5 Cons to Working With Guest Bloggers
I've worked with guest bloggers for over a year now as a social media manager and overall, it's been a positive and enthusiastic experience on both ends. Guest writers always bring a ton of energy, ideas, and thoughts with them, all of which I am more than happy to help them brainstorm and outline out into a good guest post, whether it's their first time writing with us or millionth (and we do repeat writers often.)
For every six or seven thoughtful and patient guest bloggers though, there are a couple that turn a relatively easy job into a mess and quickly. You know the ones - they submit an article teetering on the brink of 2000 words+ and you wind up pushing the date that their post was supposed to go live on further and further back, still waiting on that final edited draft to show up in your inbox. Just as the pros of working with guest bloggers come in spades, so must one be prepared with learning how to deal with the cons that show up. And trust me, they will.
1) It's Time Consuming
Guest blogging is a process loaded down with constant emailing, editing, finalizing submissions, using approved photos that you have the rights to, scheduling, and promoting out via social media outlets. And typically it isn't something that you can wrap up in under an hour or less if you're working with multiple writers. For both established and brand new writers alike, be prepared to clear aside some of your schedule to tackle guest blogging duties with.
2) There's a Lot of Email Tag to Play
This one goes along the lines of being time consuming; only email tag is slightly better than phone tag to play because you always have a copy of the last conversation being had on hand somewhere. And it's usually a conversation too, not just a "gimme a call back when you're free" message either. Patience is key to working with email tag for guest bloggers, many of which may not share the same time zone as you either. If your guest blogger doesn't respond back by the date that you propose a deadline on, email them a few days in advance to give them the heads up that you're waiting on their work to arrive.
3) Constructive Criticism
You can't go through someone's writing and edit the death out of it with a million angry red notes and stoic messages concerning tone and structure. Actually you can, but it's not the best idea to act on it. The idea with editing is that it lends some constructive criticism to the person who wrote it. There is no perfect first draft of anything, not even for a blog which is the most laissez-faire of the writing platforms out there.
Explain briefly why you're making the edit and if you can, provide a more suitable example of what should be written there instead. Don't include an example on everything, but a few nods in the right direction here and there are helpful. Another nice thing to include are a couple of "please" and "thank you's" in the mix. An editorial friend of mine mentioned that she did that once and it stuck with me ever since. Makes you a little less grammar Nazi that way. I also like to include a disclaimer at the tail end of my emails to guest bloggers that if they do have questions about the edits I made, they are more than welcome to ask away.
4) Spam. It'll Creep Up on Ya
Occasionally spammers will be hiding behind a guest blogger disguise. You'll recognize the signs fairly quickly - with one of the biggest ones being that they'll send the exact same emails out at the same time each day asking the same questions repeatedly. Delete and move on.
5) Never Hearing Back After Initial Contact
And then other times you'll have a very enthusiastic guest blogger who will email you maybe once or twice and never hear back from them again. Don't hound them down for their article. Let them go. It's highly likely that they are busy working on multiple projects of their own and could have gotten in over their head with your assignment. Focus on the guest bloggers that are currently responding to you and their work instead.
Heather Taylor is a social media manager for MyCorporation.com, freelance writer, and blogger who writes and muses on social networks, business, and fashion and the occasional combination of all three. She has had her written work published with Yahoo! Shine, Forbes, BettyConfidential, HelloGiggles, The Huffington Post, and more. Contact her on Twitter @howveryheather or directly email[email protected].