Today
please welcome Rosanna of Writing and Photo Prompts from Life. She
hails from The Philippines, and has completed two challenges. She's
so excited for next year, she's ready share some tips to get your
thoughts going. It's never to early to start planning!
Last year I joined my very first 30-day blogging challenge - TheBlogging from A to Z 2012 Challenge- and it was quite stressful. After picking up my
"Survivor" badge, I wondered if it was worth all the stress and
decided that it wasn't.
"No more blogging challenges for me." It was a
firm decision that stayed with me till early this year, but as April
approached, I asked myself, "Why not?" I had been mulling the
idea of featuring my country, the Philippines, in my blog and I figured that
the A to Z challenge would be the perfect way to highlight the many beautiful
aspects of my country.
I survived this year's challenge as well, and I'm proud to say
that this time I had fun. I did things differently this year: I began the
challenge with a list of topics that I wanted to write about - from A to Z of
course. This year, I also made it a point to visit at least ten other blogs after
posting - and that by itself was a fun
experience. It was like visiting different places and meeting all sorts
of people.
After this year'sA to Z challenge, I was ready to join other challenges - both
blogging and photo challenges. As a result, I have been blogging more and I've
been having a blast. I've also been learning a lot about blogging, and come
next year's challenge, I know I will have more tools at my disposal, which will
make the one-month challenge easier, and will leave me with more time to visit
other blogs.
Up until recently, my blogging skills have been quite limited,
and as it was with my posts in this year's challenge, I wrote articles
accompanied by photos in each and every blog post. Now I know there
are other ways to blog - a late bloomer I am!
Here are some things I hope to do for next year's challenge:
Feature video
clips in some blogs. As we all know, there are thousands of videos on file
on YouTube. To embed a video in a blog post, all one need do is click on
"Share" which appears under the video box. Upon clicking,
a highlighted code will appear. Copy the code and paste it on your
blog.
Do a photo essay
- colorful, inspiring, and easier to do than writing so much text!
Switch guest
posts with another participant
Reblog an
interesting post by one of the participants
Feature a list
of the five, seven - even ten - participating blogs I like best
Interview one of
the challenge organizers or another blogging participant
Those
are some great goals! I also encourage you to learn something new
when it comes to the technical side of your blog. Thanks for taking
the time to be with us today, Rosanna!
Did you know blogs that publish guest posts could be
penalized by Google? I didn't at least not before reading about this latest
news regarding the practice, a few days ago. Yesterday, I also received an
email containing tips from another blogger on how to play it safe when
publishing content from guest bloggers.
The overall message from both of these
posts is that our blog’s search engine rankings, traffic and general reputation
could be affected if we publish content written by third-parties. Sounds scary,
right? I don’t blame you if you’re scratching your head wondering what the heck
is going on. Just remember that this guest posting penalty thing isn't as
simple as A-B-C; Pun intended for all you folks gearing up for the April
Challenge!
Most, if not all concerns surrounding the matter stem from a video that Google released where it’s CEO explained why they frown upon guestblogs. Just like mainstream media, however, some bloggers who have brought attention to this news are sensationalizing the situation by yelling “penalty” first but ignoring the rest of what he said. If you are among the bloggers who did (or will) watch the video and listen – I mean, really pay attention to what is being explained, then there might not be much for you to worry about. Does this mean you’re safe from being hit by some type of sequel to the Panda and Penguin updates? Not at all – and this is where things get kinda risky for those of us in the blogging arena.
All of these practices are simple to implement – for me, at
least. I do suspect, however, that it might take some time for a lot of
bloggers to adjust their guest posting routines and develop a new – more
Google-friendly practice in how they manage guests on their blogs. So, the news
comes at a very inconvenient time. I considered outsourcing the posts for my
blog via guests -- after shelving the theme that I initially wanted to use for
this year’s A to Z challenge. I was going to invite 26 people to write a post
for my blog and now I’m going to have to change that plan up a bit.
I’m also currently at the beginning of making what will be
several, or more, guest appearances around the blogosphere; promoting my short film campaign, which runs all the way through March. How in the world am I
going to swing this? I’ll tell you how – the same way you’re going to save your
own blog from being shot down by search engines like there’s a hit out on you by
Frank Costello (as played by Jack Nicholson) in “The Departed.”
Here’s how we’re going to make this happen through a summary
of proper guest posting practices that I learned from blogs managed by Darren
Rowse and Neil Patel.
“Guesting” Language
Hurts Your Blog
Stop using language such as “guest post” and any derivatives
of the title including “guest author,” “guest blogger,” etc. on your blog. Do not address people as guest
bloggers nor posts as such in your titles, within the body of the content
itself or in any introductions or closings that you add to the post.
