Newbie Bloggers: Put Out the Welcome Wagon
September 9th, 2007 Posted by Chanya
When I was young(er) one of my favorite TV shows was “Little House On The Prairie.” I loved watching the adventures experienced by Laura and her siblings. Also, the sense of community displayed on the show was always heartwarming.
If you’re new to blogging like me you may have felt like you’re "alone in the wilderness." Well you’re not. There’s lots of resources available to you. You just need to take a few lessons from the Ingalls family to get started:
1. Get out and meet your neighbors: There are several social networking sites available where you can submit your posts and meet other bloggers. Some of the more popular ones are:
-del.icio.us
-Digg
-FuelMyBlog
-Reddit
-Spicypage
-StumbleUpon
The sites below are great for meeting other bloggers and finding bloggers with similar interests:
2. Bake a batch of cookies: In the literal sense of course. My point is that people love free stuff (food, gifts, prizes) and giving something away is a great way to introduce yourself. Therefore, consider hosting a contest on your site. Even though you’re new to blogging there are several sites that will post information about your contest and provide backlinks to your site. This increases readership and helps others learn about your site.
Some sites that advertise contests:
-BlogContestSite
-Contest Blogger
-The Link Bait
-The Prize Blog
-ReviewWOW
To see how to host a unique, attention-grabbing contest, check out Bloggrrl’s new September Shots Contest. Because milk (with a shot of Kahlua) and cookies go well together.
3. Ask for help: If you’re struggling with a technical issue chances are there’s someone out there that’s already figured out a solution. Visit blogger forums for help. Heck, I visit them even when I’m not looking for help. Why? Because they’re chock-full of tips and useful information. Some of my favorites:
-Authority Blogger
-Blogger Forum
-Bloggeries Blog Forum
-Google’s Blogger Help Forum
-The Blog Experiment
4. Offer to help: On the TV show, when one neighbor had a problem like needing to rebuild a barn, the other neighbors would rally around the needy family and provide help. These actions were reciprocated countless times. This represents another reason you should browse through the forums: you may know the answer to a question and thereby meet other bloggers and get them interested in your site. I’ve met lots of bloggers and visited quite a few sites as a result of people helping me solve a problem I posted to a forum.
Bottom line: simply writing good content won’t get people to visit your site - how will they know you exist? To increase readership you’ve got to "get out of the house" and meet your neighbors. So, go make some friends.
Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under blog tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Good fundamental advice for both “newbies” and those with experience bloggins.
Thanks for the link to our forum! Forums are definitely a great place to get help but they can also be a great place to network and expose your blog! I have had a good increase to people who read and actually COMMENT on my blog since being active in my community!
I agree totally with what you’re saying. I’m thinking about starting a blog and tips like these (especially the links you provided) are really helpful.
Great post! You are correct when you say when you first start out it’s like the wild wild west! I started my blog recently as well. I have a list of 139 social bookmarking sites with the page rank included. Check them out at http://www.arsenalmarketing.com
Best of Luck!
I so enjoy the writing in this blog and since I am new to blogging myself I have found the information to be right on target. I plan to visit often!
I was a lonely Blogger back then :p until I start to give some freebies to download for the blog visitors. The label is “free design box”. It is proven that people begin to stick on my blog little by little since then..I can increase my blog traffic and help my readers at once
I think most of my blog neighbors are 17-year-old Japanese girls taking pictures with their cell phones and guys trying to sell timeshares or life insurance.