Dear Facebook fan, see image to the left.

Just a couple of days ago, I was perusing through my personal Facebook stream and a friend of mine posted pretty much the same question.

Dear Facebook friend, see image to the left.

Actually, what I commented is exactly what the image says (even the “the end”) and Jennifer Windram thought it was funny enough to create the image (thank you, Jen!).

In 2001, I joined an advertising agency to help build their PR department. The first few months were really exciting because the account managers were introducing us to their clients and we were providing a new service. Super fun and lots of immediate work to do.

And then.

The creative guys kept bringing their pretty new ads and asking me to “do some PR” around them.

Um. No.

Here’s the thing. There is a time and a place for news releases. But running them verbatim on your blog or linking to them through your social networks is not the place. Just like wanting journalists to write a story about your pretty new ad is a hopeless desire.

Social media, content, blogging…this whole digital place we live in is about engagement and intelligent conversation and community building.

It’s not about you. It’s about them.

It’s about your customers, your employees, your board, your prospects, your community, and even your competition.

By posting your news release on your blog or social networks, you’re making it about you. And there is only one person in this entire world who cares about you as much as you do: Your mom.

So, unless your mom is your only customer, it’s time to think about how to make your digital presence about those who do buy from you.

For instance: There were 107 trillion emails sent last year, Facebook is at more than 900 million users, Pinterest is closing in on 15 million users, and there are three billion videos streamed on YouTube every day.

I do this to show how many people are using the web, to preempt the “My customer doesn’t use the Internet” conversation (yes, I still hear that).

But the stat I want to talk about today is the number of blogs on the Internet. According to Technorati, there are 158 million blogs floating around, which is partly why I’m so surprised to keep reading that blogging is dead.

I get it. It’s not an easy think to keep up. My guess is many people or companies say, “Let’s start a blog!” and then do nothing with it after a month or two because it’s so labor-intensive.

So, let’s say for argument’s sake, half of those blogs never see the light of day, either because they’re abandoned or no one reads them because they’re too self-promotional. That leaves us with 79 million blogs, which isn’t a small number.

USA Today reported this morning that more companies are abandoning their blogs in favor of Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Add to that, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth released a  study earlier this year that says the percentage of companies that maintain blogs fell to 37% in 2011 from 50% in 2010, based on its survey of 500 fast-growing companies listed by Inc. magazine. Only 23% of Fortune 500 companies maintained a blog in 2011, flat from a year ago after rising for several years.

So, I see. Based on Wall Street and fast-growth companies, blogging is down, and now it’s time to claim the whole blogosphere is dead.

Here’s the thing, though. Those companies aren’t blogging because it’s hard. It’s hard to generate good content even once a week. It’s hard to cultivate a community. It’s hard to grow traffic. It’s a thankless job most days. So people throw something up there that talks about how great the company is, if only to check off “blog today” from their check list.

And the blog fails.

Hubspot recently took a look at how blogging affects leads. They found, for companies that do blog, their monthly leads increased by 67% (for B2B) and 88% (for B2C). The survey goes on to show that updating it just once a week increases your leads by 77%.

So, here I sit in front of my pretty pink MacBook Air, wondering why more companies aren’t blogging. Yes, I know it’s hard. I know it’s time-intensive. I know you don’t have immediate gratification. I know you can’t think of anything of value to write. I know no one comments and you don’t see a spike in traffic.

I promise you all of that changes if you’re consistent, you provide good content, and you don’t sell.

Wouldn’t you rather do blogging the right way and generate leads than sit on the phone and make cold calls all day?

Today’s guest post is written by Jayme Soulati.

What the heck is voice? The honest-to-goodness answer is … I have no idea!

I’ll attempt a few tips and provide examples of bloggers’ styles that contribute to voice. Afterwards, I hope you’ll have a better understanding on the quest to find yours.

It takes the better part of a year to get comfortable in your own skin. Attaining voice is part of that 12-month blogging journey. (Hints 1 and 2: Have confidence and be time-tested.)

For me, I write the way I speak and I do it with snark and flowers. Is writing the way you speak considered “voice?” Absolutely, if you can pull it off naturally. (Hint 3: Be natural.)

