I peeped in on a Twitter chat the other day and saw some bloggers lamenting the fact that all the guest blog posts they received were usually unpublishable crap. Well, since I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I’m not that crazy about guest blogging, I really don’t sympathize with these bloggers.
My contention has always been – there’s not enough compensation in it for the guest blogger to make it worth their time and effort to crank out quality content. No, I take that back. My real problem with guest blogging is…
Nobody puts enough thought into it. Nobody is looking for a profitable, long-term solution, one that benefits all parties involved. Not the guest blogger, and not the blog owner. Everybody is looking for a quick, fly-by solution and in the end, it’s your readers who pay the price.
But enough about that. Obviously, you’re hear because you read my articles, “How To Get More Out Of Guest Blogging” and “Blog Owners: How To Get Better Results From Your Guest Bloggers.” If you haven’t, you should. They’ll fill in some of the missing pieces.
So let’s talk about how to choose the best permanent guest blogger for your blog. (Don’t know what a permanent guest blogger is? Then you didn’t read my other articles yet, did you? Go do it now. I’ll wait….)
OK, here we go:
Check out the blogs that are already sending you traffic. Obviously, they think your blog is great or they wouldn’t be linking out to you. And obviously, they think their readers can learn something from you. Maybe they’d like to collaborate and share some traffic.
Check out websites that connect guest bloggers and blog owners. As a matter of fact, there are two of them sponsoring this contest:
MyBlogGuest: MyBlogGuest is a blogging community that enables guest bloggers to connect with publishers interested in quality content. MyBlogGuest is the oldest free community connecting guest authors to the blog owners. Use MyBlogGuest to expose your content to the largest database of popular bloggers.
GuestBlogIt: GuestBlogIt connects blog writers and blog owners for their mutual benefit. Authors submit their original quality content to an article gallery. Publishers select content they wish to publish and make an offer to the blogger for exclusive rights. Author and publisher both promote the content for their mutual benefit.
And one of my favorite sources? Writers like me! I’m a freelance writer and in between my client work I also write for Examiner.com. With Examiner.com I’m paid on page views, which means every time someone lands on one of my articles I make money. Most freelance writers have their own sites and they’d welcome an opportunity to bring in additional traffic. Find a freelancer who writes in your niche and offer them a permanent guest blogging opportunity.
My point, as I’ve loudly declared for a few years now, is this: When it comes to guest bloggers, just like everything else in life, you get what you pay for. Offering up a link and an blasé audience and a one-time appearance doesn’t really benefit anyone – including your readers. Once that blog post drops into the archives its benefits also start dropping.
Read my article, “How To Get More Out Of Guest Blogging” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Now, what should you look for in a good, permanent guest blogger? You need someone who understands the concept of collaboration.
- Your guest blogger should willingly promote their guest blog posts and your blog as a whole.
- They should link out to their content on your blog whenever possible.
- They should be able to plan ahead and create relevant content across their site and yours so readers have a reason to go back and forth.
- They should be able to start bringing in new traffic immediately.
- They should be able to see the big picture and understand the benefits of a long-term collaboration.
- They should look for opportunities to promote both their blog and yours – and you should do the same.
You’re already spending a lot of time looking for guest bloggers every month or every week and you’re refusing half the content you receive. Instead, put some time into finding the best guest blogger and give them a permanent home on your blog.
For more information on Permanent Guest Bloggers read:
- How To Get More Out Of Guest Blogging
- Blog Owners: How To Get Better Results From Your Guest Bloggers
- Understanding Permanent Guest Blogging
This is a wonderful insight, Donna. The tips you have shared are really helpful while looking for a guest blogger on a permanent basis. Great share.
Another website I like for guest blogging is: http://www.bloggerlinkup.com/
You’ll have to sign up to their mailing list in order to get the requests for guest blogs.
Hi Richa and Robert,
Sorry I wasn’t here to respond sooner. I was busy guest blogging at my home away from home LOL Glad you guys liked the post! And thanks so much for your comments!
