Creating a useful and successful blog networking plan

Social networking isn’t that hard. Anyone can tweet, leave comments, ask for link exchanges, or IM readers and blogging pals. These are all general networking ideas that can work. However, if you’re focusing on the wrong blog networking tactics for your specific blog you’re wasting your time.

In my mind we network for one basic reason, to draw readers to our blog. Maybe you’re networking for another reason; to get read for personal reasons, to promote a cause, to get a job, or to gain clicks on ads, but it really all comes down to getting people to your blog doesn’t it? Bloggers want traffic and with so many blogs around the competition can be brutal. Following are some tips that can help you fine-tune a plan for your specific blog.

Your blog comes first: You can network to your hearts content, but without a decent blog to back it up, you’re not going to gain any long-term readers. Write good posts often. Write posts your readers want to read (you can even poll readers about this). Showcase older and popular posts that new readers may have missed in the past. Other good ideas include offering easy access to rss and email options for your posts, making your blog easy to navigate, and creating an attractive blog that will entice people to look around. Taking care of your blog insures folks who land there stay and visit and hopefully come back.

Choose some, not all networking options: You can’t do it all, so you may as well choose some social networking options you enjoy. If you hate Twitter, it’s just not a good networking option for you because one, you won’t stick with it, and two, I think people can tell when you’re not really into what you’re doing.

Be selective about links: If you’re into emailing people for blogroll minded link exchanges, make sure you do your homework. I get link exchange requests frequently at Tree Hugging Family, which as you might guess is an eco-minded blog. However, I get link exchange requests from all sorts of bloggers who have nothing to to do with green. I’m not going to link a blog out of my niche so these bloggers have just wasted my time and their own. Make sure you send link exchange requests to blogs in your niche or at least in a sub-niche. Note – it’s also smart to send out link exchange requests after you’ve been blogging a while. I tend to not link brand new blogs (under 5 mos) because I have no clue if they’re in it for the long haul, and I hate having to change my blogroll.

Speaking of sub-niches: It’s smart to network with other blogs in your niche, but you can widen the field by networking with bloggers close to your niche as well. For example, if you write a thrifty blog, there’s a good chance readers of a DIY home project blog or a budget gardening blog might like your blog too.

Use the readers you have already to make networking decisions: If you have some stable readers, ones who leave comments, and also have blogs, head to their site, to see what else they’re reading. Check their blogroll and visit those blogs to leave comments. Often your readers will visit other blogs that might be good to network with.

Network with the bloggers on your level: Not to apply labels, but if you’re a less than B-list blogger (or new blogger) trying to get A-listers to notice you is a lofty goal. You might have better luck networking with less popular bloggers. We all start somewhere. You might be creating a long lasting networking relationship with a new blogger now, but who know where they’ll be in two years or less. Case in point, I became friends with a brand new blogger a couple of years ago, she had emailed me asking questions, and we hit it off. Then she managed to become way popular in under a year (rare but cool) and because we were pals she had all my blogs linked at her site, which tossed me some decent traffic. That’s not the only reason I like her, but it’s a nice bonus for sure, one I wouldn’t have gotten had I ignored her emails early on. An added benefit of non-A-listers is they get less email, usually have more time, and tend to be more open to new networking relationships.

Chill out: Online relationships, like offline relationships take time to build and grow. Asking favors too early on, frequently bugging a blogger you just met, using spammy behavior, and expecting too much is not chill behavior. Allowing relationships to grow naturally makes for longer lasting connections.

Of course when it comes to networking, there’s always more you could be doing. What are some of your best ideas for networking that meets your specific blog’s needs?

17 Tips for Promoting Your Blog Without Being Spammy

After my last post, 5 Reasons You’re Not Making Any Money as a Blogger, some of the members of this community asked if I could offer a few tips for promoting blogs without being spammy or annoying.

