Postcards from the Funny Farm

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Over the past year or so, I’ve met several excellent bloggers who really know their stuff. One in particular is Jacob Share who authors a few really “top-shelf” blogs. I call them that because their circulation is high along with their analytics. However, In addition to that, they have subjects relevant and helpful to me as a blogger. Group Writing Projects, is one of those excellent blogs. If you have a blog to promote or if you enjoy reading blogs, I want you to know about this resource. Getting into one of these things can explode a post. One of mine went from 27 views to nearly 3,000 as a result of a group writing project. Every little strategy helps, they are like seeds. After all, most of us internet writers secretly hope to be more popular in searches than stuff like women’s lingerie, do we not ;)

Jacob was kind enough to let me interview him and share it with you all. Please visit Group Writing Projects after reading, it’s an excellent resource. Here it is:

1. Who should use Group Writing Projects.

By announcing their group writing projects on my site, creators get more exposure for their group writing project and their blog, which in turn drives more traffic, participants and potential subscribers. Plus they earn more links for their project and its participants, which they can use to attract even more of the above. Finally, creators will also be able to share and learn best practices to make their projects even better next time.

Every creator is also a potential participant and participants have it good on Group Writing Projects, the only place they need to subscribe to stay updated on where the latest group writing projects are happening. It’s a great way to get blog post suggestions regularly, with the additional benefit of guaranteed links and attention to your article AND blog. The “random” appearance of gwps also helps bring your blog to readers that have probably never seen it before.

It’s win-win.

2. What is the benefit to your visitors?

Very few blogs can keep up a high rate of quality unless they’re making enough money to support themselves full-time or the blogger doesn’t post very often. For other blogs to have success, even their “lower quality” posts need to have value for their readers, and that’s the tack I’ve been taking with Group Writing Projects. Most of the posts on the site are newsworthy project announcements and results roundups that will only pull you in when you need them but that you’re nevertheless happy to see. Otherwise, higher quality, instructional and opinion articles come out appear every few weeks but my goal is to increase that frequency to once a week.

Taking a different angle with your question, Group Writing Projects doesn’t filter. The site will announce any gwp that comes to my attention, but I will not hesitate to recommend against participating if it’s justified. I have an article coming out soon with more on that, it will surprise some people.

3. What was your motivation to start this?

Very simple. When I first discovered and fell in love with gwps while blogging on JobMob, my reflex was to search for more and I quickly realized that there was no centralized resource bringing them all together. I decided almost right away that I would take on the project but I actually put it off for almost 6 months before getting down to work on it. Both my blogs started to take shape in November, and both were launched a few months later. I may do that again this year as well with yet another :)

4. When did you start?

Group Writing Projects was semi-officially launched in February 2008. I say ’semi’ because I had a whole launch planned but I froze the launch halfway along the plan. That’s the topic of a whole blog post in itself that I’ve promised my readers so I won’t go further here. As for traffic, it varies, by design. The announcement and results posts were designed to be easy for subscribers- quick to scan in your feed reader, with links to creators’ sites if you decide to participate. They also don’t have much interest for search engines, and so they don’t bring many people to the site but that’s fine. The “higher quality” articles tend to do well for the opposite reasons.

5. What is your defining objective with Group Writing Projects?

I make websites that help people. JobMob is about helping people find jobs, and Group Writing Projects is about helping bloggers to achieve their blogging goals. For example my recent Building RSS group writing project has only begun to help bloggers with tips about how to get more subscribers, and the upcoming free e-book for my readers will be so handy that every blogger will want it.

As for an objective, I will only be satisfied when I see gwps as a regular blogging device appearing on blogs of all sizes, in all industries and niches. That’s when I’ll feel that my work is done ;)

Thanks for the interview, Damien. If anyone has questions, they should just come over to Group Writing Projects and ask in the comments or contact form.

It was an amazing Safari last week. I read some great blogs by old friends and added several new ones through the binoculars. Most my new blogs here were discovered through Entrecard.com. Just a little plug for them, they are cool. Check these out. As always, each post received a well deserved Stumble. If you have a post you’d like me to consider on a safari, please drop me an email.

Ask Mimzie Great Q&A in the spirit of “Dear Abby.” Mimzie has other styles of posts where she truly cracks me up with her wit and sassiness. This is a neat little section of her blog. You should check it out and if you like it: subscribe. Oh, and of course you can send in questions.

FreshPeaches I have always loved fresh peaches. This great diet/nutrition blogger tells you all the buying secrets.

My Top 5 Songs From the1960s What are your favorite songs from the 1960’s? Malcolm gives his awesome 5 and invites your input in his comments.

4×4 Sources Of Writing Inspiration: Group W... This is a great creative idea for a writing challenge. If you are looking for a backlink and want to write something creative, do this one with me.

Name Brand and Generic OTC meds A story of how a cougher learned why name brand meds cost more.

My TiVo thinks I am deceased I love TiVo and I found out one of my new blogger friends does as well. Is this something we should feel guilty about? nahhhhhhhh.

How to Use and Optimize for Google Image Searc... Having an alt and title tag within your pictures is an SEO must. In fact, if you don’t have the alt’s it will fail a validation. Katy writes a great post as always with photos showing you how to include these. If you are not doing this, I highly recommend reading this post.

Deflated While the trip do donate platelets didn’t pan out as she had hoped exactly, this post is phenomenal because she manages to photograph step by step her trip to give blood. That is dedication to blogging. This is an interesting post.

Danny Boy Jessica the Rock Chick wrote this little gem of a post about being Irish and about St. Paddy’s Day. The words are poetry as always but the peak of the think is the picture of an actual green river. I don’t even think it’s photoshopped.

Organized, I am Organization is such a powerful tool. This post shows how Marcia is getting her computer stuff organized and in line. I believe when you are organized, you can do anything! Oh, and she’s using Flock as a browser now which is also a great move!

Four Days Off A great reminder to her readers that work is just work and not something to get a “bleeding ulcer” over. I think we all could use this reminder in the form of a diary entry.

Damian A post about being cursed (or blessed) with the name Damien. She gives lots of examples of Damien through history that often get ignored in favor of the OMEN fame.

Movie Review: Vantage Point Is An Original, Exciti... A movie review on the famous “BlogCritics” about this clever, original suspenseful film with an all star cast including Dennis Quaid and Forrest Whittaker.

Do you Know Where Your Widgets Are? Article that examines which widgets are worth your time and which aren’t by giving some basic principles.