Group blogs are always of interest to me. They should be of interest to you as well.
You know the blogs I'm talking about. They are the blogs that have several or even dozens of different writers and contributors. The most obvious advantages of group blogs are the sheer numbers of contributors. By having many writers adding posts to the blog, the pressure is somewhat removed from the principle blogger to post.
As many bloggers know all too well, that pressure to post can be immense. No one wants to let their loyal readers down by leaving the blog unposted for any lengthy time period. Often, however, a busy person doesn't have time to post as often as desirable. Business and career often push a one person blog to the back burner.
On the internet in general, and in the blogosphere in particular, two weeks is like an eternity in the three dimensional world. It's at least very close to an eternity anyway in terms of internet time. Blog time is just about the length of time required for a post to scroll off the blog home page. There is little as past as a blog post in the blog archives; rarely to be read again.
No fresh updates means a potential loss of readership and visitor numbers. That's a nightmare faced by many bloggers as well. A loss of readership traffic might not be the most important factor in a blog's demise, but is often a contributor. The lower vistor totals is often discouraging to the writer, occasionally leading to blog abandonnment
The group blog removes that constant pressure to post, but replaces it with other problems.
Sometimes the quality of posters is not comparable. Some people are simply better writers or more interesting and informative than others. Many bloggers can't be depended upon to contribute their minimal number of posts, or to blog on their assigned days or topics. Holes can develop in the team fabric very quickly as a result.
The onus is on the team formulating the group blog to select quality bloggers, from the very beginning. Choose quality over quantity every time.
In fact, choosing well known quality bloggers and forming a team, can bring an instant ready made readership. Each blogger in the group provides a percentage of their own readers to the new group blog, simply by many of the regulars following their favourite bloggers.
Don't expect a complete transfer of readership, however. Many readers prefer to stick with their regular blogs, and won't visit the new group blog very often. That problem is offset by the other members of the team sending some of their main visitor traffic to the new group blog.
Links to and from the member blogs help develop visitor traffic and higher search engine rankings from the date of the blog's initial launch. Cross linking results in a sharing of readership and visitor traffic to the benefit of all concerned.
A group blog is a great way for a band of like minded bloggers to work together for the benefit of all.
Consider starting a group blog today.
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