The Secret really is in the Sauce

Have you seen this button here and there in the blogosphere? If you have, good for you! It's brand-spankin' new. If not, listen up and pay attention: This is big.

Two very smart ladies with way more sass, energy, and caffeine in their blood than I've ever had have started up a new blog called The Secret is in the Sauce, or SITS. This new blog promotes other blogs.
Yah yah yah, sounds boring, lots of blog try to do this, whoop-de-do.
...but wait - this one is different.

Yes, they promote other blogs. They feature one blog per day with about three posts from the featured blog. They have contests. They are forming a bond within their network of readers and featured bloggers. That's all very good. But read on...

They started their blog on June 1, 2008 and on their VERY FIRST blog post they got 329 Comments. Yep, that's right. I'll spell it out for you in case you think you read that wrong.
Three hundred twenty nine comments.
They have a legion of regular readers called "SITS sistahs" and "SITSTAS" right off the bat and growing.

Anyone with a blog, or something to sell and a blog to promote it knows that readership is silver and comments are gold. So how did they do it? I haven't asked them personally, yet, but it's obvious that the bottom line is comments. They are self-professed comment junkies, and from what I can see when I visit the blogs of some of their first-post-commenters, is that they promoted the heck out of their new blog before they officially launched and they invited all their bloggy contacts and friends and email contacts to stop by and leave a comment.

Smart.

Oh, and they have invested a lot of their own money into some pretty huge contests like their first contest to generate a lot of excitement and rocket their readership - and "commentership" - to unbelievable numbers as fast as possible. They are having more contests that are still also pretty darn huge. Can you believe those prizes??

Now for the tie-in between comments and contests: in order to enter the contests, you need to visit the (very entertaining and inspiring) blogs they promote. and LEAVE COMMENTS. That's the whole point of SITS. Comments.

Brilliant move, Heather and Tiffany. A blogging gal could learn a lot from watching you two. As I type this up most of your daily posts have over 100 comments on each one. With your keen marketing and branding techniques, I bet you'll hit a thousand regular daily readers within no time.

So why am I bringing this up? First, duh, is to tell everyone to go over there and check out the contests. Second, another duh, is to tell you to comment comment comment.

Third is more subtle, but if you look at how they're doing it and why they're doing it tis will become obvious. If you find a hobby that you love, think outside the box to figure out ways to make it more than just a hobby. I think Heather and Tiffany have created a new career.

Like they say at the end of every blog post:

And, remember, when you see this:

LEAVE A COMMENT

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