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You need a League of Extraordinary Bloggers. People you can look out for, support, and lean on. If you don’t already have a blogging alliance, you need to build one.
So check this out…
I was wading through tall stacks of paper this week, and I found a bunch of articles I printed out last year.
Blogging articles.
I saved these web pages as PDF files, then printed them out.
I don’t print out articles any more. Decided printing was a waste of time. Finding a couple of dozen of these in a stack of old bank statements made me laugh.
But I’m glad I printed out Darren Rowse’s article on building a Secret Blog Alliance. I wasn’t ready for any alliances then, secret or otherwise; I’m game now.
Finding your natural alliance
We all want to work with people we like, but sometimes liking someone is not enough.
Like any relationship, there has to be more.
Here’s the top ten traits to look for in people when building a blogging alliance:
- Interesting: Nobody wants to read boring junk.
- Consistent: Blowing in and out like a hurricane makes readers evacuate.
- Improving: Same old, same old gets stale.
- Resilient: When they fall down, do they get back up?
- Marketable: Can they sell themselves?
- Networkable: Loners aren’t helping themselves, much less you.
- Product: Do they have something people want to buy?
- Skilled: Can they do something anything unique?
- Style: Is there a good personality fit?
- Direction: Are you moving towards the same goals?
In the end, you have to go with your gut. If someone looks good on paper, but just doesn’t mesh, find someone else.
What’s your secret?
I have to tell the truth here… if I were in a secret blogging alliance, I wouldn’t say one way or another.
So that’s boring.
Let’s talk about you instead.
Are you in a secret blogging alliance? If so, how long, and with whom? Is it working out? Why or why not? How did you build your secret alliance? Was it deliberate, or did it come together organically?
Or maybe you’re not in a secret alliance, maybe your alliance is all out there in the open. Same questions.
For you wonky types, or students, discuss how CommentLuv, DoFollow and good spam control induce self-organizing blogger alliances. Self-organizing blogger alliances is a topic worth at least 3 long articles, and could easily form the basis for a spiffy little Master’s project in MIS… or a senior thesis that absolutely crushes it… I already wrote mine. Who’s game?
I’m rubbish at keeping secrets (unless they’re very, very important one!) so I can’t say I’m part of a secret alliance. Instead, I have a handful of bloggers who are my first port of call when I’m reading and commenting. These are folks whose writing I enjoy reading, they respond when you talk to them they come across as genuinely lovely people.
These are the folks who I know will still be there to say hello when I’ve not had time to comment on their blogs for a few days because life has gone into paddling against the tide mode. These are the folks who I imagine would be a good friend in the ‘real’ world.
Maybe I’m being naive but I’m all for building relationships. You can’t do that with folks who you can’t connect with ;)
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..1 Minute Motivator: Give it your all =-.
Yes, I agree! Good friends know that sometimes life gets in the way. Tit for tat doesn’t work so well.
I try hard not to paddle against the tide myself. I like to find out which way the tide is flowing, then walk down the beach and ride it back. Works better.
Hi Dave,
alliances are really good, as long as they are done properly. Some of the alliances I see at the moment are getting a lot of heat and they get tarred with the same brush.
That said working with someone stronger forces you to get better and working with someone smaller forces you to polish your skills.
I’m actually working, not on an alliance, but on an army of soldiers. Creating an army of mutual benefit sites, so strong it becomes unstoppable.
.-= TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..How To Stop Yourself Looking Like An Idiot =-.
James, we’re both forging ahead towards the same goal, financial freedom, using very similar strategies and tactics.
I love building communities. I have this one here online, but I have another offline as well.
What do you mean by “an army of soldiers”? I can’t figure how the metaphor applies to blogging, personally.
I have some buddies who help and we cheer each other on behind the scenes, but it’s only been going since December so I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out.
Cheers,
r
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..The Ultimate MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 Global Commands List =-.
