blogging-good-samaritan

If someone asked me to give them the best blogging advice in just one sentence, it would be “Giving things away is better than buying links”. My grandma also used to say “You’ll catch more bees with honey than vinegar”. Is your blog like honey – or like vinegar?

Blogs that are like honey:

  • Really long posts with good resources
  • Articles series and multi-post tutorials
  • Free advice from experts
  • Insight and experiences
  • Honest commentary and opinions

Blogs that are like vinegar:

  • Posts that seem like hype
  • Content that’s all promotion, all the time
  • Seems to good to be true
  • Constant reposts of other peoples content
  • Short posts with no real value

Become a Blogging Good Samaritan

Make it a point to become a blogging good Samaritan. A good samaritan is defined as “a compassionate person who unselfishly helps others”. The Internet was built on a foundation of free information. WordPress is given to you by a community of people who expect nothing in return. If you want to stand out in the crowd of hundreds of thousands of blogs, you would be surprised what giving back could do for you. There are some types of promotion that all of the money and “viral marketing” in the world can’t buy.

You have to give a little to get a little. In terms of your blog, think about how your content can unselfishly help someone else. It doesn’t matter what your business or brand is – everyone has something to give away, whether it’s advice, a FAQ, a tutorial, video, podcast, advice, reviews, or experience. How much does your blog “give” and how much do you ask for or expect in return? Creating a quality content resources will also attract the kinds of links google loves – natural organic ones, giving you a search engine boost like you’ve never seen! It also makes people bookmark, follow, stumble, and digg your site naturally.

Examples of Good Samaritan Bloggers

Lorelle on WordPress: The first place I started to learn about WordPress was by reading Lorelle’s never ending posts of WordPress tips, tutorials, plugins, themes, and knowledge. If I could give someone only one WordPress site to get started, this would probably be it.

Dosh Dosh: Maki has been consistently posting content for quite a few years now, and there are no fewer than 600-700 different quality articles you read on his site about blogging, social media, online marketing, and more.

Justin Tadlock: Justin is creator of the Hybird WordPress theme framework, and creator of many plugins as well. A true WordPress coding genius, his articles provide great WordPress hacks you won’t find anywhere else.

Alex King: Alex has written some of the most famous WordPress plugins online, such as Popularity Contest, Twitter Tools, and WordPress Mobile. There’s no denying his impact on the WordPress community.

Lester Chan: Lester is the unsung here of WordPress plugins, practically every WordPress blog online has at least one of his plugins installed. Download Manager, PostRatings, PostViews, WP-Polls, WP-Print, and 12 others have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times since he started.

Do you know of a blogging good Samaritan? Comment Now!