Being a Guest Blogger - The Good and the Bad
August 22nd, 2007 by ses5909Looks like you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single conversation! Thanks for visiting!
Last week someone asked me if I would write a guest post on his blog. It didn’t take much consideration on my part as the topic of the blog is not something I normally write. Plus there are a lot of benefits to being a guest blogger!
The Good
- Exposure - Chances are the blog you are writing for has a different audience than yours so this is a great chance to reach out to new readers, grab their attention, and bring them back to your blog. Certainly they can fit one more blog into their daily routine! Most guest bloggers get to say a little something about themselves so this is your chance to entice the readers and make them want to read more!
- Free Link - I know, I know, you can get a free link from your neighborhood blog directory, but this is a targeted link from a blog which potentially has higher PR than you. Ahhh, feel the link love!
- Your writing is damn good - Have you ever had to bring a dish over to a potluck? I know when I do I typically pick my best meal or side dish and make sure it is absolutely delicious! I have gotten quite a reputation for being this amazing cook when in reality, I know how to cook 5 things well and my cooking isn’t stellar at home. I don’t spend hours slaving over dinner for my family (bad mom I know), but for other people I try to put my best foot forward! It is really the same when you guest blog. You aren’t going to go to someone’s house and bring microwaved leftovers and you also won’t go to someone’s blog and regurgitate the same crap floating around everywhere else! Instead you will try to really challenge yourself to think outside of the box and make your best effort to make a solid post. I guarantee you will proofread your post more than you would if you were writing it for your own blog!
The Bad
- Confinement - When you blog for someone else, you are typically given a pretty narrow scope or even a specific topic to cover. If you were blogging for yourself, you could cover whatever came to your mind but quite often the person who asked you to blog needs you to make a post about a very specific topic. You will have to conform to their timeline and if they want a specific word count, then that will be a consideration!
- Giving away content -As I mentioned in the Pros, you are probably trying your best to write some really great content…yet you go and give away your stellar post to another site. You could always ask permission to republish it on your blog at a later date if you would like, although I think it is better to leave it unique. This is a small sacrifice for the benefits you will get.
- It takes more time - You will probably spend more time writing this post than you would if you wrote it for your own blog. Let’s say you are writing a post for a video game blog. The blog author has asked you to write a post about a specific game, now, you may play video games but are only slightly familiar with this particular game, so it may take extra research on your part and the words may not flow as easily as if you could write about your own topic. It all adds up when you consider the extra time you put into the post to make sure you are writing your best in order to try and intrigue this new audience.
The Ugly
There really isn’t any ugly but I couldn’t resist adding this section!
The End
Hopefully you can see that the benefits to being a guest blogger typically outweigh the negatives. If someone wants you to be a guest bloggers, I say give it a shot! Brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on your Sunday best and wow charm with your ideas and wit!
P.S.
Ok, I’m getting carried away and having fun with this now. But I would like to know about your experiences as a guest blogger. Have you ever considered it? if you were asked to make a guest post would you do it?
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August 22nd, 2007 at 7:19 am
Excellent read.
I feel that the positives generally out-weight the negatives when it comes to guest blogging. This is especially true if the blog has a good number of subscribers, solid traffic, and some SE weight attached to it ;).
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 am
Perfect timing. I’ve recently been asked to write a couple of guest posts for another blogger who’s away for the week. Luckily I had the scope to choose my own subject. However over the past few days I just keep reading about how people are really down on guest posts on the blogs they read which then started to put doubt in my mind as to whether it was a good idea. Afterall I don’t want to come across as the bad guy.
One post yesterday though made me realise that perhaps the ones really moan aren’t paying much attention, as one argument was a guest blogger wouldn’t put as much effort into their post, when I feel that I have in the first and want to in the second post. I do think about what people will think of my post and am paranoid enough to ensure it’s as good as it can be! Hopefully the blog readers will think the same
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 am
@Paul - definitely!
@SarahG - One of my next posts will be about the pros and cons of having a guest blogger on your blog so I’ll be touching on that a bit. I know for me I would want to give my best for someone else which may sound dumb but I would imagine most people are like that.
August 26th, 2007 at 4:29 am
I have written a guest blog on another site. And for most of the same reasons you have highlighted. However, since I still haven’t gotten to writing as many posts (per week) as would like to on my own, I would keep guest blogging to a minimum until I have gotten into a habit of posting more often on my blog.
(bad link in prev post; pls ignore)
August 26th, 2007 at 5:05 am
Thanks for stopping by Traveller, you have a nice site :). You’re right though, you do need to make sure your blog has content before you give it away to others.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
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