Blog Catalog; Great Link Exchange Potential

Yesterday I had mentioned a great social networking site that I use to expand my "sphere of blogger type activities" called MyBlogLog, today I introduce Blog Catalog. Blog Catalog is quite similar to MyBlogLog in almost every way, but offers a really cool feature that allows you to exchange personal messages in real time with other members and potentially create some really great blogroll and link exchanges. I'm not going to get into the other features as they are quite similar to MyBlogLog (see that post by simply scrolling down!). 

My favorite feature in Blog Catalog is the ability to search through all their registered blogs in order to find those with a similar focus to that of your own. Once you surf through the results, it is important to add them to friends and drop them a message to check out your blog due to similar interest etc. 99 out of 100 times the person you contact will view your comment, profile and blog and then add you as a friend. It is at that point when you need to capitalize on the opportunity to be more than a face in a sea of "friends". I recommend viewing their blog and commenting on a few posts (this shouldn't be a burden because lets face it, if you liked their blog or their focus then by default you will likely enjoy their posts).

After dropping some comments (not just a url saying hey check out my site, because that is "spammy") you are likely to initiate a blogroll exchange or link swap. I find that this process leads to a solid readership as well as generating extra traffic and comments which is sure to help raise your page rank and ratings if you're into the whole SEO thing (if you are reading this blog you ought to be). If you like, you can repeat this formula and get some great contacts as well as maybe even make some cool friends with similar interests, either way everybody wins!

Unfortunately, Blog Catalog doesn't have any great widgets, but it can be used as a great secondary network alongside MyBlogLog and whatever else you may use (FaceBook, MySpace whatever). Naturally the service is free and can be utilized however you would like. I always suggest utilizing as many networks as possible due to the ability to generate additional organic traffic. When it comes to these networks I say be aggressive, because nobody will refuse to be friendly because if they weren't into this whole social networking thing they wouldn't be there! Have fun, make contacts, develop solid content and increase your blogs traffic!