This week, we’ve been talking all about effective methods of blog marketing to increase your company blog’s readership. Today, we discuss how to build a network of bloggers who can then bring in an army of readers.
Yesterday, I made a reference to the secret blogger handshake, and I have a confession to make: I really don’t know what that is. In fact, I’m not sure one actually exists. But if it does exist, the terms of said handshake are probably, “Follow my blog and I’ll follow your blog in return.” Awhile back, we dove into the power of commenting on others’ blogs and how that can bring in readers. But helping a fellow blogging brother or sister out goes way beyond the comment karma code. It’s not enough to pipe-bomb blogs with comments one time and expect a mass flock of followers to come running over to your blog. Audience building with bloggers takes a lot of time, but it is worth every minute.
Following or subscribing to blogs like yours is a nice starting block. Bloggers love having subscribers and adore knowing that their words are showing up in in-boxes around the globe. So why not get in on the action and subscribe to the blogs you read, comment on and identify with? Chances are those bloggers will follow you back, too.
If you’re having a tough time finding bloggers in your same genre, go out and look for them. If you’re a WordPress blogger, it’s never been easier to locate your kindred blogging spirits. Topics, subjects, keywords and most-read blogs can all be located in WordPress’s ever-evolving search engine. Voila! A network of bloggers is at your fingertips. If you still use Blogger, Google’s designated blog search is the way to go. In your search, you can look for both titles of blogs that feature your search term as well as the latest blogs featuring the term anywhere in the body of the blog. Blogs from other places like Tumblr and WordPress are bound to show up, but since Blogger is a Google product those created on the Blogger platform seem to rise to the top.
Once you’ve located and followed like-minded bloggers, get to engaging. These relationships, like the ones in real life, only work if you participate in them. Post links to blogs you like inside a post, create a blog roll of bloggers you read and, of course, comment your little heart out!
Tomorrow, we talk about leaving no blog marketing stone unturned! In the meantime, tell us how you find readers and which blogs (other than this brilliant one!) you follow.
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