(This Is the First In a Series of Three Posts On Bloghopping)

 

So have you got your new WordPress blog up and running?

 

Maybe you’ve written a few posts that you think are interesting, and could possibly help someone out that is looking for information

 

If you have, great – you’ve taken a big step towards getting your internet business off the ground. Now you need some readers for your blog, so you can start building up a following.

 

In the next few posts I’m going to go over a few easy things you can do that will not only get some traffic to your blog, but hopefully get them commenting on your posts. There will also be some great side benefits such as:

 

• Meeting some really cool people, who will let you know what they are doing with their business, and some of the problems they have, along with suggestions they have on dealing with various issues.
• Give you lots of ideas for future posts on your blog.
• Build up your brand; help with getting you known in the blogging community.

Start building your list – some of your readers will become valuable customers in the future.

 

I’m Talking About Bloghopping.

 

Bloghopping, as it’s come to be called, is the practice of reading others’ blogs and leaving comments. If this is done correctly, you will find that many people will follow you back to your posts on your blog and check out what you’ve got to say.

 

Avatars and Gravatars

 

An avatar is a photo, drawing, or symbol used to identify you on the internet. Gravatar stands for “Globally Recognized Avatar”.  Have you ever seen a gray, ghostly looking figure beside someone’s comment on a blog post?  That is known as the “Gray Mystery Man”. That is what will be displayed beside your name if you don’t have an avatar when you leave a comment.

 

Getting your own avatar set up is really easy and free. All you have to do is go to Gravatar’s site HERE. Follow the easy instructions on setting up your own image.

 

You should remember that this is the image that is going to be identified with you, and is the first impression people will get of you as a real, live human being.

 

With that in mind, you should pick a photo that is the best representaion of what you look like. No pictures of you frowning, cartoon characters, etc. It should be a pleasant, professional looking head shot. You can use any digital photo you already have of yourself or you can take a new one.

 

After you’ve got your Gravatar set up, your photo will now appear beside your comments when you leave one on others’ blog.

 

In the next post, we’ll talk about setting up a plugin that will lead readers of your comments back to your latest post. How cool is that?    -  Steve