I have to admit that what you are about to read is a bit promotional. Not for me though, but for my son, Alan.

Back in the days when I ran a business blog consulting agency - Radiant Marketing Group it was called - my son, Alan, worked with me in submitting client blogs to an extensive list of blog directories and search engines, as well as major engines like Google and Yahoo. He's now started his own business providing that service. It's something he's very adept at and enjoys doing.

More on that in a minute. Let me talk about why I think submitting your site to these various and sundry directories is a good idea, regardless of whether you do it yourself or get someone to do it for you.

First of all, the list to which I refer is known as Robin Good Top 55, though now there are well over 200 such directories and engines included on the list. Here's what the list's creator has to say...

"As more and more people get involved with the Internet and as more Web sites, blogs, news services and other online resources continue to grow in number and variety it becomes increasingly important to maintain high visibility and exposure for the content being generated.

Until now the web was populated by Web sites and other HTML-based content pages, and the main vehicle for reaching content has been the large use of major search engines and directories.

As a rapidly increasing number of content sources, new and old, migrate or add RSS as a key distribution channel, and as more people utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed, the ability to maintain high exposure and visibility is gradually shifted from a complete attention to major search engines and content optimization techniques to an increasing awareness of RSS feed directories and search tools."

Here's what the About.com Web Search guide had to say about blog submission: "If you haven’t already submitted to blog directories, you are missing out on some great one-way links. Many of the top directories can be found on Robin Good's Top 55 list."

Personally, I think there are two distinct advantages to submitting your blog to these blog-specific directories and search engines, which is why we offered this service to clients back during the Radiant Marketing days to begin with:

1. Added Google Juice - To one degree or another, these site have authority with Google. As such, having links from these have bearing on your PageRank and standing in Google. I'm not suggesting that simply by having your blog (and your RSS feed) listed on these sites will suddenly vault you up the rankings so that your blog is achieving first page returns. I am suggesting that inclusion in these directories will help. It is yet another way to build incoming links to your site and serves as another promotion strategy.
   
   (BTW, some of these sites do a good job of in promoting themselves via SEO, and it's not unusual to see them showing up in front page returns on Google keyword searches.)
   
   
2. More ways for readers to find you - These blog directories and search engines not only have relevance to search engines, but have real human beings who use them as well. It's yet another way for people to find you based on category and keywords. 

Special Offer to Active Rain members

Normally, Alan will submit a blog to 100 of the most relevant of these directories/search engines for $99. However, he has, at my request, agreed to offer Active Rain members submission to 150 of the most relevant of these sites for that price. Considering the work involved, that's a very good deal, folks!

Here's the information you need to send him:

• Your name
• Blog URL
• RSS Feed URL
• Contact information including address, phone number, and email address
• A 200 word description of your site (less than 200 words is fine, but not more than that)
  
• A list of relevant keywords
• A list of relevant categories (obviously 'real estate' would be one of those)

Once he has that information (and your payment of $99) he will begin the process which usually takes a couple of weeks. When the process is completed he will send you an Excel spreadsheet containing the list of sites he's submitted to and whether the submission was accepted by a given site. (Just because a site is submitted doesn't always mean it's accepted, but normally it is.)

You could do this yourself of course. However, it is a time-consuming process that is manually done. That's the best way to ensure inclusion as each of these sites require different information. The basic being the blog URL and/or the blog RSS feed URL.

I personally vouch that Alan will do a good, comprehensive job for you and in a timely manner. He just provided this service to Ines and I think she would vouch for him as well. 

He is in the process of getting a website up to promote the service, but it's not finished. In the meantime, you can contact him via email. His address is: achaney82@gmail.com. He takes payment via PayPal.

Finally, I hope you don't mind too much that I'm schilling for my son, but, well, he's my son and, as his dad, I couldn't be happier that he's taking an entrepreneurial step to provide a useful service to bloggers.

PS: He's not a bad looking kid either, despite the fact that I'm his father! :-)