In 2013 is guest blogging a worthwhile activity?

[whitbycottages]

Guest blogging is one of the activities I’ve never undertaken only because I went down the avenue of thinking if you go to the time and effort of producing great content why would you want it to be on someone else’s site when it could be on yours. The only reason I’m thinking about undertaking guest blogging now is because with social media becoming more prominent and indeed I found it to be very useful, I can see the logic that if you have got a niche of expertise to write about and you find good quality websites that will accept your guest blogs maybe that is a productive thing to do by attracting relevant traffic and also producing quality links to your website

Have you got any experience of Guest blogging recently?

Would you spend your precious time writing for your own website or spend some of that time guest blogging on good quality related websites? And if so what you see the main advantage is being?

[EGOL]

It sounds like you’ve never gone down this route yourself.

I have never given my content away... but lots of people have given their content to me.  I have one of the stronger sites in my niche and when they give me their content, my site then usually ranks above theirs for all of the keywords targeted by the content that they gave to me.   And my site is then going to rank above them for these keywords Permanently.

Giving your content to a stronger site is not good if you are competing for the keywords in that content.  However, if your goal is simply to "get a message in front of as many people as possible" then giving your content away - even to competitor sites will increase your visibility overall.  Those are the types of people who usually want me to publish their content.  If I rank above them they are OK with that even if I cut off their traffic.

Don’t you think that Tom’s opinion about guest posting can be useful for online relationships between websites of a similar subject...

I am not out to build "relationships" with my competitors, I am out to beat them.

If you are simply trying to "get a message out" then relationships are fine.

If you have really good content and you want to get traffic then expose it to social media.  If your content is really that good it can be like tossing gasoline on a fire.   But, if you give that same article to your competitor... you have just tossed gasoline onto his fire.

...maybe Google is not as keen to reward this kind of activity regarding links in the article but I’m not sure if that’s true.

Lots of people right now have Penguin problems from all of the guest posting that they have done.

[whitbycottages]

I won’t be producing good closely related content to somebody else’s website, especially after reading the example,  the quality article which your competitor to give. He effectively give ammunition to his new and ultimately more powerful enemy, you

I think I’ll try a little guest blogging but it will only be to websites loosely connected to the subject of my website not directly in competition and see what the results are.

[whitbycottages]

Okay C- PhD sounds good advice to me thank you.

I think I am going to dip my toe was into guest blogging because you never know of the results unless you try it yourself, I just wondered what other people’s experience was on the subject. I presume given your advice you’ve had good results with this in the past.

One of the things that put me off was I have limited time and the effort of searching and reading other websites to try and find good places that might take my content always dissuaded me from trying. I never liked the idea of approaching people building a relationship with the long-term motive of them being more easily persuaded to take my content.

I think I might trying to find loosely related subject websites that might take a good article and see how things go regarding traffic and links.

[whitbycottages]

I appreciated your quality advice Egol when I first joined Moz just over a year ago and bringing my attention to the importance of quality articles, it was a subject I was new to at the time and I was wondering if I was wasting my time spending so much effort producing content for the website only to find out I wasn’t spending enough time!

Don’t you think that Tom’s opinion about guest posting can be useful for online relationships between websites of a similar subject, bringing over people are interested in the subject you’re writing about finding your content and may be linked etc. It sounds like you’ve never gone down this route yourself.

One of the arguments that seems to be in against guest posting recently is that with the real authorship attribute coming in maybe Google is not as keen to reward this kind of activity regarding links in the article but I’m not sure if that’s true.

[whitbycottages]

Thanks a lot Tom totally get the positive aspects that you are pushing forward regarding guest blogging,and I’ll take your tips on board to try and get approval from some good websites

Quite a while back Egol commented to one my questions when I was writing articles for directories that he thought it was not the best way to spend my time and I felt the same in my bones;

I don’t think as far as I’m concerned I could produce is good quality content to somebody else as I could from our website because the incentive would not be as great.

I once spent three days writing a review of a local tourist spot, filming the area with an HD camera and taking photographs to produce the best article I could and that’s always been my most successful in every respect. The video is still three years later having high volumes of traffic from YouTube and the article has been my most popular on the website so is a prime example of if you put the effort in one of Google’s quality control team hopefully see the content I think and push that forward.

The only reason I thought of guest blogging to a small degree recently was because I haven’t actively been link building in any respect some time but I have found my social media efforts to be fruitful so I was thinking along the lines of like you say producing a little bit of content hopefully for some quality websites for the main reason of bringing attention to my website and its contents to people who are genuinely interested in its contents. The only reason I’ve hesitated is because of limited time, I have had a list of projects I intend to do myself from my old website.

I think I’ll try a little bit of guest blogging just to see if the results produce any meaningful traffic and possibly a few quality links.

[EGOL]

That makes sense, I would still make a counter point that if done correctly and in the right ratio of how much you spend time on guest blogging vs  blogging on your own site, it could still work to your advantage.

