Blogging 101: Supporting Other Bloggers

Do you feel the rush of positive feelings every time you see someone has liked or commented on something you’ve posted? The overwhelming emotional break down when someone shares you or says something super nice about your content? (Or is this just me??). Well, I’m here to remind you that there’s often other people at the ends of these things that make you feel good – and in blogging, it’s nice to support others to give them similar feelings.

One of the best parts of being a blogger is having support from other bloggers and creating online communities. I’ve made so many good friends through this blog, some of which I’ve now even met in real life and talk to on a regular basis about life. There’s also some who I may not talk to a lot, or even talk to at all outside of group conversations – but we mutually respect each other’s blogs and support whenever possible. But of course, as with nearly all walks of life – this is a two way street, and if you’re expected supporting without ever giving back… well let’s just say maybe blogging isn’t the place for you?

Now I’ve felt the endless struggle of trying to make sure I comment on every single blogger I follows posts, and to like every tweet and Instagram I see. But to support someone you don’t have to do everything to support them (although if you want to then that is absolutely lovely and you’re an angel with your own time management to be able to do this!). There’s so many gestures, both large and small, which you can do to show your support, especially if you’re running out of hours in the day.

Read

This might sound insanely obvious, but reading a bloggers content is supporting their work. Putting time aside in your day or week (whichever is best for your schedule really!) just to read other blogs can really help support a large chunk of bloggers. Every view and user in a bloggers stats shows us how many people are reading, and reading more than one page! Reading other blogs is also in your best interest too, as it can often give you inspiration, shows you what may be popular for readers, and helps you learn how to craft your writing. Plus if you do gain inspiration, you can also credit the original blogger which is even more support to them!

Comment

If you enjoyed a blog post, or even if you have a counterpoint to what is said, and have something to genuinely contribute – drop a comment! Comments let bloggers know that people are actually engaging with their content, and that their views are real people who enjoyed their post. Now when I say ‘genuinely contribute’, I do not mean the ‘great post’ comments which some bloggers run rampant with just to drop their own links. Please please please (I cannot stress this enough) be honest with your support – it’s really obvious when bloggers comment just to promote themselves.

Like

If you don’t have something to genuinely contribute, the next best thing is to like the post. On Wordpress based blogs, this is usually super easy to do, and the like buttons are normally at the end of the post unless the blogs removed them. If a blog doesn’t have this function, go back to wherever you found out about it (Twitter, Bloglovin’ etc) and give it a like there instead. That way the bloggers can still see you like their content.

Views

If you honestly just don’t have time to read and comment on multiple bloggers content every day or week – there’s an additional way to support anyway. Two stats that are important for bloggers are views and also bounce rate (If you use Google Analytics). So even just opening the blog post in a new tab and keeping it open for a few minutes can help them out. I see a lot of bloggers focusing on the views, and I’ve also seen their friends supporting them saying they’ve ‘clicked around’ on their site quickly to give them more views. Which is great if the focus is on views! BUT that can negatively impact your bounce rate, and this is becoming an increasingly more important stat for brands who want to work with creators.

Share on your socials

From a simple RT to a full on manual share of content you enjoy – sharing on social media is a quick and easy way to publicly support other bloggers. It also doesn’t matter if it’s on Twitter, Instagram and stories, or even Pinterest and Facebook – any little share can help. It’s so nice when I see people openly sharing my content because it makes me stop and think ‘oh wait maybe I’m good at this blogging thing’. So it’s great for the emotional support side too. It opens them up to your own audience, allowing growth for your favourites as well.

It’s not just blog posts you can support either – if bloggers you like have sponsored posts, ask for donations or are sharing their Ko-Fi (or similar) pages, you can help support by liking and sharing these too. Blogging does cost money like many hobbies and careers, so helping your favourite bloggers to afford to cover these costs can help them to continue creating the content you love.

Join Blogger Pods and Communities

Another good way for support is to actively find blogger pods or communities with group chats where support is a key part of it. Most blogger pods are for likes and comments on posts or social channels, but there’s also some that have a support aspect in the way of advice. There’s also many ‘community’ style groups being created all the time, there’s large book communities on discord, I’ve been in beauty or lifestyle focused group chats as well.

There’s also specific Social Accounts which lead supportive comment threads and bloggers chats weekly. These help to open your support to bloggers you may not have come across yet, as well as to help build up who you follow.

• @bloggerstribe
• @tbgww
• @FemaleBloggerRT
• @TeacupClub_
• @theclique_uk
• @influencer_RT
• @Cbeechat

These are just some of the ones I have used (Let me know in the comments if you want a more exhaustive list with times for chats as I do have that planned for this series!)

Click on Their Ads

If you’ve seen a blogger share a sponsored/gifted/collaboration post on their site or on socials, the best thing you can do is to engage with these posts, and also click on their tracked link. (I mean, purchasing what is shown also helps, but is not always possible!). Basically when you do this, the blogger will then have stats to say ‘look my sponsored posts normally get this much engagement, this is why you should work with me’ to other brands for future posts.

A lot of bloggers also use AdSense ads on their blogs, which pays near to nothing to be honest. But you get paid on a per-click basis usually, where impressions very rarely earn anything. So if you see an ad on their sidebar or below their posts, click on it as it gives them a few extra pennies.

Use Affiliate Links and Codes

Similarly to sponsored posts and ads, if you’re going to purchase from an online store anyway why not use the bloggers affiliate link or code? It helps them out again with their stats (where they can say look X amount of people purchased something because of me!). It also helps them monetary wise as there’s often commissions with both, allowing them to make even more content for you.

Make Friends

And last but for sure not least is to make friends with bloggers. It’s not just about online likes, stats and money – but having emotional support from bloggers is brilliant because they often know exactly what you’re going through. I have so many people who I know I can drop a message to and they’ll help me out, or they’ll have advice, or they’ll just listen to me rant a bit. Being there for other people is just as good online as it is with the people you’ve met in real life, I promise you.