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Emulate, Collaborate, Create To Drive Blog Success

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Look around at the bloggers who influence you. I’m going to bet they post frequently, lead with news you’ve yet to learn, educate you about some tech thing, and generally fuel oodles of comments and engagement.

There’s something else you should take note of, too:

What new collaborative project are these bloggers announcing of late?

Let me illustrate what I’m talking about:

Gini Dietrich

A favorite blogger, author, speaker and friend extraordinaire Gini Dietrich, of Spin Sucks fame, recently announced her collaboration called The Three Things with Howie Goldfarb and Michael Schechter to run one post each Sunday about something that’s new and is meaningful.

Danny Brown

Danny Brown spins more creativity than anyone I’ve ever seen.  Back in the day, 12for12K was his pet project; it’s how I was introduced to him. Since that time, I’ve been privy to his blog changing focus, changing design, and announcing new collaborations.

His latest is For Bloggers By Bloggers, and peeps can jump in there and ask questions of leading bloggers and gain access to just about any topic.  Danny has other blogs, too, with a band of writers. Don’t forget the recent event in Toronto on social media he just put on.  Here’s a post from one of my favorite search marketing experts, Brankica Underwood.

Mark W. Schaefer

Mark Schaefer has two books under his belt, a smashing success with Social Slam (third year upcoming), and a new collaboration with some big names in Jay Baer, Tom Edison, and Jason Falls called The Social Habit.  His Sunday post shows how Mark gets out of his box to interview  the founder of Storify…a channel I need to look into.

The SMB Collective (shameless  plug)

I’d be remiss not sharing my pet project that began with Neicole Crepeau two years ago and engaged a community of small business owners to contribute posts to The SMB Collective. I’m trying desperately to resurrect this wonderful blog (gosh, where is my time), because it’s an outlet for each of us to focus on business issues and share tips.  Let me make this my call to action for you to join me. Submit a post from the archives with links and an image if you choose, and you can earn some link love.

 

Continuous Creativity 

These are just 3.5 examples of leaders on the ‘sphere who are continually innovating to keep things interesting for themselves, their brand and their community. I could interview them for this piece, but I’m going to do something I rarely like to do, and that’s assume.

Here’s what I think these three blogger leaders are doing:

1. Innovation is a requirement of growth to keep fresh ideas and content in front of an audience and community.

2. With new concepts comes more attention from a wider array of audiences.

3. Without change, the blogging journey would be boring and a community would also get bored.

4. Collaborations help everyone be on top of their game and engage with the smartest minds and close the six degrees of separation forever.

 

What does that say about your blog:

  • If you’ve been blogging 12 months, it’s time to change it up.
  • Ensure you tweak your design every six months or else the landscaping gets stale.
  • Invite more guest bloggers to write and expand your network beyond just your own writing.
  • Do more video or try podcasting. (When you upgrade your technology, you can do podcasting much easier.)
  • Do Q&A with someone you admire or who has a high level of influence.
  • Add calls to action to the blog to encourage people to subscribe and/or download a study, e-book or something.
  • Always have something in the works. There must be a top-secret project you’re working on to drive your creativity?
  • Start  on a small scale and grow from there; people are in your tribes, in your stream, in your network…ask them to collaborate!

 Think first.

Please do emulate the leaders, but engage on a scale that works for you. With more creative juice flowing, you can also boost mojo that leads to long-term success.

Who Knows The Future of Blogging?

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There is no one I admire more than Mark W. Schaefer, and we launched on Twitter at the same time…how’s that for forever ‘raderie?

Yet, since his blog post over the summer about what’s new and exciting in blogging and his disillusion about what to expect, the blogosphere is still awash with posts, podcasts and conversation pro and con on the topic.

Last week, Jon Buscall (another dear friend and colleague I met on Mark’s blog back in the day), president of Jontus Media in Sweden, invited me to be his guest for the third time on his podcast. (He’s a phenom in podcasting, you know, and also has an amazing marketing firm in Stockholm).

I have to bring our conversation from audio to my blog and try to help Jon get a better answer. We skirted the issue very well, and Jon wrapped up the show still seeking a spot-on solution for the future of blogging. I think I let him down because my crystal ball predicts that the future of blogging depends on the blogger! That’s you and me.

So, let me try to recap what I circled with Jon about right here:

Mark’s cred is off the chain. As a leader on the Interwebz, it’s his wont to rustle feathers, be a provocateur, and toss about theory that needs proving. When someone of Mark’s caliber suggests there’s nothing new ahead for blogging and the future of blogging looks dim, what does that do for we bloggers ramping up growth plans?

Exactly…the lights go out and passions dim, too.

