The blogosphere is a big place. When I say that, I’m talking really big. A Google search for ‘blog’ will bring up nearly three billion results. So, what am I on about, and why is this relevant? Well, if you can get yourself known in the blogosphere then you are bound to get immense traffic and gain a load of respect from other bloggers around the globe. This post will talk about different ways to get yourself well known in the blogosphere so that you can tap into this huge market.
#1. Comment Around: Simply commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way of getting yourself known. I personally try to comment on as many blogs as possible, and will never read a blog without leaving a comment. It also helps to get on as many ‘top commentator’ lists as possible.
#2. Make yourself identifiable: When you comment on other people’s blogs, make sure you use a gravatar that is custom to you, as well as a name that you keep consistent throughout every blog you comment on. For me, I use the Teenius logo as a gravatar and ‘Simon | Teenius’ as my commenting name.
#3. Release a free theme: This works particularly well for Wordpress themes, especially the good ones. You won’t get much recognition if you just release crap themes that come of out Artisteer, but if you make a quality theme, you’re bound to get more recognition.
#4. Release a free plugin: Very similar to the previous point, but why not release a free Wordpress plugin? Again, the better it is, the more respect you’ll get.
#5. Hold a contest: When I say hold a contest, I’m not talking about a little contest here. I’m talking about a huge contest with hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars of worth of prizes. Make sure the contest gets loads of exposure, and as it gets exposure, so will you.
#6. Be active in communities: This point kind of links back to the first point. Blog commenting is a great way to be involved in communities, but you can also participate in forums and other social networking sites (like Twitter/Facebook) to get your name out there. Infact, you don’t even need to go anywhere, just replying to the comments on your blog is a start.
#7. Do something noticeable: That’s right, do something huge. I’m talking really big… it might be controversial, but as long as it’s big, it’ll get you known. A few days ago, a guy called Mikeyy hacked into Twitter. OK, this is negative attention, but now pretty much every Tweeter knows his name (even if they do shudder at the sound!). That said, this could include anything, as long as it’s made very public with thousands of people seeing it, it’s fine.
#8. Help someone out: This point is something anyone can do, regardless of technical knowledge or anything. Getting yourself known as the nice guy can only be a good thing. For example, I just retweeted someone’s latest post. It only took me a second, but will no doubt help them and they’ll be grateful. I’m sure that they’ll do a small favour for me somewhere down the line, but then, even if they don’t, at least it only took a few seconds.
#9. Give away more free stuff: Yup, that old trick again. Just go crazy with the free stuff, spray it around until there’s none left (then start again). My external hard drive has hundreds of ebooks that I have permission to do whatever I want with, so, instead of selling them (they’re practically worthless anyway), I’ll give them away free. Again, costs me nothing, but gets me some positive karma.
Sorry, that’s all: Yeah, it had to come to an end. There are of course loads of methods of getting yourself known (mostly consisting of networking), but in my opinion these are the top ways.
Like it?
If you liked this post, or just want to leave a comment discussing anything you want, just leave a little comment below. If you really liked this post, try clicking one of those cute little icons below this paragraph to bookmark this post. Thanks!
Rocking post!!
I have got famous, all though it was not my intention, by helping many many people.
Farrhad A | The Dollar Diary’s last blog post..Interview With Michael Dunlop: Retire At 21 and Income Diary
Thanks for the compliment.
I think one of the thing that made you so big is Twitter. I mean, just having a quick look on your page, you’re connecting with so many people it’s unbelievable.And not only in terms of followers, you’re also connecting with them on a personal level
Yup! That too has helped
Farrhad A | The Dollar Diary’s last blog post..Interview With Michael Dunlop: Retire At 21 and Income Diary
Cool Post Simon..
I guess It’ll help me alot !
Enk.’s last blog post..Using Wordpress as a Website
Glad you found it useful, Enk. I certainly enjoyed writing it
Great post, but I can’t help thinking that #7 might be a bit weird. Hacking is in no means good and (from reading around), Mikeyy’s reputation around the net has suffered a LOT. Other than that, cool points.
Sorry, I guess I didn’t make myself clear. The point I was making is that doing something noticeable will get you known throughout the blogosphere. The Mikeyy example was just the first thing that came into my head
I would say that if you were planning on doing a publicity stunt, make it one that’s going to get a positive reaction rather than something that will get you positive attention
Very well laid out, Simon. I have a couple points on #9 though…
1. going crazy with the free stuff is not a real good plan unless you seriously want to attract most;y freebie beggers.
