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Ann Smarty got me interested in the idea of guest posts for my blog. I've written guest posts for other people's blogs (such as Time Goes By), but I've never had a guest poster on my own blogs. When Ann mentioned MyBlogGuest in Ann Smarty, SEO Expert, Shares Her Secrets, it made me wonder if I was missing a bet. In that interview with Ann, she said,
I have also recently started a new project aiming to help guest bloggers to find blog owners accepting guest posts. The site is MyBlogGuest, and it's a free-to-join community focusing on guest blogging and everything around that.
BlogHers are talking in posts and chatter mentions about guest posts they've written in large numbers on BlogHer. The blogs in the BlogHer Network show a constant stream of guest posts.
Popular blogs outside the BlogHer Network, for example ProBlogger, use guest posts regularly. How to Build a Blog Network from the Ground Up by Elle is an example at ProBlogger. At ReadWriteWeb, Laura Madison wrote the guest post The Dark Figure of Social Media: What Can Twitter Teach Criminologists?
It makes perfect sense for big sites like ProBlogger and ReadWriteWeb to want guest posts. The more good content you have, the better off you are. But what about small niche blogs that are essentially a one-person operation? Can guest posts benefit the little guys, too?
I decided to explore MyBlogGuest to see what I could find. On the home page, the site lists these benefits for blog owners:
- Get free exclusive content
- Get free targeted traffic
- Network
- Get new fresh perspective
I registered and explored the site for a while. I didn't have any posts written that I could submit to be published on someone else's blog. I found one I thought would be a good fit for my blog and sent off the request to use it. The request was accepted and I published the first guest post on my blog the next day.
After 10 years of blogging on the same topic, I'm relieved by the prospect of guest bloggers adding good content to my blog. Now I'm off to come up with a post of my own that some other blogger will want to publish. To promote a post free at MyBlogGuest, describe it in the forums. For a pro account at $10 a month, users can enter any post to pitch and it would show up in the Articles Gallery. I don't plan to do that, but will try out the free method via the forums.
The whole prospect is kind of invigorating.
Of course there are many ways to go about finding and promoting guest posts besides using MyBlogGuest. My arrangement as a guest poster with Time Goes By started with an email from the blogger, Ronni Bennett. I receive email from folks who want to publish guest posts on my blog regularly, too. When I look at what they are offering, it never quite fits, so I haven't tried it until now.
Are you one of the many BlogHers already doing this? How did you get started? What are your results, your thoughts, and your tips?
Virginia DeBolt
Web Teacher | First 50 Words
