MOLI VIEW™

Previously, we've discussed blogging as a means to promote yourself and/or your business. It's a great way to establish your competence and credibility (assuming you have some of each) as well as engage your readers (who might morph into customers). For your existing clients, friends, family, and passersby, it's a good way to see what's doing with you and what you have to say. Rudimentary writing skills are required, naturally, but if you are literate, you should be able to express yourself simply and clearly. And the more you do it, the better you will get at it!

Commenting on other people's blogs is an effective way to introduce yourself and interact with people and groups who have an affinity with your chosen field. A guy I wrote about earlier was invited to become a regular contributor to a group blog, based on his comments. And that served as a stepping stone to something even better!

The blog he contributes to is devoted to the NY Yankees. A beat reporter for a New York-area newspaper has a very successful blog, regularly attracting thousands of page-views and hundreds of comments per post. He announced that he's taking a brief hiatus and asked if any Yankee bloggers would like to post in his absence. Many responded — bloggers and non-bloggers — and our guy was one of several chosen! So now, he'll get a chance not only to post to a much larger audience, but to also promote himself and his blog. And, as an added bonus, all of the participating bloggers agreed to exchange links to each others' blogs, which means even more promotion.

The moral of the story: It pays to comment!

Next week: The truth about RSS feeds.

Richard Pachter is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Business.

» Read Richard's blog