Apple store says the new charger I just bought ships in 24 hours so hopefully I’ll be back on Monday, but it’s a real shame because I had dedicated most of today and all of tomorrow to get the redesign in place >.<. It’s coming along nicely.

Anyway, I will see you all in a couple of days (fingers crossed). I’m still active on twitter through my iPhone.

Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com

This morning I was thinking about SEO, google rankings/SERPs and all that jazz. One way to get higher page rankings in google is to have a lot of backlinks. Even better a whole lot of backlinks from sites in related niches. And even better backlinks from high authority sites that have high pagerank.

As a person who uses Google to search for information I like to see top quality sites ranking in the first 10 pages. Sites I can trust, sites that I know the information will be accurate, sites that aren’t misleading.

Bad Tony – A Fictional Tale

Let’s say for example I have just bought a new puppy and I want to teach and train it myself. So I do a search for ‘puppy training from home’ or something like that. I click on the first link that Google gives me and I start reading the site and applying what is said on the site. It must be accurate info right? It’s ranked number 1 on Google!

So I’m training my puppy and nothing is working. I look deeper into the site and find out the page has been created by a 15 year old kid (let’s call him Tony) who has just been regurgitating information from different places all over the web. They themselves aren’t even interested in puppies, have no experience in puppy training at all – they’re just trying to make a quick buck from their site. (or so it seems)

It would seem the way they reached to the top of the Google search rankings was by spamming a lot of forums and blog commenting section that had ‘do-follow’ implemented. This means that Google will follow the links left behind by our fictional friend (or fiend) Tony bumping up his ranking for keyword ‘puppy training from home’.

No-Follow For A Reason

There is a reason Google created the ‘no-follow’ tag. To prevent un-trustworthy sites from ranking. Just imagine if sites like Facebook and Twitter were do-follow. It would be a horrible place to be. A total spam-fest (ok, just imagine the spam you see on those sites now but 100 times worse). SEO gurus would be spamming it left right and centre getting quality backlinks to their site. By implementing no-follow on such sites it prevents people getting any benefit from Google by posting their link up there. Google will just ignore any site with the ‘no-follow’ tag attributed to it.

Is Your Blog Do-Follow? Be Responsible

If you’re a ‘do-follow’ site owner where it’s easy for others to post a link to get some Google credibility I hope that you’re monitoring all links that are left behind. We should be striving to get the best quality/most trusted sources at the top of Google. As site owners, one way to do this is to make sure all the links we have going to external pages are truly quality/trusted resources. It’s our responsibility.

It’s Our Own Fault Really

At the same time however, as consumers we should make sure we are doing background checks on the information we consume, and see what others are saying about the author/owner before we can truly trust what we’re reading will be accurate and quality information that we can apply to our lives. We shouldn’t just jump on the first site we see and take all the information in to be 100% accurate. It’s too easy to create an information site and claim it to be true. So it’s our responsibility as consumers to make sure we do our research too.

Usually I buy my wine from the large liquor warehouse down the road. It’s close and the cheapest so why go anywhere else? The $100 voucher I had however, could only be used at the ‘Fine Wine’ shop which was a lot further away and prices aren’t always the cheapest. But I had no choice in the matter I had $100 voucher to use there so there I went!

Make Yourself Known – Help Out

So I walked into the the small wine shop, there was wine EVERYWHERE. Very well organised. It wasn’t long until someone came up to me and was happy to help if I had any questions. He wasn’t in my face or anything, just a simple ‘can I help you with anything’. I told him that I didn’t know a great deal about wine and was looking for a summery type of red (it’s summer here in Australia). To cut a long story short, he was just really helpful, taught me a few things about wine I didn’t know about, introduced me to rare wines that were very affordable and even took the price down on the grand total as I had amounted to $102 or something like that, so he took it down to $100 neat which my voucher covered. Just a small act like that and the fact that he was really helpful meant so much to me. He now has me as a return visitor in me.

I compare this to the liquor warehouse chains where there is no customer service like we experienced at the small wine shop. It’s like being in a store filled with robot workers. No-one goes out of their way to help, the people at the counters are in a zombie-like state. There just isn’t any personality or engagement. The only reason you go there is because it’s cheap. But buying ‘cheap’ isn’t exactly a nice feeling either.

The Best Part

The best part about this story is where it originated. The wine voucher was a gift from my work mates. The gift came from the relationship that had been built from my time of working there. They knew I was into wine because I’d told them through the many conversations we’d all had in the past. Usually the birthday person would just get a credit voucher that they could use anywhere with no personality behind it. But the fact that they bought me the wine voucher shows that my relationship with my former colleagues had value.

