I’ve spent the past 3 or 4 years working in the blogging industry. Not the “blog for fun” game, but the “blogging for dollars” one. And I have learned a thing or two about making money from my blogs. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it’s totally boring. But, the real trick is getting people to follow your blog. No readers means no dollars. It also means that everything you do is for naught.

Then, I decided screw it, I was going to do my own thing on this site. I didn’t care what happened, didn’t care about PR scores or SEO wordings, keywords, none of it. I figured that if I was going to spend all my time blogging, I’d blog about something I enjoyed, or that totally burned my backside. Then, I found the wonderful world of giveaways and contests. Well, ok, that’s not exactly true. I’d already found them, but finding my way back to them gave me a whole new inspiration to achieve.

I’ve had a ball the past few weeks finding new giveaway and contest blogs. I’ve listed most of them on my other blog, ChristineSenter.com. But, I thought I’d go ahead and list a few here. I love this blog, and it was originally supposed to be a review blog. But, I tried so hard to make it SEO precise and perfect that I lost interest. I’m so glad I came back to it. Especially now.

As I’ve been finding a few of these giveaway blogs, I’ve noticed a cute little button on some of them. It linked to a blog hop called Friday Follow. I wasn’t sure it was something I wanted to get in on, but today I changed my mind and said what they heck. Maybe it’s because everyone else in my house is gone and the quiet gave me the nerve, or maybe it’s because I’m a social creature and wanted to be part of something bigger than myself. Oh who am I kidding, I crave attention and that’s why I did it. LOL

Now for the kicker. I hadn’t even posted the link to my blog for a full 5 minutes when I had my first follower. Thanks Katrina for making me see that I’d made the right choice. I may not get anymore followers, but you totally made my day.

So, how does it work you ask??? I’m glad you did. Here’s how it goes. First of all, you check out the list of other bloggers on the McLinky list. Next, follow the first three blogs on the list as they’re the sweethearts who put this thing on. Nice ladies, the whole lot of ‘em. Then add your link to the list and see how many others follow your site. Follow a few others on the list as it really does something for the mind to know that someone out there is following you. And not in a creepy bad way like at the mall or something. It’s a good feeling. However, there are more than 400 links on the list, so take your time and really check out the blogs.

There are a lot of people in the SEO industry that will say this isn’t the right way to gain followers. I say, um, well just imagine me giving those people the raspberries (or the bird). Anytime you can become part of a group, go for it. And for any mommy bloggers out there reading this, this is a great opportunity for you. It’s a way to network, find new ideas, and you might even make some new friends.

Tags: Blog For Fun, Blog For Money, Blog Hops, Blogs To Follow, McLinky, SEO keywords

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 11:38 am and is filed under Contests, Freebies, Giveaways, My General Weirdness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.