The Networking Blog

In our last post about networking via linking in blogs, we’ll discuss the highest level of linking adding to the blogroll. Contrary to all the other methods of networking through links, this is a static link, that appears in ALL the pages of your blog.

Adding a fellow blogger to your blog roll is a big step in your relationship with the person. When you add such a link, the link appears in all of your blog’s pages, and every casual user will see it. This is much more significant than linking to the blogger in a post.

It should be reserved to cases when you’ve already done serious networking with your fellow blogger. Some people will analyze your blog and will even think that you are close business partners.

Let him know

So, when you have deeply considered this step, and made the decision to add someone to your blog roll, you might discover that the other side didn’t notice. The reason is purely technical: a pingback isn’t sent. When you link from your post to another post by writing a link post or a by “linking by the way“, a pingback is sent. If your fellow blogger hasn’t blocked pingbacks (or trackbacks), a link back to your post will appear on his post.

When you link from your blog post to the whole blog, your associate might see the reference in his incoming links (although not many people follow this section) and will see some traffic. Incoming traffic will be seen in the other two cases as well.

But when you add him to your blog roll, it might not be seen in the incoming links section. In addition, the new link on the sidebar isn’t always seen by your readers, and won’t ignite instant traffic to your fellow blogger.

So, I would recommend following up the event of adding to the blog roll with a short email. A short email saying that you appreciate your recipient’s blog and added him to the blog roll will do. Adding to the blog roll and and following it up will add value to your relationship, and is an excellent act of networking.

Asking for a link back? This is a sensitive issue. If you feel close enough with your associate, you can ask him for that. If you’re not sure, you can still give it a try. Writing something short like: “I’d be grateful to have my blog on your blog roll as well”, can be a polite way to ask.

This completes our series of post about networking via links in blog. Apart from these four methods, do you know of other ones? We’d be glad to hear.