There’s pressure to find it, have it, and keep it, and how does that work? With consistency. (Hint 4: Practice!)

Five Examples of Blogging Voices 

These examples of styles, tone, personality, and delivery contribute to blogging voice. (Hint 5: Voice consists of more than just delivery.)

Take a look and hit on one that makes you nod your head. (Hint 6: Voice has a LOT to do with tonality.)

1. Snark. Personal flair is sometimes snark. It works for some and not others. Davina Brewer is one of the best at this. She says, “When a smart blogger dares to challenge a ‘social media guru’ or marketing legend, hell hath no fury like fandoms irked when the wisdom of their ‘rock star’ is questioned. And FWIW I really ain’t sure if the ‘star’ status is anything more than a touch of echo chamber celebrity, cloaked in popularity, masked in a bestseller’s book jacket and next week’s speaking gig.”
2. Grammarian Aristocrat. Shakirah Dawud at Deliberate Ink uses 50-cent words naturally, with flair, and perfect punctuation and grammar. She says, “The ‘green’ movement in English: Many common words are being reduced, reused, and recycled, as we’ve seen with ‘friend,’ ‘heart,’ and ‘action’ as the verb. There are familiar words transmogrified into new usages that, although subject to ridicule, are used more commonly than we like to admit in some circles, like ‘deliverables,’ ‘pushback,’ and the terrible-to-behold corporate verbs ‘incent’ and ‘action.’”
3. Confident. Jack Steiner has been blogging for more than eight years. That experience exudes confidence nearly untouchable. If you try to pull this off without being time-tested (see hint 1 and 2 above), you’ll come across unnatural and arrogant. He says, “What I don’t know is if that skill translates into storytelling on the scale I am trying to do it. This project is officially bigger than any I have ever taken on before. People have told me they like it. Some have said they love it and a few have told me they really dislike it. That is all fine with me and something I expect. I am not trying to please everyone. At the moment the most important person in this equation is me.”
4. Natural. Erica Allison, who blogs at Spot On! is a natural blogger in style and voice with ability to create community. She shares her wisdom in a believable way, showcases her personal side, and invites you in with a huge smile. She says in a blog post earlier this year, ”In honor of Valentine’s Day and in the spirit of love, I thought I would share with you my very favorite apps, tips, and tools that make my online marketing efforts ROCK.  I don’t think it’s really possible to LOVE an app or a tool (although I’m certain I’ve been madly in love with a fella before who acted like a tool… ‘wa – wa- waaa’).”
5. Inspiring. Mature writers speak in a voice that is soft and encouraging. Mark Harai inspires in a heart-felt manner while educating in a positive light. He says, “Having clear goals in mind is so important when you set out on your social media journey. You need to understand how both of these relationships are instrumental to the health and ultimate success of your online business activities. The close online friendships you develop, in many cases, will be those people you look up to and respect. They will teach you new things every day and inspire you to move forward toward your goals in becoming the successful person you know you’re destined to be.”

These bloggers are all very different from each other. Yet, when you read them consistently, you’ll see their voices don’t stray. Whether your emotion of the day is sad, happy, peaceful, or neutral yours should not stray much either. If there are days when you’re forcing it, take a break until the mojo returns.

Voice is something earned, and it doesn’t happen at the get-go. It takes months of practice. When voice is found, the rest of the blogging experience turns positive, too, and your community will respond in kind.

Promise.

Jayme Soulati is president of Soulati Media, Inc., and she blogs at Soulati-‘TUDE! She’s all over the interwebz and is easy to find.

I learned this flaw last night, as I watched the webinar Andy Crestodina is doing for us on Thursday – Build the Perfect Web Marketing Storm.

He talks about five weather systems in building the perfect storm: Blogging, email marketing, search engine optimization, social promotion, and writing.

Before I watched it, I went through that list and thought, “Surely I have all of this down, right?”

WRONG!

I also learned I’ve just been lucky with Spin Sucks and SmartTalk, but that I really could be much more strategic and smart about all of it and, perhaps, drive even more traffic.

He begins with a content marketing template. As I watched him explain it, I thought, “Come on. You don’t really use this for every piece of content you write, do you?”

And then he showed why he does. And, I’m pretty sure it works the way he demonstrates.

