Everywhere you look, there are blog posts that show you how to start a successful blog.

These posts have a ton of great content, and walk you through the basics of starting a blog. But there’s one thing missing, ok maybe there’s a few things missing.

If you want to learn how to start a successful blog, you need to think outside the box a bit, and do the things not everyone is telling you.

How To Start A Successful Blog (The Basics)

Like I said previously, there’s some very good information out there on starting a successful blog. These posts walk you through the basics such as:

• Choosing a domain name
• Advantage of the self-hosted route vs WordPress.com
• Finding A Host
• Basic install / configuration of WordPress

A quick Google or YouTube search will give you all the information you need.  If you want a head start, you can check out Neil or WP Beginner, both of which are very reputable. 

But wait, there’s more.

Before you publish that first post, there’s a few other things you should keep in mind.

Take a look at the following…

The 9 Things They Didn’t Tell You

If you truly want to start a successful blog, there’s a number of other things you should consider before publishing your first post. The intent of this post isn’t to provide a detail description on each of these topics, rather it’s meant to provide a few points that will get you thinking.

Update Your Permalink Structure

You’ll need this for your SEO Strategy. Think of the Permalink as the structure of the URL for each of your posts. You’ll want this to be descriptive enough to help the search engines when they come crawling.

Update Your WordPress Settings

There are countless settings in WordPress that you can update to personalize your blog. You’ll want to spend some time getting acquainted with the WordPress dashboard, before you jump too far into things. 

Install A Backup Plugin

Oh boy, what do you do when your blog gets hacked, and all your content disappears? Don’t think this will ever happen to you, chances are it will at some point, and you should plan for it. 

Having a backup plugin running on your site is a nice insurance policy in case you ever need to do a restore.

Be Careful Of Plugin’s

Speaking of plugin’s, don’t go crazy. They have a tendency to slow down your site and can post security risks if they haven’t been updated in a while. Only download what is truly necessary.

Check Your Site Speed

Google loves sites that load fast, so be cognizant of site and page speed. While images are great, they will slow down your site unless you compress them. Look into image compression plugin’s that can help with this.

Run some site speed tests on your blog to see how your performance is doing.

Learn The Basics Of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is a big one, and there’s a whole lot to learn. If SEO is a foreign topic to you, spend some time researching it before you get too far. There’s both on-page and off-page SEO topics, and they are both important. 

If you don’t at least put some focus on SEO, you’ll never “Rank” for the keywords you want to focus on. Without that, people will never find your brand.

Find Other Bloggers In Your Niche

I’ve said this before on this blog…  The secret to a successful blog is networking. If you want to network with other bloggers in your niche, you need to find 5 or 6 that can help you. Once you have this list, you can start focusing on them to help build your brand.

Read Other Blog Posts

Since you spent the time finding other bloggers in your niche, read their blog posts. Not only will this help you identify the bloggers you want to follow, but you’ll learn something along the way.

Comment On Other Blogs

And since you spent the time reading the post, why not leave a comment telling the blogger how much you enjoyed the article. Don’t just leave a simple “great article” comment, put some thought into it. If you can write a thought provoking comment, other readers will notice and may want to check out your blog as a result of this.

Have you noticed a common theme with the above items?

They are all focused on driving traffic to your site. Whether it be from Search Engine Optimization or Networking, you need that traffic to succeed.

Remember, you can write the greatest post in the world, but if nobody can find it, who’s going to read it?

What Are You Waiting For

So go on, now that you’ve got all of the above accounted for, hit that publish button.

I can’t stress enough how important networking is if you want to start a successful blog. You need to get your name out there, let these other bloggers know who you are.

The success of your blog depends on it!

How do I know that? I was there. I was creating content, updating my blog, and nobody was reading it.

That all changed a few months ago when I discovered networking. I implemented a strategy and it’s working so far. If you want to follow my progress, and pick up a trick or two along the way, just click here.

The post How To Start A Successful Blog (The 9 Things They Didn’t Tell You) appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Actually I’ve been in the mood for a while, just haven’t had the time to focus on it.

Been doing all kinds of research to figure out the best way to approach this topic. Not only to encourage new visitor’s to the site, but also attempt to get a nice bump in email subscribers.

Guess what? There’s quite a bit of information out there. Lot’s of stuff, and it’s hard to weed out the good from the bad.

Let me try to help.

I started composing a list of links for reference, and I thought why not share that with the visitors on my site.

I’ve updated this list of 21 great links on guest posting in 2025 to remove some older links that weren’t updated in years. Hope you all find this helpful.

First Things First

Ever read a post that had an awesome number of links to something you were interested in?

Maybe you forgot to bookmark the post, or can’t seem to find it amid the 1000’s of other posts you have bookmarked that you never seem to have time to read.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a checklist of sorts in a file right on your desktop that you could access at a moments notice?

Ok, let’s get on with it shall we…

21 Must Click Links On Guest Posting

All of the below links on guest posting have some content related to guest posting in some form or other. Even though the main subject may not be specific to guest posting, rest assured there’s some information within that post that will give you some pearls on guest posting itself.