How Can We Apply This To Our Sites

When you get people coming into your site (or wine store) – make them as welcome as possible. Sure enough they’ve probably come from a reliable source (my work mates recommended the Fine Wine shop) for a specific purpose (to buy wine). Make sure your content (wine) is fantastic. Use your expertise to help new readers (customers) as much as possible (wine selection, teaching about various types of wines). Give them more than they will expect (learned about new wines, slashed prices, customer care). Engage with them afterwards (business card).

Deliver care and engagement to your visitors and the people you have just met online. Give them a reason to trust you. I feel so much better now buying wine from the Fine Wine shop than the local liquor warehouse even though the Fine Wine shop is a bit further away and a bit more expensive.

So don’t be too warped worrying about making money through your blog.  Worry about making relationships online and care for people enough that they’ll go out of their way to come back to you. Give them kindness, helpfulness, genuineness, value and trust and you’re in for a great ride.

A lot of people recommend if you’re going to have ads on your site, display them on your site from day one. This is so your readers get used to the fact that you have ads on your site. But the problem with this is that how can you really make any money from google AdSense from the start? You’ve got a brand new blog where you’re trying to gain readers trust, yet you’ve got no traffic coming in and you’ve got AdSense running around all over your site.

What is AdSense?

For those that don’t know here is what AdSense is according to wikipedia

Negative Vibes

The problem with AdSense is that you have no control over what is displayed. The ads are displayed based on the keywords on your page. For example if you have blog post about planting herbs in your garden then ads about herbs will display on that page. That ad that links to a product may not be a product you like, it may be a horrible product – but you have no control over it.

I don’t know about you but I don’t have any positive vibes flowing when I go to a blog that is displaying google AdSense ads. That’s not to say it’s a complete negative, but there aren’t any POSITIVE vibes flowing seeing advertisements on a blog.

Understandably, you probably wouldn’t say no to making some money but if your blog is brand new how can you possibly make anything significant? I had 1500 visits with adsense running and didn’t’ make a cent. So I took it down as I didn’t see any value at all in having adsense ads up anymore.

If you’re in blogging looking to make a quick buck, think again. Blogging takes time. It’s building a reputation for yourself and your blog and that just doesn’t happen overnight. Focus on creating killer content and interacting with your audience and grow your blog/readership network.

A better way to make money from a brand new blog would be to have something like a donate page. Buy me a beer is a popular and fun monetisation strategy for your blog where readers of your blog aren’t intruded by heavy AdSense ads. If people are getting great value from your blog they may feel like being generous and donating some money for the hard work you’ve done when you are expecting nothing in return.

Focus on Content and Communication

Perhaps a better way to go about it would be to NOT have ads from the start, but have great communication with your audience about ads (and anything in general about your blog, your readers are what makes your blog live and breathe).

If you plan to have advertising in the future, communicate this with your readers. If you’re putting out amazing valuable content that your readers just love and have built solid relationships and trust, then I bet they wouldn’t mind you putting up advertising to make some money for your hard work. As long as you communicate this clearly why would they be too upset then? You’ve already built up the relationships, the trust, the readership, the great content for nothing in return.

Do You Run AdSense Ads?

I would love to know what your thoughts are of AdSense ads. Here are a series of questions to think about:

• Do you run AdSense on your blog? (put a link to your blog in the comments below so we can check it out if you do)
• Have you made money from it?
• Is displaying AdSense ads worth it?
• What are your thoughts when you visit a site with AdSense ads?
• Have you ever clicked on an AdSense ad?
• Are you completely numbed by AdSense ads that your eyes just roll over them?

Feel free to add anything else!

Remember – rock on – focus on your content, your readership, build trust and communication. Endorse products you believe in. Don’t let google run the advertising show if you want to go down that avenue.

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy:

The Easy Way to Set Up a Blog Using WordPress

How To Submit Your Site to Google

What To Do When Someone Has the Same Blog Name As You

How I Set Up Google Analytics To Track My Blog Stats

This is a guest post by Eric Heavilin from BluePop13.com.

When you want to start a blog your first thoughts are probably how you can share what you know with the world on line. A blog is very simple in the way that is provides value to its readers and teaches someone something new. But with so many resources out there and everyone talking about ways to improve your blog and what you can do to stand out in the crowd, how do you actually just get yourself up and out there and start doing this thing called blogging?

