First, I want to say a huge thank you.
Last week, I wrote a post called, Help! I’m At A Lifestyle Design Crossroads, which became the most popular post of all time on this blog. This is a follow up to that post.
Firstly, I was extremely touched by all of you who took the time to comment and offer such great advice and encouragement. It made me realize what a faithful community of readers I have on this blog. So, to all of you, who took the time to encourage, comfort or even tear me a new one, I sincerely thank you all.
I’m choosing a direction for my life and this blog.
I’ve made some decisions as a result of all your feedback. Since, I love the lifestyle design and personal development niches, I’m happy to continue learning and blogging about them.
I still have to decide on a realistic and comfortable post rate. I have to take things into consideration such as the quality and length of the posts, developing products, writing guest posts on other blogs, learning more about personal development, lifestyle design, blogging and entrepreneurship, commenting on other blogs, building my Twitter following, my English teaching job, my Chinese study, as well as start getting into shape, which I hope to also incorporate on this blog.
The important thing is for me to find a happy balance in life. At this stage, I could realistically cope with one or two posts per week on this blog and write a guest post for other blogs every one or two weeks. I would also welcome guest posts on this blog.
Change in focus.
I will focus on making my blog great value for my readers and not worry about the lack of income or readership it currently has. As many of you suggested, if I look after my readers, increases in numbers and income will eventually come. Having made this decision, I feel a huge burden has been lifted.
If I’m not able to make income from this blog at this stage, then I will look at building another business once I move back to New Zealand next July. I still need to earn money to live, but would prefer to challenge myself in starting my own business, rather than going back to a regular job.
Your advice is needed to help me make a major decision.
I have a question for you. Should I find a partner for Lifestyle Design 4U? By a partner, I mean someone who would be committed to making this blog succeed and contribute by writing quality posts on it. In return we’d split any profits. It would mean working on products together and also promoting this blog in our circles and growing its readership.
I’ve had two bloggers in the lifestyle design and personal development niches who have given me opposite advice. One said that partnering would be a great idea to grow this blog, while the other said I don’t need to do that.
My feeling is that to take this blog to a serious level and improve it substantially, pooling two people’s resources, time, energy and ability makes sense. Since this blog is not currently making any profit, we’d be starting from a clean slate. It would mean a higher frequency of posts and a more varied style of writing for you to read. Now, I’m aware that there may be some problems, some I probably haven’t thought of, in regards to partnering on a blog.
Please advise me below as to whether you think finding a partner for this blog would be the right move or not and why. Thanking you in advance.
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G'day! I'm Gordie, founder and editor-in-chief of Lifestyle Design For You. I want to welcome you to the center of the universe when it comes to lifestyle design and personal development blogs. We're a team of ten writers providing you with articles to help nourish your mind and improve your life. Lifestyle design is about designing your life so you can do what you want when you want. 
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m glad you’ve cleared the cob webs I know I’ve struggled with similar malaise of late. Ultimately as you say if you make making a connection your primary goal everything else will fall into place with some hard work. As for partnering I think it would be highly dependant on the partner, my personal fear would to be stuck in a blogging relationship that sours as a result of lack of commitment.
I think having another a lifestyle design voice on your blog would definitely benefit the site and would make for a more varied range of views however this could be done without the formality of a full partnership, through relevant guest posts and post swaps.
Also once you have a second blogger on board you will ultimately end up focusing on profits once again, and worse still you’ll be worrying for two people.
On post rate on another site I contribute to I write a post a day and found that the easiest way to do this was to work on generic content types. i.e Make monday list post day, tuesday motivational message day etc. you’ll find having these templates will make it easier to get the content down quickly.
Another tip this one from Darren Rowse himself, 250 words are enough. Though he rarely follows his own advice a quick look at Seth Godin will convince you that not every post needs to be long to be impactful.
All in all I think this site is in pretty good shape with the strong community you have and with that potential it might be a mistake take on a partner right now unless you really aren’t coping with the time demands.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the great advice. You have given a balanced point of view which has given me a lot to think about. One thing I struggle with is to keep my post length down to under 500 words. If you look around the lifestyle design and personal development blogs, you’ll see that many of them tend to write longer and more in depth posts. I really respect someone like Seth Godin, who can pack such a punch is such short posts.
Cheers.
Hi Gordie.
High-five to you for continuing the transparency train. It is pleasing to read about as well.
It would be good if someone who has partnered with someone else before on their site provides their input as well, so their experience could be of value.
In choosing a direction, we are more glad to take part, as you doing the mental struggling leaves us more able to take part in and absorb your production.
Great openness here.
