Blogging Manners
Blogging Manners Your Favorite Blogger Should Have Mentioned
By Mike Licht @ notionscapital.com
Just like kindergarten, the business world, and your dinner table, the blogosphere has manners we all should follow. Though there are not many blogging manners, the ones I list below should be followed at all cost. Sorry to say, popular bloggers are some of the worsts, myself included. Does anyone care about other bloggers or are we all trying to make a buck and get ours?
- Blog Commenting – Why is this such a difficult concept to grasp? Spam commenting does not work–at least on powerful blogs where you would most likely want to receive a link. You already have a link in your title and there is no reason to add another. It is such a turn off. Also, why must you change your title to something other than your actual blog or website name? The point of blog commenting was more for networking and less for SEO, thought it does have some SEO benefit. Offer great advice and people will automatically check out your blog and maybe even subscribe.
- Guest Posting - This is a huge benefit to everyone around. I love receiving guest post as they help add content to my site, offer different perspectives, and relieve some time that might need to spend writing (or blogging). However, the guest post should relate to the blog where you want your post listed. Nothing is more ridiculous than receiving a guest post about “shopping for shoes” when my blog is about travel, SEO, and blog tips. How can I make that related. Plus, this is a daddy blog. There are literally thousands of blogs for that content.
- Respond To Your Comments - While this is not huge, it is very important to respond to as many comments as possible. Yeah, I know all comments don’t warrant a response, but it still appropriate a lot of the time. Plus, it lets your readers know you care about them.
- Give Credit – It is so wrong to when someone takes time to create some form of virtual media and you decide to use it and not give credit. This only make you look stupid in the blogging community (yes, there is a community) and can really tick off some other bloggers.
- No Bashing…EVER – Your posts and content is permanent. In my life (virtual or not), I have never found a need to bash someone. This is unprofessional and can have a huge impact on other bloggers. I personally believe it is okay to reference other bloggers, but we all should keep the negative responses out. How hard is it to say “This blogger I know” and leave it at that? Respect should always be your first priority.
- Affiliates – I personally feel as though this is a gray area because I am not forcing you to buy something. Where I think you might cross the line is someone give our a free product and you put it on a gold platform claiming it is the best product ever. You should at least let your readers know you received the product for free.
- Share – If you feel like you have created something great that others might like or use feel free to share it. I am not telling you give away your earning potential. I am just saying something should be shared. You can see a great example here.
- Inclusion (Recommended Reading) – Just remember that all bloggers start somewhere. It might be nice to occasionally give a “shout out” to one of the lesser known blogs. You never know, they might be the next rock star blogger.
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Marc is currently obtaining a Masters Of Arts in Religion. Although not considered well read by a friends wife and a conversation hog by another friends wife, Marc spends hours wasting time on political/news websites, blogging, and reading religious books. Lastly, he quintessentially defines football fanatic. 
2 Comments
Rather than run a blog or blogs I guest post. I have been asked to do this time and time again. Using proper etiquette and manners is a must when guest posting. I have found this to be the best way to obtain high quality and relevant back links. When guest posting the writing MUST be up to par. If you do this than you will get a reputation as a good guest blogger. I now do this two or three times a week and love it.
So agree on this, especially the comments section. The amount fo bloggers that originally only moderate their comments soon have captchas on their sites due to people spamming the site with worthless comments, filling the content of their comments with random gibberish that doesnt’ even relate to the topic at hand. I dont’ want to say these people are morons that do this, but I cant’ think of anything nicer that is still descriptive.