The benefits to multi-author blogging

Last week I wrote about how setting up Birds on the Blog , and 5 other multi author sites had led me and the Blogmistress to becoming experts when it comes to collaborative blogs. Collaborative blogs can also be known as multi author blogs.

In the comments  of How to set up a collaborative blog Morag asked what I actually get from it as there is very little money in them.

Ok, let’s dispel that myth. There is money.

It’s not enough to give up my day job, retire disgracefully in the Bahamas or pay the bloggers more than 11p for contributing. Yet. So instead we take the money we make and put it to good use, we educate twin girls in Africa, Patience and Princess. Our bit of money here, makes a big difference there.

Part of the monetisation issues are my fault. I didn’t realise that I would be copied, yes, we have had copycats start up and fall by the wayside! I should have had the affiliate links in place, and I should have had a post outlining exactly how to set one up and how we did it much sooner.

Money was not my priority then.

So what are the benefits if it’s not cold, hard cash.

• Together, our voice is amplified
• Our reach is extended
• The community is different
• You improve your own writing
• You learn to comment
• You learn to educate and inform rather than preach
• You learn to converse
• You learn diplomacy and patience
• You learn a whole new skill set when it comes to the technical aspects of a blog.
• You learn to swear in several languages.

It’s not easy to blog as a team,  so think of it as a team game. You are only as good as your weakest link.

People have told me that my own writing has come on leaps and bounds. I have watched people start to blog and struggle, and near give up and then carry on and go from strength to strength. Some did give up. Some thought they could hack the pace but found that they couldn’t. Some have built strong bonds and found each other jobs.  Some found strength from being part of a group, others found discipline and I found my niche.

Opportunities have sprung from the blog, along with radio slots and other media opportunities.

Joint promotional opportunities -  by promoting each other, consistently we are extending our influence. We can use Disqus in our comments to tweet or share on Facebook, we can directly tweet the links and pages we find interesting, we can invite further conversation.

We can also help others by reviewing products and books. I have a transport blog, and Essex blog and several sandpits to play in. Those are very niche, not everyone will be interested in a review on those blogs or having me write one on those blogs despite the traffic they get. So by working together we can carry out reviews and help others by boosting their sales if it’s a great product or gently guiding people away if it’s not so good.

Very important… I get huge, mega bragging rights… Stephen Fry told Ann it was a fine blog. Martha Stewart invited me to a party. The disability content gets a bigger, mainstream audience. Every womans voice is heard.  I also get caned if it goes wrong. With the power comes the responsibility. I think I am doing ok, being solely responsible for the content and editing it with a light touch has been interesting. I am not going to jinx things by saying them here, but things have gone wrong and we have worked together to fix it.

Yes, you can do all of this by yourself. I was doing all of this by myself, for years. Now I am known for the collaborative blogs, da boss over at Birds, because working together lifted us all.

Find your common bond and start a collaborative blog, I doubt you will regret it, but don’t bother if you are one of life’s sheep, go find yourself a shepherd.

Sarah