A high priority for a local small business or a blogger is to locate and identify which related geo-targeted or niche bloggers are interested in collaborating. You can do that by researching or by getting the word out using social media.
If you do not already have a strong online and social media presence, using social networks to reach bloggers can be a real challenge. One solution is to use the reach of established influencers.
Thanks to many fine bloggers who care about others, new posts on GrowMap enjoy a much wider audience than would otherwise be possible. (Watch for a post about them tomorrow.)
Here is how we can collectively use that reach for the greater good of all. While we can not publish an unlimited repetition of similar posts because our readers would soon tune out and miss what could benefit them most, we can create pages (instead of posts) for each niche and location and then publish a summary of those pages periodically in a post.
Small Businesses can join related bloggers and benefit from Blog Outreach.
I encourage you to consider becoming a blog collaboration leader for your niche and location. Publish a post or page on your own blog linking to and describing the best related blogs of interest in your geographic area and niche. The more data individual bloggers create, the faster we can pull the information together and multiply our efforts.
This is not as difficult as many bloggers believe. I am happy to assist and provide examples and there are others who have the skills and know-how to share what works. The best example of this to date is the work done by Rohan ( Twitter @365thingstododc ).
I would have never guessed there were so many food blogs in one place. If he can find 44 Washington DC food related blogs, surely each one of us can find the top four other blogs in our own locations and niches. The more serious bloggers you can pull into your collaboration, the more influence you will all have; however, all you need is a core group.
Kelli chose four couponing bloggers and each time I publish a post about that coupon blogger collaboration other coupon bloggers come by and leave comments because my original target audience here was other bloggers. (Most blogs have a lower percentage of other bloggers as readers.)
I encourage other bloggers to seek out and publish a post linking to the best other blogs in their niche. Use Twellow, Twitter search, Blog Directories, your favorite search engine or the blog search function on Zuula. Doing this will raise their visibility and search engine positions and your own!
Hand pick the blogs you most admire and feed their new posts into your Twitter stream as I explain in how to use Twitterfeed. (You can use any other Twitter app you prefer, but do read the tips in that post about formating tweets.)
I will be researching and collating this data; however, there is only one of me. Bloggers who contribute their own research benefit from being promoted early and often and used as examples as Rohan’s and Kelli’s blogs already have been multiple times. Both benefited from having links in the Small Business Advice interview Pace Lattin published about GrowMap on the PR8 blog Technorati.
I have started creating pages targeting specific keyword phrases to feature your research such as these (new pages will be linked here soon):
- Washington D.C. Food Bloggers
- Coupon Bloggers
Your research can bring you valuable links, connections and potential income from businesses interested in reaching your audience. As Small Business Technology Consultant Vernessa Taylor quoted me as writing in her just-published Small Business Advisor profile:
“Bloggers who are wise enough to collaborate with each other will end up with the lion’s share of the traffic and be able to do greater good. You will grow your lists faster and when you have larger lists you will be able to negotiate special deals to offer your readers – making your blogs even more popular and influential.” ~ Gail Gardner in a comment to Stephanie Suesan Smith, Master Gardener putting together a Gardening Blog Collaboration.
You are invited to use this blog’s reach and social media influence by publishing guest posts about your collaborations and to have pages created here targeting your best anchor text linking to each blog involved. I look forward to hearing from you all. Leave a comment in this post (or the others related to it) or use my contact info.
