The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Advice for Bloggers and Guest Bloggers
Guest Blogging and Guest Bloggers provide a great opportunity for bloggers looking for Guest Posts and many freelancers, companies, other bloggers, and guest posters looking to expand their articles to other places on the Internet. There is, however, a certain etiquette that should be followed amongst all parties involved.
Keep in mind that my advice is my own opinion and you may judge at your own discretion of whether to release your guest post to a guest blog or not. Do not let any one thing stop you from making your decision, as not all guest blogs are created equally, nor do they require an audience from every aspect of Social Media.
Here is some advice to all Guest Bloggers:
1. Be sure to write professionally.
Stay on topic and stick with what you know.
Spellcheck your entire article.
Get someone other than you to read your post to ensure that it does make sense.
Come up with your thesis and provide examples with your statements, bullet points, or lists.
Do not be afraid to provide external links to other websites which support your statements.
2. Make sure you do your research on the guest blog before you choose it for your publication.
Does this guest blog publish feeds to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Triberr, etc.?
Does it have a Facebook Fan page, Twitter followers, or a LinkedIn group?
Does it have RSS feeds and does it publish to other RSS feed directories?
Do you like the guest blog? Do you like the design?
Is it a good home for your Guest Post?
How many unique articles does the guest blog have? Go to www.copyscape.com and add a few sentences in from the guest blog to see how unique its content really is.
It would probably be a good idea for you to subscribe to the guest blog’s email list so you can get an idea of the posts the guest blog is distributing each week. It will provide the guest blog with a subscriber and you with some insight into whether you should really have your article on this guest blog or not.
Find a few guest blogs you like and publish your articles on them. If you receive a good return, then ask the guest blog to publish more articles. If not, then be upfront and honest to the blogger about why you declined their offer or why you do not want to publish on their guest blog. It will help them to understand why they were denied in order to improved their blog.
Give the guest blog a few weeks to a few months to see if it did anything good for your article or primary purpose.
3. Do not be afraid of Page Rank Zero (0) guest blogs.
Google Page Rank is based on a very complex algorithm that many web designers, SEO consultants, and professionals can only guess at. It is likely that very few Google employees even know what the algorithm looks like or how it actually works.
A guest blog may get a hundred or a thousand visitors a day, yet it might carry only a PR of 0 for up to a year or more.
A PR 0 guest blog may not be very popular yet, but with your contribution, has the ability to grow, so consider yourself helping this guest blog as well. As the guest blog develops and matures, your article will have seniority, since it has been on the guest blog the longest, and is likely to be indexed and displayed in more Google searches than any other page on that guest blog.
A PR 0 guest blog is still being discovered and visited frequently by Googlebot and other bots several times a day, especially if it contains unique content, and is being indexed more frequently.
4. The guest blog you chose is a part of your blog, Company, or Primary Purpose.
It is not the guest blog owner’s job to notify you if you’ve received comments, regardless if you have been registered to be notified or not. Keep yourself updated with your own guest post and visit at least once or twice a week to see if it received any comments. If in doubt, email the blog owner and ask how many views it is getting or comments it has gotten that may have not been approved yet.
It is not a guest blog owner’s job to interact with visitors who post on your guest post, because the guest blog owner is probably not qualified to answer questions about your article.
Be sure you interact with visitors who comment on your guest post. Not only will this help the guest blog you post on and make it more alive to new visitors, but this is a great way for you to include links in the comment(s) and build up backlinks to your very own website, directing them to take part on your website as well.
5. Keep a count on External Links in your post.
It does not look good for the guest blog you post on or the article you write to include a dozen links in your article. If you have a dozen external links, than it might only be fair for the guest blog owner to add some nofollow links in the article.
As a rule, you could probably get away with having one (1) link per 400 – 500 words.
Your links should be clean, unbroken, and direct to pages that are relevant to your article.
