Blog Your Way to Success

It may seem counter-productive to spend your time posting content and comments on someone else’s blog, but it will let you reap the rewards in building traffic to your own site.  You have to have a solid reputation and establish your credibility in your industry, and that takes time.  You can’t always wait for people to come to you, so sometimes it’s necessary to go out and build your own reputation and credibility.

Find a few blogs in your industry, and make it a habit to read their content and respond to their discussions.  Add comments that are relevant to the content and the thread of the discussions and add value to the site.  Be sure to add a link to associated content that is on your site.  By continuing to participate on the sites, you can get to know the writers as well.  They can be very valuable contacts and will help you in building your credibility.

Contact the owners of the blogs and ask if you can be a guest blogger on their site.  Some sites welcome guest bloggers as a way to “change up” the writing styles and content they post.  In addition, lending your expertise gives credibility to their site as well as building your reputation.  Agree on a subject and submit a draft of your post well in advance of the posting date so that they have a chance to review it.  You want to be sure your blog post is what they are looking for, and that the content you are linking to on your site contributes to the posted information.

You can ask other blog owners to be a guest blogger on your site as well, returning the favor that they did for you.  In this way, blogging becomes a winning situation for you and the other blogger as well as for the readers that visit the sites.

If you are using blogging as part of your social media marketing strategy, please feel free to share your experiences and helpful hints here.