Hmmm… Guess I come under the category ‘student’, so I’m going to be contrary and comment about commentluv. ;)
While I’m still relatively new to the blogger scene (you know, I’ll have to stop saying that soon won’t I? Oh well) there’s a few things I’ve noticed about its use. First being that, on the blogs that I visit, you can instantly see a difference in the amount of comments between those with CommentLuv and those without.
Since I installed it on my blog I’ve noticed myself looking for updated links there when replying to comments; if there aren’t any I’m momentarily lost because I like to check in on the blogs of the people visiting so I can start to understand where they’re coming from. No big deal if there isn’t a link, but it’s nice all the same. In that respect I think that it must promote some form of traffic, if only from the site owner. There’s bound to be people that read through the comments and possibly they click on the new posts too; I do sometimes but on larger sites that takes a long time.
Honestly I think it has its uses, and I enjoy having it. However. This raises the question; are people only commenting for their link to be shown?
There’s bound to be a bit of that too. Also, is it really as useful as we think it is? Bloggers instantly understand the value of CommentLuv if they know anything about it at all, but what about the people in your niche without a blog?
Just the other day someone asked me why they kept getting an error from CommentLuv when they were posting; for some reason the box was checked by default. They didn’t have a blog, and the error didn’t stop them posting, but how many people is that going to put off or limit?
*cough* Now that that’s out of the way… I think communities are really important (CommentLuv can play a role in creating informal ones) and certainly there are a bunch of blogs I visit on a regular basis. Wouldn’t exactly call it a secret though!
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Guest Post: Mary Poppins Guide to Life =-.
I have this concern about CommentLuv as well – most of my readers aren’t bloggers so it doesn’t seem like I’d get many of the benefits but I’d get all of the drawbacks (increased spam comments, etc.). So far, I’ve stayed away for the ATMac blog at least.
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..The Ultimate MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 Global Commands List =-.
Strangely, I don’t get a lot of spam. Cookies for Comments and NoSPamNX seem to pick up everything Akismet misses.
I’ve noticed since I got it that Akismet has a lot more in terms of spam, but overall there’s not been a huge difference. I think I’ve had to delete one comment that slipped through but that’s it.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Guest Post: Mary Poppins Guide to Life =-.
I have found that I feel better commenting on sites with commentluv or disqus, or something that puts a little bit more of me out there.
Honestly, I don’t think a lot about whether people will click those links, and I don’t leave comments just because I will have a backlink if I do.
I think it has more to do with feeling like the blogger I’m commenting to cares about what I have to say. Commentluv immediately gives me the impression that the blogger cares about the community reading the blog.
.-= Carlos Velez´s last blog ..I Dare To Sleep =-.
@carlos – CL really does change the nature of discourse on blogs. I can feel it, but I can’t really get a handle on how to describe it.
One thing for sure, there’s a growing separation between people who run CL and those who do not.
It would be really nice if Disqus got on board.
Heather, you asked way more questions than you answered!
That’s actually pretty cool. You can see why there’s an MS project here, possibly even an MS thesis in MIS or even in sociology.
One thing I like about commentluv is that I can promote guest-authored posts.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Atahualpa Theme – Pixel Perfection, No Inca Required =-.
Hehe, I said I’d comment on it, not explain it. ;)
It’s something I find really interesting, though probably not something I can apply anywhere even if I did research into it (3D Major, doesn’t really call for this sort of thesis sadly)! As I said, I like the plugin, I just don’t think its the be all and end all of everything for everyone all of the time.
Man that sentence was fun to write. Anyway… I guess it would help with guest-authored posts too, hadn’t actually looked at it from that angle.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Guest Post: Mary Poppins Guide to Life =-.
Heather, CommentLuv is actually a “game changer” (for lack of a better cliche). What I mean is that it is changing both how people comment on website, and how they perceive commenting on website.
I’m trying desperately hard not to pull rank (ah… er… age) here.
