How to Grow Your Blog Audience By Building Relationships with Other Bloggers – The Ultimate Guide
When I think back to all of the most noteworthy moments of my online business career – from my first digital product sale back in 2008, to my first feature article on a top-blogger’s website in 2009, my first speaking gig in 2011, to the launch of my best-selling book on Amazon – beyond the hard work and the patience I had to have, they all have one major thing in common:
For every milestone, I can pinpoint one or more people who played a critical role in the outcome. Without those people, those events may never have happened.
In other words, I would not be where I’m at today if it weren’t for those who I had built a relationship with.
You must be actively building real relationships with other bloggers and entrepreneurs – online and off.
In my opinion, there is no better way to grow your blog and business and create real life-changing opportunities for yourself.
If I could go back into time and and give my younger self some advice, it would be this:
“Pat, dude. First, lose the bowl cut. Second, and more importantly, the best way to get ahead in life is to get to know and build relationships with as many people as you can. When you get a job in the architecture world, it’s not going to be because of your resume, it’s going to be because of someone you know. When you lose your job in the architecture world, it’s going to hurt, but other people will be there to guide you. Search for those people, find the ones you trust who inspire you, and let them guide you. It’s all going to work out, but one thing’s for sure: you cannot do it alone.”
Now it’s my turn to introduce someone who is a master at relationship building, and definitely a person you should know about: John Corcoran of Smart Business Revolution. You’ll see just how systematic, but real and valuable his approach is.
John has introduced me to so many amazing people, many who have been featured here on the blog and SPI podcast before. He has a gift for knowing who should know who.
In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell states, “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts”. Gladwell discusses three types of people who become those “Agents of Change” in the tipping points of epidemics. They are:
- Connectors
- Mavens; and
- Salesmen
Take it away John!
Jeff Rose is not your typical personal finance blogger. In fact, one of the most valuable lessons he learned about blogging came in Baghdad.
As an Army Staff Sergeant for the Illinois Army National Guard, he led a division of nine other men into battle in the early years of the War in Iraq.
That’s right folks: he can explain the details of annuities to you, and he can operate an M-4 rifle. Better pay attention, right?
The experience taught him many lessons: the importance of working hand-in-hand with teammates, building relationships with your team, and helping one another. “Early on during training, it was embarrassing. We couldn’t function as a team,” says Rose. Over time, Rose and the other members of his platoon got to know each other better and their relationships gelled. “Everything started to click and then by the end of our tour in Iraq, we were a machine.”
It was a lesson that Rose applied years later when he had returned to the private sector. When Rose started his own financial planning firm, he knew he needed something unique to stand out.
“I had just left my big firm so I was just looking for unique ways to market myself,” says Rose. “I read a financial planning trade magazine, and they had an article about if you want to stand out from the crowd of other financial advisors, then you need to start a blog. I didn’t even know what a blog was, but I was determined to figure it out.”
But Rose soon found blogging wasn’t as easy as it seemed. “There was some growth early on, but not much,” says Rose. “If I got 100 people to my blog, I was blown away.”
He quickly learned it takes more than writing regularly to grow your blog.
That’s when Rose started connecting with other personal finance bloggers. Rose found a mentor — another financial advisor at his former firm who had been blogging for a number of years. “He gave me guidance. He showed me how it was done.”
Shortly after that, Rose joined a private forum with other bloggers who provided critical advice and support. Much like Pat’s experience with the Internet Business Master Community early in his blogging career, this little community of other personal finance bloggers became a crucial source of support, guidance, and friendship.
The group also helped Rose with putting together a major post that put him on the radar screen of many other personal finance bloggers.
“One of the very first posts that did really well for me was ‘107 things that make good financial cents,’” says Rose. “I had at least 60 bloggers who all contributed. That was the post that put me on the map.”
Jeff Rose’s story is a common one, because his experience demonstrates the importance of teamwork. Like an army platoon going in to battle, you need a team. You cannot go it alone.
In this post, I’m going to explain why one of the most important things you can do as a blogger – especially early in your blogging career – is to start building relationships with other bloggers and online entrepreneurs. This is a theme Pat has written or spoken about frequently — as he’s credited the value of relationships with other bloggers, key mentors, and mastermind groups with much of his success.
However, if you’re just getting started, you might be unsure of where to start or how to go about connecting with other bloggers - particularly bloggers who are more advanced and successful than you are.
To help you develop those key relationships you need to be successful as a blogger, I’m going to share my own, 7-step system you can use to build relationships with other bloggers and online entrepreneurs that can lead to real growth for your audience.
Why You Need to Forge Relationships With Other Bloggers
First, I have a confession to make. For years, I went about blogging the wrong way.
I spent day after day laboring over new blog posts for my blog. I didn’t get to know other bloggers. I didn’t attend conferences or meetups or try to connect with other bloggers or online entrepreneurs.
Then I took a hard look at my results. I realized I hardly knew anyone who was doing what I was doing. I had few friends who were on the same journey. More importantly, my growth was stagnant.
That’s when I realized I had to break out from behind my WordPress walls. I had successfully built networks in different industries throughout my career – from politics to Hollywood to Silicon Valley – and I needed to do it with blogging as well.
Corbett Barr agrees. When he started blogging back in 2009, he struggled to gain traction. “I was in the trenches, just trying to write content that would break through.” He found he needed to branch out beyond his existing circle of friends at the time. “You realize for the type of thing you’re writing in your circles there are only going to be a few people who care about it.”
That’s when he discovered how important it was to connect with other bloggers. “I didn’t have a breakthrough until I focused on relationships,” says Barr.
Today, as the co-founder of Fizzle, Barr shows other bloggers and online business owners how to use a casual, friendly approach to grow relationships first, which can later blossom into business opportunities.
“Just make friends with people then talk about what each other is working on. Start first with casual encounters by attending a meetup or some event, then become friends, then start sharing, then move on to affiliate relationships,” he says.
How to Systemize Your Relationship Building
As I mentioned, I have developed a 7-step process I’ll share with you for growing your blog by building relationships with other bloggers and online entrepreneurs.
This is aplan I wish I had five years ago. As soon as Pat figures out how to get his hands on a real-life Flux Capacitor, then I’m going back in time and handing this plan to a younger me five years ago.
First, I will go over the seven steps. Then I’ll dive into how you can apply them to growing your blog and your business.
Here are the seven steps:
- Develop a Mindset of Helping Others First
- Create a Roadmap to Your Future
- Before Reaching Out, Lay the Foundation Using Social Media
- How to Email Busy Bloggers and Get a Response Every Time
- Get Offline and Start Attending Conferences and Events
- Create a System for Following Up
- How to Measure ROI and Optimize Your System
OK, now, let’s take a look at how to apply these steps.
1. Develop a Mindset of Helping Others First
One of the biggest barriers for new bloggers who are trying to build their platform is not that they don’t have any connections to begin with, or that their blog readership is small, or that they don’t have anything to offer. The problem is they are thinking too much of themselves, rather than of others.
That can sound confusing. How can you build your own audience and following if you’re supposed to focus on helping others?
In fact, as Pat has demonstrated over the years, you get ahead by helping as others, not by helping yourself. Just take a look at his Twitter stream sometime, and you’ll see how much time he spends helping others.
