Blog Strategy – Add Authors

Eoghann over at Blog World has an interesting post titled Blog Strategy where he talks readers through his Pro Blogging strategy. Eoghann writes 5 blogs on varying topics and each with their own strengths and weaknesses. He’s really just thinking out loud but its an interesting glimpse into his thinking.

The issue that seems to be facing him at the moment is time – Eoghann works full time, has 5 blogs (some of which are starting to take off) and 2 new born babies (twins). His goal of posting 3 posts per day on each of his blogs is sadly unachievable with his current circumstances so he’s faced with some interesting decisions.

His conclusions vary from blog to blog and a lot of what he decides I agree with but wonder if perhaps he might explore the following strategy also:

Add new authors – One good way of increasing the amount of posts on a blog is to add authors to it. One person might post once or twice per day but ten committed authors can do a lot more. This strategy is not suitable for all of his blogs but I wonder if perhaps his Solar Flare blog might be worth giving it a go on as its on a topic which is sure to have some passionate readers (science fiction). His Pro Wrestling Blog might be another worth trying this on.

I’ve found on some of my blogs that potential authors are often willing to write for free just for the love of a topic. Some bloggers have revenue sharing models – but I’d probably approach two or three of the more avid readers of that site (every blog has one or two addicted types) and see if they were willing to write something once or twice a week.

The other benefit of having a blog with multiple authors is that with others participating in content you often find that they also become your best marketers and PR people. Back when I did the Olympics Blog last year we added a number of authors to help out – whilst they didn’t post as many posts as we did as owners – one of the best things they gave us was links from their own blogs and promotion via word of mouth.

Of course on the down side of multiple author blogs is that you run the risk of losing a little control over quality and content (although you can always edit) and it can take a little time to set them up and initially manage them. However in my experience the benefits of increased amounts of content are well worth the effort.