Criteria To Choose a Publishing Blog
Ok, you have written this awesome, spectacular post and you have resisted the urge to post it on your own blog and you've decided it would make sense to find a home for it on a publishing blog with a lot more traffic than your own. How do you decide where to publish it? It would be great if Darren Rowse, of ProBlogger.net were knocking at your door for the next masterpiece of writing, or Pete Cashmore of Mashable.com called you up, personally, and said he cleared his schedule, in anticipation of the next article that exudes from your great wisdom. Yeah, ok, we can dream, right?
So, where do you start? The key is to do just that… start! You have to start somewhere and it is ok if your first, or twenty-first guest blog post is not published on Mashable.com. There are a lot of great blogs out there, just waiting to hear from you and awaiting the beginnings of, hopefully, a wonderful working relationship and friendship in the future.
The first thing is to start, but you also need to have an idea of what to look for in a blog. If you have very specific ideas of what you are looking for, and a long list, in particular, it is unlikely that you will find that blog that fits your entire list to a “T.” However, if you write out your list and determine, say the top three items, you can help yourself in making a determination of which blogs to contact when pitching your article, and which offers to accept from which blogs.
Here is a list of some of the things you may want to consider. It is not an exhaustive list, necessarily, but my hope is that it will get those creative juices flowing and you can add to the list, according to what is important to you.
1. Design: Look and Feel
Appearance
Is the visual appearance of the site important to you? If it is important, what type of visual appearance are you looking for on the site? Are you looking for fun? Business structure? Structured layout? This one is a very easy one to check, by simply visiting the site and getting a “feel” for the design.
Content
While the visual appearance of the site is very quick and easy to check, the content may take a little while longer. This may not matter to you either, but it may be something you want to check to ensure that you are not conflicting or contradictory with the content of the site, and that there is not any content that you find “offensive” or detracting from the content of your guest post.
Is your content a good fit for the publisher blog and is the publisher blog a good fit for your content?
Mission statement
Going a step further than the content of the site, if you are particular about the ethics of your content and how it fits with the blog, you may want to check to see if they have a mission statement, or read their about page. For example, if you are a vegetarian and the site promotes hunting, you may have an issue, and it would be best to find that out BEFORE you enter into a discussion without having all the facts.
Load Time and Performance
Loosely related to the above topics would be considerations such as load time and performance of the web site. Granted, this is probably not the first thing to come to mind when evaluating a potential publisher web site, but, if it takes five minutes to load the home page, it is very likely that readers will not wait for your article to load and no one will read your guest post. However, keep in mind that there are momentary issues, and the issue may even be with your internet service provider at that moment, so do check back later if you notice that the publisher blog is having performance issues, to be sure that it is a continuing or consistent issue.
Here is a link you can use to check load time of the publisher blog (or your own!):
Load Time
2. Credibility: Relationship and Professionalism
Reputation
What is the reputation of the blogger and the blog? Have you heard some negative things about either? And, before you run off making a judgement call only on what you have “heard,” have you verified for yourself (assuming that this is an important criterion to you).
One way to get an idea about the reputation of the blogger and blog is to interact with him or her (or them) directly. BlogEngage.com is a great way to interact with other bloggers and get to know them, read comments that they make on other stories, follow links to their blogs and blog comments, etc. Also, another idea is to get involved in a Facebook group and interact with other bloggers there. You should be able to get a “feel” for reputation by using one of these methods.
Quality of Website
This relates more to professionalism of the site than content. If you visit the blog and there are broken links and missing images all over the site and it looks like a ghost town, it may be that the blog is not maintained. This may not be a direct correlation to professionalism, necessarily, but certainly if the blog looks like it has been abandoned, it probably isn't going to get the exposure that you desire.
Domain
Is it important to you that the blog have its own domain? Pretty easy to check this out, with a quick visit to the site and checking the address bar. Keep in mind, there may be some awesome blogs that are on platforms such as Blogger, but you should decide whether having their own domain is a requirement or not, for you.
Up and Coming
It may be that the blog has a low PR (discussed below), but it is an “up and coming” blog. Similar to real estate speculation, you may want to consider guest blogging on say, a web site that will be featured on a television talk show in the coming weeks, ascertaining that it may get a lot of hits with the new found publicity. In this case, you have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. This is not as easy to ascertain from a quick visit to the web site, but something to keep in mind if you are feeling psychic and can predict that this is the next best thing since the invention of sliced bread.
