l have set up an new blog - l am aiming it at UK students - any ideas on how l can attract them and also - how can l up my sites ranking in the search engines? http://mystudentblog.co.uk/ebay-guide/

To some extent, same answer to both your questions. Go to any sort of online forums where they are at, and provide useful info plus links back to your blog. As long as you create value with your postings, and provide additional value on your blog, this will draw traffic. And these external links will help your Google rankings (make sure you use good keywords in the links). You could also consider more traditional means, like contests.

This site is a great way to promote your blog:

http://hits2u.com/?635169

Posting in forums is an excellent way to get backlinks to ur blog. The key is to post in forums that have a high page rank. Since ur page rank is low, probably nill at this point, use the page rank of an already established forum.

Also, submit articles to directories like ezinearticle.com or goarticles.com. Both of these directories have high google page ranks. You can not just write ''go to my blog but write an article that is relavant to ur blog & point readers to ur blog in ur signature or resource box.