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.
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.
Comments
37 responses to “Blogging 101: Supporting Other Bloggers”
Brilliant post, as Im sure you know 😉
I whole -heartedly agree that the only way you’ll see support is if you’re a part of the community. Its also great making friends + talking to them outside of their blogs too bc they’ll inspire you to create better content <3
Making friends is defintely great 😉
This such a wonderful and positive post. I agree with everything said and I love helping other bloggers.
So glad you liked the post! (and thank you for commenting and supporting me haha)
Love this post! I love interacting with the blogging community and feeling the love for books we all share x
I agree! I love our little community of book bloggers! x
Brilliant post! I love this so much and how bloggers should support each other.
Glad you liked it and for commenting Lauren! x
Community is so important in blogging, this is a fantastic post!
Thanks Charlotte!
Is it bad that I was genuinely debating just typing ‘great post’ as a joke? But then I realised we hadn’t interacted before and I didn’t want you thinking I was chaotic evil already.
In all seriousness, this a really useful post and I’ll definitely be referring back to it as I try to get my blog back up and running full-time after neglecting it for over a year,
Omg Poppy I might have loved you if you had (That’s very my sense of humour!) – really glad you enjoyed the post though, and feel free to reach out with any questions as you get yourself set back up!
I totally agree with this — I think it is especially daunting for new people who are trying to find their niche and find people who share interests. I know it is certainly that way for me, as I try and figure out what exactly to write, what to post and so on!
This is really helpful for me, as I’m just starting out (mostly on instagram) I sometimes don’t know exactly what to do! Thanks so much for this post!
Glad I could be of help! I don’t fit into one niche myself, and often find myself thinking ‘can I even join in with this community’ because only half my content is books/beauty! But I’ve found most people are super welcoming, and as long as you have an open mind to ‘not all my followers will like all my content, but they’ll support me anyway with the content they do read’ it works out okay! x
Such a helpful post! I’ve had a lot of people tell me to ‘find and stick to a niche’ but if I’m honest I like talking about and covering a lot of different topics, which might not be good for growth but at least I enjoy it! It’s hard building an audience and growing on platforms such as Instagram, but by building a community and supporting each other, we can all get where we want to be! X
Completely agree Jared! Me blogging about everything I want to may have stunted my growth (??) BUT the people I do have who support me, do it because of genuine reasons and I’ve made great friends from it! x
This is such a lovely post! if I have time, I try to comment on every post I read just because I think it’s nice to be able to put a face to some of those views. And if I get a comment from someone and I’ve already commented on their last few posts, I click around a little to help with views and bounce to say thank you! It’s great when you can make friends/ connect in the blogging community x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
And honestly it helps you too! I’ve known you for well over a year now, you’ve always been so lovely and I remember you because you engage with people so much! (thank you for that!) x
I’ve made some really great friends being part of the book blogging community and I’m definitely trying to make more of an effort in sharing and commenting etc outside of comment pods. There are some really helpful tips included here!
These are all great points to help other bloggers, I use feedly to keep up on bloghopping thanks to Kal’s post on it, and I try to always comment and like when I can and retweet posts as well to help them get seen <3
This was SUCH a nice post to read! This past year I have become much more engaged in the community and it’s so nice to have made some great blogger friends and to not only support them but also get support back.
Thank you for giving me a couple of tips to help support that I hadn’t thought of (I’ll keep my eyes peeled for affiliate links and ads to click on!) ☺️
P.s. was so tempting to just write ‘Great post!’ 😂
Support is the true definition of what a community does, and one does not have to know everyone in the community down to the bone. I think the important thing is to support each other the best each individual can even without deeply knowing the person they are supporting. I believe that, whether you know them or not, you are bringing at least a smile into their lives by showing your support, and I love your ideas for supporting other bloggers!
Awesome post – I have even tried to explain to my mum how her sharing my posts to her friends on FB helps me… I don’t think she gets it! But the blogging community is simply amazing at supporting one another!
As someone who is just beginning the blogging journey, I found this post so uplifting and heartwarming! I am so excited to find my way into this blogging world! ☺️📚
I love this post! Absolutely agree! I love to read so much maybe I don’t comment but sometimes if I have time I will comment to tell them what I feel, I love it xx
Jess
Love this post! Supporting each other is what makes this community so great and welcoming x
Great post 😉
But in all seriousness there’s some really helpful tips here! I often feel like I’m not being supportive enough by just reading posts and not necessarily commenting all the time and I think it’s important to remember you can support people in so many different ways, not necessarily just commenting!
This is such a lovely post and reminds bloggers that the little things make a big difference! I also didn’t know I wasn’t following you so I have sorted that!
Ohh, what an awesome post !
I do agree with everything, also that the blogging community is definately what makes the blogging in itself a nice ride! If you just stand in your own corner and don’t give back and support other bloggers, i’m afraid that you won’t go very far.. Although my blog-hopping has came to an halt lately (*aherm*, working on that!), whenever I see an interesting/important post on my twitter feed I just share it ! Most of the time, I wanna save it to come back later 😅 but in the meantime my share can help getting more views for them.
I feel like the likes/comments are quite common method theses days, but maybe less so of sharing other’s content instead of just promoting our own ? We should work more on that ! Share all the things !! ❤️
Glad you liked it Kristina! and yes share all the things!!
Yes! Supporting each other is so important in this community – this post is ace!
What a lovely post! I completely agree with all points, especially leaving a comment or liking; it is nice to know that people are actually reading and enjoying your content! Becca x
I agreee! We should always try to support one another
This post was wonderfully written and sends such a good message – supporting bloggers even in the smallest of ways can help them out so much.
Happy you liked the post! I agree so much ☺
[…] Becky @ Uptown Oracle had a very nice blogging 101 about how you can support other bloggers this […]
Wonderful blog that’s both helpful and inspiring to others thank you for sharing