Cat's Eye Writer

5 blogs I love: CatsEyeWriter's blog review, part 1

Sometimes my blog reading is calculated, with a strategy in mind, like driving traffic back to my own blog.

Other times, I find blogs that just speak to me. They may have a similar audience as mine and they may not.

But I read them mostly because they engage, inform and entertain. They pull some kind of emotional response from me.

They make me feel.

By the way, that's my definition of a good blog.

Disclaimer: All of these bloggers are also my friends, too, in varying degrees and at different levels. But if that were not the case, I would still be a loyal and enthusiastic reader.

5 blogs I love (and you will, too)

1.    Conquer your networking fears.

Breaking through fear: Patty K

I found Patty's blog through Biznik.com, a business networking site. This girl is smart and funny and she spills her heart out in every post. She is on a mission to help people who want to make a difference in the world, but are held back by shyness, social anxiety or lack of confidence.

Patty hooked me with the first post I read. It was about her "pajama experiment." She attended a 3-day conference in her pajamas, partly because she wanted to find her "right people," the ones who don't shun others because of what they are wearing. And partly to find the people that she might be able to serve in her business, people who have fears and insecurities, who might need her help. Her delightful post reporting the results is here. Visit this page to subscribe to her blog. 

2.    Celebrate your 'introvertness.'

The Introvert Entrepreneur: Beth Buelow

I first met Beth on Biznik, but we have since connected on Facebook and Twitter. Beth's business focus is life and leadership coaching for introverts. Her blog does a good job of celebrating introverts and helping them find a safe space to process what it means to be one. If you are an introvert—or someone in your life is— I recommend Beth's blog.

What strikes a chord for me with Beth's posts is that she helps us understand that introverts have extremely valuable traits that can be leveraged to help us be even more successful in our lives and our businesses. Read one of Beth's posts and if it's kind of your thing, you can subscribe here.

3.    Get inspired, big time.

Married with Luggage: Betsy and Warren Talbot

Betsy and I met online and, incredibly, have not met in person yet. That is a testament to the power of online relationships. If you have ever had a big goal you didn't think was do-able, you need to read Betsy and her husband Warren's amazing blog. They have broken down the process for what it took to rid their lives of "stuff" and prepare to embark on the adventure of their lifetimes: a 3-year journey to experience the diverse countries and cultures of our great big world.

Betsy continues to blog about carving the lifestyle you want out of the life you already have. She and Warren will be blogging  as they travel and you can follow their adventures. You'll find a list of Betsy's most popular posts here and subscribe to her blog here.

4.    Laugh and absorb the creativity.

Sparky Firepants: David Billings

I count Sparky Firepants—twitter name, @sparkyfirepants— as more than one of the "imaginary friends who live in my typewriter," as Copyblogger senior editor Sonia Simone describes her online buddies. We finally met a few weeks ago, at Lori Richardson's (@scoremoresales) all-day, One Big Idea retreat. His real name is David Billings, but I'll always see him as Sparky. He is a designer and illustrator extraordinaire and he secretes creativity like most people sweat after a 10-mile run. 

Sparky blogs about all things visual and graphic, with a strong dose of self-deprecating humor—the kind I love. Oh, and he is the artist and brain behind "botpreneur," a comic series about "what it's like to run a small business in the age of Social Media." Funny stuff. Visit Sparky's blog here.

5.    Get your marketing smarts.

The Marketing Spot: Jay Ehret

I recommend Jay's blog to entrepreneurs who need a good marketing education. Jay's business, The Marketing Spot, helps entrepreneurs "get a brand, a plan and the smarts to market their businesses." He has a knack for illustrating marketing concepts in a way that breaks them down into manageable, easy-to-implement pieces.

Jay blogs in the four areas that make up his 4-Spot Marketing Model: Branding, Experience, Conversation and Promotion. There are really too many good posts to single out any one. You can see them here and subscribe here.

So, there you have it. Five new ways to improve your business and your life—in just a few minutes of reading a day.

