Be My Guest, Or Not ;o)

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There seems to be a lot of “Guest Posts” flying around at the moment (have you noticed or is it just me? Lol)

I read with interest fellow blogger Joe Pineda’s (The Bard of Steel) post entitled “Spotlight” where he wanted to showcase fellow writers. Unfortunately, he realised that the only person who was actually benefitting from this was himself. He has now decided to scrap the idea. Read all about his thoughts here as its a very interesting post, with some thought provoking comments.

Also, recently, another blogger I follow, Chris at Write To Perfect, requested people come forward to be guests on his blog (that’s where we had the discussion about me not being a writer lol) and you can find that post here

Both these guys (do go and read the very interesting posts!) have big hearts, and want to showcase people that they themselves like, which IMHO is a great idea, I love it….. But, there does seem to be a downside * wags finger* you readers don’t seem to click the linky things, so, like Joe said, who does it actually benefit?

I would love to have people doing guest posts on my blog, I know a few authors. But, would my readers be interested? If I was asked to do a guest post on someone else’s blog, would you follow the link, would you read it?

So now I’m torn….to have guests, or not to have guests? that is the question…..
Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Have you had a guest? Been a guest? Perhaps I should do a poll lol 🙂

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39 thoughts on “Be My Guest, Or Not ;o)”

  2. I love hosting others on my blog. It’s great publicity, especially if they have a book they’re promoting, and it drives traffic to both sites. Great way to pick up new readers. To answer your question, I would follow you to another blog to read what you have to say. Heck, I’ll even host you on mine. You want to do a blog takeover sometime? 🙂

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  3. i’d love to do a blog takeover with you sometime.

    When i have guests they usually provide the artcle images and photo of them and a one sentence bio. My traffic has loved it. I’ve had good guests on writing about their work. I do interviews too. one is coming up the third tuesday in May from the first author of spoonfuls of stories. its a two some. he gets promoted on my blog and I get the traffic. love it.

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  4. I’ve never considered guest posting or having guest posts. I’m not sure how I feel. I usually try following links to the other person’s site if the post was interesting. My philosophy is its your blog so do what makes you happy. 🙂

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  5. Thank you for the mention! I appreciate the high opinion you have of my ramblings.

    As for guest posts, why not? A blog of all places should be the perfect way for a writer to try different ways to engage an audience. If it doesn’t work, you can just can the project and start over like I did. It’s like a notepad whose pages you can rip out if you’re not coming up with anything useful.

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  6. Cannot say it is an idea I have even thought about. What about having a guest if it is on a topic which is something very important to you, or has a slightly different viewpoint to you, that way you could do your own companion piece / response?

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  8. As you know, Vikki, my blog is all about the guests! I started the blog in 2010 for the sole purpose of posting my daily twitter-length stories for A Story A Day In May and continued posting them for a further 2 months by popular demand. However, apart from the odd rant about kindles or homemade covers for self-published books, I haven’t a lot to say about the process of writing. This is partly because it’s a bit of a mystery to me and I don’t approach it in any quantifiable way. What I decided to do was use my blog space to catalogue a wide range of writer (and reader) experiences that could be referenced by anyone who needed it. I know for certain that people have used http://howesue.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/lynley-stace-it-takes-two/ to gather information about creating an app, and Rebecca Emin’s blog about platform-building has proved useful to many low-platform writers like myself. I’d like the blog to work as a resource and an entertainment, I suppose, because I haven’t anything interesting to say on a regular basis.

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    • And I really enjoy your blog Sue 🙂

      Sue, I bet you have LOADS of interesting stuff you could talk about on your blog 🙂 I never thought anyone would read what I thought, or what I had to say, but it seems I was wrong 🙂

      Thanks honey 🙂

      Xx

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  9. I’ve read this is a good thing to do for your blog — have a guest blogger. How does one go about it? Do you have a contest? Do you invite someone and if so, what is the criteria? Good luck, V and great idea.

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  10. I’m torn with doing guest posts of fiction: I’ve done a few, and really have not “gained” anything more than helping out someone else who was looking to help put out content. I don’t take guest posts on Tale Spinning: I’d rather leave it blank then post another author’s work. That’s just me.

    On BornStoryteller, blog, I have been running a lot of guest posts, and that (non-fiction) is a better place for guests, IMO. People don’t always click on the links, but…if it’s just a numbers game, then I’m not really interested.

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    • So, in your opinion Stuart, it’s a good thing for the blog your guesting on?

      I couldn’t give a fig about the numbers, as you say, but, It feels kind of wrong to ask people to guest on my blog and I’m the only one who benefits, if you know what I mean 😦

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts hon, I’m still torn lol

      Xx

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  11. I’ve done a few guest posts on other people’s blog (to promote my book) I know that at least some of my blog readers read the guest posts and in a few cases then started following the blog I’d been a guest on. Not everyone did, but then if we clicked on every link we came across we’d never get off the internet!
    When I visit a blog I follow I usually click on the links if the blogger is guesting somewhere. If they’re hosting a guest I’m likely to read the post, but wouldn’t necessarily follow a link back to their blog.

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  12. I too have done both guest posts and interviews on others blogs promoting “Searching for My Wand” and am about to do so again in promotion of “On A Hot August Afternoon” but to be honest I have only had 2 guests on my blog. Mostly it’s because I like writing my blog myself. I would however host some of my favorite bloggers of which you are one, were they interested.

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  13. Incidentally, I’m having a guest blogger this Friday. She will be my first ever. She is promoting her book (a traditionally published book, not an ebook) and I thought this could be helpful not just for her, but for me (traffic), and my readers.

    I would only choose bloggers that I trust and who will have something useful for my readers. I think it’s a great idea as long as both of you understand and respect each other’s goals. The other thing that’s important is to make sure your guest blogger knows your criteria, i.e., whether or not he/she will be sure to answer all the comments in a timely fashion, etc.

    I think it is a good idea to do guest blogging, and it has the potential for growth, too.

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  14. In my experience, this works well if both the blog owner and the guest are equally involved, interested, and let other people know about the guest post, too.

    I’ve hosted quite a few guest posts on my blog, both individual posts from people and my series of interviews with other small business owners, which fall between a feature and a guest post as such.

    But in both cases, if the guest poster as well as I tell people about the post, talk about it on social media and their own blog, etc., then I see many more
    a) clicks on the post on my blog
    b) movement between the two following the links to and from the guest post in question

    b is obviously great for both of us.

    When I’ve guested on someone else’s blog, I’ve always made sure to talk about it all over the social media and my own blog (mentioning it in my monthly “what I’ve been up to” post and putting a link in the writing section of my references page, for example) and I’ve noticed that I’m still getting click-throughs from some of those now, months later.

    I’ll be interested to see what you decide to do and how it goes!

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    • Thanks Liz 🙂

      I think I’m gunna give it a go to be honest. I can see the pro’s and con’s, from both sides, but, I think as long as you kind of do a swap, then both parties benefit. So from what everyone’s said, IMO, that seems the way to go 🙂

      Xx

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