here’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse at running a blog like scoutie girl.

as you can imagine, i get a lot of submissions via email. sometimes they’re confident and sassy (i kind of like those!), sometimes they’re self-deprecating (wish you all had more confidence!), and sometimes i get ones that are slightly bizarre. jena, from modish, wrote the definitive guide to approaching blogs for marketing in the creative community. it’s a great post and a great resource. however since everyone reads it… the emails start to look the same.

and there’s not a whole lot of advice i can give you on that.

but one thing that never fails is writing an awesome comment. not a “that’s great!” or “those are beautiful!” kind of comment but a comment that adds to my post. if all i do is write or curate beautiful posts, my blog is less than it could be. when you add to the conversation, when you bring something to the table that wasn’t there before, you make my blog better. a lot better.

beyond the thrill of receiving those comments, there is the thrill of discovering more about who wrote it.

for instance, this evening, i found this beautiful blog through a comment.

i twittered about her immediately and there’s a great chance she’ll get a feature on scoutie girl sometime soon. that’s results.

i keep this in mind when i comment on blogs too. and i think it works. even if i don’t get a link, i’m much more likely to get a new friend. someone who will be interested in me as a person and someone who will be there when i need a favor. that’s community building in the blogosphere.

do you comment on blogs? do your comments get lost in a crowd or treasured & clicked by the blogger?

for ideas on what to write when you just don’t know what to say, read my follow up post.

image by joanne thies