A while back, I did write up a little note about how commenting used to be versus how it is now, but it’s buried in the archives. (Opportunity here for search tool).
Quick recap:
BCL: Giving a link – any link – in a comment was unseemly at best, could get you banned from some sites.
ACL: Articles have the potential to become “mini-forums.” And I think I like that.
I’ll have more to say on CL later.
Well I’ve not really been around before CL as a blogger, but I still visit other sites where they don’t use it. Not only is there less of a community there in general, but you feel almost discouraged from posting anything (if that makes any sort of sense).
Do know what you’re on about (and lol at pulling rank :P). Personally I love it, think I just felt the need to argue at least part of the other side too. Looking forward to seeing what else you have to say :)
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Guest Post: Mary Poppins Guide to Life =-.
I’m putting on my naive and super-serious hat here:
Why do these alliances have to be secret?
I’m going to promote my friends’ products (if it is good, and it fits) – and I’ll buy them, too. I’m going to comment on their blogs (sometimes). I’m going to retweet their posts, talk about them, shout them out, quote them, link to them, and buy advertising on their sites. I’m going to tell other people about them.
And I’m not terribly quiet or discreet about it and I might be missing why I should be.
I’ll say, he’s my friend, and not only that, he’s ridiculously smart so you should buy his stuff and pay him to teach you about SEO.
And I’m willing to bet that kind of recommendation weighs more than any other kind.
I was at a lunch in November with some heavy hitting social media women – Gwen Bell, Danielle LaPorte – and one woman, Lianne Raymond said something that really landed with me. She said that she liked Danielle’s site, and Danielle’s perspective, and Danielle’s aesthetic – so she was always interested in what and who Danielle liked. It was the cool woman seal of approval.
That’s how Lianne and I found each other – Danielle was our common point – and now one of my pieces is in her new e-book. More importantly, I have a new friend.
And that’s what I keep thinking: we’re building communities and connections around shared ideas and complementary personalities. Trust.
So if you like me and my world-view, you’re probably like my friends, too. You might like the books I recommend. You might find the info-products I buy useful, too. So I’ll tell you who and what I like and I hope you’ll do the same for me.
Like-minded people coming together to support each other doesn’t seem like something that needs to be clandestine.
Isn’t that what we do offline – in business and in life – too?
(I really need to start writing on my blog again rather than writing essays in your comment section.)
You’re right! They don’t – necessarily – need to be secret!
This spawns a huge discussion on several fronts:
* Should there be secrecy?
* Why or why not?
* Should an alliance or network be explicit (pay to join or somehow socially exclusive) or implicit (cool kids only and if you have to ask, you’re not a cool kid)?
* What about partially open and partially secret? Share things like who’s working together, but not perhaps their tactics for building backlinks.
Rich rich rich.
I think “explicit” vs “implicit” is a false dichotomy, or at least that your descriptions suck! Also possibly the others…
My “bunch” of helpful bloggers comes from a few people I emailed who expressed interested in such a group on a blogging forum, we decided that four was an upper limit on the number of people we’d want on the grounds of organisation for what we wanted to accomplish but one has since dropped out so if somebody relevant pops up we’ll probably drag them in.
And it’s not secret but I haven’t been shouting about it because, well, where would I do so? None of my blogs are about blogging (I have a hang-up about that, despite having been a blogger for longer than almost anybody on the internet – thus proving longevity isn’t everything!) and we aren’t blogging in the same niches although ours are all compatible.
I hate the idea of completely secret as in “don’t tell anybody evar!” secret type alliances because it reeks of doing something illicit, of somehow trying to pretend you have no interest in a person beyond what’s visible when you in fact do. That seems black-hat stuff to me and I would not participate in it. I don’t see the point either, really.
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..Web App? What’s a Web App? =-.
Haha! Ricky, you’ve tipped your hand… now I *know* you’re up to no good… probably plotting world domination, I bet you are.
My descriptions are awesome! They did exactly what I wanted them to do.
(pssst… wanna trade some links?)
