Lucky People Don’t Compete, They Cooperate.

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I just received this email from a fellow blogger and I felt it was worth sharing it on my blog. I responded to the email but I feel I should write about what went through my head as I read this email.

Hello,

I recently found your website by simply browsing online for other good blogs. I run my own blog, and I am trying to link to other blogs I think my visitors might like to visit once they are done on my site.

Since my website is visited by 1,000’s of blog readers daily, I am positive many of my visitors would be interested in visiting your weblog once they leave mine. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I link to your site since we are not competitors, and both have similar internet viewers on our sites. Please let me know if this is OK with you? Do you think you can link back to my website hiswebsite.com (for anonymity)? Thanks.

Sam (for anonymity once again)

First of all, linking to other sites is a great way to improve traffic and create friendships with other bloggers. Giving your readers value on your site is the name of the game. Without any value in your posts, people will stop coming back. Of course, the more value you offer, the more people will come back to your site as well as link, bookmark and tell their friends.

Second, Sam made a point of saying that “we are not competitors”. If you open two identical stores across the street for each other that sell the same products, the two stores are competitors. When two people are selling a service, and potential customers only need or want one, the two people are competitors. But when two people have websites or blogs with free content, even on the identical topics, they are not competitors. People do not have to choose only one blog on a subject to ever visit. In fact if someone is interested in personal finance for example, he will probably read many blogs on the topic such as Lazy Man and Money, No Credit Needed, Brip Blap, Money Smart Life and many others. I know that my blog reader is full of them.

My wife just started a blog Fabulous Mommy for fabulous mommies. When she found out how many mommy blogs were out there, she almost decided not to start in the first place. I told her that the more mommy blogs out there, the better it is for her. They can link to each other and compare ideas and posts and even post about each other. Having similar sites can only help.

When it comes to blogs, I believe that there is no real competition, there is only cooperation. By adding someone else’s link on your site or by referring to another blog on the same topic, you are cooperating with the other blog to improve both of your blogs. By helping each other, they both win. If they choose not to help each other, they both suffer.

If anyone wants to swap links with me, they are more than welcome to. They just need to click the friendly links in my sidebar and enter their link. Then when they link to my page, their site will be listed on my site.

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January 10 2008 10:37 am | Advice

3 Responses to “Lucky People Don’t Compete, They Cooperate.”

Ben (Who am I?) on 21 Jan 2008 at 11:02 pm #

I agree, cooperation is all about win/win and competition is about win/lose. I like my odds better with win/win Thanks for the link!
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Why Participate in Entrecard’s Contests | GET LUCKY on 17 Jul 2008 at 1:09 pm #

[…] In the blogosphere, there is no competition, only cooperation. […]
40 Ways to Increase Your Luck (100th Post) | GET LUCKY on 26 Aug 2008 at 1:21 pm #

[…] Learn to Cooperate – One of the greatest things about the internet today or web 2.0 is that it encourages cooperation. To get ahead, you need to cooperate with other people. The world is not based on competing individuals racing to the top anymore. It is all about sharing and providing value to others. Bill Clinton, the Former President of the United States said “The characteristics of all successful communities: broadly shared, accessible set of opportunities, a shared sense of responsibility for the success of the common enterprise, and a genuine sense of belonging.” […]