And who knows? If you leave an interesting comment on their blogs, you just may drive some traffic to your own blog! 

One more thing: I am still looking for people to engage with on my CatsEyeWriter Facebook page. 

Just click the "like" button at the top of this page (in the the right hand sidebar) if you want to connect with me there!

About Face on Facebook: Why I Created A 'Fan' Page

Two years ago, I opened up a personal Facebook account.

Then I created a business (fan) page for Cat's Eye Marketing but, sadly, didn't do much with it. Okay, I didn't do anything with it.

Like Michael Stelzner, executive editor of the amazing online magazine Social Media Examiner, I just wasn't seeing the value for business.

I found benefits from spending time on Biznik.com, Twitter and LinkedIn.

But Facebook? Not so much.

I didn't trust my information with them and wasn't even sure who had access to my stuff. Then there was the confusion of personal vs business accounts and who should friend or fan which page.

And there were many options and settings I never figured out. I didn't know what Facebook could do.

Twitter was easier.

I knew exactly who my peeps tweeps were: some were people in my field I wanted to get to know better, some were people I might partner with and others were just colorful, interesting people I could laugh with and learn from.

But Michael's post opened my eyes to what I might be missing. In fact, he predicts that businesses of all types will very soon make Facebook their number one social media tool. 

This powerful statement, coming from such a powerful and smart guy, convinced me.

Why I'm giving Facebook another chance

This writer has a low tolerance level for technology-fueled frustration. What can I say? I've been a Mac addict for 20 years. Apple products I can understand. They are intuitive.

 But even though Facebook has a steep learning curve for the right-brained thinker, I decided to give it another try. If Michael Stelzner could change his mind, well, maybe I should take a closer look.

 If Facebook is not just another place to collect names, if it is a place for engagement and conversations and satisfying interactions with cool people, then I'm in.

 (She clears her throat for an important announcement.):

CatsEyeWriter has a brand new Facebook page!

It's the place where I can find out what you're thinking about, share short newsy stuff, support you and your business— and even surprise you every once in a while.

If you think you might want to join my circle there, I'd be very happy if you popped over and "liked" me there.

I'll keep you posted on my journey. And if you already have a Facebook page for your business, I'd love to hear any and all suggestions for making it work.

Need more fans for your Facebook business page?

Still building your fan list? Leave a link with your Facebook fan page URL in the comments section below (just click on "Comments" and type away), so we can visit and click your "like" button, too.

What about you?

Do you have a Facebook fan page for your business? Is it doing anything for you? How do you engage your fans? 

Let us know in the comments. 

'Leo the Late Bloomer': When Do Dreams Die?

Our days, our minutes, our seconds on this earth are finite. And none of us know how much time we have. 

End of summer always makes me reflective. Maybe it's because I was a teacher for 17 years. If there was going to be change, it was going to happen in the golden days of September.

Like the first day of school.

And the intoxicating smell of new. 

Scents of wool sweaters with price tags barely clipped off, oily modeling clay (remember that?), waxy crayons in every color and the shavings from freshly sharpened pencils.

New beginnings.

The mantra in my classrooms was 'lifelong learner.' I held it up as a badge. Tried to model it for my kids.

First with six-year-olds. Then with confused, innocent English language learners from Southeast Asia. Later with gifted fourth and fifth graders.

Lately I've been thinking more about what it means to be a lifelong learner. 104-year-old IvyBean, the world's oldest twitterer, was one.

Julia Child, who became a household name with PBS's The French Chef at 51.

And Peter Mark Roget, who published the first edition of Roget's Thesaurus at 73. It went on to become the ultimate word-finder reference book.

Then there was Ray Kroc, who was almost 60, crippled by diabetes and arthritis, when he became the owner of a little restaurant chain with golden arches that would sell a billion hamburgers by 1963. 

I was showing signs of lifelong learning when I left a secure, cocoon of a classroom to trek to Africa to try to show the world the faces of kids who were dying because they couldn't get a cup of clean, cold water. And boy, did I learn a lot.

