Blog hopping is a smart thing to do.  It’s fun.  You meet good bloggers.  It helps you to establish your online presence  … and it’s just plain good business.

Today I met Maren Kate.  Never heard of her before.  I met her on my blog visiting route over at Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income.  She is a guest blogger there and her article is about how to turn an active income into a passive income , I’m not going to go into the details here as you can just hop on over there and read the whole original article, it’s what I would call PDG – pretty damn good.

Of course after reading the post I took the time to visit Maren’s own blog – Escaping the 9 to 5. Impressed me all to bits – of course I subscribed to the RSS.  But that’s not the point here, the point I want to make is that if you are an aspiring professional blogger, blocking a bit of time for blog hopping is a smart thing to do.

I admit that for the longest time I was an online hermit.  Staying at home at my Blog Income. Write and they will come was my modus operandi.  Then some kind visitors left a comment here and there.  That got my curiosity up.  Who are these people I thought. Why don’t I find out more?  Why don’t I go and visit their blog and find out what they are all about?

Timidly I ventured out.  First I just hung out – then one day steeled up enough nerve to make a small comment and that is how I discovered a whole new community of awesome bloggers.   Now I go blog hopping several times a week – and daily if I can.

Here is how blog hopping helped me:

FRESH CONTENT

By fresh content I don’t mean that the blog is original in thought, topic or presentation.  No.  Fresh content is the first sign of a good blog and by that I mean that the blog owner has taken the time and effort to write the article herself.  There is nothing new under the sun after all, but originality in perspective is compelling.

I was once on a tour in a foreign city.  The tour guide showed us where to stand and click for the best photo shots of famous landmarks.  I was pleased that when I had them printed they looked just like the postcards I bought and sent home.

But the group I was with was made up of journalists and photographers.  The photographers snapped from different angles, played with shadows and lens filters and created a view of the same scene that was so very different.

That is one of the major reason I like to visit other blogs.  To read about the same topic as seen through the lens of another.

GOOD CONVERSATION

Blogs are set up to be interactive.  Readers are welcome to leave comments on the post.  Often the comments present yet another aspect of the topic at hand.  This opens the mind, broadens not only your knowledge but also introduces you to the way others think.  Sometimes the comments are thought provocative and take you to places you would not have visited on your own, sometimes they pose a question or answer one and sometimes they prompt you to write a comment of your own.

It won’t be long before you recognize the regulars and just like in real life you’ll “bump” into them as commenters on another blog.  You bond. Each blogger brings something unique to the table and I have found that the community of bloggers is a generous lot, sharing and offering to help.

LINK JUICE

When you finally get out of your shell and start to post comments, there is a section in the comments format to leave your blog URL, this is a backlink. Backlinks are desirable to have – the more the better.  Somehow they factor in the algorithms when search engines rank your site, moreover when a spider crawls a site with your URL as a backlink, it will go and crawl your site as well.

One point to consider here. Many sites are  “no follow” which means that there is a message to spiders not to follow the backlinks back to the commenter’s site.  Some people won’t leave comments on “ no follow” blogs.  Frankly, if I like the blog and its content and wish to comment I will whether it is a “do” or a “no” follow blog.   The link to your site is live no matter whether it is a “do” or a “no” follow and often other commenters hop on over to your blog.

You might be interested in reading in these related posts:

Link Building Part I
Link Building Part II

BLOG ETIQUETTE

Remember when you are visiting someone’s blog you are a guest.  When you join in the conversation and make a comment make it relevant to the content on the post, and please, please, please do not leave throw away lines like “cool stuff dude” … that smacks of milking for link juice and is spamish.

Comment spamming is on the rise and many bloggers have posted their policies as to what will and will not be approved for publishing.  Generally speaking Akismet or similar plugins catche most spam and it never sees the light of day but I have had a spate of spammy stuff recently that is why it is a good idea to configure your own comment section so that comments need to be pre-approved  before publishing.

When someone has taken the time to visit your blog and leave a comment, it is common courtesy to acknowledge the commenter.  A return visit to the commenter’s blog with a comment of your own is a nice touch.

Here’s to Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

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