On with the links on guest posting…

1. Marc Andre has some great tips on using guest posting in a case study he did that grew his email subscribers from 0 to over 5000 (and counting). While the topic may not be about guest posting, there’s some great information here that does apply. Be sure to read the comments on this one.
2. Looking for some Best Practices on Guest Posting, how about this dandy from Copy Blogger’s guest posting gate keeper.
3. Learn the 2 Step Process Ahmed Safwan (via Be A Better Blogger) uses to make guest posting 100x more effective.
4. Want to learn about Guest Post Outreach, and how to do it the right way? Jessica La has this great post on how to do guest post outreach in 2024.
5. Looking for a list of sites by niche that accept guest posts? Peter Sandeen has just the list you are looking for.
6. Along the same lines, Anil Agarwal also has a list of 300+ guest post sites that you can leverage.
7. The Definitive Guide To Guest Blogging by Brian Dean has a wealth of information from finding blogs that accepts guest posts to pitching the idea to creating the post itself.
8. The Ultimate Guide To Advanced Guest Blogging gives you everything you need to know to find those great opportunities, courtesy of Moz.
9. Why You Suck At Guest Blogging (and What The Pro’s Do Differently), need I say more.
10. Not seeing the success you crave with guest posting, check out these 10 mistakes to avoid as a guest blogger.
11. Interested in opening up Guest Blogging to your site? Read Accepting Guest Posts On Your Blog by Nina Clapperton.
12. If you’re interested in having other bloggers post to your site, Here are 7 Must Do’s Before Accepting Guest Posts.
13. Wondering why you should Accept Guest Posts On Your Blog?
14. Want some expert tips? How about these Guest Posting Tips from 17 Experts.
15. Sean Ogle (via LocationRebel) shows you How To Pitch A Guest Post.
16. Think accepting guest posts on your blog is all a bed of roses. Fabrizio Van Marciano outlines Things To Consider Before Making Your Blog Guest Post Friendly.
17. Looking for a way to get you guest post pitch to stand out? Digital Web Solutions has these tips to Make Your Guest Post Outreach Unignorable.
18. How about these 12 Essential Elements of a Guest Blog Proposal, courtesy of HubSpot
19. Wondering why you pitch got rejected? Lauren Tharp gives you 9 Reasons Your Guest Post Pitch Got Rejected.
20. So what exactly is Reverse Guest Posting and How Does It Work? See what Andrew Dominik has to say about that topic.
21. And for number 21 on my list – 21 Secret Tips On Landing A Guest Post Every Time. This one is a few years old, but the tips are still spot on.

That’s quite the list, and pretty much covers all the key topics on guest posting.

If you have an article related to guest posting that you would like to have featured in this post, by all means reach out. If it passes my review, I’ll feature it here.

Ready To Be A Guest Posting Expert?

There you go, 21 of the most clickable links on guest posting you could ever ask for.

Ready to become a guest posting expert? I think I am, and I’ll be sure to let everyone know how it goes for me.

The post 21 Must Click Links On Guest Posting [2025] appeared first on Blogging Flail.

You see I have this blog, you’re actually reading it now. Over the last month or so, I haven’t put much effort into it.

It’s not because I’m bored with it, or don’t like enjoy doing it. It’s because I don’t have the time to focus on it.

The issue is, I hold down a day job. You know the routine, get up at 5:30, get the kids off to school, spend anywhere from 2 – 4 hours commuting to and from work, and a minimum of 8 hours in the office.

By the time I get home, I’m tired.

But I’m not done yet. Forgot about that hockey game I need to get my son to, need to play legos with the 3 year old, oh and I have that presentation I need to finish up for the 9:00 meeting in the morning. Shouldn’t have gone to lunch today, wait a minute, I didn’t.

Ok, so how do I find the time to work on this blog?

That’s the challenge isn’t it? Which is all the more reason why you need a successful blogging strategy if you want to blog while holding down a full time job.

They Never Said This Was Going To Be Easy

To have a successful blogging strategy, you need to treat your blog as a business. If you put the effort into it, chances are it will be a success. If you don’t, then it will go the way of the 1000’s of other blogs that just die ever single day of the week.

Blogging is hard work. Not hard in the sense of manual labor, but hard in that it’s time consuming.

Take a look at the things you need to do each and every week:

Research 

There’s a lot of research that goes into blogging. Don’t necessarily expect to plop down in front of your computer and start cranking out posts.

You need to brainstorm post ideas, gather ideas for that post, do your fact checking, find statistics, etc…

Which leads us to…

Writing Awesome Content

It takes time to write great content.

I’m not a journalist by trade, so writing isn’t what I would consider my strong point. For me to pull together a 1500+ word post and edit it can take me anywhere from 5 – 10 hours based upon the topic I’m writing.

Networking

As I’ve been trying to preach on this blog, if you don’t network, the chances of your blog succeeding is nada, zero, nil.

Networking is all of the following:

Finding the right bloggers in your niche

Responding to comments on your blog

Commenting on other blogs (over and over and over)

Sharing content on social media

Networking off your blog should take up as much time, if not more, as the work you are doing on your blog.

Guest Posting

Think writing content on your blog is enough? Nope!

If you want to increase visitors to your site, you need to guest post on other blogs. This involves more research on the blogger, finding the right topic, writing even better content, and responding to comments on your guest post.

The Technical Stuff

Let’s not forget maintaining your blog.

There’s always new plugin’s to find, email marketing, theme’s to keep updated, analyzing metrics. The list goes on and on…

As you can see, there’s a lot of work involved in this blogging thing.

If you are still wondering if you can be successful at blogging while holding down a full time job, the short answer is yes.

