With blogging turning into such an amazingly popular activity, it was only the next logical step that some people would position themselves as tutors for the blogging novices. Internet marketing blogs, SEO blogs, design, writing and blogging tips blogs emerged and some of them became leaders of opinion in the blogosphere.
The advantage they had over other blog was their information. The quality, the relevance and the applicability of their guidelines finally secured their path to world wide awareness, authority and eventually success.
But, while everything works well from their point of view, readers trying to implement their guides and tips might encounter a few problems, or might have a hard time deciding on the most viable solution for their blog.
We need to dig deeper
How many times have you encountered this advice?
Comment on other blogs in your niche.
I’d say that you’ve seen it on probably every single blog tips blog. But how many of them go deeper, telling readers how to select those blogs that will deliver the best results? How many will tell them what to stay away from and what kind of discussion to engage in?
How many blogs talk about branding yourself and your blog without explaining to the common user what branding means and a difference between a poor logo, for example, that will most definitely position you as a “wanna be”, instead of a professional?
I’m not trying to point fingers here! I’m just saying that we need to go deeper when approaching certain topics, and not expect our users to be internet savvy people. We have the advantage of years of experience behind, so the best thing to do is to put that experience to use for those that need it the most.
Now, let me share my point of view over a few commonly misunderstood blog tactics, and I’m not talking from a “tips” blogger’s perspective, but from the reader’s side. From that side where I’ve been and where I had to learn things by the “trial and error” method.
Commonly Misunderstood Blog Tactics
1. Using Social Media
One of the most common advice you’re bound to find on blogs is to build an active social media profile. Some will tell you how well Digg works for blogs, or StumbleUpon, or Reddit, or Facebook.
There’s no general rule here. What works for a user, might not work for another. Also, being an “active user” on social media, might affect the quality or the posting schedule of some bloggers.
It’s not an easy task building a strong social media profile, without exposing yourself to risks like:
- Being considered a spammer of a specific service (due to a high number of submissions);
- Wasting time that you should be using for growing your blog;
- Positioning yourself as a Social Media Marketer, rather than a blogger.
From where I stand, the most important thing is NOT the volume of your submissions, but rather their quality and the quality of your network. Since most services don’t encourage submitting your own works, or even if they do, users tend to skip those entries, the best idea is to focus on building a strong relationship with your network.
For that, you have a few options:
- Find those highly ranked user profiles that focus on the same niche you’re interested in, or activate in and start building strong relationships with them. It’s not easy, it will take time, but it’s worth it. Help them, and in time, they’ll start to help you.
- Focus on delivering high quality content and encourage your readers to share it over their social media profiles. Most of your readers are also present on these services. Use that to yuor advantage and build up a network around your reader base.
If you’re interested in maintaining a traffic level based on social media usage, the best results come from loyal network users and readers. They are the one most interested in your content, thus being more willing to submit, re-share and vote on it. So, the majority of the incoming traffic will not be based on your own submissions, but on submissions of your content, made by users in your network.
2. Commenting on Other Blogs
This is one of those tactics that can have either positive or negative effects, all depending on how you apply your strategy.
Of course, the first thing you need to do is to focus on your niche. Commenting on high traffic blogs, may not always turn out to be efficient, due to the high number of comments they receive. In this situation, your comment might get lost in between many more other comments.
Still, you have two options to make you comment stand out (best results being delivered when combined):
- Be among the first to comment;
- Have a strong opinion on the matter and express it in larger comment. The majority of comments that high traffic blogs received are those “Great post!” or “Thanks for the tips!” type of comments. A more elaborate opinion is bound to stand out between those.
High traffic blogs are not always the best solution. Readers are constantly on the lookout for new blogs, written by not-so-famous individuals with fresh ideas and fresh content. By commenting on these blogs you expose your self to a whole new audience, an audience eager to discover new things and easier to engage in communication and to attract to your blog.
Do not over-promote your blog through your comments. Allow the community to base its decision on the quality of your opinions. If it’s top notch, they’ll want to click you name and thus visit your blog.
Also, one time comments will have no positive effect. Actually, they’ll have no effect at all. Why? Because making a user click you link is a matter of trust, and trust is not gained with one comment. Make a habit of commenting on those blogs from time to time, in order to gain their audience’s trust.
The negative effects of a commenting strategy come from poor quality comment repeated over long periods of time. This will affect both your online image – your brand – and your schedule, as you’re wasting time that you should dedicate to research and publishing.
I recommend that you read this excellent post on how to develop and maintain a good commenting strategy, by Caroline Middlebrook.
3. Networking With Other Bloggers
Link to other blogs. Email other bloggers. Subscribe to their social media profiles. Comment on their blogs. I’m sure you’ve read all these tips. But, do they actually work? Or, better said, in which conditions do they actually deliver results?
Linking it’s nice. It’s a sign of blogger appreciation. But to be true, linking can develop into a relationship only if it’s a repetitive process. You have to be ready to put out a lot of links to the same blog. Would you do that?
Commenting works too, but mostly on small sized blogs. Only because you risk being one of the 200 hundred people using the same commenting strategy, when it comes to big blogs. You’ll only be a small fish in a big sea, trying to generate some waves. It’s hard.
Following bloggers on social media could work too, but again, it they are high profile bloggers, chances are you’ll be just one of another 2000 or more followers. no much of an exposure there, right?
So, we’re left with emails. Networking through emails has its own set of rules, that most people tend to ignore.
I’ve been getting non-spam emails on my private address (which contains my real name) starting with: “Hi Blogsessive”. Is it really that hard to use the name? That’s a mistake that many people make.
Also, I’ve been getting emails being asked to read a certain post, or exchange links with different blogs, based on this sentence “I’ve been a long time reader of Blogsessive.” OK, that’s cool, and thank you for that. Sometimes, I’ll take time to read those posts, sometimes I won’t. But surely not because I’ve got an email from someone claiming he/she is an avid reader, that I’ve never even seen commenting on the blog.
My readers can confirm that their emails are responded, mostly quite fast. But the ones that get responded have the decency of reading my about page, using my name, not asking me to do things in exchange for their loyalty. Networking is not “emotional blackmailing”.
The best way to network with a blogger is to be the first to offer help, instead of asking for. I can assure you that help will come back 10 times more quick and efficient. Also, try and build a strategy by combining most of these networking tactics to support your main networking strategy.
Over to You
As I said before, these are things I had to learn in time from experimenting. From making mistakes and fixing them. You’ve certainly been in the same position, so I’d love to read your opinion on the above matters and how you’ve dealt with similar situations and blog tactics.
And remember that everything you do contributes to your online image, you brand.
Photo credits to channah.