Another reason to get someone to give your blog a fabulous review: promotion of your blog in your email or web forum signature.

Email signatures are very underused. Even my own just has the bare essentials with links to this site and thatgrrl.ca which is part landing page and part shop of curiosities for me. What I could do is add a review of my blog. I do have one. It is old and a bit messy from all the dust bunnies running around on my hard drive, but, it was a good review with humour and a fair description of my blog content. However, as old as it is, I think I will pester someone to write me a new one.

It is essential that the review include a description of your blog, it's purpose and content. Just a "nice blog" type of review isn't saying enough. You really need to get someone clever, with a bit of evil genius to write something. Feed them with information about your blog and what you want in a review. Let them write a few quick lines or a whole review and then pick out one sentence or one quick point from it all to use as your review in the email signature.

Keep it short! One sentence or less. If the review is a bit long winded chop it down to the best part and use quotes and punctuation to show that it is just touching on all the great things that were said in the full review.

Should you add a link back to the reviewer? That is something to consider. I think it is better to post the review to your blog with thanks to the reviewer and a link back to any (maybe not all) sites he or she has, especially if they are relevant to the review or your own site. I don't think it is a good plan to link to the reviewer in your email signature. First, the extra space it would consume and secondly, you want the focus on your own blog in the limited time you have to catch the interest of anyone reading your signature.

Note: The idea for this post came from: Quips and Tips for Successful Writers: 6 Ways to Promote Your Blog or Books with Your Email Signature. A blog review was #4 on her list.

You don’t need to be a published author or experienced freelance writer to share a positive review of your blog or Web site! If someone has mentioned your blog in a positive light – even just one or two words of praise – consider adding that to your email signature.

Can you leave 1,000 comments this month? Though the button says leave me comments it is actually myself who will be leaving the comments, 1,000 of them over the month of March.

Sign up on the blog, Harriet and Friends.

The only downside is keeping track of how many comments you make. If you know of a way to track them leave a note in the comments here. I can't think of anything at the moment, other than the old fashioned taking a tally as you go along. I spent the day (a lot of it) looking for some kind of plugin or widget to track/ tally comments. But nothing was what I wanted. A couple that would have been good, did not work when I tried them out. So I am doing it by keeping tally on a piece of paper, hoping I don't lose that in the clutter on my desk.

Happy commenting. Thank you to all those who come through to comment here as well.

What does 9Rules need?

Have a look at the network and give your feedback to the blog. A few years ago 9Rules was an active, vital network of blogs. People applied to join. People made embittered posts on their blogs if they were not accepted. People put that leaf graphic on their blog in a place of prominence, proud to show it off. 9Rules was as well known as ProBlogger.

But, time passed and things changed. Like other networks online it faltered. As a blogger, a blog reader and a person on the web in general, what would you suggest for 9Rules to bring itself back to life, to make changes to appeal to web readers in the year 2010?

Post here if you like but real feedback would be read by staff at 9Rules if you post to the link I added at the top of this post.

I'm not a professional Domme and don't want to become one, though I admit the money is tempting. I am a freelance writer, I live in Ontario, Canada and I like finding new and creative, wicked ways to play with boys. Not children, just those little men who think they would like nothing better than to be tied up and at the mercy of a good woman. I am a good woman. Just ask my family and friends, they all say I am nice, some even go as far as sweet. It isn't my ambition to be the nice one. I'm okay with it. The world could use a bit more nice.

I'm also the one who writes about sex, an actual sex blogger and sex column writer in the recent past. My family didn't approve. I'm kind of surprised I told them. But, honesty just makes life less complicated in the long run and less complicated is a really nice thing.

If you ever heard of a site called BackWash (no longer online), you already know me. I wrote there for years. On the red (adult) side my column was Bait and Switch. I wrote fiction and non-fiction as new and wicked ideas occurred to me. I wrote a newsletter too. Right now I can't remember what I called it, but it was clever. I like clever things.

I'm not well experienced in BDSM. That nice girl thing again, I married the first man I had sex with. We were friends a long time and now we are divorced and living far apart and friendly because that's what nice girls do once they've picked themselves up again. I dated a bit since then but nothing has worked out. I've never been the sort of woman who can settle for a quick screw, I want more. As much as I like to explore and learn new things, I want to do all that with someone I can still wake up to the next day, the next week and for all the wrinkles to come.

I have liked BDSM for more years than I care to count. It started before I had boobs. I don't need to give a detailed list of my wicked ways here. I will be posting about my ideas, illustrations which I find or create myself and whatever is going on with my socializing/ fraternizing with boys. At this time I have been getting to know a man in Toronto. Email only, so far. But, he seems sincere, has a personality and can talk about things which have nothing to do with sex or BDSM.

A blog network is a group of people writing together to cover a set of topics all as part of the same larger group.

• Some blog networks are writers with their own unique blogs, only connected through the network as a way of building a community, such as 9Rules.
• Another kind of network is more like an ezine where the writers post to one site, like Blogging Tips, Smashing Magazine, or Salon.com. There are also networks like this based on locations like FreshDaily.ca, a Canadian blog network with sites for Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
• Most blog networks are individual niche blogs all formatted and maintained as per the network standards and rules. Examples of this kind of blog network are: Suite101, About.com, Creative Weblogging, Wired Blogs, LockerGnome, WritersWriteInc, DailyPixel, BellaOnline, B5 Media, Weblogs Inc. .

That third type of blog network is the easiest to spot and fairly easy to join and be accepted as a writer. Advantages to being in a blog network like this, versus DIY (doing it all yourself) is having technical support, an ad network already set up and promotion from the network (as it promotes itself and your blog among others).

One disadvantage is having to follow the rules set out by the network. You may not always like how they do things. Some networks will listen to your ideas for change, many do not. You may have to run more ads than you would like to. Some blog networks will have your written content show up under a lot of ads, to the point where readers have to scroll down to find any content at all. (I don't highly recommend a network that does this).

Also, you may be restricted in how you can use the content you write for the network. Some networks want to have a claim on the content you write, this is one thing you must investigate before joining. No blog network should expect to own (and have all rights to) your articles/ posts unless they pay well for them. Some networks will not allow you to post something you have written previously, they only want completely fresh content, never posted elsewhere. This can make it hard to stick to a tight posting schedule, especially if you are expected to write long posts.

Don't start with any blog network expecting to make a lot of money and see your traffic bloom overnight. You still have to do your own work, a lot of it. Whatever promoting the network does is for the network itself, it's only a bonus to your own work on promoting your own individual topic on the network. This is one reason to pick an established and well known network. Being a part of something larger than yourself will give you credentials and give you some authority on the topic you write. (You do still have to actually know what you are writing about however).

Before you joined a blog network spend time looking at the blogs already in the network. Do you like the layout, the set up? Are they getting traffic and blog comments? Have you heard of the blog network or seen it referenced in other places? Are they easy to read or do they carry so many ads the content is pretty much secondary? What do you think of the blogs you look at from the point of a reader? Will being part of this network benefit you in prestige, community or profits from ads? If you send a note to a couple of the bloggers already in the network do they reply, do they take a really long time to reply? If you can get a reply are the bloggers chatty or do they try to send a one sentence reply as if they don't want to interact at all? Read all you can about the network on their site, make sure it is a good fit for you before you make a lot of plans for finding fame and fortune there.

Note: I'm not recommending any of the blog networks here just by posting them. I wanted to give anyone interested a selection of blog networks to look over.