Guest Blogger, A Risky Job?
Posted by Patrick on January 27th, 2008
Photo by Gabu-chan
I’ve been a promoter of Guest Blogging for quite a while, and I am currently writing a series about my journey as a guest blogger. However, while guest blogging can do tremendous things for you and your blog, it is a risky job too, and can potentially hurt your reputation. Especially, when guest blogging on A-list blogs.
For the record, A-list blogs are sites such as Pro Blogger, Dosh Dosh, John Chow dot Com, Entrepreneur’s Journey & Shoemoney. These sites have extremely large visibility with often more than 10K RSS subscribers… so image how many potential readers!
If you wish to submit a guest post to an A-list blog, take the time to analyze your subject, i.e. the topic of your post. Look at all the angles in which it could be interpreted and if in doubt, go back to the drawing board.
Where Am I Going?
This week I bumped into a story that created a whole lot of reaction in the blogging and make money online regions of the blogosphere. While this happened about a week ago, I felt it was important for me to share my thoughts because I am a promoter of guest blogging.
Seopher, a blogger that has about 500 RSS subscribers, published a guest post last Sunday on John Chow dot Com. His article, Successful Blogging - 5 Tips for Writing With Confidence, talks about writing techniques he says you should use to help your credibility as a blogger.
At first, when I saw the title in my RSS reader, I thought I needed to print it out for bedtime reading. So at night, when I got to this article, I started to read and my reaction was like, oh my god, I don’t agree with this, and this, and that…
Basically, the author suggests to project an image that shows readers how confident you are in your field of expertise. Readers should see you as an expert, and not as someone trying to be, or hoping to be. And this is where, I guess, it offended many readers.
- A lot of new bloggers are working hard to get their first 100 RSS subscribers.
- A lot of new bloggers are working hard to get Dugg, or Stumbled.
- A lot of new bloggers are even working hard to get their first 100 unique visitors.
For instance, Seopher says that you shouldn’t blog about these things, even if they are personal achievements that you are proud to share with your readers. He explains that blogging about how to optimize for Digg and later on saying you received 1000 diggers makes no sense. He adds:
“Suddenly the credibility of the information in the first post is sullied by the user’s inherent lack of confidence. A user who is excited about 1,000 users is unlikely to have a lot of traffic - therefore their advice on the topic loses value.”
Just by looking at the success I got with my article How I Received 850 Visitors Without Using Social Media Sites, I can’t possibly agree with him. I just don’t see how the information becomes sullied… if you tell your readers how to get massive traffic from Digg, and you achieve your goal, you just proved your strategy works. That’s perfectly credible to me.
And, unfortunately, Seopher also offended readers by using inappropriate words to picture his mind. Like how good bloggers relate their facts, and how a bad blogger do theirs.
Darren’s Reaction
John Chow has 15K RSS readers. Shoe roughly 15K and Darren 40K. But both Shoe and Darren are reading John, and vice versa. You get the picture? This multiway channel reaches A LOT of readers. That is why, you need to be very careful when submitting guest posts on A-list blogs.
Darren couldn’t resist. Not only he commented to the original post on John Chow dot Com, but he also took the story back and posted a reply titled Writing with Confidence or Risking Your Reputation? on ProBlogger. And I have to say, Darren hits the nail on the head. Since he is THE reference for new bloggers, he couldn’t possibly agree with such a radical vision.
Post Mortem
Following the storm produced by his post, Seopher published an article on his blog titled A few lessons in blogging from the past 24 hours. I personally think he did the right thing, in fact, his post mortem expresses what he had in mind with more appropriate words, making the whole message of his text much less offensive.
Learnt From Experience
Since the purpose of the blogosphere is to discuss, and often debate, bloggers took different camps in this story. But for me, even though I respectfully disagree with the message in the original post, I wish to thank Seopher for what we all learned out of this.
These events hurt when you are in the eye of the storm, but for those who witnessed the twister, let’s remember that winds can blow pretty high in the blogosphere and you need quite a resistant shelter if you wish to stay away from controversy.
On the bright side, a whole lot of bloggers heard about Seopher in the past few days 
Were you aware of the above events? Was this experience helpful to you has a blogger or a guest blogger?
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January 27th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Hi Patrick,
Interesting article. Other than DoshDosh, I don’t really read any of these A-lists more than occassionally anymore, so this is the first time I’ve heard this story.
I don’t know why, but I did get a chuckle about your linking decisions. You linked to all 5 A-listers … sites that most of us could type right into our browsers from memory. Your own RSS feed 4 times, and a couple more unrelated previous posts.
Yet the one link that would have been relevant to your whole post “A few lessons in blogging from the past 24 hours” you chose to just italicize, rather than link to it.
Why?
Now if I want to read what this guy learned from his mistakes, I have to do a google search, or go through JohnChow or Problogger. I don’t get it … why no link?
By the way, I have no idea who this guy is, so I’m not defending him or anything. I just found your decision not to link interesting … and I’m feeling a little awnery this morning.
