Guest Bloggers Now Have An Ally

How many of you write guest articles for other blogs or websites? I must admit I have written only two guest posts in the past year. I’ve been so busy working on my own projects that I have not put much effort into soliciting other blogs to offer my contributions.

But that may soon change.

Thanks to a new site launched in November 2009—My Blog Guest—I may be doing some more guest writing. The more immediate plan, however, is that I will begin to allow people to  contribute to four of my blogs, opening up this site, Auto Trends, and a pair of customer owned blogs.

Ann Smarty started My Blog Guest, someone whose name should be familiar to people who run with the SEO crowd. I am not sure how long I’ve been following Ann, but I remember finding links to her articles on Sphinn–the internet marketing site–which launched in 2007.

Last week I found a wonderful guest article Ann wrote and contributed to Daily Writing Tips where she explained how people can find guest writing opportunities. Though that article was immensely helpful and encouraged me to tweak some of the information on my blogs to attract guest bloggers, the best part is that Ann founded My Blog Guest as a way to bring like-minded people together.

My Blog Guest serves to connect people who would like to write guest posts as well as help bloggers find these people. By joining the site you can search for bloggers by tag or category or go to the forum and find direct solicitations. One forum is dedicated to help you find guest bloggers, another one allows you to post your information, while there are three other sections set up for introducing yourself to the community, asking for help, and general chat.

So why guest post? For several reasons including getting your name out there and gaining one or two backlinks to your site. Sure, the latter can be exploited therefore make sure that you and your guest have everything understood clearly before proceeding. If you are looking for a guest blogger you will want someone who writes well, contributes unique work, and can add value to your site.

That last requirement is why I haven’t used too many guest bloggers on my customer’s two blogs as the quality of most posts did not measure up. Naturally, that is one reason why you will want to see samples of the blogger’s work first.

My Blog Guest is all about unpaid opportunities, so if you are looking for paid freelance work, then you will need to look elsewhere.

Related Articles

• 5 Reasons to Guest Blog (rubylane.com)
• 4 Reasons Mediocre Doesn’t Cut it With Guest Posting (weblogbetter.com)
• Grow A Blog In 30 Days – One Simple Idea Spark Up Your Blog! (bloggingtips.com)