I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I can support my blogging community. With the discussions about geneabloggers wanting to figure out ways to make money off of their blogs and such, I thought it would be good to post something like this.
Understand, these are simply my opinions on ways to help out our fellow bloggers. I’m not a genius and haven’t done any in-depth studies about this. These all came to me while I was at work tonight! 
1. Link Luv
No, this isn’t going to make anyone money. However, if you read a blog regularly and would like to help support it, why not put a link to it on your blog? I have personally created a “Page” called my “Blog Roll”. You don’t have to link to every blog, only those that you find useful and would like to help out.
Another way to share “Link Luv” is to mention a blog that you have read when you are posting something similar to it. For instance, my post from yesterday started off mentioning that it was in response to Thomas MacEntee’s post.
2. Advertise For Your Friends
I know, why give free advertising? Well, because it makes sense! If you see that a friend is giving a webinar on a subject that interests you, advertise it!
You don’t have to advertise every webinar, just those that you think would interest you or might interest your readers. It doesn’t have to be a webinar either. Any service that a blogger has that you think would be useful to your readers, advertise it.
It’s to support your community!
3. Use Your Friend’s Affiliate Links
This one was suggested by Kerry Scott in one of the discussions last weekend. I really liked her idea.
If you are going to buy something from Amazon.com, why not go to one of your blogging buddies and use their affiliate link to go to that site? It costs you nothing more but might give that blogger a few pennies in their pocket!
This could work for anything. Have you been considering joining Ancestry.com and now you’re ready to make that plunge? Click through an affiliate link instead of going straight to the site!
Is that cheating? I don’t see how. That’s what those links are for, in my opinion.
One thing to note, don’t just click on ads and think that will get folks paid. You can read Kerry’s post about that here.
4. Make A Referral Page
This is one of those wild thoughts that came to my mind tonight. Why not make a page on your blog to refer your friends?
How would it work? It would be sort of like your “Blog Roll” page but this one would focus on services offered. For instance, if your research involves a lot of stuff in Wisconsin and you think that your readers would like to know more, offer a link to a researcher in that area. If your blog is focused on a certain niche, link to researchers you know are available in that area. You can break down your “Referral” page by location, type of research, or whatever else.
5. Just Ask!
If you follow a blog regularly and would like to help that blogger in some way, just ask. I’m sure they would be glad to offer suggestions on ways that you could help!
I know there are tons of ways that we could support each other but these are my few suggestions to start this off. With the knowledge involved in the geneablogging community I know that there would be a lot more suggestions of ways to help each other.
What would you propose?
Thank you for the mention…and obviously, I agree!
Other ways to support blogs you like:
Retweet or “like” posts you enjoy
Connect to your favorite bloggers via social media
Comment…contribute to the conversation
Read the “About” and “Disclosure” pages to see how your favorite blogs make money so you know how to support them (and can make an informed choice as to whether to do so)
A lot of this is already going on; in general, this is a community where people help each other all the time without thinking about it.
Kerry,
Thanks for the comment.
I’m quite sure a lot of this is already going on because we are a helpful community.
I simply wanted to add a little aside to the conversations that have been going on this week. I’m sure there are some who may be asking themselves this question. I am!
I appreciate you adding to the list. I especially like the part about commenting. It’s nice to see people comment and let you know that your post is actually being read.