Are you waiting for 'the right time' to grab onto your dream?

Every year I would read the book Leo the Late Bloomer to my first graders. In the story, Leo the tiger cub isn't reading, writing or speaking yet. Dad is worried. But mom is not. She knows he'll do all those things and more—when he's ready.

I called my daughter Kellye my "Leo the Late Bloomer."

Although she was reading by age 4, she was shy, socially delayed and had no plans after high school but to move to southern California and go for her acting dream.

Broke my heart that she didn't choose college.

She got a few small roles in Hollywood—on Seinfeld, Beverly Hills 90210 and, in a strange turn of events, a two-year recurring role as Monica Lewinsky on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

But in the end, Hollywood chewed her up and spit her out. Tough to watch as a parent.

I remember the day she said to me, "I've been thinking about going to college. But you know what? I'll be 42 in four years, by the time I get my degree."

I said," And how old will you be in four years if you don't get your degree?"

She didn't have a good answer. 

That time would pass just the same, whether she went to college or not. And she would be 42 either way.

Now, after two years at a local college, with close to a 4.0 GPA, she has been accepted as an Ada Comstock scholar and a "noteworthy entering student" at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts.

And in just two years, she'll have that degree in theatre arts, with plenty of time to still do something with it.

For both me and my daughter, it was the age of 40 that triggered our is-there-something-else-out-there-for-me.  But it just as easily could have been 30 or 50 or 70.

Do you have a dream that is still unfulfilled?

Maybe it isn't big, like a college degree. Or maybe it's even bigger than that.

Sometimes just writing it down can be the first step. 

Sell Your Blog Content: 5 Tips for Turning Your Past Posts Into Profit

 Remember the days when we thought that you just can't sell your content on the Internet?  

"You are charging?" your friend gasps. "You can't do that. No one will pay for stuff that used to be free."

Well, I think they will. 

If it has value, if it saves people the time of collecting it all, and if it feeds them the step-by-steps they need to make their businesses more profitable. 

I'd take out my credit card for something like that, wouldn't you?

I just created my first ebook, Guide to Showing Up Online. It's composed of edited, updated past posts with a focus on the ones that were most read and had actionable, implement-today advice. 

What's good about repurposing (and selling) your content

If you have been blogging for a while, you may be pleasantly surprised at the amount of quality posts you have collected over the years. 

And repurposing the content you've already created into digital information products, including ebooks, can bring you extra revenue streams without tons of added effort. 

Creating an ebook or two  can allow you to test the waters, especially if you are thinking of having an Internet marketing business down the road. 

And because you have no printing costs, they are next to nothing to produce. 

But what if I create an information product and nobody buys it? 

Well, yeah. That could happen.

If you just threw together 20 or 30 posts, slapped them up with a cutesy, Photoshopped book cover and hung a $79 price tag on it, you might not experience a buyer stampede. 

But if you craft your book carefully, narrow the focus of your content and identify the customers who most need what you are offering, you may find a ready-made audience who is eager to consume it.

Why would readers buy content you have posted on your blog? 

If you have selected posts that naturally go together (for instance, my book has a social media/emarketing focus), if you have revised the content to make it more current, if you have ordered your content right, your readers will recognize the value because you have packaged it all up for them. 

No more searching through your blog's archives for that post that solves a problem your reader may be having right now. 

When considering who might buy your book, think of 1) your current blog readers and subscribers; 2) brand new audiences who haven't yet seen your content but you know would find it extremely helpful. 

5 Tips for Creating an Information Product from Your Past Posts

1. Choose the right content. 

Make sure you select the posts that were most helpful—how-to posts are good—so your reader can see the value in terms improving her business and/or her life. If you can make her laugh and entertain her at the same time, all the better. Preferably, you'll do both.  

