After writing an article about the mistakes I have made since becoming a professional blogger, I wanted to expand upon the points I made about not being social enough to become a successful blogger. It is actually an important issue, and I believe that new bloggers should make a significant effort to network themselves. Still, why bother?

I was probably the most independent person back in high school, but that didn’t translate well with my arrival into the blogosphere.  It was a lonely experience at first, but I was still confident that I could pull it off. My persistence would drive me far; however, after several attempts, I soon lost motivation to continually try blogging full-time.

I decided to pursue a more interesting job of writing game reviews and feature content for Total Gamer Zone. This position put no money in my pocket, but it did give me a chance to further develop my writing skills. I really put some of my hardest work ever into my reviews and feature articles. I knew that this was an opportunity that I had to exploit to the fullest.  If not, then what was the point of even trying?

Thankfully, my hard work and dedication with this job turned into my key to a door that would end up being a full-time blogging position at Mashable.  It was a great learning experience, and I think it is amazing when I am able to say that my professional blogging career effectively began with the number one social media blog on the planet. Regardless, I eventually ended up leaving as a lack of creative freedom really drained me.

After leaving Mashable, I started Tech In Demand.  It was my third domain purchase but first self-hosted blog.  This would be my first real attempt to make a go of it on my own, and things were great after I got my feet wet.  As the time went on, it truly felt like I was going to turn Tech In Demand into a huge hit.

I was constantly getting more visitors per day on average, but I never put much effort into networking with my fellow bloggers. The most socialization I had was with Jeff Chandler of Jeffro2pt0 (also my co-worker at Performancing now). If I had more contacts, I could have made my job a lot easier than it was.  I would have been able to ask for advice with things like advertising and receive some help with sharing my articles that really deserved it. Unfortunately, I kept to myself.

I don’t gradually learn things: they just end up clicking in my mind. It truly is a euphoric moment as I finally understand something that I have been trying to figure out for so long. With most of this blogging stuff, it is the exact same scenario.

Flash forward to today, and you have a professional blogger that has changed significantly from his beginning two years ago.

Being a well-known blogger is very similar to being the most popular person within a group of people (e.g. high school). If this person is the most popular, he or she will likely be the first one to be asked on dates, complimented on looks, greeted upon arrival, etc. Well—in similar fashion—the most popular blogger wants his or her blog to be the first source visited by any reader which a desire to read about news or opinions.  Fair enough.

Again, it is very important to constantly engage in conversations with other bloggers. If even to simply get a confidence boost or motivational boost from talking to other bloggers, the time spent communicating with other bloggers is invaluable to me, and I am confident that you will find great use in it as well.

Some of you might be wondering how you can get on the road to being more social as a blogger, and there are quite a few possibilities:

• Commenting—leaving comments on blogs is a great way to network yourself.
• Social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and Plurk)
• Forums (e.g. Authority Blogger Forum, Bloggeries Blog Forum, and Blogger Forum)
• Chat rooms (e.g. IRC and Meebo)
• Email—contact your favorite blogger and ask questions.
• Skype—it is a popular chat application that is used for interviews and conversations.
• Conferences—traveling is expensive, but the networking opportunities could be invaluable.

There are surely more examples, but this list should serve as a starting point to becoming more social.

With time—even if it is not your intention—you will become a more social blogger. So, therefore, why not take the steps to do it today instead of making the mistakes I did?