Keep It Simple

This is your blog and you want to share what you know with the rest of the world who finds what you have to say meaningful in their lives in some way.

I suggest starting with WordPress.com and pick a name either you like, your name, or a name that has something to do with the topic of choice you’ll be writing about. Blogspot.com is a great service to start with but using WordPress right now will make it easier on you to switch to a self-hosted WordPress blog later on if you want to get more serious with your blog.

Just visit WordPress.com and sign up. It’s free and is very easy to do. Once you have chosen a name that you are going to use and you have figured your way around the admin area simply start your first post. Just say hi to everyone and explain what you’ll be writing about, keep it short and to the point, go for making it person and show your readers that there’s a real person behind the words, tell everyone a bit of a story and ask them what they think. This all you really have to worry about for any blog post you write. Above all, as said above, keep it simple.

Where To Next?

My suggestion is to post around ten articles and get a feel for how you are going to write your content. This way you will have a better idea of when you like to write, what you want to write about and who might comment on what you have to say. Ten is a good number, though every blog is different and provides value to its readers in its own way, experiment here and see what works for you.

Now you might want to do something different with the look and feel of your blog. You want it to look nice and look according to your topic, after all. Wordpress.com has many themes to pick from and choosing which theme you want for your blog is as easy as browsing all the themes in the themes section and previewing what appeals to you. When you find one you like just activate it. You now have a brand new theme and a decent amount of articles you’re looking at.

Becoming Someone

This is where you will probably hear a lot of talk and confusion and at this point you might even give up trying to become better at this as it’s not easy to do.

I have some good news for you if you’re stuck here: Keep it simple.

Look at how far you’ve come already. You chose a place for your words and ideas to be viewed upon by the entire world, you now have an idea of what you’re going to write about and maybe some visitors already checking out your stuff and you have a design set up.

Now that you’ve come this far you want to spread the word. Tell your family and friends about your new blog and join social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace (just to  name a few) and become active in forums and blogs related to your own. This isn’t rocket science even though some blogs may explain it to be. Keep learning what works and keep going. Blogging is great fun and you can do so many things for so many people by just having one.

From Here

I hope you found this information helpful and I also know that doing any of this will get you started out in the right direction for your blog. Keep experimenting with what might work for your blog and learn from others as well. Find some other blogs related to yours and start talking to them. Get in there and see what happens. The possibilities are endless.

Now start blogging!

Eric Heavilin has been online for years now and love what the Internet has to offer. Eric learned a bit about building simple web sites in Jr. High and from there I loved the idea of sitting down and writing out HTML and CSS in Notepad. Since then he came up with the name BluePop13 and decided to make it his personal website now blog. Eric loves helping others succeed. These days Eric uses WordPress but still loves the feeling of writing something up from scratch using HTML and the like. Visit BluePop13.com to learn more about Eric.

If you enjoyed this blog post you may also enjoy:

The Easy Way To Set Up A Blog Using WordPress (Set up a blog in 10minutes!)

Why Being PERFECT Is Hurting You And Your Blog

What Happens When You Use The Tweetmeme Button?

OMFG Just Stick To Your Goals!!

In case you didn’t know socialoomph.com (formerly known as tweetlater) has a free service where you can set up auto-DM (automatic direct messages) to send out to people when they follow you on twitter.

People see it as a great way to connect with your readers right off the bat without manually doing it themselves. However there’s a lot of debate about aut0-DMs. I’m on the fence about them. I think they can be effective if done right.

I went through pretty much all my direct messages the other day and thought I would share with you some of the suspected auto-DMs that I found EFFECTIVE.

Auto-DM’s that didn’t make me cringe thinking ‘oh, just an auto-DM’

Why did the chicken cross the Social Media Road? . . . .To Tweet of course! Thanks for following me & I look forward to Twinteracting with @JonneyJay

Thanks so much for following me on Twitter! It’s always nice to have new peeps to Twitter with! @lefinley

Thanks fur the follow! @mydeafcat
Note the name of the tweeter

Thank you for following me – much appreciated! If there was ONE tweet I could tweet about you or yr business, what would it be? Please DM me @iggypintado
Note: Although it was obvious the message from iggypintado was an auto-DM I still replied to him saying a bit about beginnerblogger. He then retweeted what I said to his entire list which is 13k+ followers.
The message he sent was: Meet Sarge from @beginnerblogger who is helping bloggers and beginner bloggers alike achieve success.
The result of that message was a lot of people adding me to twitter and even a few new subscribers to the blog. I had quite a few conversations on twitter as a result of that message and was able to help out a few people as well.

