There are a lot of other blogs, websites, podcasts and YouTube channels competing for your ideal customer’s attention. So how do you break through the noise and get your blog noticed?

In this article we’ll look at 13 ways in which you can increase the visibility of your blog and build your business.

1. Blog often at the beginning, slow down over time

Newer blogs need to hit a critical mass of posts, while more established blogs may overwhelm regular readers if they post too often. While there’s no magic number, 2-3 posts a week when you’re starting is a good number to start with. When you’ve built up an audience you can drop that to once or twice a week.

2. Write keyword-rich blog posts

Your blog will generate most of its traffic through the search engines, so make sure all of your posts have your targeted keywords in the title, header, first paragraph, and maybe once more in the body copy.

3. Get your profile picture to show up in the search results

When your profile picture shows up next to a search result it gives it an extra boost of authenticity and increases the chances of a click-through. Explaining exactly how to get that done is beyond this particular post, but you can follow the steps as laid out by Amit Agarwal.

4. Submit it to AllTop

Getting your blog into AllTop  can be a great way of increasing your visibility and traffic. It’s a manual process, and you’ll need to determine the best category for yoru blog. But from ballroom dancing to music lessons, chances are you’ll find a category that’s right for you.

5. Submit it to StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon can help get your blog posts in front of thousands of people based on their affinity for your subject matter! Set up a free account and then get “stumbling”. However, a StumbleUpon account of all your own posts won’t gather as much attention as when you’re promoting a wide variety of sources.

6. Add social sharing buttons

Include things like retweet and Facebook like buttons so that your readers can easily share your content with their networks. Other popular share buttons include LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Google+. Clever titles work really well with social media, as do numbered lists.

7. Build your subscriber base…via email

Forget about getting RSS subscribers…real stickiness is in email. Promote the email version of your blog feed through a “Feature Box” on your home page. You can learn more about the Feature Box at Social Triggers.

8. Link to your most recent blog post from your Facebook business page

I used to recommend using a tool like NetworkedBlogs to automatically update your Facebook page, but you’ll reach more people when you post manually. Plus, then you can craft a more persuasive message to increase likes and click-throughs.

9. Share the link on your personal page

Not all of your network “likes” your business on Facebook, so promote new posts on your personal profile as well.

10. Tweet it!

Always share your posts through Twitter. You may want to post it multiple times throughout the day, each with a unique message as not all your followers are on 24/7. (Slackers.) Bonus: links increase your chances of being picked up by someone’s Paper.li!

11. Add your feed to LinkedIn.

If you’ve got a business blog, you’ll want to include your blog on your LinkedIn profile using their apps feature. It’s one more place you can reach your target audience. Once you’ve added your feed you don’t need to do anything else. Bonus: manually add a link to your newest post after you write it and it will appear in your updates.

12. Add your blog URL to your business card.

Show the world how much you value your blog by including it on your business card.

13. Don’t write crap.

Honestly, this might be the most important item on the list. No matter how keyword-rich your posts are, and how much you promote them, if there’s nothing good in them, they won’t be read, they won’t be shared, and no one will subscribe. Quality trumps quantity every time.

Rich Brooks is the founder of the Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference, an online and in-person all day conference featuring such marketing experts as Chris Brogan, Amy Porterfield, and Derek Halpern. To learn more and grab your ticket visit Agents of Change.com. To save $25 on your ticket, use paperli as a promo code.