Future Potential
Based on your interaction with the blog owner and the community of bloggers on the site, does this seem like a “good fit” for the long haul? Possibly this is a site that you could visualize yourself partnering with in the future. You may want to give bonus points to the blog, if that is the case.
3. Practices: Culture and Procedures
Frequency of Posting
How frequently does the publishing blog have new articles. Does it look like a regular schedule? Is the regularity of the schedule important to you? If they haven't had a new blog post in a couple of years, possibly this is not the blog for you, as it may not have enough exposure.
Social Media Practices
Is the blog well integrated with social media sites? Do they understand the difference between “connect” (i.e. buttons at the top of the site, bottom of the side, side column), and “share” (i.e. buttons near the post)? Do all of the buttons work and behave as expected? Does the Twitter link show “via @sharethis” instead of “via @publishingBlogNameHere” (demonstrating a need to configure their share buttons). Does it look like they passed “Social Media 101” and it is important to them? Possibly social media isn't important to you and you can pass on this one, but if it is important, you may want to take note of how well integrated and easy-to-use the site is, as well as number of shares on the social media counts. This topic could be another article, in itself, but this should get you going.
Commenting Practices
How many comments are on the site and do the authors tend to respond to the commenters? Are the comments a value-add (demonstrating thoughtful commenters) or do they look like spammy comments where the spammers didn't take the time to read the article or interact? Also, does the publishing blog require you to respond to comments? If so, are you ready to commit to doing so?
Does the web site require a login for commenting? Do you feel that this limits the number of potential comments on your article? Keep in mind that if it is an extremely popular blog, chances are that the “regulars” are already registered and those who are not registered won't mind doing so, for the sake of the popular blog.
4. Influence: Ranking and Stats
Many times this is the most important aspect in deciding on a blog, and sometimes the only thing that guest bloggers look at, when deciding.
Google Pagerank
For some time, Google Pagerank has been the guiding light on determining whether the blog is a good investment for advertising dollars and subscriptions, as well as worthiness for guest blogs. Google has had updates (i.e. panda, penguin) which have affected some blogger's pageranks in ways that may or may not accurately represent the value of the web site. So, use Google Pagerank with care, evaluating how important this criterion is for your overall evaluation of the publishing blog. You can click on the image, above, to check pagerank now.
Site Evaluation
There are various tools available to check out the stats and ranking of a web site, and, similar to the social media topic, above, this could be another article. Here is a free online tool that I found recently, that you could use as an evaluation of the publisher blog: Website Evaluation.
Klout
Another tool that is useful is to check the Klout rating of the blogger. Klout factors in influence across several social media sites (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.). While it should not be the only factor, it may be interesting to check the Klout score. If you know the Twitter link, an easy way to find the Klout score is to replace “twitter” with “klout” in the address bar. Also, if you use a tool such as HootSuite, you can click on the profile and view the Klout score within the HootSuite dashboard.
Google Page Rank Trend
Is the Google PR going up or down, in particular, at a rapid pace? For example, was the blog a PR7 and dropped to a PR2 over time? Now, keep in mind, especially with recent Google updates, that there may be an explanation for this, so don't cross the blog off the list just because you noticed a drop. First, determine if this is important to you. Second, if it is important (the change in PR), ascertain, to the best of your research skills, WHY the change in PR and then re-assess the level of importance to you.
5. Reciprocation: Authorship and Attention
Google Authorship
When you search for an article, many times there is an avatar that shows up in the searches, called Google Authorship. Is this important to you? In other words, in many cases, because of how the blog is set up, the avatar will be the owner of the blog and not the author of the blog post (or no image at all). Whether this is important to you or not, you need to be aware of it, and if it is important, seek out a blog with the technology in place to insert YOUR avatar into that spot. The technology to do this is dependent on your Google+ profile, so you will need to find a blogger who has their end set up and you need to be ready to take steps to get your profile set up (if it isn't already). My experience is that it is common (and easier) to have the blog owner avatar, so you may want to put this item lower down in your list, if you are interested in having a larger selection of blogs to choose from and who will choose you.
