One of the things you have to work on when it comes to building a successful blogging business is networking.

The reason is that no one succeeds as an Island. We all need each other as we press towards the mark of success. Whether you are blogging for fun or you taking it for real business, you need to connect with people that matter in your industry.

It’s not fully about how many people you connect with. It’s about the quality of your connections. It’s important to filter out unnecessary people and only keep the folks that matter.

We are going to be talking about profitable connections. People in your community who add value to your online presence. But before we get to some exciting details, let’s briefly touch on two elements you need to work on:

1 – You

In this blogging business, you are more the core of your business success. As a matter of fact, the quality of your business is a direct reflection of your worth.

In blogging, folks don’t connect with blogs. They connect with bloggers. If you are a naughty, contemptible and mediocre blogger, chances are that you won’t build profitable connections.

2 – Your blog

If you don’t have a blog, you probably are not a blogger. Your blog is the platform to showcase your value. It’s the link between you and the external world. It’s the hub of your blogging business.

The way you build your blog and the quality of your content directly tell the world who you are and what you look like. Get the best for your blog, including plugins, templates and of course web hosting.

NB: There are tons of web hosting offers today. However, I conducted this survey on the best WordPress hosting. You may want to check that out.

Building meaningful relationships in blogging revolve around these two factors. You must work on them to be able to create the kind of network that will promote your business.

Why is networking important in blogging?

This is a guest post

There are a couple of reasons it’s important to connect with others in the industry. Here are some of them:

1 – SEO 

Search Engine Optimization is a strong topic in blogging. It’s about everything you do online to attract natural traffic. Some of the things that will help boost your SEO are contextual links from other blogs and this is where connections come in.

Building valuable connections with other active bloggers will definitely earn links from them. I have had thousands of backlinks from my blogging pals for a friend. They read my blog, discover valuable content and willingly link back to it.

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2 – Free promotion and traffic

If there is one more thing I get for free from my blogging network, it’s promotion. This, of course, generates traffic that I transform into profit.

My blog posts are constantly tweeted and posted on Facebook. I also get Pinterest pins and general social media promotion from friends.

Ryan Biddulph, Moss Clement, Lisa Sicard, Arfa Nazeer, Lily Ugbaja, Tanyi Melvis Bechemnyo and hundred others make blogging exciting. Being part of my community, I get constant traffic and promotions from these beautiful people.

3 – Continuity in times of burnout

There are moments in everyone’s life when things go slow. During these moments, we look for people to lean on. Once it happens to you in blogging, you can always make use of your connections.

Sometimes you are kept away from your business by factors beyond your reach – sickness, accidents, travels, and other commitments. One or two good connections may be useful at this time, to keep your blog active and booming.

Do you want to join a free blogging community? Join our Facebook group! You can post questions, participate in threads, and also make healthy blogging conversations.

4 – Growth and more profit

In my past years of blogging, I have spoken at live events, published on other very popular blogs, sealed uncountable business deals, etc, thanks to my network. Once you build and maintain these warm relationships, your connections get you on their list of partners.

Related post: How to network online without advertising yourself?

2 steps to Grow your blogging network and make profitable connections

There are two main approaches to building worthwhile connections:

1 – Position yourself to attract others

2 – Step out and network with others

1-Position yourself to attract others

In my opinion, this is the best thing you must do to build profitable connections. You have to clean up and make yourself worth connecting with.

I mentioned earlier that people don’t connect with blogs. They connect more with bloggers. Someone reading your blog is not necessarily a connection. A connection is someone who takes the time to interact with you in one way or the other.

If someone sends you a mail or drops a comment on your blog, he’s not trying to connect with the blog. He’s using your blog to step to you. While your blog is necessary, it’s more important to build up your worth as the one behind the blog.

• Create and publish fresh and evergreen content
• Provide free stuff on your blog to help your readers
• Show yourself. Publish your pictures
• Publish your images at events
• Publish your personal videos
• Make sure your blog is clean and professional
• Publish pictures of you interacting with other leaders
• Give others a quick way to contact you
• Be friendly in your response to emails and comments
• Cleanup your ‘About me’ page
• Etc

Once you put these ingredients together, it will be difficult for your readers to resist connecting with you on a more personal note.

Related post : How to get your blog noticed? 11 experts share blogging tips

2-Step out to network

“Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone’s hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.” – Vera Nazarian

You should not make the error of stepping out to engage in a connection with others when there is nothing about you that’s attractive.

I have had many ask to know how I got to know so many tough guys in the industry. I have near 90 active and excellent bloggers as authors on my blog. There must be something about me that attracts them to my blog. 

If everything is ok from your end, here are a few things you may do to find and connect with savvy bloggers:

Read more blogs in your market

This is by far the best step towards creating profitable connections in blogging. We have exciting bloggers in our different markets. The more we step out to their blogs and read their contents, the more we create avenues to connect with them.

More from other bloggers;

Learn to grow your blog with this mom blogger
How this pro blogger started working from home and build a business
How to slay your blogging goals from Nadalie Bardo

Link out to them

It’s not enough to keep reading their blogs. When you find out interesting articles on their blogs, link out to them. The backlinks you give them will definitely draw their attention to you in some way.

Promote them

Linking out to others is a way of promoting them but you can do just more than the links. Share their content on social media. Why not mention them and drive traffic from your newsletters to their offers? This will go a long way to attract people even closer to you.

Related post: 13 big blogging mistakes almost every blogger makes! [Learn to fix them today]

Follow them

Generally, people on Twitter follow their followers. There is no guarantee here but if someone discovers you, tries to engage with you and finds out you already follow him, the urge to connect with you will become stronger.

Write to them

One of the things I do is step out and send a friendly message to folks I want to connect with. Some of these may take a couple of days to respond. Others may just not do. But a majority would be positive.

If you interact with someone on their blogs and social media first, shooting a message will definitely be a good way to take the relationship further.

But don’t be the sales guy.

Take it from a friendly angle and be more of promoting the person you want to connect with. Try to be of help and portray your leadership qualities. Don’t sound desperate at all. It generally doesn’t work that way.

Give yourself time

Rome wasn’t built in a day. You don’t expect to create thousands of healthy connections in days or months. There should be space for time.

Keep building and growing. As time goes on, you’ll find out your community is expanding and many profitable connections created.

Thanks for being part of this post. I’m sure you’ve picked something. Kindly share and drop a comment and let’s talk on this.