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Don’t Be a Greedy Blogger

Posted By Darren Rowse 25th of September 2009 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

This is another guest post from Robby G at Shite I Like.com where he gives expert dating advice for both men and women, amongst other advice.

I’ve only recently realized the benefits of good Karma. Greed and blogging doesn’t go well together at all. Right off the bat I wanted to say that if you’re thinking of starting a blog strictly for money and your heart isn’t in the blog topic, you will not only fail but you will lose all that time you’ll spend creating the blog and writing content that will be extremely difficult to produce just because it’s not something you believe in but just something you think has a high monetary rate of return. There are two ways to looking at blogging: 1. Every other blogger is your competition, or 2. Every other blog out there is an opportunity.

Though other blogs, particularly that write about a topic similar to yours, are your competition, they are also your ticket to success. Now allow me to explain.

Opportunity in the Blogosphere

Think about this, if you were the only person on earth with a blog and no one would have caught on to this wonderful innovation then your blog would quickly die because there wouldn’t be enough demand for blogs, blogging, or bloggers. Since there is a blogosphere and people are enjoying each others’ blogs, that means that there is room for you to grow and create a leading blog in your niche. But what if there are already tens or hundreds of blogs writing about the same topic as you are? Well, use that in your advantage. I’ve noticed over the years that mostbloggers are quite good people (nevertheless I have run into one or two a**holes) and they don’t mind to share their knowledge, their friendship, and most importantly their love for blogging. There is opportunity in your competition because if you are a good-hearted individual and aren’t greedy about attracting all the traffic to yourself, there is room for you to grow. Now what are the ways to attract Brownie Points with Karma? There is a list of ways that you may think do not help your blog, but in fact they eventually attract much more people to come to your blog overtime than you would have if you did not take part in them. Here’s the list:

  • Provide useful comments on other blogs: By doing this I did not only get lots of traffic from people clicking on my link, but I also received emails from the authors of the posts asking me if I could broaden my comment into a full post and submit it to them as a guest article. This doesn’t happen for every comment, but there’s that chance people will really want you to share your knowledge as a guest post without you even asking for it.
  • Link to other blogs in your posts:Linking to other blogs may seem like a sure way to lose readers because they will simply jump ship and start reading your competitor’s posts. But that’s a mistake many bloggers have in mind. By providing readers with relevant links, they see that you know what you’re talking about and you want to help your readers with the most informative links.
  • Blogroll: I personally do not have a blogroll on my blog, but what I do have is a post with my favourite blogs that I follow daily. Since only recently I have been getting out there and making lots of friends in the blogging community, I have decided to create a full-blown blogroll linking to the blogs of my friends, which is in the works. I do not ask anything in return from the blogs I link to, because I leave it all to Karma, and more often than not the people I link to end up linking back to me.
  • Attract guest posts: Guest posting attracts you links and new traffic, but when you allow other bloggers to guest post, you attract bloggers, sometimes a link from their blog, and again a wave of good Karma. When someone guest posts on your blog they right away feel a certain companionship with you and that can last for a very long time. From simply allowing and attracting guest posts, you open yourself to an opportunity of new friends and new openings for yourself to maybe one day create a certain campaign with that friend that will attract a much wider audience than your current one. If you think you have ideas for a guest post relevant to my blog topic, feel free to contact me.
  • Get expert opinions: If you’re not too sure about something, go ahead and ask an expert. People love to be praised and a great way to do that is to ask an expert what they would do in a certain situation. For example, my blog is based on giving dating advice, so if I was to be stumped on a reader’s dating question, I would ask a fellow expert on their opinion and I would throw in some of my ideas to complete the most perfect advice I could possibly provide for my reader. This way I am showing my reader that I care about their issue and want to provide them with the most help I can, and it also allows me to get in touch with interesting people who may eventually want to conduct some sort of business later on, seeing that I cared enough to reach out to them for their expert advice.
  • Interview and help promote others:Interviewing others gives your readers fresh new content. It also gives the person being interviewed exposure of their product or website. And what about you, the blogger? Well, it gives you the opportunity to grow. After interviewing an expert in my field, I did not only get to give my readers new content, but I also received an advertising offer from the person. It builds your credentials, authority, and broadens your circle of friends.
  • Fill your ad-space. Once in a while when you don’t have advertisers waiting to fill up the empty space-ad you have on your blog, contact someone that may be interested and give it out for free for a month or so. This is an act of goodness, plus it gives more exposure to your advertising services, and maybe some day that person you gave away an ad-space for free to will help you out some way or even pay for some ad-space in the future.

