The Art of Guest Posting
July 12, 2008 by Colleen Coplick
Filed under Buzznetworker News, Case Studies, Guest Post, How To, Opinon
Many of the established and well respected blogs within the online marketing community have recently started to make their audiences available to a variety of new voices. I’ve done it here and both Michael Gray and Jeremy Shoemaker have both recently put the call out for guest bloggers.
I’m totally interested and willing to have guest bloggers on Buzznetworker, (see below) but I also take it very seriously. I have high standards – I want to make sure that it fits the tone and topic of my site, and that the content is exclusive – it can only be published here. I’m thrilled if my guest bloggers post and on their own site and link back to their post, but I’m uncomfortable when they start repurposing that content.
Darren Rowse, from ProBlogger has defined some great key criteria that any guest blogger should take into account before you submit a post.
1. Research the Blog
2. On Being Yourself
3. Look for Gaps in the blog
4. Sell Yourself
5. Be Reliable
6. Add Value
The sixth point here comes from Marketing Pilgrim and I think it’s a very good and relevant point. If you’re not adding value almost every time you post, whether that post is on your site or someone else’s, you’re just adding to the noise.
Guest blogging really is bringing a new voice and a new perspective to an established site, and it’s important to keep that in mind when you’re offering up a post for someone else’s site.
All this said, I am now officially throwing the doors open. I’m looking for guest posts. The only criteria I have is that the post is on topic of the site (Something social media related – case studies, advanced social media thoughts, opinion pieces…) and that you don’t republish the content anywhere else. Please make sure you link up your posts and provide any images you want to go along with the post, complete with appropriate attribution.
Comment and let me know if I should be looking out for a post from you, and I’ll make sure I watch my inbox. I’m really looking forward to seeing what my readers come up with!!
Hm… Well I’ll be happy to take up your challenge!
Let me think of a topic (I suspect I can certainly tie something in with the upcoming BlogHer conference) and I’ll get back to you!