But be prepared, it’s going to be a lot of work.

Here are 6 tips to a successful blogging strategy while holding down a full time job.

Successful Blogging Strategy With A Full Time Job

So is it possible? Sure it is. A ton of people are successful part-time bloggers.

Here’s a few folks that you may not realize hold down full time jobs, but are still able to run a successful blog.

Kevin Duncan – Be A Better Blogger, Steven Wilson – High Powered SEO, Luke Jordan – InterGeek, Lisa Sicard – Inspire To Thrive, Richard Martin – The Smart Income Detective. These are just a few names of bloggers that I follow on a regular basis.

So how do you blog while holding down a full time job?

That’s the question we want to answer isn’t it? Let’s take a look at some things you can do to implement a successful blogging strategy while holding down a full-time job.

It all really comes down to time management.

Post At Your Own Pace

You’ll see a lot of advice that states you should be posting 2 – 3 times a week if you are starting out a blog.

I call BS on that.

Number one, I don’t have the time to do that given everything else going on in my life.

Number two, I really don’t think that’s necessary.

Post at your own pace. If you can only post once every two weeks, define that timeframe as your publishing schedule.

Whatever your schedule happens to be, just be sure to stick to it.

Leverage Your Lunch Hour

We all have a lunch hour, or 30 minutes, or something don’t we?

I have the luxury of having a number of eating establishments at my place or work. Potbelly being my favorite, turkey on flatbread – everything buy mayo and go light on the hot peppers, but that’s a topic for another post.

My point is, I can run downstairs, grab a sandwich, and bring it back to my desk while I’m doing some work.

If by chance I’m having a light day, I can use that time to write some content or do some blog commenting.

Brainstorm During Your Commute

I do some of my best thinking on my drive to and from work.

On a good day my commute is at least an hour, on a bad day it can take upwards of two hours. That gives me a lot of time to think about things.

I can brainstorm topics for new posts, strategies to implement on email marketing, think about technical upgrades to my site, etc…

Bonus Points – Use your shower time. I’m not one to sing in the shower in the morning, but I do think about strategies for my blog.

Leverage Your Smartphone

With the advent of smartphones, you can pretty much do anything anywhere.

One of the best apps I have ever downloaded is the WordPress application for my iPhone. I can check my stats, approve comments, and even reply to comments.

Granted it’s not quite as easy as doing things on a computer, but I can do some of the day-to-day things wherever I’m at.

I do a lot of this during lunches and while waiting for hockey and guitar practice to finish up.

Bonus Points – Leverage your Smartphone during boring conference calls to pass the time.

Work After The Kids Go To Bed

You may have to give up watching Sports Center every night after the spouse and kids go to bed, but what better time is there then this to focus on your blog? Talk about true distraction free writing.

I’m a night owl, and even though I get up early for work, I tend to find myself staying up to midnight on most nights. I can get quite a bit done if I use this time wisely.

Block A Few Hours On The Weekend

This one is the most difficult. After working all week, my weekends are meant for family. Then whatever little time is left over, you have to fit in yard work, errands, and all the other misc. stuff you don’t have time for during the week.

However, if you can convince the spouse that you really like to tinker with your blog, I’m sure they’ll let you have an hour or two to yourself. Right?

You can always leverage the previous point and stay up late, which is what I seem to do.

Yes It Is Possible

There it is…

6 ideas to implementing a successful blogging strategy while holding down a full time job.

It is possible, but I’m going to warn you, it’s not easy. Finding the time to work on your blog on top of your day job and everything else is a challenge.

This is one of the biggest frustrations I find with blogging. There’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done.

Whether you blog full or part time, what are your time management secrets? I’m sure we would all like to know how you do it (I know I would).

And by the way, if you know of other bloggers that hold down full-time jobs, would you mind sharing their blogs with us? I’d love to be able to connect with them as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about Blogging Flail, simply click here.

The post Tips For A Successful Blogging Strategy While Holding Down A Full Time Job appeared first on Blogging Flail.

This is something I publish for my email subscribers who are following the progress of my strategy to increase visitors, engagement, and email subscribers.

If you’re interested in learning more, simply click here.

Anyway, the results left something to be desired, and I got a little frustrated with my progress (or lack of it) for the month.

So that experience gave me the idea for this post. Something along the lines of dealing with the frustration of blogging. Because lets face it, blogging frustration happens to everyone.

Doesn’t it?!?!

Blogging Frustration

It just so happened, as I was working on this post, one of my mentors (I like to call her that) who’s been doing this blogging thing for quite a while wrote a similar post on her situation.

If you are not familiar with Adrienne Smith, she’s a guru on building relationships. At least she is for now. Her blog is going through a bit of a transformation, which you can read about in her post titled How My Blogging Journey Got All Screwed Up.

Now in Adrienne’s case her situation wasn’t so much about blogging frustration, it was more about loosing her way. Kevin Duncan actually wrote a guest post on this topic, ironically over at Adrienne’s blog.

This really got me thinking. If this can happen to one of the more successful bloggers I know, it can happen to anyone.

They say the primary reason a blog fails is because of a lack of results. I mean who wants to put all this effort into something and get nothing out of it. As Derek Halpern says on Social Triggers, it’s human psychology.

The more time you spend working on something without a reward, the harder it is to continue doing it.

Blogging Frustration!

