One way to Plant Seeds is by reaching out to other bloggers and developing relationships with them. The better the relationship, the more they’ll be willing to plant your URL, as the theory goes. (Of course, the quality of your content does have something to do with that too.)

Recently, a colleague asked me what I thought about this:

I’ve been reaching out to other bloggers to try to get on their blog roll. Surprisingly, I’m getting a bit of resistance. I’d think the mutual exchange of blog roll mentions would be a no-brainer. But I’ll keep plugging away. Any advice to entice them to reciprocate?

My response is bellow, slightly cleaned up:

Bluntly, bloggers hate being asked to trade links. Hate it. Getting onto someone’s blog roll is something you have to earn, and the only real way to do so is to get out there in the community and become known to the bloggers who you want links from. First thing you can do is comment on their blogs, but if you do, be relevant. Don’t just be there to plant your link. Leave a comment and add value to the post. Your link will be attached to your name, so if you’re consistently leaving comments, they’ll find you. If they like your content, they may eventually add you to their blog roll. But it could take time.

Other thoughts on this:

• Befriend these same bloggers on the other networks where they’re most active. Look for the ones on Twitter because you’re already there (note: referring to my colleague) and established. When you speak to them on Twitter, go in with the same mentality as when you comment.

• Add the bloggers you’re targeting to your blog roll. If they’re doing a vanity search and subscribe to updates, they’ll find your blog. It’s a way to help them discover you.

• Along the same lines, you can also build posts based on something these targeted bloggers have written. Your link back to their post will also draw their attention to your blog.

Put all together and you can see how you can build a connections and alliances through honest effort. If your content appeals to these folks, you’ll be linked to one way or the other.

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In short, you can sum up my response in one sentence: Earn your links; don’t ask for them.

Add your thoughts below!

Hats off to the Google team for this email, which I received this mornnig. It has all the right elements as it respectfully explains my opt-in options and the changes they’ve made to this list.

But I’ll let you be the judge:

Dear MarkGoren,

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your YouTube product or account.

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Nice, clean, simple. Any thoughts?