Wriging

Guest posts are worth your time depending on a few things:

• Are you getting link back from the site that you post on?
• Is the site a major player that will help build up the recognition for your own site?

I've been in the same dilemma as you because we all like to keep our best work to ourselves, but in all honesty we know that even our best work doesn't always reach all the people that we want it to. Guest posting frequently without pay though is another issue that I would never consider. I did it once and I will never go back. Writing occasional guest posts on other sites though definitely has its benefits.

Thanks Scrivs.

In my case, the site that has asked for semi-regular contributions will link to me, but is not yet a major player; it has only just launched. Part of me feels that I could help the site grow and be a part of that, but the other side of me thinks that without monetary gain, I'm better off focusing on my site, improving my content and trying to get my site out to as many people as possible.

I'm probably being too kind and too worried about the humbug feeling. In this case I think I should decide with my brain, the heart can come later.

Well again it is one thing to write a guest post and be done with it versus becoming a regular contributor. Soon I will be hitting up some people that I respect for guest posts on Expert Idiot because:

1. I value what they will say.
2. Their entries will revolve around a topic that I give to them.
3. They might not have a place or opportunity to discuss the topic in other places.

I don't expect them to come on full-time which sounds like what would be expected of you without any monetary benefit. Guest posts definitely work if done properly, but don't let the costs outweigh the benefits.

For me, it depends on what the person has as goals as a writer and the goals one has for their audience. Personally, I do not want my audience hunting all over the place for my writing(s) so I limit where I write. I even stepped back from Notes to give myself a break to gear up for a flurry of writing.

The other reason why I am cautious: I would end up pulling people to their site. Well, unless it's a 9r member in a pinch or Scrivs/Mike - I don't feel the desire to do that. :)

Also, on my site guest posts wouldn't work well unless it was someone the audience was familiar with and liked, like Bill, Scrivs, Mike, Monarch, etc. That makes a difference: are the readers there for the content, the writer or both?

Tyme has the right idea.

I'm pleased you guys went through a similar thought process as me, that makes me feel a whole lot better. At the moment it seems as though the cons outweigh the pros in my case. As the site in question is so young it's hard to answer Tyme's final question, but I totally get the jist of it. Great food for thought, thanks.

I'm going to be posting a guest post next week and these kinds of things have actually been going through my mind as well. I'm glad you beat me to the punch, Ollie.

Guest posts are definitely worth my time. I admit I haven't done many in the past (and I should, because it helps increase blog visibility) but on the subject of guests posts in my blog: yeah. Totally.

You see, my blog acts as a convergence point for fiction bloggers out there, and it's hard for us to be a community because fiction blogs are not ... very good places to gather and discuss the craft. So I try to get as many people as possible to guest post, and then we hold discussions on the points brought up. Me, me, me is boring when it comes to community.

On the other hand there's Darren Rowse's Problogger, who is seriously running out of stuff to talk about. So he's got too many guest posts going on, which is good and all, but it's quickly losing his identity on said blog. Where is Darren? It's Tom and Dick and Harry calling the shots now. And if personality is king, as Scrivs puts it, Problogger is in for some serious shit.

I'm amazed he (Darren) can come up with stuff to write about after all this time. I read Problogger almost daily and have yet to see something on there that I would consider to be serious "filler" content.

I know Darren recently went on vacation and filled in his usual posts with those of guests. Other than that, I haven't really noticed an overly huge amount of them.

Actually if you noticed Darren has been recycling content for a while now simply because there are only so many topics about blogs you can write about. When I say recycle I don't necessarily mean reposting, but maybe changing the question or topic just enough to write a brand new entry. This doesn't make the content any less valuable and makes sense strategically, but if you have been around enough you notice these things.

He makes enough money where I'm surprised he didn't hand off the site to writers a long time ago to be honest. He's the king of his niche and done an excellent job of getting their, but again blogging isn't tech, not like there are groundbreaking stories to get out to the public. Everyone likes to read advice though so it will never get old.

Hrmm, then maybe I've been reading the wrong parts of the blog. The last few Problogger posts I've been reading were all guest posts.

I don't like the redesign. It's put me off from reading him like I used to.

I never said he wasn't using a crap ton of guest bloggers now and there are reasons for that which go beyond him going on vacation. He does take a lot of vacations huh...

I don't read him at all because blogging about blogging blogs don't do it for me anymore. I've been around that block enough times. If someone were looking for recommendations and was new to blogging though I wouldn't have a problem recommending him.

The backlinks start to add up fast when you guestblog. I think the advice given above is great. To Google and technorati though, a link is a link whether the blogger has notoriety or not. Just something to consider.

Speaking from the standpoint of bloggers who don't blog professionally, me, I don't think they are worth the time at all.

Just thought I'd enter the voice of the little personal blogger.

I'm sure it's worth it for people who blog full time as what esle do they have to do?

I can read Pro Blogger once a month and get no more out of it than I did the month before.

"I can read Pro Blogger once a month and get no more out of it than I did the month before."

I feel the same way.

I started reading a couple of posts after a half-year hiatus. It's not that bad, really. I mean I do learn some stuff about blogging that I'd forgotten, but by and far Problogger has lost both its usefulness and its relevance to what I do. There are better sites to learn about advertising and community building, and if I've got a question about blogging I just hop over to the blogging community here and pop a question.

I think I'd be reading more if he didn't go ahead with his redesign. It's horrible - it takes the content away from the main page, and inserts this blaardy stupid video that I don't watch anyway.

I am, however, indebted to him for the advice that got me started in the first place. One thing you can say about him is that he never gets involved in flame wars and blog hate attacks. Really nice guy.