The daily life of a blogger consists of scrolling through social media and blog feeds in order to find the most share-worthy content for their audience. They know all about the importance of adding value to their online presence and want to find articles their audience will care about and learn from.<\/p>\n

But wait.<\/p>\n

What if the great content was made by a close competitor?<\/p>\n

Some bloggers will bite their fingernails while freaking out that they might lose their traffic to a competitor, which leads them to sit on the article and never share it.<\/p>\n

This is the\u00a0wrong\u00a0way to look at blogging.<\/p>\n

Blogs are here to be a learning center, a place where readers can go to learn from the best of the best content. Sometimes this means accepting that your competitor has already created an incredible resource on the subject.<\/p>\n

So why should you link and share their content?<\/p>\n

Your audience will love you forever<\/h2>\n

As a blogger, you are writing for your audience. You want them to visit your website, get the most value possible, and keep coming back. A great way to do this is by including other links that are relevant to your post\u2019s topic. This way, your audience learns more about the subject and knows you care about their education. My motto is \u201cif it will benefit my community, I\u2019ll share it.\u201d That and \u201chot chocolate is always the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll appear more confident in your own brand<\/h2>\n

People who know they consistently produce great content aren\u2019t worried that sharing a competitor\u2019s article will make them lose all their traffic. They\u2019re confident in the value they give their readers and know that sharing credible external links will not deplete their audience.<\/p>\n

Tip: When linking to outside content, click the option that says \u201copen link in a new tab\u201d when you type in the URL so your blog window still stays open while your audience browses the other source. Then your visitor won\u2019t have to hit the back button to get back to your blog. This makes it as easy as possible to consume all the content provided.<\/p>\n

You (naturally) want your competitors to do the same<\/h2>\n

You want link love, I want link love, we all want link love. As a quick SEO lesson, the more quality links your domain earns, the stronger your domain authority will be. In simpler terms, when a credible blogger links to your blog post, it helps to grow your blog\u2019s overall influence and ranking in search engines. Therefore, it\u2019s great when a competitor shares your link, so scratch their back by sharing a link to their content in return.<\/p>\n

For example, byRegina and Olyvia are in my niche of blogging and branding, but we work together to help each other succeed. Erika from Olyvia mentioned me in her post\u00a0Should I Turn Off Comments?<\/a>\u00a0and Regina from byRegina mentioned my\u00a0#createlounge<\/a>\u00a0Twitter chat in\u00a033 Ways to Get Serious About Social Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even though all three of us could be considered competitors, both Regina and Erika create knock-out content that I love sharing with my audience. Plus, we\u2019re all friends. BBFFs actually (best blogger friends forever). \u00a0Spread the love and your competitors might just do the same.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all in this together.<\/h1>\n

Let\u2019s stop the unhealthy blogger comparison and competition cycle. We should all want each other to succeed. We can all add value to the web. Let\u2019s work together to make each other stronger than ever. Who\u2019s with me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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