Blog owners are bound to get offers from other writers for guest posting. While accepting guest posts is not a bad idea, not every guest post will be good for the blog. So when is it a good idea to accept guest posts in your blog?

772px-Welcoming_Guests

Image

Why Even Consider a Guest Post

Accepting a guest post can be very risky especially coming from authors who merely want to take advantage of link building opportunities. Although link building is not bad per se, it can be counterproductive to blogs when carried to the extremes. Some blog owners may see it as a chance to take advantage of free content but soon realize they are better off not accepting the “wrong’ guest posts.

Given these risks, why should blog owners even consider accepting guest posts? A quality guest post coming from a reputable author cannot be ignored easily. If the guest post is something that can add to the value of the blog, there is no question that a guest post should not only be considered but accepted or even solicited.

What Makes a Good Guest Post?

A good guest post provides content that is relevant to the blog. It does not contain unnecessary links or links totally unrelated to the topic. Links should be no-follow. It is written with care in relation to correctness in the language used.

It is highly recommended to accept guest posts only from Google-verified authors. The content must be unique and must have never been published in  any other site. For purposes of checking uniqueness, a tool such as CopyScape can be used to detect plagiarism. Plagiarized or copied content should never be considered for publishing.

Reminders in Accepting Guest Posts

A guest post will always look better with a legitimate author bio that can provide readers an idea of the credentials of the writer. Do not allow it to be distorted by stuffing it with keywords. This is not the purpose of the author bio and one relevant link is usually enough.

Try to find ways to publish the guest post in accordance with the usual theme of the blog. Providing images and subheadings where there are none is always recommended. This of course must be done with due respect to the contents provided by the guest author.

Finally, blog owners must resist the idea of too much laxity by allowing the blog to be overridden by guest posts that their own writings can no longer be recognized. The identity of the blog should not be lost. Having different views through guest posts is good sometimes but not all the time.

About the Author:
Teresa is a researcher-writer who covers a wide range of topics in search of useful information to offer to her readers. She currently maintains four personal blogs.