These are just some of the ways you can use to help other bloggers and get good Karma. It all usually comes back to help you out somehow or someway. As long as you find ways to share the love and don’t feel the need to be greedy, good things will always come your way.

Do you have any ideas for ways to share the love and still reap the benefits? Leave your thoughts in the comment section. Cheers!

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. AMEN! This post is great! I myself have found that while cash is nice good karma is not only well.. good.. (and less fattening).. but an excellent reason to keep blogging. I’ve witnessed blogs that I once really enjoyed become on huge infomercial and totally unreadable. I’ve also been the brunt of bloggers who subscribe to point of view #1. It sucked and I cried, but I kept blogging on. The blogosphere is sometimes like a distorted high school reunion.. there are the geeks made good, jocks with a chip on their shoulder, the quite girl from advanced lit who turns out to be super funny and cool and the head cheerleader who has morphed into a bitter, money grubbing, walking billboard for the old saying “it’s who you are on the inside that counts” biting you in the butt!

  2. Well it is true.
    Commenting is not always giving benefits.
    The remaining steps are really helpful.
    Thanks for these useful tips.

  3. I think it’s interesting that people are worried about competition with their blogs. A blog sharing a good resource has never made me stop reading their blog; if anything, it makes me more excited to come back and read more about what they have to say.
    There are so many blog readers that there is no point in fighting over them. It just makes you look like a chump in the process. I love your attitude. Keep up the great work.

  4. I think this is really important. I’m always linking to other blogs in my niche and sending them links to articles I have written if I think it may interest them. Within 2 months of starting my blog I’d had 2 articles featured on one of the biggest tech blogs on the Internet, and it sent my traffic crazy!

    Sharing is vital, it not only benefits your readers but your blog as well.

  5. My heart is so invested in my work that I am purposely leaving ads out of it, at least for now maybe there will be a time and place for that. I also am excited about finding others with similar interests and posts and I am learning about the community of blogging and the support we grant one to the other by participating. I am not “in business” with my blog, although I hope to do more with my writing. This is a great post and confirms for me that taking the high road is absolutely the best answer ALL THE TIME! I have also received help, response, and receptivity to the other bloggers I’m meeting in the blogosphere!

  6. I agree with the above comments, greed is a huge factor when most ppl set up blogs (simply because they hear or read some blogger that made tons of $$$). But those that actually care about their readers are the ones that will come out in the long run..

    Great post

  7. Great tips!

    I just had the pleasure of my first guest posting author on one of my blogs. It’s very cool. I will have more in the future, and I look forward to submitting guest posts to others in the future as well.

  8. Great post. I started a blog a little over a month ago. The main reason I blog is to help me stay sharp in my chosen field(online selling) The blog posts remind me of things I already know and I learn something new with almost every post when I am doing research for the post.

  9. robert says: 09/26/2009 at 12:02 pm

    I was going to read this post, but the formatting was horrible!

    just thought i would let you know

    cheers

  10. THis is the thing I love about blogging.
    Sharing the Love.
    To be scared of being generous is not going to help anyone.
    What goes around comes around

  11. That is very much true that helping out fellow bloggers will helps you a lot.It will always be beneficial for you. I think we have have to think from our my as well as by heart.I I am also excited about finding others with similar interests and getting more knowledge.

  12. Is it good karma or good concept?

  13. Amazing tips. Helping each other is a good way to build repo and relationships with fellow bloggers.

  14. Rob G thanks for your advice. I guess I just don’t want to get duped. Some of us bloggers have the same readers, and I’m hesitant because I think that if I do make comments or add them as friends then my readers will no longer see me as an expert source and wonder why I’m turning to other blogs.
    Then again, maybe I’m reading too much into this! lol

  15. Excellent post!

    As my blog approaches its 3rd anniversary (in December) I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I started my blog because I have a deep passion for literature and writing.

    When I started serving ads on my blog (Adsense and Amazon) I didn’t have any grand ideas of becoming wealthy. Whatever money I made from my blog is just a bonus.

    To this day I still hold that philosophy, even though my blog is starting to pay off in small ways.

    Be passionate about your blogging topic and it will succeed in one way or another!