Blogging

If you attend the webinar, you’ll receive his template as part of your registration fee. He uses it to show you how to complete each of the five weather systems in order to create the perfect web marketing storm.

For blogging, some of those things include:

• How to write complementary blog posts and newsletters
• How to write exclusive content for different parts of the web because of the Google Panda update, which docks you for using the same content in several places on the web (which I just did yesterday when I ran my weekly Crain’s column here – oy)
• How to do keyword research the right way, using the Google keyword tool
• How to set up a profile picture so it shows up in Google search results
• How to get traffic on one blog post for the lifetime of the site
• How to use Google insights, trends, and forecasting on keywords
• How to write titles, meta descriptions, permalinks (yes, you can change them), and which graphics to use

Email Marketing

Andy is a big believer in email marketing (me too … though many marketers forget about it) and spends a few minutes talking, not about how to write copy that is valuable and educational (please do that), but how to drive traffic and, ultimately, conversions from your efforts.

He discusses:

• How to find words that higher click-through rates for your email marketing, and a list of the most reported subject line words
• How to write excerpts for your newsletter so people have to click through to one of your web properties in order to read the rest (he said it makes him sad to see full text in newsletters)

Search Engine Optimization

Under the SEO section, he discusses why sites rank, based on trust/authority of the site, link popularity, anchor text, keywords, traffic, social use, hosting data, and more.

He talks about how to build your authority by guest blogging, which is very central to digital PR.

He also shows you:

• How to find sites with high domain authority
• How to check sites to know whether or not you’ll get value by blogging for them
• How to determine the right authority number (Spin Sucks is 73 so you’ll quickly discover you want to guest blog for us)
• How to find content ideas through trending topics
• How to write anchor text (something not many people do the right way)

Social Promotion

For most of us, using social media to promote our content isn’t new. But I’ll bet some of the tools he gives you are. They include:

• How to use Manage Flitter to find people you already follow who are interested in your content topic
• How to use Filter Tweeps to find people outside your network who might be interested in your content
• How to mention the people you find so they’re more likely to RT you
• How to use hashtags and quotes appropriately

Writing

Then he gets into writing, but not around emotion or voice or branding (which most of us can already do). Rather, he discusses how to get a lot more traction out of a single piece of web copy.

In his writing tips, he includes:

• How to write for both humans and search engines (six tips)
• How to assemble web copy, instead of just writing it (five tips)
• How to link to Google+ in your bio so it shows what you’ve authored in your profile and provides your avatar next to the link in search results

Measurement

At that point, I thought we were finished, but he adds one more thing about building your perfect web marketing storm.

It’s measuring results, which I was very happy to see.

He talks about how the entire point of web marketing is to convert visitors toward one of 10 goals and how to outpace business capacity if you’re using content marketing correctly. I imagine most of you want to do that, no matter where you are in your content marketing life.

This webinar is a must attend event. It’s Thursday, March 22 at 11 a.m. CT. It is $50, but I promise you’ll take away so many ideas it’ll be worth your time and investment.

Click here to register now.

If you’re still not convinced, you can watch Andy discuss the topic in the video in the upper right-hand corner of the blog (or by clicking here).

If you can’t attend live, we’ll have a recording of it that can be downloaded, and watched, at your convenience.

Hope to see you on Thursday!

Are all bloggers also community managers?

Jayme Soulati , in suggesting this topic, wondered if ignorance regarding community management might explain some blog failures.

Because this post began as a comments-section Q&A, we’ll continue it in the same vein:

What Is Community Management?

Community management is the art of creating something by allowing it to create itself, then nurturing it by creating an environment in which it nurtures itself. Community managers conduct an orchestra of hundreds or thousands as a community forms or sustains itself, but the credit for a successfully developed online community belongs primarily to its members.

Are Bloggers Community Managers?

