First of all I want to explain the meaning of a partner. Partner is a companion who is united with other to do some task which belongs to common interest of both the person. It may be a business partner or a friend who helps in many day to day activities.
Now come to the blog, before asking the question that do you really need a blog partner, look the circumstances around you. Blogging is a very hardworking phenomenon which involves writing of an article, social networking, promotion of blog, marketing of products, replying fans emails, designing of blog, maintenance of blog. Are you able to do all the activities by your own? If your answer is yes, then I should say with a confidence that it is not necessary to you to work with a blog partner. The only reason to go with a partner would be to increase your blog business.
It should be decided before start of blog that who will do what, a clear strategy should be require making a blog really successful. If more than one person is working on the same blog then your blog post frequency should increase in similar way. It should be clear properly before starting work that who will responsible for which thing. Everyone’s role should be decided. Here I am discussing pros and cons of having a blog partner.
1) Blog update: Your blog home page will flow like a river of contents. If two brains involve in the updating blog then blog will fetched with different ideas.
2) Blog design and technicality: Suppose one partner don’t have any idea of designing part or FTP file uploads, then other will complete the work.That’s the most beneficial part of blogging with partner.
3) Marketing and promotion: So two persons involve in the marketing of a blog so obviously every article will get more and more exposure. Everywhere from Twitter to Facebook, from Friendfeed to Digg your article will rotate.
4) Flood of new ideas: If two persons are working hard on the same blog then there should be a cool discussion involves which is responsible for generation of new ideas. New strategies should be made.
5) Motivation: Motivation is very necessary term for everyone. If you have a blog partner, you have someone who always motivate your work, your partner acts as a source of motivation, you always do something better than you do it alone. Instead of low traffic, less comments and low revenue, you have something to do with your partner instead of giving up your blogging world.
6) Reduction in a work load: There should be a reduction of mental tension if two geeks are working on a same blog. You will get more and more time to relax and work better
Disadvantages
Above mention advantages are very much cool. But this one is an ideal case, if anyone should really admire it. I don’t think this is very much real. The reality is something very much brutal. It really painful when you experience any one of this case. Here are the most common disadvantages of working with a blog partner:
1) Who will take a decision: The most common problem among blog partners. There is a war of dignity starts among blogger that who is the best, who will take a best decision on the blog, what is the best logo suitable on the blog, which is the best theme suitable for the blog, who’s account will be there in a social networking site to promote a blog, I will use my personal Twitter account to promote a blog because this blog is my second name. I will use my Facebook account to add the blog in a networked blog.
2) Who will take a credit: Oh, god! My blog Alexa rank is improving; I am becoming famous amongst my friend from India to US. The word “My” creates the entire problem. It should be “Our”. If two persons are working on a blog then how could only single person got credit.
3) I have more knowledge than you: “Please concentrate yourself in writing the post, you need to write this post to get maximum visitors, you don’t have need to touch a dashboard, I will install all the plugins, I will register my blog on webmaster tools. I will customize the theme, load widgets; you don’t need to do anything”. These types of words are sufficient to decrease the moral of other partner. In the lack of mutual understanding other person think that I am such a dumb stupid man who is following the order of my partner.
4) Who will respond admin email: Now the problem starts from here, suppose your blog is attracted by some business company and they directly contacted you to make a business deal with you, then who will take final decisions. It should be decision of both by having a coffee meet.
5) Revenue sharing: This is the biggest cause of split between the partners, in lack of mutual understanding and business awareness, revenue sharing become a great problem. It should be decided earlier that what will be the share between two partners so in future there would be no mess.
6) The final result: This is one of the most horrible things for any blog partner, the result will be split between the partners and a new debate starts that who will be the owner of blog. All the hard work involve, all the important time you invest in your blog, all the important occasions you miss for your blog, all the reputation you earn from your blog will gone in a Recycle bin, because there is a war of ownership you will face many debates. The debates should be like:
“You invest this much money on this blog, now take your money back, and fuck off form the blog.”
“I am responsible for starting of this blog; you start working on it later so obviously this blog is mine.”
“I registered this blog on Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics and I improved its SEO so who the hell are you.”
“And this is the funniest one: This blog is my second name so obviously this Blog is mine.”
Final Conclusion
It is beneficial to work with a blog partner but it is a very critical to be consistent. It totally depends upon the mutual understanding between the blog partners. Everything should be made clear before starting a blog together. Especially revenue sharing part. Who will write how much post daily and who will get how much part of revenue generated through various blog revenue programs like Google Adsense, Chitika, Affiliate marketing. The decision of design part should be mutual and both of geeks should have all the password of every email and services account. The marketing should be done by other account instead of personal account because blog doesn’t belong to any one specially. From following these steps the complicity between partners should be minimize.
