Collaboration between bloggers is very important when it comes to building blog networks or maintaining large, content-rich sites such like Blog Herald and Performancing. Not only do you get the benefit of sharing the load of blogging, but you have two (or more) different social and blog networks within which to promote your joint venture, which can only help your blog’s promotion efforts.
For single blogs, partnering up with other bloggers (as long as you can resolve your differences, if any) can bring you plenty of benefits, especially if your skill sets differ.
For example, I’m involved in several blogs where my role is that of advisor and manager – I advise, help monetize and promote the blog and manage the design, while the other blogger does what they know best – write about what they love. As blogging partnerships go this arrangement is one of the best ones to have (most, if not all, blog networks work this way).
In one of the early posts on Performancing Chris Garrett wrote an excellent article on Co-blogging, which I highly recommend you read. In essence, the idea is that by sharing your blogging responsibilities, you take a lot of the pressure off you that goes with blogging by yourself.
The big question before you get into a blogging partnership, however, is whether you are ready for it or not.
Undoubtedly there needs to be a match between the team – the bloggers must be able to trust each other and respect the quality of their work – but above that there is a mindset issue, where most people are just not willing to give up control on their blogs.
Several bloggers I know are extremely passionate about their work and are quite good at what they do. However, they find it hard to ‘share’ their blog – even in the rare case when they allow others to write on their blog, that person never has editing access.
It sounds trivial but the mindset behind this is one of a fear of losing control, and having co-blogged on several blogs myself, I can assure you that it is a genuine fear. BUT, if you are working with the right people, if the roles are clearly defined and if the terms are fair and agreed upon from the start, there are rarely any problems that cannot be resolved.
Blogging Partnerships can help you scale your business, make your blog bigger and better and as a result, help you make more money.
The only question is whether you are willing to take the step forward and open up your mind to the possibility of sharing your blog.
If you are apprehensive, I’d advise that you break it down into smaller parts or projects and take them one at a time. Start with a small one to see how you both go, to see how you get along and to learn how to work with one another.
What do you think? How have your experiences with blogger collaboration worked out?
8 thoughts on “Blogging Partnerships – Are You Ready?”
I’ve blogged about it a few times: there’s a synergy with a team, even if only one person is writing. The fact is, word of mouth is still powerful, even if it’s done through email or IM. And when a team works on a site, there are usually far more initial readers (friends, family), and things build from there. There’s also more time for the writer to focus on all writing aspects, including commenting elsewhere.
While there are personalities that have made a name for themselves by themselves, if you haven’t noticed, many of them are taking on guest bloggers. It’s not easy to maintain a high-transaction business by yourself and still be able to focus on the tasks you prefer.
I think that to succeed now, with so many niches brimming with new competition, to succeed you must have a team.
I second that! It doesn’t happen every day for us, but we had a couple of consecutive days last week where we just grinned from lunchtime into the early evening! What’s better is when the following day your other advertising programmes report similar earnings!
Funny, I wanted to talk a little bit about consolidation in blogging. John Chow mentioned recently about starting from scratch and launching an experiment to see if it was possible for a big name blogger to make it from scratch on the internet.
My feeling is that it takes a lot longer doing it alone. Consolidation means you’re part of a team working toward a greater good, writing, marketing and earning together. Commenting on other people’s blogs and drawing in an audience with linkbaiting and social media. The group being larger than the sum of its parts. Or something like that.
I think the greatest hurdle is moving away from the single renegade blogger mindset to a place where you can share responsibilites and profits.
you enjoy watching AdSense hit 3 figures around 2pm in the afternoon…
Funny how satisfying that can be
Right. Well stated, Ahmed. I should clone myself minus the verbose tendencies.
You need to clone yourself, you mean
I wasn’t careful with what I said in that post and several of my friends have emailed me privately seeking an explanation…so here it is.
When I wrote what I wrote above, it was out of a desire to find a right-hand man (or woman) who worked intimately with me at every level of development, marketing, etc. on every single one of my projects. I’m working with some extremely great (and gifted people on many, many projects). What my frustration above reveals is a desire to find that one person who I’m in constant communication with throughout the day, planning, strategizing and executing plans in partnership.
I’m actually struggling with the same territorial issues. Here are some of my concerns:
1. How to find someone who is as consistent and dedicated to my projects as I am. Is this possible? I’ve rarely worked with someone who was able to put the same level of effort into my projects as I do. This is natural, no? People naturally want to work on their own projects, not mine.
2. Training! I can’t train people worth sh*t. And I’m always afraid that once I’ve put in the time, they won’t stick around.
3. Which brings up long term commitment. How do you find people who are committed to the same vision as you, over the long haul? The webernet seems so fleeting and changing.
4. Quality. Good people are normally already successful. How do you find those rare gems who want to partner, while also being smart, fun people, with huge upside?
What I can say is this: partnerships are fundamental to success. I’m where I am today because of other people. But I’ve yet to find the ideal blogging partnership. The one where two minds unite on a common vision, joined by a sustained spark that lasts years.
All of my partnerships have been fleeting. If you’re smart, and you know how to setup websites, and you want to make web publishing a high priority, and you want to make $1440 per day, and you’re willing to work your ass off every day, and you have a 3-5 year vision for success, and you know how to do SEO + social voting, and you like throwing ideas around until your brain is spinning, and you know how to setup blogs, and you enjoy watching AdSense hit 3 figures around 2pm in the afternoon… then get in touch with me.
Seriously. I desperately want a partnership with someone whose completely dedicated to my vision, and I to theirs. Not just 20% or 50%.
For the past six months I wasn’t able to give my other blogs the time and attention they deserved because it took me a couple of hours to update Freelance Writing Jobs every day. I considered bringing someone in to help, but FWJ is my baby and I’m very territorial. Finally I had no choice. I hired someone to post the job lists, while I take care of the other content as well as all of the details. Except for the first couple of posts, I stepped back and learned not to micromanage. The partnership is working out very well.
I don’t know what I was afraid of – perhaps someone not blogging up to my standards, but I believe it to be a wise move and don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.
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