Networking is not a one way street
Networking is a great way of promoting yourself and your blog. When you have a long post or blog competition to promote, your friends and contacts can be the difference of it being a failure or it being a success.
I must admit, I don’t use my online friends often enough to promote my blogs. I’m sure I will use my contacts in the future if I have write something which I want to get a lot of exposure but usually the most I do is link to a post through my Twitter account.
However, I know a lot of bloggers do actively contact other bloggers in order to promote their posts. Every week I get 5 or 6 emails from bloggers telling me about a blog post they wrote. They usually look something like this :
Hi Kevin,
I recently wrote a great post about the ten ways blogging is like eating noodles with chopsticks. I’m sure your readers would love to hear about it.
or
Hi Kevin,
I recently wrote a great guide to blogging. It is relevant to blogging therefore can you please write a post about it.
I do link to some of these posts :
- If the post is good, I will include the post in BloggingTip’s weekly links roundup.
- If the post inspires me to write a post I will give my opinion on the subject and make sure I link back to the original post.
Unfortunately, only about 5% of posts which I get emailed about get linked to. I do not link to the rest of the posts for a number of reasons :
- The post isn’t relevant ie. nothing to do about blogging
- The post is of a poor quality
- The post topic has recently been covered at BloggingTips
Quite frequently, the reason I don’t include a link in the links roundup is because of the author. Perhaps, some of these reasons are petty however many bloggers who contact me are quite selfish and self centered and rarely return the favour so I am less inclined to link to them.
For example, there are a few bloggers who email every other week telling me about a post they wrote. These bloggers never contribute to BloggingTips any way. They don’t link to posts I have wrote, they don’t leave comments and they don’t participate in the forum. Yet they still send me their ’standard email’ and assume that I will link to it. No doubt they send this email to dozens of bloggers as most of these emails have a link in my Gmail account saying that they were referred by the 45n5 Top 100 list (so I assume they work their way down the Top 100 list).
Many of these bloggers have found themselves in my spam list because of the frequency in which they email me. Also, most of these posts would be rejected anyways because of the reasons I gave before eg. poor quality, not relevant to my blog etc.
Another reason I may not link to a post from an email request is because of the wording of the email. Once again, I might sound petty by saying this however I am reluctant to link to someone who was presumptuous or rude in their email. Here’s an example of what I mean :
Hi Kevin,
I wrote a great post which I think you should link to. Can you please email me before 5pm today with a link to your post about it. Also, when referring to my blog can you use the keyword ‘making money online’.
I actually received a link request from a blogger exactly like this. Not only did they ask me to write a post specifically telling readers about the post they wrote, they requested that I used certain keywords to link to them!
Tips on how to get a link or vote
If you have just spent hours writing a long detailed post on your blog then you might consider contacting bloggers you know and bloggers you don’t know for a link, digg, stumble or whatever. This is a good method of getting your post exposure however I feel that many bloggers are doing it all wrong.
Here are my tips to getting your post linked, digged, sphinned or stumbled 
- Don’t contact the blogger too often. Emailing someone every few days asking for a link or stumble is probably going to do more harm than good and you may find your emails blocked! Even if you know someone quite well online, I still wouldn’t recommend emailing them a lot asking for their help.
- You are more likely to get a link from a blogger if you contribute to their blog. Think about it, wouldn’t you be more inclined to link to someone who comments on your blog on a regular basis and links to your posts?
- Be polite in your email and don’t presume the blogger will link back to you or vote for you. It can be quite rude to assume that the blogger will link to your post. My advice is to email the blogger and just ask if they could check the post out and comment if they have time. This encourages the blogger to drop by and read your post and contribute and you never know, if a good discussion springs up, they might link to it as well.
- If you have some online blogging friends, don’t buzz too often through messenger asking for stumbles or diggs.
- Return the favour!! Networking isn’t a one way street. If you link and vote for other blog posts you are morely likely to get the favour returned. Infact, the more you help out others in this regard, the less you will have to request it yourself.
The most important thing to remember is not take advantage of your online contact. Don’t harrass or annoy them with link and vote requests too often and try and return the favour by linking to their posts and digging or stumbling their posts.
Although I acknowledge the benefits of using email to request links and votes, I do encourage you all to try and look beyond promoting any specific blog post as long term, you will get a better return by building good relationships rather putting all your effort into getting one link. The key to successfully networking yourself and your blog can play a big part in your blogs success so don’t just look for the quick fix.
David Shaw | June 26th, 2008 at 12:02 pm #
I have been trying to connect with other bloggers in recent weeks.
The best way is to link to their work first, and hope you get a link back!
The Freelance Writer's Blog | June 26th, 2008 at 1:02 pm #
You know Kevin, I hate it when people do this. For many of the same reasons you outline, I send most of these to my spam folder too. The very LEAST some of those who are requesting links could do is make sure the post is relevant to the blog at hand.
