HOW TO GET GUEST POSTING RIGHT

this is a Guest post by Ali Luke for Naijaultimateblog

If you’ve been around the blogging world for any length of time, you’ll have come across guest posts. You might even have written a few yourself.
Once your own blog has some readers and some engagement, you might start to receive enquiries from would-be guest posters. (Or you might want to handpick some blogger friends to guest post for you.)
At first, taking a guest post might seem like a no-brainer: hey, it’s free content that you didn’t have to write!

Not all bloggers accept guest posts, however, and some put restrictions in place for good reasons. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of accepting guest posts.
Pro: Gives You a Break
If you’re struggling to blog regularly, or if you’re going through a busy period, guest posts can plug a gap. You might want to establish a specific guest slot (e.g. Fridays) to help you plan ahead and schedule posts.
Con: Not Your Voice
Your readers are used to you – and they may not be keen on reading content from other people (especially if you’ve built up a strong voice / brand). If the guest posts aren’t quite up to your usual standard, this can knock your blog’s reputation.
Pro: Introduces New Expertise
There might be a particular aspect of your niche that you don’t know much about: a guest poster can bring in the expertise that you lack. They may also bring a different perspective or fresh ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.
Con: May Incur Google Penalties
Google has said they will devalue links in “Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links.” For most guest posters and blog hosts, this is unlikely to cause problems – but do be wary of spammy-sounding guest posts offered by large agencies.
(If you want more on this, Search Engine Watch and Search Engine People have excellent articles about Google’s stance on guest posts.)
Pro: May Bring in New Readers
Some bloggers take guest posts in the hopes that the writer will bring in lots of new readers. While this can happen, and most guest bloggers will at least promote the post to their social networks, don’t take a poor guest post just because the blogger appears to have a large following.
Con: May Not Save Much Time
It takes time to assess pitches, reply to would-be guest bloggers, read their posts, edit them, format them correctly for your blog, and so on. Good guest posting guidelines can cut down on some of the work – but you still may find that publishing a guest post takes almost as long as producing a post yourself.

If you do decide to accept guest posts, here are a couple of things that will help you maximise the pros and minimise the cons:

• Have a rigorous quality control process. When you receive a pitch, check out what the writer has written elsewhere (particularly other guest posts). When you accept a post, edit it and don’t be afraid to make changes to bring it into line with your style – though it’s a good idea to run these past the writer before publishing it.
• Create guest post guidelines. These are helpful to would-be guest posters, and they also allow you to ensure that you get everything you need up front. (E.g. you can ask writers to link to three previous posts, and get them to supply their bio.)

If you accept guest posts on your blog, what do you do to ensure that they’re high quality? And if you’re not sure whether or not to take guest posts, what questions do you have? Let us know in the comments.