  16. @Mariam: if your readers are loyal and like your style and technique then they won’t leave you and go to your “competition”, they will most likely appreciate that you have enough confidence to give them a link to something a bigger expert can answer better than you. There are always bigger experts in every topic, but even they miss out on certain information that the smaller guys focus in on. For example on my blog, I don’t say if you do this and this you will get any girl in the world, but I say it will certainly raise your chances. There are “experts” that guarantee 100% that if you do what they say you will get any woman. I honestly don’t believe someone can go from zero to hero by taking a few advice and implementing them. It’s a whole growing and learning process that takes years until it finally clicks. Being honest and genuine usually does the trick.

  17. Top post, Robby. Your list added structure and depth to what I’d long suspected. It also gave me some great new ideas to try. Many thanks for the info! Best regards, P. :)

  18. Thank you for yet another AWESOME POST!!!!

    As a relatively new blogger, it’s so helpful to have a blog like this to refer to.

    Thanks again!

  19. I think it is always a good idea to become friends with other bloggers especially if you blog in a small niche.
    good post

  20. Robby G , information found very help full and strange also. Once you have lost of agression in promotting your blog you may forgot such basic fundametal as you explain above. So basically you have to be passonant and concentrate on content and all other than promotting blog

  21. Great advice and ideas. Often we want to go in for the quick sale and try to make money off people without giving anything in value in return.

    You really gotta give to get!

  22. I personally do not accept any blogroll on my blog, but what I do accept is a article with my favourite blogs that I chase daily. Since alone afresh I accept been accepting out there and authoritative lots of accompany in the blogging community, I accept absitively to actualize a absolute blogroll bond to the blogs of my friends, which is in the works. Cheers :p

  23. I agree. My blog was made to help people. I put ads on there for a bonus to me. I don’t expect to make tons of money and I didn’t start my blog to make money.

  24. sometimes, we need to be greedy. SOmetimes not..

  25. @Tradereader: Once you’ve started you blog with passion and you already post on a regular basis, you need to market someway, but instead of being a greedy marketer, try to help others in the community while getting your name out there. But I agree that content is most important.

  26. I’ve been thinking to be creating a weekly post of Blogs I Like listing good blogs related to my niche.

  27. greedy is not good for other people and for ourselves

  28. Thank you for the great blogging tips. I set my blog up to further educate others involved in marketing. There is vast amount of high quality content blogs out there that must be shared with my readers. Karma can be tough when it comes back around to haunt the greedy blogger. Always share the love.
    Thanks again for the great tips!

  29. I love this article and thanks for putting the idea out there in print for all to see.

    Greed gets you nowhere in this world of blogging, because if it’s all about you, who really cares. If you’re greedy and everyone else is greedy, then why would anybody help you out in the end, if you’re only about helping yourself.

    This always bugs me in particular about link exchanges for blogrolls. People always write wanting to do a link exchange and tell me that if I put up a link to their site, then they’ll do the same.

    But that’s just greed talking, “You do this for me, and then I’ll do this for you.”

    Instead, the sharing and more open way would be to write me to let me know that you’ve added my blog to your own blogroll, and that you would appreciate me doing the same, but it’s not necessary, because you’re about sharing, not just about promoting your own ends.

    You’ve got to give in life to get in life, you’ve got to smile at others to have others smile upon you, and you’ve got to share in blogging for others to share with you.

    That’s why it’s called the Internet (Inter = Between or Among).

    The Internet is the ultimate sharing tool, that’s why it’s not called the Mononet, because that would be all about you.

    Love the post, keep spreading the sharing.

  30. Very interesting post and specially the beginning is just very true. The only thing I would like to add is that is not only on blogging but on anything else where people go into something just for money they fail. If you would like to start something blog, website, business, game anything but anything you need to dive into something that you love doing, that you have passion for and enjoy doing it.

    For example my business. Azerbaijan Business Listings is a website I started 5 months ago and still spending a lot of time on it without any revenue. its basicly something i love doing and keep improving it and if it brings some profit very good and if it doesnt well hey its a hobby and hobby doesnt have to be profitable :)

  31. On the one side, i do think that other blogs which have similar topic with mine is my competitor, but on the other side i think they are a gold field to attract quality backlinks to my blog or even attract their readers to come to my blog. That’s why i can leave 20-30 comments on nearly dozen of blogs each days.

  32. Yes we should not be a greedy blogger

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