Blogging Tips

Go ahead, take a day off.   You’ve earned it.  Your blog really can live without you, at least for a day or two. 

That is, if you do it right, and for the right reasons. 

Sometimes it can be good thing to just get out of the way.  To step aside and hand the baton to someone else, while you reap the benefits of your hospitality from the cheap seats.

Especially when that someone has a bigger name than you do.  W hich, unless you’re already a Big Player in your space, is usually the case.

Invitee versus Inviter  

Maybe you exclusively think of guest blogging as your own appearance within your niche on the sites of others .  If you can indeed land such a gig, by all means go for it, there’s nothing but upside in that role. 

As a guest blogger you get props by hanging with the Big Boys.  But by playing the other side of this proposition, by hosting a guest blogger of some esteem on your site, you get the same props, but with a longer shelf life. 

Because as a guest blogger your appearance will soon be old news.  While as the host of a celebrity blogger — the term is relative here — the connection will remain as long as the entry exists in your archive.

Big name bloggers within your niche are fair game, and they know the ropes.  They get invited all the time, so come at them with a pitch that holds value and promises a win-win.  The best guest bloggers, though, aren’t necessarily bloggers at all, but rather, they’re experts or celebrities within the topical arena you’re blogging about.

Having Brian Clark from Copyblogger on my site, that’d be swell.  But having a major novelist drop by, now that’d be a home run.  One I’m working on as we speak, by the way.  (The guest post on my site today comes from a noted writing teacher dude, so I’m heading in the right direction.)

It’s social climbing without the stigma.  It’s gracious hospitality without having to apologize for what it brings back.

The Win-Win of Guest Blogging

The reasons for hosting a guest blog cut both ways — you need a break, you’re getting more than a little stale, you can’t think of a dang thing to write… and then, on the upside, you can add a little prestige and value to what you’re putting in front of your readers.  Both are valid, more so than either rationale alone.

Readers can be social climbers.  Give them someone special to read, and they’ll thank you by sticking around.

Sure it matters what your guest blogger has to say.  But it matters more who they are.

Be Careful What — or Who — You Ask For

Guest bloggers are like shoes.  The right fit, the right style, and you’ll strut through any crowd with pride.  Get it wrong, though, and not only will your feet hurt the next day, you might actually trip over your own intentions. 

Lending your blog to your cranky uncle Fred so he can wax philosophical about the radical end of the political spectrum at which he dwells … probably not a good thing.  Unless that’s the very objective of your blog in the first place.  Then, go for it, he’ll be singing to the choir. 

That’s more a testimonial than a guest blog, at least in the minds of your readers, because your Uncle Fred isn’t famous.

But giving your readers access to a new and trusted voice who can bring a fresh, synergistic point of view to your blog’s agenda, the voice of someone with a brand… that makes you look like a hero. 

The more famous, the better.

Having a branded authority blogging on your site is a sign of strength.  Your readers will appreciate that you don’t consider yourself the be-all-end-all of your niche, that you value and admire the thinking of others who have earned the right to be heard. 

It’s All About How You Tee It Up

Once you find a noted guest blogger willing to pony up a thousand words or so for your site, the key element in terms of leveraging the goodwill of it all resides in how you introduce the blog itself.

It’s time to get humble and downright sychophantic.

Begin with a nice warm welcome for your guest blogger, confessing your admiration and citing some credits.  Briefly remind the reader how lucky both you and they are to have this esteemed personage as their mentor for a day, and then shut up and back off.  Let the guest poster do their thing.

Always link to the guest’s site and/or latest book — that’s the hook you’ll use to lure them in the first place.  Even guest bloggers seek new fans, and in offering yours you don’t risk losing a slice of the readership pie.  That’s the nice thing about the blogosphere, there’s enough to go around and then some.

If you land a big fish for a guest spot on your site, make sure to promote it ahead of time.  A quick footnote to the posts leading up to the Big Day is all it takes, with a link to the guest’s site to bone up on what’s ahead.

Established sites tend to shy away from booking guests that threaten their own place in the pecking order. The offer guest spots with a touch of benevolence, secure in their untouchability.  If that’s you, then never mind, you’re too busy to be a guest poster anyhow.

But if you’re in growth mode, put yourself on the level of your guest poster simply by having them. 

Your readers will thank you for it… and that’s precisely the point.