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5 Simple Rules for Getting Great Guest Posts for Your Blog

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An Email

relationships button

A call came. Actually it was an email, it asked whether I might have time to help a blogger who needed a guest post on his blog. The request was honest and cordial.

I got that email. I had time, and I agreed.

I’m always intrigued by the opportunity to write for a new audience about new ideas. Mashing my ideas with a new venue is fun. It brings back the risk and the thrill of blogging. Guest posting always seems to inspire a blog post I wish I wrote for here — which is a good thing. Please check out the blog post I wrote.

Are you wondering why I wrote that post for him and not for you?

5 Simple Rules for Getting Great Guest Posts for Your Blog

So you might be wondering would the same technique work for you? Well, it might. If you want increase your chances of getting me or another blogger to guest post on your blog, follow these simple rules.

  • Ask with a smile. It’s an honor to be asked. It’s not nice to be ordered. Give a blogger a chance to be generous. People like to be generous.
  • Be yourself. Don’t pretend. Make the request in your own voice as you might invite someone to an event you’re planning. If you’re asking a blogger who doesn’t know you, explain why you’re asking. A honest statement of your thoughts is impressive. Don’t sell the idea or exaggerate your esteem. Bloggers can tell if you actually read their blog or just say you do.
  • Offer some ideas. You know your audience better than anyone who is guesting ever will. You know the best place where your guest might make the best contribution.
  • Allow time. Bloggers are busy people. If you offer enough to time do a good job, any blogger is more likely to say “yes,” to you offer.

    • Be gracious. If for some reason, the blogger can’t say “yes,” be pleased that he or she took the time to consider your request seriously. Your response to a “no,” could the first step in a great relationship. It lets the blogger know that you can see things from his or her point view.

As I write this, I’m about to ask a select group if they will consider a guest post on my blog in the near future. You can bet that those are exactly the things I’m going to do.

Have I left some key points of this list? Feel free to add them.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

How to Know if You Are Blog Begging

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Worth Saying Again

relationships button

As soon as I turned on my computer, an IM popped up. This is the conversation that occurred. I’ve changed the name and location of the other party because . . . um . . . I’m the nice one. Truth is, I suspect that the sender doesn’t read my blog and won’t know about that post. I hope I’m wrong about that. If I am, I hope that we might try the conversation over.

Here’s what was said.

sender: hi liz please give me some trik for my blog

ME: Hi What is that?

sender: 🙂 for some make good my blog

ME: Do I know you?
sender: :-oooh sorry. I’m from [name of country]

ME: again . . . do I know you?
sender: ok sorry

ME: You might tell me who you are.

[I’m pretty sure he was gone before I typed these words.
Did he want links or money?]

How to Know If You Are Blog Begging

Ask yourself these two questions. Then fill in the blanks in the sentence that replaces [what is asked for] with the phrase lots of money.

  • What’s your relationship with the potential linker?
  • What benefit comes from the request?
  • Hi _______, would you give me [what is asked for] so that _______ .

Using the answers from the IM Saturday morning the sentence now reads.

Hi complete stranger, would you give me lots of money so that my blog will be good?

Doesn’t sound as if it has anything to do with me.

It’s worth saying something I said once before.

I want a relationship, not a one-link stand.

Links might stay and stick for a few months. Over time, they die out and break. Links to people I don’t know have the protential to harm me. Relationships with like-minded folks are good things and have the potential to grow.

This is a an unusual blog request story. Not everyone gets a IM at “dark o’clock” in the morning. What’s the most interesting blog request that has come your way? Would you say it was blog begging?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Why Blog? . . . "Follow Your Calling" She Said

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A Calling

When I was 7 years old, my teacher told me to listen for my calling. She said if I listened to my heart and my mind, I would find the future that was right.

Liz Strauss as a child

My teacher said “You’ll know because you’ll be making a difference in people’s lives.” I remember exactly where I sat when I let her words into my head. That’s when I started thinking about the possibilities.

I grew up with more curiosity than wisdom. I traveled with my feet on the ground, my head in the sky. I needed 23 lives to follow the callings I heard. . . . be a teacher, be speaker, be a writer. I wanted to build things and fix things, and of course, to be smart, wealthy, and rich. I wanted the life of a freelancer and the community of a company at the same time.

I tried them all — even tried a few more that came along.

Still that thought hung with me, You’ll be making a difference in people’s lives.

I ended up an educational publisher. For a while, I felt it might be my calling, but I wondered was I really making a difference or just making books? I worked freelance. I worked company jobs. I worked on projects of so many kinds. I not only loved publishing; I knew, for sure, that I’d never get bored.

Then I did.

I went off on my own again.

