Is Guest Blogging a Good Idea for Your Site?
One of the first things semi-successful website owners do is to open their doors for guest bloggers. They see their site doing well, drawing in regular traffic, and then decide it's a good idea for guest blogging. Why? Well, the pros of guest blogging are lauded far and wide. From backlinks to increased readership, guest blogging is this practice that has great benefits for the user.
Potentially, but not always.
By Annie Mole from London, UK (By Atlaslin) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In fact, there is at least one very clear reason why guest blogging might not be right for you and your site.
Before you open the doors, consider the following issue:
Readers want you.
As hard as it might be to believe, your readers return to your blog time and time again because of you. They like your style, personality, tone, and content. Sure, they could find similar information elsewhere in this seemingly endless world of the internet, but they like you. What a concept!
But, when you, essentially, outsource content from other bloggers, you stop giving your customers what they want. You treat your own work as either not good enough or your time as too precious. Then, your readers must adjust to new voices, none of which usually bear much resemblance to your own.
This practice can be alienating. Instead of providing more qualitative and authoritative content, you dilute the pools of your pure content.
Often, readers become wary of guest blogging, and many won't even read posts by guest bloggers due to their strong affinities and preferences for the main writer.
What else could you do?
Consider incorporating guest bloggers in a very careful manner. For example, use guest bloggers to introduce your readers to people who write relevant, but slightly divergent content. Let's say that you maintain a blog about internet marketing, but you have a friend who is an SEO expert. Introduce the blogger by linking to and mentioning them in previous posts, and prepare your regular readers for the adjustment.
I would build up something like this:
"Here's some big news for you all! I asked my friend Jeff Apfelman of SEOapfel.com to consider sharing some of his knowledge with us as an occasional blogger. Fortunately for us, he said yes! From now one, he will contribute one post a month on the subject of SEO and internet marketing to help us best focus our efforts. His first post will be live next Tuesday at 8 AM, so be sure to sign up for email updates to get the news right away!"
In that scenario, you are introducing a useful, connected voice who will not detract from your overall message, voice, or content. In fact, they will accessorize your previous work so as to make them shine brighter.
This is exactly what you want to do when it comes to guest blogging. Don't throw away your hard work just because you're seeing the initial drippings of success. Your formula is good; continue with it until it needs to change!
What do you think about guest blogging? Have you tried it? Would you recommend it to the others? Have any tips?