The REAL Reason Guest Blogging Seems To Work So Well

This is a guest post by Tia Peterson who writes at BizChickBlogs.com.

A few of my closest blogger “buddies” know this little secret about me: I’m a little hesitant to run with the guest blogging baton. You could say I had cold feet when it came to writing for someone else blog.

I started blogging (blogs long gone now) several years ago, long before guest blogging became the massive blogger magnet that it is now. Back then, we were kind of just blogging in the dark. That’s how everyone was doing it. Even businesses. We were still figuring out the magic trick to getting total strangers to pick up on your blog and read it (e.g., people other than your mom… and your Gmail contact list).

Then everyone started picking up on how social media could drive business, and then the light turned on that it could be used as better way than article marketing to drive targeted traffic to your blog. And all of this was really great.

But then, Guest Blogging Came Along and…

…totally changed the blogosphere. From a macro level, you can see two things: (1) people are guest blogging and (2) people are constantly talking about guest blogging. But at a micro level, you find something a little more quirky; something very unique to people really dedicated to their blogs. You find community.

An underground. A subculture within a subculture.

The Guest Blogging Appeal…

…is in the connection between bloggers. Again, we can look at it from a macro level and see: backlinks! Exposure! Someone to share the load! New, fresh, unique material for my blog! Woot!! And all of that may be true and is totally rad and a great reason to participate. Except that… well, there are actually a lot of ways to accomplish these things. Paid, free, sponsored, etc. People have been getting links, exposure or new content for a long time.

It is not as if guest blogging came and saved blogs. It didn’t. It came and saved bloggers.

When It’s Good, It is the Ultimate Sign of…

…respect. The day I received a short message in my inbox from the author of a respected blog, inviting me to share my story with his readers if I wanted to, was a very good day. I like his blog. And when I publish a guest post there, it won’t be the idea of all of the exposure and the link luv and the expanded readership that matters.

It’s that someone that I’d picked up on in the past, had now picked up on me.

And that, Bloggers, is the Real Reason

One awesome thing about being an “observer” to this guest posting thing is that I have gotten a chance to listen and learn. I’ve read the stories, made internal notes on the tips and tutorials and advice, joined the forums and tuned out all of the noise. The one common thread – the common link that sort of defines guest blogging – is community.

What was once a relatively solitary activity is now almost a team effort. It’s more than “let’s scratch each other backs” kinda thing. It’s as if one day, someone woke up and said, “This is so much more successful with more than one mind.” The very fact that bloggers are willing to share the link love with other bloggers in the same niche is astounding.

If you’re thinking and hemming and hawing and hesitating and wondering, like I was, that’s okay. But hopefully this has made you think a little bit more about it. I was unconvinced by stories of huge spikes in subscriptions and site visits and accolades. But what did finally sell me was connection. Take the opportunity to get connected.

For those of you who are guest blogging pros, what’s your take on this? What’s the real reason you do it? And for those of you thinking about jumping in, what more do you need to hear to be convinced?

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Article Written By Tia Peterson

Tia Peterson is the author of BizChickBlogs.com, a practical blogging guide for business women and the men who seem to find their way there, too.

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