Friend Friday: Rules of Engagement

A number of bloggers have reached out to Katy recently about how to deal with Tweets, emails, DMs etc… from people who seem to be only pushing their own blog. It got her thinking – for a new blogger the rules of engagement with others in the blogging world is uncharted territory. We learn a lot about how to do it from trial and error.

1. Guest posts are a good way to gain new exposure. What do you think is the appropriate way to go about securing a guest spot?
Wait for someone to ask for guest posts?  Maybe mention it in an email to the person if they ever need a guest post you are willing.  I am not too familiar with guest posting. I think guest posting could drive a lot of traffic to your site but then it can also be really stressful making sure you write what their readers want to read.  I haven't had guest posts besides the "Why I run" ones that I've done. I do spotlight other readers. I wonder how much traffic it generates to their sites.

2. Leaving comments is essential to growing your blog. But how can you leave a comment without coming across as ‘Follow Me. Follow Me!’?
Leave a comment talking about the post or the person and not talking about yourself.

3. We’ve all gotten a mass email at one time or another asking for blog exposure, a link exchange, etc… But the mass emails don’t work. How do you make your email stand out from the crowd?
I haven't figured this out yet. I mean my email isn't a mass email and my emails to people are very specific. If my comments go to the person's email, I sometimes specifically link to 1 blog post instead of my entire blog and that post fits into the context of their post. Sometimes I really do just love an outfit and comment that but I don't have a signature with my blog link on those because I'm so afraid people will think I'm just posting that to get them to look at my blog.

4. In interacting with other bloggers where do you draw the line between seeking support and begging for exposure?
I have never even thought about begging for exposure. I do seek support. I have emailed people asking if clothes matched. (Yes I'm serious.) Once I did suggest to a blogger to feature someone else, but I've never asked to be featured so I don't know how that would be. I ask for support all the time. I'm more for improving myself with or without more readers.  More subscribers are nice but that is not my end game.  I'm not popular enough to get a ton of the "follow me and I'll follow you" type requests. I did get 1 comment like that and 1 or 2 twitter posts like that. Through IFB, I have gotten a ton so that's why I don't even want to use the site.  I never even look at the blog when it is like that.   I do however click on every person's blog who comments (besides the 1 mentioned above).   Oh I did send emails to bloggers when their post requested something like outfits with boots, colorful tights, or jeans for the office, but that is different because they asked. I will be doing a post about nude shoes shortly and will want examples of how people wear them and I hope that people respond to me when I ask so that's why I make sure I respond to others when they ask.

5. What’s one rule of engagement error you made and how have you remedied that?
I don't know. I'm probably still doing all of the errors since I can't come up with an example here.