Wow-Thanks! I’m going to assume that you’re not lost & that you meant to follow me. Much appreciated! You won’t regret it. Well…hmmm. @TriciaAbney

Hi. This is it. The one & only automated DM message from me via Socialoomph.com. Congrats you found me! Now let’s talk like real people :O) @halfbakedseo

If ud like some free resources 2 help transform your life please check out my blog: http://bit.ly/x3Z9w I have nothing to sell u. Sorry. @JayCataldo

Hey, thanks 4 following. What Tweets do you like to read? @ZahidaKhan

Thank you for following me. I look forward to getting to know you. What are you up to today? @David_Michaels

Thanks for following. Just want you to know I’ll try to add REAL value with my tweets. I don’t sell on Twitter, only give! @LeadToday

Thanks for following me here on Twitter! Let’s connect and change the world one step at a time for the better…It only takes one step ya know…:)To your success,Joni @JoniBeadle

Thanks for following me…I really appreciate it! So what have you been up to? @MickSilvester

Thanks for following alicedesigns, tweet me ‘hi’ and tell me something about yourself so I can get to know you better! @alice_elliott

Thanks for the follow! How’s Twitter treating you so far? @ToddDickerson

Hey there! I’m an interesting guy! No, really! I’ve owned a restaurant, edited tv & commercials, rock out & do real estate. Let’s tweet! @mattgsilver

I don’t auto-follow, but I’d love to chat with real people. So feel free to send me an @reply anytime. I see them all. Happy tweeting. @davidrisley

Thanks for following… Would like to know more about you, do you blog? @steitiyeh

Hi there, open the door, let the sun shine in and welcome the new day. @affsaltra

Conclusions We Can Draw

Posts without links/selling that ask a question or get a laugh from me are most powerful.

I always suspect the first DM I get from a person is an auto-DM, even if it isn’t. So the worst thing to do is put a link in. Tell me about yourself or engage with a question. Get the conversation started!

Everyone says ‘look forward to your tweets’ or ‘thanks for following me’. Mix it up a bit – ask a question. I believe the best way to start a relationship with someone is to ask a question.

My one and only auto-DM you will get from me I try to engage with you. I try and and make them personal and encourage a response back so we can get the ball rolling.

Your Thoughts?

Do you auto-DM? Do you reply to DMs or click on links that are inside a suspected DM? Do you totally ignore suspected auto DMs? What are some great suspected auto-DMs that you’ve received? Let everyone know in the comments below!

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoyed this post? Here are some more you may like:

1. How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days
2. Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Following Without Begging For One
3. Twitter TweetDeck and some Tips

This is the fifth installment of guest interviews where I had the pleasure of interviewing Henri Junttila from WakeUpCloud.com

Here’s the interview:

Firstly could you give a little information about yourself ?

Henri Junttila. 23. Spain, born and raised in Sweden, just moved because I can’t take the cold. Internet entrepreneur extraordinaire.

How did you get into blogging?

I wanted to find a platform where I could express myself and reach as many people as possible, blogging was the best choice. My goals are to connect with as many (right) people as possible and help as many as possible. Simple, powerful and passionate goals are crucial. When I knew what I wanted I joined the Authority Blogging course by Chris Garrett and it has allowed me to progress faster than I could have imagined.

Is wakeupcloud.com your first blog? What would you say the purpose/niche of your blog is?

My first real and serious blog. I do have other blogs, but they are more meant to make money from affiliate marketing, adsense and so on, so there is not the same degree of passion as in the Wake Up Cloud. My purpose is as I said above, connect and help. The niche is self improvement for conscious people.

What made you select the niche that you blog about?

It is what I am deeply passionate about. Without passion you have no chance of succeeding with your soul intact, so make sure you choose something you really love. You hear people say that you have to work your face off, which is true, but it isn’t work when you’re following your passion and that is exactly what I am doing.

How much planning and time did you spend before launching?

There was as much planning as necessary until I felt ready to launch. I used to be an over-analytic perfectionist that planned everything to death. I have changed that and it has allowed me to take action much quicker and get stuff done. Here’s what I did:

1. Uncovered my passion
2. Thought about how I would differentiate myself
3. Bought a domain name
4. Joined a blogging course
5. Took it one step at a time
6. Took massive action

So many people want to know how everything will work out, but I say plan just enough to get going, because when you start taking action, you will be in a much better position to adjust, calibrate and focus your efforts.