The Remedy: A
good rule of thumb is to publish blog posts in a manner similar to magazines
and newspapers. When was the last time you saw “guest writer” in an issue of
Rolling Stone, VOGUE or Architectural Digest? There is a reason you didn't so
take heed of how these publications do things when it comes to featuring posts
on your own blog.
Say No to Bios/Bylines
Filled with Several Links
Author bios and/or bylines should not contain more than two
links. In fact, links aren't even be necessary if you just create a page with
short bios of all your contributors and then link to their blog or wherever
else readers can find them.
The Remedy: Create
an author page for each contributor and link their name to those pages, OR,
link their name to their blog/website/social media page or whatever. That could
count as one of the two maximum links, so they wouldn't even need to add more
to their bio, OR, just stop allowing guests to send you bios containing a link
to every single online site or social media profile they have online. Since I
don’t have a staff of people and am short on time, I’d likely opt for the two
latter solutions.
Don’t Pimp your
Blog’s “Write for Me” Page in Exchange for Guests
Telling potential readers that they will receive link(s)
when contributing to your blog is a violation of Google’s linking policy.
Receiving a link back to a blog or social medial profile should not be the sole
benefit of someone being featured on your website.
The Remedy:
Change your “Write for Me/Us/this Blog” call for submissions to something less
saturated. Again, this is a good time to check out what the Big Boys do and
follow that model. Next, establish editorial guidelines that include a
requirement for original content that was not previously published elsewhere.
If you wouldn't eat food that somebody else already chewed
up and spit out, then why would you accept blog posts that were seen on another
website? It’s what’s known as “duplicate content” by Google’s standards. By the
way – secure the rights to these posts, while you’re at it. Doing so brings the
extra satisfaction in knowing that a contributor won’t spin something they
wrote for you today, into a post for another blogger, tomorrow.
Be Selective About
Who You Feature on Your Blog
Don’t just accept posts from anyone and everyone who submits
something to you – especially content that is already written. In fact, why are
you even accepting open submissions in the first place? It’s much easier to
review, accept and reject queries or proposals or cover letters or messages of
intent than to have to read through entire blog posts.
I thought that most bloggers already knew this (…even I don’t
write or submit guest posts blindly. I query FIRST and then wait for a response
from the blogs that I’m interested in submitting a post to), but, I guess there
are blogs out there who just put up an “open call” and take everything that
comes their way.
The Remedy: Only
accept posts from people who have a track record of writing great content on
other blogs – and on their own website! Do a Google search for the name of your
potential blog contributor; this search should not yield a bunch of spammy
websites and spam links. If it does, then that’s a red flag and you may have a
spammer trying to ride his or her spammy wave through some of your blog’s link
juice. Also welcome contributors who are community builders and can add some
discussion to your blog, by responding to comments on their post.
Restrict Access and Privileges
It is not necessary to give contributors author accounts to
your blog, like handing out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Maintain a
filtering system that compliments your submission guidelines, by restricting
the publishing privileges allowed on your blog to you only. Are there
exceptions to this tip? Yes, of course there are exceptions. Does this mean
that leaves more work for you in terms of formatting, scheduling and publishing
posts on your own? Yes, but in many cases, that’s better than the alternative
-- being penalized by Google.
The bottom line is that unless they are a part of
your main administrative team or a regular contributor who has established a
good track record of posting on your website, everybody online shouldn't have
the access and authority to publish anything they want on your blog. When contributors
publish blog posts about weight loss or diet pills on your homeschooling and
parenting blog – you know you have a problem!
Solutions to the Guest Post Dilemma in a nutshell:
Stop telling people you have guests. Those
who read your blog already know who is who, thanks to author bios, tags and/or
bylines. Speaking of author bios, those of contributors on your blog should
contain two links maximum – and they better not be spammy (diet pills, SEO
marketers, Viagra, anyone?). The bio link concerns could be solved by
designating a page on your blog for all of your contributors. Of course, this
part (making a “contributors” page…which also takes a lot of time to setup and maintain)
is optional – I’m surely not doing it unless I feel it’s useful. That day isn't coming any time soon.
Now that we’re all up to speed on the happenings of blog
post authors, Google rankings and best blogging practices, I’m pleased to
report that this long post is done.
Please
join me in welcoming another guest today, Donna B. McNicol. I'm so
excited that so many of you are taking advantage of this great
opportunity! If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's all in
this invitation post.
Donna
is a prolific blogger (and that's putting it mildly). I think you'll
enjoy getting to know her as much as I did.
