Let’s start by asking you a simple question: what’s the genre of your website or blog? 

News/Politics?

Sports?

Technology?

Humor?

Irrespective of the type or genre of your content, the manner in which you promote your website or blog is more or less similar -- you are probably employing social media such as Twitter, using advertisements to spread the word, and, if you’re smart, making use of awesome websites such as Newsgrape to reach a wider audience.

And of course, your efforts are paying, bit by bit. You are gaining newer readers and fans everyday, and people love hitting the Subscribe button on your website! Congratulations!

So, what next?

Allow me to state the obvious: promoting a website or blog is an ongoing process.

In short: it never ends.

Well then, what should be done to take your awesome website to “the next level”?

Even if your website is doing well, at the end of the day, there might be many others ahead of you. Yes, you can always overtake them. Question is: how? We shall be trying to find the answer to this question through this series of articles. 

Assume that you are running a blog about technology news. Ask yourself: what is it, that websites such as CNet have, which you don’t? Of course, the list can run long or short, depending on how big or small your website is at the moment. However, to put it bluntly, blogs bigger than yours are “more popular”.

To rephrase it: in order to emerge on top, your blog needs to gain in terms of popularity. 

Now, let me put before you two situations: 

1. You are a loner, trying to make a mark in this jungle known as the Internet
2. You are a member of an awesome group, trying to make a mark in the same jungle. 

Which of the above two situations seems to have a better chance of survival, and success? 

If your answer is the latter, read on! 

Don’t Be A Loner -- Create a Wolfpack! 

No, I’m not talking about group-blogging. 

I’m talking about a pack of wolves.

What do wolves in a pack do? They do not hunt for each other (it’d be humorous if they did, by the way). Instead, they act together with improvisation.

What will, then, a pack of bloggers do?

Write articles for each other? No, please, NO. Guest-blogging is fine, but not beyond that.

Instead, the idea is to proceed and move forward together. You know, a process called “symbiosis”. 

Sounds good? We shall now look at major benefits that come from creating a Wolfpack!

1. Increase Your Visibility

Let’s say your blog currently has 100 readers. Now, if you partner with 5 blogs with 100 readers each, the six of you have a total readership of 600. Simple mathematics!

Want me to explain further? Let’s say your technology news blog gets visitors primarily from search engines. However, you can add to this set of visitors by forming a network (read: Wolfpack). By having a pack of comrade blogs related to the same niche as yours, your articles will get noticed more often, which brings us to our next point.

2. Get Noticed

There are many blogs and websites that cater to the same niche as yours. They have an established readership, provide quality content, and have earned a respect among the community.
If you form a Wolfpack with them, it means that their success is yours (and vice versa). Once you are a part of a Wolfpack with some other good blogs in the same niche, readers from other blogs will start taking your blog more seriously than before -- you will get free attention and visitors, all for no extra efforts.

What exactly needs to be done in order to achieve this? The steps are many, and the benefits are manifolds. For now, we shall just preview some basics in the third point below!

3. Collaborate Effectively

The basic purpose behind forming a Wolfpack is to collaborate and co-operate, rather than compete.

For example, you should start commenting on others’ blogs. If your blog has a million readers, you will find roughly 50-60 comments per article, at the most. This just shows that more often than not, readers do not comment on articles. This is the best way you can collaborate as members of a pack: by commenting on others’ works.

Similarly, you can also use social media to share your articles, as well as those of others. This way, if you tweet an article by a fellow ‘wolf’, that article gets noticed by your Twitter followers (and vice-versa for your articles shared by the other ‘wolves’).

Needless to say, the benefits of team-work are many.

Creating a Wolfpack is possible for almost any niche of websites, not just blogging or news -- even if you are selling toy cars, you can create a Wolfpack with other toy vendors!

This was the first part of the series about creating a Wolfpack for website/blog owners. Stay tuned for more ‘wolf’-loving tips!

How do you like the idea of creating a Wolfpack? Got a suggestion for subsequent articles? Feel free to leave a comment!  

Attached Image: Polar Wolves in Heidelberg Zoo, Germany. January 2005.