I blog to share what God has so gracioulsy shared with me. I alos find it is a very important tool to reach those who might otherwise never ever ever step into a church or into our church, either because they are afraid of what people might say (judging), or because they dont live in the same city, the reasons are endless.

I think it is crucial to be as transparent as possible in our blog, otherwise you end not being relevant. I find that people really do care and want to know what is going on in our heads. As a matter of fact my wife even said to me that she loves reading it because she get an even better idea of what is going on inside my head.

It depends on the audience size you are looking for. However, I’ve found that the main thing is to have good, insightful content that is simply unavailable elsewhere.

Also, you might become part of a blogging community. For instance, I’m part of the Methodist Blogroll which both (a) gets me on a lot of link lists on other sites, and (b) I get my blog summarized in the weekly roundup.

Each blogging community kind of has its own self-promotion methods, so look around and find out. A lot of it depends on the topic, the desired size of the audience, and why you would want them to read it.

1) My Creation blog I started to help promote creation-oriented research. There is a great divide between popular-level and academic-level creationism, and I wanted to bridge the gap
2) My technology blog I started so that, as I encounter tech problems and work through them, I have the solutions documented so that Google can pick them up so that others having the same problems can find them easily.
3) In general, I have a lot of ideas, and blogging gives me a nice spot to test them out, and archive them so I don’t forget them.

I’ve had some good success using these strategies.

I agree that commenting on other blogs is a great way to get exposure for your blog. But they need to be relevant comments and not spammy (e.g. not “come and see my brilliant blog”).

Also making it search engine friendly has helped me. A great site to look at is called ProBlogger. He is focused on generating income from blogs but the key to making money from blogs is getting more viewers - so a lot of the material on here is really helpful. He is also a Christian and it is a very well written blog.

Patience and good quality posts are also key, it will almost always take time…

Oh yes, and don’t forget to come and see my brilliant blog!

The great thing about LifeChurch using technology isn’t the awesome “gee whiz” factor that we get from it (”Look at us! We have an online church!”), but rather that we use it as a tool to facilitate communication. I’ve seen a lot of churches fail at using technology simply because they adopted tech just to be current or “hip”.

Even though LC has some great tech, at heart, they are really a simple church formed of small, accountable groups. That’s what I really love about it (even though I kinda like the lasers, too).

Keep up the good work!

She asked how to attract readers. Maybe some of the rest of you might have more advice for her.

It’s fun and I enjoy writing.

Blogging gives me a place to communicate all the stuff that doesn’t make it into a sermon/teaching event. In many ways, my blog is the overflow of the thinking/praying/studying that goes into sermon prep.

Blogging is also a great way to share resources and ideas.

I do recommend The Blogging Church for those that are pastor’s considering blogging. It is really helpful.

relationships have probably been key for me - i’ve had the great opportunity to meet people face to face at conferences and stuff (terry foester who commented a few comments above me actually recognized me at a conference he was attending here in dallas - which was really fun and out of the blue!) but the overall theme of why i do it would be relationships.

my blog is still that - a journal of one experience in student missions. it’s also become a tool for mentoring and leadership and connecting point for others that we are partnering with.