Some bloggers are (whether they know it or not) community managers; others are new media journalists, content curators, or simply diarists. If any of the following are true of your blog, you might be a community manager:

• You find yourself mediating audience disputes.
• Your goals for your blog include “community growth” goals, such as, “By the end of the year, 50 percent of my comments will come from people who leave at least two comments per week.”
• Your blog has spawned “memes.” One good example is Hyperbole-and-a-Half’s “alot” post, which is reliably linked by a H & ½ audience member anywhere online commenters misplace the space between “a” and “lot.”
• You find yourself making moderation decisions based on your audience members’ feelings as much as your own.
• You let your audience members have access to your pages by inviting guest posts or using a “diarist” system (a la Daily Kos).
• Your audience maintains its own rituals to strengthen a group identity. (More on rituals in my last Spin Sucks post.)

Are Failed Blogs Victims of Neglectful Community Management?

When a blog collapses, the most common outward culprits are blogger burnout or failure to thrive.  Poor community management won’t unilaterally cause these, but it could contribute. Trolls running rampant can cause an audience to evaporate, leading to failure to thrive.

Alternately, blogger burnout can be caused by overenthusiastic community management. Take negative comments personally or adopt every audience member’s problems as your own, and you’ll soon run out of energy.

So What’s a Blogger to Do?

If you do your best to remain an objective blogger, rather than building a personal connection to the audience, feel free to simply moderate comments as necessary to reduce spam.

If, however, you’re striving to build an online community, look for community manager meetups in your area and learn from professionals who work with big brands. Consider giving audience members the opportunity to guest blog, or adding a diaries page for community members. Schedule community events and Ustream chats.

Above all, remember that you can’t create organic communities by force. Take a deep breath, release it, and appreciate the symphony your “orchestra” creates—even if it’s not what you expected!

Jelena Woehr is community and social communications manager for Yahoo! Contributor Network, where more than half a million writers share their knowledge on some of the world’s most visited websites, including Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Shine, and more. In her spare time, she herds cats, feeds carrots to ponies, reads management theory textbooks, and works toward her goal of becoming a professional CEO/Senator/Cowgirl/Eccentric Novelist hybrid.

Today’s guest post is by Nate Riggs. It is a long one; to address all the unanswered questions from last week’s webinar. We designed it so you can skim through any questions that are helpful to you.

Late last week, I was jazzed to have the opportunity to lead a Spin Sucks Pro webinar on the Art of Blogging (as opposed to the science and data of blogging). We discussed how we style our content on the screen to help your readers.

This topic is so important to me, that I’m writing an entire book about it that’s due out early next year.

The webinar was an outline of one of the style chapters that will be published along with 20-30 other blog post styles that you can use as a framework. This will allow you to expand, experiment, and add variety to your blogging discipline.

If you’re interested in learning what we discussed during the webinar, you can buy it on-demand by clicking here. 

Seven Questions on Blogging

Q1: I currently don’t have a blog, but am seriously thinking about it. What’s your basic advice for beginners?

• A1: Before you take any actions, spend some time brainstorming and mind mapping your content ideas. Think about your audience and who you want to read your blog. Consider what’s in it for them and what entices them to come back and visit you. After you’ve found your anchor point, start writing as much as you can, knowing that it won’t be perfect. Your blog will never be perfect, but lots of practice will pay big dividends.

Q2: What are the top five things you would do differently if you were starting your blog all over again?

A2: Great question.

1. I would have started with a broader topic, since my first was narrow and after a year, I found myself out of ideas.
2. I would have started on WordPress, rather than blogger.
3. I would have made it a point to build more discipline up front in terms of how I schedule my time to write.
4. I would have started out capturing email addresses with MailChimp right off the bat.
5. I would have developed more consistent weekly column-esque content earlier on.

Q3: Can you give us three examples of excellent business blogs?

A3: Sure can… If by business you mean blogs that make money well, then here are three:

1. Social Media Explorer : Jason Falls is doing everything right from content to conversion and advertising.
2. Problogger.net & DigitalPhotographySchool.com: Darren is doing everything right to the 10^th degree, both of these are example of how you can transition a single author blog to a collaborative approach and make blogging a business in itself.
3. Social Media Examiner: Michael Steltzner has, in less than two years, turned SME into one of the most popular blogs on the web and a profit machine.

Q4: What are the best methods for tracking?

• A4: The answer to that totally depends on your business objectives. Do you want to have people land on specific pages? Do you want them to help spread your content across social media? There are lots of things you can do. For me though, it’s a combination and the balance of traffic from different sources, social shares, time on specific pages and comments first, then conversions on my contact forms and sponsor banners.

