Earlier this week, I wrote a post about why you should get a blogging buddy. Today I’ll talk about the qualities that I think a buddy should have… this is by no means a complete list, but it’s a good start.

1. Your potential buddy needs to have her own blog.  This may seem really obvious, but you need to resist the urge to buddy up with another writer friend who doesn’t blog in the hopes that it will work because she understands the writing part. It won’t work. Pick someone who’s got their own blog already – even if it’s someone just starting out, and they just launched their blog last week. If you pair up with another blogger, you know for certain that she’ll understand your language, your challenges, your triumphs and failures. You can work together for mutual blogging successes. It will be all symbiotic and stuff.

2.  Your buddy needs to be willing to communicate with you. If you pick someone who can’t or won’t discuss things with you, the relationship won’t work.

3.  You need a true buddy who will be honest with you. If you haven’t posted in three weeks, she’s the one who’s going to nudge you and say, “Look, blogging buddy, you’ll going to lose all your awesome traffic if you don’t give your readers something new soon” or “That blog post idea may be a little too much for your readers all in one shot – maybe you can break it up into a series?”

4.  You potential buddy should be available. Don’t pick the person who works three jobs and doesn’t sleep more than 3 hours a night. Pick a person who’s willing to get together every now and then over coffee to talk about challenges and brainstorm ideas. Choose someone who will answer your email. Don’t pick the one who says, “I’d love to be your buddy – I can fit you into my calendar seven weeks from this Tuesday – does that work for you?”

5. Pick a person who’s fun.  Whether your buddy is a man or a woman doesn’t really matter, but pick someone you really like and enjoy spending time with. A great sense of humor and the ability to laugh is a BIG plus.

Any other good qualities in a buddy that you think should be on this list?