Building a blog cluster

I sat down for coffee with a friend the other day who was starting a new blog and wanted advice on getting readers. I explained a simple approach for building a cluster of bloggers around an area of interest. The steps are easy, and should work every time. The tricky part in writing about this is all the trigger words. Using words like formula, plan, scheme, pattern to describe this way of acting, and the results as success, traffic, links, career advancement is guaranteed to raise howls of indignation from the blogosphere. The funny thing is that the volume of the howlers is closely correlated with Technorati rank. Maybe the people who are most popular now didn't have to do any work to reach their current level, maybe they have a natural gift, maybe they are so pure of heart that God grants them readers. All I know is that the people I talk to, as opposed to the people who cry foul on their blogs, hate the idea of writing a blog that nobody reads.

So here are the simple steps:

• Pick a few basic themes that interest you, and on which you think you have original opinons.
• If you find it hard to start writing new posts, follow a reactive approach where you are commenting on others with similar interests at first.
• Every time you find a blog in one of your interest areas, subscribe to it in your aggregator.
• When you have time to write something, read the most recent posts in your aggregator, and pick one you agree or disagree with.
• Write a post that includes a link back to the original post and possibly a short quote. Then add at least one paragraph of original writing based on your research or opinions on the subject.
• The person who you linked to will notice it in one of his or her vanity searches, so watch for them to link back to you some time later.
• After linking to a blogger a few times, wait for an opportunity to send an email that either makes a joke or says something that belongs more in direct communication than on a blog.
• If that person responds, then make a habit of building a back channel of communication when things get heated in your mutual area of interest.
• In time you should see a cluster of bloggers who are linking to each other in your area. When one of these bloggers appears on a memetracker site, be sure to link to that post. If members of the cluster value your participation, they will link to you when they post on this issue. The memetracker algorithm should notice this and add you to its database.
• If you have a good back channel relationship with a blogger, don't be afraid to ask for a link when you post something you feel is really interesting. A group of linked posts will attract more interest from the memetrackers.

If you can write in fairly complete sentences, and have a decent sense of humor, this [substitute synonym of choice for formula] is almost guaranteed to work over time.

Blogging as a spiritual pursuit without any consideration of having readers is perfectly fine, but there is no law that says this is the only acceptable behavior. I'm afraid that people who insist it is may have other motivations of which they are unaware. If you do want readers, don't be afraid to do a little extra work to gain them. To make my ethics perfectly clear; I oppose lying, cheating, and stealing, but building relationships out of mutual self-interest is acceptable. Notice I said "mutual." As long as you are adding value to the conversation, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Let the cries of "Suck up!" begin.