Building Blogging Relationships
Blogging offers anyone and everyone a potential global audience. The most successful bloggers have millions of faithful readers; but even individual bloggers come up in search engine results, and you never know who is reading your thoughts at any given time. In some ways, the blogosphere is much like the real world. Each blog represents an individual person’s talents, skills, personality, appearance and preferences. Like-minded bloggers begin to form relationships with one another, and readers who have personal and/or professional interest in your blog start leaving you comments; responding to your posts and to other commentators.
These micro-communities are like small eddies swirling along the banks of a large river. As more and more people begin to visit your blog regularly, a momentum starts to build and it draws others in. You can actually foster these relationships by actively participating in other blogs, forming alliances with bloggers in your genre, and responding to your comments.
Your goal is to act as a facilitator for people to interact on your site. As the blogger, you’ve already had your say in your post. There is no need for you to dominate the comments. You want to allow people to respond to what you’ve said, acknowledge them, and encourage lively exchanges. Obviously, it’s a good idea to have some guidelines for people leaving comments on your blog, (such as abusive comments) but it’s also a good idea to permit a certain amount of freedom to participants to disagree.
Another great way to build blogging relationships is to form alliances with other bloggers. By exchanging links, by guest blogging on one another’s sites, and by promoting one another in social media in blog posts; you can synergistically grow your blog with other like-minded or complimentary blogs, using the power of community to benefit yourself and your friends.
Allowing your personal voice to come through on your blog is probably the best way to ensure you build good relationships with other bloggers and your readers. Thousands of blogs discuss the same topics. (Do a search for ‘technology blogs’ and see how many results you get!) Yet, a handful of blogs manage to set themselves apart, gain a loyal following and earn good money through advertising. How does it happen? The bottom line is that no amount of search engine optimization, tagging, or promotion can substitute for a charismatic blogging personality. People come back to your blog for YOU.
Blogging relationships are simply an extension of your real life relationships, and many of the same rules apply. Be responsive and reciprocal; offer encouragement and be honest with your feedback. Remember that people can tell if you are sincere even on the internet. When you are able to successfully build relationships through your blog, you will enjoy blogging more and will watch your audience grow quickly.
