Guest post article

[Dawn]

I found this article and thought it was a great post on how to guest post.

http://www.sparringmind.com/guest-posting/

[Caren]

There is good and bad in this article. I think much of what they are saying does not pertain to pet blogging.

I utilize guest bloggers to a large extent on both of my blogs…….(most of the time they have approached me)…I limit those that I approach to people I have worked with in the past or fellow bloggers that are much more knowledgeable in certain areas than I am. Instead of regurgitating from Wikipedia I would rather let the experts (as in bloggers and experts by trade)…write about a topic or themselves.

Cat Chat has quite a healthy readership but not in the “tens of thousands” that he is talking about! lol. I average between 13,000 and 20,000 hits per month on Cat Chat. Dakota’s blog is newer and has much less than that but all of my guest bloggers have received good responses on both blogs.

Numbers aren’t always the answer. They aren’t always cut and dry. 

[Deborah TaylorFrench]

Thanks Dawn, super helpful to me. Of course, I’ll be sharing it.

[Dawn]

I’ve guest posted on Caren’s blog!  

What do you feel doesn’t pertain to pet bloggers? I thought it had good advice about how to approach another blogger about guest posting and I think it might depend on the purpose of your blog as to whether some of the advice is helpful.

My blog tends to be more informational/educational. One of my goals is to reach those people who aren’t pet bloggers because unlike pet bloggers, they usually aren’t as informed, don’t know where to look for information, some probably don’t even know there is such a thing as a pet blog. So for me guest posting on other types of blogs might be a big help in reaching those people. Problogger might be a reach for a guest post, but there are a lot of family blogs that might be interested in a post on pets.

Caren, do those people that approach you have a specific topic in mind when they ask about doing a guest post? I liked how this article mentioned getting to know the blog before approaching the blog owner and having a topic in mind. I had someone approach me and just ask with no topic and no indication they knew what my blog was about. Nothing about their approach even suggested they took the time to look at my blog. I felt they were just trying to get backlinks to their site (non-pet related) to push their site up the Google ranks. I declined. I don’t expect someone to be a faithful reader, but would like them to know what my blog is about. 

While it all might not work for a pet blogger, I thought there was quite a bit that was helpful.

Caren Osrin Gittleman said:

There is good and bad in this article. I think much of what they are saying does not pertain to pet blogging.

I utilize guest bloggers to a large extent on both of my blogs…….(most of the time they have approached me)…I limit those that I approach to people I have worked with in the past or fellow bloggers that are much more knowledgeable in certain areas than I am. Instead of regurgitating from Wikipedia I would rather let the experts (as in bloggers and experts by trade)…write about a topic or themselves.

Cat Chat has quite a healthy readership but not in the “tens of thousands” that he is talking about! lol. I average between 13,000 and 20,000 hits per month on Cat Chat. Dakota’s blog is newer and has much less than that but all of my guest bloggers have received good responses on both blogs.

Numbers aren’t always the answer. They aren’t always cut and dry. 

[Caren]

Hi Dawn…I said there was “good AND bad” in the post…….I should have stated that quite a bit was good. The part that completely made me disagree was if a person was to approach someone that they should have “x” number of hits/followers to even make it worthwhile. (I don’t have time to re-read the article but take a look at the numbers he was talking about). I subscribe to ProBlogger as well and there are VERY FEW of us that have numbers EVEN close to what this article mentions.

I am approached ALL the time for people wanting to appear on both of my blogs. YES you are correct that if they haven’t even read either of my blogs they don’t have a chance in hell of appearing on either of them lol. I trash the vague emails that are sent to me.

I have had guest bloggers that are HUGE and some that are quite small. I decide who I will feature on my blog based on TOPIC, NOT by THEIR numbers…….as I said I have featured some with numbers much greater than mine and some folks who I enjoy or a product I enjoyed that might not be well known but deserves to be seen.

Would love to see someone who features Pets on ProBlogger…..there is a line of 1000s to appear on that gem!

