How to Start Networking with Other Mom Bloggers

By Wendy Piersall from Mom Blogging For Dummies

You can use an informal formula to network with other mom bloggers online. It’s not an exact science and not everyone responds, but most people do. It’s based on a simple principle — what goes around, comes around.

Here are the steps to take when you first start networking with other bloggers:

Get to know the people in your blogging niche.

You can find these people by searching on Google Blog Search, Technorati, and Twitter for people talking about the topics you blog about. Identify the successful bloggers as well as the ones who are at your level of experience.

While it’s great to get noticed by big-time bloggers, you’ll find that the people who are more like you can be far more beneficial and supportive. These are people who have more time and energy to invest in your new friendship.
Identify the people you want to get to know better.

These are the bloggers who you want to emulate or have the most in common with. You can learn a lot about individual bloggers from their About pages, and through the conversations they have with others on social media sites.
Start interacting with the bloggers.

The only way for people to know about you is to let them know you are there. Start commenting on their blogs, following them on Twitter, and becoming their friend or fan on Facebook.
Link to their blog posts that you think your readers would enjoy.

It’s important to give before you expect to receive. Bloggers really respond to this approach. Don’t expect that every time you do this you’ll get something in return. But you can expect that the more you link to others, the more they’ll want to return the favor somehow.
E-mail other bloggers to explore ways of working together.

As you get to be more established as a blogger, the amount of e-mail you’ll have to manage will be enormous. If you want to grab the attention of the person you’re writing to, following the steps before this will allow your e-mail to stand out from the crowd, because the recipient will be somewhat familiar with you by now.

Additionally, you should have a clear purpose for writing (not just to introduce yourself, for example). Start out these kinds of messages with a few sentences telling the person what he or she would get out of reading the rest of the e-mail. This lets your recipients know that you’re making it clear something is in it for them, and that you value their time.
Get offline and meet your online contacts in real life.

The best way to do this is to attend some of the many blogging conferences all over the world. Meeting your blogging friends in real life can transform your online relationships into solid collaborations and partnerships. It’s easier to ask for — and give favors to — people you’ve met in person. Additionally, blogging conferences are the absolutely best place to network with brands, potential advertisers, book publishers, and traditional media journalists.