Using MyBlogLog effectively.
Thanks to a post on the Bloggst forum, I came across this great article by Joshua Dorkin of Timeforblogging.com outlining very simply how you can you increase your traffic from and maximize the effectiveness of MyBlogLog. As many blogging fanatics already know, MyBlogLog is a community allowing bloggers to mingle, get to know each other and make new contacts that they might otherwise not have the opportunity to make considering the vast size of the blogosphere. In eight simple steps Joshua teaches you how you can make the most of those contacts.
Some of the things Joshua writes about really should be common sense, but unfortunately a lot of people aren’t doing what he suggests. For example he writes:
“This is one of the most important steps: Leave a comment on either their personal profile or their website’s community profile. Make sure it is not simply “Nice site†or “Great Blog.†Be sure to leave a relevant comment so the user can tell that you’ve actually visited their site.”
I can’t express how obvious that should be to everyone, yet nine times out of ten I get the “nice site, great blog” comments that Joshua refers to. I’m most likely not going to check out the blogs of people that leave comments like that, because it really is blatantly undeniable that they haven’t even visited my site. Hell, I can just check my MyBlogLog widget and see that they haven’t. If you’re going to leave comments about someone’s blog, take the time to actually visit and read a few posts at least! If I can tell you really have visited my site, chances are I’m going to visit yours as well. It’s just common courtesy. I may decide I don’t like your site for one reason or another, but I’m at least going to check it out.
Take a moment to head over Joshua’s site and read his article if you’d like some tips on how to make your MyBlogLog experience more effective. Don’t be one of those annoying mybloggers that leaves comments on blogs without actually visiting them ;)
Hey Mike! Thanks for the read. I’m glad you found the article to be helpful. What I’ve come to notice is that many people out there have stopped seeing the obvious. It seems that people are so busy or are in such a rush to “make money” with a website or “grow their site” FAST, that they forget about simple things. The internet is not a race. If you work at things slowly and methodically, you’ll likely see better results then if you just flop around trying to be an instant success.
Very good points :)
On top of the potential for traffic building, I just like the opportunity to be able to meet my peers. I’ve been spending a lot of time going around and commenting on blogs I find interesting just to try and get to know the folks running them at least a little bit. Some are friendly and reply back, some don’t, but there’s always the potential to learn something new that ya don’t already know…not to mention the chance to make new friends :)
I like to think the little things you learn from others and what they’re doing can end up helping you in the long run. If I happen to see an increase in traffic because of it, that’s a nice bonus =)