Top Blog Lists: Surefire traffic and reputation builder

Here's a tip for getting new readers, new links, and a solid reputation in your field: Make your own list of top blogs in your field.

Denise and I often suggest to our blog clients to make a list of their favorite blogs in their niche and publish it. This is a surefire way to promote your own blog as an authority in your field, create back links, get known, and drive traffic to your own blog. Yet it doesn't seem to be used as much as it could be.

Marketers have been using it for a long time. In fact, Rohit Bhargava just posted about this tactic on his Influential Marketing blog, and cites five great blog lists done skillfully by online marketers.

In a post titled 5 Great Marketing Blog Lists And What You Can Learn From Each One, he links to five of the best marketing blogs and their top blog lists. He includes lessons learned from each different blog list, that can be applied to any field or niche:

1. Create a truly authoritative way of measuring influence, and let others share it.
2. Involve leading thinkers in the development and promotion of your list. (Blog Squad note: you can also ask your readers to nominate...)
3. Get to know and build personal relationships with the bloggers on your list.
4. Find a niche for your list that you can own.
5. Create the most comprehensive list possible if your goal is to increase your "link love."

We recommend you read Rohit's blog post and visit each of these five blogs to fully grasp the nuances of the differing ways to create a top blog list.

Oh, and by the way, (sound of horn tooting in the back ground) our Writing on the Web blog is #24 on Joe Pulizzi's Junta 42 list of Top Content Marketing Blogs. Ta dah...