Sometimes people ask me why their blog isn’t growing as fast as they’d like it to, and I usually ask what they are doing to build an audience. Most of the time, the answer I get is “I’m writing good posts” and “I try to do it regularly.” While this is important, I’ll venture to say that it is only a small fraction of what is necessary to build traffic to your site. What is the other 50%?

50% of Blogging Success is Connecting with Others

Most of the bloggers out there who are frustrated with their blog’s traffic growth are simply not doing enough to connect with other bloggers outside their sites. That’s why I feel that tools like MyBlogLog are so important. In this day and age, people want nothing more than to connect with others. This explains the growth torrent of blogs, forums, and other social websites.

What Do You Need to Do to Connect?

  • You have to get out and see what others are doing, talking about, writing about, etc.
  • You have to visit other sites and comment on their posts and get involved in the discussion.
  • You have to email other people in your space and get to know them, and more importantly, let them get to know you.
  • You have to network outside the virtual world..
  • You have to be original and show people that you aren’t just another imitator trying to get your piece of the pie.
  • You have to write quality posts about interesting or helpful subjects and you have to show people why it is important to them.
  • You have to convey a passion in your writing.
  • You have to be opinionated.
  • You have to reveal at least a small part of yourself.
  • You have to shape the debate in your area of content.

I can go on and on, but I’m getting a bit distracted watching the NBA Playoffs . . . I suppose the main point I’m trying to get across is this:

If you hope to build a thriving blog community (all the top blogs are primarily communities - just look at the amount of comments they get), then make sure you’re spending a good chunk of your time connecting as well as writing!

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