Hello, my name is Donna and I am a blog addict. Doesn't matter if you are talking about MY blogs or YOUR blogs, addict applies to both. It all started so innocently back in 2006 when I started my first blog, From the Lily Pad. I was a 59 year old widow, considering selling my house and belongings and becoming a full-time RVer.
Of course, considering a lifestyle change that massive meant research, LOTS of research. I started using Google Reader to follow some RVing blogs. I slowly added in other blogs having to do with motorcycles, computers, cameras, and anything else that grabbed my interest.
Fast forward to 2008 and I retired my From the Lily Pad blog and started 2 Taking a 5th with my soon-to-be husband. As our interests expanded over the next two years I added a few more blogs to write:
Hopping through Life was created for my 'writing' urges, for things that might or might not interest our RVing friends. That was the reason for Fire Lily Base Camp and Riding Route 66 as well - topics that wouldn't interest everyone so I didn't want to clutter up our personal blog.
In 2012 I added My Write Spot and Write 4 Ten but I retired the Toadily Pets and Foto Footprints. Then family called and I created and now maintain a blog for my daughter's casting company in Atlanta, Catrett Locke Casting. Of course none of these are daily blogs.
Reading blogs is harder to control, I use RSSOwl as a standalone reader and have categories for Authors/Writing, Riding Friends, RVing Friends, Simple Life, Gadgets & Computers, Ebook and Humor/Misc. At one time I was following over 500 blogs. I have tackled that list a couple of times and now have it down to 370. It grew to the largest during the last April A to Z Challenge. I followed a lot of blogs that disappeared after the event or turned into something that I was no longer interested in reading.
I still follow too many RVing and Writing blogs and I'm trying to weed my list down even more. I do have some blogs that I read daily and I've moved them into their own category. The others can be quickly marked as read if 1) I don't have time or 2) they don't interest me. If I do that too many times on the same blog, they are a candidate for pruning.
How do control the number of blogs you follow? Do you write more than one blog? Am I crazy? (No, never mind, that is a rhetorical question).
So again, hello. My name is Donna and I am a blog addict. And you?
Wake me later, I'm napping... Donna B. McNicol
Thanks for being here Donna! Can't wait to see you in the next challenge. Tina
You may have often heard that guest posting is a great way to bring more readers to your blog. It's a tactic that can work well. As a guest blogger you can reach readers who might not have heard of your blog before. You can even venture off into topics that you might not normally cover on your own blog. Guest blogging is an effective way to hone your writing chops and to step out beyond your own blogging community to tap into a larger one.
Blog tours and guest promotional posts are standard procedure for many bloggers who have something they want to spread the word about. Many authors take advantage of guest blogging to pitch new book releases. You have probably even seen guest bloggers trying to draw attention to favorite charities and causes. When you've got something that you want to tell others about, you should take advantage of every outlet that is available to you.
Some of you may be too shy or uncertain of yourself to ask other bloggers if you can be a guest on their blogs. If what you've got to say is important enough to you then maybe it's time to step out of that comfort zone of your own blog and speak out on some other blogs. Now's your opportunity. There are blogs looking for your guest posts.
Guest posting opportunities await!
Tossing It Out -- This summer and into September I will be hosting guest bloggers during my Hijack This Blog! campaign. Click herefor details. Click here for schedule and application.
Wrote By Rote -- I look for guest bloggers year round on my memoir blog that publishes every Saturday. Posts remain at the top of the page for an entire week to give your guest post maximum exposure. I'm interested in memoir writing or helpful articles about writing memoirs.
A Faraway View -- One of the most unique writing opportunities comes on my dream blog A Faraway View. This blog also publishes only once a week so posts stay current for the entire week following posting. Anything about dreams is welcomed. Topics that have yet to be covered are non-psychological dream interpretation, dreams as prophecy, and dreams as related to literature. Any other topics are certainly welcomed. Dream study is a fascinating field and it's fun to write about. Tell us about your dreams or dream experiences.
Blogging from A to Z Blog -- We are always receptive to guest posts on this blog you are visiting now. We are interested in all topics here. Priority is given to those who have been past A to Z participants, but anyone is welcomed as well. Posts can be about the A to Z Challenge, blogging, writing, or just about anything else you want to write about. Go to the "Contact Us" page by clicking the tab at the top of the page and send us an email or leave a comment on this post and we'll set you up.
Kid Lit Reviews-- Sue is having to take a blogging break due to health problems and she's looking for guest bloggers for a while. She could use some help or at least a word of encouragement. Go to her site for complete information.
So there you have it. Some great blogging opportunities are right there for you to step up and claim as your own. My Hijack This Blog! campaign has been a tremendous success so far with several bloggers trying guest posting for the first time. Try it--you'll have a good time and should make a few new blogging friends.
