When most people decide to start a blog, they write all of the content themselves – it’s their site, and they invest all the time and effort into making it work.
While single-author content sites can become very successful, there are many benefits to the multi-author approach.
A prefect example of this is our blog over at Copyblogger. What started out as a single-author blog created by Brian Clark years ago, is now a thriving multi-author content marketing blog.
Here are 5 of those benefits that you may want to consider as you plan and execute on your future as a digital publisher …
1. Free Thyself
As a single content producer, it can be difficult to keep your site fresh with frequent, high-quality posts and content. If you have multiple writers, you can populate your site with more good content, instead of having to write everything yourself.
Of course, the quality of content counts infinitely more than the quantity of content, especially if you want your blog to continue to be an authority in your particular community online.
Make sure all of your authors are able to produce well-written, quality articles, and that standards don’t fall by the wayside just because you’re struggling to manage multiple authors.
Takeaway: A multi-author blog can produce content more frequently, freeing you up to work on other important tasks such as editorial focus, social distribution, product development, and building crucial relationships in your niche.
2. Gather Intelligence
With multiple authors, you’re likely to have many differences of opinion and varied viewpoints within your “writer’s room”. This can be an invaluable asset to a content site, as it allows the reader to experience the topic in different ways depending on which author they’re reading.
Allowing different viewpoints can also help a reader expand their knowledge of the topic, which can lend itself to interesting editorial discussions and further blog post ideas.
Takeaway: While keeping very clear editorial standards among all authors, allowing them to showcase their own unique viewpoint on your subject matter makes for a far more interesting and comprehensive site overall.
3. Attract Traffic
If you’re the only author of your site, you are solely responsible for marketing and promoting it.
As anyone who’s attempted to create a successful content site knows, these things take time and effort, especially when you also need to focus on posting frequent, quality content.
When working with multiple authors, the work can be shared among the group instead of it always falling to just one person.
It’s also likely that your authors will want to publicize their work for your blog, so they’re going to help with distribution by linking to their posts on their social networking pages.
This will — of course — help draw more traffic to your blog, as you’re not the only one doing all the marketing and promotion.
Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to encourage your authors to market the blog; it’s a win-win-win. You get more distribution, your authors get their names out there, and your audience gets a great read.
4. Engage the Network
We all know how important networking is when it comes to making your site a success.
With multi-author blogging, you are opening yourself up to even further networking opportunities by interacting with other bloggers who share the same interests and goals as you do.
Take the time to get to know your multiple authors, including their skills, interests and work experience. Read their sites and engage with their audience.
Help your guest writers achieve their goals.
You never know when you’ll receive a valuable referral because one of your authors knew you were experienced in a topic and passed a potential job opportunity your way.
Takeaway: Take advantage of the networking opportunities multi-author blogging presents, and don’t hesitate to refer jobs to your other bloggers as well when they are a good fit. As they say, what goes around, comes around.
5. Share and Share Alike
With a multi-author blog, the workload can be shared among all of the writers, leaving you with a easier workload and more time to focus on other projects.
Instead of being responsible for everything — from posting content, to monitoring comments to marketing your blog — you can share those responsibilities between all involved in the success of your site.
Takeaway: A multi-author site instantly creates a division of labor that becomes one of the greatest benefits of the five. Take the time to think about the strengths of your other writers, and how those strengths can be used to create a successful blog that benefits everyone.
The Conclusion
There are many benefits to having a multi-author blog, but the 5 mentioned here are some of the more compelling reasons you should consider going down that path.
Not only will your workload be divided among multiple bloggers, but you’ll open yourself up to amazing networking opportunities, more and better content, increased traffic, and multiple viewpoints for a dynamic, interesting site that people will want to read and talk about.
A few months ago I created a multi-author blog (http://www.godlywriters.com/) and it has been a great idea. There is no way I can feed all my blogs solely (I have 3 blogs) and I love having a “community” of authors.
It also helps others to create their platform of writing and gives them a blank canvas to display their blogging art. Moreover, all the authors need to do is generate blog content. They don’t have to be concerned about all the other features of running and funding a blog.
It is a win-win for everyone!
I completely agree with you Charles, and wish someday I can run my own successful multi-author blog. I do have ideas, but in due time.
Would you like to become a Contributing Writer on GodlyWriters.com? Looking for one 400-word article per month that will give Christian writers encouragement about how to be a better writer, a better blogger, and get their message out. You’d be awesome at it, Brian.
How’s that for a commercial?
So when is due time for briangardner.com going multi-author? I’ll be in touch.
Heh, when the time comes, it won’t be here.
