You’ve weighed your decision to go into a business with a friend, and you’ve decided full speed ahead! Well, what are the issues specific to a blog partnership? Given that Kaye and I are just beginning this journey and have very little experience in this area, I did a little research to see what help I could get. And may I say there’s not a lot out there on blog partnerships, and even less on two friends starting a blogging business.

I found an interesting article by Darren Rowse at www.problogger.net, “How to Start a Blog Partnership”. I had a good laugh, but not at Problogger. When I first started thinking about blogging, Problogger was the first site I saw that offered helpful advice. Eventually Kaye bought the book, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, and we both read it from cover to cover. And we still visit the site for advice. But I digress. No, I had to laugh because Kaye and I had never gotten around to asking the important questions when deciding who to work with.

A lot of the questions were about qualifications and credentials of your blogging partner. Neither Kaye nor I had any blogging experience, let alone credentials. Kaye was familiar with my legal documents for what that’s worth, and I knew that Kaye would be better than me at the technical. We discussed time constraints because we are both working parents. We already had a relationship, and our instant gut reaction was that we would work well together. Actually, we were very excited to find a project that we could work well together on.

In his article, Rowse’s two final pieces of advice were to get verbal, and I cannot stress this enough, and to take it slow. In Parts I and II of this series, I laid out numerous topics for discussion with your business partner. But what are additional issues which come up with blogging, especially amongst friends?

1) Blogging is a writing venture. If your partner will be posting on the blog, you will want to know that she can write. It would be a disaster to begin a business which focuses on writing, only to discover that one of the main writers draws a blank when it’s time to produce or can’t spell.

2) Ego issues need to be set aside. Writing, even on dry topics, can be personal. The writer has to be able to accept constructive criticism from her friend, and the person reviewing the document has to feel free to comment. Also, and this may occur more often amongst friends, you or your partner may find you are writing about something that has happened to one or both of you. You have to be respectful of your friend’s comfort level, or you should both be in agreement as to what, if anything, is off limits to your blog.

3) Decide on the focus of the blog and continuously reassess. Kaye and I conceived of Staingirlz.com as a website targeting a middle-aged female audience with a certain attitude. Because we are beginning bloggers, Kaye and I thought we would be providing a valuable service about beginning a blog and all of the issues which arise on our journey. However, we intend to continue with our main objective and we’ve discussed upcoming posts that align with our initial focus.

4) Coordinate your writing efforts. Kaye and I run all topics by each other. Usually, we take them separately, but we have also done separate blogs on the same topic. See our review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We have also talked about having a Kaye-Elle conversation within one blog post. By coordinating our efforts, we avoid stepping on each other’s toes, and we make sure that our blogs align with the focus of the blog business.

5) Communicate and keep on communicating. Issues will arise or you will get a stellar (or not so stellar) idea. As long as lines of communication are open both ways, your blog partnership should thrive.

This is not an exhaustive list. As I mentioned, we are just getting started in this venture. We’d love to hear from you if you have any additional ideas, tips or issues which arise when blogging with a friend/partner.