Yes there was good info in the post but once again re-read the part about the numbers…that was a turn off. That is saying if you approached me to guest blog and you don’t have enough readers to benefit me then forget it. I don’t go for that. It is about what will benefit my readers, not the numbers.

Dawn Miklich said:

I’ve guest posted on Caren’s blog!  

What do you feel doesn’t pertain to pet bloggers? I thought it had good advice about how to approach another blogger about guest posting and I think it might depend on the purpose of your blog as to whether some of the advice is helpful.

My blog tends to be more informational/educational. One of my goals is to reach those people who aren’t pet bloggers because unlike pet bloggers, they usually aren’t as informed, don’t know where to look for information, some probably don’t even know there is such a thing as a pet blog. So for me guest posting on other types of blogs might be a big help in reaching those people. Problogger might be a reach for a guest post, but there are a lot of family blogs that might be interested in a post on pets.

Caren, do those people that approach you have a specific topic in mind when they ask about doing a guest post? I liked how this article mentioned getting to know the blog before approaching the blog owner and having a topic in mind. I had someone approach me and just ask with no topic and no indication they knew what my blog was about. Nothing about their approach even suggested they took the time to look at my blog. I felt they were just trying to get backlinks to their site (non-pet related) to push their site up the Google ranks. I declined. I don’t expect someone to be a faithful reader, but would like them to know what my blog is about. 

While it all might not work for a pet blogger, I thought there was quite a bit that was helpful.

Caren Osrin Gittleman said:

There is good and bad in this article. I think much of what they are saying does not pertain to pet blogging.

I utilize guest bloggers to a large extent on both of my blogs…….(most of the time they have approached me)…I limit those that I approach to people I have worked with in the past or fellow bloggers that are much more knowledgeable in certain areas than I am. Instead of regurgitating from Wikipedia I would rather let the experts (as in bloggers and experts by trade)…write about a topic or themselves.

Cat Chat has quite a healthy readership but not in the “tens of thousands” that he is talking about! lol. I average between 13,000 and 20,000 hits per month on Cat Chat. Dakota’s blog is newer and has much less than that but all of my guest bloggers have received good responses on both blogs.

Numbers aren’t always the answer. They aren’t always cut and dry. 

[Dawn]

True the numbers in the problogging/internetmarketing/make money on the web niche are huge and to get noticed you have to go where the numbers are. Of course there are many many people jumping in to that niche area with the sole purpose of making money and they never get anywhere. At least pet bloggers tend to be passionate about what we write.

Here’s a pet blogger who has posted on Problogger- twice- http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/07/12/how-compendium%E2%80%99s-web-to-post-generates-content-and-community/ . Her blog is Floppy Cats, It’s about Ragdolls. I’m not sure what kind of traffic she has seen from the posts. Maybe I’ll try to ask her this week.

Caren Osrin Gittleman said:

Hi Dawn…I said there was “good AND bad” in the post…….I should have stated that quite a bit was good. The part that completely made me disagree was if a person was to approach someone that they should have “x” number of hits/followers to even make it worthwhile. (I don’t have time to re-read the article but take a look at the numbers he was talking about). I subscribe to ProBlogger as well and there are VERY FEW of us that have numbers EVEN close to what this article mentions.

I am approached ALL the time for people wanting to appear on both of my blogs. YES you are correct that if they haven’t even read either of my blogs they don’t have a chance in hell of appearing on either of them lol. I trash the vague emails that are sent to me.

I have had guest bloggers that are HUGE and some that are quite small. I decide who I will feature on my blog based on TOPIC, NOT by THEIR numbers…….as I said I have featured some with numbers much greater than mine and some folks who I enjoy or a product I enjoyed that might not be well known but deserves to be seen.

Would love to see someone who features Pets on ProBlogger…..there is a line of 1000s to appear on that gem!

Yes there was good info in the post but once again re-read the part about the numbers…that was a turn off. That is saying if you approached me to guest blog and you don’t have enough readers to benefit me then forget it. I don’t go for that. It is about what will benefit my readers, not the numbers.

