Comments on: Request for Feedback: Startup Blog Exchange Concept

By: Mr K

Mr K — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:12:07 +0000

Yeah … you know I’m keen – while I don’t have a start up (just now) I do have a blog that gets decent traffic & I’m passionate about start ups & online technology so would love to have new ways to explore content & help small business get a leg up. I wish I’d had more support for my early 2001/02 start up days .. :D

By: Mat Atkinson

Mat Atkinson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:23:08 +0000

Sound idea.

To make it work could each particpating company outline the profile of their readers and the types of guest post they are looking for?

For example, ProofHQ reaches designers, marketers and production managers. We would hope to have guest posts relevant to that audience.

By: sofarsoshawn

sofarsoshawn — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:32:24 +0000

It’s a great idea! Why because the start ups would be beyond eager to get the word out in a pseudo albeit friendly competition/debate such as the FriendFeed/Twitter back & forth which I’m sure you’re familiar with. That tension, the battle to be the best, is captivating entertainment that’s useful (yes I know for geeks). That scenario, implemented properly, would attract a dedicated following.

By: Scott Whigham

Scott Whigham — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:08:36 +0000

Brilliant – great idea. I’d be happy to participate. What’s the process – or is that TBD?

By: Remy Blaettler

Remy Blaettler — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:28:33 +0000

I think it’s a good idea. Why should I not write about another startup, specially if it has something in common but is not a competitor?

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:20:28 +0000

I think this is a terrific idea. We’d absolutely participate. I think the key to success is keeping it simple. One could easily over-engineer such a system. A simple place to keep track of posts-given and posts-received would probably suffice. And then rely on the community to police fairness.

By: Allen Stern

Allen Stern — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:15:47 +0000

Thanks K for the reply – I agree keeping up the content is hard – that’s why this works because it really does not involve any new content creation. Plus, if the startup knows they are getting free marketing, maybe it will give them more incentive to do it.

By: Allen Stern

Allen Stern — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:15:00 +0000

you are all talk

By: Allen Stern

Allen Stern — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:14:44 +0000

Thanks Svetlana – I like your idea about the promotion…

By: craig

craig — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:06:29 +0000

Allen,

As long as you have no hard feelings when I send you home crying after getting slaughtered in the pizza eating contest, I would like to be involved. Both http://www.rev2.org and http://www.scommerce.com would be my two to offer.

Craig

By: Svetlana Gladkova

Svetlana Gladkova — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:02:38 +0000

Allen, I think this is an excellent idea and something that should be very useful to startups because it can be very difficult to get coverage on major tech blogs while helping each other out might be a great solution. At that it should be noted that only non-competing startups should probably post on each others’ blogs to avoid any potential problems regarding unfair competition.

What could further help is actually participating in promotion of such posts additionally because every startup has a Twitter, a Facebook page, and many other things that could be used to further spread the word.

By: Mr K

Mr K — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:46:28 +0000

Yeah I could be interested and could volunteer a site (tech focused, non-startup though) that could be a post point.

But yeah I think more thought around this is needed, in that startups often struggle to keep their own blogs (internally focused) up and running, let alone being required to blog (externally focused) in a network scenario.

It’d almost be better off just leveraging the likes of CN and Studiowhiz as platforms, then have a place where start ups can register: interested blogs (you & me) then can contact these startups to interview them, or ask them to write a bit on their subject matter (educational rather than self promotion) which is then published and linked with as you say a blurb and link about them

This way there is an avenue for me as a publisher to get content, tailored to my audience, it’s a chance for startups to get promotion & link love etc and it cuts out the issue say MailChimp guest posting on CampaignMonitor’s blog (names used as an example only)

By: Rudi

Rudi — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:14:31 +0000

You miss one important piece – are you sure that the startups will want to help other startups?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:19:52 +0000

idea sounds interesting, at least worth a discussion – the technology to make it work would be fun to discuss