Armen Shirvanian’s last blog ..Competition Discussed By 8 Personal Development Writers
Yeah, I’ve noticed in our circles lately, there has been a lot of discussion about transparency. To date, I haven’t been very transparent about my personal life and feelings. I will open up more now that I’m more comfortable, but as for me dancing naked on YouTube videos, that will be some time away yet.
I think only you can make the decision Gordie. You need to weigh up the pros and cons, and you’ll know what they are. One piece of advice if you do decide to work with a partner is to choose carefully – it’s one thing having a partner on a JV project, but it’s quite another having one on what is potentially your life’s work. Whoever you choose needs to be well matched in terms of work rate, thinking, objectives and “style.” And I would advise you to get all the legal stuff about contracts and shares etc well sorted before you start.
Mike CJ’s last blog ..How to get the best from being an Amazon affiliate
Hi Mike,
The one thing I was mostly concerned about is the legal aspect. I believe I’m trustworthy and honest enough, and most likely a partner would be too. But it’s hard to know the future and if our relationship would change. Thanks for the comments.
Good to see that you’ve chosen your path, Gordie.
I’m of the opinion that you should continue to go it alone, which keeps all of your focus on the site’s development. A mix of guest post and your own writing will keep the site fresh and entertaining. Ultimately, you’ll have to make the decision regardless of the feedback received though. The main thing is this…
Keep blogging!
Jimi Jones’s last blog ..16 Reasons to Use Social Media
Cheers, Jimi.
Interesting to notice in the few comments so far that the vibe is not to formally partner. Looking forward to see what others say.
Gordie, back to the cheery chap we all know and love after your “Long Dark Lunchtime of the Soul” moment. Well done.
It is your decision as to whether or not you involve a partner. Partnerships in all aspects of life are a risk at first and can end in disaster and your blog isd at a fragile stage whereby it can easily be screwed by the wrong choice.
Have you considered building up a pool of guest bloggers that you can rely on? It is a path I’d consider.
Kevin Tea’s last blog ..Cloud Computing And Web 2.0 News Digest
Finding a circle of 10 or so guest posters and have them rotate once every month or two if they’re willing would be another option.
I’m glad to see that you have chosen to continue with what you have started here. As far as partnering up with someone, I guess that’s really up to you. I would say that it’s not really the best idea if you really want to connect with readers and build relationships with them. These relationships are important as they will draw others in. And don’t even worry about posting twice per week, just go with once if you want! There are a lot of great blogs out there that only post once a week. I’ve been doing it this way for a little while and I love it.
Nate’s last blog ..what does lifestyle design mean to me?
Hi Nate,
Thanks for the encouragement. I will settle on one to two blog posts per week from myself and look for guest posts too.
Gordie I think a partner is a good idea. The negative side is splitting the proffits, but at this stage that is not such a negative, as you clearly state that monetizing your blog is not a big concern at the moment. Partning with someone else will definately divide the burden and resources. I believe Darren Rowse posted something about partnering.
I would suggest an equal exchange partnering. Read my post on a similar idea, Want traffic and exposure for your blog – get involved in post swap @ http://www.integralwebsolutions.co.za/Blog/EntryId/378/Want-traffic-and-exposure-for-your-blog-get-involved-in-post-swap.aspx.
You could get involved in building up each others blog, share your reader reach, etc. A great Idea I think.
Then I’d suggest, as others have done, by building up a list of guest bloggers.
Hope this helps
Robert Bravery’s last blog ..Twitter mistakes that you might have made before.
I actually remembered you post swap idea post a while back. If I could find a small group in the same niche and we rotated posting on each others blogs, it would get more exposure without sacrificing the number of posts on one’s on blog. Will approach some people.
It really depends on whether you and your partner agree on subjects. However, you could also play off of each other (spy vs spy).
http://menwithpens.ca does a great job of using different voices.
Nathan Hangen’s last blog ..6 Tips for Efficient Blogging
Yeah, I know Techcrunch, Masahable, and MenWithPen’s have headed in that direction with sharing writing evenly among a group of partners. They all rank very high in blog circles in their niches. That’s what first gave me the idea of partnering. Thanks, Nathan.
Feeling like Rabbit…
O dear, o d’d'dear, dear, dear!
Partnering sounds like a grand idea, until you have been there-done that with very bad results. Or should I say none at all.
I know my experience probably isn’t the norm, but let me just say, get it on paper and have it signed.
That said, I do enjoy multi-author blogs and when they’re done right, I think they can be very powerful, both in effecting other’s lives and in bringing in a profit. As my guest poster pointed out this week, blogging is a team sport. Or at least it should be!