You spend hours maintaining your blog, creating new posts, leaving comments on other blogs, responding to comments on your blog. For what?

You check your stats at the end of the month and realize your visitor count is down (again), and your subscriber growth has slowed to a crawl. There’s only so many excuses you can make for this month in and month out.

Frustration.

So why do we keep at it?

You Do Have A Plan Right?

Well at least I’m assuming you have a plan.

Where do you expect to take your blog? Is it a future out for your day job? A way to make some extra income? Perhaps it’s your primary business.

Whatever your plan, you always have to deal with setbacks in some form or other.

You won’t be very successful if you just pack it in the first time something doesn’t go the way you plan.

You need to adapt, adjust to your failures, learn from them.

Address you blogging frustration!

Working Through Your Blogging Frustration

Say you just reviewed your metrics from last month, and things aren’t going exactly as planned. What do you do?

You can quit. However, that’s not the most practical solution is it?

You have to adapt to the situation. What’s the source of the frustration. Chances are there’s a solution to the problem, you simply need to step back and evaluate things a little more closely.

Here’s 5 options that may help you get over your blogging frustration:

Don’t Get Frustrated Too Soon

Don’t expect your blog to go viral overnight. It takes time.

Perhaps you need to reset your expectations. If you’ve only been blogging for a few short months, it’s too early to panic.

Sure there are always exceptions to this rule, but for the most part you need to establish your blog. If you’ve implemented a solid strategy for you blog, stick with it.

Next Steps

1. Continue creating great content for your blog
2. Step up the networking and blog commenting
3. Promote your posts

Alter Your Strategy

Do you have a strategy in place? If not, you’re blogging aimlessly. You need to step back, identify your goals, and implement a strategy for your blog to meet those goals.

Let’s face it. Without a strategy, you’re not going to succeed.

Next Steps

1. If you don’t have a strategy, create one
2. If you are following a strategy, and it doesn’t seem to be working, it’s time to review it and make the appropriate changes
3. Be sure you are following whatever strategy you have in place

Focus On One Thing At A Time

It can be a little overwhelming if you are trying to tackle too many things at once. Jumping from one task to another without completing anything leads to frustration (not to mention a lack of focus).

Next Steps

1. Create a checklist of all the tasks you want to complete for your blog
2. Prioritize the tasks on that checklist
3. Focus on the top priorities, and complete a task before jumping to a new task

Take A Break

Maybe you just need a break from blogging. Step away from it to reinvigorate yourself. It doesn’t need to be an extended break, just some time away to help you refocus.

Your goal is to come back feeling refreshed and have a new outlook on things.

Next Steps

1. Put up a new post on your blog letting your visitors know you are taking an extended vacation.
2. Send out an email to your subscribers letting them know you will be away from your blog for a few weeks.
3. No blogging, responding to emails, reading blogs, or commenting

Reinvent Yourself

Perhaps you need something a little more drastic.

If you’ve lost that energy or passion for your niche, it may be time to look elsewhere. You can create a blog on anything.

You’ll discover how much fun blogging can be if you’re writing about something you truly enjoy.

Next Steps

1. Find your passion
2. Start a new blog
3. Create a strategy for that blog
4. Network with other bloggers in that niche

Your Turn

I’m sure you’ve been there at some time or other in your blogging career. How did you overcome your latest blogging frustration? Did it work?

For me, it was reinventing myself.

I was frustrated by a whole lot of things, and I almost gave up. I changed the focus of my blog, and created a strategy to network with other bloggers.

Is it working?

Yep, so far. That’s not to say I’ve got this blogging thing down pat. I still have my share of frustration from time to time, but I do have a plan to deal with it.

If you want to learn more, simply click here.

The post Blogging Frustration Can Derail Even The Most Successful Blogger appeared first on Blogging Flail.

You’ve created great content for your blog, and decided to start building an email list. All of your efforts are paying off, as you are slowly building your list of email subscribers.

Chances are you’re feeling pretty good about yourself, and decide to create your first email campaign for that small set of subscribers you worked so hard to attain.

You spend hours creating unique content on your site that is only available to your subscribers, and proudly include that link in your first newsletter.  You hit send, sit back and wait excitedly to see what percent of subscribers open that email and click on any of the links you’ve included.

Then the unthinkable happens.

Someone unsubscribes from your list, or worse, marks it as spam!

Panic sets in. You just lost your first email subscriber.

Good Riddance

Once you get over the initial shock, you’ll realize this isn’t such a bad thing.

You see, the typical open rate for an email campaign is somewhere south of 25%, depending upon what industry you are targeting. So if you are expecting 100% of your emails to be opened, you need to reset your expectations.

The unsubscribe rate for an email list should normally be under 1%.

Constant Contact has some great statistics on average open, click-through, and opt-out rates broken out by industry, if you want to take a closer look.

These things happen, and it’s really for the better.

Do you want subscribers that will never open an email you send, do you want a subscriber that won’t be engaged on your blog?

That’s easy. No!

You want your email list to consist of those subscribers that will engage, that will open your emails, and that will click on the links that you’ve included.

Good Riddance!!!

Remember, you’re building an email list for a purpose. Whatever that purpose may be.

Chances are that someday, someday when your list has grown, you’ll want to sell something.

Whether that something is a product you’ve created or a service you are offering, you’ll want potential sales.

So let’s weed out your list now, keep the good and get rid of the bad.

Good Riddance!!!

