Don't start your own blog: start a group blog instead.

When I started blogging in 2006 (wow, that seems so long ago) few people were blogging in the nonprofit sector. I REALLY lucked out because my blog gained popularity fast. Now there are hundreds of nonprofit blogs (maybe thousands) all vying for people’s attention on the web. It is overwhelming to see the vast amount of nonprofit blog content on the web!

Rosetta Thurman one of the BEST bloggers in the nonprofit sector just completed a 30 days of blogging challenge for young nonprofit professionals and has a how to blogging toolkit on her website. She and her millennial colleagues also launched the Nonprofit Millennial Blogger Alliance.

A few years ago I said to the people that I met, yes, start a blog it’s great for increasing your reputation in the sector!! Now, I advise people against starting their own individual blog. Reason being, unless you are willing to devote A LOT of time to promoting your blog by linking to other people’s blogs and commenting on other blogs, then I would advise against starting your own nonprofit blog.

I think starting a blog with a group of people or writing a guest blog post for an established blog (like this one) is a better solution. It now takes a lot longer to build up your reputation as a blogger (since many people are doing it). A group blog also provides more credibility and also allows people to read different perspectives on the same topic—that is one of the reasons the Tactical Philanthropy blog is so popular. It’s not all Sean Stannard-Stockton’s writing, it’s a blog community. Additionally, guest blogging gives you opportunity to reach a lot of readers quickly. Otherwise, if you start a blog and write a really great post, few people will actually see the post (again, unless you are REALLY good at promoting that post).

Do any of my established nonprofit blogger friends want to weigh in on this topic? Do you agree or disagree? Would you still advise people to start their own nonprofit blog?