Darren Rouse who blogs professionally - meaning he works at it full time and makes his income from his blogs - has suggested in ProBlogger Blog that opening up our blogs to content written by other people is a good idea .
Darren says.
"I’ve often asked other people to write an article, review, reflection or rant for me on a topic that they have a passion or interest in. . . . I try to make it worth the writer’s while by giving a link back to their site or by promoting them and encouraging them."
I laughed out loud at the "rant" part - I'm just not sure I could rant on request - but I'm in agreement abut the concept.
On the other hand I've heard from others that it seems to them that sharing your bought and paid for soapbox / bully pulpit / forum freely like this is just plain dumb. To many others the generosity of spirit makes perfect sense.
Denise Wakeman, part of the Blog Squad duo, contends that beyond providing trackbacking and commenting opportunities, inviting guest bloggers is an excellent way to effectively build alliances. In fact, there's lots of buzz on the topic including Denise's piece on her widely read Build A Better Blog.
But your guest bloggers are not only providing information for blog readers, Denise says that
"More than likely, they'll be telling their readers they are blogging on your blog. That starts to build some traffic back and forth."
Don't miss the importance of this. Connectivity is at the heart of what Blogging is all about.
The connections can pay off for reader, writer, and host blog; and Chris Garrett says in the Performancing Blog,
"I really got my first big breaks by writing for an already successful publication on a not very lucrative contract.
So he brought information to his guest-gig; information encourages readership; and the content he wrote brought Chris success in a big break that grew out of the experience.
The Artsy Asylum Blog has already featured articles by four artists / guest bloggers and more are planned.
Some commercial out there said: "Participants Welcome". I concur whole-heartedly.
