There’s an old saying: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
The truth is that it’s both.
You can’t be a successful blogger if you don’t know how to create a high-quality blog post.
You also can’t promote your blog posts if you don’t know how to do blogger outreach.
Networking can be a challenge for blog writers who are more comfortable sitting at home or in a coffee shop, deeply immersed in research.
But establishing contacts in the blogging industry is vital—not just for getting more exposure for your posts, but for creating opportunities to collaborate and share ideas, tips, and industry news.
Here are 4 Techniques to help you do Blogger Outreach
1. Write Guest Posts
Guest posting is a highly effective way to network because it’s mutually beneficial for both sides of the arrangement.
You get more exposure and a link to your blog and the blogger you’re writing for, gets a fresh piece of free content that helps drive traffic to their own blog.
As a result, guest blogging helps to create a strong, symbiotic bond.
It’s best to do this with a blog that is already posting content related to your niche. Even if a popular blogger agrees to publish one of your posts, it’s not going to do you much good if that post is on a topic that that blog’s audience has no interest in.
Once you’ve established a rapport with a fellow blogger, you may want to encourage them to write a guest blog for you. Even if your contact has a much larger audience than you, this is still beneficial to you from a traffic perspective if they promote the post to their followers.
2. Comment on Other Blogs
You might think of commenting on blogs as something you just do for fun in your spare time. But it’s one of the most useful tools in your networking toolkit.
Any blogger who cares at all about the quality of their community will read their comments from time to time. For that reason, commenting on blog posts is a great way to network with communities as well as moderators who are interested in what people have to say.
Again, this works best if you comment on blogs relevant to your own niche. Similar to the way you would identify potential guest blogging opportunities, do your research and pick out blogs that are posting content your own audience would be interested in.
Generic comments like “great article!” aren’t going to give you much benefit; in fact, they’re likely to be interpreted as useless spam. It’s best to comment from a place of sincerity and value. Provide a genuinely useful tidbit of information, offer a constructive criticism, or ask an insightful question.
3. Attend Conferences & Events
Sometimes the best place to network with people who work online is actually offline, where you can make a more personal, face-to-face connection. Conferences, meetups, and other networking events are excellent places to contact other bloggers.
Before you head out to any blogging event where you intend to network, you’ll want to have professionally designed business cards with you. Any contacts you make will likely go home with a whole stack of cards from fellow bloggers, so having a creative, eye-catching design will help you stand out in the crowd.
You also might want to consider creating custom promotional products to hand out at the event. Recipients are even more likely to hold on to useful gifts such as lip balm, pens or keychains, which means that they’ll receive even more exposure to your blog’s brand.
4. Reach out on Social Media
Many bloggers are active on social media, making it a great way to get in touch with them.
Twitter is especially useful for reaching out to bloggers you don’t already know that well because you don’t need to send a friend request or invitation first (unless the blogger has set their account to “protected”).
Join groups on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to reach people on a wider scale. Get involved in conversations to show people that you’re friendly and approachable.
As always, it’s important to speak from a position of mutual benefit. Don’t just constantly focus on what your new friend can do for you, asking for shares and retweets.
Instead, form a genuine relationship. Ask questions, provide useful information, and prove to them that you’re actually interested in their work—not just looking for a handout.
Conclusion
Networking can sometimes make you feel like a phoney. Nobody wants to suck up to people just to get eyes on their blog posts.
That’s why it’s so important to find bloggers you like and whose work you find valuable. When you genuinely respect someone, it’s easy to think of the relationship in terms of what you can do for them.
Feeling lonely and isolated from your blogging colleagues? Put some of these techniques to work and start building a network of contacts.