That said, an example of a blog that does honor the Google Authorship and has the ability to show YOUR avatar is Ms. Ileane's Basic Blog Tips. Let me demonstrate.
At the top of this section, you will see a snapshot of the Google search engine results for one of my articles. It shows the link to socialwebcafe.com and the avatar is my avatar. Now, take a look at the image, below. This is an article Jeevan Jacob John on Ms. Ileane's Basic Blog Tips. Do you see the avatar? It is Jeevan Jacob John's avatar and not Ms. Ileane's or the icon for BasicBlogTips. This is an example of where Ms. Ileane has “gone the extra mile” to ensure her guest authors get the exposure when they guest blog on her blog.
Bio Placement
Another concern is the bio placement. Now, I have seen some articles where the author does not seem to be that interested in exposure for themselves, as authors, but rather links to their employer or brand, etc. In that case, maybe the preferred position for the bio (if there is a bio), is at the bottom of the post. However, if you are the type of author who likes exposure and branding and you want people to view you as a subject matter expert or guru and recognize you (branding), you may love it if the bio is at the top of the post. And, here is an example from Ms. Ileane, in this case showing her bio, but representative of how she highlights the guest author at the top of the post. Notice that the bio is right below the title of the post, shown in the image below:
Bio Format
I saw a web site, recently, and I won't list the site because I don't want to draw attention to it, but the bio was so tiny (4 pt font?), that I had to zoom in to read it. If it important to you that you be “seen” check on these details, as well as how the post is coded (the blog owner or “Guest Author”) and whether the blog offers the ability to have a gravatar, social links, etc. in the bio. This, too, could be another article!
Your thoughts about finding a publishing blog
So, there you have it. A list of criteria that you may want to consider (or not consider) when choosing your next publishing blog (or accepting a guest post opportunity). Over to you, let's here your thoughts on the topic?
Very comprehensive post! Not sure what to add here:-) Ok, a couple of comments: When you have a top notch blog post, you should also try to find a good quality picture. Lots of blogger re-use images from for instance googles image search but there are other options out there, some of them are also affordable. In addition i would make a youtube video out of my post and post it on youtube with a backlink to the original post. Google picks up these youtube links really fast.
Excellent ideas, Rick.. Love that YouTube idea 😉 In this article, I did re-use some licensed images, but made a collage out of them, another idea for images. But, then again I am Photoshop geek, so any opportunity to “play” and I’m there 😉
I’m very pleased to find this great post. I need to thank you for ones time for this fantastic read!! I definitely savored every part of it and i also have you saved to fav to check out new things in your blog.
Thanks, Hafeez. Glad you enjoyed it. There is so much that could be added, but then it would be a book 🙂
Great stuff here. I have been checking page ranking and learned that using the LinkedIn share button on diggdigg was making it slower. Got rid of it and the speed increased, thanks! I haven’t given much though to the bio author box but it is on my to-do list. Sometimes the page rank can be low because it’s a new site, I don’t always give that a huge weight, unless I know the site is old and the pagerank is still only has a 1. How about Alexa too? Do you check that one as well?
Hi Lisa,
Great points. And, yes, Alexa is a valuable tool. It seems like each one of the list items could be another article in themselves. There are so many stats and ranking tools.
Re your LinkedIn and slowness.. I like to use WP Socializer and whenever I notice a network that is slow/down, I disable the sharing for a bit until the slowness goes away. It beats having a site that isn’t loading because of another site (i.e. Facebook, Google, LinkedIn). Of course, that only really works if I am right there when it happens! LOL
Awesome guide really! I think these are enough things to be considered whenever I decided to start any publishing blog.
Thanks for sharing it Deborah
Thanks, Ehsan. I’m glad you found it helpful. When you do look for that publishing blog or accepting an offer, let us know if you find anything to add to the list 😉
Hi Debra,
You’ve probably covered all the vital points in this post.I think we all need to check what values the site stands for before publishing our posts there.
I really enjoyed how you covered the aspect of site evaluation.I think that’s the most important factor.
Hi Norbert,
Thanks 🙂 Glad you liked that part. I wondered if that is a lesser concern for some, but thought it should be noted. I like how you mentioned, “values.” I find that important, as it does, ultimately, feed into our credibility (or lack of credibility).
