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This is part 2 of MyBLogLog 101. If you have not read the part 1, please click here.
6. Ok, so you are probably asking, if I don’t leave messages for people on MBL, how do I get the attention of people that I have a blog myself? Great question and the answer is rather simple, read and comment. You found some blogs that interest you, good. Now start reading those blogs and adding comments to those blogs. Tell the author what you think. If you liked a particular post or you didn’t. If you agree or disagree and why. You want to gain readership for what you are writing, start commenting on other member blogs and I guarantee you, you will start seeing those authors come over to check out and comment on your blog.
7. Did you read a post that you particularly liked or disliked? Did you find an article that you might have something to add or have a different take on it? Great, write a post on your own blog and reference the original author and post with a live link in your article. State your opinions and thoughts. The whole point of the blogosphere is to induce discussions.
8. If you have followed the checklist so far, you have begun to see increased traffic and certain bloggers have begun checking out your site and responded in comments. This is a good time to consider adding them to your blogroll on your site. If you are not familiar with a blogroll, it is simply a list of blogs that you enjoy and by putting them on your site, you are recommending them to your readers. Links play an important role not just by driving new traffic from blog to blog, but also getting visibility in the search engines. Many bloggers will reciprocate by adding a link from their blog to yours after you have added them, if you are writing quality articles.
9. Now that you have begun establishing relationships, if you want to go back and start adding some of these people as contacts in MBL go nutty. Again, contacts do not play that big of a role in MBL, but it doesn’t hurt.
10. My final recommendation is to start at step 1 again and do this all over again. There are always new members joining and by repeating these steps, you are keeping up on what new blogs and authors you might be interested in and who might be interested in you.
I hope this was helpful and if you think I am off the mark or missed somethings, please let me know in the comments and if I agree with you, I will be more than happy to update this.
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What you perscribed here I think is advice that not just applies to MBL but probably to blogging as a whole (at least from everything I have read from other bloggers and you).
It sounds to me like you are pretty on the mark.
However, I think thoughts on the following would be of equal benefit is the topic of inducing conversation itself. This is something I myself have (and still do) struggle(d) with. Certainly one can try to induce a conversation, but if no one responds, you must obviously be resiliant. But then other things elevate the fear- if I have 3 posts asking for comments and none of have them, will people not comment on this next one? Etc.
Nathan,
I agree with you. Of course this could work across everything and not just MBL. My point is that if someone has joined MBL, I think they are more apt to comment and open a discussion than someone who does has not joined. In regard to the fear, I guess I would say what is there to be afraid of? Worse comes to worse, you look like a horses ass… Ok, I have done it already in the past and I don’t have a doubt that I will do it in the future.
Thanks for your comment
Great article, Cord (both parts)! I discovered MBL a while back, and am enjoying it… but haven’t spent much time yet trying to figure out how to make my participation most effective. From comments I’ve seen on MBL (lots of spam), I can tell there are lots of users who should be reading your post!
Thanks for the tips!
Bonnie
Bonnie,
Thanks so much for coming by and your thoughtful comments. Please come back soon.
Great steps to networking - and not only on MBL, Cord - visiting, reaching out and commenting…each of these “other” focused. Nicely stated and lessons too often overlooked. Keep rockin’
Thank you very much Bob!
I think you’ve touched on an important point here - having a huge list of MBL contacts doesn’t do you any good if they’re not readers/have never visited your page.
Commenting on other people’s blogs is a much more effective way to gain *long-term* readers who are actually interested in the topics you’re writing on.
Wow, have I made a big booboo!
I just joined MBL a few days ago and didn’t check out the MBL blog itself first. (Wrong move.)
I was excited to immediately try out the whole thing. When I got people adding me as their contacts - strangers, of course - I was actually flattered. I reciprocated and began to add other strangers as contacts, too. I thought it was how things were done in MBL. I mean finding blogs you find interesting, joining their communities and adding them as contacts.
Then I got messages from strangers inviting me to join their communities. I got even more excited. Of course I did join, after checking out their sites. Then I started leaving messages all over inviting people to check out my 2 blogs and join my communities, too. What fun,I thought.
