It’s Wednesday, I’m in North Augusta, South Carolina, and the most important thing I will do today is give my hair over to a new stylist.  I’m moving up here from Miami, and I’ve decided that today is the day that I will bite the bullet. 

Here are the reasons why I picked the salon I did: 1), the salon that’s really popular was booked for 3 weeks, and I desperately need highlights;  2), there were positive reviews of two of this other salon’s stylists online, which were discoverable by Google; and 3), when I called and asked who was their best colorist, the receptionist named one of the stylists that have a positive review online.  (And I had picked that stylist in my head over the other because her MySpace page told me she was older and therefore, I reasoned, she had more experience.) Ta-da!

Easy, aren’t I? :) I won’t reveal the name of the salon just yet, except to say that it’s across the river in Augusta. 

So what does all that have to do with promoting your blog?  Well, there were salons recommended to me that were virtually dark online.  No website, no reviews, no MySpace pages (free promotion!  Hello!), no attempt to enhance their listings on any directory sites like CitySearch...Today’s consumer is looking for you online.  Are you there??  Promoting your blog is a great place to start.

In my last installment, I was paying a submission service called Submit2Please to submit this blog to various directories online.  After I paid, I received an email with a link to a site where I could fill in all the relevant information about my blog.  When I got there, I didn’t directly see a place to submit a blog, so I sent a note to customer support.  Submit2Please promptly replied with instructions (use the directory submission area) and a Word form I could fill out instead, if I so chose.  So I did that, and sent it back this morning.

Stay tuned for the results!