Blogging Collaboration

Just as no man is an island, a blogger who hopes to do greater things in the internet sooner or later learns that collaboration brings bigger if not better results.  Trying to strike out on your own as an independent blogger is alright; you can do your own thing, promote your own stuff and of course enjoy all the fruits of your labor all by your lonesome.  This is the ideal situation if you want to be the king of your own castle, however it is almost impossible to triumph when you are facing a collective.

Such is the case in terms of SEO contests.  Most international SEO competitions are won by people who have banded together to achieve a specific goal, which is usually to get the top spot in Google on a particular keyword. This is the same thing when we blog.  Even without us knowing, by networking with other people, by befriending other bloggers, we are already collaborating, at least on the most fundamental level. Apart from the usual relationship formed out of such networking, we are hoping that reaching out to other bloggers will have a beneficial effect on our blogs either through personal visits from our network or via referrals.

Why Collaborate?

It only takes a meeting of the minds of two or more bloggers to collaborate.  There just has to be a single objective that the collaborators will work on.  An example will be creating a news site.  This is all the rage nowadays.  A group of bloggers agree to contribute news and stories they find interesting (or sometimes specifically assigned) and post it in a common blog.  The idea is that with a lot of bloggers contributing regularly, the blog that they’ve created grows exponentially more than a blog that was created by a single blogger.  It can be a profitable exercise that is definitely worth your while.  Sometimes when you’re blogging independently for so long, boredom sets in and having a group of like-minded individuals that you can communicate or work with makes blogging a whole lot more enjoyable.

Collaboration Points To Consider

Choose the right persons to collaborate with. This is the first and most important requirement when doing collaborations.  Ensure that the people you are trying to work with are people that you can work with, people that you are comfortable being around with, and more importantly people that can work.

Thresh out the monetary consideration early.  Although collaboration usually happens between friends, the business side of the activity has to be resolved early.  This is to ensure that there won’t be any misunderstanding when your collaboration starts making or losing money.  Arguments over money is one sure way to flush your collab project down the drain.

Everyone has to pull their own weight. You don’t want to have freeloaders in your group.  Make sure that everyone contributes.  Serious collaborations can be labor intensive so everyone has to do their own share.  If you’re not contributing anything or not serious with the collab, man up and leave the group.

Appoint somebody to take charge. There has to be at least a semblance of order in a collaboration.  Although fun is a major component of collabs, it wouldn’t be very fun when you’re not seeing any result.  Having somebody who will prod the group members to do their assigned tasks is very helpful.

Meet regularly and brainstorm on how to make things better. Regular meetings ensure that all the things you’ve outlined, all the things that you said you’re going to do is actually being worked on.  This is also a good way to update each other on what’s happening.  Of course this can also be a very good excuse to socialize and get a breather from the wife or girlfriend. J

Celebrate your successes, learn from your mistakes. No collaboration is not without problems.  Those who quit on the first sign of trouble are not really serious to begin with.  Likewise, make sure to celebrate whatever milestone you’ve achieved with your blogging collaboration.  A couple of beers would be fine,  a couple of buckets—awesome!

I’m sure there are a lot more things to consider but these points should be enough to get you started.  One thing to remember though, this collaboration thing should not be something that would make you lose your identity.  You still need to maintain your individualism especially with your blog.  The worst thing that could happen is if by being too absorbed in your collab projects that you’re no longer doing your own thing.  Always remember why you wanted to collaborate in the first place—and that is to break the humdrum existence of individualized blogging

You may want to read the following related posts as well:

1. The Cure For Blogging Burnout
2. Niche Blogging
3. Introduction: Blogging For Beginners
4. To .Com Or Not To .Com – Blogging For Beginners Series #1
5. Online Blogging Resource Store
6. Blogging Distractions
7. Blogging For Money: Exclusive Post for Pacland

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