Guest Bloggers - Why Don't Open Your Blog To Them | Blogging, SEO and Online Marketing Tips

This week I’ve noticed that some of the blogs I regularly visit are looking for contributors or guest bloggers to write for them. I would understand why they resort to this strategy to be able to provide fresh content to their readers, especially that most of them are blogging on a part time basis.

guest blogger

Definitely, there are benefits of opening your blog to willing contributors or guest bloggers. But at the same time, this could do more harm to your blog than the sought benefits. Today’s post will introduce you to some reasons why you should not welcome contributors or guest bloggers.

Disadvantages of Using Guest Bloggers

If you’re looking for the advantages of opening your blog to guest bloggers and contributors, you will not find them here. Instead, you’ll find a list of disadvantages. Don’t worry, I’ll have a separate post for the advantages. You can subscribe to my blog so you won’t miss any future updates. In the meantime, here are the disadvantages of welcoming guest bloggers and contributors to your blog.

Apparently, when you don’t have time to keep your blog updated, you resort to opening it to willing guest bloggers and contributors. In exchange, the contributors or guest bloggers can reward themselves with links to their own blogs. You are probably doing this because you’ve read somewhere else that updating your blog regularly will attract search engine to crawl your blog more often. As this takes place, you’ll receive more traffic from them. Unfortunately, while search engines are important, your readers and subscribers are also equally important.

1. Looking for Guest Bloggers! EQUALS No time to blog!

Of course, you don’t want your readers and subscribers to think that you don’t have time to keep your blog. This could result to them unsubscribing to your feed or become discouraged to return back for another visit.

What if the guest blogger or the contributor fails to deliver quality posts? What if the guest blogger or contributor surpasses your standards and provide even better posts for your readers and subscribers? What will you do?

Will you curse yourself for letting someone into your blog and steal your blog readers and subscribers? Will you hate yourself for letting someone publish his post on your blog and later realize that your readers didn’t like it? Or will you moderate all the contributions your guest bloggers submit, do the necessary grammar and spell check, which could be a burdensome task. What’s the difference of this to making your own post. It’s like writing a post, only that the idea is not yours.

2. What if the Guest Blogger…

Whether you like it or not, your guest bloggers or contributors are your competitors. These people who are willing to publish their best posts on your blog are hoping to steal a slice of your blog traffic. They are also eyeing at your subscribers… But to be able to attract your readers and subscribers, they need to compete with you. They need to show your readers that they can provide them with more valuable information. That’s exactly the reason why guest posts are generally written outstandingly.

In case you haven’t noticed, bloggers who welcome guest bloggers invite those who blog about the same topic they do. That reason alone makes them potential competitors. And, the need for them to be better is even more obvious because that’s the only way they could get your readers to visit their blogs or subscribe to their feed. Now tell me they’re not your competitors.

3. Guest Bloggers could be your potential competitors!

It’s difficult to get guest bloggers or contributors who can compliment your ideas, styles, methods, and voice in blogging. As a result, your subscribers and readers will find it difficult to cope with the changes introduced to them. This is especially true in cases where the owner of the blog and the guest bloggers have conflicting or opposing views on certain topics. The end result is a blog that confuses its readers and subscribers instead helping them.

While the presentation of various perspectives (pros and cons) on certain topic on your blog is healthy, it becomes less helpful to your readers as they are more likely to be confused. Also, in case your idea is in conflict with your guest blogger, you might end up being the loser after your readers weigh both your points. What will happen to you if this is the case? What will you do?

4. Guest Blogger could alienate your readers.

How many blogs have posted articles contributed by guest bloggers and later on delete it because of copyrights violation? There’s hundred of them and this happens for the simple fact that guest bloggers have their own interests and oftentimes, care less to protect yours. The truth is, there are more guest bloggers who want to take advantage of your blog that those who want to contribute something of real value to your readers and subscribers. This is why guest bloggers resort to stealing posts and ideas from other bloggers and submit it to your blog. The careless you, on the other hand, forgot to use Copyscape to check if the contribution is copied somewhere else. Later on, you’ll find yourself in trouble. And since it is your blog, you will be most responsible.

There you have it. Will you still welcome guest bloggers and contributors? What other reasons, I failed to mention, should discourage you from opening your blog to guest bloggers? I’m sure you have some thoughts you wish to share. Kindly use the comment and share them to everyone.