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?

Do Your Blog Posts Gain Reader Attention?

Blog posts can be a little dry; excuse me, I meant, web writing can be a little dry overall. Blogs aren’t the only online medium to blame. One problem is that blogs and online articles have gotten so SEO friendly. Some bloggers are excellent at making their posts search friendly AND personable. However, if you’re just focused on SEO, it’s easy to spot, annoying, super boring to read, and won’t lead to long term readers.

Another problem is that there are so many darn blogs around. Anyone can offer information on say, coffee or computers (and tons of bloggers do) but when you’re competing for readers to stay and read your post on coffee vs.the other guy, you better inject some life into your post in order to gain reader attention and keep it.

What attracts readers can vary, but here are some good ideas (i.e. tactics that gain my attention and keep me reading your posts):

You’re funny – but not mean funny: I like smart and funny bloggers who tell it like it is without being overly mean. I can deal with a little mean, but if rude is always your means to funny, it gets old.

You write about what I’m looking for: Obviously people want to read what they’re looking for. If you write for a main stream topic blog (say cooking) and yet you ‘re always writing about obscure irrelevant topics like shoes, OR bizarre food tips, such as snails in homegrown basil, you likely won’t get too many long-term readers. If I hit a cooking blog it’s because I want tips I can use.

You write about an obscure topic: I KNOW I just said above not to do this, but in some cases writing about something new and cool or odd is a great way to gain come-back readers. Using the cooking blog example again, you could have an entire obscure cooking blog, and that’s what you’d be known for. This is using odd topics to your advantage. There’s a fine line between drawing folks in with weird topics and still giving them info they can use though, so be careful.

You are human: I hate blog posts that offer up fact after fact without ever getting personal. I don’t need to know everything about you, but some personality is nice. When I’m reading about a topic at a blog, sure, I’m interested in the topic, but what keeps me at your blog vs. the other guy’s blog is that you have an opinion about your topic.

Your posts are visually pleasing: You hit enter, add relevant well-placed images, use bold text when necessary, and keep the posts easy to scan. If I cringe when I look at a blog, I leave and look for info elsewhere. Maybe that makes me a visual snob, but I’m betting I’m not the only one.

You are passionate or can fake it: This sort of goes along with the human aspect noted above, but there’s a little more to it. Even if you inject personality, you may not keep my attention if I can tell you’re bored or uninformed about your topic. I’ve written on topics I’m not personally passionate about, but one, I always feel like people can tell (I hate trying to fake it) and two, I never last long. I get bored and quit OR worse the blog suffers. Blogs written by folks who aren’t passionate, or who can’t fake it well just seem like dead space trashing up the blogosphere.

All of the above gain my attention. What gains your attention?

More place to find free blog images

To finish out this image kick I’m on, here are some more places to find free blog images, just in case you didn’t find what you were looking for in 10 places to find free blog images that you won’t get sued for using.

In that post linked above, someone left a comment tip about using Every Stock Photo to find images so we’ll start there. The reader notes, “It searches Flickr CC-licensed images, Stock Xchange, and few others. It’s nice to quickly find what you are looking for.” I half agree. While I like Every Stock Photo, it’s too many clicks for me. You visit the site, type in a search, look for an image, then once you find the image you need, you have to visit that image’s specific web page to find out about image copyright. (i.e it could be attribute, no alteration, etc.). It just takes more time than I have. That said, if you’re hard up, and have some time, you’re bound to find the image you need here.

Other places to find free blog images – BTW If it’s posted, it means I’ve found at least one useful image there at some point… Read more

Alignment Mistakes Bloggers Make When Using Blog Images

To kick off the month we’ve been looking at image use on blogs. So far; you can catch up with kick off 2009 with more useful blog images and 10 places to find free blog images that you won’t get sued for using.

I’m a little bit of a visual snob (I like pretty). However, beauty is subjective, and in the end, I don’t need pretty to stay at a blog. I come for the writing first. That said, when I hit a blog, and the images are all screwy, it makes me want to run and never return. Some blog image mistakes overshadow the content, and that’s when image mistakes become a full blown blog problem.

Common image alignment mistakes I’ve seen bloggers make far too often:

No one wants to see this:

text lined up next to a left aligned image with no space to set the image off.

This is super annoying. My eye goes right to the image, and won’t move. I miss any important text because all I can think is why the flip can’t they align the darn image.

EVEN if you get a decent border set up, I’d think long and hard before placing an image to the left. Of course, image placement depends on your personal blog design, but I think that most folks are used to reading left to right. In this case the image forces you to have to stop and think about the reading.

Also, since I left aligned the image, look at how the end text looks. It looks terrible. You’ve got text hanging down below the image, and then the line right after the image looks like it’s floating from nowhere. Yikes.
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10 places to find free blog images that you won’t get sued for using

In the post, kick off 2009 with more useful blog images I promised to be back with some good places to find free blog images. I’ve also included a guide with each place so you’ll know if the image site is worth your time, or a major energy drain.

1. Stock.xchng is my favorite basic free image site. It’s not always chock full of what you need, and because the site offers free images, your blog will have images that possibly many other blog do, but overall, it’s a great random stock image site.

Ease of use: A+ = Head to their advanced search option, type in a keyword, click on not restricted (i.e. free), and off you go. At stock.xchng you can also hold your mouse over an image to enlarge it; which might seem like a petty feature, but when you’re working fast, it’s lame to have to click an image to see it large. Not all image sites offer this. PLUS images come in various sizes so less editing may be needed. Lastly, you need to register to download images, but it’s a one time deal.
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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