More on Building Community: link to blogs, visit, comment, and subscribe!

As you are now getting more familiar with the blogosphere and your particular blog etc. I thought I would write a little more on the practicalities of building community around your blog. Basically you NEED links out and links coming into your blog, especially those of blogs that you are interested in and have a similar theme to yours.

Why ?

Basically, when you link to a blog from your blog, and then follow that link to the targeted blog, the targeted blog can see that there is a link on your blog to their blog by referring to their referrer stats. (via sitemeter etc.) The targeted blog owner, like you, is also trying to build community, and, especially if it is quite a 'new' blog, will certainly visit your blog to see what it is about. If the targeted blog (owner) sees your blog is interesting enough, not only will that person visit your blog, but will create a link to your blog from their blog (returning the favour, a tradition in the blogosphere) and likely subscribe to your blog via Bloglines. This will help build your community, but you cannot get frustrated if you do not see quick results. Building community takes time, and plenty of it. (note, you can also comment on those targeted blogs, this will increase your visibility on those blogs beyond simply their referrer stats.)

I clearly encourage you to seek out blogs from the wider blogosphere to link to etc. but you can also start with blogs from this class that are related to your theme.

i.e. if you are doing a blog on desperate housewives, you might also want to link to the blog on Television Connection. If your blog is on the New York Yankees, perhaps link to other Yankees Blogs from the class etc. If you are doing a blog on movie reviews, you are not the only one ... and of course issues related to being a senior are pretty popular too!

Don't forget, for all the blogs you link to, also subscribe via your bloglines account. That way you only need to visit those blogs once you know there has been an update!