We small business owners have been working hard to build a proud blog for our small businesses. We have spent countless hours writing great content and making sure that our blogs accurately represent our brands, give our readers valuable information, and overall make our businesses look great.

We small business owners/entrepreneurs do all this work because we know that people recognize our efforts and appreciate a well curated blog. We are also doing this because we know that content is a key piece in the puzzle of building an established web presence. We also push ourselves to stay on it because we know that other dedicated professionals are working just as hard building, promoting and curating their own blogs. We must endeavor to keep our blogs fresh, relevant and impactful.

Enter content diversity.

Diversity Matters

We are constantly working on balancing the message of the blog. What topics are off-topic? How much of the same line of thinking is too much of the same stuff? The truth is that a healthy blog covers a well-rounded breadth of topics in order to deliver depth to our audience. And that's one of the reasons multi-author blogs are often successful. When we have multiple people bringing the best of their diverse knowledge to the table, we end up with a richer table.

Why Partnerships Matter

Let me go back to focusing on small business blogging. If our business has multiple skilled employees that can offer different perspectives and write about different topics, then the blog is better for it. But who says that partnerships can only occur in-house? Why can't we have a great partnership with another small business that also publishes well-curated content? Who wins if two high-quality complementary blogs decide to join forces and cross-promote? You guessed it...

Cross-promotion is a Win-Win-Win

We all win. You, me, and the readers. When complementary blogs decide to support each other, the plentiful bounty of awesome multiplies. Or to say it in less hyperbolic terms, all the online marketing powers expand and flow in equal directions: the link power, authority power, quality power, community power. For the reader, a diverse, well-curated blog that features ideas and opinions from multiple professionals provides a much more rewarding experience.

Nay-Saying

Of course there are some concerns that I'd like to address. A particular concern of mine is the issue of quality: if I invite guests to post on my blog, how can I be sure that the guest authors will put in the same effort they apply to their own blogs? The answer is simple and two-fold: 1. In a Blog Post Exchange, both parties reserve the right to approve the content, and 2. If the goal of the guest is to impress a borrowed audience, then the guest wants to deliver top-notch content to that audience.

The flip-side concern to quality is the fear of losing 'link juice' as it escapes down the outbound links in guest posts; or even worse, the fear of surrendering prospective clients to phenomenal guest writers that can use guest posts to leash our readers' minds and lure them away to their own blogs. The answer to this one is even simpler: let's get real. Many of us have been blogging for a decade or so. We often link out to great content – that's just part of keeping our own content relevant. And how many times are prospect clients activated into decisive action by a single blog post? The truth is that our blogs serve to provide a context to our websites, products and services. Individual blog posts are merely pieces in the large puzzle of the online presence. One amazing guest post will lift the quality of the blog. Will it invite our readers to follow the author's link? Maybe, but that's about as much as you can expect.

Blog Post Exchange

Let's find like-minded complementary blogs and super-charge all parties with a blog post exchange. The guidelines are simple:

1. Find exchange partners that match your blog in interests and quality.
2. High quality content flows both ways. Whether posting a reference to existing content, or creating new content, the quality bar stays high.
3. Embrace the partnership. If you've decided to join forces with a blog that meets guidelines #1 and #2, then link outbound freely knowing that you and your audience are gaining plenty in the process.

Are you ready to BPE?
If you are ready to promote your business and add new great content to your blog, then a BPE is just the thing. Reach out to matching complimentary blogs and get started!