So you have launched a blog and you are starting to write in it everyday and a few months go by and you start to ask yourself what else can I do to further my blogs reach. One thing you have to realize is that your blog is like any other website and it requires an additional shove to get it moving. A blog requires various marketing efforts to further it’s reach and really become visible. It is important to take advantage of all platforms at your disposal.

Submitting your blog to various online blog directories is a good start to get things moving. Below are a few directories to get you started.

Blog Catalog is great website to get things started for your blog. One of the industry leading blog directories you can include links to your blog, a description and also social interaction.

Blogarama is also a very high powered blog directory that is a must for your blog to be in. With over 100,000 blogs already listed and still growing this directory will be great for your blog.

Bloggapedia has also become a great place for your blog to be visible on. With the ability to set up a profile and interact directly with web traffic the social aspect will be great to help grow your new blog.

Best of Web Blogs Directory is a new website as part of the BOTW franchise of directories and should be considered when you start to perform link building for your blog.

There are a lot website owners, and even more bloggers, who seem to be getting the jitters over Google’s apparent change of heart over blog directories, or directories in general. Google used to recommend directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo! – not any more.

However, why are bloggers and the like getting the jitters. Okay, so Google removed any reference to blog directories altogether. They have not however, said that there is anything wrong with directories.

From Google’s point of view they may be fine about links from directories; it just suits their current situation that making a recommendation is not quite right. Never fear, Google can speak, at least through a forum:

[Google's John Mueller]I wouldn’t necessarily assume that we’re devaluing Yahoo’s links, I just think it’s not one of the things we really need to recommend. If people think that a directory is going to bring them lots of visitors, then it’s obviously fine to get listed there. It’s not something that people have to do though.

Google have, in the past, discounted any directory that requests payment (except Yahoo! and is not hand moderated. Perhaps over time blog directories will, in general terms, lose any search rank relevancy. Rumor abounds of late that Goolge is going to incorporate more into general social media. Perhaps this is just the first step down that track.

Technorati has released its annual stats in its ‘State of the Blogoshpere 2008″ report. There are quite a few interesting stats to come out of the report including the fact that 74% of all US bloggers have graduated college.

Many feel the only intelligence required to write a blog is the ability to put a few words together – and make some sense (some blogs leave that to question as well). No, bloggers do have brains. In fact, blogs themselves seem to be becoming more sophisticated. Quick Stats from the report include:

• 66% of bloggers are male
• 60% of bloggers are between 25 and 45
• 44% of bloggers earn between $20k and $75k
• 48% of bloggers live in the US
• 45% have a Technorati Authority number of 1 or more
• Half of bloggers who responded are on at least their second (or 8th!) blog
• 59% have been blogging for two years or more
• Non first-time bloggers contribute to four blogs on average, and the average blogging tenure is three years.
• Female bloggers are more likely to affiliate links (41% v 32%)

Why are these stats important? If you’re an advertiser, you can target your ad placement according to who is behind the blog as much as by who is reading the blog. Blogs that get past the two year mark tend to be stayers and bloggers that get beyond the two year mark tend to have more than one blog. You can draw many other conclusions from the data – the biggest being that blogging is alive and well and being driven by individuals with intelligence – as least, that’s what the stats say?

When it’s Blog Catalog of course – or MyBlogLog for that matter. These two appear to be in a head to head race to see who can outdo each other as alternative social media sites as well.

To the outsider it may appear they are competing for blog owner traffic. The reality is that most blog owners, if they are active on one, are also active on the other. The major difference is the level of activity on each of the sites. There is no doubt that most users prefer one over the other, that doesn’t stop them using both.

This is probably a good example of brand loyalty. No matter how many features each of these blog directories add, users are remaining loyal to their favorite. Since the beginning of this year, both sites, more notably Blog Catalog, have added a lot of different features – all aimed more at the social networking aspect than as blog directories.

These two sites are hard to categories now. They are blog directories and they pick up your blogs feeds and deliver them to your profile. They are also social networking sites with forum style discussion streams. There has been talk of live messenger style chatting. While all of this is going on, you can also have a twitter style feed of all your social media activities. What you have dugg, thumbed or promoted in any way – all shared with those that want to share.

As for generating traffic – like anything social, the more you work for the community, the more traffic you will generate.

There are thousands of blog directories around these days so when submitting your blog you need to play it smart.

If you are submitting purelyfor link value then high ranking blog directories that utilize the ‘dofollow’ are a must. If you are looking for traffic then perhaps using the lower ranked blog directories could offer better value.

With the higher ranked blog directories, you are competing against ten’s of thousands of blogs. In any one day there may be 1000 new submissions. With so much competition your chances of being seen and your link followed are greatly reduced.

The smaller blog directories have fewer blogs listed so your chances of being on the first couple of pages for your category. This increases your visibility and with it the chances of having your link followed.

There is a downside to submitting to smaller directories and that is the substantially smaller flow of traffic. However being seen by a few can be better than being hidden from the masses. If you are selctive with your choice of directories and try to find directories with specific categories related to your site then your hit rate may improve further.

Ideally, you should submit your blog to a variety of different blog directories. Some large with good rankings and some small with low rankings but the opportunity for good exposure.