Blogging, in one sense, is online diarying. You write about stuff that matters to you, just as you might in a personal diary. And then, you don’t care if anyone reads it or not.

Blogging, in another sense, is about building an online presence. Extending your personal brand. Establishing powerful connections. Growing a loyal audience and following. Leveraging it into a position of influence.

And the second kind of blogging does not happen in a vacuum.

Yes, blogging is SOCIAL. You need a network to extend and enhance your reach and impact. To gain influence.

One of the surest ways to build and grow that network is by embracing a philosophy of giving first. Give, and then receive. It’s the nature of the Universe, and a failsafe ‘tactic’.

How to give in a blogging sense - to receive influence and attention?

Give Other Bloggers Links

Image credit sxc.hu

It’s tough to do it - at first. You’ve worked hard to build a valuable resource and don’t want to send people away from it. And links do tend to get clicked on - which means you lose your audience.

That kind of thinking, however, is short-term focused and narrow-minded. Because look at it this way - if you won’t link out to others, why would they link out to you? In that sense, it makes MORE sense for a beginner blogger to link out more actively and frequently than from a higher traffic blog!

But truth is, popular blogs link out more often - because they KNOW about the ’secret’ law - Give to Receive.

Comment on Blogs

Image credit sxc.hu

Blog commenting is a can of worms. And that’s because the technique has been so badly abused by unethical people, it has got a bad rap.

Comments on blogs are meant to extend the conversation to a group. You read a blog, have an opinion or point of view, and can share it through a blog comment.

Yet busy bloggers who are hit by a flood of machine-generated comment spam are often forced to either aggressively moderate them or completely remove the functionality to restore a semblance of sanity to their blogging.

Caroline Middlebrook has an excellent guide to the intelligent use of blog commenting. The cornerstone of the strategy when used to build blogging influence is this:

You are aiming to get the blogger’s attention

You are not simply looking for a backlink. Nor do you just want to funnel away a little traffic from the busy blog. No, you want ATTENTION. Of the blogger.

And once you have the blogger’s attention, you can leverage it to many ends - like publishing your guest posts on their blog, having them endorse your product or work, give you testimonials and many others.

Share Links with Blogs

Image credit sxc.hu

Most blogs come with a lovely, versatile feature that isn’t very widely used - the Blogroll.

It’s a list of links to other blogs and resources the blogger thinks valuable, interesting or helpful.

By strategically implementing a blogroll linking pattern with other relevant blogs in your niche, you can quickly build up a level of authority and influence for your blogging - even if you’re starting from scratch.

Look on it as a joint venture deal. Approach the partner blog with a solid value proposition. Explain why it makes sense for them to be listed on your blog, and why they should link back to you from their blogroll.

Of course, this may happen organically over time when you publish great content consistently. But to speed things up or jumpstart the process, you’ll have to get down and dirty and take action proactively.

Offer to Write for Blogs

Image credit sxc.hu

Guest blogging is a powerful method to gain visibility and influence for your blog. It’s also relatively easy when compared to other blog marketing methods. I outlined the step by step method I used to get a guest post featured on Problogger recently.

When you write a high quality post for someone else’s blog, both sides win. The host blogger gets valuable content of interest to his/her audience without working for it. And if you write a content-rich blog, you’ll appreciate how valuable that is!

A major reason for guest blogging being a life-saver for busy blogs is that the bloggers behind them set a hot pace while building their reputation. Posting at least once (and often many times) daily, they soon reaped rich rewards - at a price… content burn-out.

The easiest solution to the problem of little time to do a lot of writing is to invite others to help. You can be that person.

Promote their Product or Service

Image credit sxc.hu

Another easy way to get the attention of high profile bloggers, website owners and business-people is by helping them achieve their goals. Promote their product or service to your audience, with your effort, at your cost and they’ll surely notice you.

I know my best performing affiliates - because they boost my business and let me draw bigger pay checks out of my business. If I did that for you, wouldn’t you notice me? Of course you would.

Evangelize Them

Image credit sxc.hu

This may sound cheesy or distasteful. And it could be - unless it is genuine.

The trick, then, is to only evangelize people you really admire, respect and look up to. Time and again, I have waxed eloquent about marketing guru Jay Abraham - even if he has very likely never noticed me! Why? Because what he taught me literally changed my marketing life, exploded my level of success.

In the same way, I’ve talked highly about Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki because they are inspirational and have taught me a lot. The result of such teaching has helped my own bottomline goals - to help fund more heart operations for children.

It’s easy to evangelize someone or something you believe in.

Send them Traffic

Image credit sxc.hu

It’s the lifeblood of any online venture - a blog, a website or a business.

More visitors means more chance of getting them to deliver your most desirable action. You may make more sales, get more subscribers, sign up more affiliates.

And in contrast, without visitors you cannot achieve anything on your website - even if it is the ultimate word in design or functionality.

So what if you sent your favorite blogger a flood of visitors every now and then? They’ll cherish and respect you for helping them.

How will they know? Almost every top blogger will track referrer stats - and know where their traffic surges come from. When they see you’re sending people to them, they’ll want to reciprocate - and that opens the door to a future relationship.

Read their Blog

Image credit sxc.hu

Most bloggers admire their loyal readers. The same goes for ezine publishers and list owners. I personally cherish and am grateful for the many readers of my blog and ezine who give me their attention.

So the easiest way to gain a blogger’s attention is to read their blog - and show that you do it regularly.

You could leave a comment on the blog. You might riff on their message at your own blog. You could email the blogger with feedback. You might even call them on the phone, or talk to them at a live event.

Connect on Social Media

Image credit sxc.hu

Social media marketing is the latest buzz word. Everyone wants to ‘exploit’ social media and networks. Unfortunately, people don’t like to be exploited!

The best way to leverage the power of social media is to use it to establish connections with people. Most bloggers participate in multiple social media channels like Twitter, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn or others.

This is not a quick or easy method. It involves time and effort to get your social media relationship building right. But if you target your efforts right and focus on the relevant channels instead of going at every social network willy-nilly, you’ll be richly rewarded for your persistence.

Support their Causes

Image credit sxc.hu

Of all my network, the people who are most special to me are supporters of my work with the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation. My donors can get me to do practically anything within reason - and I’ll do it willingly and cheerfully, because they support something close to my heart!

And most people feel that way. Make a donation for a blogger’s favorite cause and you’ve established a relationship. It doesn’t even have to be cash-based. You might participate in a drive or fundraiser or awareness building effort and you would have cemented the bond more strongly.

Give them ‘Exclusives’

Image credit sxc.hu

Bloggers like being the first to know, to break news stories, or to be ahead of the curve. Cater to that desire by giving your favorite blogger(s) previews of what you’re up to.

If it is something important that will build buzz, then the person who introduced the item to the blogosphere gets perceived influence. By giving your blogger that influence, you gain influence with them!

Let them ‘leak’ your news releases and stories to the world. Give them your new product or service to play with and review before you launch to the general public. Make them feel special - and you’ll gain mindshare.

In a nutshell…

When you quickly review the list above, you’ll see there’s one common thread.

It’s ALL About Giving

Giving your time, your attention, your effort, your links, your money, your network, your news… to others.

And doing it with ‘no strings attached’. Unconditionally. As a gesture of your goodwill.

That’s the key. And done right, it can bring you more in return than any kind of ‘quid pro quo’ deal can ever do.

Zig Ziglar put it succintly and beautifully:

“You can have everything you want, if you give others everything THEY want!”

So how do you plan to ‘Give to Receive’?