You don't even need to have your own blog to take advantage of the boon in Blog popularity. In fact, in a story in Communication Nation, Dave Grey makes a short pitch for "Why you should leave comments on my blog."
What he says in essence is that leaving thoughtful (and that's important) comments on any blog you visit can bring you readers, customers, clients and loyal fans of whatever it is you do.
Dave considers it "getting famous" and points to this from the Intuitive Life Business Blog:
A "Comment added to ( a ) blog leads to inclusion in the Wall Street Journal" "In less than six days I am quoted in a national newspaper because I've gotten involved with the discussion happening in the blogosphere."
In my case, commenting hasn't made me famous. It's done better; it's gotten me read.
By frequenting blogs that have a good reader base and commenting judiciously, I have been able to
- raise my Google ranking, and
- using technorati's weblogs/AOL model, the estimated worth of my primary blog has increased by a factor of one hundred over the past month
simply through engaging in conversations on subjects that I know something about, and doing so in both the blogs I write AND the ones which I read.
But what good does that do me? Answer: (and I can't say this emphatically enough) Plenty!
Getting boosted rankings and getting the blog read means people
- see my art and learn more about it
- find out that I design artistamps that let anybody regardless of
talent level make a postcard, bookmark or journal more artistic looking
- find out that I'll design one or more special artistamps for a small business to use on envelopes, fliers etc that will get their piece of paper noticed, opened, read, saved (talk about cheap and almost immediate branding!)
- learn that I do consulting for artists and other solo-preneurs who are looking for free publicity and a heightened profile
- talk about me - especially in their blogs - and
- refer me to others
It's just like playing whisper down the lane from there -
- with people seeing my art leading to people buying my art, and
- people learning about the possibilities of finding customers and clients without paying for print ads or booths at events coming to me for help in heightening their visibility, googleability and saleability
- the result has been jaw dropping
In another blog, Grey San Francisco, the writer discusses the phenomenon, pointing out an increasingly high profile for people who become involved in online discussions via blog comments, pointing to 43 Folders' blogger Merlin Mann's book deal with O’Reilly.
Then there's Matt Haughy (blogger on Metafilter and PVRblog ) who picked up a gig with the NY Times.
I love to find out that I'm not alone in seeing this blog stuff as a great tool. My January workshop on insiders information PLUS the most important blog tactics and tools for artists and solopreneurs to master is FILLED already, which is so exciting.
I'm starting a waiting list for another group - I really just can't wait to share the potential of this medium with more people.
As always, thanks to the Build a Better Blog twins Denise and Patsi, to Suzanne Falter-Barnes whose trip down the Blog Makeover gauntlet kept me alternately riveted and scribbling notes, and Alyson Stanfield whose art marketing pearls remind me where I'm headed. I had the marketing pretty well in hand but could never have done this techno-voodoo of blog-building without them.
