Inviting Others to Contribute to Your Blog

Blogs are a lot like bedrooms; if you do a lot of living in them, they’re bound to accumulate some clutter. It wasn’t until recently that I started looking around the site and noticing the trash piling up. So, I decided to pick up after myself.

It was during this bout of blog cleaning that I happened upon the site’s old photo album page. As one of the few throwbacks from the old website, I couldn’t help but feel that it looked out of place. Still, nobody tosses out a photo album, so instead of scrapping it I decided to give it an overhaul.

Now, I’ve never been one for photo albums. At the risk of sounding sexist, they’ve always seemed kind of girly to me. As I pondered what to do with it (and why I made it in the first place if I didn’t really enjoy updating it), a solution dawned on me. Why not get my wife to do it?

It took some convincing. After all, my wife isn’t a blogger. In fact, when I first mentioned the term “blog” to her, she swore I was making it up. Only after it started getting used in popular media did she grudgingly accept that I hadn’t. She fought the idea for awhile, but, after I pointed out that the website was finally making some money and that she could help it make more, she conceded.

I can’t deny having felt a little apprehensive. After all, Project Paradox has always been a one-man show. Still, I can think of a lot of reasons why it’s a good idea to get someone else to contribute to your blog.

1. Variety. Loyal readers might get tired of hearing the same viewpoint or reading the same writing style. By inviting guest bloggers to post, you give your readership a break from the same old, same old.
2. Rankings. Search engines view sites with more content, and those that are updated more frequently, with greater authority, and thus tend to rank them better for search queries. By having more people creating posts, you contribute to both and may, over time, experience an increase in search engine rankings as a result.
3. Community. Blogs tend to live or die based on their level of interactivity with other blogs. This ties back in with my thoughts on blog commenting. Granted, my wife isn’t a very good example of this, but most guest bloggers aren’t spouses. Inviting others to contribute can foster the kind of friendships that help make blogs so successful.
4. Convenience. Alright, when you get right down to it, you’re having someone write your blog for you. There’s definitely an element of laziness involved. Of course, truly dedicated bloggers will take their saved time and effort and put it right back into their blogs somehow. Still, it’s nice to be able to kick up your feet and take a break once in awhile.