Last month, I opened up The Urban Muse to some guest bloggers so that I could keep the conversation going while I was on vacation. Brilliant plan, right? Well, as it turns out, hosting guest bloggers was nearly as much work as writing the posts myself. Over the course of the month, I exchanged dozens of emails with readers about finding the right topic, setting deadlines, adding links, editing their posts, etc.
Not that I’m complaining. It was something I didn’t anticipate, but it worked out really well in the end because it gave me a taste of being an editor and feeling accountable to my contributors. At first, I tried to keep all the information in my head, but the need for a formalized schedule became apparent when I assigned two people to the same topic and forgot to publish a post (which is very much out of character for me, but hey, I was on vacation part of the time). It all worked out, because the two writers brought very different insights to their topic. And since people were writing these for fun, no one got too impatient with my sometimes sluggish response times or my general forgetfulness (which I blame on all those Mai Tais consumed in Hawaii).
If anyone emailed me a guest blog post and I somehow forgot to publish it, please let me know so that I rectify the situation. Thank you to all my talented and patient guest bloggers last month!
I found the same thing when I had guest bloggers. I would still do it again though. It was fun introducing them. It made the blogging world feel more like a community, introducing people, getting ready to have visitors come to your site as a result of your guest post. It was an interesting experience.
Patricia
http://secretaryhelpline.blogspot.com/
Hi Patricia,
Building community is a big part of why I did it. Also to help other bloggers build some reciprocal links. I actually didn’t expect to get as many responses as I did, so that was pleasant surprise!
Susan
Does this mean you can write off your entire vacation on your taxes as job training???
Thanks for all your effort…I loved being part of your guest roster
I appreciate all the work you put into organizing the guest posts, especially while on vacation! Thanks for the opportunity Susan, it was a lot of fun!
Amanda and Nicole, thanks for contributing and I’m glad you enjoyed it!