Do you make a living online? Currently employed?

I make a living through my niche websites at the moment, but I have some surprises in store for the Wake Up Cloud readers in the coming year, so if you aren’t a reader and want to dramatically transform your life and increase your freedom, you might want to stop by (shameless plug, I know, forgive me).

Is there anyone you look up to in the blogging world that you base yourself on? Anyone you go to for advice? What is your inspiration?

Steve Pavlina’s blog is the only one I have read during the last 3-4 years, so he’s definitely been an inspiration. But his writings have been more of a confirmation, because often I think of something and then he writes it. The synchronicity is amazing. For blogging advice at the moment I go to Chris Garrett from chrisg.com, he has incredible skills.

How well has your blog done? (Stats wise)

My blog is under 4 weeks old. It has almost 200 subscribers (RSS+E-mail). It has averaged just under 100 unique visitors since launch.

What is your main source of traffic?

At the moment I have no main source. My traffic comes from an incredible amount of different sources. I comment, guest post, connect and tweet. I am subscribed to 100+ excellent blogs and try to comment on all of them. That is how I was able to launch and instantly gain traction. I then started guest posting more, which is incredibly effective if you do it right.

What are your main strategies for your blog? (maybe top 5)

1. Content
2. Helping & connecting with my readers and fellow bloggers
3. Guest posting
4. Commenting
5. Twitter

What are typical tasks you perform for your blog, both content and marketing wise? Are you organised with lists or you just take action on what you feel needs to be done?

I believe in the 80/20 rule, the pareto principle, which says that there are 20% of tasks that will give you 80% of the results. I am fairly organized and constantly focus on doing what gives results, but I am by no means someone who writes down every detail. The top 5 things I do can be seen above. Less is more when it comes to success. Focus on a few core tasks and do them over and over again, especially guest posting, writing your own content and connecting with others.

Are you making money with your blog/Plan to make money with your blog in the future? If so – how?

I am not making money with my blog right now, but that is because it is under 1 month old. I plan to launch my own products and perhaps a few other services. I am not sure, so I will not reveal anything yet.

If you could start your blog over again, what are 3 things you would do differently?

Nothing. I feel like I have done everything right and that is (I think) because I am ruthlessly discriminative. What I mean by this is that I do not participate in tasks that I feel do not produce results.

What advice would you give to beginner bloggers?

If I could give you 3 words of advice it would be to:

1. Join a blogging course
2. Love your topic so much that you would do it for free, otherwise you won’t make it
3. Use the 80/20 principle
4. Take action
5. Fail a lot and adjust

What are future plans for your blog?

My plans are to grow it much more in the coming year, build my readership, provide tremendous value and transition to making it my main source of income. I have come to realize that making a living doing what I love is not only possible, but highly probable when I work hard. We are all here for a purpose. Let’s not waste it by chasing something useless, like money. Money is good, but not when it controls your life.

Henri
http://www.wakeupcloud.com
@henrijunttila

I hope you enjoyed this guest post interview with Henri. If you have any questions or comments leave them in the space provided below.

If you would like to be interviewed for Beginner Blogger head on over to the contact section and shoot me an email – I’m sure we can work something out

If you enjoyed this interview you may also enjoy…

1. Guest Post Interview with Derek Jensen

2. Guest Post Interview with Mike CJ

3. Guest Post Interview with Jay Bailey

I saw a great post on Mike’s Life, SteitBlog and Lifenotion about setting goals for 2010. While I am more a month by month person and think that a year is way too long to set solid goals for I thought I’d chip in and do some goals for this Beginner Blogger site.

These are very rough figures but I would be over the moon if just some of these happened. I’m also sure some of these figures will be adjusted as the year goes on so they’re more realistic.

Beginner Blogger 2010 Goals

• Top 50,000 Alexa Ranking – (though it doesn’t really mean anything to me, just shows progression based on traffic)
• Page Rank 4+ (though it doesn’t really mean anything to me just shows progression in the eyes of google)
• 1000+ visits per day
• Launch several small quality ebooks to give away for free
• Launch 1-2 paid ebooks
• 300+ blog posts either on the blog or as guest posts elsewhere
• 2+ guest posts a month
• Complete Redesign
• Create SEO strategy (my current SEO traffic is awful)
• Create structured email course
• Launch a product/package that is not just an ebook
• 1500+ RSS subscribers
• 1000+ Email subscribers
• 500+ Facebook fans
• 10,000+ Twitter followers
• Perform online presentations
• Read 20+ quality books like Trust Agents
• Video interviews, more skype chats – get over the fear of the phone/voice conversations and be confident in that area
• Outsource someone as an experiment and gain experience working with someone
• Attend a blogging related conference
• Meet some of the amazing people I’ve met online in the ‘real world’
• Perhaps partner with someone
• Do something ground-breaking, never seen/done before in the blogging world. Think outside the box.
• Be a ‘construction worker’ and live up to my 3 words this year of Focus, Busy and Engage
• Be able to say at the end of the year I can continue doing this for 2011

