We’ve been talking a lot about the value of blogger collaboration recently. Most recently we looked at how it can help you to boost traffic to your blog over the longer term. But I mentioned also that the benefits of networking and collaboration can be subtle and difficult to “measure.”
The Queensland blogging team
Over the coming days we’ll be looking a little more deeply into the ways collaboration can help bloggers. Six of the bloggers who joined me in Queensland earlier this year have put together insightful posts that reveal some of the good things that came of that experience. They are:
Those advantages are varied and, as you can probably guess, each blogger has used what they learned in a different way. One thing that always amazes me about those kinds of group collaborative efforts is that while everyone’s being presented with the same material, they can take completely different messages and learnings from it.
And I expect that as you read their posts you’ll take different messages from it, too. We’re all coming from the perspectives of our own individual experiences and blogs. So different ideas appeal to us.
In a way, I think this is what makes blogging itself such an involving, addictive thing to do. As the blogger, you’re collaborating with audience members through your blog. I’m always surprised to see what speaks to readers in my posts, as explored in their comments and emails.
Collaboration is big. And as we’re about to see, the benefits of real-time collaboration with other bloggers can be literally blog-changing, if not actually life-changing.
I mentioned in a post last week some of the people I’d been grateful to collaborate with in my life as a blogger. I’d love to hear who you’re collaborating and networking with, and how those efforts are changing your blog for the better. And don’t forget to keep an eye on the blog later today for the first in our series of daily posts on the topic.
Exactly one year ago, I formed a group called Word Carnivals — a tight-knit group of bloggers whose audience is small biz owners. We blog together once each month on a topic chosen by the group and on the last Wednesday, promote and comment on each other’s posts. Those posts are then gathered into an eBook PDF which we then give away on our own sites as enticements, gifts or whatever purpose suits us best (as long as it’s free). We started with 8 and have grown to about 20. We’ve got our own private FB group now, too where we help each other out with biz challenges or other projects. We even do Google hangouts now, as well. It’s been one of the most gratifying experiences of my blogging career…meeting these folks who live all over the world and getting to know them as colleagues and friends. Yes, our site traffic improves a bit every last Wednesday of the month. But I think the other benefits outweigh that. (Note: if your readers write for the small biz audience and have a quirky writing voice, we’re always looking for more carnies: http://wordcarnivals.com).
Blogger collaboration led to the construction of a house in Xenacoj, Guatemala this summer. Readers of my blog contributed $8,000 to cover the costs of the materials and an additional $1,300 to cover the costs of my trip to Guatemala this summer where I helped to build a house. There is power in the blogging community to change the world!
Actually, I somehow never thought of collaborating with other bloggers, but now that you mention it, it seems like such a good idea. I am pretty new to the whole scene and trying to get off the ground so there is probably a lot more I do not know….
I am curious, do you think it is better to find people to work with you on your blog? kind of turning it into a team effort….
OR
Do you think it is better to find other bloggers within the same community and then try and collaborate with them?