Q5: Can you discuss more about Google+, in terms of referring traffic?

• A5: Don’t get me started on Google+. We might be here all day. It’s fascinating and as of last week is currently in my top five referral sources with limited interaction on the network. I do a lot of lurking inside of Google +. That said, here are some posts I’ve written on Google + (more down in the related posts widget) to help you get started. Here’s one over at CMI as well.

Q6: What do you suggest a new blogger do to improve their writing skills?

• A6: Most people hate this answer, but it’s pretty clear-cut. Blog every single day. Keep a personal journal and guest post on others’ blogs as often as possible. Write more than you ever thought you would write. With blogging, there’s a learning curve until you are able to find your voice. The more often you practice, the faster you get though that curve.

Q7: As a new blogger and someone with only a few years of experience in my field, sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what to write about on my blog. Do you have suggestions?

• A7: Don’t feel alone in that. Even experienced bloggers hit occasional dead spots and loss of ideas. With practice, you start to learn how to bounce back faster. I keep a little playbook, which is simply a sketchbook that I carry with me. During conversations with people I meet, I’ve gotten in the habit of taking notes when something they say leads me to a potential idea. If you don’t write it down at that moment, you may lose it as you go about your day. Stay vigilant on your creative muses.

If you have more questions on blogging, you can always find me on Twitter and on Google +

And, if you’d like to sign up for updates on my new blogging styles book, leave me your email address here. I promise to always respect your privacy and not be a douchebag spammer.

Nate Riggs’ firm Social Business Strategies helps companies identify, build, train and execute collaborative blogging strategies.

Today’s guest post is written by Marijean Jaggers.

I’m not a person who gets writer’s (or blogger’s) block. The challenge of writing daily, however, sometimes leaves me less than enthusiastic about the content I’m creating. Hey, we all get a little stuck for fresh ideas every once in a while, right?

I’ve been paying attention to what gets my synapses firing again when it all gets a little stale. I thought I’d share four helpful actions to help myself and others find inspiration, again.

Four New Ways to Spark Blogging Inspiration

1. Talk to a kid. Every once in a while, usually around the dinner table, I’ll share some client challenge or work-related issue with my kids. I’ve been astounded by their insight (my offspring are older; a teenager and young adult) even when they were younger. Sometimes their fresh perspective, unbiased, and unbound by cynicism gives me just the boost I need. It doesn’t matter if you talk to your own kids or borrow someone else’s for this activity. (If you need one, I may be willing to loan you one of mine.)
2. Read, for a week or only a day if that’s all you can manage, only articles, blog posts, essays, and books recommended by others in your network.  Click through to links shared on Twitter or Facebook from people you trust and who may be reading content that is outside of your normal playlist. It’s not as easy as it sounds –especially because in doing this you will likely need to ignore your own Reader.
3. Shut up. Make a concentrated effort to really listen to people when they talk to you. Do not multi-task if it’s a phone conversation. Give all speakers your undivided attention. Others’ thoughts are always inspiring.
4. Rediscover StumbleUpon. One night of insomnia led me to sign up (again; I’m sure long ago I had an account) for StumbleUpon, the discovery engine that recommends websites based on interests you supply. Hours and numerous sites later I knew I’d found my go-to any time I’m stuck for inspiration. (Also, a wealth of recipes from food blogs are getting tagged and saved for later!)

What ways have you found of getting unstuck from a blogging rut?

Marijean Jaggers, a social media specialist and public relations professional, is president and CEO of Jaggers Communications LLC, a strategic communications firm based in Charlottesville, Va.

This afternoon’s post is a slight diversion from our typical schedule. We wanted to share with you the importance of blog styling and how you can learn more about it this week.

How many times have you landed on a blog post that was made up of nothing but large blocks of text on your screen? What happened? Did you read on or simply glance and then click away? Each and every one of us has very short attention spans. Right? Yes, I’m talking to you.

With volumes of new content being published online every minute, our attention spans will only begin to grow shorter as times passes.

Because of that, we’ve invited Nate Riggs to share his knowledge and help us all get some style in our lives blogs.