Too Many Unsubscribes

If your unsubscribe rate is within the threshold that I’ve called out above, there’s no reason to panic. Remember, you’ve only done your first campaign.

Ride it out, and evaluate things after your subsequent campaigns.

However, if your unsubscribe percentages are higher than average, you may want to take a look at a few things. Is any of the following possible:

• Are you sending too many emails?
• Is the content relevant?
• Is the content what you initially promised?

Pauline Cabrera recently did an expert roundup with 20 influential bloggers and asked why do you unsubscribe from an email list? Some of the answers may surprise you, most should not. In any case, this is something you probably want to take a look at.

Nobody Is Reading My Email

Remember, you’ll be lucky to get 25% of your list to even open your email.

The open rate for the limited number of campaigns that I’ve sent out is is right around 36%. At first I was horrified by this. But after evaluating the statistics, I’m finding that’s actually pretty good.

If your not seeing an open rate that is between 20% – 25%, you may want to take a look at a few things.

Boring Subject Lines

Are your subject lines catchy? Do they scream – open me?

Similar to your blog headline, you want an attention grabbing subject line. This email needs to stand out from every other email that a person on your list receives on a daily basis.

So how do you do that?

By writing a subject line that gets emails opened that’s how.

Too Many Emails

Are you sending too many emails?

If you’re sending multiple emails a day/week, perhaps your subscribers are tired of seeing all of them. Instead of taking the time to unsubscribe from your list, it may be easier for them to simply delete them from their in-box.

So what’s the right frequency? Chances are if you ask 5 people this question, you’ll get a different answer from each of them.

How about this. Send enough so they don’t forget you, but not so many that you annoy them.

How many emails would be too much for you to receive from any one person? That’s probably your answer.

Check Your Spam Score

Are you sure your emails are getting through to the recipient? Maybe they’re ending up in their junk folder.

So how do you avoid this?

Check your spam score.

Most, if not all, Email Marketing Clients have a built in spam score checker. Use it!

Before you publish your next newsletter or email campaign, take the 5 seconds to check your spam score.

Segment Your List

Perhaps your targeting multiple audiences on your site.

Say you have a blog that focuses on motorcycle brands. If you’re sending an email on the latest and greatest Triumph model, I’m pretty sure the Harley Davidson fanboy won’t give a rats ass about that.

So create multiple lists, and focus your email campaign to that list.

Summary

Don’t fret about your unsubscribes. It’s going to happen.

Having said that, it is a good thing to monitor your statistics. If your email open rates or unsubscribe numbers are higher than the norm, then it’s time to act. Here are 5 costly list building mistakes you want to be aware of.

Keep these things in mind:

• Don’t go crazy with the emails
• Keep the content relevant and focused on what you initially promised
• Create catchy subject lines (and check your spam score)

What do you think? Do you get worked up about your unsubscribes, or is it something you just don’t worry about?

By The Way – If you’re frustrated with blogging, don’t give up. I was there and I decided to do something about it. If you’re interested in following my progress, just click here.

The post Don’t Panic But You Just Lost Your First Email Subscriber appeared first on Blogging Flail.

When I started my strategy, in early December 2014, I was getting zero engagement on this blog. OK zero may be an over exaggeration, but I wouldn’t say one comment a month is something to write home about.

Now it seems every time I write a post, I’m responding to 15 – 20 comments, thanking people on social media for sharing my content, and getting a number of new followers on both Twitter and Google Plus.

Is my strategy working?

I think it’s safe to say it is so far.

Let’s talk about some highlights for the month of January.

Monthly Highlights

January was quite the month for me.

I didn’t really change my approach much from December. The focus was still on networking, primarily through blog commenting. It still amazes me how such a simple concept can provide so many opportunities.

Speaking of opportunities, take a look at what happened:

• I received my first backlink early in the month
• I received my second backlink a few weeks after the first
• I was invited to participate in a private networking group with other key bloggers
• I was mentioned in a Podcast

Now instead of going on and on, and giving all kinds of details on each of the above bullets, I thought it would make better sense to focus on how each of these things happened.

Two words – blog commenting.

Edit – I offer some more insight into this as part of my newsletter, but you’ll need to subscriber to get those details.

The power of blog commenting, do not underestimate it.

Want To Learn More?

Well, you’ll need to sign up for my email list.

Every month I share with my subscribers some insight to my strategy. Want to learn more about:

• What items in my strategy are working
• What part of my strategy is not
• Insight to my visitor and subscriber growth rates
• Plans for the upcoming month

And more….

You see, as a subscriber to Blogging Flail, I want to help you succeed. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I must be doing something right to get the level of engagement I’ve been seeing over the last 2 months.

So what do you have to loose?

Nothing!

Simply sign up for my list by clicking here, and I’ll send you links to all my past monthly summaries.

The post Month Two Report: Opportunity Comes Knocking appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Now how many of those blogs do you leave a comment on? None?

So you’re creeping?!?!

You know, creeping.  It’s what my teenage daughter does when she’s trolling Facebook looking at her friends friends news feed (or whatever it’s called today). The whole purpose is to see what they’re posting without them knowing that you know…

Sure you might get a few tips on setting up a blog, search engine optimization, or growing your email list, but you’re missing out on one important thing. Engagement!

You want that for your blog right?

Don’t be a creeper, get in there and let them know they’ve been creeped.  A wealth of opportunities await you.

