Guest post by Michael Martin from Pro Blog Design, where he writes about creating profitable, usable and attractive blogs.
The omnipotent blogger is everywhere. He knows everything, and he knows everyone. He is the master of his topic, and he is a fraud.
To be an omnipotent blogger, you do not need to know everything. You need merely give off the impression that you do. How do you go about this?
Support The Underdog
The key is to research each and every topic you post about. If you blog about blogging, don’t settle for a simple link to ProBlogger. Search deeper. There are thousands of blogs about blogging, and the chances are good that someone else has written something similar to Darren.
The underdog’s blog post may not be of the same quality, or have the same wealth of knowledge in the comments, but it does have one pressing advantage. Your reader hasn’t read it before. Through simply linking to an article or blog that is new to them, you show that you know your topic. You know your niche, and you’ve done your homework.
What’s more is that the underdog will appreciate your link more. ProBlogger gets dozens of links a day. Darren simply doesn’t have the time go through each and everyone of them, but an underdog does. The underdog will appreciate your link, will follow through to your blog, and may well comment or link back to you on their own blog in future.
Give Your Blogroll A Purpose
ProBlogger, John Chow, Copyblogger. What do they all have in common?
Well, they’re all fantastic blogs, but aside from that, they all appear on virtually every blogging blogroll going. What purpose does the blogroll serve when all it is doing is list sites that your readers have already visited?
By all means, link out to such great sites. They do deserve it, but make sure you include links to much smaller sites as well. Is there a relatively unheard of gem in your niche? A promising looking start-up? A helpful blog for newbies?
Link to those blogs. Your readers will appreciate the links, and appreciate the diversity of your knowledge. Do you read every post written by every blog in your niche? Probably not, but it will appear that you do.
How To Find Underdogs
The very nature of being an underdog makes them a little harder to find, but there are plenty of tools to help you find good posts on any given topic. My personal favourite is Google Blog Search, and occasionally Google itself, though it’s usually better to link to other blogs, because of the very nature of blogging and the blogosphere.
You could use any number of other tools to help in your search. Even your feed reader is an invaluable resource, with dozens of links to click on each day.
Everyone links to the big wolf on campus. Be different from the normal blogs. Give your readers real value. No-one can be everywhere, but a clever blogger can appear to be.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Ed Kohler // Aug 27, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Good points. Commenting on or writing about people who’ve taken the time to write about you is another way to build karma. Technorati is a great way to find these people.
2 Michael from Pro Blog Design // Aug 27, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Agreed Ed. I spend half my time online refreshing the Wordpress dashboard, just to keep an eye out for any new links from Technorati, or comments on my blog, for me to reply to. There’s no point blogging if you aren’t into the community aspect of it.
3 OpenSourceMarketer // Aug 28, 2007 at 3:54 am
Firstly, as an underdog blogger I would gladly take a little blog roll love from anyone who sees fit to honor me with a link. Secondly, you are so very right. I have a few big names on my blog roll, but I also have a few that are lesser known for this very reason. It is a reflection on me as a blogger if I just chase comment opportunities and don’t pay attention to other bloggers with great things to say. It is a bit like snubbing your friend to hang with the popular kid in school. Don’t do it because the friend will stick with you longer.
Oh, and I looked up underdogblogger.com and it is available.
Just a thought,
Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com
4 Michael from Pro Blog Design // Aug 28, 2007 at 11:56 am
I like the analogy Charles. You’re right. The benefits of making a real relationship with a blogger far outweigh the benefits of just linking to a popular website.
5 Daniel Johnson // Aug 29, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I think that sometimes people get too carried away with the larger blogs and it is important to acknowledge the newer/smaller blogs otherwise the larger blogs will consume the blogging sphere which destroys the very point of blogs. Community.
A great read, its good to see these points being discussed.
6 Typography Is An Art // Sep 2, 2007 at 11:13 am
[...] been writing a few guest posts this week, most notably at ProBlogger. Darren Rowse was kind enough to let me write a post [...]
7 Jonathan // Sep 2, 2007 at 6:55 pm
New bloggers, underdog bloggers; yes, we need some love to and for many reasons. We lose the focus of blogging if it ends up being limited to a few “pro” bloggers, but also it improves the participation by those who are just getting started.
8 VlogHog // Sep 3, 2007 at 2:28 am
As popular as blogging is, I find it hard to believe that you can’t find some bloggers within your own neighborhood or city that have similar interests.
Get together with them and then form relationships with others bloggers from around the world.
Call it a blogger support group.
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