One of the phenomenoms of the world wide web that have gained a lot of momentum with the rising popularity of blogging are the so-called "Group Writing Projects". The idea behind these projects is for multiple authors to write articles on a specific subject, and then collect all of these at a central place. While it has become popular for bloggers to participate in these, many are still in the dark about how it can benefit their blogs. This article takes a look at how participating in these projects can benefit not only your blog, but even yourself and your reputation.
1. Bring in new readers!
As I mentioned, the idea behind these group writing projects is to collect all the participating entries at a central place where the project is being hosted. Obviously the host will be the main beneficiary of these projects, mainly because normally all participators are required to link back to the hub, but this doesn't mean that you can't attract new readers to your blog by participating. More often than not those who actively participate in these projects pick out their favourites entries and feature them on their own blogs. This means that if you're able to write an entry that stands out, there is a good chance that you can generate a lot of buzz for your blog by participating in group writing projects.
2. Get link love, a lot of link love!
Everyone loves links, and as I already mentioned above, by participating in group writing projects you're guaranteed at least one new incoming links, since the host will always post a link back to all the entries in the projects. The real gain though lays within writing an outstanding entry that will attract attention from the other participants, who will feature their favourite entries on their own blogs. Needless to say, this can result in many new incoming links for your blog, and as I outlined in my
Introduction to Search Engine Optimization, links are good.
3. Expand your network!
Networking is one of the most important factors when promoting your blog, and it is also one of the reasons why Bloggst was conceived in the first place. We want to be a place where bloggers can connect with other bloggers. If you actively participate in group writing projects, they can do the same for you, and help you expand your network of connections. If you're bold, you can even try to get some favours from your newfound friends when trying to succeed with bringing in new visitors through
Social Bookmarking.
4. Widen your horizon!
Closely related to point number three, participating in group writing projects will also help your widen and expand your own horizon. If you're an active part of the project, you're bound to find new, valuable blogs that you'll wish you've read since they went online, and interesting articles that will enlighten and empower you with new knowledge. I would even go as far as to say that these projects are even better than all the various social bookmarking services to find new and valuable content, mainly because they are less biased, and more focused on quality rather than reputation.
5. Win prizes!
This doesn't go for all group writing projects, but many of them even offer prizes to the best submissions. I don't really encourage that you participate just because you have the possibility of winning a prize, but it can be a nice incentive to get you started. All in all though, the degree of positive effects you'll see from participating in group writing projects, as with most other things in life, comes down to how much effort you put into it. If you're an active participant, and actively connect with the other participants, you
will see the positive effects.
If you hadn't already guessed, this very article is an entry for a group writing project. Currently Darren Rowse is running one over at
ProBlogger, and the topic in choice is "Top 5". Other than that, you're completely free to choose what you want to write about, and it can of course be related to the topic of your own blog. Some of the articles that have already been submitted to the project that I think might be of interest to the Bloggst readers:
Check them out, and see if you like them. Also, be sure to seriously consider participating with your own blogs, because as I've argumented above, you can see a lot of benefits from it.
Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!