It’s no secret that connecting with top influential bloggers can be difficult. A lot of the time they ignore you, and don’t reply to your repeated inquiries and offers. As a small business, what can you do to successfully connect with your niche’s top bloggers? Here are 10 great methods I’ve used myself to make this happen.

#1: Engage With Them on Twitter

Say hello, and contribute to their set conversation. Comment repeatedly for a week or two and really make friends with them. THEN ask to guest post for them.

#2: Direct Post Contribution

Instead of asking to contribute a post, just send the whole darn thing. If they’re interested, they’ll read the post and accept it. Make sure it’s not published anywhere else!

#3: Become a Big Facebook Fan

Bloggers track their fans interactions, so when you start sharing and caring about their brand – they notice you. Impress them with your ability to give, and they will hear you out.

#4: Join Their LinkedIn Group

If you can join their LinkedIn group – great! Spend some time answering expert queries and making a name for yourself there. Strike up a friendship with their group members first.

#5: Include a Link From Their Blog on Yours

Bloggers track their links like crazy. If you embed a link from one of their posts on yours, they’ll usually follow this to find out where it came from. Do this a few times.

#6: Get Your Name Out There

If you don’t have a blog of your own, then become a ‘bloggers best friend’ by being a voracious commenter. Always have something great to say on their blog pages.

#7: Participate in Live Conversations

If your blogger is hosting a real time Twitter Q&A, or perhaps a live webinar, or Google Hangouts sessions, get in on it. Meet them in real time and leave an impression.

#8: Become Friends With Their Friends

If you can’t get hold of a particular blogger, become friends with people they are friends with. Then try to secure a proper introduction through these channels.

#9: Give Them Lovely Compliments

Don’t be insincere, but read up about what they’ve done and compliment them on something. I once connected with a blogger by leaving a compliment on his amazon.com book page.

#10: Throw Money at Them

If you’ve tried all of these methods, and they’ve still chosen to ignore you – then throw money at them. You can do this by buying their books, ebooks or hiring them to do some paid work for you. At the very least it will get you that introduction. Then you can strike up a working relationship. Most of the time, this won’t happen though.

Bloggers are naturally social online, so they will respond to these prompts. Just remember that you need to give them a reason to respond. How do they know you? Who are you? A good response is, ‘oh yes, he’s that guy that always shares my Facebook posts.’

Can you think of another creative way to connect with a top blogger? I’d love to hear about it here!