The Pros and Cons of Guest Posting
The guest post is a fickle thing. Recently I just posted my first guest post on TylerCruz. The thing with a guest post is it has the power to bring you new readers and lots of exposure but it also can give you a negative rep if its not done well.
The guest post that you submit should be your “A game”. It should be top quality work that you have actually worked on to make perfect. Why though would you a hardworking blogger want to put in all that time to give another website material to post on their website?!?
The Positive
The answer is simple, the reason that you guest post and actually “pay” (with your work) the owner of the website to have your content shown is to reach new audiences and to have your website exposed. Would you want to guest post on a blog that has only 5 readers. I would think not (unless you know the owner and are doing them a favour). The reason you guest post in the first place is to have your work exhibited to the number of daily readers that the place you guest post to has.
Guest posting is advertising and your paying the owner with your work. This is the reason why your work must be top quality, not to appease the owner but to appease the readers. They are the people you are marketing to and if you write a stellar post, wont the chances of them being more inclined to visit your website be higher?
If you write a great post a percentage of those readers might come and check out your website. This results in more traffic, but more importantly, highly targeted traffic to your website. After all, you should be guest posting on other blogs in your niche, so their readers must already want to read your content (assuming the rest of it is quality content)!
The Negative
If you screw up on a guest post it can have dire consequences to your blog. If it’s a one time thing you can redeem yourself with some people usually, but not all. Those people that see you messed up and don’t “forgive” you will be less inclined to come to your blog or want to read anything you’ve written at all. These people are the people that remember what you wrote and what you did wrong, and instead of advising their friends to check out your blog, they advise them to stay away.
You will need to maintain a high standard of writing quality when guest posting. Your reputation, and that of the host blog, are equally at risk. If you write a bad post and they approve it, what happens? Of course you look bad, but they look bad to!
The chances of that owner allowing you to guest post again on their website will be dramatically decreased and the owner will spread the message around that you slipped up. In some other bloggers mind this will plant the idea that you should not be guest posting on their blogs either (assuming you want to).
Wrap-up
All of this ties into the fact that you have to bring your best material. If you write a great post you’ll reap the rewards but if you write a bad post, you will suffer. That being said, there is always hope for redemption, but you shouldn’t have to take that path. The path of winning back a reader is a longer one that can be avoided if you just post quality content…
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I was just reading your current post (I subscribe via your RSS) and loved it. Mainly because I have just invited a few people (people who write things I enjoy reading) to guest post on my blog. I’d like to extend that offer to you. I really like your work and the level of quality… so I thought “why not?” I was thinking you could introduce yourself, your blog, and maybe a few money making ideas. Let me know. I’ll keeping reading Moneybites either
Thanks.
BizTone at the moment I’m only posting on strategic blogs (more than 1000 readers mostly) and very sparsely at that, BUT, don’t loose hope, if you’d like to interview me and throw any questions you want into the mix, I’d be happy to oblige that way
Hope that helps
The guest post must be your top class work that’s for sure. So when even I try to write one and I found it very excellent, instead giving it to somebody to publish it as guest post I simply put it on my blog.
I guess I will never be able to get my work published at somebody else’s site. I love my work.
So how can I come out of this dilemma?
Easy, you have to weigh the pros and cons. If you write a fantastic article, do you want to get new readers or please your current reader base. Which is more important to you. I feel that you should guest post at least once on a very large blog.
The reason behind this is that by doing so new readers come to your blog and your community can grow. As a result the quality posts you put up later are read by more people
A second negative effect a bad blog post can have is with the owner of the blog your (you’re) posting on. Remember(,) by posting you are infact (in fact) having to maintain their level of quality as well as your own.
Keep trying. Good topic. Do a clean re-write. Work on your grammar, spelling, punctuation and logic.
If the English language is your income-earning tool, why not use it as a professional would?
A second negative effect a bad blog post can have is with the owner of the blog your posting on.
^^^^^^ The sentence does not make sense.
Remember by posting you are infact having to maintain their level of quality as well as your own.
^^^^ Are you asking your readers to use posting as a memory aid? Or did you want them to post themselves? (”by posting you”)
Try this:
“You will need to maintain a high standard of writing quality when guest posting. Your reputation, and that of the host blog, are equally at risk.”
Billin, thank you for your comments. I am a native English speaker, but obviously I mess up from time to time.
Again, all of your corrections have been fixed and I thank you sincerely for pointing them out.
I agree, guest posting is great, and puts a lot on the line. However, to me, it’s not really a matter of how many readers a person has, but, if I like their blog or not. You could have thousands of readers, but, if I don’t really like your blog…I won’t do a guest post.
I think the guest post is like a mutual endorsement. You endorse the blog your post on, and the blog owner is endorsing you by allowing you to post.
I personally wouldn’t have a problem guest posting on a blog with 5 readers, if I liked the blog and the blog owner…that’s really all that matters to me. I know, it’s probably not too strategic, but, ahh well….that’s just how I roll
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