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.

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.

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.

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.