Guest Blogging - It’s the ‘In’ Thing
29 December, 2007 - Blogging - 7 Comments
In the Internet Marketing niche of the blogosphere, we’re a far cry from the days when a blog was a one man show documenting his daily opinions. Now, we’re increasingly seeing guest bloggers and co-authors taking advantage of the reader-base that the original author has established.
Guest Bloggers and Co-Authors? What’s the difference?
The difference is quite simple. Guest bloggers tend to be one-off elements who send their proposed article to the blog author. If the author likes it, he will publish it under his name, with a note at the top or bottom of the article explaining that it’s a guest entry from Joe Bloggs. John Chow does this, as do many other high profile bloggers.
Co-authors, on the other hand, are the bloggers who are established writers on a particular blog. They write for the blog on a regular basis, and they have a physical author account setup within the blogging software, so they can write and publish posts as though the blog is their own. Skellie is a good example of a co-author. She started as a guest blogger at ProBlogger, then progressed to having her own account at ProBlogger and she now writes on a regular basis and operates the ProBlogger Community Consultation Project.
BloggingTips is also a good example. It started out with just one author, Kevin Muldoon. He then decided to start accepting new authors, and now the blog is authored by a total of 16 bloggers who all have their own BloggingTips WordPress accounts and can write and publish as they wish.
Who Benefits, and how?
Both the blog owner and the guest blogger benefit from this practice. Having one guest post a week leaves a day for the blogger to spend with their family, or gives them a day to focus on sales and marketing, as opposed to writing. And of course, the guest blogger gets the best benefit. When I wrote a guest post for John Chow, several hundred visitors came over to my site and my name was published all over the blogosphere (granted, much of it was abuse due to the dicey subject that I wrote about, but it was brand exposure none the less). And for John, the post saw the most community participation on his blog for a long time, with a grand total of 124 comments.
And of course, we can’t forget the reader. The occasional guest blogger allows for a different perspective from that which the reader is accustomed to. Change is always good, and so a new writing style and mind set is often welcomed by readers to help keep the blog fresh.
How Much is Too Much?
So just how much guest blogging is too much? Although I’m a fan of BloggingTips, I have to say that I believe Kevin is in danger of having too many co-authors. I subscribed to BloggingTips because I enjoyed Kevin’s writing style and topic discussion, but as time has gone by, and more co-authors have joined, Kevin hasn’t wrote much. Instead, he has relied on his co-authors to write. This may sound like a solid business plan, in that Kevin has to spend little time writing because he has others doing that for him (for free!), but in the end I think he may see his readers losing interest. In fact, we’re seeing that already. The amount of community participation via post comments on BloggingTips is a fraction of the percent compared to what it was when Kevin was blogging with just a couple of co-authors.
Blogging is all about Relationships
I say this so much. Blogging is all about building relationships with your readers and your fellow bloggers. When there are 16 blog authors, it’s very hard for readers to establish an emotional connection to any single author. Each day a new author writes. Each day we see a different writing style. Each day we see different topics. And because of that lack of emotional connection to the author, we no longer feel compelled to write comments or link back to the authors blog. I mean, I couldn’t really link back to an authors blog when I don’t know who the author is, right?
I’m not sure how many guest posts or co-authors on one blog is too much, but I do believe that using a business model which allows the ‘guests’ to become the dominant faces is not a business model that’s going to work. Now that’s no dig at Kevin, because I respect him greatly for being the first to try this model. I’m just not sure it’s working too well.
So will guest blogging work for your blog?
I often find myself short of ideas to write about. Whether or not you’re passionate about your blog topic (and I most certainly am!), keeping up a daily schedule of solid, interesting content isn’t easy. I’ll often find myself going a day or two without writing, not because I don’t have the energy to write, but because I’m short of things to write about.
So should I employ the resources of a guest blogger or co-author? As my recent advertisement on John Cow Dot Com said, ‘I’m not big. I’m not well known. But I am a proven Internet entrepreneur’. You see, I’m not big. I’m not well known. I have a small, dedicated and passionate base of 70 readers that I love and respect with all my heart (love in the business, entrepreneur, passionate about my job kind of love). But 70 readers is barely an enticing amount of readers for a guest blogger. Would you write a guest post on a blog with 70 readers, when you stand just as good a chance of having the post published in front of John Chow’s 14,000 readers? I don’t think I would.
But if you do happen to have an enticing reader base, I would seriously consider opening up your blog to occasional new writing. And if you’re inundated with offers like Kevin, be sure to put a limit on the number that you’ll publish each week, and make sure you stay the active, prominent face of the blog. 
Have you considered opening up your blog to guest bloggers? Do you do this already? Have you had the chance to blog as a guest? Let us know in the comments.
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Posted on 29 December, 2007 by Jamie Harrop
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It ain’t the in thang. It’s the lazy man’s thang looking for freebies.
I’m not sure I’d call it lazy, David. Putting time and effort in to a quality post to have it posted on a blog which isn’t your own doesn’t sound like a lazy attitide to me.
As long as the guest bloggers can add something of value, which is related to the overall theme of the blog, it’s a great approach. Of course, the main author should not become so noticeably absent that the blog becomes the ramblings of some other person(s). I’ve seen many blog networks that use the guest blogger principle to unify the efforts of all the co-authors to gain greater market exposure.
Bob
http://www.entrepreneurideaguide.com
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the comment. You reinforce the point that the main author shouldn’t become absent, and for good reason. I think this is key to a successful campaign of guest blogging.
I have used “compensated” Guest Blogging to good effect. I think a lot has to do with the subject matter of the blog.
In my case I focus on “second comings” quite a bit. If you are going to get real stories from ordinary folk…guest blogging is a great solution!
Hi Jamie
I think guest blogging can be a good win-win all around, but only if it is done properly. Some of the bigger sites have way to much guest blogging, or co-authoring. If they are trying to be portal sites, then they really need to clean up their navigation systems and make them better.
I just started a guest posting system. I have one person lined up who I greatly admire, but I dont know how continued guest posts will go. I have already published two guest posts myself. We will see how it goes, but for the time being I am going to both continue guest posting and allowing people to guest post on my blog.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy Days last blog post..11 Little Steps to Better Health
Hey Jeremy,
I couldn’t agree with you more when you say some of the top blogs have gone guest post crazy. I’ve subscribed from several very popular blogs over the last few months because the blog lost the voice that I initially subscribed to hear.
There’s a balance to be found. Once found, guest posting is a great win-win.