It is becoming more and more relevant for bloggers to establish an online presence - a name that can be recognized and known by people everywhere. Think of the big names like Chow, Small Potato, etc. As it is becoming more and more relevant, it is also becoming harder and harder to achieve online stardom. So here’s a step you can take to help build your website, your brand, and your online presence.

Until about a week ago, I was receiving all of my RSS subscriptions by email. It was fast, convenient, and easy to access. However, it didn’t take long until all of my subscriptions began to overwhelm my inbox and would drown out the more important emails. So I switched. Today, I am using Google Reader. This service is fairly straightforward, easy to use, easy to access, and has lots of options to help organize your subscriptions. But it didn’t take much use for me to realize that this service could be used for so much more…

Unlike email subscriptions, Google Reader shows a new post by a subscribed blog within minutes of its posting. With an email subscription, these alerts are usually sent out at the end of the day, hours after the original posting. So what does this mean? Well, two things that will help you establish a strong online presence:

1. Commenting.

If you run a blog and also comment on other people’s sites, you know that these comments can send you anywhere from 5 to 500 visitors depending on the volume of the article being read. The higher up on the comments list you are, the more people are going to see a link to your website and click through to your blog. With Google Reader, you are alerted of a new article within minutes of its posting, giving you the ultimate chance to get the first comment.

The trick, I have found, is not to spam anyone’s comment section. Instead, offer advice, tips, feedback, or questions - methods which will have much higher long-term benefits. People appreciate a meaningful comment much more than the simple, “great post,” or “nice article.”

Another trick is to subscribe and comment on very popular blogs. For example, if you are a freelancer and you want to start establishing your online presence as a freelancer, subscribe to Freelance Switch. If you manage to catch a new article just minutes after it has been posted in Google Reader, you are almost guaranteed a spot in the first two or three commentators. Considering how much traffic Freelance Switch gets, this can become a huge source of traffic and a way to get your name out there.

In order for this to work effectively, you need to be active and persistent. Don’t expect one comment on a popular blog to send you massive waves of traffic. Instead, build up your status as a reader and commentator and people will start to remember your name and visit your website. This is one of the easiest methods to get attention and traffic; Google Reader just makes it all the easier.

2. Social Bookmarking

A common question being circulated on the internet right now is how to establish yourself as a stronger social bookmark user. We have all seen the “top diggers” and “top stumblers.” However, some of us fail to realize how they got to that status. Among many things, submitting original, popular content, is one of the most important methods used to create a stronger profile. People like original content. Simple as that. If you are a person who regularly Diggs, Stumbles, Reddits, Mixxes, or Sphinns original articles, people will follow you and the articles you submit. The more people that follow you, the stronger your online presence becomes.

So where does Google Reader come in? Quite simply, it gives you access to original content that has never before been submitted to a social bookmarking site. Since using Reader for almost two weeks now, I have “discovered” more original content and submitted it to more social websites than I had in the previous three months combined.

As you may have picked up by now, Google Reader tells you when a new article is published - usually within three or four minutes. If you are persistent and patient, you will be able to catch these new posts just minutes after being published and immediately submit them to different websites.

As with commenting, there are a few tricks you should know. First, only submit content that you truly like. Don’t click to a website and immediately hit the thumbs up button - instead, read the entire article, decided whether it was helpful, creative, or original. If it meets those criteria, then you can submit it. It doesn’t make sense to thumbs up bad content - if you do that, people won’t appreciate it and won’t turn to your social profile as a source of high quality content.

The second trick, which some people may disagree with me on, is to only submit an article to three or four different sites. Personally, I submit original content to Stumble Upon, Del.icio.us, and Reddit. Every now and then, I’ll Digg it. I do this for a few reasons - first, these are among the four largest social bookmarking sites on the web and offer much more potential for creating a strong online presence. Second, it saves time. Don’t spend more than 10 minutes submitting one article to various websites. You will soon find your hours wasting away and your time becoming scarce - don’t let that happen!

Google Reader is just one tool to make building an online presence even easier. Use it wisely, and you will see your blog grow in ways you never knew possible! It’s all about patience, persistence, determination, and discipline - never give up too early!