You might be right...   I am not going to try it... because if I am wrong I will have to shoot myself.

[CleverPhD]

Thanks EGOL.

That makes sense, I would still make a counter point that if done correctly and in the right ratio of how much you spend time on guest blogging vs  blogging on your own site, it could still work to your advantage.

If you could also get me a Shiner Bock when you head over to the bar I would appreciate that as well.

Cheers!

[EGOL]

If you do not want to give away "content" then why do you post so much content here?

A couple of people have asked about this....

My websites have nothing to do with SEO and my postings here are simply participation in a public discussion.   I don't consider it publishing.  It's like friends talking over coffee or beer.

In the areas where I do business.  I am not sharing my content.  I spend a lot of time on every article and publish them only on my own domains.

Why?  I don't want to feed my competitors and create new ones.

[CleverPhD]

I think there is a balance here.

EGOL - I was surprised by your comments as - you are one of the top posters on Moz in the QnA and on the Moz Blog! You have over 12K Moz points!  There seems to be a little pot calling the kettle black going on.  If you do not want to give away "content" then why do you post so much content here?

Alan - I think the reason that someone like EGOL does make such an impressive contribution here.  There is a huge amount of value and networking by interacting and posting here on Moz.  If you can find a site that it is worth it and you there is an opportunity there, go for it. If you are a new website and don't have any traffic, you may need to do a little blogging to get stuff back to your site.  Building on Tom's comment - Create a shorter version of a post that points back to your main post on your site.  Consolidate a couple articles and then point back.   For sure, you need to balance the amount of time you spend on this, but I think to dismiss it out of hand would not be the way to go.

Cheers!

P.S. EGOL - I have always appreciated your input and think you are a great contributor to this community.  My comments are not made out of disrespect, but simply to make a point.

[EGOL]

Guest blogging is one of the activities I’ve never undertaken only because I went down the avenue of thinking if you go to the time and effort of producing great content why would you want it to be on someone else’s site when it could be on yours.

Absolutely.   When I write an article in the topic areas of my website I do not give it away. Much too valuable.  Giving your content away feeds your compeititors and creates new ones.

Have you got any experience of Guest blogging recently?

A guy, well known in my industry, wants me to publish one of his articles.  I decline.  I tell him that I don't want to compete with him.   He bugs me again so I say I would consider it.   He sends me a nice article.  I like it.  Its really good.  I tell him that if I publish it on my site that my site will move into his SERPs and compete with his site.  He says OK and gives me the article.

A few days later I am taking his traffic.  A few weeks later he complains that my site is in his SERPs - above his.  He does not ask me to take the article down (we spent a bit of time creating nice images and making a great presentation of the content) but I know that is what he would prefer.   I don't take it down because I spent time and money to present it nicely.

Today that article is still on my site, ranking well, bringing in thousands of visitors per month in an area of investing.  His site is gone from those SERPs.  He gave lots of articles to lots of people.  Lots of them went to ezine and other popular syntication sites.  I bet the Penguins got him.

**Would you spend your precious time writing for your own website or spend some of that time guest blogging on good quality related websites? **

I write only for my own sites.  My goal is to build my own business. Not to build a business for someone else.

I have not given away an article yet.   I have no plans to do that.   I might write a guest blog for the Pope or someone like that if they ask me... but that isn't going to happen.  If Joe Blowe webmaster, asks for an article my answer is..  "Hell no."... but I would word it nicely.

[TomRayner]

"if you go to the time and effort of producing great content why would you want it to be on someone else’s site when it could be on yours."

Bang on. I think you're absolutely right there.

However, that doesn't mean guest blogging should be discounted, rather it should be used in tandem.

I always approach guest blogging with a view of introducing myself or a product/company/brand to a new audience.  Publishing content on your own site is great, but if you don't have connections or an established audience, it can sometimes fall on deaf ears.

Guest blogging allows you to strike up that connection.  Yes, you may get a link out of it as well that could be quite strong, but if you can get this new audience to revisit your site regularly and link to it directly, or share it on social media, then it's even better.

Have a look at active social media profiles and blogs that are prominent in your industry.  Then look to create content that serves their community.  Don't just go in and say "hey, I like your blog about shoes, I've got a guest post about the top 7 shoes here that you'll like" - that's just bad.

Instead, read through the blog, understand what the community are talking about and then make your approach.  Your outreach then becomes something like "hey, I've noticed your members are confused about X, I'd love to produce an article/infographic etc. that helps explain X for them" or even "hey, I recently read this X article you published - I actually disagree and would like to offer a counter point of view - do you think your readers would be interested?"

You're on your way now to producing content that's specific to that target audience.  If it's specific to them and it's well received, your dramatically increasing your chances of them visiting your site and hopefully sticking around once they see your existing content.

That to me is the value of guest blogging.  Keep your best content to yourself, but create bespoke content for those that you want to attract.