6. Speed up the publication of your article.
If you are in a rush, need your blog article to be published soon, or are just curious about when your article is going to be published, don’t hesitate to send a private message to the blog owner asking them to speed up the publication of your article.
Be specific about exactly when you want your article published on the guest blog.
Understand that a guest blog may have several Guest Bloggers wanting to publish on that guest blog, so be respectful and courteous about publication times.
Understand that a guest blog that is releasing a few dozen posts a day is probably not the best place to publish your article, as it does not give visitors or bots a chance to even discover it.
Do not publish your article more than once on more than one guest blog.
Do not use a spinner to spin your article and publish it on another guest blog.
Do not give your article a different title with the same content. By doing this, you hurt botht the guest blog’s credibility and your own.
Here is some advice to Blog Owners:
1. How important is your blog?
Is your blog permanent? Does your blog contain evergreen content or content that expires?
As a Host for Guest Bloggers, it is your priority to make sure you can afford your website, web host, and domain and to never let it expire. It is also your responsibility to make sure you have a good web host. You must keep your site alive at all costs. It is not fair for someone to put their trust in you with their article and your site goes down.
Are you catering to a relevant audience? Is your blog a niche topic and are you acquiring the right guest posts?
Is your blog set up for Social Media feeds, Social Media Sharing, RSS feeds, etc.?
2. Guest Blogger Articles and Reviews
If a Guest Blogger has chosen to accept your blog to publish their guest post, make sure you leave them a good review.
Be sure to thank them for their consideration of your blog.
Be sure to write to them that they are welcome to publish more guest posts on your blog.
Do your best to publish a Guest Bloggers content as is. If you find a few spelling errors, go ahead and fix them, but do not make major changes to their article. If you feel their content needs to be adjusted in any way, contact them. Inform them if you know something that can improve the SEO of the article.
Do not be offended if a Guest Blogger declines your offer, there are plenty of guest posts in the sea! You want the right article for your blog and the Guest Blogger wants the right blog for their article! You should always have a good amount of acceptance and a good amount of rejection.
Do not be offended but if you put out over a dozen offers and all of them were rejected, it may be time to re-evaluate the design, purpose, and publicity of your blog.
3. NoFollow links are just as effective as DoFollow links.
A Guest Blogger is looking for backlinks, but if your website was hit with a Google penalty or risks being hit, than you should do all of your guest bloggers the great service of adding nofollow to your links.
It is very generous of you to mutually provide dofollow links to your Guest Bloggers, but don’t feel obligated.
Accept the fact that when they interact with your visitors, they may include links back to their website.
If you feel a link leads to a spam website, inform the author that you will add a text link instead of an actual link to the article.
Be sure to publish their blog within the time you stated you would publish it, earlier if possible.
Honor requests from Guest Bloggers to speed up the publication of their guest post.
Feel free to let the Guest Blogger know that if necessary, you will prioritize their blog guest post if they send a request to you through a private message.
Do not post several Guest posts in one day. It is your responsibility to ensure that those Guest posts are discovered normally by visitors and search engine bots.
5. Publish In Time.
It is your job to know when the right time to publish a post is, whether it is morning, noon, or night.
It is also your job to know which platform is best to publish on and at which time of day is best to publish a post.
Your blog should acquire a reasonable amount of visits when the guest post is published.
It is also your job to provide guest bloggers and incentive or a counter to know exactly how many people saw their guest post. Whether you volunteer this information via private message or display it on the guest post itself.
6. Revenue.
A Guest Blogger really does not care how you make your income, but if your site is littered with ads, do not expect guest posts. Your blog should be more about content than it should be about ads.
A Guest Blogger wants the published article to be the central focus of your blog, not the ads.
7. SEO.
Make sure your blog is optimized for SEO purposes.
Ensure that you follow the proper guidelines for meta tags and keywords specified by the Guest Blogger.
Respect all external links and photos chosen by the Guest Blogger. Try to give proper credit where it is due when you take a photo from another site. It also helps to build external links by linking to the website that provided the photo.
