In business, one of the best ways to gain a competitive advantage is to partner with someone else. By pooling your resources, both companies can achieve far more. Well, the same can be said for blogging. When two bloggers are able to form a strategic partnership, both can find it was exactly what they needed to take their site to the next level. However, you want to take your time making sure you’re choosing the best partner.
If you don’t already have some bloggers in mind, you should probably take some time to familiarize yourself with the industry and get a taste for what’s out there. Otherwise, you should already have a handful of options you’re excited about approaching for a partnership.
You need to look at these prospects through a new lens now, though. They’re no longer just bloggers you like to read, they’re someone with whom you’ll be working. So start by finding out how long they’ve been blogging. No matter how talented you think they are, if they’ve been doing it for, say, less than a year, they might not have what it takes for a long term commitment.
Likewise, take a look at what their experience has entailed. Have they just been doing this one blog? Were there others? Have they guest blogged elsewhere before? Depending on what they blog about, you may want to look into how much experience they have in the field, as well.
Pay special attention to how consistent they are, too.
A blogger who has put up a new post once a week for a year is probably far better for your purposes than a blogger who has the same amount of posts over a three-year period. So you don’t just want quantity, you want to see that their posts have been delivered with some degree of regularity, too.
Looking through their posts, you should also get an idea for their level of commitment, too. Do you see examples of where they wrote about a certain goal or beginning a new project and then never followed through? This doesn’t need to be a deal breaker all by itself, but it should raise some level of concern, as you’ll be depending on them keeping their word.
Forming a partnership with another blogger can bring you more exposure and lighten some of your writing load. Unfortunately, it can also ensure you a brand new headache.
So, when you begin looking around for a blogger with whom to work, rate them based on the information above.
