It’s been said time and time again. Blog subscribers all over the ‘Net, whether by email or RSS, rant about this issue consistently, myself included.

And I make no apologies for it.

I am here now, one more (last?) time, as both a blogger and blog subscriber, to speak to ALL my blogging colleagues (i.e. Everyone with a blog), to say…..

Respond to Comments or Risk LOSING Subscribers!

Allow me to be brutally honest for a moment. You are NOT too busy. You’re really not. Seriously. I’m not kidding. Ask anyone.
For those that wish to dispute it, I’ll make it real easy for you. Multiple choice even…

1. You’re lying

2. You’re lazy

Those are in no particular order, so please pick the one that suits you best and leave it in the comments below. See what a swell fella I am?

You need incoming links! They shout. And it’s true, you do and lots of them. But what they weren’t shouting until recently is that you should have a fair mount of outgoing links also…

You’d be really surprised if you knew how many online marketers either don’t know, or completely ignore the “simple” fact, that if you want your website to have lots and lots of traffic, you need LINKS. Both incoming AND outgoing; yes that’s right, I said OUTGOING.

And that’s what this tip is based on…

There are two different ways to accomplish outgoing links, a good way and a better way.

If you simply reference someone else’s blog in your post and link to it, you won’t do your traffic size much good. You won’t do it any harm either though and you will in fact help your site some.

Are you an “email pack rat”? Hundreds (if not thousands) of emails in this folder and that folder, or worse….not in folders?

Let me tell you from past and current experience, GO THROUGH THOSE EMAILS! Seriously. Although I probably should have done this in December, part of new years organization is going through ALL the old saved emails.

Keep what may actually be relevant and quickly toss what’s left. (Immediately empty the trash folder too, too make sure they’re gone.)

As for “keeping what may actually be relevant”, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying to just put them back into save mode. If you find something you can use, USE IT. Implement whatever it is, ASAP.

If you must re-save it for a week or two, then fine. Make sure you go back to it though. Honestly? You’ve had it for a year or more, you’re not going to need it in a week or a month from now; use it now or toss it.

Your lists are your LIVILIHOOD! Care for them greatly. The following is the simplest yet one of the most important tips you could follow. It’s also one that most list owners just plum forget about…

I realize telling you to always use spell check might seem like an obvious no-brainer, but many still don’t do it, among other things…

Now that that’s outa the way, here’s a little tip that’s just as important, if not more so…Always put yourself on your own list!

It may sound silly, but among other things, it enables you to catch things quickly that you may not notice otherwise. For instance…

Last February I just sent a quick Happy Mothers Day email to my list (and no, I didn’t tack on some cheesy sale to “celebrate” it), but what I did do is I wrote “If you’re celebrating the day with your mom like I am, wish here a great one for me!