-Deborah
Brilliant guide to creating and publish a blog. Domain names and feel of the website makes a lot of difference. When one lands on a site, they must know what the site is all about. For repeat readers, quality content published periodically is important.
Good points, Shalu. I’ve had some sites that I’ve landed on that I am so confused. They layout has my head spinning. I really appreciate a site that is “easy to figure out” and navigate. Certainly they don’t need to be cookie cutter (and shouldn’t!), but have some usability. -Deborah
A complete guide of Publishing, you should be make it EBook !
Great idea, Shahid! Actually I thought of that, especially once it passed the 2500 mark, as there is still so much to include, that I did not, for brevity. Yeah, brevity, right? LOL -Deborah
Hi Deb thanks so much for adding blog engage into your post I love ya! Design is one of the most important aspect to blogging, we must take a little money and invest on how we look and how we present our selves online.
Brian,
Our blogs are a reflection on us personally, so why not invest in looking good.
Nice point.
Love ya, too, Brian! I must, since I notice, in my list of recent posts that there is a lot of BlogEngage showing up in the CommentLuv list 😉
Easy to mention BlogEngage since it really is a great way to meet other bloggers, get connected, and stay connected. Thanks for offering the service.
Hi Deborah,
I advocate that where ever you choose to submit your “AMAZING” articles too, has a banging look and feel to the place, mission plan helps, not forgetting an audience to engage with.
Simmeon, You brought out great points, like three of them! I like your use of the phrase, “banging look and feel,” but your point about audience to engage with is excellent. That is one aspect that Ms. Ileane has going here on basicblogtips.com 🙂
The four most important point that i feel are Reputation, quality of the website, Pagerank and how much your content is related to that site niche. Pagerank, reputation and quality are highly related to each other. I mean a site having High page rank mostly follow quality and if you follow quality, reputation will follow. Niche of a blog also have plays part in building reputation.
Hi Rehan, True, Page Rank is important. However, I also know of some very popular bloggers who may have had some page rank changes. They have excellent following and have a great reputation, but their page rank doesn’t necessarily reflect that. As a general rule, for an unknown, page rank is one way to check, but I think it helps if we think outside the box, as well, realizing that page rank isn’t the only test for reputation.
Definitely, we both know about Google zoo updates and some genuine sites had faces negative impact because of that but if someone is writing something worth reading then he should go for high page rank to get more benefit in ranking keeping in mind the quality, reputation and all the things you have said . As I said before these things are highly related to each other like if you are writing something about blogging then it don’t make sense to publish it on hardcore Technology related blog even it is high PR site.
Love the phrase, “zoo updates.” Reminds me of Apple’s “cats.” Understandably, credibility, reputation, and pagerank work hand-in-hand.
Awesome guide really! I think these are enough things to be considered whenever I decided to start any publishing blog. I really enjoyed how you covered the aspect of site evaluation. I think that’s the most important factor.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Ajnabii. I had thought that site evaluation was something that was missed, but it is good to know it is important to other bloggers, as well.
Hello Deborah. Coming fro a background of publishing and my first blog being a publishing blog, I was confused looking at the title. Wouldn’t a more appropriate title have been ‘How to find a publishing blog to guest post on’ – or something likened to it?
But, if I wanted information on what criteria to look for to get a blog to guest post on that will give you maximum benefit, this is a post that over-delivers.
Ah, I see your point, Ivin. I think I was focusing on as short as possible. I can easily create headlines that should be posts themselves 🙂 Great feedback.
Very comprehensive post, Deborah. It reminded me to try fixing up again my authorship. Although I’ve followed the procedures, for some reason my avatar is not coming up when I try to check it in Google. Perhaps you can help me with this, or point me at the right direction.
Thank you, Adeline. Would love to help you out. Contact me through Twitter, here in comments, or my site any time.
Deborah,
So much for Not an Exhaustive List… This is a fantastic resource and there are so many components of a quality guest post site that most people wouldn’t think of, including myself.
I really like the bit about Bio Placement. I would never have thought to consider that.
Thank you!
Ryan H.
Made me giggle on the “so much for not an exhaustive list.” Thank you 🙂 I love Ms. Ileane’s blog (and Ms. Ileane) for many reasons, one of them is that she got that bio thing down! It is very rewarding for the guest blogger and I think (possibly), it inspires the blogger to submit a higher quality article here, than maybe somewhere where the bio is the 4pt font. So, it is a benefit for the publishing blog, as well, to reward their guest bloggers so well.
