Networking Through Blogs – Linking “By the Way”
Linking to a fellow blogger can sure contribute to healthy networking. In the introduction post to this issue, we outlined four ways of linking for networking, and last time we took a dive into writing a link post. This time, we focus on a better way of linking, by doing it “by the way”.
This type of linking method isn’t that complicated. You write a post that relates in one way or another to what someone else wrote. It’s better to focus on something that you would write about anyway. And while you’re writing your post, you link to your fellow blogger’s post when you relate to the topic he wrote about.
This method is the best way to link, and you can repeat it as many times as you wish. Here are the main advantages:
- Writing such a post is more “natural”: You write a post on something that you have interest in or something that you can contribute through. This makes the post interesting and worthy for your readers. It fits into your regular writing, and doesn’t stand out as a link post. So, these kind of posts can be repeated over and over, contrary to link posts that can be tiring.
- No risk of over-flattering: When the link to your fellow blogger is a natural part of a serious post, he’ll be pleased that you’ve noticed him, but he won’t be intimidated by a post directed only at him.
- Discussion: After seeing the incoming link and some traffic from your post, your blogger might join the discussion on your post. A deeper post triggers deeper interaction. And, what’s networking about, if not social interaction?
This method of linking is the best way for networking. It is an approach in the right dosage – serious enough to be noticed, but not direct to scare off the other side.
The disadvantage of such a post is that it takes more time to write. But if you want to give your readers quality content, you have to put some effort into it, don’t you?
