I'm not one for pretentious mission statement like this..."I blog, therefore, I am". When I see this I cringe. When you travel far and wide in the blogosphere, you're bound to come across all sorts of idiosyncrasies coming from bloggers. Tricks and treats are everywhere.
Let's face it, there's always the good, the bad and the ugly side of blogging, being the "free-wheeling" kind of space that the blogosphere is today. But let's look at the brighter side of blogging where the dissemination of information is freely given.
Bloggers who don't hold back in sharing their knowledge are the ones that really make the whole blogging experience something to be appreciated and worth the time spent doing it.
It's a positive attribute -- and spreading the goodwill can only be good and beneficial to the blogging community.
The best part of blogging, especially for those seeking to enhance their blogging experience, is to be able to build a community and network with people who have similar interests.
If you have achieved the status of celebrity bloggers you can establish your credibility as an expert or thought-leader in your field. What else can they be but to be leaders of the pack.
When these bloggers write a post, the flood of comments that pour in says a lot about their popularity and status. They get tons of RSS and email subscribers. They are usually on top of major blogging issues.
Some of the qualities you find in these bloggers are that they know how to use personality, opinions, expressions as a way of drawing readers to read their content. In short, the articles they write usually resonate with the readers.
In blogging you got to know the art of writing for blog readers. These so-called thought leaders do have some tricks up their sleeves, and they know how to use them and keep you coming back for more.
Maki of Dosh Dosh, who is one of the most followed bloggers around, wrote one of the most profound articles on blogging -- "The Secret to Building a Popular Blog" -- which is so comprehensive in its presentation that it caught the attention of many bloggers. The lengthy article -- a brilliant piece of work, if I may say so -- created a huge buzz.
What Maki's detailed article boils down to is that you can overcome the barriers by spreading your wings to build a popular blog. It's all about following the right process, using strong tools, and applying smart networking to reach your objective.
Yes, it's all about building relationships with your audience. Blogging culture thrives on linking to other blogs. The advent of social networking has widen the scope for bloggers to get greater exposure.
Ask yourself this: Do you want to be an isolated blogger? A blogging frog in the well?
I'm sure that's not what you want to be. You want to reach out and communicate with other bloggers. That's how you can get good karma and your blog benefits by having them visit it.
One of the strategies to get traffic coming to your blog is to create a high profile by making yourself to be seen on the radar and one of the ways to do it is by leaving comments on other blogs that you visit.
One viewpoint is that if you give value by commenting in a constructive and sincere manner on a blog, then it should not be looked upon as spamming although the idea behind it is to gain traffic. The quality of the comment does NOT come easy for some bloggers. You must develop a flair for it.
Some bloggers are so choosy about commentators that they put up "comment roadblocks" so that they can filter those people who come over to their blogs by requiring them to register first. No matter what excuses these bloggers give, they are just a big turn-off for most visitors who will most likely not come back again.
The very fact that we blog is to build bridges with other bloggers. If you're a blogger and keeps a "closed door policy" a better place to be would be a mountain cave. As they say, blogs without links are not blogs, they are the creations of arrogance and vanity.
Then there are other bloggers who behave like snobs. You can try to be friendly with them by leaving comments on their site but they never reciprocate in kind. For whatever reasons, you might think they feel you're not good enough to join their parties. Or basically, they prefer to stay within their own clique or kind.
Mark my word, blogging is all about communicating if you want to reach out.
About the author: Freelance writer, copywriter, publication design consultant and blogger Mark Khoo is web content editor of several niche blogs and some websites. Mark writes on his personal blogs about going beyond the blogging experience and other Internet issues, providing insights and tips and everything in between -- all in his own write.
