Supporting other bloggers? Surely they’re your competition… Why would you want to help them? Sadly, I think there are people who do actually think this way. For me, this attitude is the complete opposite to the attitude you should have about your fellow bloggers. I’m going to walk you through why you should be supporting other bloggers and exactly how you can show up and offer your support.
Most of this comes down to good karma. If you put in the work to help others. You know what? They’ll be more inclined to help you in return. This is called the Law of Reciprocity.
Do you remember the person who you tweet and who never responds? Nope, you will be too busy with the people who do respond. The person you retweet and support, yet they never retweet for you? The person that never responds to the comments you leave on their blog; will you keep visiting and commenting? Probably not.. You see this blogging thing is reciprocal, you get out what you put in.
Here’s why you should be supporting other bloggers:
- It is a nice thing to do – Regardless of whether you get something in return. If you read something and love it, then share it. You would tell a friend about a great book you read, so tell the world about a great blog post you read too!
- You will make friends & build a tribe – Hands down the best thing to come out of blogging for me has been the friendships. True, long-lasting, genuine friendships, what could be better?
- They may reciprocate – Help someone promote a post or a tweet and they may share the love back in your direction.
- May open the door to further larger collaborations – You never know what will come out of these connections.
- Nice to work in a team – Blogging can seem quite solitary. You tap away and home, then send to post out there, hoping someone will read it. Working with other bloggers, eliminates this loneliness.
- Makes for a nicer community – Who doesn’t want to live in a nice place, where people help and support each other?
Here are some ways of supporting other bloggers, both financially and emotionally:
Offer to help
If someone is asking for help on a social network and you can help, then offer your assistance. I’ve been helped by so many bloggers in my blogging life, such a wonderful community. So contribute if and when you can.
Share their work
You can do this in masses of ways;
- Retweet their tweets/posts
- Post a round-up post featuring your favourite bloggers or posts
- Have a Blogs I Love/Blogroll page
- Pin their posts
- Share their Facebook posts.
- Share on Google Plus or +1 some of their posts
- Have a day a week when you shout out your favourite bloggers. You can do this anywhere, even on Instagram Stories.
- Create a round up series on your blog to highlight other bloggers who fit that particular niche.
- Create a Pinterest board which you can use to highlight your favourite blogger’s posts.
Show them love
- #FF them!
- Add their button to your sidebar
- Like their Facebook status’. We all know Facebook aren’t showing any of our stuff to people (unless you pay them!). However, if we like all the posts we can, Facebook think they are popular and show them to more people. Why not pop a little comment on their too?
- Like their Instagram pictures – I often just go down my feed and double tap all the pictures that are there.
- Set up notifications for your favourite bloggers so you do not miss out on their new content.
- Join their email list so you do not miss any posts. Here’s a great freebie if you want to join my list – 16 steps from blog to biz.
- Tweet the brand if they did a great non sponsored post featuring a brand you’ve worked with previously. Send a tweet to the brand’s representative to highlight it.
Use their affiliate links
Do you need to buy something? Know a blogger who has an affiliate link to that business? Then use their affiliate link, it’s no skin off your nose and gives them some money. It doesn’t cost you any more to shop through the affiliate link, but they will receive commission.
How to bookmark your favourite blogger’s Amazon link
This can be really handy when you want to do a spot of retail therapy.
- Click on their affiliate link. It will open in a new window the Amazon homepage.
- Press Ctrl + D on your keyboard to bookmark the link. Give it a name like “Amazon – XX Blog”
- Then any time you go to Amazon for some retail therapy access Amazon through that link. and your favourite blogger will receive a commission on the items you order.
Talk to them!
Us bloggers all love a comment. So if you like something leave a comment or send a tweet, it takes a couple of seconds, but it does make all the difference when you put your heart and soul into something. A little bit of recognition goes a long way.
Leaving comments on posts.
Blogging is all about community. When you leave a comment you are supporting that blogger and they will appreciate it. The comments you leave will encourage other people to leave a comment too. Why not set aside sometime once a week to visit your favourite blogs and leave a comment.
Send them an e-mail.
It is always so nice to receive an email from someone who reads your blog. So do that for someone else. You never know your email might just get there at the right time; just when they need to hear it.
Offer to mentor a new blogger
This could take many different forms, but imagine what it would have been like to have someone helping you or offering advice when you started. It could be really powerful for the blogger you help.
Refer other bloggers for opportunities
If you take on an campaign ask if the brand are looking for more bloggers. If so you can recommend some other bloggers. This will help the brands AND the bloggers you recommend. Even if it is a campaign that is not right for you and you decline, you can still ask if they would like recommendations. This will stand you in better stead for future opportunities too, as people want to work with helpful people.
Share resources
Give people recommendations when they’re asking about apps you use or networks you belong to. If they are asking about rates, help them if you can. If they get paid more money this is good for our industry as a whole.
Buy from them
If they have a course, ebook, download, whatever they have poured their heart and soul into (that could help you) buy it. Don’t look to bloggers you haven’t heard of to buy products and services, buy from the ones you do know.
Buy the products they blog about
Now I’m not saying you have to buy everything they mention. Let’s not go crazy. What I am saying is if you’re looking for a new hoover, why not check out the blogger’s reviews and go with one of them. Buy through their link. This might give them a small commission or it will make the brand think positively of them. This is such a lovely way of supporting other bloggers.
Show up for them
Be part of the community and of their community and show up. Read, comment, chat, be involved. This is what makes the blogging community so special; the fact that we all support each other.
‘Community Over Competition’
Has this given you some new ideas? Something to think about? Together we can make our community even more amazing!
Supporting other bloggers, how do you do it?
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