Will Marlow

If you really want to get more subscribers to your blog, you need to keep two lists: (1) a list of blogs, forums and Twitter accounts that occupy your space where you plan on regularly leaving high quality comments.  Commenting makes you part of the discussion, and high quality contents will drive traffic back to your own site.  And (2) you need to keep a list of blogs that you want to submit guest posts to.  If you want to build a blog subscriber list, you aren't just looking for people who like your content.  You're looking for blog subscribers who like your content.  Not everyone uses Google Reader to subscribe to blogs.  Not everyone subscribes to blogs period. 

This means that if you want more subscribers to your blog, you are better off writing a guest post on another blog that has 100,000 likeminded subscribers than you are writing an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, which has 1 million subscribers.

Why?  Lots of people will read the Wall Street Journal, but they aren't the type of people necessarily who will subscribe to your blog.  (Note: if the Wall Street Journal wants to publish your Op-Ed, say YES and THANK YOU.  Sometimes there are more important things than subscribers.)

But back to the point of this post: these two lists (first, a list of places to comment, and second, a list of places to submit guest posts) are crucial to growing your online community.  Right now I am practicing what I preach on both counts, and I'll let you know how things go.  By following an aggressive guest posting strategy, I may end up posting less frequently on this blog, but I expect to maintain a pace of one or two posts a week here. 

For me, the two blogs at the top of my list for where I would like to submit guest posts are ProBlogger and CopyBlogger, because I think my posts and topic are most relevant to those audiences.  Right now I'm working on a guest post that I plan to submit to ProBlogger or CopyBlogger about how you can build an enduring blogging empire by following the lessons laid out in the Godfather Trilogy.

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Will Marlow is a digital strategist/online marketing consultant.  He's the co-founder of  AlumniFidelity, which was the first Web 2.0 fundraising platform for colleges, nonprofits and secondary schools.   He’s working with clients such as UVA, the College of William & Mary, the University of Oklahoma, and Bowling Green State University and he loves nothing better than a thorny marketing challenge.  He would love to help you market your business on the Internet, boost the fundraising numbers for your school or nonprofit, or sellout your next big event.  Email him at will@alumnifidelity.com.

Here is the most helpful advice I've received so far on blogging.  Some points seem to contradict other points, but I've found it all helpful when taken together.

I have two separate blogs.  This (www.willmarlow.com) is my personal blog, and my posts here stem from my role as a co-founder of AlumniFidelity, and my experience operating a technology startup company.  

Before posting to this blog, I try to ask the following questions:

1. Would someone else who is working at a startup, a university, a nonprofit, or a boring corporation potentially find the information useful?
2. Is this something that I wish someone else had already written about? 
3. Is this post interesting enough that I would regret forgetting it?

The three questions above don't tell me what to write about, however.  They only tell me when I'm finished writing a post.