Now I’m so embarassed. Especially after reading how people just hate what I’ve been doing.And that it could even be called spamming! Oh my.
Perhaps clear guidelines such as that on this post should be providedright at the starting point of joining MBL? Just so non-techie and not-very-net-savvy newbies like me don’t fall flat on their face with good intentions.
Calling MBL!
And to all those who have read my “Please visit my blog and join my community” messages please know that I did not intend to be rude or to spam. I simply thought it was what wasnormally done at MBL. Now I know better.
The thing is, I knew about everything else suggested by Cord. I knew about reading blogs and commenting on them to get recognized. I just thought MBL had a new twist added to the game. Oh well. A day wiser, indeed.
Eric’s MyBlogLog blog directed me to your article. You are so right! I started totally wrong. But I blogged undetected by almost anyone for months, so I got a little delirious to find new contacts…
Michelle - You are absolutely right, I would add one more thing which I have learned is that you not only gain readers, but more importantly, you began to create a true community. I have met so many fellow bloggers who I have gained so much respect for and truly enjoy their writings and just talking to them through comments, MBL or email.
Manila Mom - Don’t be embarrassed at all. We all kind of jump head first into the blogging deep end when we start. No worries at all. My opinion is don’t concern yourself with all the hype of traffic, contacts and all that. Just focus on a small group of bloggers who you enjoy reading and I guarantee you it will blossom from there.
Zep - Totally understand especially these days the way MBL s growing so fast, you can get caught in the shuffle. As I said to Manila Mom, what I did when I started was recognized a half a dozen blogs that I really liked the bloggers writings and started focusing on them and creating relationships. The numbers will come.
Thank you all for stopping by and commenting and I hope you will come back soon!!
Cord,
Great riff on MBL!
I’ve been a member for a while and you’ve nailed it on the head.
I would add, though, that once in a while I do intentionally invite people to join my community, most notably the “newbies” or those in with similar interests.
I remember first joining and tryng to understand the lay of the land. If our interests are similar or they dig my stuff, I do invite them to join…most times they appreciate that, if offered politely and in a welcoming way.
That’s it…rock on!
Ditto thanks extended from part 1. The lesson for me is be consistent with what I’m doing. I did go kind of crazy on the contacts thought. I’m just focusing on reading and commenting on five blogs and a time and moving on from there.
Thanks again Cord………Martin
Cord,
That was helpful to know about joining a community before adding as a contact. I wrote a review on my blog and linked to this article so more bloggers will know about that.
Thomas & Martin - Thank you both for your thoughts and feedback. I am glad to hear my post was helpful. I hope both of you will come back and join this ever growing and fabulous community. Thanks.
I’ve been doing most of the things you mentioned by trial and error. I joined back in early Dec ‘06. It would have been nice if these pointers were around back then. Oh well, it’s better late than never…
Mike - Thank you very much, appreciate the shout-out.
Esofthub - I am sorry I did not get to this to you earlier unfortunately I did not know who you were before today and my psychic abilities have been on the fritz lately. I promise I will whip myself tonight to punish myself for not getting this to you earlier. You do realize it is not like I work for MBL or anything right?
I surfed over to your page from my blog buddy, Martin Lindsey. Cool site and great MBL tips. I wish I’d read this when I joined a few months ago. Thanks.
Vanessa - I am glad it was helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything further I can help you with.
Mr. Silverstein, I appreciate you putting this information out. I wasn’t directing my comments towards you, please pardon my miscommunication. And yes, I do realize you don’t work for MBL.
Esofthub - No worries, appreciate the follow up.
aloha cord,
thanks for taking the time and sharing some of your MBL wisdom with us newbies (i joined in jan 07). of course, it would have been nice to have had a strategy like yours available at that time but now and then i guess, we all need to learn from our own mistakes!
i felt lost when arriving at MBL…what to do and not to do, that was the question. that’s why i don’t totally condemn (or delete) the guys’ messages who say ‘nice blog. please, visit mine.’ as you see from your comments, many bloggers just don’t know any better.
i still try both approaches…contacts and communities. i think both have their justifications. i also noticed that your number of contacts nearly equals your communities. i guess you also don’t leave the contacts totally out of the picture.
