Make friends with fellow bloggers.
If you’ve spent any time in the business world you know that one of the most important things you can do to succeed is to network. Networking is basically creating mutual beneficial relationships with like minded people. This can include talking with them, exchanging business cards or even working together on a project. Just as networking is important in the business world it’s also just as important in the blogging world. You can learn a lot from other people and I’m sure there are many things other people can learn from you. As great as networking is it won’t happen unless you get your name out there and speak with fellow bloggers.
Start by searching for blogs that have the same goal as your own. Subscribe to these blogs, read about the author(s) and get to know what they’re all about. If you believe your sites are related and think they will both benefit from a cross link then contact the owner and see if you can swap links. It doesn’t hurt to ask, the worst thing that can happen is they say no.
Start a ‘link love’, ‘featured blogs’, or ‘blog real’ section to link to fellow bloggers. By linking to related blogs and having them link back to you not only will you boost your search engine visibility (page rank) but you will also be providing your visitors with a great resource.
Some tips:
- Do contact the blog author and introduce yourself.
- Don’t start off the conversation asking for something, it’s always better to get to know the blog a little better first. ;)
- Do keep in contact with blogs your interested in. Visit their blog and post comments, if they post something you really like shoot them off an email and let them know.
- Don’t link to unrelated sites, this doesn’t help page rank or your readers.
- Do advertise on related blogs. Not right away but start to collect a list of blogs that are worth paying for to be on. If you advertise on a site for a while and it’s a good match you might find yourself getting a permanent link in their blog roll.
- Don’t harass blog owners to link to you, this will often get you nothing more than a permanent place on their blacklist.
- Do link to related blogs even if they don’t link back. If you think they run a nice blog and it’s related to your subject by all means link to it.
- Don’t start you blog off with 6 ads trying to sell them to fellow bloggers. If you’re not known yet it often makes you look desperate and you probably wont get anyone to pay anyways.
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Matt Hanson