I didn’t know there were secret blogger alliances and now I feel I’m missing out!
Can someone invite me to join one please?
.-= Mike CJ´s last blog ..The Winner! Blog Contest – Regift? =-.
Mr. Cliffe-Jones, I hereby extend to you an exclusive invitation to join the Website In A Weekend League of Extraordinary Bloggers.
As soon as I figure out WTH that means, you, sir, are in!
I am prettier than Dave. You should pick me.
And a good thing too.
Mike, you can be in mine. ‘Course mine is not a secret, mostly imaginary, and the price of admission is very, very high. It involves hosting a witty and charming house-guest in a fabulous sunny locale.
If the fabulous sunny locale has surf, I want in too!
Hi Dave. It did strike me that way back an Alliance has invited you to join, lol. I think that having an Alliance does not have to be secret (on the contrary) and it works well provided the participants are active and willing to support each other out. I know of an Alliance that has achieved this purpose:) Interested??
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..How To Design Your Template On Blogger? =-.
DiTesco, I recall an initial round of emails, but nothing after that. So, sure, why not.
Sounds like a guest post lurking in there, a six month report.!
Sent you an email. Let’s take it from there..
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..How To Use Google’s AdSense Channels – Video Tutorials #1 =-.
Hmm… interesting post. I started my blog to help other bloggers. I soon found that simply writing posts to help them out wasn’t enough. Now I take the initiative. It’s easy to find people who are reading my posts that need help and so I go out of my way to help. I don’t really make noise about it. People find me, I find them, I help when I can.
Sometimes they post about it, sometimes not. But all in all it’s helping me fulfill my goals and helps get the word out about Blogs With Wings. Makes me feel good. Angels should help people. :)
.-= Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella´s last blog ..An Interview With The Author Of Metacom Creative – Ryan Cowles =-.
Angels should help people!
Ryan Cowles is pretty amazing. Age 22 with 10 years of experience in design.
Well I have circles of friends, bloggers. People who comment on my blogs, comment on each other’s blogs, and I comment on their blogs as well.
I suppose if someone were really bored and wanted to track down my entire circle, they could trace it all back and get it nicely documented. So then, instead of exposing a crime ring, they’d be exposing a blog ring …
Or?
I like blog rings though. They seem to lead one into the unexpected from time to time. And they’re fun. I look forward to the day when the recent insane upstart stages of my business calm down enough to give me more time (I’m already working 12 hour days and weekends …) to be more in touch and expand that circle.
It seems to grow, regardless, though.
.-= Anna´s last blog ..Why I No Longer Work from Home =-.
Anna!
Good to see you emerge once in a while.
I’m right there with you on the 12 hour days. Weekends are a distant memory for me. I even have a couple of guys over right now working on their projects.
Haha – yep. I do have weekends though. I go to a beautiful coastal beach town every weekend. On a clear day, I can see the ocean from my office window – that is, if I look away from the screen for a moment.
Wait a minute – I come here every day. Maybe it has nothing to do with weekend!
.-= Anna´s last blog ..Why I No Longer Work from Home =-.
Uhh… first rule of Fight Club?
.-= Deacon´s last blog ..Fighting Entropy, Our Environment’s Effect on Productivity =-.
No comment.
Interesting article.
Isn’t this just a different way of labeling friends or things we like? If I come across a product or a website that I like, it doesn’t matter to me if they want to be a part of an “alliance”, or even if they like my website. What matters is that I like them, and that information is what is valuable to me.
Does this mean that I visit or communicate constantly with these same people? No, because I think closed systems like this do more harm than good. If the site really draws my attention, I may go back…or I may not. There are no guarantees.
Or I may decide to comment on a post/website to get people to checkout my website. Is this wrong? I don’t think so. The point here is that freedom allows us to determine what we like and what is worth pursuing, based on our goals and what we want out of life.
.-= Chris Roane´s last blog ..10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Web Programmer 10 Years Ago =-.