A key to successful blogging is knowing there’s a fine line between self promotion and spam. The important thing to remember is to build relationships rather than spreading links everywhere you go. If you only drop links, you’ll turn off potential readers. However, if you take the time to participate in discussions and get to know people, they’ll want to learn more about you and what you do.

Here are a few tips for promoting your blog without spamming the people you need most:

1. Post in forums - Forums are a terrific way to build up relationships and have a conversation with like-minded people – as long as that’s what you’re doing. When every comment you make is pimping an article (”I wrote a post about that once, check it out…”), you’ll find yourself banned or shunned in no time flat. When you take time to have an intelligent discussion with people who share the same vision, they’re going to want to check out the links in your signature. Conversational marketing works better than spam.

2. Visit other blogs - Other blogs in your niche are not your enemies or your competition, they’re colleagues. Instead of worrying about another site stealing your traffic, or who is higher in the Google Rankings, use other blogs to your advantage. Participate in the comments and offer a useful point of view. If you left a thoughtful remark, others might be include to check out the link in your signature line. Keep in mind it’s considered spam to drop your links anywhere but the appropriate space. Don’t drop links in your comment post unless invited to do so. Read more

How to be totally obnoxious when asking for a link exchange

A blogger pal of mine (who shall remain nameless) was recently approached by a fairly well-known blog (who shall remain nameless – we’ll call them blog X) for a link exchange. At first it all seemed fine and dandy. Then my pal noticed that other bloggers responses to said link exchange were popping up in her email.

Blogger pal o’ mine had not noticed at first, (because who clicks on Gmail details every time) but this email had been sent out to a bunch of folks. She was just one of many emails listed. This is shoddy link exchange handling. At the very least the sender, blog X, could have sent the email to recipients via Bcc (which will send a blind copy).

Why this sucks:

First of all, I KNOW, anyone with an Internet connection can find an email for me if they try. However, that doesn’t mean I like it when bloggers I don’t know send my email off to lots of other bloggers I don’t know, simply to gain a link exchange agreement. That’s just bad manners.

Secondly, like most bloggers I get loads of email. I don’t need a bunch of emails from other folks on list because they hit reply all. A more crowded email box is enough right there to make me turn down a link exchange.

Other ways to be obnoxious when asking for a link exchange: Read more

Kick off 2009 with more useful blog images

As I’ve complained about before, I’ve had clients who actually tell me to use Google Images to locate appropriate post images in order to “amp my posts”. I refuse, because online suicide is not a blogging goal of mine. I agree though that images are a nice blog addition. I personally don’t think that every single post needs an image, but if the image does one of the following, it’s a good plan:

• Adds something to your post – nostalgia, humor, beauty, or clearly shows your post theme.
• Highlights your post topic – for say product reviews. Product review posts that lack images are annoying, because people like to see what you’re talking about.
• Makes the post – there are times when an image is almost all you need for a post. This works best on fashion, architecture, decor, and other art minded blogs, but you can also make it work for you at another type of blog. Quotes spring to mind. I rarely post a quote, but if I find one, and it matches a current theme, I might post it along with an appropriate image.

Images do have some major benefits: Read more

Informal Poll – Where is the line between link love & too much link love?

Sorry I’ve been MIA – my flu got pretty bad, then I got better, and of course I had work to catch up on. In any case, I have an informal poll question.

Recently, a client I blog for decided that a good way to increase page views might be to try a daily link love post. If you’re lost on link love, here’s a link love example you can view. I like link love posts, because they allow me to offer extra content to readers, stuff I enjoyed reading, that I assume my readers might also enjoy. I also think it’s a decent traffic builder when done in moderation. Read more

Social networking is fuzzy – what’s your take?

I was making a list of social networking methods for blogs, plus discussing it with Deb, and I realized that some of the methods I use are pretty fuzzy. Many social activities cross over with blog promotion and the other way around, and it all mixes up with building your own blog community. For example, if someone finds you through Technorati and you become pals and maybe score a gig through that friendship, is it blog promotion, or are you doing a little networking? Fuzzy business.

