For some, these tips may seem redundant. But there are many bloggers out there, who have had blogs for years and still wonder why they can't get people to come and visit their blogs.
The saying, if you build it, they will come. Doesn't always ring true in blogging. The truth is, if you create it, and put the hard work into building it up, then they might come!
So today, I want to share 5 ways you can network with other bloggers, and help grow your blog.
Find other blogs that interest you and comment on them.
I am not talking about a quick "Great Post" type of comment. I am talking a thoughtful, show them you actually took the time to read their post type of comment. Ask them questions in your comment, show them your interested and engaged in what they have to say.
Some bloggers do try to visit every single blogger who visit their blog. However, not all do. Larger and huge blogs likely will never return your comment. Even smaller bloggers, may not be interested in growing their blog and networking. If you have left 4-5 comments on different posts on their blog, and you don't see they have ever reciprocated. Chances are they may never. So you can either just read their blog for the fun of it, or move onto a blogger who is interested in networking.
Pin Images, and Share their post on social media.
This is one thing that almost every blogger would love others to know and understand. If you like something a blogger writes, why would you not want to share it with others?
You would want someone else to do the same for you too, correct?
So if you have that extra 10 seconds or less to share someones blog post, then do it!
They will notice, and if you do it for them, they are going to be far more likely to do the same for you! After a while, they will take notice of you, you may even find a new blog follower and friend yourself from it too.
Join a Weekly Link up or a Blog Hop.
A great way to get to know other bloggers who are interested in networking is to join a link up and actually participate in it.
I wrote a post on blog link up etiquette HERE that you should definitely read if you aren't sure what they are or how to participate in them.
When you participate in link ups correctly, you will not only be visiting other blogs, but they will be visiting yours. At the end of one day, you may already have found a few more interesting blogs to follow yourself, and likely someone else is thinking the same thing about yours too.
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Interact with them on social media.
Sometimes getting to know a blogger just on their blog alone can be a little difficult. Try following them on their social media channels (they might even do the same and follow you back.) But interact with them. Drop them a "like" or if you have the time, leave them a quick comment on their social mention or pictures.
It helps if you use your social media that is related to your blog. If possible you want to have your social media links match your blog name, or as close as possible. This way, other bloggers know who you are. Eventually, they will pick up that you care what they have to say or post and your chances of their networking back with you will increase significantly.
Put together your own blog tribe.
What is a blog tribe? A group of like minded bloggers that have common interests and common goals. You work together occasionally on projects, run ideas off each other. As well as a group that is interested in helping each other out collaborating efforts to grow your blogs.
It will take a while to get to this point. Because you won't want to pick bloggers at random. Likely these will be bloggers you have followed, and also follow you and you've noticed great friendships developed between you and them. It could be something officially between you all, or something unsaid. But knowing that you have a small group that you can turn to any time you need help with something, or need to push out posts or projects your working on. Those are the types of things, besides wonderfully great friendships that can come out of finding a blog tribe. Not only that, but if your hoping to have a successful blog, a blog tribe really could be consider essential to finding success.
My biggest dilema in blogging is of course time. If I have an extra 15 minutes is it more important to respond to my own blog comments or go comment on a few more blogs? Generally I comment on blogs which leaves my own comments neglected and I feel bad for those comments that I never respond to. But then I wonder if the bloggers even notices. I bet they never check the blog to find out if I commented or not. I do try to respond as much as possible though.
ReplyDeleteI love commenting on blogs! It has really helped me grow my blog and create friendships. I also love what blog hops have helped me do. Since joining my first one I have tripled my reader numbers.
ReplyDeleteNone of these are redundant for me! So glad you posted. Any link-ups you've found that you find to be better than others for networking? I've joined some in the past, where I've THOUGHT I had a catchy post title & image for the link, only to find hardly anyone clicked to my page, even though TONS of people joined the linkup.
ReplyDeleteVery useful! Networking with other bloggers is one of the things I enjoy the most about blogging. But I haven't really taken it to other social media channels that much and need to work on that part.
ReplyDeleteIn the past 6 months or so, I've really become focused on growing my blog, and it's been especially fun to see how much my involvement in social media has an impact. These are really great tips and good reminders of things we should be doing to make connections!
ReplyDeletegreat advice, especially the first point ;) ive noticed it helps a lot
ReplyDeleteAll great tips. I always wonder after I comment multiple times and they reply to others but never me, is that my signal to move on... sometimes when someone clearly doesn't reciprocate it almost feels like stalking if you keep visiting lol Maybe I am too sensitve lol
ReplyDeletegreat tips! as I've grown it has gotten harder for me to reciprocate all blog visits. I do reply to EVERYONE who comments on my blog but I'm very active on social media so try to interact on Twitter and Instagram the most even if I can't get to a site visit. For me it's about time and balance.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post! I always take the time to visit the blogs of all the bloggers who comment on my posts. As much as I talk about growing my blog, for me it's all about interaction with my readers. As far as other social media channels, I'm not as good with Instagram as I could be. There's just so much time to do it!
ReplyDeleteReally great post! I make a real effort to interact with all my commenters and return to visit their blogs. It is a lot of work but it does pay off if you keep at it.
ReplyDeleteKristy your posts are always so informative and helpful. As I work in growing g my blog, I can see how these tips will really come in handy!! Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you know how much work goes into a linkup. With the Weekly Wrap we are now up to almost 60 weekly linkers. It takes an incredible amount of time to read those posts and make meaningful comments. I enjoy that part immensely and love following along with everyone's journey. But I think what most people don't realize is the hosts KNOW how much each linker is participating and interacting with others. InLinkz provides this information. In addition, quite a few do not even comment on the hosts' posts.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is more than just writing posts. As you've outlined, blogging takes a lot of time and patience in order to be successful. Interaction is definitely one of the big keys to being able to successfully grow your blog.
