strange to me, but I suppose it must work for some.

In my limited experience and from what I've read, its best to advertise a (for example) baby blog on a parenting or pregnancy forum, or a kayaking blog on an outdoor recreation forum...

The place I'm thinking of isn't a single topic forum. It's a forum community with loads of forums covering different topics so you might see the same person posting in a parenting forum, a debate forum, a religion forum, and a political forum all in the same day.

i guess you can still benefit from the use of debates without having to touch political topics. you may do this by creating one blog solely devoted to debates which are about the most mundane things like disciplining children or any topic related to another blog which you intend to link that first blog. that way, readers would be coming back always to your blog to give their own arguments, reply to other people's opinions and check out future debates. what do you think about this, melos?

Try writing articles and mlinking back to your blog. Get a good keyword rich article. Also, posting in forums isn't the best thing. It's a good start though. I have a blog and I write aricles for it and I get about 200 hits or so a day. I know that's not much but with 10% buying from my affiliate links I make some money. I do have a bit of a warning for you, stay away from free online ads. They aren't worth the effort that you put in to them.