The Good And Bad Of Guest Posting

Mitch 2251 Views,
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Lately I’ve been reading a lot on the topic of guest posting and whether it’s good or bad for both the writer and the blog host. Personally, I don’t think it’s a black and white issue at all. I have had some guest posts on a couple of my blogs here and there and I’ve found that sometimes they turn out to be quite popular. I’ve also found that I seem to get a lot of requests from people wanting to write guest posts for me, and that’s something brand new because I don’t know any of these people and I wonder how they found me or decided to ask me about it.

Since there are no cut and dry answers as to whether it’s good or bad I thought I’d create a top 8 on the good and bad of guest posting. Agree or not, one of the realities of blogging is that people love “list posts”. Why only 8 instead of 10? Because that’s all I could come up with. With that in mind, here we go.

1. Guest blogging gives you the opportunity to reach a new audience that might not know who you are. The first time I was asked to write a guest post I didn’t really know the guy who was asking, but he’d visited my blog a few times and thought I could add something special to his blog. I got a little bit of juice from that post as far as visitors go, and for me, that was a good thing.

2. Guest blogging gives you the opportunity to stretch your boundaries. When you write your own blog, your audience pretty much figures they know what type of thing is coming. When you write for someone else, not only are there going to be people unfamiliar with you, but you might end up writing on a topic that you might normally leave alone, or hadn’t thought about.

3. While we’re at it, we might as well talk about the compatibility issue. Sometimes styles clash, and I’m reminded of the one time that Darren Rowse had another guru write a post for his blog. It wasn’t well received, even though it did get almost 150 comments, and maybe that’s what Darren was going for. However, most of us wouldn’t do well with having someone write something that clashed with our normal beliefs.

4. Asking to write a guest post without ever visiting another blog is a no-no. What’s stranger is having someone ask if they can write a guest post, yet they’ve never left a comment on your blog. Most of the time I’m wary of allowing it, although every once in awhile someone approaches me with a topic and my curiosity gets the better of me.

5. Guest posts can help you fill a gap here and there. I have a finance blog and every once in awhile I get a request from someone who wants to write a guest post there. I often accept that because those posts are generally not in the norm of what I write on, yet they’re still about financial issues and thus benefit me in the end as much as it might benefit them.

6. Don’t accept guest posts for every type of blog. I have 3 blogs, and I’ve never accepted any guest posts for my business blog. The reason is because my business blog is supposed to show my qualifications for what I say I do in business, and if someone else is writing, then how am I showing my thoughts and beliefs?

7. Guest posters forget one important premise most of the time; they need to come back and respond to commenters. That was a mistake I made the first couple of times, and now I make sure it’s well known by the writer, whether I request they write something for me or not, that they’re responsible for answering comments, and I expect them to come back. The best way is to be one of the first commenters, or to subscribe to all comments for that post, so you know when you have something new to respond to.

8. Guest posting allows you to help a friend out here and there. Earlier this year I helped a friend who was going through a difficult pregnancy by writing 3 guest posts for her blog. This week I’ve written two guest posts for DiTesco so he can concentrate on some other things. Guest posts shouldn’t always be about what you can get out of it for yourself. Sometimes, you do it because it’s the right thing to do.

Mitch

Mitch Mitchell is the founder and owner of I'm Just Sharing, a blog that talks about blogging, social media, and anything else that's internet related. You can check him out at I'm Just Sharing.

16 thoughts on “The Good And Bad Of Guest Posting”

  • Nice post. Well, I don’t see anything wrong with the guest posts. The more you get them on your blog the better you feel. I guess it is the same case with most of the bloggers. Guest Blogging can be bad if its bad..I mean if its written just for the name sake and has no such value for the readers. You need to write for your readers first and then comes the rest.

    • In those cases, Aswani, one hopes the person whose blog it is will edit it themselves or tell the person it’s unacceptable in that form. I have with my finance blog.

  • Thanks Aswani. I tried to find a balance, and I don’t think writing guest posts, or accepting them, is a bad thing either.

  • I see what you mean by clashing with beliefs. I was quite regretful one time when i published a guest post that wasn’t on my side of beliefs, it still turned out successful though, i was just never happy with it 🙁

    I’ve also forgotten to leave some comments on my guest posts also, big mistake as you said 😛

    • Thanks for your comment Peter. Yup, there are often two sides to issues like this, but if done properly things can always work out one way or another.

  • Hi Mitch. I will have to incline myself on the side that guest posting is most of the time good for bloggers. I can see when this can be a bad thing, specially when someone is guest blogging on a website that has a poor to bad reputation. In my special case, the last item on your list is what I have to comment upon. You have indeed been very supportive during this period that I had to tend to personal matters and for that I thank you. I can’t stress this enough. This is proof that guest posting could go way beyond just the other items on your list, which in my opinion are all solid. Thanks Mitch, you absolutely rock

    • No problem DiTesco; I’d blush if I blushed. 🙂

  • I think this article is spot on. Finding a balance is the best way to go.

    • Thanks Curtis; I appreciate the comment.

  • Nice. Never thought of doing guest posting before, nice balance too although i might do a survey before doing so.

  • Well, I agree with you but how can you manage time to write guest posts when it becomes very hard for you to write an article for your own blog. But somehow it is very good think to give exposure to your site and increase your network

  • Very good points made here. There are positives and negatives, but I do think that the positives out way the negatives.

  • Hi Mitch, this is really one of the best tips i read about the Guest blogging. I am interested in writing/offering some tips and advice related to health and medicines. can i have more idea where to get these kin of list or blogs for guest posting.
    Thanks In advance

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