I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I started blogging. I mean, sure, its easy to start, but honestly, I'm a guy that when he puts time into something, he's going to do it right. I got lucky many times along the way, but what I've learned along the way, has been astounding.
In the beginning its simple. Jump on Bloggers.com and create your profile, and then start writing. It really couldn't be much easier. Write to your heart's content, but just know, that unless you start networking, readers just won't come and find you.
Then comes the next step, networking. Yeah, maybe I'm repeating that word a bit much, but honestly, I spend 2 to 3 hours a day networking, and more if I can get a few minutes at the computer every now and then. And what I've learned is pretty amazing, but before I started, I ended up getting lucky.
Out of all the people I've befriended while blogging, one of the first was a Nigerian guy who was into SEO. That three letter acronym is something that took me a while to even understand, let alone find out it was somewhat important. From him, I learned that you have to branch out, to expand.
So that's what I did. I joined social sites for bloggers, and though most are full of spam, some are really great message boards with interesting people and amazing discussions. I read other people's blogs and found out what works for them, and integrated it as best I could into my own blog. I made friends, and continued writing comments and discussing, and soon I realized, I was getting traffic.
It wasn't much at first. So I branched out more. I joined Twitter, and made a Facebook Fanpage. I worked those for a bit, then started to understand Twitter better, to understand hashtags, and understand the tools for twitter. I joined retweet websites such as Justretweet.com and worked it as best I could.
The next step was looking for other places to post besides my own site. EzineArticles is a great site for just that, along with Broowaha. I even looked into guest posts on sites that I really enjoyed, and knew I might be able to contribute to.
Next thing I know, after all this work, I have traffic. Sure, its still not as much as some well established sites, but as I enter the 4th month of stats, I can look at that spike upwards and know I have done my best. Is there more I can do, you bet. And I'm going to keep working at it.
But what it all boils down to, at the end of the day, is that I work intensely to put out the best quality articles I can. All that networking and such is for nothing, if I don't follow that "Quality is King" creed. But if Quality is King, the 'marketing' is Queen. People have to find your site, and trust me, there are PLENTY of ways to get out there and network. I fully admit, most of my time is spent networking, but its all been well worth it.
I started doing this, because I love to write, and wanted to spend my time doing something fun. I ended up making friends around the world, reading so many wonderful websites, and joining a community that gives me faith in the Internet, and humanity once again. And somewhere along the way, I found readers, a fanbase, and fun.
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