Tag Archives: networking

Monday in the HTMLab

3 Blog Networking Sites You Ought to Join

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For bloggers, writing content and creating the layout are often the “easy” parts of blogging. The BIG questions are: “How do we get attention for our content? How do we attract readers?”

Part of attracting a wider audience lies in social media–using Facebook, Twitter, and any other relevant social networking sites you can think of–to share your content. But the other component is networking with other bloggers like yourself. Not only can you invite them to read your work and read theirs, but you can get feedback from them and open the door for friendly exchange of ideas. When we’re all in the business of communication, talking and sharing with others of like minds is vital!

So, I did a good bit of research and came up with the following 3 “blogger networking” sites, which can help you share your content with readers and socialize with other bloggers:

bloglovin blogcatalog bloglines
BlogLovin’ has compatibility with Google Reader feeds, and it’s one of the foremost blogger networking sites at the moment. There’s more emphasis on connecting bloggers together, as well as aiding the interaction between blogger and reader. BlogCatalog, like BlogLovin’, has feeds available for readers, but it also provides a little more in-depth blogger-to-blogger networking. Also, there’s a “VIP” feature where bloggers can pay a fee to feature their content on the site’s front page. BlogLines is a more location-based blog feed reader/blogger networking site–it sorts blogs by physical location (city, region, state, etc.) as well as by content type. (This site is still in beta at the time of this writing, but promises to be a neat addition to blogger networking sites!)

Check these out and join up–a little more blog publicity can’t hurt! (Trust me, I’m kind of preaching to myself here too :P)

Monday in the HTMLab

Affiliates: How to Start Getting Traffic to Your Site

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Making a site for yourself is great, but if no one comes to visit, what’s the point? *ahem*…*directing your attention away from my affiliate-less blog* To get visitors, you need people to link to you and people to link to…this is where the affiliate program comes from.

What is an Affiliate?

An affiliate is someone with a site on the same or a similar topic as yours, who has agreed to link to you in a special, privileged fashion (first-page or front-page display). To become affiliates with them, you have to offer them the same courtesy.

How to Get Affiliates

First, do a search for your site’s topic. For instance, if I wanted to find blogs about music, web design, Biblical interpretation, or gaming, I could easily search those topics and find sites about those through any of my favorite search engines.

But don’t limit yourself to just the specific subject match–look for sites whose webmasters seem worth getting to know, too, and link to them as well. One other way to begin getting affiliates is to send emails to webmasters whose sites you visit frequently and enjoy; if your site is along the same lines, they might be willing to give you affiliation, or if you’ve already made a friendship with them, that might help, too.

If you’re doing a search, you’ll next need to scan through the search results for sites that don’t sound spammy or created just for pay-per-click ads. There are a lot of fake blogs out there, and if you can skim through those or avoid them, you’ll save yourself some time. Telltale marks of a “fake” blog are overly-generic blog themes, with content that sounds either like it’s written just to advertise, or sounds like a bunch of non-sequiturs strung together.

Once you’ve come up with several sites that seem like they’re worth checking out from this initial search, thoroughly review each of them. Check content to see how theirs compare to yours; make sure they haven’t stolen any content or images, and that their site has been updated recently (within the last month at least).

Now, if you like what you see, contact the webmaster with a politely-phrased email, telling them your site’s name and topic, your Internet nickname, and your URL, and also sending them a link to your link button image if you wish. Ask if they are accepting affiliates, and say that if they are, you would be glad to be one.

Can’t Affiliate? Link-Exchange!

If they don’t want to affiliate, don’t despair! You can always link-exchange instead. Link-exchanges are often looked at as inferior to affiliation, but you’re both still putting each other’s link on your site–it’s just on a dedicated “Links” page rather than the front page. It’s second only to affiliation, and can still get your site name and URL out there for others to enjoy! Exchanging links with another site can be the opened door to affiliation sometime in the future, and meanwhile, you’re both helping each other with site recognition.

Summary

Linking to other similar sites is a great way to start building community with those who love the same content, as well as getting more recognition for your own work. This is where real Search Engine Optimization begins–with good ol’ keyboard-work and a little savvy networking.