Collaborating With Other Writers is Powerful Stuff

Collaborating online is what got me through this past year with my sanity intact.

Collaborating with other writers online to guest post on blogs, write ebooks, and promote each others’ work improves the quality of my writing, but more importantly, it breaks the monotony of working in a vacuum.

You know what I mean. If you write, even if you also have an outside job, you write in a vacuum. Just you and the computer. You shut out your family, friends, and pets to focus on writing. Writing online is a solo gig. Or is it?

Are you writing online for content sites,  your own blog, or a combination of these? Hopefully you diversify your efforts, but one thing is for sure: individuals are in for tougher times this year when competing online for readers.

It’s inevitable. The tides of search engine traffic are shifting toward larger content aggregation sites and away from individual blogs and smaller websites. Big companies have the edge.

Not only that, but the trend is for these sites to increasingly pay a one-time fee (Demand Studios), or cap their payouts (Life123). That’s fine, but you may want to write individual articles and blog posts to build residual income, and you need a way to compete for traffic to your content to maintain that residual income.

Search engines favor sites with more pages, more content, more images, and more videos. Content aggregator sites deliver–and profit from delivering mass content–so more of them continually join the fray, adding exponentially to your competition.

Search engines also favor fresh content, and the big sites deliver that, too. You, as a solo writer, can post fresh content a few times a week. Content sites can post fresh content several times per hour.

So how can you compete? By collaborating with other writers. Co-ops have long offered refuge for the lone business person, whether farmer, artist, or writer by combining talents and goods for mutual profit. Profitable Collaboration can take the form of a large, formal, structured co-op, or simply two friends sharing resources.

One renowned blogger known as, “Grizzly” has mastered the art of the Internet co-op. You probably already know who I am referring to, but if not, check him out. And the Keyword Academy offers a similar type of Internet group for people to network and form mutually beneficial teams.

But you don’t need to join a formal group to find others who want to collaborate. A few months ago, I met some good writers and like-minded people on a writing forum. We formed a Google Group to help each other learn, to promote each others’ articles, and to share ideas.

Each group member who invested time in the project saw significant increases in blog and article traffic, and we even improved our writing and research skills. We introduced each other to our own networks and formed new friendships and partnerships. We boosted each others’ morale, and we are all better for it.

Sounds nice, huh? Well, it is. But collaborating is no longer a nicety or a luxury. If you plan to grow your business by writing online, collaborating is now essential. The big sites are getting bigger, and you need to “get bigger” to compete. It’s like opening your coat when a mountain lion approaches you on a trail to scare it away. You’re not really bigger, you just look that way, thanks to collaborating with your coat.

While you can offer a level of quality and personal attention to readers that not many content mills can, readers have to find your voice among the rising tide of content. By collaborating with other writers, you increase your visibility and many other opportunities to learn and grow, while retaining (even increasing) your ability to provide quality, personal service to your readers. The Internet is like a mountain lion. It doesn’t know you’re not big if you look big.

Do you know how to find others you can work well with to form collaborative teams? Here are a few tips that have worked for me:

1. Start with a sense of generosity of spirit. Just give. I mean, be smart about it, but if you’re dealing with quality, ethical people, it’s not going to kill you to promote their stuff. Give them links. Share that inside info you just learned. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

2. Watch forums and read articles and blogs by other writers. Participate in forums. You can always find an  eHow member or Warrior Forum person to learn from. When you find a writer online whose style and quality resonate with you, subscribe to their blog or article feed. Leave positive, constructive comments for them. Write to them personally. It takes time for both parties to get a sense of trust and compatibility, so give it time before suggesting a joint project.

3. Be honest about your own strengths and weaknesses. Choose partners whose assets and liabilities complement your own so you can learn from each other. Or team up with someone who is also strong in your niche to boost your power exponentially. Or if someone just has you outclassed, be a groupie. Just don’t be a creepy groupie.

I’m a big Ian Lurie fan, and he doesn’t even know I exist. And no, we’re not collaborating, but you can bet I’m learning from him, and I may find another Ian Lurie groupie to partner with based on our mutual interest. That guy can really turn a phrase. Which leads to my final point…

4. Appreciate and praise others who deserve your admiration. If I tell you that someone else is phenomenal, it doesn’t take away from my own phenominalness. It’s like love. The more you give, the more there is to go around. So start by giving, and remember to ask, too. We all want to be needed. And we are all going to need each other this coming year more than ever.

5. Keep your standards high, and ego low. And look for others who do the same. One reason the previously-mentioned group excelled was that each member was as willing to follow as they were to lead. I started the group, but another natural leader emerged and took the group to greater heights than it might otherwise have gone.

Recently, new opportunities for collaboration have arisen for me, mostly connected to previous networking partners. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle that will improve your life and your writing indefinitely.

So don’t wait, collaborate!

And may you have your happiest, most productive and profitable New Year ever writing online.

P.S. An extra special thanks to the most brilliant and generous collaborators ever, Fritz, Marty, Brian, Karbyn, Ann, Robin, Howie, Jason, Ellen, Barkha, AJ, and all the other friends and partners, new and ‘old’ alike, who I have been, and continue to be, blessed to know. Here’s to teaming up for a successful year ahead.

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