That’s why I like posting to places like Technorati. Believe me, if you have relevant content and network in large forums like this, your post will get linked to. And, when you approach individiual bloggers, make your request specific — and preferably, reference a post the blogger has written, eg, “I just finished reading your post on x, and I had quite a different take on it, which I explain in XXX post here. The main difference is in XXX.”
While this is more time consuming, it does build relationships.
I wish people could get over one thing about making money online — which is the bottom line for many — IT TAKES TIME AND THERE ARE NO QUICK ROUTES. If many would just accept this and proceed accordingly, 90% of websites would disappear from the web altogether.
Okay, I’m off my soapbox, but this touched a nerve with me Kevin, as I get quite a few of these types of requests a day.
And, thanks for your comment on my last post.
Yuwanda
Ryan Stephens | June 26th, 2008 at 1:29 pm #
Hey Kevin,
This is my first time reading this blog. Dan Schawbel actually shared this post via Google reader, and I really enjoyed it.
I would even go so far as to say that I would almost NEVER email someone asking for a link. As you definitely alluded to, if you’re providing something new, innovative, and relevant you will get linked to.
Another thing I would add is that don’t be hesistant to send bloggers stuff from OTHER bloggers that you think they might find beneficial and relevant. If someone shoots me an e-mail with a couple of posts, links, etc. they think I might be interested in, and none of them are there own (or maybe one is), I will usually go out of my way to check out their post after confirming that what they sent me is relevant. And that goes back to building relationships, like you said.
Enjoyed the read!
Cassie | June 26th, 2008 at 2:20 pm #
I completely agree and I’ve actually never emailed someone with a request like that either. When people Digg me or Stumble me, it’s because they read what I wrote and honestly felt it deserved it.
I have friends who are always asking me to Digg their stuff, but I rarely do simply because it just isn’t good. I don’t want their crap posts (sorry friends) to show up in my profiles because that makes me look not as good. That probably sounds bad, but it’s honestly the way I think.
Gerard | June 26th, 2008 at 3:11 pm #
Thanks for the info on the NotTo’s. Reading from what you said, I never knew that what I did to this one blogger has such effect.
Sandra Carrington-Smith | June 26th, 2008 at 4:07 pm #
Hi Kevin,
your blog on networking is awesome! I just started blogging recently to promote my name as I wait for my books to publish, and I need all the tips I can get.
Thanks for posting this.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | June 26th, 2008 at 4:39 pm #
It’s good to see other people feel the same way about this
Yuwanda - I definately think that writing a blog post and linking to some relevant posts is a better way to get a link back. Perhaps not with that post but in the future the blog you linked to would be more inclined to link back to you (as long as the blogger is actively checking their pingbacks etc).
Ryan - Glad you enjoyed the post (and thanks to your friend Dan for referring you here). I’ve never emailed for a link back or stumble or whatever either but as I said in the post, I couldn’t ever rule it out (don’t wanna do it later and look like a hypocrite haha). It’s not something I think I will ever do on a regular basis but perhaps as a one off.
Cassie - I’m the same. A lot of my stumbles are for the same people because I stumbled their posts when they asked. Hopefully that doesn’t go against anyone ever voting for one of my posts.
Gerard / Sandra - Thanks for the kudos
I touched upon the subject of social media voting a few months ago on my personal blog : Should you stumble yourself?. In it I talked about whether it was right to ask for stumbles or diggs from other bloggers
Appreciate the feedback guys
Edward Lomax | June 26th, 2008 at 8:52 pm #
I think in the beginning you have to prove yourself worthy. Everybody wants an established blogger to take notice in them, blog about them, send them traffic, etc. But I think many people get it backwards. They think, “If I only had a high powered blogger send me traffic, my worries would be over.”
But the fact is, you have to prove yourself first. Yes, it is hard work. But once you have the kind of blog other bloggers would BENEFIT from being in contact with, networking with other bloggers becomes easier.
But first you have to do the grunt work and get your blog over the hump with good old fashioned hard work and great content.
B. Durant | June 26th, 2008 at 9:43 pm #
Well now that explains a lot! And here I thought you just didn’t like me! But seriously, those are some great tips. Sometimes it is so easy to just assume that what we’ve written is worthy of being linked to from far and wide simply because we’ve written it.
I’ve found the best way to get articles linked to is simply by writing a quality piece and marketing it to a relevant audience. Not everyone will link no matter how relevant your article is to their audience, but that’s no reason not to ask. Just don’t waste your time (or theirs) asking a poorly targeted blogger.
icepricessa | July 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 am #
Roy Hewitt | July 19th, 2008 at 11:47 pm #
I read your article about promoting blogs. To be honest I’m promoting mine to you. Roy
Juliane Elliott | August 15th, 2008 at 1:59 am #
Hey Kevin,
I have been writing online about three months and I am already so burned out from feeling I have to generate content for a few pennies. I just don’t understand the whole bookmarking network, but your piece actually made sense.
I think over the course of the last three months I lost focus of my love of writing and it just became too painful to try to push the money envelope.
I am not sure where I am going with this whole online publishing gig, but thanks for the clear information.