What’s key to networking effectively is being authentically who you are while you make acquaintance with others who have blogs that are related to your own , or who have blogs that are of interest to you
No one in everyday life can be a good friend to hundreds and thousands of people and the same goes for cyber space. The value of the friendships you make is based in the quality time you spend with friends both online and offline.
Investing quality time in reading the blogs of their friends, leaving meaningful comments on post, exploring their archives, and finding posts to back link to in new posts of is the way it’s done.
connections
Love Your Readers to Death – this is key in the early days of a blog when readers seem scarce. The reality is that the 10 readers that you DO have already are a powerful resource – focus upon them rather than the thousands of readers that you DON’T have. Love them – thank them for their comments – involve them in your blogging – promote them and the sites that they have and in doing so you’ll be building loyalty, trust and relationship that one day will pay off. Each reader you have has their own network and can open up new audiences to you. — by Darren Rowse
References:
How to Build Community on Your Blog - There are many things that you can do to build a sense of community on a blog. Click the title and find the short list of ideas.
How to Build a Blogging Community – Read other blogs. Leave comments on other blogs. Reply to your comments. List your blog in directories. Write often. Make your posts entertaining. Start Marketing your blog.
The bottom line is that the social networking you experience is exactly what you choose it to be. You will create traffic flow to your blogs by locating members with related blogs and leaving meaningful comments on their posts, and befriending them. So if you are focused on creating blog centered relationships then go for it!
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Vikas Gupta
February 5, 2009
Valid observations timethief!
I, however, fight shy of BlogCatalog and other blogging communities because I don’t have enough time. But for serious bloggers it is a heaven-sent opportunity. Besides BC is better than other such platforms.
Leaving comments on other blogs surely helps. My Indian friends may not be on BC but they all make a point to visit the blogs they have on their blogroll/list without fail and leave comments. I am a new kid on the block yet I have quite a few (2 to 13) comments on my recent posts. I also visit them regularly though I am shy of building new acquaintances for fear of augmenting my responsibility of reading more blogs given my lack of time.
If you want to see how these Indian bloggers are connected, you can see the links on Nita Writer’s blog (daddy of them all) on WP; they all visit each other and leave comments. One just has to visit these bloggers, leave comments and they all come back to you and in no time you are admitted in the fraternity (and you can expect up to 20 to 30 comments easily if you are visiting them regularly!).
Another idea to get readers and comments on your blog (though a ‘temporary measure’ not enough to gain permanent readers) is to find similar posts on WP with keyword search and leave comments on these posts with a tip to visit your relevant post for an enhanced look on the issue/topic! It works! For example, I did visit a few pieces of Shiv Khera (motivation guru) on WP, read a few pieces, and invited them to visit my post to read how Shiv Khera is a plagiarist and a bad guy!
An ignored aspect in blogging timethief, in my opinion, is ‘Typing’. Good and serious writers/bloggers definitely learn typing but many people ignore it and I hate that ‘txt-talk’! I wonder why people don’t invest even 20 minutes daily learning typing; it is such a rewarding exercise!
Liked the post like all your other works! Keep writing.
P.S.: Don’t jump to replying to comment(s) unless it is urgent! Relax and give more time to your health timethief. Ignore typos in my post, if any. I love the English language.
timethief
March 5, 2009
@Vikas Gupta
Thank you so much for your well thought out comment. I believe it will be a resource for others who leave comments on this post. BTW I do know nitawriter from the wp.com forum and have been subscribed to her blog for a couple of years. If I ever get an opportunity to travel I’d love to visit India.
Vikas Gupta
February 5, 2009
@timethief’s reply:
Yeah! You know Nita. If I am not incorrect, I have seen her comments on this blog. Besides, the scroll-enabled sidebar on her blog speaks volumes (it was a wonderful contribution by Richard on this blog)! Yesterday I visited Richard’s blog too and thanked him for his contributions here.
B K CHOWLA
February 7, 2009
Thanks, Vikas I have started following your tips right away
Robin Easton
February 9, 2009
This is a great post for me because it did two things. It confirmed for that what I’d been doing intuitively was right on the mark. So I am very pleased about that. AND it gave me some more ideas and direction to strengthen what I’m doing. This is a VERY well laid out article. Please feel free to send me anything from this site. I am just blown away at your VAST knowledge and intelligence. Thank you. Now, I am going to the links you left to see what else is there that I can use. I SO appreciate this!!! :)
timethief
March 5, 2009
@Robin
You are dear friend so you can understand how weird it is to be writing about the very subjects that I’ve been cutting corners on since my accident. :( “I must not stress out – I will make a full recovery” has become my mantra.
Candlemamma
March 2, 2009
I am very happy to read these comments. I have been following TT for sometime. She has a lot of really good information. It is great to be able to come back and re read. Leading busy lives can slow us down. I recommend bookmarking this blog and coming back a lot to re read.
TT… keep up the wondeful work… you really want to help and it shows!
AMBest! :)
timethief
March 5, 2009
@candlemamma
I really appreciate your kind words. Thanks so much for sharing them here. Best wishes for happy blogging to you. :)
B K CHOWLA
March 3, 2009
Very interesting.I am new to the blogging community and I am sure now I have a route to follow.Thank you.
timethief
March 5, 2009
You’re welcome. Please come again soon. :)
ladyh
April 3, 2009
Cool info. Blogcatalog is real helpful and also you can find a lot of interesting sites on there too.
timethief
April 3, 2009
@ladyh
Blog Catalog is a social networking community that features a forum where adults play all day and all night long discussing everything under the sun, except blogging. What I have found since my accident and head injury is that I’m hard pressed to make time to form close relationships as I would like to have with my readers because my health and energy level are so compromised. Keeping the business alive, doing contract work and trying to blog around living a real life is always a challenge. I’m grateful to say that I am experiencing healing but I wouldn’t be truthful if I didn’t say admit I am keenly aware of the need to take care of myself during the healing process.
Dodado.com
May 13, 2009
thank you for the information
joer223
May 18, 2010
I’m finding that creating blogging relationships is like the flow of life giving blood……
Happiness For You TT…