Internet Networking Groups and Their Benefit

It seems that the current rage on the internet is Social Networking and websites and directories dealing with social networks. The concept of many smaller companies working together for a common benefit has always levelled the playing field for small businesses. The advantage that small businesses have is the internet. It is full of information on all forms of networking from joint ventures to large networks. The basic foundation of these programs is to get together as a group and you will succeed against the big boys.

These programs stop working when small businesses start building large networks of people who are only interested in promoting themselves, not the common goal. The key component of networking success is to invest your time promoting others and let the others promote you. This is especially important if the business owners have limited time to spend on promotion.

Internet Networking Groups

The best networking groups consist of 3 to 12 people. More than this amount and free loaders get in who want something for nothing. These free loaders abuse the group's resources and once they've accomplished their personal goals, move on to another group. A group of 3 to 12 people is ideal because all the members become knowledgable with each others products and services, and use their resources to exchange promotion. Everyone ends up reaping benefits from the efforts of the group. 

The theory behind the smaller size network group is that each person would normally spend about three to five working hours a week networking for their own small business. If they use those same hours networking for the group, they can expand their promotion five-fold. Again, everyone benefits from the groups efforts. 

Here's an example of how it works. Let's say that one person builds 10 inbound links per hour for their business website. Inbound links are important as they help raise the standing of the businesses website in the eyes of the search engines.  Now, the group creates a blog that is just for networking on a topic that covers their group. As this blog grows, they embed inbound links in the blog for their company and for their group member's websites. The website owner builds 10 links for their business in an hour, and 10 links for their group member's business web site. The same span of time was spent, with each of the group members spending an hour on the site. With a group of five, a person works 1 hour and builds 10 links, so five individuals working one hour will build 50 links.

Doing it Correctly

The big mistake that most groups make is racing around the web looking for places to build links. This is a big waste of time. Instead, the group should build 5 blogs that all of the group's members can write on. If some members do not have time to write on the blog, then they can simply upload free content articles about the subject of their businesses and websites. Each website owner should write five articles a month, with only two or three links back to their website. Five articles with three links, posted on 25 blogs, equals 150 inbound links a month. Time invested? The time needed to write the five 200 to 500 word articles. 

Here's a word of caution. If the articles are not interesting enough to be quoted by others, it will not have the affect intended as you will not have others linking to that article.

The Tools That You Need to Get Started

You have various options on forming a group and how the network will operate. You can hire a blog or forum manager for about $200 to $500 monthly, but this manager probably has more experience and may be able to build many more links in less time than you can. The money invested by each member is worth it.

Building A Network Group

You can start building the networking group by going to websites of associations dealing with the products or services offered by your website. You might even start a blog, post it on related websites and bring people into the group from the blog itself.  Once you have the group,the manager must divide the group into sub-groups of three. Each person in the group will be required to build ten links for each group member. The sub-groups will work to comment on replies to the blog posts, answer emails and follow up on blog posting that are timely. This increases the visibilaty of the blogs, and drives visitors to the group member's websites.

Before you know it, you will actually start enjoying the blog posting process and the amount of people that will visit the blogs, and your sites. It will no longer be a business requirement, but rather your hobby.