Why Should You Leave A Comment?

Well if you found this post by searching for “Facebook Creeping” I agree.  Don’t waste your time with leaving a comment. You have better things to do.

However if you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you do have a blog, and there’s a good chance you’re looking for ways to increase engagement on your site.

Leaving a well constructed comment on another blog can lead to all kinds of networking opportunities.

How about some examples:

• You make yourself known to the author of the blog, especially if you leave multiple comments
• The author may return the favor by commenting on your blog
• The author may share the post they just commented on
• The author’s social networking followers see the post they just shared and check out your blog
• Readers of the author’s blog may see your comment, and check out your blog
• These visitors to your blog may leave a comment, share your post, or signup for your email list

See how simple that is? All that opportunity from leaving a comment or two.

Leave The Right Comment

There’s a right way and a wrong way to leave a comment on another blog. Your comment can make other blogger’s take note of who you are, or not…

First let’s look at an example of the wrong way to comment:

Great post dude

That’s not going to do much for you, and you’ll be lucky if it’s even approved.

If you’re going to leave a comment, be sure to add some additional value to the post, ask a follow up question, or at least call out something that you learned.

Now let’s look at an example of the right way to comment:

Hey Craig, I’ve been creeping on your blog for a while, and this post got me thinking, I should probably leave you a comment.  First off, love your blog, and I’ve been able to gather a number of tips that I’m hoping to implement on my blog.

I never really thought about leaving a comment before on another blog. It seemed silly to me.  I had no idea it could open so many doors. I didn’t realize networking was so important. How often do you comment on other blogs? Does it work for you?

Hope to hear back from you, and keep up the great work.

BTW – I just signed up for your email list.

Wow, I’m blushing. OK, I wrote it myself, but you get the idea.

If I received a comment like this, the first thing I would do is respond to the comment, answer the questions, and thank him/her for their visit and taking the time to leave a comment.

Chances are, I would head over to his/her blog to check it out as well, and if I liked what I saw would even leave a comment on one of their posts. Heck, if I liked the blog enough, I may even bookmark it and check it out from time to time.

I’ve done this on multiple occasions.

Recently there was a comment left for me on a previous post, and the author of that comment left a very well constructed response.

I was so impressed that I headed straight over to the commenters blog, and spent the next 20 minutes reading through a number of his posts. I’ve since bookmarked Luke Jordan’s InterGeek.co.uk site, and try to get over there once a week to check things out. We’ve exchanged multiple comments on each others blogs since that time.

Networking at its finest.

Get it?

Your Call To Action

It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in. You need to network if you are looking for engagement.

Next time you’re visiting one of your favorite blogs to pick up a tip or two, take the time to leave a genuine comment.

Repeat this process for every post on every blog you find of interest. I think you’ll really be surprised.

If you’re tired of creeping around other blogs without being noticed, and are truly looking for ways to increase the popularity of your blog, just click here.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t be a creeper!

The post Stop Being A Creeper And Let Them Know You’re Creeping appeared first on Blogging Flail.

I was getting a little frustrated with visiting some of the more popular blogs, seeing comment after comment on their posts. Some of these posts had 30, 40, or 50 comments. These were the posts that hadn’t even gone viral.

I kept wondering what’s their secret? How in the world do they get so much engagement on their site?

The better question was, how can I go about getting that level of engagement on my site?

Then it hit me. When I took the time to actually read these posts with all the comments, there was a common theme.

Networking!

So I decided to give it another go using some of these new found secrets. What I found was this blog networking thing actually seemed to work.

Blog Networking Is The Secret Sauce

In a simple word, networking is interacting with others. Every profession does it to some degree, so why wouldn’t you apply this same principal to blogging?

Networking is meeting new people, interacting with people you’ve previously met, creating new friendships that will help you grow your business.

Blog networking is how you create engagement.

Know why these other bloggers have so much engagement on their site? They’ve learned how to network. Some of them have been doing it for years, others have just recently started. And it always works.

Blog networking is the secret sauce to having engagement on your site.

Blog Networking Really Does Work

When I started out blogging, I was going about things all wrong. I wrote my posts for the search engines. Yes I was writing content for a human being, but my focus was on finding that traffic via Google.

I was somewhat successful with this approach, and I was seeing an increase in traffic to my site. But one of the things I was missing was a level of engagement.

After doing some research and reading a few posts from some successful bloggers, I had an epiphany. The common theme I was seeing across a number of these successful blogs were posts on networking, So I decided to give it a go.

And it’s working…

I started this little exercise in early December 2014, and I immediately saw an increase on the level of engagement to this site.

How do I know it’s working?

In the past month I’ve had more than double the number of comments as I had in the first 10 months of this blog.

In other words, I saw a 200% increase to the engagement of my site in just over 30 days. I’d say that’s working.

So how did I do it? Let’s take a look…

A Blog Networking Strategy That Really Works To Increase Engagement

Blog networking comes in various shapes and sizes. There isn’t one set answer, the best solution is do what works best for your blog. With that said, this is what is working for me.

Identify Your Blog Networking Targets

It all starts with targeting the right bloggers.

There are a number of different ways to find influencers within your niche.

If you want to keep it simple, try the following:

Search Engines

If you have no clue where to start, we’ll need to start with the basics.

Head over to your favorite search engine, and start doing a search for keywords that are specific to your niche. Focus on only the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), and record the blogs that appeal to you in a spreadsheet.

