Reblogging is building a blog by re-posting content that's appeared elsewhere. It's an easy way to blog, since all you have to do is select content to reblog. But if you leave it at that, you're going to limit your audience, your influence, and the value you get from your blog.

Why?

Because you'll have a hard time connecting with your audience. And if you don't connect, you won't keep them.

It is possible to to make a connection through reblogging. Consider Slashdot, for example. Nearly every post is nothing but an excerpt from and link to someone else's content, with a brief comment to put the excerpt in context. And yet Slashdot has a distinctive voice (even without the discussion that goes on in the comments.)

Long time readers will hear your voice in the content you choose to publish. But therein lies the problem: with so many blogs to choose from, few people will stay on a blog that doesn't connect with them. But you have to keep people plugged in for a long time before they'll recognize your voice.

So how do you go beyond simple reblogging to build a connection? Here are a few ideas:

Tighten Your Focus

If your blog is about internet marketing, that's too general. Even if you're focused on one marketing method, like list building, you'll have a hard time getting the whisper of your content selection heard. You've got to focus in even more. How?

Focus On Your Audience

Instead of just focusing on a narrower slice of theme, focus on a narrower slice of readers. Don't just reblog about list building, focus on list building for stay-at-home moms, list building for activists, list building for introverts, etc.

The more personal the defining characteristics of your audience you choose, the better. List building for people between 5'7" and 5'10" isn't going to speak to people's souls, because, except in extreme cases, a person's height isn't a top-of-mind part of their identity.

Add Your Own Comments

Even a brief comment, infused with your own personality and voice, will go a long way toward making the content you reblog your own.

But the more you add the better. And the more personal your comments are the better.

Do you have a story from your own life that illustrates the point of the content you're reblogging? Spend a few extra minutes and type it up.

The increased stickiness that your blog gets from going narrower and deeper should more than make up for anything you may give up to go that route.