Only Generous Bloggers Influence

Yesterday I went to lunch with Keith Ferrazzi, author of the bestselling book Never Eat Alone. During our lunch we talked a lot about the increasing importance of relationships and how corporations and individuals need to live by the network effect. He said that to build a network you must be generous. This got me thinking. How generous are individual and corporate bloggers? The answer is some are very generous, others completely aren't. And those who are generous are by far more successful and influential than the rest of the pack.

Robert Scoble and Mark Cuban are two of the most generous people I know. Not only do they pump out lots of great content that's worth reading, they are giving when it comes to links and their time. They also publish full text feeds, a hallmark of benevolent bloggers. FInally, they share deep and profound thoughts that they probably could keep proprietary.

Then there are others - and I won't name them - who are not generous. In fact, even worse, they are grievous. They syndicate snippets rather than publish full text RSS feeds. They don't credit other bloggers who they clearly steal content from. They are filled with just nasty criticism, rather than a balance of ideas and constructive advice. They focus solely on themselves and not an iota on others. I have unsubscribed from all of these blogs. They're just not worth my time. By the way this doesn't just apply to bloggers. It goes for comments too. I ignore any trash that people leave on my blog or others and only focus on that which is constructive feedback (positive or negative).

The generosity dynamic that exists in the blogosphere is really important. If you want to have a successful blog - one that is read frequently by even a small audience of import - you have to be generous. There's no way around it. You have to lavishly dish out links, advice, news, ideas, commentary, freebies, you name it. It's up to you. However, if you're going to live on the Dark Side of the blogosphere and be stingy, you will live a lonely life.

Comments

[Michael]

Great post Steve. I totally agree with you. I'm amazed at how many bloggers still don't get these simple concepts.

[Amanda Chapel]

Hey... I don't think there's anyone who puts out more than me in PR today. And that's saying a lot!

:)

- Amanda Chapel

[Danny Sullivan]

> They also publish full text feeds, a hallmark of benevolent bloggers.

Or those completely unconcerned about copyright theft.

Don't color those who don't do full text feeds as somehow less giving than others, Steve. Certainly don't do it after you've sat back for years and had to watch people lift copy you've slaved over and shove it on their own sites. There are very, very good reasons not to do full text feeds that have nothing to do with a lack of being giving.

[Michael]

Good point Danny. I've often thought of switching my feeds back to summaries b/c of so many people "stealing" my content for their own adsense-driven sites.

[Fard Johnmar]

Great points Steve. The more you give the more you get.

[Jeremy Pepper]

Very valid, but I think the detractors themselves also have valid points.

You cannot just have sunshine comments, but you need to read and learn from the negative. If you don't, you aren't learning or growing.

[Robert Scoble]

That's a very generous thing to say! Thanks, Steve.

[Kingsley]

Yay, Group hug :) !

[Rob]

Great blog! I've added a link to your blog on Blog of the Day under the category of Blogging. To view the post of your blog, please visit http://blogoftheday.org/page/111609

[iggy]

You left the freeloaders like myself :(
I read you, robert and seth religiously and am not too generous. I will start being more generous....going forwards I will lavishly dish out links, advice, news, ideas, commentary, freebies, you name it....You are very generous too Steve, at least to Mark and Robert ;)
Here is my constructive criticism: I love your links lists, not too much to feel sploggy, perfect to check out when i have religiously consumed all the other content, i like them ;)

[Steve Rubel]

Iggy, that's very nice of you. You can also get them faster by pulling the feed at del.icio.us/steverubel

[Mitchell Ashley]

Thanks a ton for the great advice, Steve. I just found your blog and am subscribing now. A friend, Alan Shimel, pointed me to your article to help me get my blog going. I can see that Alan follows your advice to the T as he always sites others content when he talks about his own insights on security. I hope I'll be a good student of the advice you've given on being generous.

Thanks again - Mitchell

[John Paul Micek]

Excellent points on influence Steve. We've found that creating strong bonds (especially for those who, as Seth would say are blogging to "turn strangers into friends, and friends into customers") often requires influence to extend way beyond great content and a helping hand online.

Thanks as always for your great insights and cutting edge industry info!

[Easton Ellsworth]

True points, Steve. One nit-pick: offering a partial feed instead of a full feed doesn't *necessarily* mean you're a selfish blogger. There are simply too many factors involved to enable a cut-and-dry distinction there.

But you're absolutely right in applauding generosity. I couldn't agree more that it's a beautiful - and all too rare - quality for a blogger (and a human being) to have.