Was I Called?

A friend did call to ask me, if I would write a blog for a science education company. I thought I’d better find out what was involved before I answered. So I started a blog.

Early on I met the most excellent people — so many of them — and found IT changed MY life! Though I went down some windy roads, when I thought of giving up, one of those first friends, Jeremy, said, “Why don’t you join b5media instead?” Though the network was plenty busy with the work of being born, they didn’t blink before they took me in. Suddenly I was a freelancer in a thriving community.

Later that year, Darren set a challenge to write blog goals. I wasn’t going to participate, but I did. That’s when I found that my blog is my home. That’s when I realized how much I am like my dad.

If you read what I wrote, it says,

You see, my father didn’t work at the saloon. He lived it. He also earned enough to feed a family and send three kids to school. Somehow in doing that, he managed to make a difference in people’s lives by sharing what he knew and who he was.

My blogging goal is to do the same thing
with my blog that my father did with his saloon.

and that’s why I blog.

As for why I keep blogging, well it’s because every now and then I’ll get an email that says

Aside from business, people desire answers, they are hoping that someone believes that there [are] answers, and that just maybe, they can have hope too. — Steve

and it makes me think I might be making a difference.

“Follow your calling” she said.
Thank you for helping me know what my calling is.

Now will you tell me? Is it a calling, a hobby, a quest?
Please tell me. Why do you blog?

Liz's Signature
The question, “Why Do You Blog?” is final week’s challenge of the b5media Apprentice Challenge. Over 30 blogs on the b5 Business Channel started the quest, only four are left: Accounting Solver . . .Home Biz Notes . . . Greener Assets . . . Successful Blog.
The winner will be chosen from one of these four.

Will you join in deciding who becomes the b5media Apprentice? Every comment you leave on a final challenge post counts as a vote! The voting is open until January 7th. So c’mon tell me why you do you blog!

New Year’s Eve Celebration: 24 + 144 Dishes at the SOB Business Cafe

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SB Cafe

Everything’s Special,
Especially the Patrons
Welcome to the SOB Cafe

All through the year, we offer a fare of the best in thinking — articles on business, blogging, and just plain living. On a day of celebrating 2007, we’re bringing hit selections to share with you in this very special menu.

Please enjoy these as much as I enjoy having you visit.

The Specials of 2007 are:

Success from the Nest pointed out that As a home-based business person, not knowing where your nuts are can make you crazy. Now, at this point you may be wondering to which nuts I am referring (and those of you snickering, I know what you’re thinking). Well, the nuts I am referring to are…

Shards of Consciousness explained . . . I found several how-tos on the domain moving process itself. However, none of these were clear enough for me. And none of them covered all the issues involved in changing domains. There are six main aspects of moving a WordPress blog from one domain to another.

Copyblogger pointed out Since different people connect with different things, joining in on a conversation that naturally compares and contrasts your style and expertise with that of your peers is smart marketing. More importantly, it exudes confidence.

Spooky Action gave us the model and said Why is a model of game design important to experience designers? Because the game design paradigm is DESIGN ONCE, EXPERIENCE MANY TIMES.

Seth’s Blog wondered What do most people get out of blogging? After all, most blogs are virtually unread by outsiders… Be sure to read the comments that follow it.

Logic and Emotion challenged us to consider If we claim to be marketers, advertisers, designers, public relations or communications professionals—we must take it upon ourselves to fully comprehend the significance of a lone consumer who takes on a huge company with nothing more than a blog and tape recorder.

The Life Coaches Blog started by saying Believe in people. See them better than they see themselves.

Steve-Olson.com offered an incredible curiosity quencher. I decided to provide you with some of my favorite websites, news articles, and blog posts about understanding intelligence.

Alister Cameron put it bluntly If what you do with the best hours of your day is not also the thing you’re passionate about, stop right now!

Manage to Change outlined why The real power of blogging is that it’s one more way to forge meaningful relationships with people and actively participate in communities and conversations.

ChristineKane.com laid out a challenge. Who among us has said this very thing – or some variety of it – to her/himself? And – here’s the kicker – who among us has been lying when we said it?

Design Your Writing Life takes up Where ChristineKane.com left off. What? Write for 15 minutes? What the hell can you accomplish in 15 minutes? See all there is about Writerly Lies.

DaveOlson.ca was questioning I don’t know when it happened but somewhere in the last few years of life, I forgot how to ask learning questions and honestly it’s kinda got me freaked out.

Circular Communications invented a genre. In this context is the deciding difference however that the interviewer has to do all the present work including picking the topic, choosing the participants, formulating the questions and finding the answers.

