by Nate DeMontigny

Article Swap?

Ed. Note: Submissions have ended, pairing will be announced later today, 11/8/09!

Had an interesting idea a couple of days ago and hope you think it’s something you want to partake in. The thought/ idea is this…

The Buddho-blogosphere is pretty large and I thought it would be a great way to draw traffic to each other’s blogs by trading articles. How and what do I mean?

Here’s how it would work– you comment at the end of this, saying you wish to participate. Once there are a number of people willing, and it is an even count, I will take all the names and put them into a hat, or two hats as we will be pairing up/ trading here.

As an example, say I pick my name out of one hat and Danny Fisher’s name out of another hat, that is a pair. From there, each author/ writer will think of a topic for the other to write about. Than once the articles are done, they will be traded and posted as guest articles on one another’s blog. Make sense?

Seem interesting enough for you? Want to be part of this? Comment below and let’s get this rolling. The only unfortunate thing is, and I don’t mean to be so exclusive, you must have a blog in order to participate. Any takers?

37 Comments

  2. GENIUS idea Marnie, will do the circle chain later today and announce who will be writing for who!!!

    Genju, the way I figure it is this. We can just e-mail the posts to our partners and have them post it on their blog, this saves us all from having to change permissions and such on our blogs.

  3. If we don’t have the requisite even number it could be done like a chain A->B->C->A If you get my drift. Everyone would have 2 partners then either way (the 2 hats or the chain)-one giving an article and one receiving an article. So you’d just pull names and lay them in a circle and the last would link up with the first.

  4. Hi,

    Surely they can just send the post (and any photo/s) by email? That’d be simplest I guess?

    Perhaps, if we don’t get another person soon, we could have a three-way swap of posts?

    Marcus

  5. more articulately…

    Will we cut/paste our partner’s article and post into our blog or will we give our partner guest author privileges on our blog? I assume the latter so will have to go figure out how to do that.

  6. Genju@108zenbooks

    :-)

    maybe we should have a Skype meditation retreat before we do this?

    are we posting the tome on our own blog or as a guest author on the partner’s blog?

    do the references have to be in APA format?

    will we be asked about this on the final?

  7. Hi John,

    LOL! No worries, if you are my partner I’ll think of something a bit more challenging than that!

    Only kidding! But, seriously, this will be, I guess, the most difficult bit – choosing the topic!

    Can’t wait to get started. We’re just waiting for one more sign-up, right?

    All the best,

    Marcus

  8. Marcus, if you throw something like that at me I will come up with the most ridiculous post imaginable!

    I am sorta getting psyched about this little project. I’ve been running out of steam on my postings and I think this gives the opportunity to think outside of the box a bit.

    No academic treatise though, please.

    Cheers,

    John/jack

  9. That’s how i was thinking of it working as well. I wanted to get to know my other half’s writing so that I my suggestion would be in their realm of interest and be something I wanted to explore also. That way not only do we drive traffic to our blogs, but we also get to know a wider range of the buddho-blogoshphere. Nate, I think you have invented the next great idea just after the cookie swap…posting is fun, but cookies are still better :)

  10. Marcus,

    That’s pretty much right on. When you find out who your pair is, I’d recommend that you view the blog they write, kind of get a feel for the things they write about and come up with a topic you’d like to see them write about.

    The next step will be for the pairs to get in touch with one another, so hopefully each blog has a contact page. If not, in the new post that will have the pairs I will ask everyone to leave their e-mail for the other to use.

    The length of the post should not be epic, but I’d say something like at least 5 paragraphs. It can be as relevant or non-relevant to Buddhism as you want, that’s kind of the fun of all this. Time wise, maybe two weeks from the announced pairing we could all have our posts completed and up on the guest blog. Once all the posts are up, I’ll create a post here with all the links so we can check them all out.

    Any other questions let me know, I’m kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this one, no big rules, just having some fun with this idea. :)

  11. This is exciting stuff!

    While we wait for one more person to sign up, I wonder if you could over the next stage for us? You pair us up and then….. set a topic for a guest post for our partner, right?

    Whoever is my partner is going to be set a 3,000 word essay on the problems of transition from Sanskrit to Chinese in the prajnaparamita texts with an emphasis on the tranmission of mantras.

    Only kidding of course. But I wonder if anyone has any ideas on this next stage?

    All the best,

    Marcus

  12. alright, mis-counted. Thought at first I had 13, but than Shane reminded me he was in and I (hate to admit) forgot him. So anyway, put all 14 in the hat, matched them and realized I missed someone else to, so we had 15!! AHHH! Anyway, we really need 1 more person to get this going… the 15 so far are …

    Nate @ Precious Metal

    Shane @ Zenfant

    Danny @ Rev. Danny Fisher

    Jon @ Be Compassion

    Adam @ Dharma Brewing

    Justin @ American Buddhist

    Dwan @ Budding Buddhist

    NellaLou @ Enlightenment Ward

    Marcus @ Marcus Journal

    Rohan @ 21 Awake

    ? @ C4Chaos

    Richard @ My Buddha Is Pink

    Jack @ Zen Dirt Zen Dust

    Linda-Sama @ Linda’s Yoga

    ? @ 108 Zen Books

  19. Holy moly… this has taken on a larger scope than I thought. It’s phenomenal though and I’m excited to get it going.

    Will end the sign-ups Wednesday, November 4th, at midnight. I have noticed one or two folks do not have their blog links in their comment, so if you see this please post them.

    On Thursday I’ll take all the names and put em in a hat, or hats, and pull out the pairs. Hopefully by Wednesday there are an equal amount, if not I’ll run the sign-ups until there are.

    I am so excited people have jumped on this, and hope we can all gain something from this. Start thinking up topics for your “guest writer”!!!

  34. I am so down for this. Include me in the hat. One question though? Length of posts?

    ed. note: there is no specific length of post, no “rules” really. Just taking the topic given by your “pair” and running with it the best you can. :)

Leave a comment