Continue to do this until you have a list of 10 or so bloggers in your spreadsheet.

Analyze Blog Comments

If you already know one or two popular blogs within your niche, than you’re ahead of the game. While you may think these blogs are out of your league, a little analysis of the blog comments will reap huge networking benefits.

What you want to do is start looking through the comments of the various posts on the blog. Pick a post and make a mental note of the individuals that are commenting on that post (you don’t even need to read the comment – at least not yet).

Move onto the next post, and look for those same individuals that left a comment on that post. You’re looking for the bloggers that are leaving multiple comments on the blog you are analyzing.

These bloggers will become your blog networking targets.

You’ll want to add 10 – 12 individual bloggers to your spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet is your blog network target list. You can add some other fields to the spreadsheet to help you identify more information on the blogger you’re networking with. We’ll explore that in more detail in a later post.

Comment The Right Way

You’ll want to visit the blogs in your networking list on a regular basis, to review their latest posts and leave a comment. Not just any comment, but a comment that will get you noticed and add some value to the post you just read.

Anyone can write “great post”, but if you really want to get noticed your comment needs to stand out.

The first time you comment on someone’s blog, tell them so, and let them know you how much value you find in their blog. Your comment should call out one or two items in the post that you agree or disagree with, and go on to state why. Finally, when wrapping up, let them know you’ll be back on a regular basis.

To really stand out, don’t just limit your comment to one or two sentences. Go crazy. I’ve seen some comments on blogs that go on for paragraph after paragraph. The thing is, don’t ramble, and be sure everything is adding some additional value to the post. You’d be surprised at how many other bloggers read every single comment on a post.

If you really like the blog, sign up for their email list.

Share The Love

Everyone likes seeing their posts shared, so be sure to share the posts of the bloggers in your network.

This is extremely easy to do. Everyone has share buttons on their blog and they can be easily found at the bottom of every post or along one of the sidebars.

If you like a post, share it! Heck, you can even add your own little commentary to the share to make yourself really stand out to the author.

I like to use an application called Buffer. This allows you to queue up a number of shares if you find that you don’t have the time to read blog posts every single day. You can create you own custom schedule on when these shares are sent out via Twitter or Facebook. Best of all, it’s free.

While we’re speaking of social media. If someone share’s your post and mentions you, be sure to thank them. A simple thank you goes a long way to getting you noticed.

Return The Favor

If someone leaves a comment on your blog, be sure sure to respond to that comment. Engagement is a two way street!

Don’t stop there! Hop on over to their blog, do a little bit of research on the person that just left you a comment. Heck, you might find a new favorite blog. If so inclined, leave them a comment on one of their posts.

You get the idea. It’s called reciprocation. Easy concept.

Here’s the thing to remember. Just because another blogger left you a comment, there’s no requirement or obligation on your part to do the same. If you like the blog great, if not, just move along.

Make Contact On A Regular Basis

The key word here is on a regular basis. Don’t feel the need to visit each of these blogs every single day. The key is visit often enough so they can remember you.

I try to make my rounds once a week. If a new post doesn’t strike my fancy, or I don’t have anything that will add value to the conversation, I move on.

Just be sure you are making regular contact.

Follow Up Via Email

This is a great one that can really open some doors for you.

I’ve had a number of email exchanges with some key bloggers that up until recently, I never imagined would happen. It all started with me signing up for a bloggers email list. You’d be amazed at how many bloggers want to hear from you, and actually ask you to shoot them a quick email telling them something about yourself, or what you want to get out of their blog.

If you don’t want to sign up for their email list, send them a quick email after you’ve established a connection. Don’t ask for anything, just let them know how much you appreciate their blog.

Some great email exchanges have developed from this strategy, and you may just get some free advice on your blog. It’s happened to me on multiple occasions.

Ball’s In Your Court Now

Now that you’ve seen what I’ve done to increase engagement on my site, the ball’s in your court to do the same.

Why not start now. Leave me a comment and start your blog networking right here. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it really is.

And in case you’re wondering…  I started (re-started) this blog to show you what implementing a strategy can do for your blog. Don’t blog aimlessly, put a strategy in place today.

Better yet. Just click here! I’ll share with you the results of my strategy on a monthly basis, and give you an in-depth look at the things I’m doing that are working for me.

Image attribution: blickpixel via Pixabay

The post Blog Networking Increased Engagement By 200% (In Just 30 Days) appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Blog posts that have links to other bloggers posts. These links typically add additional color to the author’s post, which in-turn saves them time by not having to call out that level of detail. It’s also a great networking tool.

You’ve probably thought, how in the world do I get bloggers to link to my posts?

You’ve got great content, you’ve written about the same topics, and heck your piece is a whole lot better than the post that was just linked to in some other blog.

So how do you get a blogger to link to you?

Networking, that’s how.

The Howdy Neighbor Technique

A few months back I read a couple of posts by Kevin Duncan of Be A Better Blogger, both of which gave me a much needed bump to my blogging motivation. One of the posts that really stood out to me was titled the Howdy Neighbor Technique.

The premise of the post is to be friendly to your blogging neighbors, and Kevin goes on to show you a number of techniques on how to make that happen:

• Welcoming New Bloggers
• Thanking those who share your work
• Sharing the work of others

The list goes on and on.

