This week Kristen from We Are THAT Family asked for us to link up with our best blogging tips. Honestly there are so many great tips out there I have a hard time thinking of just one. But, I will share with you something that has made a difference in my blog traffic.
If you are a new blogger, old blogger, experienced blogger or one who is still trying to figure out how to upload photos, you can benefit from creating a blogging network. You do not need to join a network or pay any money to be listed on some website. What you can do is find a handful of other bloggers who you think would be good partners. I recommend that you actually have a relationship with these people either through Twitter, blog comments, Facebook, or real life.
Ask them if they would be willing to network with you for the purposes of cross promotion, growing your sites, sharing knowledge, guest posting, and partnering on giveaways or series. Find a way to connect either through google groups or skype and start working together. Remember, this is a loose network. There are no contracts and everyone in the group is free to promote and work or partner with anyone outside of the group. But those in the network are purposeful in their promotion of each other. This could be as simple as asking for retweets on a giveaway post or promoting a new fan page.
I can promise you that working with other bloggers will increase your traffic, your influence and your fun! It is great to have a group to ask for advice, share concerns, or even talk about non-blogging issues. The network I created last year started as a way for everyone to improve their blogs and we ended up becoming great friends in the process.
Thanks, I have joined blogfrog but I don’t really know how to make it work for me or even use it. I am really trying to grow my blog. I was really hoping to go to Blissdom but my oldest has a very important basketball game Friday night. So I hope you all post some great tips.
this is very informational
Thank you Toni I look to your site and Savvyblogging for loads of information. I need to do some guest blogging. I think I have only done that once last year. Thanks for the tips they really help.
I so want to get involved in networking but I feel like the new kid in school trying to hang out with the popular kids. I guess I just need to man up and go for it.
I totally agree! getting involved in networking helps out so much. I started a month ago and I have 86followers. I know that may not be a lot to some but for me I was happy. And it was all do to networking.
Thanks- great advice!
can i be in your network?
I love networking! I spent a lot of time last year networking, and built some strong friendships. Some of those efforts have fizzled, but I’m still glad I spent the time doing it.
I couldn’t agree more! I think some might tend to shy away from working with others in fear that it might drive traffic away from their site. When in fact it will do just the opposite (if you have worthy content).
Speaking of content! This is why for over a year now I have continued to come back and read your site. Your just awesome.
on a side note: I think too it was the our story post that drew me in. I had 4 or 5 friends checking out your blog that night I read your story. Very touching.
Haha! Melissa beat me to it-
“can i be in your network?”
I am new to blogging and love the suggestion. Now to just figure out what sites are best…………..
I really need to do this more formally than what I am doing right now. I know that it works, but just haven’t worked on it as much as I should. Thanks for the kick in the pants. (Notice how I haven’t managed to get caught up on my Google Reader since before Blissdom? LOL I only just read this right now.)