Keep havin FuN!
Todd
January 27th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I wrote a whole series a few weeks ago on how to implement Seopher’s plan called “The Secret Guide to Social Blogging Success”. It goes into some detail about how to become a big time “make money online” blogger. It was a little bit on the satirical side but I used actual events and observations to craft it.
Seopher’s advice is right on the money but people don’t like it when you reveal what’s behind the curtain. They would rather believe in the great and powerful wizard than to find out that a crafty old man is behind the curtain inflating their RSS count, gaming Alexa and Google and so forth.
January 27th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
It’s an interesting situation. I wonder what the reaction would have been had it been titled the “Black Hat Guide to Blogging”. I think in many ways, the problem is caused by not living up to the expectations of the more mainstream idea of “writing with confidence”.
However, given that this was a post on JohnChow.com — I think many of the readers are used to “slightly evil” advice.
What’s a little funny is that successful politicians have had success from time to time with many of these same items, so in a social sense, projecting a “partially authentic” image sometimes does work. Think of JFK’s private life versus his public life, for example. If JFK had taken the microphone to share the secrets of his womanizing and that he was nearly crippled by pain, it would have struck at the core of his popularity — his charm, his family, and his youthful energy.
FDR’s desire to keep his need for a wheelchair somewhat quiet is another good example.
Of course, it’s not just politicians that manage and shape their social appearance — this kind of behavior is commonplace in so many settings. In job seeking, dating and many other areas where people seek social approval people often try to present an image that isn’t truly authentic. It may by putting a shiny spin on your past job, or sucking in your beer belly — but sometimes it works and leads to a successful career, marriage or whatever.
The biggest problem I see with Seopher, is of course that this is the Internet and the Internet has an awfully long memory. If you are using your real name/persona, it pays to be extra careful.
I do think Seopher has a lot of opportunities to transform this all into something valuable because he’s become a part of the conversation.
January 27th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
@ Todd: Looks like I miss out on this one. Editorial error, if that is how it’s called. It’ll be fixed in a few minutes. Thanks for stopping by.
@ Frank: I’m not yet too familiar with Soepher’s work, but I confess, I subscribed to his RSS feed. I realize that while his guest post was a little rough, he probably writes interesting stuff too. Thanks for stopping by Frank.
@ Mark: This post was meant for John Chow dot Com, where a large crowd is ready for this, but also… not so ready apparently based on the comments. It looks like there is a profound debate in the blogging and make money regions of the blogosphere about the authenticity of ones voice. I agree that politicians are using these techniques all the time, however, while many people are electing them, in many surveys politicians are badly perceived. You see, in niche blogging, I think this may be a good strategy. Even if you are not an HR payroll system specialist, you probably want readers to think you are one. But if this was the intention in the original post, it should have been explained. I also think Seopher will benefit from all this, I already confessed, I subscribed to his feed. Thanks Mark.
@ Everyone: What amazes me in this whole thing is how bloggers are deeply divided on this issue, at a roughly 50-50 ratio. If you read Soepher’s post on John Chow, check out the comments. There’s 84 of them, and a lot of opposite reactions in there. Hey, I give him the guest post of the month trophy. Whether you like it or not, his article generated lots of chatting and to me, that’s what the blogosphere is all about.
Patrick
January 28th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the friendly analysis of what transpired last time I blogged for John Chow. I’ve got my third post going up tomorrow morning so… We’ll see how that goes!
It does prove as a case study though for not only proof-reading your content but sense checking it too. Ironically the post was about use of language and it was that very thing that let me down.
Keep up the good work,
Steve.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Good piece. This is a perfect example of how civil people should be in the bloggosphere. Patrick and Seophor … you are both to be commended for your maturity and candor. Too often, disagreements result in flaming wars and personal bashing, questioning the credibility of both parties.
Cudos to both of you. Even when you disagree … you still showed respect for the other person.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:22 am
@ Seopher (Steve): Thank for for stopping by and for posting a comment. Hey, I’m now a reader of your blog and find very good content
@ Jeff: You hit the bull’s-eye with this comment. Disagreement in the blogosphere often creates volcano reactions, again, go through the comments on Steve’s original post on John Chow and you’ll see how things can deteriorate. Disagreement is a good thing because it creates discussions and debates. And I fully agree with you, it’s way more pleasant when both parties respect each other. Thanks for the visit and the sphinn.
Patrick
January 29th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Sure it may be risky but the controversy that he started did wonders for his blog and his exposure I’m sure. Stirring up debate is much better than getting a nod of approval.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:34 am
All of the A-list bloggers, with the bright exceptions of Shoe and Darren, are now ruining their rep with useless guest blog posts.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Patrick,
This was definitely a good read, especially the fact that I’m working my way up to guest blog on other peoples’ sites.
But now you got me very curious. Dammit, I’m forced to go to other peoples’ blogs now to read this!
Jay
DatMoney.com
January 30th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
@ Jay: How was your reading?
Thanks for stopping by.
Patrick
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