As bloggers, we are often so focused on sharing our ideas, optimizing for search engines and tweeting our posts, that we pay little attention to how we actually style our content on the screen. And, when it comes to getting your audience to actually read your content (instead of just blindly sharing it or passing it by altogether) your style of blogging can make all the difference in the world.

Nate started his blog in 2006 on the advice of a mentor. He had always kept a journal as a kid so he figured that he could do that in the interwebz, and, even better than a journal, have people read it and give feedback. “When I started it was awful,” Nate explained. “But over the years and with much practice, blogging has turned into both a professional outlet for my ideas, and a very enjoyable practice that’s almost an emotional release for me.  It’s also brought me quite a bit of business and new friends in the process.”

Nate came up with the idea of producing content on post styles after working with multiple clients who were all great writers. They wrote beautiful case studies, articles and books, but they struggled with how to translate those skills to a blogging environment. It’s not the same.

In his book and on this sneak peek webinar, he is going to teach us how to transform our blogs posts from visually hard-to-read layouts of copy blocks, to fun and engaging layouts that will pull readers in and keep them coming back for more.

Details:

Mastering the Blog Lists
Thursday July 14th, 11 am Central (9am Pacific, 10am Mountain and 12 pm Eastern – for the time zone challenged)
Registration is $50. Yes, it will be available on-demand afterwards if you can’t make that time. Register now and we’ll send you the super top secret link.
Register now – we don’t want to read your unstyled blog posts anymore!

Nate Riggs’ firm Social Business Strategies helps companies identify, build, train and execute collaborative blogging strategies — that’s when you have companies that sometimes have 40-50 contributors all producing content on one platform.  They do everything from content strategy development to web design and development (though some partners) as well as author coaching.

Hey! You! Over there!

Dear blogger, we need to talk. Sit down for a second, ’cause I really want you to hear what I am saying.

You are taking yourself too seriously. No, don’t argue. Take a moment. Think about what I’m saying here.

Sure you take the work seriously, and that’s great. Sure, you have a blog that gets people’s attention and you’ve earned it. But at a certain point, a switch flipped (or a bit, for you geeks out there). You pushed yourself ahead of the work. What you were trying to say took a backseat to who you are trying to be.

Now, you may want to rush to the comments and tell me I’m an ass (I get that. No really, I get that…all the time.). You may want to write a blog talking about “haters” (I get that too).

But how about this: Take a day. Don’t comment. Don’t blog about this. Just think. Think about who you were when you started and who you are now. Ask yourself, what would the “you” from back then write about you now?

I’m betting a lot of things have improved. I’m betting that you are a better writer than you once were, that you have a larger network than ever before, that new and exciting opportunities appear every single day.

And that’s awesome; you deserve that. What you don’t deserve is the new attitude that comes with the new success.

Here’s the thing, I want what you have (so you can save yourself from telling me I’m jealous in the comments), but the thing is, if I start taking myself and my blog more seriously than the work, then I want you to punch me in the face. No, seriously, feel free to do it (except you Danny Brown, you would just do it for fun).

You really do rock; we really do listen to you for a reason. Think about where you started and where you are heading. Don’t go back to who you were at the beginning, I mean, we all have to evolve. Just take one quick second and one giant step back to get some perspective.

Don’t worry, it’s not too late. Just go back to doing what you love, without loving yourself quite so much. Oddly enough, it will make us love you even more.

As for the rest of you, the next wave of bloggers who are just starting to experience a taste of this success: keep your head on straight and don’t become the person you’re currently making fun of. And me, I’m just going to keep writing a blog that no one reads.

Michael Schechter is the digital marketing director for Honora Pearls, a monthly columnist for JCK Magazine, and the founder of Gen-Next Jewelers.  He also steals and shares your best ideas and quotes on his Tumblr blog, Smarter Than I Am.

This week’s question comes from Alex Wood.

He asks:

“Hey Gini, happy Friday from Australia! I have a blog Q for you (and anyone else who feels like chiming in) Q: Are there any truly successful blogger ‘partnerships’ out there? I mean, two ppl working together on the one blog with the one vision. Sure, more hands, more contacts, more content = great! But I’m I just realized I’m about to start a blog with a colleague/friend and… well… I can’t think of an example of a similar blog or the potential issues they’d face. Am I missing something?? Alex”

I answer the question, from a Spin Sucks perspective (back when 18 or more of us were writing), in the video below (or click here if you can’t view it in your Reader).