Chrisg got to thinking about the kinds of bloggers we are. While I patiently explained the different types of blogs to those guys I realised many of us probably have some sort of cross-over between types and rarely consider what our dominant blogging style is.

JeffPulver.com shows the online conversation in the offline world. When checking out, I noticed a personal note from their general manager, Barbara Gross, who made reference to a blog post I had written earlier this week . . . it is an example of how many small (and not so small) businesses can benefit from implementing their own social media strategy around their customers.

Instigator blog writes when we see examples of people building out mini-media empires like TechCrunch, GigaOm, ProBlogger, Know More Media, Positive Media Blog Network, and others, we feel like it’s possible for us as well.

Carpe Factum connects that Sometimes, it’s important to find the support that is hidden to the naked eye. That applies in our professional lives also, doesn’t it?

Jonathan Fields asks Have you ever lost time doing anything? You know what I’m talking about. Those moments when you become so absorbed in what you’re doing that an hour becomes a minute and a day becomes and hour. You blink and it’s time to go home, but you’d kill to be able to stay just a little bit longer.

Pick the Brain motivated us with There’s a big myth in our culture: that passion can only be spontaneous. . . . I disagree. Passion can be created. Even for things you don’t currently enjoy.

Orbit Now! characterized things in a way. Here is my spin. It is perhaps NOT as sticky, but that should come as a surprise to no one.

chrisbrogan.com explained
There are SO MANY situations where a social network’s communications functions, when aggregated as part of the “informational whole,” have more value than a more formal tool like a document or email.

Codswallop offered efficiency. Are you working with Excel and want take your Excel skills to the next level? Or do you want to learn Excel and don’t know where to start?

The Artsy Asylum questioned How do we communicate with each other in 2007 and beyond? How does that make a difference in how we think about the world, and our lives, and each other? How does the 3-D web play a part? Big brains are thinking about this so I don’t have to do it all.

And for the Dessert Buffet

Please enjoy these 144 links from Successful and Outstanding Bloggers.

Sit back. Enjoy your reading. Nachos and beverages will be right over. Klondike bars and Fat Tires are in the cooler under the sidebar Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great celebration!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How Do You Know When You're Ready to Move to the Next Level?

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This guest post was contributed by friend and SOB, Sheila Scarborough. Her advice here is flawless and based in deep expertise. –ME “Liz” Strauss

Moving To The Next Level

by Sheila Scarborough

Most entrepreneurial online “digital creatives” find that their business moves through a progression.

At first, many writers, Web designers or other content providers often take most any job as long as it pays. In the quest to amass a decent portfolio or group of clips, it’s easy to succumb to the siren offers of “revenue sharing” or “exposure” or “future growth,” rather than demanding a higher per-word or per-project rate.

Blog for $50/month and post 5-7 times a week? Sure!

Heck, blog for nothing and hope for some ad revenue? Sure!

Anything to get a toe-hold as a freelancer.

There comes a time, however, when the digital entrepreneur is ready to truly make a living in his or her area of expertise, maybe even to be able to drop the side job that actually pays most of the bills.

How do you know when you’re getting ready to move to the next level?

I’ve asked myself that question a lot lately, as I approach two years as an active freelancer (a writer and blogger, in my case.) Here are some benchmarks that I’ve stumbled across at this juncture; you may find some similarities to your own situation, or as a newbie you can look forward to someday grappling with these turning points:

1) You can’t work by the seat of your pants anymore.

Perhaps you have more than one blogging commitment, plus offline work and some clients and consulting. Life starts to implode, you meet all of your deadlines but just barely, you gain twenty pounds, the house is a wreck and upon awakening you think, “Oh, no, I have no idea what I’m blogging about today, plus there’s a client meeting that I’m not ready for this afternoon and an article deadline by close of business.”

It’s time for a schedule, because it’s time to admit that this is your job and you’ve gotta get organized. Big wall calendar, some online software, a PDA, an old-school Filofax, whatever — you’re at the stage when you must get a grip on the madness. It’s time to hire a CPA for taxes, it’s time to buy Quickbooks or other bookkeeping software to track invoices, it’s time to buff up that blog/Web site, it’s time to….move into the bigger leagues.

2) You are ready to build a specific or at least semi-defined expertise.

At first, entrepreneurs will do most anything to make a buck, even if it isn’t what they like or isn’t what they’re very good at. For a PayPal transfer or an actual check, I’d write about most any topic when I first started out, for any publication that was halfway legitimate.

At some point, however, you know which subjects really make your heart sing, which ones call forth your best work, and it’s time to begin to focus and hone your expertise and creative efforts.

For writers, this is the moment to say, “You know, I write mostly about X, Y and Z. Someday I’d like to touch on A and B, but right now, I specialize in X, Y and Z.”