[Caren]

Hi Dawn. that isn’t what I meant. In their original piece they made it sound as if people should ONLY consider providing a guest blog on blogs with HUGE numbers. That is what I was disagreeing with. I have over 2000 followers of Cat Chat but I accept guest bloggers who have a fraction of that and vice versa. Blogs much larger than mine have featured me. That is what i meant when I said it isn’t (and shouldn’t be, all about just the numbers) I probably wasn’t making myself clear but somehow the issue has gotten confused. If you refer to the original article you posted you will see what i mean.

I happen to follow Floppy Cats among the 300+ other blogs that I follow. I admit I read it sporadically. Main reason? Because I never see them visit anyone else’s blogs 🙂 

Dawn Miklich said:

True the numbers in the problogging/internetmarketing/make money on the web niche are huge and to get noticed you have to go where the numbers are. Of course there are many many people jumping in to that niche area with the sole purpose of making money and they never get anywhere. At least pet bloggers tend to be passionate about what we write.

Here’s a pet blogger who has posted on Problogger- twice- http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/07/12/how-compendium%E2%80%… . Her blog is Floppy Cats, It’s about Ragdolls. I’m not sure what kind of traffic she has seen from the posts. Maybe I’ll try to ask her this week.

Caren Osrin Gittleman said:

Hi Dawn…I said there was “good AND bad” in the post…….I should have stated that quite a bit was good. The part that completely made me disagree was if a person was to approach someone that they should have “x” number of hits/followers to even make it worthwhile. (I don’t have time to re-read the article but take a look at the numbers he was talking about). I subscribe to ProBlogger as well and there are VERY FEW of us that have numbers EVEN close to what this article mentions.

I am approached ALL the time for people wanting to appear on both of my blogs. YES you are correct that if they haven’t even read either of my blogs they don’t have a chance in hell of appearing on either of them lol. I trash the vague emails that are sent to me.

I have had guest bloggers that are HUGE and some that are quite small. I decide who I will feature on my blog based on TOPIC, NOT by THEIR numbers…….as I said I have featured some with numbers much greater than mine and some folks who I enjoy or a product I enjoyed that might not be well known but deserves to be seen.

Would love to see someone who features Pets on ProBlogger…..there is a line of 1000s to appear on that gem!

Yes there was good info in the post but once again re-read the part about the numbers…that was a turn off. That is saying if you approached me to guest blog and you don’t have enough readers to benefit me then forget it. I don’t go for that. It is about what will benefit my readers, not the numbers.

[Dawn]

I understood about the numbers in reference to those who are writing the guest posts for another blog. The post I linked to is about guest posting to help build your blog and a lot of building a blog has to do with increasing your traffic. Certainly there is the camaraderie aspect of guest blogging which I think might be what you mean when saying it isn’t all about the numbers. Relationships are important. Everyone has their reason(s) for writing a guest post and wanting to submit some of their best content to a blog other than their own. 

Anyway my purpose of sharing was because I thought the article had good information on approaching a blog about guest posting and what a blog might be looking for and pitching the blog. I tend to discard numbers and take the rest of the information. 

I also follow a lot of blogs and sadly rarely have the time to visit them like I should. While Jenny might not visit other blogs, she is very interactive with her readers on her blog and FB which is nice. Of course, I seem to not have time to do that or the introvert in me just doesn’t know how to reply to the little comments so I don’t do it like I should.

Caren Osrin Gittleman said:

Hi Dawn. that isn’t what I meant. In their original piece they made it sound as if people should ONLY consider providing a guest blog on blogs with HUGE numbers. That is what I was disagreeing with. I have over 2000 followers of Cat Chat but I accept guest bloggers who have a fraction of that and vice versa. Blogs much larger than mine have featured me. That is what i meant when I said it isn’t (and shouldn’t be, all about just the numbers) I probably wasn’t making myself clear but somehow the issue has gotten confused. If you refer to the original article you posted you will see what i mean.

