Blogging is not only about writing content effectively, but also about building relationships and expanding your professional network. Quality posts come first; promotion of these posts comes second. Both are essential to becoming a blogging success.

Managing Comments

Responding to comments is essential. You should think of commenters, as well as your readers, as potential clients or sources of referrals. With this in mind, take the time to reply to their comments in a thoughtful and respectful manner. Responding in a timely manner will show that you appreciate their feedback and set you on track to building a relationship with them.

Responding to negative feedback can be a sensitive area for any business. The advantage of the blog is that these comments happen where you can easily respond to them as opposed to on other sites or through word of mouth to other potential clients. You can use every comment as an opportunity to learn more about your existing or potential clients and their needs.

1. Make sure you are really listening. Read the comment or email carefully before setting out to respond to it.

2. While it may be rare, there is a time when comments can get out of hand. There are people often nicknamed “trolls” who deliberately seek to ignite controversy and will blatantly say offensive things to achieve this. Let your readers know how you will handle unreasonable comments in advance, so that when you take action you have the support of your initial ‘policy.’ While some bloggers do not censor any comments, the level of control you have over them is entirely up to you. Take a position on what you consider an unacceptable comment, and explain this to your readers openly and honestly.

3. Acknowledge the comment with kindness, openness and a willingness to understand. Ask them questions to find out more and if possible, take immediate action to demonstrate you have taken their feedback seriously. Apologize if in error.

4. Consider involving them in the solution to their problem. In most cases they are readers who want to help your business improve - so take advantage of their criticism in order to find out more about how your business can grow through learning about their needs.

Commenting on other blogs is the first step in building out your online network. It is also important for you to give feedback by commenting on the blogs of those you read and respect - this will help to develop relationships and ultimately serve to increase visibility to your blog. Readers will consult the comments section of certain key posts, and if they read a response that is especially well thought out and helpful, there is a good chance they will visit the site. Commenting can also help to build relationships with other bloggers, who may become long term correspondents supporting your business. Effective comments demonstrate careful thought about the post, and do not come across as promotional or self-serving.

Monitoring and responding to comments on your own blog as well as commenting on the blogs of others can be a lot of conversations to keep track of. Comments on your blog can be monitored easily using WordPress’s email notification system or moderation panel. But on the blogs of others, there are only a few options. Some blogs offer the ability to ‘Subscribe to Comments’ of a particular post or of the entire blog, but this is not yet a universal option. One helpful and convenient tool Cocomment. With the installation of a basic browser extension, Cocomment automatically tracks the comments you make - updating you when there’s a new response on that post and providing an easy one-stop-shop where you can view and monitor all of the posts you’ve been participating on.

Participation in Social Bookmarking Sites: Planting Seeds

At the base of every post readers should have the option to share the post link through email or to one of a number of social bookmarking sites that collect, rate and rank web sites based on user votes. As already mentioned, several examples of these types of sites are Digg, Stumbleupon, and del.icio.us. If you write a great post you can submit the URL to these sites - after that, the fate of the post’s rankings are out of your hands. Having highly ranked links obviously leads to increased visibility and thus recognition, bringing lots of traffic and interested readers. You an also participate actively in some of these social bookmarking sites and display your blog URL prominently in your profile - making connections through these sites can often also lead to more traffic as users discover you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Page Rank

The goal of effective SEO is to be one of the first in the listings on a search results page, thus, having a high page rank. Ultimately, being visible. By using enhanced design and writing techniques, you can increase the chances of being one of the top finds.

Keep your posts short - around 500 words or less is a great target to aim for. While there may be the occasional longer post, you can break up extensive posts into a series in parts, or use the more tag to put the end of the post on the full page and keep you blog index free of clutter.

Stay on topic - search engine optimization is improved when your post is focused (leading to consistent use of subject keywords). Rambling posts also make it less likely for readers to share the link since they won’t be able to identify a cohesive message or idea.

Keyword rich titles - Your post title should clearly communicate the subject of your post using keywords will entice the visitors to read on. Clear titles are also beneficial when readers share your posts on social bookmarking sites (like Digg and del.icio.us), since an informative and interesting headline will lead to more visits.