Posted 15 September 2007, by Aaron
Guest blogging has become quite a common trend these days. Many bloggers are taking advantage of guest writers, and it seems a mutually beneficial process. The host gets to put their feet up for the day and get a nice juicy piece of content with no effort; the guest gets to raise their profile amongst new circles. Everyone’s a winner, right?
Well, what about the reader? Last month Vivien from Inspiration Bit started quite a debate when she asked, “How comfortable are you with guests?” Many readers are happy with guest blogging - they trust their favourite bloggers to chose wisely and allow quality writers to help with the blog. Some however, see a guest article as some kind of intrusion - an interruption to the ‘personality’ that they expect from the blog.
Personally, I empathise with the camp who see blogs as a window into someone’s personality and so see guest blogging as kind of disturbing that personal connection/relationship. However, I’ve also seen it pulled off successfully and when guest blogging is done well it can add a new perspective to a blog.
In a recent interview by a guest on her own blog, Lorelle talked about guest blogging and gave some sound advice on how to be a guest blogger. Likewise, there’s some excellent advice on Wisdump, and over at Devlounge Connor Wilson explains how guest blogging can be, in his words, a “three-way of pleasure!”
Last week my friend Justin Kistner asked to write for miLienzo.com. Justin is a web designer and Internet strategist, he writes for his own blog, Metafluence, contributes towards the blog carnival site, Advanced Operators, and is a regular commentator among these very pages. I was happy to accept Justin’s offer and likewise I will be writing for him in the not too distant future.
Next week Justin will be posting an article concerning web design and managing a clients expectations: a topic that I’m sure will be relevant for any creative freelancer. I’m really looking forward to seeing Justin’s article so I hope miLienzo.com subscribers are too.
Your thoughts on guest blogging
I’d love to hear your opinions of guest blogging. Do you value the content of a guest blogger as much as you do the blog’s author? Do you find the change in writing style and personality off-putting?
I haven’t done this for a while so (… deep breath) a HUGE thanks for all the recent comments: Eguru, elysa, Josh, Bastian, Rick, Linden man, David, Shantanu, Justin, Firewalker and (gasp) dt.
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Tags:Blogging, Collaboration, Personality, Writing
That was an interesting way to warn your readers about a guest writer whom they’ll meet next week, and collect their opinions. Nicely done.
What I’ve noticed recently is that whenever a guest article appears on someone’s blog with no introduction, I get confused at first. The other day I was reading RSS feed from Problogger in my Thunderbird, and it shows the subject and the author Darren Rowse, so I go through his posts and read one about logos and design. After reading the first paragraph I thought - what the heck, since when Darren writes about logos and what does he know about them. Only then I glanced at the top of the post and saw a line stating that it’s a guest article.
And I thought, hmm… I shouldn’t be posting guest articles this way, I rather introduce them to my readers, express my opinion on the subject matter and then pass it on to my guests.
I also liked your approach, this way I’m now anticipating what Justin has to say about web design and will check out his blog in advance, get to know him a bit before reading his article next week.
P.S. Thanks for the mention, btw. 
The “trend” (which is not a trend but has been going on for a long time, people are just paying attention) in guest blogging brings up a lot of questions, and I tried to tackle a lot of them in a series I called Learning the Art of Guest Blogging on the Blog Herald. I’ve more to add to the series, but I tried to look at it from the guest blogger and guest blogger host perspective.
A solid and clear introduction and clues that the guest blogger is not the original blogger is critical to setting the “tone” of the guest blog. But so many details are involved in making sure the guest blogger knows the rules while still being comfortable on the blog, and the host needs to know before inviting a blogger to blog for them.
And don’t think that the guest blog host can sit back and relax. I’m in the middle of a two month guest blogging “party” on my blog and I’m more tense and nervous than I’ve been in ages. It’s a lot of work, keeping track of comments, checking to make sure they coded things in line with your blogging style and form, checking trackbacks, referrals, and what they say on their blogs about their guest blogging experience.
I’ve not been on vacation, and in fact, this has been so much work, I’m behind schedule on my own.
Yes, this is about coordinating over 30 bloggers on my blog for two months, but it’s also about giving up control of your blog, even for one blog post. That takes extra energy until you become accustomed and trust those you let on your blog.
But it’s an energizing and exciting experience. I’m so honored that these bloggers have given of their time to share their knowledge and skills with my readers. It’s been the best party, work aside, and a lot of fun, too. A mixed bag, that’s for sure. So never take it lightly.
Vivien - You’re right, sometimes it isn’t clear that the piece you’re reading isn’t by the sites’ author - I’ve been confused by ProBlogger too! As Lorelle says, clues are needed to set the guest article in context as a guest article. I am thinking of designing a very simple ‘guest writer’ banner to serve as a prelude to the article.
Lorelle - Thanks for stopping by and sharing the link to your Blog Herald article. My tongue is slightly in my cheek when I say the host can put their feet up and relax - I certainly appreciate co-ordinating two months of guest articles is some challenge! From my point of view I have one writer writing one article and I’m happy that I can take a day off writing an article that day.
w00t! I’m the guest blogger! Looks like I’ll be able to publish my porn post afterall. >:)
I don’t mind guest bloggers at all, provided they stick to the ‘rules’ that Lorelle mentions. For me, these rules (or guides) would encompass such things as topic of content, text / image balance (which is important for a blog like mine), inviting reader interaction etc.
I think you’ve done great by introducing your guest writer, Justin, and I’m looking forward to reading his perspectives.
Ciao for now, Aaron.
Guest blogging on a successful blog can be useful for developing your own site. Better yet, if you can develop a relationship with someone who has a high PR blog and write regularly for them, your site will benefit in traffic and links derived from that relationship.
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inspirationbit
15 September 2007, 4:07 pm