A blog is like a Pizza – A mixture of many things. Guest Bloggers are the Crushed Pepper Pieces! They Spice It Up!
That quote just came out of my mind, and I wrote it down before it comes to someone else’s mind. But for me, how true it is! I guess it’s true for you too, if you’ve allowed guest bloggers to spice up your blog(s).
Being blog owners, we all love guest posts on our blog(s). Following are some primary reasons why (If you’ve got more, I’d love to read them! Hook them up in the comments section) –
- We start building relationships which always help us in some way (you might realize it sooner or later)
- We get more engagement and traffic on our blog (as a result of powerful social sharing by the guest author)
- Our blog becomes more active as a result of more posts, and some more.
The title says that this article is about the characteristics of a lousy guest blogger. So let’s get back to the main point and following are three primary characteristics, which I think, a lousy guest blogger follows and proves that he/she is exactly what that adjective means – disgusting.
1) Knows How To Write, But Doesn’t Care Reading
You must be wondering “Reading What?”. I’m referring to the Guest Bloggers Page, or simply put – a Write For Us Page. (Visit OddBlogger’s Write For Us Page). The process of this characteristic goes somewhat like this –
- Lands on your blog. Looks at the design and other stuff.
- Hovers over to the Navigation Menu and clicks the “Contact Us” tab, which is right next to the “Write For Us” tab.
- Fills up the contact form requesting to be a guest author and provides a link to his blog/site.
- The contact form contains something like this –
Hi. I want to write guest post for your blog. My Blog is (something). Please make an account for me.
A newbie blog owner would be like “Okay. Here’s an account for you”. But a professional blog owner might have the following expression –
Even after mentioning on the “Write For Us” page (that too in the easiest language), that if someone wants to guest post, he/she has to register for an account by themselves and a link is provided there.
But no! Our newly landed Mr./Miss Guest Poster is so busy to read all that, you know!
This even ends up the guest blogger not following many important guidelines.
2) When? When? When? When? …When??
Here comes an email – “I’ve submitted the post for review. Please review it”. So here goes a reply from the blog owner’s end – “Hi There. Hope you’re doing well. Alright, I’ll review your post and let you know. Thanks” (See the difference between the etiquettes?)
Here’s comes another – “Sorry. I’ve edited the post. Bolded the headers. Please see again”. The blog owner replies (now with a straight face) – “Hi there. Sorry I was running late yesterday, hence wasn’t able to review your post. But don’t worry, will do it later today or tomorrow. Regards”. (You’re allowed to laugh on that red word).
Here’s the annoying one from the guest blogger – “Hello. Please tell me when will my post be published.” The owner is now annoyed and speaks in his/her mind “Oh Sorry Sir. I forgot that I’m your secretary who has to tell you about everything before it’s done”. But the original one goes like this – “(The greetings) … Your post will be published by the weekend. Just to let you know that it is mentioned on the blog that the guest blogger is notified one day before the post is published. So don’t worry as you’ll be notified too.”
3) The Best One Is Always Single
“Now who’s the best one?”, you must be wondering. Well, after all that email drama, the post of the guest blogger is finally published. It starts receiving a good number of comments. Mostly, many positive comments pass the following message (in different accents) – “Thumbs Up. I agree”. But there are a couple of them, or a few of them which have a previous or a present story with the topic being discussed on the post. Those comments, according to me, are the most valuable ones hence I refer to them as “The Best One(s)”.
So our Mr./Miss Guest Blogger gets somewhat, or too much confused when reading those comments and finally comes to a conclusion of not replying them! Or leaves something like “Thanks for commenting”.
Along with the blog owner, even that commentator (the best one) must be thinking “Seriously? I didn’t comment for the sake of it”.
Bottomline
It doesn’t matter how well the post is written by that guest blogger (because he/she MIGHT have bought that post from freelance article writers). What matters is how the guest blogger proves the name – “Guest Blogger”.
Something like this happened with me too (As a blog owner, not a guest blogger please!). What about you? Do you have any stories to share? If so, don’t hesitate to share it because of the following reasons –
- My friend Abhi (the blog owner) is kind enough to keep the comments section open.
- No one has a right to interfere your opinions/views.
- You’ll make us love you!
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