Helping Other Bloggers

There's this link going around on the net yesterday attributed to a BlogHer article which asks "are bigger blogger obligated to help smaller bloggers."


I'm ACTUALLY in the BlogHer network hahaha for Pumpsicle! And BlogHer has a great community there. But as one reader noted, BlogHer isn't the rest of the blogosphere. But to get to answer on this question there needs to be points realized. And like always, I'm going to be very honest:

01. Please stop saying "Big Bloggers" and "Small Bloggers." Who created this hierarchy based upon readership? I don't believe it's an accurate way of assigning authority. You'd be surprised at the idiocy that reigns at the top. I actually think that serious newbie bloggers have the advantage. While established bloggers already have their following, they may be moving on to other things. Or worse, they stew in their own juices and get fat. All of the while becoming contempt with how progress was made. Newbie bloggers tend to find all of the other new avenues to reach out to those within their niche. And soon establish a following all of their own.

02. The irony of it all is that all bloggers RELY on all other bloggers to create their authority. If newbie bloggers within the niche are linking to this established blogger, their Google PageRank goes up, newbie's traffic is now part of established's traffic. That's how an established blogger is made.

03. Alot of bloggers are not very enterprising. And that's not a dig at bloggers who are not enterprising. Some are blogging just to blog. They don't want any financial or general compensation in return. And then there are others who just think everything should be free to them. That's not true for me...I'm not a teacher. I rather be a consultant or a contractor. My time is important to me. So you can't just ask me how to do this and that -- when it has taking me years minutes of trial and error to learn -- without some sort of compensation. It's just like a job...I put in the necessary means to get the training, you can't just swoop in an say, tell me everything that you know! For example, unless I open some sort of training center or class, I'm not going to be teaching anybody how to code.

04. Most bloggers are cheap. And I don't mean "financially responsible and frugal." I mean just downright cheap. Blame the recession? Say it's shopping around? But you get what you pay for. And if you're asking that Established bloggers, who are probably putting in some serious amounts of paper to keep their sites running efficiently, to teach you for free? That's probably not going to turn out well. I've always said that if you want to get somebody to do something for you, tell them how much money you got to invest in this task FIRST. And then tell them the task SECOND. Get their mind on the money first.

05. Nobody is obligated to give you anything. The Blogosphere is a sharing community that thrives upon that...SHARING. Linking. Swapping. Collaborating. If those who you seek to help you don't understand that concept or refuse to participate in it, that's cool it's their choice. You don't HAVE to share. But in the end it all goes under.






06. A blogger hasn't shown you ANYTHING until they've shown you how to make money on it. You think some of these bloggers are helping you. All of that info they are giving you, you could have gotten here at Black Blog Media. Until they are breaking bread with you, they really aren't showing you anything. And that's not really their fault...you'd be surprised. I told you there's lots of idiocy at the top. Most bloggers don't know how to manage their software or recode anything. Or to optimize this and that. They stay in their lane and write...and have hired other pros to knock out THE REAL WORK.

But which one has shown you how to get money? Once again, you'd be shocked...a lot of people don't want you to get money. For whatever reason. It's the same reason why they don't want you to gain ground. Especially if you're in the same niche. Think about it.

If your favorite blogger links to you every once in a while, he / she might say... "Well I'm sending traffic your way." But that's only once in a while. This isn't every day...all of the time. Meanwhile, you're participating on his / her site. Possibly linking to them more than they are linking to you. You are establishing them more authority. In the grand scheme, why would the more established blogger link to you as regularly? They wouldn't. They'd be giving up authority to their competition! YES! Their competition.

08. Competition. You forgot about that huh? No matter how buddy-buddy you think you are. No matter how much you talk about life and everything outside of the blog. If you and the other blogger are in the same niche, and have similar goals, target audiences, you are competitors. If not, this other blogger will have no issue in helping you with all of their valuable resources that they've gained. Makes sense? And that's enough of a reason for other bloggers to refuse to help each other. That's all it takes. Personally, I'd be willing to buy in to some ownership of sites within my niche if they are serious about moving ahead. I don't mind helping competitors, as long as there's some viable (to me) compensation for yours truly somewhere in this relationship. "Sure i'll help you get this and that, but I want 20% off top." There are those with that type of logic. They rather suck by themselves than to team up and play a role and succeed. Think on that.

09. How much help is enough? I don't have any children, so I don't want to have to hold hands. Especially for grown folks. And if you're focused on growing your blog, you won't have time to hand hold somebody who is not directly contributing to your bank account. So what do you do? You draw a line. And don't step across it. If you are an established blogger, you may get lots of requests for help. Who has time for all of that? And most importantly, and some people won't understand this, but even if you have a copycat blog, what has worked for established blog A isn't going to necessarily work for newbie blog B. So that's where you'll get some sage, cliche, canned response from the established blogger -- who tries to encapsulates his / her entire building process up until that moment -- all in one sentence.

And after saying all of that...you got to remember: All of this is temporary. Even most populated social networks go through their phases. And all it takes is for one database to go completely awry before it's all over. And then the next site appears and the cycle begins again.

A lot of this stuff has to do with pride, and fear, and just being silly...But really though, do you truly want to give authority to those who wouldn't bother to help you. A blog is only as relevant as the impact that it has. So if your favorite blog suddenly lost all of its readers and nobody is linking to them anymore what happens? It begins to die ...in a way of speaking. Word to Myspace. But be real too...are you just begging and leaching? There's really no need for those types either.

So in the end do bloggers have to help one another...there's no law saying so. But common courtesy says we should. A lot of others things say that we should, but that's so far outside of the scope of this discussion.