just a last remark re comments. i am a big believer in comments for the success of a blog. my goal (or better: dream) is to have one day enough dedicated readers of my blog to have lively conversations going. unfortunately, leaving a post relevant comment does rarely pay back with a comment in return. otherwise, my blog should be swamped with comments!
still motivated to make the best out my relationship with MBL (it was very helpful so far), i will keep commenting and working on finding the right people for my hawaii community. thanks again cord for your advice. pua
Pua - In regard to my contacts, usually what happens is when someone joins my community, they add me as a contact and if they do that, there is no reason why I would not reciprocate the contact. I did not say contacts were bad, I just said that they do not play a huge role in helping you increase traffic and visibility to your blog.
In regard to comments, just like in everything in life, there are different kind of bloggers. There are some bloggers who do not respond to comments on their own blog, let alone going and checking out a commentors own blog. I think it is more of a trial and error kind of thing. Just like you there have been several blogs that I commented on and got absolutely no kind of response from the blogger. You just learn and move on. You just need to find the people who will be most interested in what you are writing about.
Finally, regarding your motivation, I know at times all this can seen overwhelming and frustrating. My suggestion is to focus more on delivering the best content you can on your site. I am a true believer in the :If you build it, they will come” mentality. Good content and good ideas can never be silenced. If you deliver the goods, the people will follow, in my humble opinion anyway.
Thanks again for your comments and thoughts. I hope to see you back again!
Cord - MyBlogLog is an interesting variation on
typical” community sites. Conversations are hard to maintain there, since replies are spread out across personal profiles, and different communities (no threading), and the “societal norms” for adding contacts, fans, friends is all fairly murky.
I’d echo the other comments here, your comments are dead on for blogging etiquette and general traffic building techniques.
Sounds to me as though MyBlogLog becomes the place to research who is interested in various topics (whether creating or commenting), and then MyBlogLog is the launching pad into the more time consuming process of spiraling out participation across blogs, etc..
I believe the most interesting aspect of MBL overall is that it surfaces some sense as to who the invisible crowds are that are reading blogs and other sites. Commentary and trackback on any blog is usually a very low percentage of the overall traffic - rumor has it that 1% is a HIGH number. By seeing the photos/avatars of the “silent majority,” that helps to bring back the human element of those who lurk as well as those who actively participate.
Sidenote - just did a podcast talking about another aspect of invisible crowds, see/hear that at: http://www.biztechtalk.com/2007/04/powering_the_lo.html
Cheers,
Dan
Dan - I agree with your assessment. MBL is a great place to do a number of things, now we will see what they become with Yahoo at the helm. I will definitely take a listen to your podcast. Thank you for your thoughts.
Hi Cord, you are right! I just join this community yesterday, and i will actively read the blog n write comment.
Read throught Pt 1 and 2. Great piece of advice for MBL bloggers, especially the new ones. You know, sometimes when we don’t make a point to visit a site and read up stuff, we just don’t what we have missed.
Sorry, for typing too fast. Should read “Read through Pt 1…” and “..we just don’t know…”
Thanks for the great tips on using mybloglog! I have only just joined and your step by step tips made it very clear on what you need to do to get started.
Great advice! Its the same as it always has been since the beginning of blogging, really. If you want people to visit you and comment, visit them and comment..actually read what they write and respond to the post, not just spam their comments with “come check out my blog”..I hate that! maybe they’ll come visit and comment back, maybe they won’t.. but if you’re lucky you’ll find some great stuff to keep you entertained either way. :O)
Thanks for this great tutorial. I’ve just signup for MBL and implementing it in my site. Now I know how not to piss off other MBL users…
http://justuyykjhjkhk.com/replica-watches/movado-replica-watches.php
This is a brilliant article, and Ive stumbled both parts one and two. I am pretty new to blogging but have been in the internet marketing & seo industry for years, so articles like this which talk about anything related to blogging is of great interest to me.
Keep up the good work. You have a new subscriber to your feed
Yes, it was more helpful than the first part. Thanks. Especially i must agree with the point 7! If you like it - blog it for others.