Success in blogging comes from making as many high-quality connections as you can with other bloggers. Producing valuable content may come first but without tight blogging connections your content is doomed to remain largely unread.
Forming connections with other bloggers can be a difficult task due to the information-overwhelm that many net-natives contend with on a daily basis. When creating connections with other like-minded bloggers it’s important you keep a few key points in mind to make sure you don’t inadvertently ruin your chances of a lasting, mutually beneficial arrangement.
Speak to THEM Specifically
The worst thing you can do to connect with another blogger is send them some pre-canned scripted introduction about who you are and why they should care. You’ll lose even more standing in their eyes if your message isn’t even particularly relevant to the work that they produce. When you do either of these things to a blogger you are spamming them, plain and simple and high quality bloggers don’t respond favorably to being spammed.
Before sending out a single message make sure that you and the blogger you’re attempting to connect with are actually writing about similar topics and that what you’re sending them might be of relevance and interest to them. Read through their site and get to know them, their likes & dislikes, their opinions on topics you two both write about. You don’t need to agree with everything they say but you do need to, at the very least, acknowledge their points.
When you go to write the message itself you need to personalize it and direct it specifically to the blogger you’re attempting to connect with. Talk about their work, talk about your work, talk about someone else’s work that relates to what you’re both interested in, ask questions…
It almost doesn’t matter exactly what you say to them, as there is no “magic bullet” introductory email for forming connections, as long as you are sincere & specific you will drastically increase your response rate.
Approach With Your Palms Up
There are plenty of people who attempt to sincerely & specifically connect with other bloggers who still fail. Usually these people fail because they come to a popular and influential blogger asking for help and offering nothing.
If you’re going to form a real connection with another blogger you need to approach them with gifts, offering to help them out well before you ever ask for anything from them. The more important the blogger you’re attempting to connect with the more you’ll need to offer them. Often you will need to build a solid history of helpfulness for months (or even years!) before you’ll be in a position to ask for anything from them.
When offering to help a blogger you want to connect with, you need to make sure you offer them something that they actually want and need. Be as specific as possible with what you have to offer them. Instead of giving an ambiguous “let me know if there’s anything I can do for you” make a very clear and well-defined offer that you know will help them out in a measurable manner.
Influential bloggers are often too busy to take ambiguous proposals seriously but will pull the trigger quickly if you make a clear case for them to give a definitive Yes or No to.
Prove Yourself First
Blogging attracts dilettantes. Even the best offers to help will often be turned away if you don’t have the credentials or history of work proving that what you have to offer is worth snatching up. Think about it for a minute… would you let someone redesign your popular website if they have no professional design experience?
Would you take someone’s blogging advice seriously if they’ve only been in the game for a week and have no readership? Of course you wouldn’t.
Without a foundation of persistent high-quality work already completed you’re going to look like just another passer-by to influential bloggers, and influential bloggers don’t waste their time or take chances with random passer-bys.
You don’t need to have a highly read blog to connect with other bloggers but you do need to prove that you’re able to consistently produce worthwhile content. Many bloggers will still be impressed if you have six months to a year’s worth of great content and no substantial readership because that tells them you’re able to keep working without the adulation and feedback that many writers crave.
Successful bloggers continue to produce great work no matter what and being able to produce lots of great content without any positive external reinforcement shows that you just might be in it for the long haul, no matter what.
Don’t Give Up
You shouldn’t give up attempting to connect with a blogger just because you didn’t hear back from them the first time you shot over a quick email. Influential bloggers receive many unsolicited emails a day and they’re automatically going to either ignore yours or take their time getting around to reading it. Be patient for a day or two and then either send a follow up email or send out another equally appealing offer.
Often the key to connecting with popular bloggers is being persistent without being needy. If you can stay in touch and continuously offer value without seeming desperate or like a stalker then eventually your opportunity to form a tight connection will arrive and you’ll be ready for it.
Before I email anyone I think they are as busy as I am then I don’t. It will end up in Spam it will not be read they will think I am mad happens with commenting too not to mention that I have a lurking problem and start playing around with their themes checking for imperfections can’t find any here just the slider is a little annoying but if it’s not there noone will share you can’t win.
Great tips – what’s worked well for me up to now has been connecting with bloggers in LinkedIn groups and investing time reading and leaving quality comments on their blogs.
Hello Marquita,
That’s nice to use LinkedIn which is a quality and more professional way to connect with other bloggers and communities. Thanks for sharing!
John
These are great tips, John. And truthfully, you would think that they would be common sense to do in order to strike up a good relationship with someone. Most of the thing you talk about as being rude, are things you would never do in person. And then for sure there is no reason to do any of them over the internet either.