ReplyDeleteAll great tips to network with other bloggers! I always try to visit the blogs that comment on my blog as well. It takes time but I find it nice to see what everyone is up to and doing it helps my blog as well in terms of comeback readers.
ReplyDeleteI totally hear you on that! While the past few weeks I have has a tad more time, normally I literally have to put blogging on a time schedule system and I fit what I can in, when I have time. Your lucky you and your sister run your blog, that's double to help to get around and visit blogs. I sometimes wish I had a sister who blogged with me too:)
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, years ago it took me a while to figure this stuff out too!
ReplyDeleteI was also going to say, Ya I have a hard time ever making it back to see what others say about my comments. If I have time occasionally I try. That was one of my favorite things about this new comment system I put up, I have found the interaction and replies to the replies I put on comments increase significantly, it's made the commenting/reply thing a tad more fun on my end:)
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome! It's seriously the exact way I began building my blog once I figured it out, and it's been a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteGlad you found it helpful! Truthfully, any link up can work. But the key is to remember we ourselves are the most important part to make them work. The question I would ask is when you link up, how many of those blogs in the link up along with the hosts are you reading and commenting on their post? Generally 3-4 is a good number, but I know if others have time they will try to visit more. If you're doing that, and everyone else is doing that, then generally link ups are highly successful. But if not everyone in the link up does their part, it won't matter how many link up because there is not "take" with them, they are all about "giving" :) Some link up hosts will over time weed out and delete those who don't participate and when that is done those link ups tend to be the ones that have the highest participation rates. So when you pick one, pick ones that have the stricter rules, they tend to be the ones that work best for everyone! If you are finding the 3+ blogs in the link up your visiting aren't coming back to visit yours, then ignore those ones in the future, and choose others until you find the ones who reciprocate the comment love:)
ReplyDeleteMe too!
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time making time for social media interaction. I try to do a 5 minute a day rule, and spend 5 minutes doing it. But even with that, I sometimes forget:)
That is awesome! Social media has a huge impact and like you said it's so fun too!
ReplyDeleteThe best part of blogging are the friendships and networking, at least for me:)
I have this thing I call friendly blog stalking, and I think its fine to do. But if your looking for networking friends, if you've commented 4 different times on different posts and they've never come back to yours, likely they aren't interested in networking, so either move on, or read their blog if you like it and skip the time it takes to leave a comment, I do that often with a few bigger bloggers I enjoy but know they could careless that I leave a comment.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I love to reciprocate, I too am finding the more I grow the harder it is to keep up with it. Time and balance is a big one for me too, in fact as dorky as it sounds I have myself a little daily blog schedule. To reduce burn out, I actually took one of your tips I read on your blog a while back, I may be wrong but I think it was your Technology free weekend post. Loved the idea, so because weekends are busy for me job wise anyway I started not blogging Fri-Sun, its really helped me. I feel bad I miss some bloggers posts, but it's been good for me to have the short break each week.
ReplyDeleteTotally hear you, interaction with others has been one of the greatest and best parts about blogging.
ReplyDeleteBut I hear ya, there is only so much we can do. I slack off on Pinterest and I know I could do better on there with others!
That is one thing I know about you, you are great at it too!
ReplyDeleteI try my best to do the same and I agree it's a ton of work, but its fun and it does pay off!
Glad you liked it my friend!
ReplyDeleteOh I totally understand and know what you are talking about. I actually keep analytics on my Grow Your Blog hops as well. I have gotten super strict and since it takes so much of my time to put them together, I don't hesitate to deny someone to join, even if I know they get ticked off at me for it. Hey, they don't read or comment on my blog anyway, so it's not a loss to me to keep the field of participants to be better for the group all around. Your situation is different, but what they don't realize is you'll probably get to the point where you'll skip commenting on those in your own link up who don't participate or delete them I mean we can only do so much right, it takes time. I would imagine 2-3 Hours (would be my guess) for you to just visit 60 bloggers like that and you do that weekly. Oddly though a few bloggers will never get that commenting on the host, and visiting at least 2-3 blogs in the link up in addition is the only way link ups work. I better stop, I could talk on this subject way too long, LOL Sorry for the long reply!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree with you more! Not only that but it can be so fun, like getting to meet awesome bloggers like yourself. Blog life is so much more fun when you feel you're among friends!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to see what everyone is up to, and the different creative posts they put together!!
ReplyDeleteAll great ideas. I have really been enjoy this blog hop I am in right now with you. I'm in the one with all different kinds of bloggers and it's pretty cool connecting with others that have different interests. It seems before this hop, I mostly only followed other runners. It's fun to mix things up once in a while!
ReplyDeleteSo with you on all of these! I love the blog hops that you put together, and yay for link ups! The people who drop their links and run are saddening, but oh well--you win some, you lose some! :O I always try to visit the blogs of people who take the time to comment on mine too! :]
ReplyDeleteI find commenting on other blogs does certainly help. So do blog hops.
ReplyDeletewhich is why I've created my only network for aussie bloggers, or my own tribe, because don't get me wrong I love all my overseas friends, but sometimes it's hard to relate when you talk miles and about running in the snow and what not.
I don't expect it to take off, you got to work out and it's all about networking.
So thanks for the motivation.