Bloggers are inherently self-made entrepreneurs – rogue entities living the internet lifestyle on their own island. Loving the ability to succeed completely on our own, it’s important though to admit that help may be needed to reach our goals. If you’re willing to do this, maybe you’re the perfect candidate to build a powerful blogging alliance.

At this point, you must think I’m crazy to suggest that you don’t know it all. You’ve been blogging for a whole 5 weeks, so you obviously have all the answers already.

Why would you want to collaborate with competitors in your field?

Of course you don’t. It would be silly to actually help your mortal foes. I’m not suggesting that whatsoever. What I am implying is that you start a blogging alliance as a well-disguised ploy for purposes of espionage. Just like the famous Sun Tzu quote:

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

So form this “alliance” based on trust… and then use that to your advantage. Find a handful of blogging competitors on the cusp of attaining success and reel them in. At the start, help them out with tidbits of useful advice. Visit their blogs, comment and contribute. Make it seem like you actually care, you know? Of course, you don’t really care – but your goal is to earn their respect. Once they value your opinion almost more than their own, you’ve got them!

After this tipping point is reached inside this “alliance”, you now have the opportunity to chip away at your competitors. Exploit their gullible little minds by passing off the worst advice and incorrect information as gold.

Show them why it’s a great idea to have 146 widgets active on their sidebar. Convince them that e-mail marketing is highly overrated and they should focus on getting thousands of Twitter followers (even offer your $97 service to do just that!). Tell them how beneficial it would be to rank high for tasteless asian bondage porn. Be as nefarious as possible. Whatever you can do to derail their success, it will benefit you!

What types of bloggers should be part of your alliance?

A-Listers: These bloggers are the cream of the crop in your niche.

You fawn over them and their success constantly. Although they will be impervious at your attempts to corrupt them in your “alliance” scheme, it will be imperative to have at least one vouch for your credibility. Invite them in for a chat for a few minutes. The rest of your group will hang on every single word they say – so giving them an impression that you’re “cool in their books” will earn you much needed trust very quickly.

B-Listers: These bloggers are those that appear successful to you, but really aren’t.

You see them guest posting on major blogs. They release products seemingly every month. It looks like they’re indeed making a full-time living blogging – but they’re nothing more than hype. Exploit their “fame” for your own selfish purposes. They’re going to be much more accessible since their latest e-course only has 3 paid students.

How do you usurp them? Weasel your way into as many joint ventures with these bloggers as you can… then use that leverage to step on their heads, leaving them behind in your wake. There’s only room for one spot at the top, so why share the spotlight whatsoever?

C-Listers: The level where you think you reside, but your 7 subscribers say otherwise.

These bloggers will make up a bulk of your alliance. Other like-minded individuals with the same philosophies, goals, strategies and methods as yourself. These similarities and compatibilities are the reason why you need to quash their rise up the ladder. Your niche is saturated as it is – so, who needs people embarking in the same optimal techniques that you’ve figured out? They’re standing in your way!

Slowly veer them off track, rationally question the effectiveness of their methods and eventually you’ll steer them into the direction of impending failure. Of course, you’ll be smart and keep plodding away using the original agreed-upon avenues while your “alliance” competitors are bogged down for weeks utilizing worthless tactics.

D-Listers: Bloggers who are actually making money, but you scoff at their niche.

These are niche bloggers that write about anything from video games to college lifestyle tips to vegetable gardening. Many are making quite a good chunk of change doing what they do, but you laughably put aside that notion in your head. You blog about blogging – you’re supposed to be the expert at it, so what they hell do they know?

Look to recruit a few of these saps (if you can get your head out of the self-important echo chamber of meta-blogging) who believe you have some hidden insight. All the while, secretly learn how they’re actually able to pull off making money when you can’t. Of course, keep these secrets to yourself.

F-Listers: These are bloggers who have no clue, but they suck up to you.

“In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Well, these bloggers are deaf, dumb and blind. Somehow you’ve been able to leave a positive impression on them as an authority – even if it’s just because you can spell “HTML” and they can’t. Unbelievably, they’ve bought into the hype that blogging about blogging can actually make you money – which, of course, is exactly what you got duped into thinking!

Exploit their fragile minds by molding their beliefs around strategies and methods that are obviously counterproductive. Denounce the importance of Google. Proclaim Friend Feed is where it’s at. Trust me, they’ll buy into anything you say no matter how absurd. These are the people who will pave the way for a new generation of meta-bloggers, so why not skew as many as you can in promoting the worst advice possible to others? This will help you out exponentially as the amount of useless content spreads to even greener bloggers entering the niche. The cycle will go on and on as you reach for glory!

What is the ultimate goal of having a blogging alliance?

You’re not smart. You have no talent. You can’t achieve anything on your own accord. The only way you have any chance at success is to knock others off their pedestal, keep the rest down, influence the masses to choose the wrong path and step on anyone that gets in your way. Living off your relative value in comparison to others is the foundation of your business model. As more and more default to failure, your mediocre abilities will shine above them all.