My Take on Blogging

  • If you listened to any of my podcasts with Jon, you may hear my encouragement and excitement about this channel, also called owned media.
  • Blogging gives each of us the opportunity to control a message, share insight, show personality, build community, influence a brand, and sell.
  • After 12 months of straight blogging three times a week, things begin to happen; trust me, I am speaking from experience. No one should derail the blogging journey unless they just want to take a break and come back, like Mark Harai and Paul Roberts (who just returned last week).
  • I’m not going to amplify my own echo chamber; I’ve written so much on blogging already…my archives are rich with passionate content about blogging.

My answer about the future of blogging is this — stay the course, put in your time, find your voice, build community, and become an expert. What your future is depends on you. Comparing yourself to another bloggers’ journey is like apple and oranges, but it bears no fruit.

20 Ways To Build Blog Community

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Creative Commons License: Dr. Kelly Page

This blog, Soulati-‘TUDE!, has the most amazing community, evah. Not lying; it’s vibrant, insightful, buoyant, supportive, accustomed to a good blog-jack, and full of ‘raderie. I love this community, and it wasn’t built overnight.

I’ve been “accused?” of being an excellent community builder; I cannot lie, I had no idea what that meant when someone shared that with me the first time. So I started to pay attention, and here are my tips on how to make your blog community blossom:

20 Tips to Build Blog Community 

1. Engage with a commenter! So often when I hit a new blog and leave a comment, it’s crickets and I never go back.

2. Genuinely thank people for taking their time to come by and leave a thought. How many blogs are there now? A couple million? Good grief.

3. Be exceptionally welcoming (not drippy) to newcomers. You know who they are! It’s so cool when someone new stops in; thank them.

4. People’s time is so valuable; you have to respect those who stop in…until you get to know them, and then you can become more personable.

5. Mix up your topics. I did a test that Ralph Dopping was aware of…I wrote a post that was purely about public relations and he was the only one who commented. We deduced the post was not general enough and didn’t appeal to a wide audience.  A general topic promotes more engagement; people feel more comfortable participating because the topic isn’t over someone’s head.

6. Do what I just did…take more time to go to someone’s blog and grab their latest blog post and insert it as a hyperlink in your post. When you do that, I’m getting a pingback, and I know automatically I’m coming over to say thank you.

7. Don’t just put a Twitter ID in your blog post when you mention someone because they are totally unaware they’re being called out.

8. Send a note on Twitter to the folks you really want to read your post; ask them/invite them to your blog. Kaarina Dillabough is perfect at this practice when she guest post; she’ll send me a note and I try to get there as often as I can to support her. She also informs me when I’m tagged in an article.

9. In comments, ask another question like Shakirah Dawud does. She’ll comment on your comment and then pose a question back to bring you back. Smart commenting.

10. Join Triberr. Can’t say enough about Triberr. You may think you don’t need it, but every blogger needs Triberr. I’ve written about this too many times to go on a Triberr tirade here; just trust me on this one.

11. Your comportment says so much about the community you’re trying to build…are you personable, laughing, flirtatious, serious, professional, funny, witty, open-minded, welcoming, consistent, paying attention? (Yes, blog communities demand all of that and more.)

12. Do you comment and return that favor on others’ blogs? I believe that commenting IS quid pro quo…you comment at my house, so I better show up at yours. What do you know about that? I’ve done some experimenting and have deduced it’s true. Commenting on others’ blogs definitely leads to community building.

13. I have often wanted a roll-call menu so I can tick off my name to say I visited; sometimes I don’t want to leave a comment, but I want the blog owner to know I stopped in. So, when you stop in and don’t leave a comment, think of something anyway and do let the blogger know you’ve come over…it’s like a courtesy. Commenting is not ding-dong-ditch!

14. Make a point of remembering peoples’ writings and recall that in comments.  I cannot stress this enough. When you engage in comments and recall a post about someone recently wrote, then that visitor is impressed because you’ve made a point to make them feel special.

15. Ask for help, opinions, insight and expertise. No blogger knows it all; your community is a resource for you. When you ask for that knowledge, then you can build on it in a new post.

16. Reward your community with lists. Wait! Don’t yell at me…apparently, people hate lists that are link bait. I get that, but I don’t adhere to that practice. I do do lists and I do them infrequently; yet, when you see one here, it’s the real deal, written from the heart.

17. Help a newbie! When you see someone in your community struggling to get readers, commenters or topics, take them under your wing and try to help. Ask them to write a guest post for you, single them out in comments, use commenting systems that enable you to tag someone so they stop in…there are many ways to keep a community growing, and these are mine.

18. Add Comment-Luv or Lifefyre or another commenting system that allows commenters blog posts to be visible when leaving a comment. It’s a courtesy for visitors, and I love it because I can see what others are writing and jump there with one click.

