By Jinger Jarrett, author of Internet Marketing for Free

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to get high rankings in the search engines. If you write about a popular topic that you’re passionate about, you can get a lot of readers.

The problem is that a lot of bloggers rely on search engines as their main source of traffic. If you write on a topic that people search for frequently, it’s hard to get your blog to rank high and you won’t get many visitors, much less find the readers who are looking for what you are writing about.

So, to get more traffic to your blog, you need to find more ways to promote. One easy way to do this is with social networking sites. The advantage of using a social networking site is that you have a lot of options when promoting.

When you create a profile on a social networking site, add a link to your blog. This lets others know you have a blog, and hopefully, they’ll click over to it and read it.

If you don’t have a blog, then you have the option of using the blog available on the social networking site, if one is offered. This will allow readers to read your content. You can post product reviews, articles, tutorials, and even videos or audios you’ve found on your topic.

The only disadvantage with using the blog that’s built into the social networking site is that, while your blog posts are public on the site, they won’t be picked up by the search engines. It’s best to have an external blog and cross-post some of your entries to the social networking site.

Be careful about making your content too commercial.
Otherwise, you might get banned from the site.

If the social networking site allows you to add RSS feeds, add your blog’s RSS feed to your profile.
This saves you time, because your blog entries will automatically show up on your profile. Sites that don’t offer blogs, like Orkut (a social networking site operated by Google), give you this option.

I like using RSS feeds on my social networking site profiles because my profile is constantly updated and I’m always providing new content to my visitors and readers.

Another advantage to using RSS feeds is that readers will have to click through to your blog to read the entire post. If you offer an email subscription, this gives you another opportunity to get the reader to subscribe to your blog.

If the social networking site offers forums or groups, add a link to your profile in your signature file.
You just need to know a little HTML in order to code your link unless the site offers an editor that will code it for you. Again, avoid being too commercial. Your goal is to get others to click through your link to your blog and subscribe, not sell them something.

Many social networking sites have private messaging, as well as bulletins you can send out.
When sending out private messages, you don’t want to spam or try to just sell the person something. Make sure you are friends first. With bulletins, try to write a catchy headline and make your bulletin newsworthy. Use a soft sell. Don’t make others feel as if they’re being sold to.

Want to learn how top marketers use social networking to expand their businesses? “Social Marketing Success” teaches you how to easily bring in more profits in just a few minutes a day.