Have you recently begun blogging but still feel a bit lost? No worries. Plenty of opportunities exist these days to meet bloggers. When you meet bloggers, you basically are meeting them virtually, since they rarely will live in an area that is in close proximity to you. This can happen, of course, but almost every blog meeting will occur virtually rather than in person. The bloggers you meet during these meet and greets and blog meetings will either have important information to share or they will serve as solid business associates of sorts. If you blog already and they blog already, then you possibly have some things in common that could get the ball rolling.
When you meet bloggers, you also essentially could be either looking to get questions answered or to develop rapports with other writers just like you. During these meetings, then, you have to pace yourself, so sit back and let other bloggers talk about their own experiences if your hope is to gain more insight. If, however, your intention is to promote yourself or to offer your own spin or take on something, feel free to speak up whenever it calls for it. These meetings normally are pretty free flowing, so get an idea of the flow of the meeting before diving in.
When you meet bloggers, you also could hopefully find new ideas on new blogging communities to join, so keep your ears and eyes open. Listen to what other bloggers are saying about the communities they have joined, highlighting both the positive and the negative sides to their own writing, blogging, and publishing experiences. What they say can dramatically impact where you end up with your own blogs, so take notes and follow up with the bloggers whose advice you admired the most afterward.
If you do have the chance to meet bloggers in person, try and pick a few brains, particularly if you have just begun to blog. A blog may initially seem to have a very free flowing nature and composition, but there are various marketing techniques employed to gain audiences and very specific ways of writing that draw more attention to what search engines require, which puts certain blogs up ahead of others in any relatable search. So see what valuable bloggers are saying, and try if at all possible to connect with one or two on your own after a meeting.