You always want to make sure that you are in complete control of your business, and this includes your blog. There is no denying that your goals and overall vision for your business will change over time, whether you make a conscious decision or your industry goes through drastic changes, but again, you want to be in control. Accepting guest articles is an easy way to lose sight of this important factor. While it’s a great idea to accept guest posts, you have to be prepared for this problem, and unfortunately, it’s not something that crosses the minds of many. You need to follow certain steps to make sure that your guest bloggers aren’t swaying you from what you really want out of your blog and your website.
How to Keep Your Vision Intact When Accepting Guest Articles
Accepting guest articles is a great way to get new eyes to your blog, a fresh perspective on an old topic, or an article about a subject outside of your expertise. If your guest author promotes his/her article to all of his/her followers on social media (which should be a requirement), you’re gaining extra publicity without having to do much work.
After deciding that you want to accept guest articles, it’s time to make sure you have everything in place so your blog doesn’t go too astray. Consider some of the following points:
- Understand the Guest Authors. It’s important to realize that guest authors sometimes want to post on your blog as a way to improve their SEO. This is certainly OK, but you need to be weary that their article is relevant, well written, and not full of links. The author wants to benefit himself/herself first, so it’s your job to be on the lookout.
- Create Guidelines on your Website. This is incredibly important if you want to accept guest articles. Create a document that lays out what you will and will not accept in terms of articles (what topics, how long, how often, etc.). This will help you see what you were hoping for when you first started. I also recommend putting this content on your website so guest authors can see if they are a good fit. Stick by these guidelines and you should be good to go.
- Ask to Make Edits If Needed. Make sure any guest author knows you can make edits if you wish. Always send back major edits to see if the author is OK with your changes, but still keep that as an option.
- Always Continue to Post In-House. In the majority of cases, it’s beneficial to guest post in-house more frequently than you accept guest articles. This will keep your blog on track and make sure that guest authors have something to go off of when writing.
- Talk with Your In-House Bloggers. It might sound obvious, but don’t forget to talk with anyone and everyone in your company who has access to the blog. Make sure everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect from guest authors.
In the end, accepting guest articles gets easier once you get the hang of it. Once you have those solid guest posting guidelines down and you start to accept more and more, you’ll start to have a good eye regarding what will work with your vision and what won’t.
If you’re a blog owner who accepts guest articles, what is your secret to keeping your blog’s vision consistent? Any experience with a poor guest post? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.
Photo Credit: Photo by Joe Buckingham on flickr.com
