Grow your blog through networking
September 11th, 2007 by ses5909Looks like you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single conversation! Thanks for visiting!
Yesterday I received an email thanking me for my comment on the sender’s blog and he asked:
Do you have any other suggestions for promoting my blog?
Time and time again I see people in forums say that if you write excellent content, people will come to read it. That isn’t entirely true. The readers need to know about your site first!
When you launch your blog, you can either wait for the search engines to index you or you can take matters into your own hands and get your blog seen; it really is about WHO you know. This is true for older, established blogs as well. Here are some great ways to network your blog!
Comment on other people’s blogs
If you want people to read your blogs, you need to read theirs and go one step further and COMMENT. I know I check out every blog of someone who comments on mine and if I like what I see I will possibly comment (if I have something to add) and even better I will subscribe to their feed and become a return reader! General interest bloggers have it a little bit easier because they don’t need to target any particular niche and can see a reward quicker than more niche bloggers. Niche bloggers, though, should spend their time reading blogs within or related to their niche. If you have a weight loss blog, while you are more than welcome to comment on a photography blog, they aren’t the ideal blogger you will want to network with. Instead focus on other weight loss blogs and fitness blogs as they will be the type of person who will probably come see what you have to offer.
When you make your comment, don’t make it spammy by inserting your link into your comment. Make a relevant comment to the post and just include your link in the appropriate place. Be sure you make it easy for your visitors to comment so they can return the favor.
Join a blog community
If you haven’t joined a blog community like MyBlogLog or Blog Catalog you really are missing out. These communities are places for bloggers to discover other blogs that they are interested in. They also provide this cool little widget that allows you to put a face (or avatar) to the people who are visiting your sites. You can see mine in the right-hand sidebar. I love seeing new faces and will always check out their profile and their blog (much like I do with people who comment). I don’t use BlogCatalog so can’t compare the two but have been very happy with MyBlogLog.
Participate in relevant forums
Forums are an EXCELLENT way to network with people. Forums for blogging are a great way to learn and also help each other out. As a bonus, the people who are active in the forum are bloggers themsleves and will most likely comment on your blog if they like what they see. TBE has it’s own Blog Forum but the next best one out there would probably be bloggeries. I would recommend all bloggers get active in forums like these. In addition to forums about blogging, you can get involved in forums related to your niche! This is a great way for people to see you are an authority on your topic and then go see what else you have to say on your blog.
There is a key to having forums work for you though. You can’t just join a forum and start posting your links, the members will reject you and you will likely get banned, thus ruining any chance you had! As soon as you join a forum, if you are allowed to create a signature, set that up right away and link to your blog with interesting keywords that will get people to click. Don’t just say, “My Blog”; be a little more creative. Get involved in the forum as soon as you can. Start answering questions and start topics of your own. Other members will check out your sig out of interest and be sure to check theirs out as well!
What are some things you have done to network your blog?
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September 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
For the most part, these methods are the only way I get any traffic to my blogs at the moment. They’re still fairly new so I’m working out the kinks, but as I do, interacting with other blogs and bloggers are my main traffic points.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Great post sara. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. So get out there and network people!
September 13th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
The part about leaving comments is very much true. I left a comment on the blog of Google’s resident nurse/doctor person (I can’t remember the URL to it now) and she came and visited my blog. She didn’t leave any comments or anything, but I thought it was cool that I got somebody from inside Google to come. The same story goes with Kobra from KobrasCorner (.org|.com|.net or something like that), and he stumbled an article on my blog. That led to some nice traffic.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
“General interest bloggers have it a little bit easier because they don’t need to target any particular niche and can see a reward quicker than more niche bloggers.”
Wow — I’ve always thought exactly the opposite; that niche bloggers at least have a target audience, a natural pool of readers, whereas we general interest bloggers are sort of — general.
I get lots of readers, especially from search engines, for the cat posts — they aren’t into poetry. Some of my poetry readers think I’m being frivolous to post about cats. Some hate the quizzes; some love them.
So I just do what I want to (mostly) — but finding congenial readers is certainly the challenge.
September 15th, 2007 at 7:26 am
@mark - who you know is definitely a part of it, but you also have to have the goods to back you up!
@Rashy - That’s pretty cool!
@sbpoet - Thanks for your comment. I guess I am referencing my own experience as I have had success getting readers from multiple niches rather than just a specific one.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
http://www.carbodypanels.info/car-parts-southampton.php…
keep it up…
September 27th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Great thread here, Sara. Something that’s helped me grow my blog and the Know More Media network is to try to make friends with smart, well-connected people in the blog publishing niche. It’s mutually beneficial because we can trade expertise and help each other succeed. But the most important thing is to put human beings first and make them feel loved and cared about - sounds hokey, maybe, but it’s true. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.