It would be great if Rafal Tomal can say something here. I really love your and his designs
and humor too
On the other hand there’s a dark side to multi author blogs.
There’s also a huge difference between content marketing and real blogging.
No doubt multi author blogs can do very well but most are content farms in my opinion.
Based on Google’s guidelines quality content includes the pro’s and con’s not just the benefits.
Many guest bloggers are afraid of mentioning the negatives for some reason.
Guest blogging is becoming an increasing problem because blog owners are using guest authors to create content based on other peoples idea’s.
Some of these blog owners have mentioned that they support bloggers using other peoples ideas to write content from another angle but how is this based on their own personal experience?
I see guest authors writing content after searching for idea’s within the niche they base their content on and its not their own personal experience.
In my opinion, content marketing is a like a cancer that’s killing real blogging and some guest authors are feeding that cancer. Blog owners seem to be focused on building content and don’t respect where the idea’s for the content come from.
I also think its very close to if not plagiarism which many regular guest authors are guilty of.
Blogging isn’t open source where you can take someone else;s work and turn it into something you declare is based on your own personal authentic experience.
Some people are so focused on making money and increasing traffic and conversions they walk all over others to get what they want.
Sure there are a lot of “spam” types of guest blogs out there. But I think what Brian is writing about are high quality, multi-author blogs. Blogs with substance, expertise and geared toward a specific niche. And the whole point was to team up with some like minded people and get a really good source of information out there via a Blog. There are tons of HIGH quality multi-author blogs out there.
I always welcome guest bloggers at my blog. There are several reasons for that. We get content, authors get backlinks and also we gain more traffic and it really help to build good relations with fellow bloggers.
It really help to have multi-author to run a blog. However, good partnership is hard to find these days. I get some input from my wife from time to time. But, yeah it will be great to find some one to partner me running my blog.
There are a few reasons why you might want to start a multi author blog, sure.
But I think that a lot can be said for the personal and dedicated aspects that come from individual and personal blogging.
The reason I know about genesis, studiopress, copyblogger, scribe, premise and synthesis is because of Brian.
Not to mention the fact that he has single handedly taught me PHP and a mountain of CSS.
If I had landed on this site and been hit with a wall of noise from multiple authors I would have quickly left.
Do I feel like I will grow as a person by being here under Brians dedicated tutelage? Yes.
Would I stay here if it was a multi author blog? Maybe.
I am here for knowledge but more importantly I am here because I feel involved and I know if I have a question I can reach out and ask and receive a personal response.
A response that comes with the experience that has come with all the blog posts and context that have gone before it.
For me that is the most important part of the whole puzzle.
Am I speaking to the same Brian that I am listening to on Twitter?
I sure hope so.
This is a topic I am planning on covering on my blog when I relaunch in a few weeks. I’ve ran multi-author and single author blogs in the past though I was still unsure as to whether I should relaunch my blog, which uses my name, or find a suitable domain name and launch it.
The personal aspect of blogging is something that persuaded me to stick with my own domain. Personal blogs can’t be sold later and no one can help you with the workload either though I think it is easier to connect with readers when there is only one author.
I’ve seen a lot of blog owners pull back from writing and rely on guest posting once their blog has been a success. Most of the blogs that do this stagnate and start losing traffic as the quality of articles drop. You also find a lot of topics that have been covered already being revisited.
It does however depend on the type of blog you are trying to build. That is, news type blogs like Engadget and Mashable simply wouldn’t be what they are if it wasn’t for mutliple authors contributing to the site. The same could be said about high traffic travel blogs but I’ve always preferred the travel blogs that were written by one author.
Kevin
I’m horrible at making multi author blogs, i never have anyone that’s willing to come make one or do anything. SO i’m stuck in a padded round room without corners.. (Corners? I’d die without corners… rounded rooms make me cRAZY!) …er hi back again xD. Yea, other than the new book community i just made, there’s not much more i’m great at xD
Can I just ask then if there are any considerations you would make beforehand in your design or development decisions for single vs multi author sites? Perhaps this would be topic for another post or day…
This article completely changed how I was imagining my project and helped me find a way over several obstacles. Just in time, for me. Thanks Brian.
What I’m wondering — Brian or anyone else who has commented — is about your experience using revenue sharing along with running a multi-author blog. My vision for my project is contributing authors share in the ad revenue related to their own posts. My hesitation is with the tech to manage that. The plug-ins I’ve found don’t seem very well-developed or flexible, and I’m too much of a novice myself to code it. Anyone have luck with plug ins to manage revenue sharing?