Blogging is easy and fun, but without readers your blog won't help you market your firm. Putting together a sound following, however, is a lot of work. If you're looking for instant gratification look somewhere else. Blogging isn't going to . It will take months or years to put cultivate a real group of regular readers, even if you do everything perfectly. I'm not going to talk about content. You've already read a thousand good articles about content and I'll just advise you to keep the content interesting and fresh. Being likable and informative is useless, however, if you don't also promote your blog.

Here are eight tried and true strategies that will help entice subscribers into your accounting blog:

1. Use your blog to communicate with employees and clients.

Your employees are a built in audience, and your blog makes a great place to post staff birthdays, meetings, after hours get-togethers, and other daily updates. Your clients can also make great readers. Use your blog to keep them appraised on tax law changes and other news that directly affects them. Sending them an email asking them to comment on one of your posts can go a long way, too.

2. Don't make visitors dig through your website for your blog.

Don't make visitors search for your blog. Display the link prominently on your accounting website. Put it on the top level of your navigation menu, and add a banner link to your home page.

If at all possible try to host the blog on your domain rather than hosting it on a third party (wordpress, blogspot, etc.) URL. In the long run it will give you an advantage in the search engines.

3. Display your website address everywhere!

It's quite simple really. The more places you post your web address the more opportunities people will have to find your blog. Make sure the address is on your business card, in the signature of your email, and on any forums you may frequent. When posting your URL online ask yourself whether it's more appropriate to link directly to your blog rather than to the top level of your domain. Visitors looking for your blog won't want to navigate through your home page.

4. Engage other bloggers.

Bloggers are a tight-knit, cooperative community. If you help them out, they'll help you out. Theres no better way to put yourself out there. In fact, it's really the ONLY way get your name on other industry blogs and get some established exposure to your content. Backlinks to your blog will usually be provided as payment for your contribution, helping you with search engine authority.

On the other hand allowing guest bloggers will earn you goodwill and take some of the burden of constant posting off your shoulders. Help others help you!

5. Use your networking skills.

The online world is not as fragmented and impersonal as it might appear to the casual observer. In, fact it's composed of many tight knit communities and if you want to succeed you need to find and engage the communities that are relevant to your market. Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are a good place to start. Find and engage groups that are related to your target audience. Don't just promote your website. Put a link in your profile, sure, and site your blog when the opportunity arises, but it's more important to engage the group according to their needs and interests rather than your own.

6. Mention your influences.

Use social sites to talk about and to contacts; particularly other bloggers.

Your contacts will very likely see and appreciate these "plugs". Most online networking sites like twitter and Facebook have tracking services that will allow your friends to get an alert when you mention them. This means that using their name in your content gets you noticed - and it may up the chances that they'll share it with their readers.

7. Hold a contest.

People love free stuff. They always have and they always will. In fact the word "free" is the most powerful word in the marketing lexicon. You don't even have to offer something extravagant as a prize; a blog link or special postingfor the visitor that posts the most comments will often turn the trick. Just make sure the reward for winning is appealing enough that it gets your readers engaged!

Contests can also be used as a good way to cross sell your off season services. For example: You could offer a free financial statement compilation and review for a local business owner, and leverage it into a blog post showing the value you gave them.

8. Keep it dynamic.

Eventually every blogger gets stuck in a rut. Once you succumb to a formula it can be hard to get past it. Don't succumb to the doldrums! By the time you feel yourself starting to drift into limbo it's a pretty safe bet it's already happened. Mix it up. Keep your content fresh by doing something different. Videos work great and have added benefits. When you upload a video to YouTube you get even more exposure and can lure traffic who would never have found you otherwise.

If you employ these tactics you'll have a much better chance of cultivating a real following. I realize I said I wasn't going to dwell on this, but let me close by reminding you of some basic blogging principles. Your content matters! Keep it fresh, craft it to appeal to your readers rather than yourself, and keep reaching out to the community you are appealing to. Stay engaged. If you're engaged with your readers, you're readers will be engaged with you!

Brian O'Connell is the CEO and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the country's largest businesses dedicated entirely to accounting website design. His company presently provides websites for more than 4000 CPA, accounting, and tax preparation firms.