Many successful bloggers will tell you that blogging success has a lot to do with giving before you receive. Well, since networking is about being mutually beneficial, this advice is quite valuable.

But of course giving without receiving can only last for some time. Here is how blogosphere’s “I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine” mentality works (and where to draw the line).

*Commenting:

Commenting on other blogs is great. You leave your signature (that is your web URL) all over the web (assuming you are commenting on more than one blog and you should be), engage in conversations with other bloggers and fellow commentators. Here, the back-scratching is the act of commenting. In return, you make an appearance, get some traffic and hopefully the blogger will return the favor by coming to your blog and commenting too. Now, if the blogger is really busy, it might take some time to reply to you on his/her own blog and might take even longer for them to visit yours. With the really popular bloggers, they may not visit your blog at all. Now, this is not to say they don’t mean well. When they get over a 100 comments on every post, they can hardly catch up with the replies. Now, they might visit your blog if you have made an exceptional expression, which means you need to be one of top contributors to that blog (either through commenting or guest posting or both). With popular blogs, especially if you truly are enjoying their content, it is worth the time and effort, as you are learning things and making friends. It is also OK to join in the comments and conversations. However if a blogger with your popularity level (or less), is not returning the comments, you might need to move on.

*Promoting each other’s products

Unfortunately, many bloggers do not make the majority of their income from advertising or writing but from the products they promote. Many have their own products that they sell or give away for free. They have email lists. While they also use their email list to update their subscribers with blog updates and free information, they make the most of this list when they have a new product – either free or not, either theirs or somebody else’s. These bloggers sign up for the affiliate programs of each other and/or form partnerships. Some bloggers collaborate to create e-books, courses and other things together. So if you are planning to sell stuff, it might be a good idea to scratch a lot of backs.

*Blogging directories

Now, blogging directories are a must to increase traffic to your blog. You must sign up for as many free directories as you can. However even the “free” directories may not always be exactly free. Some are only free of charge if you agree to put a banner of that directory on your blog. Now, you might think this is a reasonable condition, but imagine signing up to 100 directories. There are only so many places on your blog’s sidebars. Remember: you also monetize your blog. And sidebars are also for including blogrolls, recent posts, categories and other blog-related things you might find essential. My suggestion is, scratch that blog directory’s back only if it is scratching yours: Check if you have seen a substantial amount of traffic coming from that directory. If not, remove the banner. There is no point in cluttering your sidebar with the advertising of a blogging directory you are not benefiting from.

*Blogging community

There are many blogging communities that come in all sizes, shapes and structures. They also have different popularity levels. Some will require you to put its banner on your blog. You need to check out many communities before you find the right one. In fact, I will soon be writing an article on this one. But you should keep in mind that gaining readership and making friends on any community takes time. Find a community with friendly bloggers and engage with them.

*Exchanging blog links

You may have a blogroll on your blog. A blogroll is a list of blog links (of the blogs you are following). They can be about popular and established blogs you are following or they can be the blogs of your friends. Exchanging (relevant) blog links is beneficial for both sides.

If you develop relationships with bloggers more popular than you and convince them (with how great your blog is doing) that your content is solid and useful and/or entertaining enough, they might also agree to put your link on their blogs. But this is a step that will come after truly establishing your blog.

image: gapingvoid.com