How to increase your network on IB?

By being active on forum, searching for like minded blogs, adding them to your network, voting for them, chatting and blogging

i dont think being active on forum/chatting is necessary....many bloggers with hundreds of likes hardly come in forum or inditalk...................the rest options may apply

Okie

VP you're showing the route to get spoiled to a IB-newbie by suggesting her/him to 'chat' [Grrrrrrr]

Hello and welcome Nancy. It's good to connect to others on the network - you can view their posts and promote them. But, please do read the posts before you do that - this way you will not only be sure of the quality of your likes, you will also find genuinely good blogs to follow.

Also, participating in a contest that interests you might expose you to more of 'your kind' of bloggers. 

Other than that, there are lists of the top bloggers in each category like travel, photography etc. You could visit these blogs and add them to your network. IB gives you the opportunity to discover blogs that you might not ordinarily look up. Since we all need the occasional pep pill, it pays to recognise others' work and sure enough, they will do that too.   All the best!!

I wish many thought like this- "you can view their posts and promote them. But, please do read the posts before you do that"  [Sad]

+1

Thanks Vibha for an elaborate reponse! Quite helpful I must say :)

Am still green behind the ears myself, but shared whatever I've learnt so far. Here's a toast to making new discoveries every day. 

Welcome to the IB Family, Nancy

You have asked the same questions that any Newbie asks.

I have shared my learnings in one of my posts with links of some Posts by experienced Bloggers that deal with Votes & Comments in Blogging.

Do read the Post- How to Get Successful in IndiBlogger? by fellow Blogger, Alok Vats.

Be open & keep discovering & learning!

Best wishes

Sincerity and persistence is the key Nancy... You better take it seriously because from my personal experience I'm damn sure without these two things your development will standstill at a point [wink]

Be yourself!

Try to discover more, build a rapport with people on the forum, even if they're not visiting your blog frequently.

Try getting in touch with as many people as you can, try helping them, to the extent possible for you, and you shall see yourself being popular among the forum members.

Searching for people having blogs in your niche gets the much needed support for your blog, and who knows, you might get new loyal readers as well. I'm not sure how much does back scratching help in the long run, but it surely can help one get the lift for the moment.

Be regular to the forum, be audible on the threads, mostly in ones, where you really have an opinion to share, and try not to force people to check out your blog, by shamelessly self promoting yourself, as most IndiBloggers hate being forced to check people's blogs. Post your blog posts on IndiVine, read others' posts, and vote for the ones you like, Participate in contests, if you can afford to win or lose continuously without losing patience, and without making it a compulsion. Share your views on IndiSpire, and you'll surely get readers for your views. Most importantly, play by the rules.

Good Luck!

CONTENT IS THE KING [grapes aren't sweet wala smile]

CONTENT IS THE KING

That statement is a bit overrated 

Rajni you challenging the old school? [Oh devil!]

AS. Yes! Write great content and do nothing. Who will read your blog? Not even the bots. 

bots might end up being there due to labels 

What? 

Mini Essay

Participate in this tread. http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=19392

lol

This pisses me off. Unnecessarily posting irrelevant and SSP threads on the forum.

I think you posted in the wrong thread. You probably wanted toi post it here : http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=19392 

Thanks for telling me that, Ranjith.

Thanks Everyone!

@Nandini : You took my words! I see lot of crappy blogs with huge number of likes. And It made me wonder what's going on here! :)

@ Vibha : Very Insightful! Thanks!

@ Anita : Thanks for the link!

@ AS - 'I wish many thought like this' - I agree, many don't. That might be for two reasons - a genuine lack of time or a genuine lack of interest. Yes, as Nandini has said many are in the 'you pat my back and I pat yours' mode. I guess in the beginning you (I mean all of us who have been newbies at some point in time) are so focussed on your blog that you have little time for anything else, but one can learn a lot by reading and observing other blogs.

Lets hope that the quality blogs gets what they deserve 

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”  Loved this dialogue from Andy Dufresne from movie The Shawshank Redemption

Rightly said Vibha....

Increasing your network and getting more 'likes' are two different things.

One can increase one's network by simply including bloggers in their network and hope they do the same at some point, if not immediately. But getting 'likes' is probably depending on...

...the sort of blogger-gang you are a part of :)

...the kind of writing you do

...kismet

...your name and mugshot

...if you uploaded your post just before a contest ended

...the number of posts you keep uploading

However, everyone does agree that indilikes don't really matter.