Three ways bloggers just gotta have fun

What is the main purpose you blog? Perhaps it is to make money. Or it might be to spread information. It might be to change people’s minds or just to rant.

Or it could be to have fun. But that isn’t serious blogging, right?

Actually, if done right, blogging is a lot of fun. And if blogging is fun, you are probably doing it right. By blogging, I don’t mean just the actual writing. Writing your blog is indeed one way of having fun.

If you are not having fun writing the posts, maybe you are not doing it right. You could try blogging nude or lightening up your style, but if you do not enjoy writing, blogging is not what you should be doing.

There are two other great ways to have fun blogging – two other things that many bloggers do with too serious an intent to have fun (and they don’t do either of them as well as people who have fun doing them).

Blog commenting

Chances are that you have read about the importance of blog commenting. Perhaps you have read that it is about building relationships. Or perhaps that it is critical to build links for SEO. Or that the best way to drive traffic is to write an intelligent comment on another blog.

And chances are you take this advice seriously. But don’t take it too seriously. People can tell if you are smiling when you write; it comes out in your tone. Yes, it does. In blog comments, you have the opportunity to let your hair down and be approachable. To give interesting comments that won’t be deleted. All you have to do is to have fun.

Typically, you are advised to comment on blogs in your niche and on posts that are keyword-relevant. On this guest post that I wrote about blog commenting for SEO, I made an additional suggestion:

“Yes, you should also frequent blogs that interest you, even if they are totally off-topic. I suspect I might be the only SEO consultant making this recommendation, but I think it is worth noting that if you are a hiker, you will have more intelligent comments to offer on a hiking blog – and you will enjoy doing it, so it will be less like work and more like fun. And whether the links are all keyword relevant, they still count and you’ll enjoy it a lot more than trolling for blogs only on your professional topic. So there!”

Too many people try to leave the quickest comment possible, then move on to the next blog. That’s no fun. It’s also not very effective, as lowest-common-denominator comments are more likely to be removed and people are less likely to follow the link you leave. Here are a few things you can do to write the best blog comment:

• Respond to other comments. Bloggers love interaction on their blogs, and so do readers
• Try to outdo the best comment so far by writing an even better one
• Be funny. Who doesn’t enjoy humour?
• Add to the blogger’s argument
• Play a polite devil’s advocate
• Subscribe to comments and return to respond to other comments
• Return to the blog a week later and become a frequent commenter

Social bookmarking

There are winners and there are losers when it comes to social bookmarking your blog posts. Here is the profile of the loser:

This is serious business, so you only do what you have to for your own website. You submit only your own posts. You submit them all, to each social bookmarking website… then move on to the next. You don’t engage, you don’t participate, because engagement and participation are fun, not work.

Here is the profile of a social bookmarking winner:

You are there to mix and mingle, to share your great content and to enjoy the content of other members. You submit your own posts, and you vote for others’ posts. You also submit plenty of great items that carry no self-interest. People appreciate this (yes, they actually notice) and they appreciate that you vote for and comment on their submissions.

Is it any surprise that they also vote for your submissions? That you get enough votes to be promoted to the home page? That your links become DoFollow and that you get more traffic from the home-page appearance? You can’t achieve this unless you are prepared to have fun.

• Leave comments generously
• Vote for friends submissions
• Follow Good submissions and comment on the actual blog
• Submit friends’ blog posts
• Play the game with the other social bookmarkers on the website

Blogging should be fun – not just the writing, but also the promotion. Write great posts, comment on all the blogs fit to eat, and join the social bookmarking game for fun and profit.

David Leonhardt is an Ottawa based SEO consultant. When not guest blogging he occasionally finds the time to update his own SEO marketing blog. Or you can follow him on Twitter and most social bookmarking websites. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Pink Sherbet.