Chris, you have some very interesting, and completely valid points.
However, think of this:
When you get to a certain size, and you find that someone has decided to compete with you (for really no good reason other than they can), you are faced with a choice: compete, or fold.
I see this All. The. Time. in surfing. And it annoys the hell out of me.
I’ll take the time to to watch a break for 30-40 minutes, and walk or paddle to a nice peak where nobody is surfing. I’ll have it to myself, instead of competing for waves in the currently popular spot.
It never, ever fails.
I cannot catch more than two waves without attracting a crowd. People will NOT do the work if they don’t have to. They will let YOU do the work, then they will swoop in and collect as many of the spoils as they can, as fast as possible.
Pillagers.
Ruins it for everyone.
Blogging is the same way.
If you understand the saying “Arizona has no caves to speak of” you will get some key insight here.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Carlos Velez Prewriting Throwdown: Blog posts by the pound =-.
Aren’t there always going to be competitors though? Having competitors keeps me on my toes and I actually produce better content because of it.
I guess I’m just a little bothered by the formality of a “blogging alliance”. I just want to meet people and make friends. :) If they want to checkout my website, great. If they don’t like my website, that is fine too. I’m sure there is something we can all learn from each other….which is part of the reason why I am glad I found your website.
.-= Chris Roane´s last blog ..Which should come first: Great Content or Traffic? =-.
Chris, glad you like Website In A Weekend!
But you need to know… as long time readers know already…
I expect this site to be a primary part of my future income.
I intend on earning a fair living from my effort here.
Which means I sell, and will be selling more in the future.
I hope you stick around, just want you to understand my intention here.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Carlos Velez Prewriting Throwdown: Blog posts by the pound =-.
Hrm…. Okay NOW I feel left out LOL Kidding, but it sure does take a good deal of time to get anywhere if your blog isn’t niche focused. SO I am guessing this is why my LEB is sort of non-existent?
Good article..now I need to go kick CL in the rear to get it to realize I AM registered so I can pick different posts lol Ha! and I got it to work!
.-= Gurl´s last blog ..50 random things about Gurl =-.
Yes, it does take time.
Think of it this way: when you plant a garden, you don’t put seeds in the ground then stand there watching for them to grow.
Instead, you plant more seeds elsewhere, hoe a different row, repair a leak in the water hose, or simply do something else for a while…
Like help your friends plant some seeds of their own.
Then you all share the harvest.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Carlos Velez Prewriting Throwdown: Blog posts by the pound =-.
Speaking of seeds…last week I found a relatively new (I think???) service called Seededbuzz.com. If you are looking to make connections, this seems like a great opportunity. It is especially useful if your site doesn’t generate much traffic.
I’m in no way affiliated with the company, but I thought it was relevant to this article and specifically this comment.
.-= Chris Roane´s last blog ..New Logo, Site Updates and the Future of MT Programmer =-.
Looks interesting, checking in to it now.
Thanks for the pointer!
I’ve been trying to do this for quite a while now.
And any tips apart from this article dude?
Hit me up on email even if you want.
Cheers.
Mark, I can only tell you what I did:
* left good comments on people’s blogs who I liked and thought had good material.
* Profiled interesting blogs, and not necessarily blogs from this little blogging world circuit. See my writeup on Rick Toone for example. I was careful to provide quality anchors on backlinks for these. The people I profiled had no idea I was doing it, and they weren’t done for quid pro quo. They were done as a gift to my readers.
* Once, I worked with an individual on “the circuit” (I call it Blogistan) to trade a link to specific articles. I’m not inclined to do this very often. I’m extremely wary of quid pro quo/tit-for-tat arrangements. My one specific instance of this has had no effect on either community or search results I am sure.
* In short, give more than you get, and don’t worry about getting back. If you stick with it, it will eventually come back in spades.
And now I have a new blog post!
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..A Simple Guide To WordPress Theme Installation =-.