2. (they’re practically worthless anyway) is not something to be proud of. lol
Controlled freebies are an awesome method for doing some things, but you really don’t wanna be know for crap worthless giveaways either.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO
Thanks for the comment, Dennis. True, you don’t want to be known for giving away rubbish, but at the same time it’s great to give away freebies, especially on forums. (I was aiming that point towards forums, sorry to not make that clearer).
Cool post. TBP is fairly well known around the blogosphere as we’ve used a few of the techniques, but I think it’s mainly down to the fact there are 4 of us, and we’re therefore getting 4 times as much exposure
The Blogging Park’s last blog post..Blog Flipping Guide – Part III
Yeah, TBP is really lucky to have the innovation of Farrhad to think up a project where it’s going to have 4x the exposure as a normal blog.
Yeah. What it means is that the four bloggers can all get on with other projects while still maintaining the blog, as there are always 3 more people to rely on if you can’t post/promote.
The Blogging Park’s last blog post..5 Tips To Rejuvenate Your Blog
Another great article Simon. Very good advice!
Keith’s last blog post..Do You Believe?
Thanks for the comment, Keith. Means a lot that people are liking what I’m writing
WIth the free stuff m unsure how much it will be useful or traffic which you will get will be sustainable or not..
but branding is very important like using same avatar everywhere and same name (handle).
Harsh Agrawal’s last blog post..How you can use Flickr to drive huge traffic to your blog?
The free stuff will only usually get a one off traffic count, but they might come back if (a) they spot other quality content on your blog that they enjoy reading, or (b) if you keep giving away free stuff
Yeah… branding is probably the most important point
Contests, commenting and being active at public forums is a great way to sort of market yourself around!
As for the ‘Release a free theme’, that is what I do and it has worked well. My reply to that is, no one try that as it is my thing and whoever opts to do it; I will find and DESTROY!
Daniel – WPThemeKid’s last blog post..Some Vector Work!
Haha
I think too many people release free theme for you to call it ‘your thing’ 
Yeah, I suppose to get yourself known you do kinda have to market yourself. Cool way of looking at it.
Who’s been releasing free themes without my permission!
Daniel – WPThemeKid’s last blog post..I Made A Turtle
Awesome post Simon. Interesting. But #3 and #4 cannot be done by everybody until they know programming. But I agree that they are one of the best ways to become popular.
I would tell Chris Pearson as an example. He became very popular with his Thesis theme.
I would say commenting like you would make us popular. You are a great commenter
Harish’s last blog post..Importance Of Joining A Forum Discussion Board
Glad you appreciate my comments
Regarding needing coding knowledge – no way man!
You can pick up a wordpress theme for as low as $30 nowadays! If you get a few sponsor links for that, you could easily make your money back AND get exposure. Same with plugins, although they will cost more.
Shh, that’s a secret, Simon! Only I am allowed to outsource
Daniel – WPThemeKid’s last blog post..I Made A Turtle
Great post teenius. Some great points to getting recognized It is especially important to comment.
Teenwebguru’s last blog post..Solving Negative Thoughts
Yeah, but also be active in forums.
I was chatting to someone on MSN the other day who comments on this blog and I comment on his, and when he found out my DigitalPoint username he suddenly came to life! It’s amazing to see how much of an impression you can make by leaving some posts on a forum. I guess it’s just the whole community side of it.
Those things would undoubtedly get the job done but I think one has to be careful doing each of those properly.. I mean if you hold a contest that turned out to be a bust, or you release a cookie-cutter theme, then probably you’re doing more harm in your blog…
So I say, those have to be done properly…
Melvin’s last blog post..Failures That I Implemented in This Blog…
True, but I suppose that’s the way with anything. Thanks for the comment by the way, hope you’ll visit back soon
Right points mentioned. When I first started I did all that and let me tell you: It Works!
The brief is to make yourself someone unique and never try to be someone else.
Kurt Avish’s last blog post..Meeting 1ere Mai L’ile de Criz Mauricien!!! In lheur pu coze!
Cool, glad to know that they’ve worked for you
I agree that having something unique is vitally important. See my post on ‘Unique Selling Points’ for more info on that
I’m interested in point #3. Release a free theme, I personally think that this method will generate lots of backlink if someone using the theme and it’s actually a win win situation for both. However, I don’t have any idea on creating wordpress template at the moment, still learning on it.
If it’s the backlinks you’re interested in, you should definately consider sponsoring a theme. This means you still get the backlinks, but you pay a one off fee rather than doing a load of hard work.
Also, if it’s the credit you’re interested in, offer to do the official release on your blog
Release a free plugin? Only for hard code programmers. Not for ordinary blogger
Stock Traders Blog’s last blog post..My Mind Switched Side But so Did the Market
Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree. Nowadays you can hire programmers to create wordpress plugins for a very reasonable price!