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That is the question.

As more and more people enter the blogforce (yes, I’m coining a new word!  — blogforce, noun, group of people engaged in blogging activity, similar to workforce), guest blogging invitations abound.  Should you take up those invitations?  How do you decide what is worth your time, and what isn’t?  Should you invite guest bloggers to write posts for your own blog?  And what unspoken (till now!) guest blogging etiquette points play into the process?

Here are my guest blogging pro’s, cons, and tips:

Pro’s, Cons, and Tips for Guest Blog Hosts

Pro’s: You get a day off blogging!  Whew.  Relax.  Someone else is going to write that post for you.  Seemingly almost no thinking required past the invitation.  A guest post keeps your blog active and fulfills your readers’ interest in other authors without having to leave your blog.  Cross-traffic may be generated as the guest blogger will most likely post a link to their guest blog on their own blog or website or even in their newsletter.  If you invite authors with highly-trafficked blogs or can entice a particularly popular author (or an in-demand editor or agent), the boost to your own blog will be even greater.

Cons: Your traffic comes to see you, to read your posts.  Unless you’re going to get brutal with your (volunteer) guest blogger, you’re going to have little control over how scintillating their contribution may be.  Over-indulgence in bringing in guest bloggers will water down the core strength of your blog.  Remember that a blog is largely voice-driven…..and that guest posts may be fabulous, or somewhat dull.  Whatever they are, they aren’t you.  Guest posts take the focus off you as the blog author.  You’re promoting someone else for the day, not yourself.  Likely you will be expected to provide a reciprocal link back to the guest blogger’s own blog or website, which diverts traffic away from your own site.

Tips for inviting guest bloggers to post on your blog:

1.  Invite them personally.  If you have an assistant, don’t have your assistant email them.  Email them yourself.  (Yes, once I was invited to guest blog by an author’s personal assistant.  After I got done laughing, I deleted the email without responding.)

2.  Have some kind of rhyme or reason to your guest posts.  Determine a theme–subgenre (all paranormal) or styles (all humor) or all new authors.  Etc.   Think about your readership and what will interest them.  Don’t just invite guest bloggers for the purpose of giving you the day off.

3.  Let your guest bloggers know what’s in it for them.  In your invitation, tell them something about your readership, what type of traffic you bring in, how that may fit in their promotional plans.  Also be honest, and specific, about your traffic stats, particularly if you are trying to entice a well-known or popular guest blogger who may have little motivation to write something for you for free.  Remember, unless you have a highly popular blog and you’re inviting your best friend who has her first book out, you aren’t doing them a favor–you’re asking them to do you one.

Pro’s, Cons, and Tips for Guest Bloggers

Pro’s: Exposure, exposure, exposure.  A guest post on another blog is an opportunity to promote yourself, your website and blog, and your books outside your usual circle of traffic.  You should also receive a link in your guest post back to your own site and/or blog, generating cross-traffic.  If you’re invited to guest blog on a popular or highly-trafficked site, your own benefit will be even greater.

Cons: You’ll be putting time and effort into content for a site/blog that doesn’t belong to you.  A percentage of that traffic may track back to you, but probably not all of it.  The traffic on that site may not even be particularly interested in you.  In the meantime, unless you’re pulling double duty, your own blog will suffer from neglect that day.  Often, when guest blogging, a blogger notes something along the lines of “Guest blogging today at xxx,” directing their own traffic over to their guest blog post, diverting traffic from their own site.  Do that very often and your traffic will tire of finding you elsewhere and not where they came to see you.  And unless there is a good amount of traffic interested in what you’re promoting, it may be a waste of your time.

Tips for considering guest blogging invitations:

1.  Determine how the invitation fits into your overall promotional plans.  Does the site where your guest blog will appear suit the type of traffic you’re interested in?  Take a hard look at your time investment and choose carefully how to spend it.

2.  Write a great post.  Don’t just blah blah blah about your new book like an infomercial.  Show some personality.  Make the new traffic you are addressing want to follow you back to your own blog.  (And for this very reason, posting a boring “blogging elsewhere” note on your own blog that day is a terrible idea!  Instead, put up a fabulous post for your new traffic to see when they click over.  Don’t waste the opportunity!)

3.  Figure out what you’re getting.  How much traffic does the site receive?  If the host doesn’t or won’t offer up this information, you can assess their traffic in other ways on your own.  Check their traffic ranking at Alexa and find out how many links they have coming in at Technorati.  You can also scroll through their recent posts and see how many comments they generally average.  (Comments aren’t an exact gauge of traffic, but it will let you know how active their community is.)  Don’t be afraid to ask your host about their traffic.  They should be willing to provide you with some information.

Guest blogging is a reciprocal action.  Both the guest blog host and the guest blogger should get something out of it, and have full communication and understanding of what that is so that everyone goes away happy.  What about you?  Have you guest blogged, or invited guest bloggers to your own blog?  What have your experiences with guest blogging been like?  Got any tips to add?

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Tags: How to Blog, Marketing //