And then I talked to bloggers who co-author: Edooce, Develop Socially, HMA Time, Social Media Examiner, and 12 Most.

Following are their pros and cons.

Edooce (Patrick Reyes and Bryan Willmert)

PROS

• Provides different viewpoints and styles to the reader audience…keeps it fresh.
• Not having to worry about being the only one to come up with content.
• Learning from each other’s experiences and different backgrounds.
• We have our own blogs, too, and co-authoring this one spawns creativity for our individual efforts.
• Uses both of our networks.

CONS

• If you’re trying to build your personal brand, does it harm that process?
• Finding time to collaborate (we both have full-time jobs).
• If we have dry spells at the same time, the blog sits alone.
• People confuse us for each other all the time. (GD: Clearly. You look so much alike.)
• It’s hard to pronounce Edooce: “ed oo c.” (GD: I think I said it wrong in the video.)

Develop Socially (Samantha Collier and Justin Brackett)

PROS

• Because of our different industry backgrounds we complement each other and bring different subjects/ideas to the table.
• Our different backgrounds also bring different networks of people together to create a blended community.
• When one of us has an “off” day, the other is usually having an “on” day.
• We split/share the workload of maintaining a blog. We can both take on writing, getting guest bloggers, doing back end stuff, etc.
• It’s great having a sounding board to bounce ideas off and get honest feedback.
• We both share the wins and cry about the losses.

CONS

• Living far apart and in a different time zone.  We can’t just get together to have a long discussion about the day-to-day stuff.
• Both of us have separate side jobs that leave little time to discuss how to develop the blog.  It’s hard to move forward when we don’t have time to chat and figure out the next move.
• We’ve never met IRL so we don’t know one another 100% yet.
• We haven’t had a disagreement yet but this could be tricky. We both have agreed to be very open and honest and communicate.

HMA Time (Abbie Fink and team)

PROS

• Sharing the responsibility with others to provide valuable and timely content.
• When done correctly, it adds a variety of voices to similar topics and has the opportunity to be seen by a much larger audience.

CONS

• Logistics — determining whose turn it is to post something and being sure that content is posted regularly based on a shared schedule.
• Conflicting views on particular topics, however, this may actually be a pro as it would likely lead to good conversation and lively debates.
• It may make it difficult to “brand” the blog based on a particular style or personality.

Social Media Explorer (Heather Rast and team)

PROS

• Learning from others in a closed-group setting. We use a Facebook Group to share ideas or ask questions of one another so we gain a level of intimacy there. The central blog cog binds us in a way.
• Professional push. Many of the authors I write alongside are people I hadn’t “known” (in the social media sense) before the group blogs were formed. Upon meeting the SME writers I was immediately taken back by their talent and diverse backgrounds; I’m in very strong company.
• Introduction to new readers, thinkers, detractors.
• Cross pollination. Since I began contributing to other blogs, I’ve had the pleasure of “meeting” new people through comments on posts and tweets sharing links of posts.
• Adopt different style, topics, tone/voice than on own blog.

CONS

• Commitment. I write regularly for three blogs (including my own) and semi-regularly for three others. I’m a very organized person but even with my penchant for scheduling I find it can be a race to the wire to submit a post on time.
• It can be onfusing/frustrating if communication is poor.
• Left to tread water if there’s no community owner/driver.

12 Most (Sean McGinnis and Dan Newman)

PROS

• You don’t have to carry all the weight alone.
• Even though there is some significant overlap between our two networks, there is a substantial number of connections that are unique.
• We each bring different viewpoints, skill-sets, and expertise to the table.

CONS

• No matter how hard you try, multiple authors means multiple voices. It’s MUCH harder to speak with one coherent voice.
• With your own blog, you can make all the decisions. With a co-authored blog, you need to collaborate, which takes longer and requires more communication.
• One person often does brunt of the work.
• If your partner/co-author is named Sean (GD: Hahahahaah! I had to leave that in!).

Do you co-author a blog? What are your pros and cons?

What are the pros and cons of the co-authored blogs you read?