As you know I’ve left my full time job to pursue a career online. So that last goal is so very much important to me. I love what I’ve been doing so far and I’d love to continue with it for many years to come. I want to gain all the experience I can get and most of all be able to successfully help you with your blogging problems.

So what are your goals? If you’ve made a similar 2010 goals post make sure you include it here with a link back to your site. I think it’s great to set goals so you can look back on later and see where you’ve come from.

Let’s all achieve our goals for 2010!

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy:

Beginner Blogger Stats and Goals – Dec 09-Jan 10

Pilot Post

The Art of Jugglign a Job and a Blog

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of twitter followers which is great, but I’m not always going to follow you back. I have my own personal guidelines and preferences for following people back. This got me thinking – What do other people do when they’re deciding to follow people on twitter?

So what do you do when someone starts following you?

• Do you auto-follow people?
• Do you have email notifications when someone adds you to twitter turned on or off?
• Do you immediately engage with the person that adds you on twitter or just add them?
• Do you have an Auto DM message set up when someone adds you?
• What are your personal reasons why you would add someone?

My following guidelines/preferences

I get emails of people when they add me to twitter. I check out the twitter page of EVERY person that adds me. To be followed back I will make sure they’re a real person on twitter and not an automated machine just posting links with no interaction with others what so ever. If they have a picture of themselves and link to a blog and are conversing on twitter – then you’ll be added.

The perfect combination is:

1. You’re into blogging and/or have a blog
2. You interact with others and don’t just pop out links which obviously seems like it’s an automated account.
3. Personal unique image and background – Not one of those premade twitter ones. Personalise it.

That’s my approach when I see new people following me on twitter. What are yours?

Enjoyed this post? Here are some more you may like:

1. How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days
2. Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Following Without Begging For One
3. Twitter TweetDeck and some Tips

Stemming from yet another thought provoking blog post by Jordan Cooper he got me thinking about blog commenting and that feeling of being obligated to blog on someone else’s blog if they were to comment on my blog.

Don’t Feel Like You Have To Reciprocate

First of all – I never expect you to come to my site nor comment on my posts when I comment on your blog. Sure, I’d love for you to come over and check my blog out and check out some posts that you like the sound of. But I don’t want you to comment on my posts unless you genuinely want to. If you enjoy giving value, adding to the conversation or really enjoyed my post and want to thank me, then go for it. But NEVER feel like you HAVE to.

I’ll apoligise in advance and want to give warning to everyone that has commented here on this blog. I don’t want to feel obligated to comment your blog posts just because you commented here. I’d say I would visit your blog 9/10 times if you comment here but that doesn’t mean I will automatically comment on your blog.

Strive for Quality Engagement

I value quality engagement on my blog, email, twitter, facebook etc. Don’t we all? There’s way too much noise out there on the internet. You don’t read every blog post in your RSS feed, do you? You don’t read every single tweet on your home feed on twitter, do you?

Just because someone was nice enough to comment on your blog, and even if it was a really great comment, their site may be total crap or something not related to your niche or subject matter that you simply can’t comment on. There’s a wise saying that ‘if you have nothing to say, say nothing’.

If you’re feeling obligated to comment but don’t have something you feel you could really add or want to say – you can always vote (as long as you think it’s worthy of a vote, don’t vote ‘just because’)

So in this case comment if you feel like it. Just let it flow naturally Quality is what we should strive for.

Bottom line is that I do not EXPECT you to comment on my blog if I comment on yours nor do I hope you EXPECT me to do the same back. Only do so if it’s WORTHY of a comment/vote. Not – just ’cause

I think reciprocation is a great thing and I do participate in helping others out if they help me too (I like to think I give more than I receive). Definitely! But only if what I’m doing or what you’re doing is of VALUE.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this

This blog post has been in the backburner for some time. I’ve just been reading Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents which sums this post up beautifully.

“Is it wrong to think that what you do for someone will be (eventually) reciprocated? No. Is it wrong to expect it? You betcha.”

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy:

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