2. Niche it down. 

Consider a theme: possibly some of your series posts or articles that are related by category. One of my friends, a rural business consultant,  wrote a "Social Media and Tourism" book. Another, an inbound marketing consultant has an ebook focused on Twitter for nonprofits. Narrowing your focus lets you find the people who are looking for that exact thing—and your book sells better.

3. Find the posts that were most popular. 

As you think about the theme or focus of your book, go back to the posts that had the most page views. There were definitely things in those posts that struck a chord, that made people sit up and take notice. And if that many of your readers loved that post, there are lots of others out there who will, too.

4. Rewrite the shorter posts for deeper, richer content.

I do not have that issue, but many bloggers write in the short range—500 words or less per post. That is not going to carry a chapter for you. If your posts run on the short side, figure out what you can add to make them more meaty, richer, more helpful.

5. Play with the order until you have a smooth, seamless book.

Avoid the straight cut and paste. Watch the order so you have some continuity. Rearrange, add to so you have a cohesive piece with the chapters in logical order. 

There are other things to think about, of course. Like how to package it and deliver it. How to price it fairly. How to find your audience and how to market it in a way that demonstrates its value. But this will get your thinking started.

If you have a bunch of posts but you are not sure they are in the best shape to turn into a digital product or if you just want to improve your content so you can create a quality book down the road, you might be interested in my blog critiques or blog coaching packages. 

For a less expensive way to power up your blog with supercharged content and appealing photos, you can buy my ebook, Guide to Showing Up Online, for just $17. 

Remembering @ivybean104: World's Oldest Twitterer

 I don't blog about Twitter very much. While it is a useful and wildly popular social media tool, many biz owners have not yet taken the plunge.

Today I make an exception.

I knew that @ivybean104, the sweet lady from Bradford, England who was said to be the oldest Twitter user, had been sick. 

Pat, Ivy's caregiver at the Hillside Manor, had been keeping her followers updated on her status. We knew that she had been taken to the hospital. On July 14, Pat tweeted,

"I have to keep you all up to date or ivy will have some strong words to say when she gets home…"

And on July 15:

"she has got yellow jaundice"

A couple of days later, Pat told us that the staff is very good at sneaking things into the hospital and that they had managed to get fish and chips, Ivy's favorite dinner, past the nurses.

Some days later, she was sent back to the home to recover.

It was when I sat down at my computer last Wednesday morning to check my blog stats that I knew something was not right.

My visitor numbers had spiked and the most viewed page was my post of June 3, 2009. The title: The Word's Oldest Twitterer: Social Media Lessons from @ivybean104.

I pulled up Ivy's Twitter profile and read 8 short words from Pat, dated Wednesday, July 28, 2010:

"ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning"

Why we loved Ivy Bean

She was honest, open, caring. Everyone's grandma.

And because you always knew where she was coming from, you felt that you could almost trust her with your life.

She had that rare combination of humility and compassion.

On November 19, 2009, she tweeted:

"I never thought anyone would be interested in me I still don't understand why they are"

She wasn't perfect—and she admitted it. She knew it was hard to be good. About her favorite game, Connect 4, she once tweeted:

"I never cheat, well, maybe sometimes I do, but I will try not to today."

She seemed to want to chronicle her days, almost as if she was keeping a diary in picture book form.

Once she posted a photo on Twitter of herself, head on pillow, napping in the back seat of the car that was taking her to meet Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of England.

She labeled it "having a nap on the way."

Before she met Brown, she tweeted:

"Gordon Brown is no Peter Andre but it will still be nice to meet him."

(UK pop star Peter Andre visited Ivy and sang for her. She immediately became his number one fan and insisted that the photo of her and Andre become her Twitter profile pic.)

After she returned, in two separate tweets, she said of the visit,

"i used the prime minister's private toilet in his study…I don't know if Gordon usually leaves the toilet seat up but it was down when I sat on it."

