Let me see. What should I write here?

I am a person who strongly believes that everything in this world is perfectly balanced. In spite of the constant changes that the world undergoes everyday, balance is maintained through the Principle of Equivalent Trade.

The principle states that when an entity loses/gains something, it must also gain/lose something of equivalent value to achieve equilibrium. For example, in order for you to get your hands on a McBurger, you must give up 50 pesos to the cashier which is the exact equivalent of a McBurger Meal.

Shifting out of balance
Everyday, I wake up to see lots of messages on my comment inbox and tagboard waiting for me to be read and replied to. There are those comments who express their thanks and delight, there are also those who disagree and share their own thoughts.

But every once in a while, among those piles of messages, we receive messages that are similar to these:

“Hi! Blog hop! ^_^ ”

“Wow nice site! Visit mine!”

“Hi po! Please visit my blog at [Blog URL]. Please read my posts and don’t forget to comment. Thanks!”

I have been on the blogging business long enough for me to know that these kinds of messages are just baits for you to visit their blogs (Let’s call them blog-baits for the sake of discussion).

Such a method is already a common practice in the blogosphere nowadays. Bloggers hop from one blog to another leaving a message which points to their own blogs. Then they just sit back and wait to see if anybody would drop by to read the stuffs they have prepared.

Such a method is an easy way to get a few visitors on your blog, but it is also the cheapest way to do so.

Hanging on a state of disequilibrium
If someone leaves a comment on your blog, isn’t the first thing you do after reading the comment is to find out who left the comment? Eventually, you will find yourself clicking the link to that commenter’s blog to find out more about your visitor.

Bloggers would kill to know the people who are reading their blogs. This is why blog-baiting is so effective. You could just leave a short simple message and people would automatically visit your blog to find out who you are.

But if ever I was the one whom you have baited to your blog, I would think twice before dropping a visit. I mean, why should I visit and read your blog when you didn’t even bother to take time to read mine?

Blog baits are indeed effective, however, people don’t like being blog-baited. You may have gained visitors on your blog, but you have lost the opportunity to convert those visitors to regular readers.

Achieving Stability
Blogging is not just about creating posts, it is also about reading someone else’s. What’s the point of creating an entry if nobody is going to read it? This is where the Principle of Equivalent Trade comes into play: if you read my blog, I’ll read yours.

Look around the blogosphere and you will see that most of the successful ones are the bloggers who take their time reading and leaving a comment on other people’s blogs. Not only do they gain readers but they also gain their trust and eventually become loyal friends.

If you want others to know about your site, read their works and try to comment if you can. Remember, if it only took you a couple of seconds to drop by on a blog, expect that they will also do the same on yours. Try to pitch in the extra effort and those bloggers would see that you are a person worth visiting.

So before asking others to read your blog, take some time to read theirs. Who knows, if you pull the right strings, those people might eventually turn into one of your most loyal readers.

Happy Blogging!

Should bloggers have a “Read my blog, I’ll read yours” policy? Any violent reactions? Please leave your comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe to my feeds!