An Invitation to Guest Posters
A little while ago I explained how I needed to change my strategy and reduce the posting frequency on this blog. An idea that I toyed with was inviting guest posters so I ran a poll in that blog post.
The most important statistic is the number of people who didn’t vote at all. Out of over 2000 subscribers, less than 100 voted so from that I can conclude that the majority of my readers really don’t mind if I have guest posters or not. The poll ran pretty much neck in neck for about a week and then finally the “yes” vote managed to just about pull ahead.
My personal feeling is that a few select guest posts could be a welcome change but I would not want to overuse them. I had originally suggested a weekly slot which I now think would be too much. I will use no more than two guest posts per month.
So, the purpose of this post then is to invite those of you who wish to guest post to submit your work to me. I’ll need to lay down a few guidelines:
Subject Matter
As this is a personal blog branded to my name, I need to make sure that any opinions expressed are my own. Even though every guest post will be properly credited to to the author and linked to his site, many readers miss this and still see the guest post as having come from the blog owner. Therefore, I’ll ask that the posts be guides, resources etc and not opinions. And I don’t want to see “10 top tips for a killer sales letter” :-)
Posts should stick within the topics that I cover here, that is generally Internet Marketing, Social Media and blogging. I’ll be particularly interested in posts about Social Media as that is a topic of growing interest for me.
Post Quality
This is a hard one to pin down but I’m not going to publish anything that I feel doesn’t add value for my readers. I see a lot of posts around the blogosphere which are well written and reasonably informative yet they are just “blah”. Its rather difficult to explain. A good post should enrich the reader in some way – teach him something, spur him into action, make him think etc. Post quality is a very subjective matter so to cover my butt I reserve the right to reject anything I don’t like for any reason whatsoever! However, if I don’t like your post I’ll try and tell you why.
Submission Details
Just email me via the contact form. You can either send me your complete post or just shoot me an idea. Either way, I won’t publish anything without reading it first and I will always write back and tell you if I’d like to use it. I’ll maintain a list of guest posts and I’ll publish them in accordance with what seems most relevant at the time. I will always contact you before I publish your work.
Please make sure you give me your full name, the title of the post and also a link to a site that you would like to have promoted in the post. Also, feel free to send me a short bio or some kind of introduction that I can add at the beginning to encourage readers to click through to your site.
If you are somebody who has emailed me about guest posting in the past then you can probably expect an email from me over the next week or two as I am going to be trawling through my email archives to contact those people – I’ll point them at this post.
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Taking guest posts are great starts small bloggers that wish to gain some backlinks and traffic. This is a great opportunity and no one should miss out on it :)
-Mike
Mike Huangs last blog post..John Chow Is NOT Evil
Having guest posters help a site out a lot. It adds a different flavor to your posts. Changing it up a bit brings a lot of buzz.
Wades last blog post..Extra bump in traffic
As soon I learn better english, I will try to write an error-free post for your Blog :)
But if you can, please do not reduce the posting frequency on this blog. From the begining you write a lot of tips that realy work. I am sure, others blog readers appreciate that. so kip going with usefull posts :)
Caroline, I think if you maintain tight editorial control over the posts, you should fine with this. I would personally love to contribute something. I will contact you via email.
Regards,
Mark
Mark Masons last blog post..Internet Marketing, Electrons and the Meaning of Life
Wow! What a great opportunity. I have some IM related ideas that don’t fit in with my Writing oriented blog that I’d love to shoot your way.
Courtneys last blog post..Three Things that I’m Loving Right Now
I don’t write much about your core subject matter, or I would be all over this. :) But if I find myself writing about a topic within your niche, I will definitely be knocking on your door! It’s so fun to write for someone else’s blog and find a whole new group to make a connection with.
Sonia Simones last blog post..50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew
If I’d found your blog earlier, I’d have voted :0)
You talked about noisy twitters in another post, and the same applies to blogs – I stop reading blogs I can’t keep up with. TechCrunch was like this – it was awesome when it started, but it began to require too much time to keep up!
However as Mark suggests, with the right guests, I imagine it would add value.
Great idea. There are tons of people who would be willing to guest post on a blog with 2000+ RSS subscribers. I’m currently considering it because I just started my make money blog about four or five days ago. I’ll look more into it when I get my layout fixed to the point where I’d be ready for traffic.
Two times a month seems right. I haven’t been on your blog much lately preparing mine, but if you post as often as you used to, two a month is a perfect number.
Jared Stenzels last blog post..StumbleUpon Gets Views
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