But first, coming full circle, you must admit you need help. Oh, not from those that can be “in” on your evil plot – but those who are gullible enough to believe creating a useful community to network, share & help each other is actually a good idea. What fools!

Get ahead by building a powerful blogging alliance today.

Related posts:

1. Flawless Blogging with Fit Jerk
2. Feuds & Personal Attacks: The Small Fry Always Loses
3. Are Your Blog Readers Your Customers?

I’m not really sure why, but I’m always wildly drawn into watching feuds ensue between two members of the same circle. Maybe it’s my unhealthy fascination with seeing someone beat down into submission… or maybe I just enjoy the role of being commentator and gossip-hound of the events. I can’t change who I am, so with that being said:

I’ve witnessed two of these so-called “feuds” between bloggers in the past weeks – both of which were highly entertaining in their own right and drew some great comment discussion in the process.

Extreme John vs. iWoodpecker

The more recent proceeding occurred when Allan at iWoodpecker accused Extreme John, the extroverted and colorful personality at ExtremeJohn.com of anywhere from topic pilfering to downright plagiarism of a recently written post of his. Now, this is one of the highest allegations you can make towards someone in the writing profession so, as you can probably guess, it caused a proverbial shit storm in it’s wake that bled over to public posts on the issue made by both parties:

Extreme John: 10 Reasons I Wouldn’t Copy Your Article
iWoodpecker: Why I Blamed John in Stealing My Idea
Extreme John: Cheddar Bob The Blogger

Wassup Blog vs. Darren Rowse (among others)

Earlier this month though, a more notable case of personal attacks (or at least a questioning of one’s ideology) took place when Sire of Wassup Blog published a post explaining why he no longer links to the likes of ProBlogger and John Chow. The gist of the matter was his issue with A-list bloggers lack of effort in commenting on other blogs within their niche… or these “rockstars” even giving recognition of others who comment by visiting their blogs in return.

Of course, as with any public “e-penis” fight, comments from onlookers came in immediately. Even David Risley was dragged into the discussion somehow and inspired a video post on his part on the issue when comments begin to hurt your blogging. One of the “called out” parties showed up soon afterwards when Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net confronted the issue head on and explained his side on this alleged claim of hypocrisy on his part.

I won’t get into the exact details and eventual resolution to both conflicts. I’ll save that for you to read yourself… but if you’re the type that loves car wrecks and skateboarding bloopers, I definitely suggest you check out the posts – especially the bevy of comments that ensued between all parties involved in the process.

What can we learn from these two examples?

It’s no surprise at all, but if we kept a “scorecard” in both instances, the bigger fish ended up trumping the smaller minnow by a fairly large margin. Why was that the case though? Was it because the winning party was essentially correct or was it going to be perceived that way regardless of the facts?

Feuds and battles like these have been going on for eons between warring sides of an issue or struggles for power within a specific circle. In almost all situations, the small fry always loses. This is because the “minnow” is lacking in one very important attribute that makes for a successful persuasion. Trust.

When someone has more attained influence and authority on a matter, their words automatically will carry more weight no matter how convincing the other side can be in refuting their arguments. Breaking this established trust the bigger fish has with those you’re looking to dissuade is an uphill battle, at best. Sometimes even cold hard facts and direct evidence won’t even persuade loyalists who believe the person they trust can do no wrong. If that’s the case, what options does the small fry have to have any chance of coming out ahead?

• Question the intent of the bigger fish.

Argue the fact that your opponent is arguing! The intent of another party is very easy to attack because proof is nearly impossible to achieve. Although it’s a fairly ineffective method of persuading other, pointing out that your opponent feels the need to refute a statement you made shows that there is some insecurity that onlookers will believe it to be true. This, in and of itself, brings to light that there is a possibility your argument is valid. If it was so outrageous, your opponent would never participate in a debate at all as there would be no need to convince others such radical claims were false. It would be easily apparent.

• State arguments in terms of a utopia.

One of my favorite methods of attack, get your opponent to actually *agree* with you openly and outright. Of course, the only way possible is to state your argument in the environment of a utopia that may or may not be achievable in any fashion.

“I think we were right to go to war against Iraq.”
“But you believe that war is inherently a bad thing, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“So then you’d rather wars not happen at all… which includes us being in Iraq.”

• Fight with sheer unmatched quantity.

If you can’t make one single convincing argument, then why not make 100 of them? Make so many that your opponent will eventually agree with one of them which you can then leverage to refute a future statement of theirs. Or even better, maybe they’ll just succumb to the onslaught and concede!

The last option a small fry has may actually be the best course of action. Don’t make the argument to begin with. There are probably better avenues to build your influence than fighting a battle that is nearly impossible to win. This is especially true in a situation where there’s little to gain upon winning and a lot to lose if you come out scathed. Sure, you may get some short-term traffic, comments & gossip for “calling out” one of the bigger fish, but will it be good promotion for yourself?

Think about this next time you want to stir up controversy by way of a personal attack. It may be you who ends up getting pwned in the process!

Related posts:

1. Confessions Of A Free Addict
2. How To Build A Powerful Blogging Alliance
3. What It Takes To Be An Overnight Failure