This is different from what you said in the beginning, which was roughly, “I’ll write about anything.”

3) Your time and effort are worth something to you.

At first, many digital creatives are so eager to succeed, they’ll leave no stone unturned to get their business off the ground. They sign up for every e-newsletter and magazine that seems professionally helpful, they have a gazillion RSS feeds, they go to every meeting that seems like a good networking opportunity, and the answer to every problem is to throw more work hours at it.

I personally have reached the point of admitting that I can’t know everything. I can’t read it all, can’t track all the feeds, can’t answer all the emails and memes, and most importantly, I should not feel horribly guilty about it.

To do my best work, I can no longer allow myself to overload my own brain. It’s time to prune the RSS feeds, not follow everyone on Twitter who follows me, unsubscribe from emails that I don’t really read nor care about, all so that I can concentrate on the information flow that is most helpful in my work.

It’s also time to be paid what I’m worth (for a writer, that’s no less than US$0.50/word and preferably US$1.00/word, and roughly $20/post for blogging) and to cast an unfriendly gimlet eye on work that may require a lot of wheel-spinning for a monetary pittance. Some occasional work may be worth lower or even no pay, for a variety of reasons, but my going-in position has shifted to an expectation of decent pay for the work that I do, rather than pleased gratitude that anyone pays me at all.

It’s scary to realize that your baby, your business, is at a turning point, but the good news is that it’s time to make some tough career focus decisions because….you’ve done well and are ready to do even better!

–Sheila Scarborough You’ll find Sheila and her blogs at SheilaScarborough.com

Isn’t Shelia amazing? So why not tell her? How will you know when you’re at the next level? Could you be there already?

–Liz
Work with Liz!!

Related
Sheila Scarborough Is a B.A.D Blogger
Roving Sheila at SXSW 03 -09-07
Roving Sheila at SXSW 03-10-07
Roving Sheila at SXSW 03-11-07 and 03-12-07
Roving Sheila at SXSW Finale

B.A.D. Bloggers, Leah Jones and Jeremiah Owyang on the Strategy of Listening to the Web

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Bloggers About Dialogue

BAD Blogger Button

Ask a blogger why he or she started blogging and it’s likely you’ll hear that it had to do with sharing a wealth of knowledge and finding an audience to teach. I enjoyed a conversation last night with a blogger who had been blogging for 5 years and she told me that she started for every same reasons. It’s information sharing that gets us here. But it’s the conversation with real people that keeps us engaged and building communities — for our businesses and as part of our lives.

Though we participate in the conversations on our blogs and others, two of our own Successful and Outstanding Bloggers were extending the conversation to the folks who don’t necessarily do that.

Have you met Leah Jones and Jeremiah Owyang?

Leah Jones in the Chicago Tribune November 23, 2007

Look there’s Leah Jones, above the fold on the front page of the Business Section of the Chicago Tribune!

Leah Jones, Conversation Analyst for Edelman in Chicago and Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst for Social Computing at Forrester Research were featured in a piece called, “You talk, they hear on web.” by Tribune staff reporter, Eric Benderoff.

Here’s a virtual article base on what these two prominent bloggers had to say. The questions are mine. The answers are from the article text. [Please note: These quotes are presented dynamically with an eye to maintaining the speakers’ original intent, despite this new context. My hope is to offer a closer glimpse of the blogger behind the words. The original, must-read article carries the full story.]

Leah, what does a conversation analyst really do?

“I pay attention to what people say online,” said Leah Jones. . . “My job is research and education,” Jones said. “I do a lot of small group training on social media.”

So, do you talk as well as listen?

“To get a true sense of what people are saying on blogs or in forums, we don’t get involved in the conversations,” Jones said. . . . “If I e-mail a blogger, I tell them ‘I’m Leah, I work at Edelman and I’m writing you because … ,’ ” she said.

So what are you looking to do with and for your clients?

“When we look at 2008, we’re asking, ‘What’s our news? What’s our online strategy? What are our conversation strategies?'” Jones said.

Jeremiah spoke on social media strategies as well.

Jeremiah, what’s the key to social media strategy?

“If you have a social media strategy, you need the right people,” said Jeremiah Owyang.

Why did you say 2008 will be an important year for social media?

“For the first time, you will start to see budgets set aside for social media strategies and processes,” he said. . . . Later he added that “As customers get more involved, expect their feedback to shape new products.”

Both of these bloggers are genuine and engaging conversationalists, who set aside their own thoughts to listen in to what we are saying, to learn where the conversation will go.

Leah and Jeremiah, you are B.A.D. Bloggers! Thanks for taking the conversation to the world of print.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. blogger page