4 Simple Ways to Make Friends Online

In creating a new blog, I’ve found myself in need of new friends.  No there’s nothing wrong with my old friends, but most of them aren’t geeks like me.  I’m not talking about getting as many people on Twitter following me as possible, just for the sake of doing so.  I want to befriend the folks that write the stuff I’m interested in reading and learning about.  So how does one go about making new friends, when they have few or none to begin with?

Link Love

Bloggers love link love.  Linking to an article on another blog that you found interesting, along with some of your own thoughts is a great way to attract someone’s attention. This is particularly true for blogs that have trackbacks enabled, as the owner of the blog will be notified via trackback that you linked to them.  Sending flowers has been known to work as well, but that can get expensive.

Blogrolling

Adding a blog to your blogroll is even better than a link to a single article.  When you add someone to your blogroll, every page on your blog will link to them!  It’s sending lots of link love with one simple act.  If those bloggers also have blogrolls they will often reciprocate.  Regardless, they will appreciate your act of kindness and you will likely have made a new friend.  No one appreciates the power of blogrolling more than I do.

One problem with blogrolling is that unless they watch their inbound links closely or you tell them, other bloggers will be unaware they’ve been added to your blogroll.  You could always give someone the 1-2 punch by blogrolling them as well as linking directly to an interesting article.  If the other blogger has trackbacks enabled, it is likely they will read your article and may notice the blogroll link to them as well.  Otherwise, you will need to contact them directly to inform them of your act of kindness.

Commenting on Other Blogs

Providing your words of wisdom on other blogs is another good way to make friends.  It will likely take more than just a comment or two.  As you engage in more discussions within comments, the blogger will start to notice.  Eventually they may start commenting on your articles, Tweet you, etc.  Although it doesn’t have quite the same initial impact as link love and blogrolling, it can be just as effective.

Email

With all the attention that microblogging gets these days, people seem to forget that everyone still reads their email.  If you frequent a blog that posts interesting and relevant content to your blog, send the blogger an email and solicit them for a guest post.  Send them an email to just say, “Hi.  I really like your writing!”

Be careful not to send the latter type of message in a blog article comment post.  Even if you are genuine in expressing your appreciation for the blogger, it may be confused as a comment intended just to drive traffic to your blog.  If you want to just say hi to make the other blogger aware of your existsance, do it in an email.

Just as I use these methods to contact others, I emplore you to do the same with me as well as other bloggers.  If you’d like to contact me via email, I can be reached at geeklad [at] geeklad [dot] com.