Ivy cared deeply about her friends at the home. When an 89-year-old Hillside Manor resident got lost last November, she tweeted:

"…we have had a stressful morning Kathleen one of the ladies went missing…"

And just 5 minutes later:

"she was found safe and well having a cup of tea next door…so all is well and dandy"

A role model for the aging

With credit to the staff and administration of Hillside Manor, Ivy stayed active up to her last days.

Instead of shunning technology, she embraced it. She joined Facebook at the age of 102, but left when she had 25,000 pending friend requests that were denied because she had 'reached her limit.'

Not one to give up, she turned to Twitter. A guy from the Geek Squad came to the home to help her set up her Twitter account.

She got the hang of it quickly.

As she started telling her friends at the Manor about Twitter, the one laptop in the home became in short supply and the wait time was long.

That was when someone donated 5 more laptops to the home so Ivy's friends Norma and Mabel could tweet, too.

(When Norma, who Ivy introduced to Twitter, passed away last August, Ivy tweeted:

"it’s a very sad day today my friend norma who I went to blackpool with died suddenly last night god bless her"

And later, in childlike innocence:

"Norma was our friend who passed away last month so we named a cat after her")

She didn't think that sports and games were only for the young and loved to cheer on her favorite football team, Manchester United. 

In June 2009, Ivy competed in Hillside Manor's Over 75's Olympics.

She took first place in Frisbee throwing and received her gold medal from the Lord Mayor of Bradford. She posted the video on Twitter.

Being on Twitter helped her not only share her life with the world, but stay curious and interested in others.

She met someone who was working with homeless kids and families and was very interested in that. She tweeted with people who also loved the show Deal or No Deal. Sent wishes to some of her followers on their birthdays.

She was focused outward, not inward and so she didn't obsess about her own ailments, instead turning her attention on others.

Not a bad philosophy for a 104-year-old. And she lived it right up to the day she died.

I've decided. 

I want to be like Ivy Bean when I grow up. 

10 Things To Do with Your Blogging Mate to Grow Your Blog

Now that you have found your perfect blogging mate—someone who's blogging on about your level, who is committed to the relationship, who is willing to share her readers with you— what do you do with each other?

What can the two of you do together to grow each of your blogs? 

1. Set up a schedule for content critiques.

This works best if you are not under the gun with your deadlines. Write a few "evergreen" posts—you know, the non-time-sensitive ones— to put in your content bank. Then exchange a few posts with your blogging buddy for some honest feedback. You'll be surprised how much stronger your piece will be after the rewrite, using the objective input you get. 

2. Give each other a home page navigation/usability test.

Go into each other's home pages and test for ease of finding your way around. Did anything distract you when you were looking for the content? Was there anything missing (share buttons for spreading the posts with social media, the blogger's about page, a clear statement of what the blog is all about, etc.)  How easy is it to leave a comment? All useful information that will help your partner improve their blog.

3. Leave comments on each other's blog posts.

We all suffer from lack of comment love from time to time. Chime in on the blogging topic. Make your views known. Add to to and stimulate the conversation.

4. Link to each other in posts when appropriate.

Think of a topic you could each write about in a different way and then link your readers to her post (and vice versa). Hyperlink to her blog if you are writing about a topic that ties in to her content focus in some way. 

5. Use social news and content sharing sites to promote each other's posts.

Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Facebook "Like" buttons, etc. make it easy to share your stuff. For example, there is a cool widget for WordPress blogs called "Sexy Bookmark" that gives readers, including your blogging buddy, one-click options for sharing your posts on a variety of sites. 

6. RT (retweet) links to each other's content on Twitter.

Be selective here. People on Twitter will soon begin to tune you out if you promote every one of your blogging mate's posts. From time to time, find one with an interesting focus and tell people why you are retweeting it. It'll get more click-throughs and more new visitors for your pal's blog. 

7. Guest post on each other's blogs from time to time.

If you share your audiences, you will both grow your readerships. Writing a guest post on your friend's blog is a great way to reach out to a new audience and make them curious about you and your blog. 

