Monday, September 20, 2010

Let's Do Guest Posts Better

Several of the writers for the blogs I follow have been off at the ACFW Conference, so much of last week and maybe this week they’ve been having all these “guest blogs.” Am I the only one who just skips over a blog when I see that it’s a guest blog?


It’s not that I don’t think the people they invite to write for their blog don’t have something meaningful to say, but it’s a little like calling someone on the phone and getting the answering machine instead. It may be that I can tell the answering machine what I needed to tell the person just as easily, but it’s disappointing because I was looking forward to talking to the person and all I get is the machine. When I visit a blog that I’ve enjoyed reading and see a guest blog, I’m disappointed because I know the blogger isn’t going to post anything today.


To rectify this problem, I suggest we bloggers adopt the following rule: Never use a guest blog to replace a regularly scheduled blog post. If you post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, have the guest post on Tuesday. Or better yet, go ahead and post your own stuff on the same day as you have a guest post. I believe this would help the situation because our readers wouldn’t be disappointed and we would be able to introduce our readers to other bloggers that we feel would benefit them.