User Comments

1. 

   8/20/09

   timethief

   There are NO shortcuts. Networking is all about locating blogs related to your own and investing your time and energy into creating actual relationships with the bloggers concerned.
   
   I think you may gain some insight into what's expected in a thread posted into all the other BC forum categories, including the Shameless Blog Promotion category and by reading this post in the BC New Users Group www.blogcatalog.com/group/new-blog-catalog-users/discuss/entry/how-to-use-b...
   
   The BC New Users Group has been created for the purpose of posting resource threads to the group noticeboard aimed at introducing bloggers, who are new members of BC, to the basics of effective networking and blog promotion within the BC community.
   
   What’s key to networking effectively in any social media site is understanding that social networking efforts are best aimed at creating blog centered relationships with other bloggers, who have blogs that are related to your own, or who have blogs that are of interest to you. If you’d like to join - you will be welcomed www.blogcatalog.com/group/new-blog-catalog-users.
   
   We have an excellent Search utility with filters you can use to narrow your search so you can more easily locate blogs related to your own and blogs of interest to you. The search link is found on every BC Page www.blogcatalog.com/search
   
   Also note the Help link appears on every BC page as well www.blogcatalog.com/help/
   
   Blog centered relationships
   IMHO what's key to networking effectively is the understanding that social networking efforts are best aimed at creating blog centered relationships with other bloggers, who have blogs that are related to your own.
   
   BC tools, features and expertise
   Blog Catalog has excellent tools, features and a community full of experienced bloggers. Members can use both the community and the tools to learn how to promote their blogs and how to locate other related blogs. Locating other related blogs and leaving meaningful comments is key to creating blog centered relationships, and that's exactly what social networks are aimed for.
   
   Hanging out in forum and chatting is not necessarily fruitful as there are over 200,000 BC members, and only a minority of BC members can be found in the forum at any point in time. The "friends" you make in the first couple of months by posting threads into the Shameless Blog Promotion category and by posting into social threads will become readers of your blog but then what? IMHO you will quickly find that "fishing in the same waters" every day will produce fewer and fewer "landings" and the only means of increasing your traffic will be by creating new relationships by seeking to make connections beyond the limited confines of the forum.
   
   IMO the bottom line is that the BC you experience is exactly what you choose it to be. If you are here to create blog centered relationships then go for it!

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