Good luck!
Erica Mueller’s last blog ..Blogging is a Team Sport
Hi Erica,
Perhaps you could share with us some of the pitfalls you discovered in your partnering experience.
Gordie,
Whatever road you pursue, just don’t give up. You’ve done some great stuff here and I’ve enjoyed collaborating with you and brainstorming with you. I may actually write another post for you as a case study on how to overhaul your blog
Srinivas Rao’s last blog ..6 Things I would do differently if I started my blog today
Thanks, Srinivas,
That would be really cool. I hope you do.
Gordie,
You will know better than anybody. Inner guidance trumps all. Other’s suggestions can be helpful but only you know what you truly want. I’ve made many life changing decisions after spending 30 minutes in a quiet room. The chatter of the thinking mind – old thought habits that are driven by indecisions, failure, and other past ideas – distorts a vision. I’d sit down in silence after I first wake, let my mind clear, than ask myself your question. The answer will reveal itself, if not after your session, sometime soon. It always does.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for that. I think it would be good for me just to sit quietly and ponder what I want exactly.
Only you can make this decision.
I’ve made it for myself: I will no longer partner with anyone where my main source of income is concerned. Doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried it several times.
Dave Doolin’s last blog ..I’ve Just Wasted $53 on Hosting and a Domain, s***, What Now? HELP!?
Hi Dave,
It seems that most are recommending against partnering. I’m glad I asked you guys. You’re all full of great advice.
Well, I’m on the fence about partnering but have serious misgivings. You have to be sure that you are both on the same track with the same goals, visions, determinations, time frame otherwise it won’t work and could lead to resentment.
I cut down from 3 posts a week to 2 and am thinking of reducing to 1. Why did they tell us we should post 2 or 3 times a day. I think they were taking the piss and the joke was on us. Glad we’re all wising up to it now:)
Oh and very glad you are back on form:)
Hey Annabel,
I think they told us to post two to three times a day of getting in good with the search engines. Normally when you update your blog more regularly the Google crawlers will come back more often to index that new content.
I think I’m pretty much settled on once or twice a week on my own blog and a guest post every two weeks. This will give me time to actually practice and study different aspects of lifestyle design and personal development before writing about them.
Partnerships can be difficult at the best of times. The biggest problem is that everyone can do it for themselves so why would they want to work with someone else? There are benefits to partnerships of course, but most people want to own and control everything. All my efforts at collaboration and partnerships online have fallen apart, except for the ones I strictly own and control.
I think one thing that a lot of bloggers make a mistake with, including myself, is blogging about a topic different than the services they plan to sell. Blogging about travel when you are trying to sell graphic design services doesn’t really make sense. Focus on your business and you will get the traffic. The problem is that you have to choose one thing the focus on. That is always difficult. I still haven’t been able to narrow my focus because I enjoy these topics too much.
John Bardos – JetSetCitizen’s last blog ..Interview with IttyBiz founder and Small Business Guru, Naomi Dunford
Hey John,
When I plan to go back to New Zealand next year, I plan to start a business, but it will be unrelated to my blogging field. It will be interesting to see what happens, but I think I’d still like to continue blogging in this field. I hope I could share my business experiences on this blog when that happens.
Gordie! Are you sitting down? Please stand up while I prepare my boot… Just joking, I promise to be nice(r) today…
Buddy, this idea of partnership suggests that you don’t believe in your ability to make a success of this site independent of other people.
Guest posts are a great idea but with partnerships, apart from the few successful sites like Men with Pens, very few capture my attention because they lose the personal touch after a while, either that or I lose track of who I’m learning about.
Men with Pens works well because quite often I’ll be reading a guest post and they’ll refer to James as though he’s in the same office and they’re taking the piss out of him. Is that close knit environment something you’re going to be able to emulate?
If you choose the partnership path then I sure hope you do it because you don’t need the extra person but share your work with them because you can’t help but want to.
Hi Caron,
Yeah, it was just an idea I wanted to float out there. I asked because I think you guys give lots of great advice. I realize I’m the one who has to make the decision, but it doesn’t hurt for me to get some feed back from some more experienced people.
Most have recommended against partnering.
Thanks for taking the time to give me your two cents worth. Always appreciated.
Hey Gordie,
it’s.good to get advice but ultimately I think you have to follow your own instinct. All the best with that decision, I look forward to hearing what you decide.
Its good to hear you have decided to continue.
Jen
jen’s last blog ..People will love you, people will hate you 鈥?/a>
Hi Jen,
Thanks for all the support and encouragement.