19. Blog! You have to blog consistently to build community; no kidding. If you post once per week or less, or your blog has fallen off for more than a three-week hiatus, you’ll find your community disappearing or never growing. The consistency of posting is the secret sauce.

20. I’m done…no more tips! What’s your 20?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are Only The Biggest Bloggers Worthy?

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Credit: Jayme Soulati, Millennium Park, Chicago

Once again, big versus small is a platform for a discussion on blogging. You may recall Mark’s Schaefer’s blog post about the future of blogging (and the for the life of me, I combed his blog for the link to that and cannot find it, sorry!) which took the ‘sphere by storm. Last week, as was shared in a post on Feedblitz, I was called a little blogger.

Most peeps who know me also know there’s nothing little about me…both physically and personality.  My community supported me; yet I took no offense. Barrett Rossie, who writes at The All Inbound Blog and was recently featured on Follow Friday at Spin Sucks (his background is highly impressive) was more aghast and said, “what does that make me a micro-blogger?”

Every blogger who writes a blog should feel big…really big.

Characteristics of Bloggers 

  • It takes courage and inspiration to launch a blog and keep it going day after day.
  • It takes engagement, community- and-relationship building to create something Kevin Costner-esque that people want to come to and feel welcome in.
  • It takes a special kind of deference to let the criticisms rub off shoulders and the teasing not become uncomfortable.
  • It takes a person with an open mind to engage with all types of personalities, ages, genders, religions, ethnicities, nationalities, topics, tones, voices, and so much more.
  • It takes a special someone who courageously braves the critics and publishes opinions and thoughts that may rub instead of soothe
  • It takes confidence to bare a soul now and again with more fervent emotion and show another side of the person behind the masthead.
  • It takes attitude to stick out the neck in support of peers and the community who may be getting bashed in comments.
  • It takes a mature blogger to NOT put up the dukes with a commenter who goes off on a tangent when the instinct is to fight back and engage.
  • It takes confidence to ignore the posts from the A-listers who share their vision for the future of blogging that doesn’t bode well for those of us looking on.
  • Most of all it takes YOU knowing that in your contribution is special and no one can tell you any differently.

These characteristics make a successful blogger regardless of the number of subscribers. If you’re really into big data, that’s fine, but once in awhile look  at the human side because behind every good blog is a person.

What do you think?

 

Little Bloggers Rule

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I’m pointing a finger at , the CEO of Feedblitz, with whom I’ve become so very acquainted over these last 10 days since I decided to .

I wrote a blog post on my experience (link above), and Phil alongside my good friends and . No one would argue these two are short of A-listers (because all the A-listers fully deny they’re anything at all related to such a moniker).

What Phil said in his case study about my blog is that I am a “little known blogger.” (He said after that he should have said, “little known to him.”) No worries, Phil!  I happen to know that my blog post  about Feedblitz has influenced no less than six migrations to your Feedblitz service and about four (that I’m aware of).

Now, mind you, I was not influenced by Danny Brown’s post to migrate to Feedblitz. I had seen it, but the email marketing campaign Feedblitz sent to me worked.

And, I do agree with you, Phil…in some regard…I’m a little blogger, but not little-known, at least in social media circles.

Not So Good Little Blogger Facts

  • This blog has few to no subscribers. Subscribers are NOT one of my metrics for blogging success. (Well, OK, that’s really lame; I ‘m gonna work on that!)
  • There is no newsletter. Not for lack of interest; it’s for lack of time.
  • The RSS feed I had was really just for my daily blog post, and I never knew how to use it. (Now, Feedblitz can share all my content from two blogs, comments elsewhere, tweets, Facebook posts, and more.)

 Awesome Little Blogger Facts

  • #RockHot community with comments that are so in-depth and insightful they can become blog posts on their own.
  • Readers who lurk, like and tweet about what they see.
  • Positive commentary everywhere that shows my content sings (based on what people tell me).
  • Passion about topics, profession, teachings, sharing, engaging, and so much more.
  • More than 2.5 years blogging and a year blogging on another blog.
  • Contribution to the future of blogging that no one can deny.
  • Consistent growth with tweaks and tech that help nurture newbie bloggers (because there is always someone newer).
  • Mentorship of little bloggers and encouragement to stay the course.

So, Phil, and everyone else who regards subscribers as the best metric (especially when you make money off subscribers, I get that), it’s not always about the analytics. Although, would call me stupid for not putting that on top of the heap.

  • Bloggers have goals.
  • Stick to yours.
  • Publish genuine, authoritative and authentic content consistently.

One day we all will be that not-A-Lister blogger who got a start somewhere.