This is Day 23 of 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (or Make Yours a Better One). If you want to catch up, click here to read Day 1.

We’re continuing as series of activities that will help you find clients. Yesterday, you started using Twitter more strategically to place yourself in front of your target clients.

Today, we’re looking at blogs.

Blogs have taken the Internet by storm. Anybody with Internet access can be a content publisher through blogging. The most exciting feature of blogs is their interactivity. Blog publishers can interact with their readers – and vice versa. In fact, readers can interact with each other through comments. One blog can interact with another blog, by linking to each other.

Your Blog Strategy

Just as you need a Twitter strategy, you also need a blog strategy. A blog reading strategy, that is. First, you need to find blogs to read regularly.

Your task today is to find at least 3 blogs to read daily, or as often as they’re updated. These should be blogs that:

• keep you updated in your field or industry
• are published by somebody who fits the profile of your target client
• are published by people who are influential to your target clients

When you’re not real busy, it’s easy and fun to keep track of several blogs. But once the client work starts pouring in, you might decide to give it up. Don’t! There are tools that help you stay in the loop of your favorite blogs, such as:

Google Reader - Aggregates feeds from all the blogs you subscribe to. It even has an iPhone app, so you can read the feeds while you’re on the go.

Free RSS Reader - Does the same thing as Google reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

How to Comment on Blogs

Now, don’t spend all your time reading your handpicked blogs. Interact by posting thoughtful comments. Don’t just say, “Great post!”

Show you understand the topic, or want to understand it more, by posting:

• additional suggestions and useful links (to other blogs or even your own)
• responses to other comments
• questions that will help you and other readers get a deeper understanding of the topic

More tips: Do use your real name and link to your professional website.

How Not to Comment

On the other hand, here are some things to avoid:

• Don’t stuff your name and comment with keywords.
• Don’t hyperlink to your own blog just for the sake of getting a backlink. If your comment was interesting enough, other readers will click on the link to your site.
• Don’t pick a fight with the blog owner or the commenters. If you disagree with the post, do so graciously. Then write a post about it on your own blog.

More Blog Interaction

If you publish a blog yourself, you have more options for interacting with your chosen blogs. You can and should:

• link to specific posts on other blogs whenever you’re discussing something related in your own blog. For example, I link to other blogs under “Further Readings.”
• engage other blog owners in a blog discussion. Publish a post on a debatable topic, and then tag other blog owners to publish their own take on it.
• offer to guest post. Make a list of interesting and relevant topics, or even write the blog post already, and pitch your blogging skills. Make sure the blog owner will allow you to link to your blog in the “About the Author” paragraph.

See, I told you you should blog!

Further Reading:

1. Do You Have a Blog Commenting Strategy? – Everything you need to know about smart blog commenting.

2. Is Commenting on Blogs a Smart Commenting Strategy? – How not to get carried away with this blog commenting thing.

3. Leave Comments on Other Blogs – Blog commenting tips from the blogging authority, Problogger.com.

Interacting with your peers and target clients in blogs is both fun and rewarding. I hope you’ll find it the same way for you. Let me know how you’re doing by posting a comment below.

Thanks!

Lexi

photo credit: Tiago Rïbeiro