In order to have a successful presence on the web, you need to find others who share your interests, views, values, and goals. Whatever topic you happen to blog about, there are probably hundreds of other people blogging on the same topic and over a hundred fifty million blogs on other topics. That means there are plenty of bloggers ready for discovery in your own niche, but also that it can be enormously difficult to find them.
As Always, Start With Google
The natural first step in looking for bloggers similar to you is to simply search the web. The power of Google is amazing, and the world's leading search engine does have a number of specific services that allow you to narrow your search to something less than the entire Internet. Among these is a blog search utility.
Whenever you find yourself searching for news or other content for your own blog, it might be a good idea to search the same terms in Google's blog search, as well. If the same URLs come up time after time, you know you've found a blog that deals with the same topics you do.
Other Alternatives
At the same time, there are other search engines that are specifically dedicated to blogs. Some appear useless, but others, like Technorati, are worthy competitors with Google. Technorati indexes most of the blogs on the web and ranks them according to which have the most "authority" overall and in their own categories.
Try searching Technorati for the general category you're working in. This will show you the most prominent blogs that you should be following. But it will also help you to find some that are in the middle of the pack and might take more notice if you connected and started commenting. These smaller blogs might be willing to link back to you.
Read Voraciously
Every bit as important as reading other blogs is the practice of reading regular news in your niche. Modern journalism has recognized the relevance and authority of blogs, so professional news agencies regularly link to the best bloggers. By reading all the news relevant to your niche, you're bound to come across other bloggers dealing with the same subject matter. You'll also gather better content for your own blog in the process.
Build Your Social Network
The more you use Twitter and Facebook to network in general, the better your chances will be of building a more specific network of related bloggers. Advertise your own content through every avenue. You might not be reaching out directly to other bloggers, but you will be reaching out to readers who are interested in content from your niche. Most of them will already be following other bloggers that are similar to you. Engage with these readers. Send them links and they'll send links back to you. If it's irrelevant or you've already seen it, it's easy to pass it over. But if it comes from a source you weren't familiar with, you've acquired a valuable new lead.
Let Them Find You
Of course, in seeking to connect with similar bloggers, you can't be expected to do all the work. Building your social network serves the dual purpose of letting you meet new content creators and letting them meet you. The more relevant you are within your niche and the more visible your presence is on the web, the more people will seek you out and connect with you.
Devote some of your energy to networking and searching out established bloggers but leave yourself time to develop your content, too. Also, use other means of driving traffic to your site. Hiring an SEO company to do that for you leaves you more time to blog and network. If you do both of those things effectively while also climbing the search rankings, you won't have to look as hard to find bloggers in your niche. They'll find you.
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