Comments on: Relational Blogging

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:04:20 +0000

Good stuff, Darren. And very timely for us having just relaunched as a network of sorts on August 21st.

For us, it made sense. We had grown a community of running blogs for the past couple of years and it only made sense to grab of bunch of those people and try to create something special in our niche.

I’ll bookmark this post and come back to it often. Thanks!

By: Angel M.

Angel M. — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 07:45:34 +0000

Darren,

thank you very much for your impressions on “leverage”. I liked specially the part about building relationships, something that usually people don’t pay much atention for. For the enlgish-challenged, I’ve made an aproximated spanish translation at My blog.

Again, thank you and keep the good blogging going on ;-)

Regards from Spain!

By: Kimber

Kimber — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:27:00 +0000

Big corporations have known this for decades.
The more people participating in a market,
the more vibrant the market.
For example:
When Tropicana advertises orange juice,
all orange juice sales,
even those of the competition,
go up.
A strong competitor is an asset, rather than a liability.

By: Michael Martine

Michael Martine — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:39:21 +0000

The multiplier effect (fancy term, that) is quite real and it’s one of the big reason why chronic “networkers” with fat rolodexes always get ahead. Having said that, you have be really careful who you choose to go in with: it’s a long-term relationship. You should have some idea of how the other people deal with problems before you get involved with them.

Also, there’s a big difference between joining another’s efforts and inviting others to join you. If you do the latter, think long and hard about it because it will be extremely difficult to salvage the endeavor if it doesn’t work out. I invited others to join me on an old blog and wasn’t thrilled with the results, but going back to a solo effort was the beginning of the end of that blog. So, be careful.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:31:16 +0000

Last summer when I was guest blogging on your Personal Finance blog it was my first taste of group blogging. I really enjoyed posting responses to the other bloggers’ posts and having them respond to my posts. It brought an energy that was very creative.
Many times since then I have thought of inviting other bloggers to join me, but I’ve gotten caught on the fears based on your “word of warning” section.

By: My New Choice

My New Choice — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 14:17:33 +0000

Adding on to your relational blogging techniques, I have just started to participate in a couple of blog carnivals. With a new site, I have found it to be a good way to kind of introduce myself and my blog to a wider group of people.

As a result, I have met a couple of people with similar blogs and have had one request come in to exchange links. It does seem like a lot of success can be found by building relationships with other bloggers, particularly those in a related niche.