8. Share topics/ideas for posts you each are considering in the future.

Have a brainstorming session together to see what new ideas might emerge.Toss around topics that might at first seem outrageous because, sometimes, if you take a closer look, you may see the germ of an idea that will spark great interest and get you more engaged readers. 

9. Share the URLs of blogs each of you follow that have brought a significant amount of traffic back to your own blogs.

It's always a good thing to keep looking for new blogs to comment on. If you have found one that brings consistent traffic back to your own blog, share that information with your blogging buddy. 

10. Synchronize your blogging calendars and send each other gentle reminders when new posts are due to go out. 

It helps you keep a consistent blogging frequency (things written in calendars usually get done). Because you don't want to have to explain to your blogging mate (who will show up to read your post) why exactly it didn't go out on time.

Was this helpful? 

I have lots more cool ideas in my Guide to Showing Up Online. You can find out more here. 

Start Small, Show Up Big: 5 Non-woo-woo Results from Using Twitter

 There is a term going around in the marketing circles. Some people use it to describe social media.

Woo-woo. 

You know: touchy-feely, makes-you-all-warm-inside, like roasting marshmallows and singing around the campfire kind of stuff. 

In other words, social media—Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or whatever—doesn't bring any real, tangible benefits. 

I used to think that, too. 

But, looking at my last 12 months, the takeaways from Twitter alone have been about as non-woo-woo as you can get. 

5 Non-woo-woo Results from Using Twitter

1. Got off-the-charts visibility through 3 high-profile guest blog posts (for amazingly talented bloggers I've never met). 

I met one of the best marketers in the business on Twitter. He invited me to write a guest post for his popular blog. And then an encore post. 

An additional—surprising—result: he added me to his home page list of best small business marketing blogs.

And, through that connection, I met a social media expert who specializes in marketing for rural businesses.

Through a series of seemingly random exchanges on Twitter, she learned that I had moved my business from the city to an island. She asked if I would like to write about that experience on her small biz blog. 

Two blogs with huge readerships and the opportunity to introduce myself to some new folks. I couldn't have bought that kind of publicity. 

2. Grew a close support network of writers I've never met to bounce ideas off of and explore partnerships with.

Both our businesses—Cat's Eye Marketing and Savvy WordPress—are mostly or solely online ventures. Our clients and customers come from across the country. 

So do my friends and colleagues, I have found.

There is something special about tweeting a need for a piece of information or advice and seeing someone in my circle respond with a solution. Whether it's a simple grammar question or a more complex pricing issue I'm grappling with, my Twitter buddies are there. 

The mentoring goes both ways. Sometimes, when Twitter's 140-character limit makes us crazy, we schedule a live phone chat. 

And because we know each other's strengths and niches, we can easily refer work back and forth.

No, I don't do that kind of writing, but I know the perfect person for you.

3. Got help and advice for writing, pricing and promoting my first ebook (see below)—from people I've never met.

This was very cool. Some of my Twitter friends had produced lots of ebooks and shared solid tips and lessons learned: on focusing the topic, figuring out a fair price, finding the right people to help promote it.

Other friends were coming out with their first books themselves. We critiqued each other's drafts, which was hugely helpful because it resulted in tons of insights and suggestions for improvement, all from fresh, objective perspectives.

4. Saw big traffic increases at my own blog when highly respected Twitter followers I've never met retweeted the links to some of my new blog posts. 

Sometimes a blog post will just strike a chord. It comes across someone's Twitter stream at exactly the right moment. And it can happen amazingly fast.

One of my followers will rewteet it to their followers, one of them will send it out again and so on. 

When this happens, it causes a huge spike in my page views and blog visitor numbers. And, more importantly, it increases my chances for more regular readers and subscribers. 

5. Became a member of a close, caring community of other business owners I've never met.

Okay. This one might just be a little woo-woo. 

But I have come to see my Twitter network as my 'support group.' I can have real-time conversations with them. I can take a break from my work every once in a while and just connect.

I can take a moment to share a link to an interesting site that I know the follower of mine who is a history buff would love. Or my photographer friend from Italy might post a "twitpic" of something she calls, "Old Tuscan door."

