Blogging Collaborations Process: Benchmarking

I have been recommending collaborations of bloggers for several years now and many bloggers are working together informally. Now would be a great time to get serious about putting together niche blogging collaborations.

I am developing a blogging collaboration process
because not all bloggers know how they can benefit each other.

Five couponing bloggers have volunteered to be the test collaborators and have their benchmark data and results published here at GrowMap and probably elsewhere. Here is what they have been doing so far:

BLOGGING COLLABORATIONS PROCESS:

1. Kelli of 3boysandadog is Team Leader and selected the other four bloggers in her niche.
2. Each blogger benchmarked their current stats (more details on that below in the benchmarking section).
3. Explained what anchor text and keyword phrases are so that each blogger could choose the first three phrases they want to work on.
4. Use the tips in this post on how to use keywords in blog posts to develop a landing page for each of the keyword phrases selected.

BLOGGING BENCHMARKS:

Benchmarking is simply the process of recording where you are now so you can determine where you are making progress. Here are the metrics we chose to measure:

1. Unique Visitors
2. Page Views
3. Traffic Sources: Referral (other sites referring visitors)
4. Traffic Sources: Direct
5. Traffic Sources: Search (search engines)
6. Alexa Rank
7. Compete Traffic
8. AdSense Income
9. Inbound Links
10. RSS Subscribers

SOCIAL MEDIA BENCHMARKS:

1. Google Friend Connect (Quantity of friends / 3 of 5 use Google Connect – 2 do not)
2. Twitter Followers
3. Facebook Friends
4. Pinterest Followers
5. StumbleUpon Friends
6. PeerIndex Rank
7. Klout Score

It is so disappointing that we can not get PostRank Analytics numbers as they would be some of the most revealing. Unfortunately, Google bought PostRank and that data which was public is now gone and only a blogger who has an existing login can see their PostRank analytics data now.

Kelli set up a Yahoo! Group with databases in it to collect these numbers for the bloggers in the collaboration.  I will discuss with them what data they are willing to share and publish at least the increases between now and result checkpoints. If they don’t mind I may share raw data as well but I will give them the choice to share or not share what is not publicly available information.

BLOGGING COLLABORATION BENEFITS:

• One-on-one assistance to understand proper use of anchor text.
• Six minds to research and select the best keyword phrases.
• Having the other bloggers offer feedback to improve key landing pages.

Each of the bloggers has already increased the number of incoming links they have from my linking to them using their best new keyword phrases and Rene at Budget Saving Mom announcing her involvement in the Couponers Case Study.

Is the effort worth it? Here’s what Renee wrote about our collaboration so far (and we’re just getting started):

I have tried to learn more about blogging and technical computer stuff over the past several years that I have been blogging, but honestly with organic gardening, homeschooling, and a family there has not been a lot of time.  I have learned a few things, but not nearly as much I would love to know.

Enter this group. I can not believe how much I have learned just in the past couple of weeks. Gail has been wonderful teaching us about how to grow our sites.

However, on top of that, I have had four other frugal bloggers that I have been able to talk to each day. We have all been able to help each other learn so much. It has turned into a wonderful support group that we can bounce ideas off of as well as learn from. We have talked every day (multiple times), and I have loved it!!

I absolutely love blogging, and my biggest frustration in the past has been lack of knowledge and technical know how, so it is wonderful to have this resource, and I am sure that my blog will benefit from it over time.

There have already been some unexpected benefits from the collaboration. Any time five people with similar interests start interacting regularly that is bound to happen.

Among the good ‘unintended consequences’ are:

• Brainstorming keyword phrase ideas.
• Helping each other install coupon databases.
• Discussing plugins resulting in installing CommentLuv in at least one of the blogs that did not already have it.

There will be many more posts detailing what we are working on and documenting the results. I encourage other bloggers to apply whatever they can and ask questions as they come up.

Any blogger willing to put together a five blog group for their own niche (topic or geographic location) is invited to contact me about free mentoring. I can even assist you to find bloggers in your niche.

If you need one-on-one assistance Skype is the best way to reach me. (I’m the only GrowMap there.) Leaving a comment here is the second best way and sending a Tweet to @GrowMap works well. (I don’t stay on top of DMs in a timely manner because there are so many auto-DMs.) You can also use the information on the contact tab but do let me know if you send an email so I make sure to look for it.