Outdoor Bloggers Promotional Network

I made the mistake of adding friends at a fast pace after joining Digg without thought to whether they had similar interests as myself. It didn’t take long until I was receiving thousands of Shouts per day. It took hours to just delete all the Shouts. I have since trimmed my friends list way back. That was lesson number one for me, keep your network to like minded people as much as possible.
You will notice Internet marketing gurus stick with other Internet marketing gurus. The same goes for blogging gurus. The distinct advantage they have over outdoor bloggers is the sheer number of people looking to get rich quick or become blogging legends. That doesn’t mean an outdoor blogger can’t get a large number of readers and traffic. Keep in mind the competition is much smaller and the bloggers less knowledgeable about networking and SEO.

The Social Networking Sites I Use

Twitter
Digg
Facebook
Plurk
Blog Catalog
Fly Fishing Community
GetREELed
Friendfeed
Technorati
StumbleUpon
Del.icio.us
MyBlogLog
Reddit

Join these sites and add me as a friend. If you have a networking site you like, post the link in a comment and I’ll do the same.
After joining, you must stay active. I’m not talking about spending hours though. I spend about 15-30 minutes each day on social networking sites. When you publish a new post, let us know on Twitter and Plurk. Submit it to Digg and send a Shout. Make sure and add you feed to Facebook, Technorati and GetREELed (if a fishing related blog) so your posts are added automatically.
Once you get a routine down it will take less time than you think and you will be utilizing your time effectively.

Place links to your Social Networking homepages on your blog

This one action will help you build a network of readers of your blog. These are also targeted members to your network who have networks of their own. Once they add you as a friend on a social networking site you have access to all their friends. With a little effort properly focused your outdoor blog will go viral in no time.
The site I use to post links to my social networking pages is Profilatic. They have a very easy to construct widget that can be coded into your sidebar.

Part 3 will cover interacting with your network to produce results.

Happy Blogging

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The social networking scene is dominated by Geeks and Internet Marketing Gurus. They are very successful at driving large amounts of targeted traffic to their sites. Through hours of frustration over lack of results and observing the techniques of those who are utilizing this medium successfully, I have identified the key components to their success. By following these techniques you can build a network that will blow away competitive outdoor related sites and launch your traffic into the stratosphere.

Step One in building a killer Social Network

Build a network of outdoor blogging friends. Yes, they are competitors but they are also colleagues. The single most important aspect of the network is working together for a mutually beneficial goal.

If you don’t believe me subscribe to some of the top traffic blogs (See how that was done? And it fit right into the post.). With close observance, you will notice frequent references to other posts along with a link to the competing websites post. Why would you do such a thing? It’s simple!

A link in a Blogroll or sidebar doesn’t carry the weight of a targeted link within a post. Links within a post boost Google PageRank and Technorati Authority. Links within a post, pointing to a post at another website, lend credibility to the content of that post. The network is a give and take situation where you give a link and in return receive a link to one of your posts. Through building a large, knowledgeable network that actively utilizes reciprocal content links you have tapped into one of the most powerful tools to building site traffic.

How do I build a network?

You must connect with other outdoor bloggers. There are several sites where you can meet other outdoor bloggers. Unfortunately, the lack of participation (probably from the same frustration I encountered) can be deflating. The key is to educate. Outdoor bloggers are not Geeks, for the most part. Most anyone will follow instructions if they believe there is a benefit to them.

Please, feel free to use any of this material to educate prospective network partners. The effort required is minimal if done right. I am not posting to sell you something. I am posting to find outdoor bloggers who want to take their blog to the top.

Step Two will follow tomorrow. I’ll give you the best social networking sites to build your network, along with some key techniques of the Geek Pros to attract new friends.

Step Two is where you need to join and the secret techniques to build a network quick, with little time and effort.

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