Kind of the way neighbors used to share stuff over the backyard fence.

Just that moment's break from all my crazy deadlines.

And all these results simply from showing up online in a consistent way. And engaging with people I've never met.

Which brings me to why I wrote a book about 'showing up online'

I wrote Guide to Showing Up Online because I wanted to help people figure out how to start small and develop a strong online presence. You know, the kind that helps them get noticed?

Many people have asked me if I could package up my past blog posts on using social media and emarketing so they can access them, by category, all in one place.

I listened.

And here you have it: my first ebook. In it, you''ll find lots of practical, use-tomorrow ideas, laid out in step-by-step form. 

Step-by-steps for writing online bio's that attract the right customers—the ones you want to serve. For how to avoid writing mistakes that make you look stupid. 

For managing your social media time so you don't burn out.

For creating an enewsletter that your prospects and customers will eagerly consume.

For fixing the number one reason you don't have more blog readers.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, you can buy it here—27 chapters, 91 pages, with photos—for just $17. 

Or learn more here.

Have you seen promising results from using Twitter? Still on the sidelines but thinking about jumping into the waters? Or maybe still trying to figure out if it's the right tool for your business?

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment box. 

'Help, I Need Somebody': 5 Steps to Finding Your Perfect Blogging Mate

 Help, I need somebody,

Help, not just anybody,

Help, you know I need someone, help.

John Lennon wrote those lyrics in 1965. He had a way of striking right at the heart. Of being honest. He wasn't afraid of sounding like a "little girl."

When he needed help, he just asked for it.

He once said that Help! was one of his favorite Beatles songs because, "I meant it—it was real."

Why bloggers need help, too

Whether you are thinking about jumping into the blogging waters, or you've been at it for years, finding a partner—getting help—is one of the best ways to grow your blog.

Why?

For one, it keeps you accountable (and motivated). 

This is a big one. The times I have taken online classes or been a member author critique groups, I just get more done. Because I know that people are expecting to see my next chapter. Call it accountability. Call it peer pressure. But it keeps you on your game.

Besides that, you have a cheerleader—someone who will be more apt to promote your blog—a partner to bounce your ideas off of, an objective and honest friend to give you feedback when you need it and a brand new audience of readers to show your stuff to.

All for free.

Not a bad deal.

5 steps to finding your perfect blogging mate

1.Find someone is who is close to your level of skills and experience. Are you at the beginning of your blogging journey? Having you been doing it for a while but are now feeling some challenges and growing pains? Do you consider yourself in the advanced category?

Wherever you are in the spectrum, look for someone with goals and needs similar to yours. You will work way better together if you do. It helps to find someone in the same niche as you, but you can also work with someone who is in a different field, but whose readers would be eager consumers of your content, too.

2. Look for your partner in lots of different places. Consider one of your colleagues—someone you already know—but don't ignore all the other possibilities: social networking contacts, people in forum discussions. Even bloggers who consistently leave comments on your blog. Look at a few of their blog posts to get a sense of the quality and style of their writing.

3. Aim for win/win. Both of you should benefit from the match-up. Each of you should be committed not only to improving your own blog but helping your partner's blog grow. If you establish your goals together and keep those in mind (see tip #4 below), you'll be on the right track.

4. Establish mutually developed goals for the experience. More about this in the next post, but for now, I'll just say this. Decide what your focus will be, what you want to happen, and set the goals and expectations. That way, neither of you will be disappointed with the results.

5. Consider a 'trial period.' This is an experiment to see if you are compatible. It's kind of like dating. If you set a trial period—say, two or three months—you can reassess at the end and see if it's been a positive experience for both of you. Bloggers (and people) have different working styles and it's no shame to end the relationship (at least the formal one, anyway) if it isn't meeting one or both of your needs.

So just don't be afraid to ask for help. You may be surprised to find out that lots of other bloggers secretly want help, too.