Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
I’ve decided to try an experiment with guest blogging for this website. It’s probably going to open the doors to a world of spammy content or poor authorship, but I would love to see what comes of it. If it works out, perhaps I’ll expand what else we can do with user posts.
I have a lot of things I’d like to try for the site, but I want to test the waters first. Perhaps I’ll go beyond guest blogging and try to develop a social hub for writers and freelancers.
Who knows…so, feel free to submit your content!
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Why Open Guest Blogging?
Opening the site to user submitted posts is beneficial for everyone involved. In fact, guest blogging is still a widely accepted term of marketing for both the site owner and the writer.
Helping Others Grow their Fan Base
While my site isn’t the most active on the Internet, I’d still love to help others grow a fan base. I know a lot of potentially good writers who don’t have a decent platform to share ideas or flex their literary muscles a bit.
If one of my guest bloggers gets one like, share or fan from the experience, then it’s worthwhile for me.
Giving Authors an Easy Platform for Guest Blogging
One of the things that drives me nuts regarding guest blogging is the number of hoops you have to jump through for some sites. Then, you need to wait for an email from a site owner who probably doesn’t manage the site anymore.
I wanted to give people an easy way to submit content without most of this waiting. Personally, I work on all my blogs Monday through Friday. So I should be able to offer a fairly quick turnaround.
Increasing the Content of WriterSanctuary.com
Of course one of the biggest benefits for me is expanding what content I have on the website. I simply don’t have time to create all the pieces I want, and I would love to showcase the expertise of others.
Another side benefit is learning something new. I know I don’t know everything there is about freelance writing and publishing. Which is why I am open to let guest blogging help expand my knowledge as well as help those who visit the site.
Improving SEO and Traffic
Perhaps one of the more important aspects to guest blogging is improving search engine visibility to increase traffic. The more popular I can make this website, the better it is for everyone from readers to writers.
Don’t get me wrong, I look forward to reading the work of others. But keep in mind the more traffic WriterSanctuary gets, the more people who may potentially read your work.
What I’ll Allow on the Site
In this guest blogging experiment, I’ll open the posts to specific categories. I am currently in the process of reorganizing the site and cleaning it up a bit, but these are the sections that are ready for new user submitted posts.
It’s probably a good idea to check out the posts I have in these categories to see what I’m looking for.
Content Writing
In this section, I try to cover anything that contributes to helping others write content. For instance, are you an expert in grammar or punctuation? Perhaps you know of good tools to help writers create that material.
Ways to use headings, statistics about content creation or even anything about writing scripts and screenplays is welcome. If you can put a pen to paper or keystrokes to word processors, I would like to see it.
Creative Content
Because I spend so much time with tutorials and self-help material, I don’t get to be as creative as I’d like. Hopefully, that’ll all change once I get all of the graduations done for this school year.
It’s my goal to be completely finished with VII and starting on a new piece before my birthday in July.
Anything that is deemed as creative is welcome, with a few caveats. For one thing, I will not publish hate-related content or adult materials. There are other blogs for that, and it has no place at WriterSanctuary.
How to WordPress
I am currently in the process of building a WordPress directory of tutorials. I started doing this to help my dad as it would prevent a ton of phone calls when he worked on his website.
If you know how to do anything in the content management system, feel free to submit it.
How to WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a bit different from the actual CMS available at WordPress.org. As such, I need some tutorials about how to do things on the popular blogging site.
And since I have an account with the site, I’ll follow your tutorial to make sure everything works like it should.
Marketing
I touch base a bit regarding marketing. But if you want to contribute, keep it to marketing yourself as a freelancer. For instance, I don’t need a representative of Apple promoting how to promote computers or smartphones.
This is a writing-based site, so keep it along those lines, please.
Monetizing the Site
Have a good way to monetize your site that I haven’t covered yet? I’m sure there are plenty out there, and I’d love to know about them. Perhaps you know of a few tricks that work with affiliate banners or ideal locations to place AdSense.
Just bear in mind I will not publish anything that cheats a system or is deemed illegal. Certain loopholes are OK, as long as they’re not morally corrupt.
Plugin Reviews
I love plugin reviews. I would love to do more of these if I had more time. As long as the plugin has been updated anytime in the last six months, I’ll allow it. Older plugins pose a security threat and I don’t want readers putting themselves at risk.
New plugins are OK, as long as they have a decent rating and are verified to work. I have a WordPress installation I use specifically for testing these, so I will check the plugin’s integrity.
Self Publishing
I’m no expert in self-publishing. It’s one of those things that I hope to accomplish in 2018. But if you have knowledge regarding it, feel free to share. I would be highly interested in reading about your experiences.
Anything from editing to cover designs, I would love to read it all – as would a lot of my visitors. In fact, it’s a common topic that I would love to expand on for search engines.
Website Development
I don’t want extensive coding examples or going beyond the basics. I would like to know good ways to use images, attractive WordPress themes, the best fonts to use and other layout ideas for improving website development.
I don’t mind a few code snippets people can easily add to a site, but it’s not the focus of WriterSanctuary.com. A lot of my readers don’t know the first thing about HTML, PHP or CSS, so write accordingly.
WordPress Blogging
This section is centered around pretty much anything around WordPress blogging. If you have an idea for WordPress content that isn’t covered by another category, stick it here.
You can get ideas by going through this category and seeing the titles.
Interested in Participating?
It’s my goal to create a collection of good writers and build a community to help each other. If this goes well, I have other ideas I would love to implement. However, that all depends on you and what we can do for each other.
By nature, I am a philanthropist. This means not only am I in business to make money, but I want everyone to benefit as much as possible as well. I am charitable to a fault and find ways to improve the welfare of others.
Eventually, I’d love to figure out some form of compensation outside of links and recognition. But first, let’s just see how this guest blogging experiment unfolds.
Where Can You Submit Content?
There is a page directly on the top menu bar specifically for submitting content. I’ve listed some rules and what I’m looking for in terms of guest blogging. Soon, I’ll have some tools in the sidebar to help you create an amazing piece.
How many guest posts can you create?
For now, let’s start with submitting one per day. Keep in mind I am still busy myself. I need time to go through the submissions and make edits or adjustments. If this works out well, then I might be able to free up more time to accept new articles.
Growing an Audience
Guest blogging is a symbiotic relationship. The author receives recognition, backlinks and an expansion of his or her own fan base. The site owner receives content for the website to help encourage traffic through search engines. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Find ways to get your name out there on the Internet. It’ll contribute to improving your reputation as a professional in your niche.
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