I don’t claim to be an expert in marketing of blogs.  There are plenty of people out there who are much more successful. I have found that most people just mention a service and move on.  Well, this is my contribution.  I’ll show and explain HOW to setup the tools and services that will help promote your blog!

Ping.fm
This is a great tool for helping you to promote your blog! Using it, you are able to send an update to all of your social media accounts at once. I have to admit there were several social media groups I had never heard of prior to setting up an account on ping.fm.
To properly use ping.fm, you will want to add a plugin to your Word Press account. This plugin sends an update to ping.fm, which then sends it to your twitter, facebook, myspace, etc. I am using the WPing.FM plugin to handle these updates.
Once you have the WPing.fm installed and activated, you will need to configure it under the “Settings” in your dashboard.
You have the option to send instant message through your ping.fm account, set it to send a message when you create a new post, but haven’t published it (I recommend NOT checking this one.. if you send to many updates, people will stop following you. Only send and update when you have something finished, not when something is in progress. Leave the vaporware to the big companies).
I have mine configured to send out an update when I post a new blog or update an old blog.
The most important thing you have to do is setup the connection to your ping.fm account. This is found at the bottom of the configuration page.

To get your key, you will need to login to your Ping.fm account and go to the dashboard. Click on the Application Key under services and tools.

Now, click on “Generate Key” and your almost done!

Highlight and copy the key. Return to your WordPress page and paste the key in the space that asks for your API key. Click “Save Key” and your done!