Badi started a thread at SEO Refugee inquiring about guest bloggers. Then eKstreme pitched a fit because he was about to do the same thing and Badi beat him to the punch. :-)

Guest blogging is a great way to expose your message to a new audience. You can also pick up backlinks to your site. Depending on what blogs you post at this can be pretty powerful.

The advantage for the blog owner is they get some content and get to mix things up a bit for their viewers.

Guest blogging isn’t very different than writing a guest article for another site and both practices are recommended for generating free backlinks. Some things to keep in mind when writing for someone else:

• It’s not your site. Be respectful of the blog owner and their viewers. Treat them kindly.
• You are doing someone a favor but they are also giving you an opportunity so don’t get big-headed about it. It is a fair trade.
• This is most likely your first impression to the viewers of this site. Give them your “A” game not a fluff piece or something old.
• Both sides should be open to suggestion. The site owner may gleam some improvements by having someone else use their system. The guest writer needs to respect the site owners policies.
• As a guest writer you will likely point links back to your site. Make sure they make sense and aren’t “forced”. Link stuffing is obvious to the viewers and discredits all the good content you included.
• Be clear about the policies and expectations before moving forward.

Guest blogging is fun! I have blogged at SEO Refugee and Scout has enjoyed posts from Solas Web Design’s Mirriam and Improve the Web’s Yuri both of whom offered great advice that is line with the 14th Colony mission of creating a better world through effective marketing.

I hope to contribute to both eKstreme.com and seologs.com both of which are excellent sites. And both offer some really great SEO tools that I actually use.

14th Colony Scout is always open to guest bloggers. The guidelines are pretty easy-going. Write pretty much whatever you want provided it has to do with marketing. Online marketing and promotion (web design, development, SEO, PPC, etc.) is better. If I see something that will make your writing better (or better for here) I will let you know. External links need to open in a new window because despite common consensus, 14th Colony readers actually lobbied for this and I will listen to them every time. And if you are linking to a “questionable” website, nofollow that sucker. ;-)

If you are interested in having me guest-write for you, just contact me. Or if you are interested in filling some space here, just let me know.

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