I guess the biggest thing for me though, is making sure that I have great content on my blog. My perspective might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but nobody is going to have to guess what I think about things. 🙂
You are right Michael, it’s the quality of content you provide through your blog that talks to someone and make easier to connect and share. Thanks for stopping by!
John
Establish good connection with people is essential in blogging. Not only with other bloggers, but also with visitors. Nice tips on how to connect with other bloggers. Thanks for the wonderful post. 🙂
Glad this article was helpful to you. Thanks for sharing with us.
John
I was talking to a friend last week; she just started blogging and wanted to have many instant responses. I am still learning in this field, but one thing I know, is that it takes time to create rapport with your audience. I like what you said about proving yourself. People need to see you as an expert on your field and it does not happen overnight. Also, you just taught me a better way to relate to my public as far as offering help, by not using the old phrase: “let me know if there’s anything I can do for you” but by making a very clear and well-defined offer that I know will help them out in a measurable manner. I enjoy your post, thanks.
Hello Alicia!
I would say blogging is like a business. You can develop blogging as you could develop your business. Now it depends on how high and far you want to go. If your goals are high, first thing to do is RESEARCH! Without any research you ain’t gonna make it far. You have to know very well about what you’re talking about and what your audience is searching for.
I have a friend who started a blog in January about wellness, nutrition, weight loss, etc. Her first articles were amazing! Then when starting commending on other quality websites, she started seeing some traffic! If you provide new quality information to your audience, they will sure come and engage in commending and ask questions. The question is, would you be ready to help them? Are you an EXPERT on what you’re writing for?
I’m glad you stopped by and shared your thoughts with us! Nice to meet you.
John Mak
It is funny to me that we actually need to remind people (and ourselves) to do the common sense everyday things to accomplish what it is that we desire, connect with another blogger. Blogging by it’s very nature is a lonely art. Having a like minded blogger friend certainly helps in that department. To develop those relationships is obviously important. The key is to think before we send (speak). Thanks for your thoughts, 🙂
Hello Susan,
The wisest think to do in life is to think 10 times and act one! As we grow up we are used doing things that becomes a daily routine. Most people become miserable because of that routine so there are ways to get out of misery and live life by achieving goals and move forward. Life is growth and we can achieve things in life through modeling and repetition! Thanks for commending!
John
I like the part about “Many bloggers will still be impressed if you have six months to a year’s worth of great content and no substantial readership because that tells them you’re able to keep working without the adulation and feedback that many writers crave.” To me, the love and capability of writing well are the most important motivations. Although the context is about credibility with other bloggers, I feel the info applies to something more basic–reason(s) for blogging.
There are “basic” reasons for everything. If you follow up you get to move forward. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing the ideas.In blogging a relation between bloggers is so wonderful, and about the ideas u have given are seems very much helpful for building connection among bloggers.
Glad the post was helpful to you Sajal. Nice you stopped by and commended.
John
Hi John, you said it well, to make a connection with a blogger specifically the most successful ones, you should grasp their attention first before you even contact them, the best way to do this is to read and comment on their blog, help them by sharing their articles on your social channels while mentioning them, include links in your blog to their articles and maybe write about their blogs and services this way, you will build a basic ground between you and them and sometimes they will even check your blog before you contact them, so once you do contact them; they already know about you and know it’s time to make a great connection with them. Thanks for sharing such a great tips.
You are right. It would be much easier to contact them after you do all these actions as you mentioned! Then you could ask for a collaboration very easy. Thanks for your insight!
John
hello John,
This blog is so timely,
My next project is to find bloggers working in the fields of prosperity, life balance and health issues like chronic pain and weight loss so that we could swap articles in a win win way for both of us.
I ‘m a life coach for business people helping them withh all these issues.
Now contacting peope on the interent without knowing them, like cold calls I must admit is NOT something I feel comfortable with.
Naturally I am looking to connect with people with a a high PR so that my articles are visible, what do you suggest?
Thanks!
Hello Patricia!
I understand what you mean. It’s difficult to connect unless you gain some credibility and trust with quality comments, blog posts and published articles. I would really like to help you and share my personal experiences with you on topics of wellness, weight loss and personal development. Please contact me at john.mak@simply1software.com.
If you’re searching for a quality connection I am always available!
Best,
John
Hello, I’m new to the blogging community and this is exactly the post I was looking for. Sounds like the blogging community is a tight knit group to get into. Thanks for the post I enjoyed it and learned some valuable information.
Ardent blogger here. Have four blogs. Trade links or guest posts?