Are you a blogger that accepts guest bloggers quite frequently? You might want to think about how you label your site, especially if you are wanting to strengthen your own brand.
Guest blogging can be really great for blog owners as it is a means to supplement content when it cannot be published as frequently. It is a way for fresh faces to be heard with topics that echo that of the blog owner’s views. However, it is a supplement- not to be used frequently.
In allowing frequent guest bloggers, it becomes a permanent crutch, leaving you unable to break out on top.
I have found it quite alarming that there are individuals that believe themselves to be influential in their niche, but it is more like an article submission website. Of course you are going to build a good reputation opening up your site to guest bloggers, but your circle is going to only attract that following. Individual voices will mesh together with others. That is great! I know this sounds harsh, but it is true. Sometimes I visit a site in order to read the blog owner’s work, not the 10 other posts done by other people.
I find it a bit disturbing if the one person who own’s a site where only a percentage of articles were written by them is claiming credit for building such a site. Also, I find it even more disturbing if the site is being monetized and the blog owner is not doing some sort of revenue share system. It does take money to keep a site up, but there is a line that has to be drawn.
(Example – and the site shall remain nameless: I had guest blogged at a site about freelancing and web designing, and it became quite popular. When I was busy with conferences, the blog owner constantly was asking me to submit an article. I was not being paid, nor did I ever agree to regular submissions because of my schedule.
When I did write up my last post for that site, the owner sent a mass email to his newsletter and his contributors to say that he sold the site to someone else. Soon after that, I was contacted by the new owners, and after seeing my work used to line someone else’s pockets without a flinch of remorse, I could not agree to contribute and asked for my work to be pulled off.
I still guest post at several places, but I am cautious to take on others that may be doing the same thing.)
A community blog is more suited title for such sites. It gives the community that contributed the credit it deserves. If you want to build authority, having a community blog is not the route to go. Your voice gets diluted in between your guest bloggers’ posts.
If you plan to become an influential blogger, make it your goal to put together a plan in regards to guest post submission. You need to determine how many posts in between should your guest bloggers be published. Your ratio of your own posts to your guest posts should be in favor of your end.
Blog communities are not bad and there can be a wealth of information found at those sites. In no way will I ever say that they should be avoided. They can be a great place to meet other bloggers!
However, building your brand and engaging with others should be priority. The guest posts will roll in, and as your site grows, you can become more selective about what is submitted.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever had any experiences with guest blogging that left you feeling sour?
I think that guest posting is a great thing. Interaction is the key to success, exchanging posts, I write for you, you write for me, etc etc.
Considering the web as a huge library made of interactions, thoughts, ideas.
I agree with you Manuel, Guest blogging creates interest in the visitors to read the different kind of blogs every time when they visit the blog.
I believe that community blogging is a much greater in terms of growing your blog. However guest blogging is a great way to focus on new audience and get a decent back link every time you guest post.
Hi Nile,
This is a treasure like post for me because now a days i am going through testing process to develop a blogging community.I have found some useful tips from your suggestions.Thank you for sharing such an informative and valuable info with us Nile.
God Bless!!
Best Regards!
Samuel Joshua
I don’t understand why people guest post more than once in a blog? I feel that there is no point in doing that.
One more thing – Imagine, I am reading one blog and a particular author has written an article there. Then I go on to another blog, the same blogger has guest posted there!
These things just mean one thing – Guest posts are written with minimum efforts. That’s why they are thrown around the web cheaply.
Thanks for the tips Nile. To be honest I haven’t tried guest blogging since I’m not really that good in writing article but hopefully one of these days I have the courage to do that.
Never gave much thought about community blogging. As a reader, I’ve noticed that guest blogging is an interesting way through which the both the readers and the bloggers benefit in a great way. I think its important to first think about how a technique serves the readers and nurtures a relation between the writer and the readers.
IMHO the quality of guest posts is worse than the quality of blogs’ authors – no matter how much you want to, it’s impossible to write for others like you would for yourself…It requires a lot of efforts. I am supposed to write an article for another website (agreed long time ago), but I can’t make myself to. But I would willingly accept guest posters, as long as the quality is decent. I understand that I can’t demand a Pulitzer-prize quality from guest posters!
Niles,
I agree with you. When I come to some sites that are all guest blogs I have no sense of who the blog owner really is. But it can be interesting to read a worthwhile blog post with a preface from the blog owner – especially if he or she also write many of the blog posts there.
Warmly,
Dr. Erica
Wow. I had no idea there were blogs that basically all their articles are from guest bloggers. Thats when you know you are getting lazy. lol.
Hello Nile! I think this post really clarifies things a few things about guest blogging for me. I’m an author new to blogging, love the idea of guest blogging and plan to have it on my site at some point down the road.
But I agree with you: too much guest blogging on a site totally waters it down for me. Then it’s akin to ghost writing. The take away for me here is “ring in the guest blogging, but not too much.”
Thanks for your precious ideas. I’m planning to allow guests to post blogs in my site. I think it’s a great idea to become popular but I’ll definitely not allow them often doing. Carry on mate…
Hey Niles,
I believe guest blogging community blogging are great tools for building your brand as well as developing valuable backlinks for your blog/site.
Very nice artile…..One more thing Imagine, I am reading one blog and a particular author has written an article there. Then I go on to another blog, the same blogger has guest posted there!
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