That said, I’m going to cover some blog networking methods over the next few posts, but some of the methods we’ll look at may cross over into blog promotion. Although networking is fuzzy, here’s my take. If you’re a blogger, you need to get out there, connect, and interact with others. If you do that, you’ll not only be networking, but promoting your blog.

Here is a sample of what you’ll see if you look up “social networking” online:
Read more

What kind of social networking is the most beneficial for bloggers

It seems everyone is interested in finding the best form of social networking for bloggers, according to the recent post, “Is Network Blogging Tips the right name for this blog?”

It’s a bit of a loaded question, because straight up, the kind of social networking that will work best for your blog, is….

The social networking you’ll actually use. Bonus points if you enjoy using it. Read more

Why Bloggers Need Stats to Succeed

by Deborah Ng

I’m a stats junky. I check my stats several times a day to see how I’m doing traffic wise, plus for several other reasons. My stats tell me:

• Which of my posts are most popular – Knowing this gives me a good idea of what my readers want.
• Which keywords bring in the most traffic - See above. Knowing where my traffic comes from helps me to accommodate my readers.
• How many people stopped by in a day - If I have a very high or low traffic day, it’s good to know the reason.
• Who is linking to my blog and why - Wouldn’t you want to know what others are saying about you? What if it’s something that’s not very good? What if it requires a response?
• How much traffic is coming in via search engines- Knowing the search engines are sending lots of traffic our way is very encouraging. It means we’re ranked and it means when other people search for certain things they’ll find us. Read more

Use Keywords to Label Your Images for Increased Traffic

When I wrote for a music blog, I went from receiving a few hundred visitors a day to a few thousands visitors a day overnight. Did I hit it big on Digg? Get major Stumblage? No. I brought in thousands of readers through Google Image Search.

I know many bloggers and web writers label their images haphazardly or with little thought as to whether or not they’ll bring in search engine traffic. A picture labeled “snow122208″ probably won’t bring in as many search results as one labeled “snow conditions”, “snow boots”, “snow tires” or “snow boarding.”

In addition to saving your images using keywords, use keywords in your image descriptions and, if you can do it without looking spammy, your image captions. Start doing this and within a week or two your traffic numbers will rise.

Labeling your images properly is one small thing you can do to bring in big results!

Snag some extra October Blog Traffic

If you’re looking for a great way to get some extra traffic in October, and simultaneously voice your opinion on an important topic, you should sign up for Blog Action Day 2008.

Blog Action Day is a new blogosphere event (started last year). The goal of Blog Action Day is to gather voices in the blogosphere on a single day to discuss an important issue. Last year the topic was the environment – this year it’s poverty.

Anyone with a blog, podcast, or so fourth can sign on to participate. All you have to do is register at Blog Action Day 2008, and then commit to blogging about poverty on October 15th.

Blog Action Day was loads of fun last year. Tons of blogs participated and it was cool to see how everyone covered green issues from their blog’s unique perspective. It was also way neat to see how the blogosphere managed to come together on a single day – this event is a great way to get involved with the blogging community and find new blogs to read and adore.

The other benefit, as noted above, is increased traffic. Once you sign on, your blog is listed along with all the other blogs participating on the Blog Action Day website. Additionally, on the big event day, plenty of people linked to each other which also boosted traffic. Last year about five of my blogs participated and all but one had big traffic increases during the event.

Currently 4,599 sites have signed on, and because Blog Action Day gathers RSS info they’re estimating about 9,387,391 readers for this event so far.

Some of the blogs involved so far: TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, LifeHacker, Mashable, Smashing, VentureBeat, ProBlogger, Inhabitat, ZenHabits, Stepcase LifeHack, MentalFloss, DailyBlogTips, and oodles more.

As for me: I’m signed on this year with Tree Hugging Family and Offbeat Homes – I may add more. If you sign on for Blog Action Day, let me know in the comments, so I can try to stop by to read your thoughts on poverty.

[image via Blog Action Day]

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