The final example Kevin calls out is linking to other bloggers in your post. What better way to introduce someone to your blog than by linking to them. Genius!

As a new blogger, you may have some limited success with this tactic, so you may need to change your approach just a bit.

So this got me thinking….

Blog Meet Blog

While it may be easy for the big boy’s and girl’s to link to each other in their posts, what do you do when you’re the new kid on the block?

You link to those blogs!

There’s nothing stopping you from linking to a successful blog, so why be gun shy about it. If you’re following any type of networking strategy, this fits right in line to that.

But you don’t always need to target the most successful blog either. There are 1000’s of other blogs out there that are dying for links as well (just like you).

Why not link to them?

Why? Well how about these reasons to start:

• You just made another bloggers day by giving them a link that they didn’t necessarily expect
• Your starting to make new blogging friends
• They may give you a shout out (either through their blog, commenting on one of your posts, sharing via social media, etc…)

It’s a win-win, and you have absolutely nothing to loose.

Why not start by introducing yourself to the other new kids?

I’m Paying It Forward

Being that it’s the start of a new year, it’s time for me to Pay It Forward. You know the thought, give a little something without expecting anything in return.

So I’m Paying It Forward by linking to a few different bloggers whose blogs I’ve stumbled across recently. While I may not have the most popular blog in the world (at least just yet) that will drive tons of traffic to their site, heck it’s the thought that counts right?

With that said, here’s some newer blogs (newer to me) that I’d like to introduce myself to. I’ve stumbled across most of these within the last few months, and wanted to say how much I appreciate your blogs and the effort you are each putting into them.

7 Bloggers I’d Like You To Meet

I started having some interaction with Kerry Russell on The Strategic Blogger about a year ago. She has since started a new site called The Blog Mechanic, where she offers a number of different services that range from setting up a new WordPress blog to fixing or maintaining your existing site. If you’re in need of technical assistance, I would check out The Blog Mechanic.

Tarana Khan runs Sand In My Toes and writes about parenting, blogging tips, and life in Dubai as an expat. Dubai has always been on my bucket list as a place to visit, and she offers some great tips on things to do over there. Maybe one day…

Blast of Blogging is run by Nicole Peery, and she has a ton of tips and tutorials on blogging. I’ve been lurking on her site for a while, and she had some valuable tips that saved me all sorts of time using a Genesis Plugin with MailChimp.

Want to be a better writer? Why not check out Wording Well by Lorraine Reguly. While not a new blog, I recently came across Lorraine’s site, and she has some great writing tips.  Want to win a free edit of an upcoming post you have planned, she has a monthly contest that offers this as well.

Giada100 is a place to head if you are interested in Social Media, Blogging, recipes, or Italian (the language that is). Giada has been blogging for a while and recently consolidated a number of her blogs under this one brand. I came across Giada’s site over at the International Bloggers Association site.

The Chronicles or Renard has quite the variety from blogging, to writing, and a host of other topics. As Renard puts it, his site is a personal experiment to see first hand if the Google Blogger platform is worth the effort.

I found Black Cats Cave on Google Plus about a month ago. She blogs about a variety of topics from relationships to her travel adventures, as well as blogging. She has some pretty good looking smoothie recipes as well which I’ll be trying out in the near future.

It’s Time For You To Pay It Forward

What’s next? It’s time for you to pay it forward as well my new blogging friends.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to link to a newer blogger in an upcoming post. Someone that you haven’t discovered just yet. Call out a new blogger, introduce yourself, and mention them in your blog. Don’t expect anything in return, just Pay It Forward.

How simple is that?

You’ll have a new blogging friend for life.

Heck, in a few years you may have just befriended one of the new A List Bloggers that everyone wants to be linked from.

Are you up for the challenge?

If you’re interested in creating a strategy for your blog, just click here. I’ll help you identify ways to increase engagement that you never thought were possible.

Image attribution: Brian Solis via Flickr

The post Bloggers It’s Time To Pay It Forward appeared first on Blogging Flail.

You’re not going to believe this, but I’ll tell you anyway. Keep this in mind as you read this post — I re-branded Blogging Flail one month ago, in early December 2014, and implemented a strategy to:

• Gain more visitors to my site
• Increase engagement on my site
• Increase email subscribers to Blogging Flail
• Increase my engagement on Social Networks

So is my strategy working?

What if I told you, that I started networking with some of the biggest names in blogging. I don’t mean simply following them on Twitter or leaving a few random comments on their blog, I mean actual networking.

Do any of the following names ring a bell?

Yaro Starak, Carrie-Anne Foster, Peg Fitzpatrick, Steven J. Wilson, Ana Hoffman, Tim Bonner, Adrienne Smith, Richard Martin, Kevin Duncan, Sue Anne Dunlevie, and a host of others.

Each of the individuals listed above have either left comments on my blog posts, shared my content on Twitter, left me comments on my Google Plus posts, or best yet – engaged with me via email.

Pretty crazy huh?

Now I’m not where I want to be just yet, but it is a start, and I’m about to show you how I went about doing all of this in just 30 days.

Month One Activities

Want to know what I did in my first month?

Well, you’re going to need to sign up for my email list to find out.

This information is only available to subscribers of my email list. Simply sign up for my list by clicking here, and I’ll send you links to all my past monthly summaries.

What are you waiting for, sign up now…

The post Month One Report: You’ll Never Believe This appeared first on Blogging Flail.