Blogs tend to be very “me”-centric. I am writing about me or about my business and giving you my advice. This does not mean that I am not providing great advice, of course – there are a lot of great blogs filled with information. But you will still often see the blog proprietor as the primary author, sometimes the only author. So maybe they are offering help or just a new perspective. But in some way, shape or form, the focus is still them. It is their blog.

When many of us fresh bloggers hit the big scary blog city and try to get our voices heard, we are often drowned out by the more notorious bloggers out there. We are desperately clinging to a few trickles of traffic and listening to every piece of advice on how to get more traffic. All we want is to be heard…and hopefully grow our business so we can be successful at whatever fabulous thing we are blogging about!

I recently decided to reach out for guest bloggers. Yes, I was following some advice on growing traffic. Yes, maybe in my desire to increase my posting frequency I didn’t always want to be the one writing. Maybe I was seeking some creative inspiration by seeing what brilliant ideas other people could come up with. It is possible that all these things are true.

I read a lot of blogs, forum posts, tweets and status updates. All of these different voices and opinions come together and help inform my own voice. So why not make some of them available on my blog? I thought I would be reaching out to many people in my immediate network – and I did! But my reach went much farther.

My friends started telling their friends and making suggestions to other people. Suddenly I am connected to more interested (and interesting) bloggers than I realized! What is remarkable is that some of these people are first time bloggers – others are people who wanted to guest post but were too shy to ask. Some were people who felt stifled in their own blog and were looking for another source of inspiration. Some I knew, others I just met. Now I am having dynamic conversations with them.

This not only makes my blog more diverse, but opens it up to new audiences. I have grown my traffic and expanded my influence. I have created a new level to my existing relationships and created substantive relationships with new people. I now have a wonderful group of bloggers who are significant resources.

Reaching out beyond yourself and offering opportunities to others will deliver way more than traffic; it will deliver a whole new network!

So go and blog unselfishly! Build your traffic! Build your audience! Build your relationships!