Givers and Takers

The world is made up of give and take. In order for society to succeed there are times when individuals must give of themselves, and their are times when they will receive from others.

The same is true in the blogosphere. Most people give and take in this world of blogging without much thought of "the score". It seems to work itself out and the rising tide raises all boats.

Sometimes when you write a blog you make virtual friendships with other bloggers (which is cool). As you spend time reading their blogs and getting to learn their motivations you begin to understand that there are two types of people in the blogosphere.....givers and takers.

Now I want to start by pointing out that the givers also "take". Which is how the whole thing is supposed to works. BUT, the takers do not give. This is frustrating.

When you read a blog and see that the blogger from time to time links to other blogs, products, companies, etc.... without any direct personal return....this blogger is a giver. They have a blogroll where they publicly link to other blogs that they enjoy, and encourage their readers to read these blogs.

Sometimes I get emails from people saying "HEY, if you link to me, I will link to you". I never accept these links, and have never made that request of anyone on my blogroll. While having inbound links is beneficial, I think that someone should link to The Some Assembly Required Blog because they like what I write, not because I am giving them some reciprocal PR.

I would like to give two examples of givers and takers.

First the taker. His blog never links to other blogs, books or companies with cool products. His blog is all about him. Nobody is that smart everyday, so when he pontificates his ideas....he is not being honest. He writes a lot of content, but never sites anyone but himself. The whole purpose of his blog is to make him look smart. I wont name names, but they exist all over the place.....and many of these are the most popular bloggers in the game.

Next is the giver. He or she has a blogroll with links to things that relate to their blog topic and they often write posts applauding other bloggers for their insightful posts. Mike Sigers at The Simplenomics Blog is one of the best "givers". I have never met Mike, but we have become friends via our blogs. He writes some great stuff about sales and customer relations, and he always promotes posts and accomplishments of others. He is not just blogging to promoter Mike Sigers.

Mike's blog is widely read, as when he links to one of my posts my traffic jumps through the roof. He has never asked me for anything in return. He is the perfect example of a "giver"

I hope that everyone on the planet who reads business blogs will take a few minutes to read The Simplenomics Blog.....as you will like what you find there, and Mike deserves the extra traffic.

In addition, take the time to read every blog on my blogroll (see the list on the right of this page). All will provide you with interesting and thought provoking information.

Have A Great Day.

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com