I happen to follow Floppy Cats among the 300+ other blogs that I follow. I admit I read it sporadically. Main reason? Because I never see them visit anyone else’s blogs 🙂 

[Caren]

Dawn I had mentioned that the article was good……was merely presenting other points that are also relevant in the discussion. I think EVERYTHING that you provide for us is helpful and worthwhile reading…..sometimes presenting opposing views on certain points that are mentioned are good vehicles for discussion.

I also don’t have time to visit each and every blog as I would like and no longer have time to respond to each and every comment (as I used to, due to some health issues taking place right now)….nor do I expect anyone else to ALWAYS visit or respond to my comments. But….an occasional visit out of courtesy and an occasional reply to someone who may not be in the blogger’s “inner circle of friends” to me is just simple blogging etiquette.

Regardless….you go over and above with all of the information and sources you share with us and the digging and searching that you do is greatly appreciated. I thank you for all that you do!

Dawn Miklich said:

I understood about the numbers in reference to those who are writing the guest posts for another blog. The post I linked to is about guest posting to help build your blog and a lot of building a blog has to do with increasing your traffic. Certainly there is the camaraderie aspect of guest blogging which I think might be what you mean when saying it isn’t all about the numbers. Relationships are important. Everyone has their reason(s) for writing a guest post and wanting to submit some of their best content to a blog other than their own. 

Anyway my purpose of sharing was because I thought the article had good information on approaching a blog about guest posting and what a blog might be looking for and pitching the blog. I tend to discard numbers and take the rest of the information. 

I also follow a lot of blogs and sadly rarely have the time to visit them like I should. While Jenny might not visit other blogs, she is very interactive with her readers on her blog and FB which is nice. Of course, I seem to not have time to do that or the introvert in me just doesn’t know how to reply to the little comments so I don’t do it like I should.

Caren Osrin Gittleman said:

Hi Dawn. that isn’t what I meant. In their original piece they made it sound as if people should ONLY consider providing a guest blog on blogs with HUGE numbers. That is what I was disagreeing with. I have over 2000 followers of Cat Chat but I accept guest bloggers who have a fraction of that and vice versa. Blogs much larger than mine have featured me. That is what i meant when I said it isn’t (and shouldn’t be, all about just the numbers) I probably wasn’t making myself clear but somehow the issue has gotten confused. If you refer to the original article you posted you will see what i mean.

I happen to follow Floppy Cats among the 300+ other blogs that I follow. I admit I read it sporadically. Main reason? Because I never see them visit anyone else’s blogs 🙂 

[Kat Zand]

Is it ok for me to introduce myself here and mention that we would welcome folks interested in guest blogging on our site?

In particular, we’d love to meet folks with expertise in topics areas that are not the traditional  popular pets and animals (so other than dogs and cats). We’d especially love to meet folks who’d like to guest post as a regular guest poster on our site.

My name is Kat Zand and I have a site called PetsLady.com which we just launched in late January 2012.

Since launch, we have a PR rank of 3 and we have a site ranking on Alexa of being one of the top 50,000 most popular websites in the US. I don’t know how we can stay up so high in terms of traffic rankings as it was due to  just a few popular articles on our site but for anyone interested in working with us, we’d love to meet you and see if there is a good fit. For folks needing the boost of a more popular site, we could be helpful to those  with much smaller sites out there.

I hope folks will check out PetsLady.com and see if it can work for them. We’re still building the site and it is still in the early stages of development so please excuse the fact that we are still a site in build mode.

If this is not an appropriate post, please let me know and I will delete it. I am not sure of what is proper or suitable so  I appreciate folks giving me some tips on how best to work and support the folks here.

The resources available here are overwhelming so I just clicked on the top discussions and found myself here.

Thanks,

Kat

[Melody McKinnon]

I love hearing from successful bloggers, I always learn something invaluable.  Thanks for sharing the article, Dawn!

[Author]

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