I’m a pretty versatile guy. I do decent enough designs and make a decent living on it. I write well enough to make some more money that way, and being thick-headed enough to try writing fiction in a language that isn’t even my native one. I’ve been around in this webbish world longer than most, earned a lot, survived dotcom, almost crashed but picked myself up again.
There’s two things I truly suck at, though. One is selling stuff, be it ads or products. That’s not my thing, probably for the same reason as the other thing, namely tooting my own horn.
And if you want to succeed in blogging, you really need to learn that skill.
If you read up on good blogging tips you know that “leaving comments” and “e-mailing prominent bloggers” is the two most repeated pieces of advice you’ll get. And they’re true.
Number one is easy, just comment on a post and your link’s there. If you’re really cocky you can even drop a link in the actual comment, be make sure it’s really valid - nobody likes a URL spammer.
Number two is a lot harder. I always feel awkward e-mailing bloggers, and people I have no real business with overall actually, asking for link love and the like. Heck, I had a hard time getting my ass out of the wagon for the (now sleeping but soon to be awakened) BloggerTalks interviews! And those are valid e-mails if any!
You need to stand up straight (sometimes literally, like Ahmed Bilal obviously realized) and toot your own horn, being proud of what you’re doing, and the skills you have.
Don’t sell yourself short. You’re the only salesperson you have, don’t make him a slacker!
Enough pep talk.
Don’t make him think you’re a boaster either. You need to be honest, from start to finish, with the way you present yourself. If you’re really good at writing snappy news posts, but suck at longer feature pieces - for instance - then don’t claim to be the Feature King. Point to what you do know, and tell people that matter.
I think Ahmed is right. Some of us have some kind of roadblock built in that stops us from promoting ourselves.
Get over it. Or get run over.
Incidentally, the Most Important Skill a blogger needs is, of course, being a good writer of blog posts. You knew that.
I like to comment on peoples blogs, but always felt it was poor etiquette to advertise my blog when doing so. Thanks to your great post now I know its not poor etiquette if its done in good taste. I will be reading your blog now and thank you for the great tips!
Cheers,
Chris
http://www.SolarCoupons.com
Tooting your own horn is fine, but you got to watch out for the people who are wearing ear plugs. They don’t want to hear anything unless it is coming from within their own heads.
All the tips here are effective in a world where people actually give other people a fair break. However, some people will do anything to try to sabotage others just for the sheer sake of their ego.
How many times have you left a comment on a blog, only to see it deleted because the blogger doesn’t agree? Or perhaps he doesn’t want to drive visitors to your site because it may derive him of traffic later down the road?
What about all the times your hard work is immediately dismissed by some stupid prominent blogger trying to look hip to his readers?
I’d suggest not rely on these tips too much…because, in the world of web marketing, ever other webmaster or blogger is just another competitor. They ain’t gonna give you no hand up if it means they may lose a visitor and ad revenue.
And some bloggers immediately think any comment with a link like this to promote a site is spam and delete it. http://www.chinatattler.com/laowaitattlertableofcontents.html
Thanks Chris, appreciate it!
Laowaitattler, you must have very bad experiences with posting comments on other people’s blogs. While there are eggheads out there for sure, I still think they’re in a minority. Sure, you can get slammed for your comment if the readership and/or owner of the blog in question doesn’t agree with you, but that’s something you’ll have to to expect since everyone’s entitled to an opinion.
As for links in comments, that could of course be due to bloggers not wanting them there since you’ve got the URL field already, but also some spam settings might zap the comment. Personally, I think long links in the comments look boring, but that’s about it. As for you link at the end of the comment, for instance - you could just as well use the URL field to get it out there since it has nothing to do with the actual comment. If it did, however, I’d think it was fine. Doing like you did now, yes, that probably pisses some bloggers off for sure.
So no, I don’t agree with you at all. I’ve built up strong blogs with commenting on other people’s blogs, as well as commenting on their blog posts using trackbacks, and overall I think it works, and know a lot of people doing this for a living that second that. I urge you to give it another go! You might be positively surprised…
You’re absolutely right. This is something we all need to do more often. My problem is usually one of time. I have to make the time to read the other blogs, and then respond. And as you indicate content is still the most important thing, whether one is writing an entry or a comment.
Laowaitattler, it sounds like you’ve had some bad experiences, but I really don’t think that is the norm. I am happy to approve comments with links in the text, if the link and comment add value to the discussion.
As I wrote awhile back in my Comments Conundrum entry, I try to determine if a comment is on topic or not, if the link is relevant, and if it will be helpful to the other readers. When I’m not sure I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but if a comment makes no sense in relation to the entry, and neither does the link, then I’ll usually delete it.
I feel people have to earn their links by actually reading the entry and sharing a valid idea in response. If I don’t agree with the comment, but it is on topic, I will approve it, then follow up with a (polite) comment of my own as to why I disagree.
Social Media is also a good way to spread the word. My readership has gone up since I joined Pownce, and I’ve also discovered a number of good blogs, such as this, through that community.
Good advice, Heidi. Thanks.
I’ve also found a few readers via sites such as Pownce, Reddit and so on. They are great tools.
You hit a nerve there. I am a lousy “tooter” myself. I think i suffer from inferiority complex
always thinking that what I wrote might seemed super to me but in fact will look lame when others read it.
Primarily, lack of self confidence is the biggest stumbling block that prevents us from being good “tooters”
Your absolutely right about that, Costa!
The thing about tooting your own horn is, imho deeply involved with knowing what horn it is. I was at a concert last night for Halloween and the joke theme was that the tuba wasw the first musical instrumnet—cavemen then kept narrowing and shrinkingh the “niche” of sound that came out., to build the rest of the orchestra. There’s a line from Arthur Kennedy about determining if what you are trying to sell is what people want.
If blogging is a way to build community, then consensus, then revenue, then the idea of posting links is part of community, and “spam” stops meaning “a lot of it” ands goes back to what the original joke was…trying to provide a customer with what he doesn;t want.
Our blog continually deals with this issue of the brand first.
http://bridgesolution.com/news
and then the worrying about the next guy’s issues, whether it be google slap or i-tunes.
Yes, I’ve had lousy experiences while leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Most often a well thought out comment is deleted because it is something the blog owner does not want to acknowledge or challenges the bloggers opinion or facts.
My site tries to present Chinese news from the source. Sure it is low rent compared to other news providers, but it is also free of the spin in the Western Media.
Often I will leave a comment on political sites that have published erroneous or biased information about the PRC. Most often I end up using facts to contradict or inform the blogger of the error. I place my site’s main url in the appropriate place (not usually in the message field as I did here, nor with such a long link as in my earlier comment).
Perhaps, if I was agreeing with the Blogger my posts would not be deleted. But, 9 out of ten, when the blogger is in error, my post quickly vanishes. Ego or Politics? Who knows?
Thanks for all the input….now if only people would follow that link
After several weeks since posting my little comments here about leaving comments on other people’s blogs, I now have even more reason to think it is a waste of time for building traffic to a site.
One of my comments on a blog was immediately dismissed by some moron, probably a 15 year old fool. All his buddies started to trash me and the site. It did little to create traffic to my site, but the controversy saw all these facebook morons blogs get more. Some of the jerks even tried to bring down my site. All because they disagreed with something I wrote in a comment on another person’s blog.
Who needs the aggravation?
Hi Fellow Swede! We were not raised to toot our own horn growing up in Sweden. Living in the US for 15 years I realized it’s necessary to survive.
http://designformula.blogspot.com/
That is true, Peggy!