Thank you, Deborah. This post is definitely a keeper.
Thanks, Don. Appreciate the feedback 🙂
Thank you for the kind words, Don. I appreciate it 😉
Well done! You have covered all the main points of how to use your blog as a home base. Content must be good and an answer to people’s questions in your niche.
What I like the best is commenting. That is something I found that brought more people to my funnel than anything else.
A good comment on someone’s blog can get you more quality connections.
Also, we must have to be on all the social media platforms. I say focus on one or two and be on the rest, and visit it at least once a week.
I enjoyed this post,
Donna Merrill
Hi Donna,
Great advice on the commenting. It is a great way to build those relationships 🙂
-Deborah
Great detail post and great advice regarding publishing blog and I almost working in same manner almost as you described above and still learned few new things from the post. Thanks for great and worthy information 🙂
Thanks, Ayaz. Yep, have tried to remind myself that there is always something to glean from what people write… something I can learn. And, hopefully we can all share and give back 🙂
Hi Deborah,
What a great killer article, the problem that I always have is Google Authorship, I find really hard to display my blog author’s image to the search engine. Do you have any idea?
Thanks – Ferb
Hi Ferb,
Thank you 🙂 Great question. I have a tutorial on how to put your own Google Authorship in your blog/site. Will do one on the guest author to help out 😉
-Deborah
You have some good ideas for picking the right blog, but Page rank can be deceptive. Google takes their time updating the PR so a lot of blogs do not get recognition from Google until months later but their content can still be valuable. I personally have visited many no PR blogs undiscovered by Google in PR.
Hi Michael,
Thank you for stating that about PR. Yes, I agree fully with you that I have found some really valuable and helpful blogs that have lower PR.
-Deborah
Such a comprehensive article. From my point of view, we all have something to learn from your tips, not only the beginners. From my own experience, I consider that the technical background play a significant role on the success of any blog.
Hi Julian,
Thank you. So eloquently stated, as well. Yes, technical background is helpful 🙂
-Deborah
Deborah, this is such a wonderful post. I’m so glad that you’ve come up with this topic; most bloggers waste their time and energy in ending up guest posting on crappy blogs. No doubt guest blogging is an excellent way to gain exposure and various other benefits – but if it is not done properly, it all goes in vain.
Thanks for bringing this up and I like the point about bio placement.
Well put, Jane. I have had cases where I could have released an article, just to “get it published,” and then held off, and I’m glad I did. It is so much better to resist the urge to publish on “crappy blogs,” as you say, and sit on your hands, if you have to, waiting patiently for the “right” offer or acceptance on the “right” blog.
Hi Jatin,
I think, on the professionalism, it is a process and a good starting point is to read the articles on this blog. And, personally, I like to focus on relationships, more so than backlinking, Granted, I use CommentLuv Premium and take advantage of the opportunity to include the link in the comment, but I strive to ensure that the true purpose is engagement. That is just me. You may want to ask this question of a more “backlinking expert.”
-Deborah
Great guide! I really like this blog because it offers information that is useful, not just random articles! Thanks a lot and keep up the good work! Publishing a blog requires a careful choice and this guide is exactly what is needed!
Hey Deborah,
Thank you for this awesome guide. I have been looking for this one. Glad I found it finally. It’s being wise not to post your blog elsewhere and make precautions for it and knowing the page rank of the site.
-Drew
There is no doubt that there is great precision required for publishing the blog and your article will really help for maintaining that precision and there is no doubt in that.
I must say that you basically nailed down all the details to having a good website. Social Media had a big part too in changing the trend. Way back 2001, we didn’t have social media to boost online presence and visibility. Today, its just a push of a button and people will promote your website in an instant. This is also a fact that most “old school” web master are hesitant to adapt to this change and it is also though to convince them. This post will surely be a reference.
One of the best article that I’ve come across till date. It packs everything that a blogger or webmaster needs to know. Regarding Google Authorship, I don’t think it is making much impact in attracting visitors or creating trust among the readers, but still yes it is a good way to grab the attention in the search.
Hello Deborah
This is one of the article from which I learn most.All the tips you mention here are really awesome.I will go for applying them.Thanks for these nice tips.