Content Collaborations: Opportunities and Risks for Site Operators and Bloggers

Regularly publishing informative blog posts and content with real benefit for users isn’t always easy. Added to this is the challenge of increasing one's own readership. Nevertheless, there is a simple solution to both problems: A content collaboration with other bloggers or content departments. We took a closer look at the benefits and risks of such a partnership.

Advantages of a Content Collaboration

As a blogger or site operator, you have created a platform where your readers can get information, helpful tips or just be entertained. Either way, your website or blog has a signature and is a brand of its own, and the same goes for other writers. You are an expert in the fields you write about, which is probably why you started your platform in the first place. A content collaboration can not only enhance your blog’s content but also help you gain new readers and improve your search engine ranking.

New Readers Thanks to Content Collaborations

Ideally, your blog or website is completely focused on your target audience – while that’s good, it also means that you may have a hard time reaching people outside of it. This is exactly where the first major advantage of a content cooperation comes in: When you collaborate with other experts, your content will also reach their readers. An article on your platform written by an external specialist offers the advantage that your readers receive an expert article on a related specialist area, making your page content more varied.

Backlinks: The SEO Advantages of a Content Cooperation

A backlink refers to a link that leads from an external website to your website. Search engines use these backlinks, as an indicator for ranking the respective website - but it’s no longer enough to distribute as many links as possible in as many corners of the Internet as possible because the quality of the backlinks is also decisive. For example, Google classifies links to specialist articles on an external blog as high-quality backlinks. This kind of link is also rated higher than a logo link in the footer of another website. So if you place and link your own specialist articles on external portals, you also improve the SEO ranking of your own websites.

How to Find the Right Partner for a Content Cooperation

These aspects are really important when considering a collaboration: the topic of the content, the competitive situation and the quality of your collaboration partners. The primary goal of content collaboration is always access to the target group of an external platform in order to gain potential customers, clients or subscribers.

Thematic Aspects of Content Cooperation

Addressing an external target group only makes sense for you if it is also relevant to your business. Off-topic posts on high-quality external blogs can bring good backlinks, but not many new customers or readers. So you should always make sure that your contributions also match those of your cooperation partners and vice versa.

Example: You run a website with a blog about search engine optimisation (SEO) and you collaborate with a blogger who is an expert in graphic design. Both blogs are aimed at small businesses that have their own website, because both graphic design and search engine optimisation are topics that concern all website operators. This means both blogs have a similar target group, but different topics – for both, a technical article from the other means an upgrade in terms of content and, through the mutual linking, possibly also opening up a new readership.

No Collaborations with Direct Competitors

This is a logical in itself but often forgotten point, especially when it comes to SEO: Of course, it doesn’t make much sense - for either side - if you have a content collaboration with a direct competitor or someone who is too close to your topic thematically.

Quality over Quantity in Content Cooperation

The quality of your collaboration partners also includes the quality of the external website. You should pay attention here to whether it meets the legal requirements (imprint, data protection declaration) as well as what reviews have to say. This is because dubious websites can also reflect negatively on you if they link to your website or blog. The content on the external website is a second point to consider: For this, you should definitely read some articles and check whether they fit thematically with your topics, in addition to how they are written. This concerns spelling and grammar, but also the structure and content.

To sum things up: In order to get the greatest possible benefits from a collaboration, you should consider the following when choosing your collaboration partners:

Writing for Others: What you Need to Consider

Once the right partner has been found, the writing can begin. Inform yourself beforehand about the style and content of the external website and adapt your text accordingly. Pay particular attention to the following:

Suitable topics for other people's blogs are in particular, fundamentals from your knowledge base. This allows you to convey your expertise, answer the most important questions about your product or service and give an initial taste of the articles on your blog.

Of course, the same requirements also apply to your collaboration partner. So give them an overview of the formalities they need to observe on your blog so their article fits the look and feel of your site. You can also refer to the points mentioned above. It is best to create a guide that sums up the most important rules for your blog or website and send it to all your collaboration partners beforehand. This ensures there are not different expectations or misunderstandings afterwards.

Copyright Risks: Site Operators Are Liable for Third-Party Content

As a website or blog operator, you can be held responsible for the content on your site. This also applies to contributions by guest authors. So make sure to put your submitted contributions through their paces. Is it copyright protected? Does the guest author use images or graphics to which they have no rights, or have they even copied passages from someone’s text? Use plagiarism software to check and google suspicious sections of text to be on the safe side. You can find an overview of the liability risks for bloggers in our article Risks for Bloggers: Here’s How to Protect Yourself

Cover for Website or Blog: with Professional Indemnity via exali

No matter whether it is copyright infringements, other legal violations or data protection violations (DSGVO): Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali comprehensively covers all the risks associated with running your own website. You can also extend your protection to include the risk of cybercrime: With our optional “First-party Cyber and Data Risks Insurance (FPC)" add-on. This protects you from the incalculable risks of cybercrime. The great thing: The insurer not only assumes the costs for the repair or restoration of your IT systems, but also for your own costs and crisis management, for example for commissioning of computer forensic specialists or additional costs for PR.

Questions about the right insurance for your business? Then please give us a call on +49 (0) 821 80 99 46-0 – our customer service team will be happy to help you personally.