You polish your prose, you add tags/ keywords, you update plugins, you fix a glitch in your template and then you sit back and think you’ve done a pretty good job. So you go read some of the popular blogs about blogging to see what else they say you should do to build your blog. You may have put in an hour or three and that’s all good, but no blog is an island.
Whether you guest post, leave good comments on other blogs or just keep an eye on what the other bloggers in your niche (personal bloggers included) are doing, it isn’t enough. All this creates an island of blog for you. You’re missing the crucial step, you need to step off your island and into the world. Talk to other people/ writers/ bloggers/ microbloggers online, make connections, network in a real way. Old fashioned social networking in a digital way.
Two way communication, in a nutshell. It may start with a comment on a blog but you need to follow up. Leave are few comments on a blog when you find one that has something to say and appeals to you in some way. It doesn’t have to be in your niche, it doesn’t have to be a popular blog.
If they come to your blog and leave a comment, or two, you have started a connection. Now you need to maintain it, develop it. This isn’t about getting a link back to your blog or having your link in high places. It’s about putting yourself in the world off your little blogging island rather than being sheltered and closed up in your little island all alone.
Did you connect with someone today? Through Twitter? Through email? Did you join an online group? Did you involve yourself in the world outside of your own blog?