Hi Donna,
Choosing a guest blogger is one of the daunting task as the reputation and interest of the blog is at stake. The tips provided in this post can pave way for a good selection of guest blogger. Thanks for sharing this helpful tips.
Excellent points. A collaborative relationship is better for all involved than a one-shot guest post.
Just one thing: I’d like to rethink the phrasing of “permanent guest blogger.”
I think such a person would start to become a contributor.
You’re right, Chris, it is a collaborative effort and “contributor” is a good word for it. I chose the permanent guest blogger thing because in my mind “contributor” suggests a little more, well, permanency, or responsibility.
As a “permanent guest blogger” at Who Forted, I don’t HAVE to post on a regular basis and they don’t even count on me to post at all. If I show up fine, if I don’t that’s fine, too. They understand I have other commitments.
It’s “potato – potahto” really. Whatever term works best for you. It’s the concept that counts 🙂
I bet most bloggers like me would have been searching for this information. Thanks for the thorough research and sharing.
You’re welcome, Fatima! (Love your name!)
Examiner.com sounds very promising for a content writer like me. I did not know that there was such a thing as pay-per-view for a writer. Wonderful post-one that has helped me a great deal. Thanks!
Hi Dipa – Examiner is one of the best business decisions I’ve made. I get tons of exposure and make money, too. 🙂
Guest blogging may bring you quality backlinks and your blog indexed in fastest way by search engines. With the help of guest posts, one can be established as a full time blogger.
Yes, you can, Santosh. Guest blogging definitely has its benefits 🙂
This this will surely help me a lot. Since I just started doing some guest blogging to backlink my sites. Thanks for explaining this!
I’ve just signed up for MyGuestBlog. Thank you Donna for a insightful post!
Hi Donna! Choosing a permanent guest blogger can be a challenging and not to mention a daunting task but it’s true when you mentioned that guest blogging is truly about one’s willingness to collaborate. Thanks for the engrossing read.
Thanks for the salutary share, I look at guest blogging as an opportunity to establish credibility and rapport so it must be initiated exceptionally well. A permanent guest blogger must epitomize the values and characteristics that you want your blog to be mainly associated with.
The concept of a permanent guest blogger looks very good to me. I have recently started doing guest blog postings and it will be of good help. Thanks for these useful tips.
Am thankful to share this informative post. Really the guest posting is very effective thing to improve our blog visibility and gain some revenue. This post is clearly explained with good information.
Some guest bloggers just blog their way to increase traffic in their websites and gain authority. However, the best guest blogger would be that one that contributes good content and has genuine will to provide service to your target audience.
Hi Donna, That post is very informative for me, as i only know about mybloguest before Now i find some more sources for my Tech guest blog http://www.techmoo.com ,
Thank your
Hey Donna and everyone else,
First, I just wanted to drop in my 2 cents about guest blogging and the best guest blogging sites out there, I have been heavily into the industry as both an owner of a guest blogging company at GuestBlogIt.com and a guest blogger myself. To be honest, there truly are only 2 choices that I would recommend, which are worth your time, and they are MyBlogGuest.com and MyBlogU.com, which is the new version of My Blog Guest, created by Ann Smarty the #1 female blogger in the world. My Blog U is focused towards ultimate style guest blogging, for exclusive A+ content to be published only on the best websites in the world. The concept is great in my opinion, and should get around Google’s take on guest blogging being a ‘spam’ like marketing technique, as it’s truly not anything close to what I would consider being a ‘link farm’.
Also, I wanted to thank Donna for publish such a good article, and also referencing Guest Blog It in it. I do appreciate that. It will be rebuilt fairly shortly, we had some unfortunate events, our server crashed and the site was lost. And, we had a few internal issues between partners, but that is all solved now & I am the sole owner. Also, today, I got lucky and found a backup, so it will be shortly up and running again, however, modifications will be made & the quality will improve significantly.
Anyway, that is what I wanted to share with you all, I hope you guys benefit from my knowledge & experience.
Thanks for listening,
– Whitney Segura
“Things will come to those who wait, but only things left behind by those who hustle.”