What’s Your REAL REASON For Blogging…???

I bet you’re thinking it’s to make money! NOPE… It’s not.

Let me explain….

You may at first think your reason to have a blog is to make money. It’s not. That’s just a byproduct of your blogging.

This is sometimes where people realize they are not cut out to be bloggers  and there are a lot of people blogging that SHOULDN’T be blogging !!!

Blogging is at it’s very heart is a social endeavor. You need to create relationships as a blogger to have a really successful blog. It is the quality of those relationships that allow people to get to know you … like you and TRUST you enough to do business with you.

Developing great relationships with other bloggers is really important to YOUR long term blogging success because having allies and friends is VITAL in the blogoshpere. One email mention from someone that has a big list of loyal readers and a big following of raving fans can change your entire business.  However… no one is going to mention you to their readers if they don’t know you… like you and TRUST you.

I’ll tell you right now that just emailing people and asking them to promote you or your stuff … mention you and recommend you to their readers …or whatever it is you want them to do for you is not going to work unless they know who you are and like you.

Creating relationships with other bloggers creates opportunities for joint ventures, for guest blogging opportunities, for link swaps… the list goes on. But you can’t do any of those things without first creating a relationship with some of the other bloggers in your industry !!!

How To Create and Develop Powerful Blogging Relationships…

With Your Readers …

This one is VERY simple. You must consistently create excellent pillar (the meat and potatoes) type of content that supports your blog. People will learn that they can trust you to have new and valuable content which means that they’ll keep coming back.

If the content is truly valuable … helpful … inspiring ~ whatever is appropriate to your industry … your readers will not only keep coming back… they will tell other people about it as well.

Ask for comments. Start a conversation. Then participate. Answer your comments ~ ALWAYS.

When someone has gone to the trouble of starting a conversation on your blog, respond to them. Simple as that. Your comment replies are one of the biggest assets you have to creating and nurturing a relationship with your readers.

With Other Bloggers…

Start reading and commenting on THEIR blogs !!! This is the single best ways to start a relationship with them. Take a minute and send the other blogger an email. Do this after you’ve been commenting for a while and they are familiar with your name.

Don’t ask them for anything, or try to get anything from them. Just make personal contact. Tell them what you love about their blog. Be sure to THANK THEM for their content. Tell them a story about what you learned or were able to do or how were you helped by their posts. (I personally LOVE it when I get “Fan Mail”!! It is HUGE for me when I know that I have been able to HELP someone or make a difference for them.) I guarantee that you will be remembered if you do this.

For those of you using Social Media …Tweet their stuff … Share their information on Facebook. This is a great way to create and grow relationships If you use the @theirusername they will know you did it. They will remember you if you do it regularly. (and the chances are really good that they will start retweeting and Facebooking you too ~ which is a HUGE benefit to you … this is what is called “Content Syndication” and it provides extraordinary leverage for everyone !!!  And…if you don’t know what I am talking about right now… don’t worry… I will go over this a bit later in this information series and show you how it all ties together !!!)