You hit the nail on the head Steve!

Thanks for your comments Bradlee.

First of all, as I think the article makes clear, whenever you publish your reputation is on the line so controlling the quality of your content is crucial, no matter how you choose to source it. Personally I think your suggestion that you are looking at between $400 and $800 for a good quality 400 word blog post is wide of the mark. If that were the going rate there wouldn’t be any professional wordsmiths still in business.

As for guest bloggers, the fact is that there are lots of talented writers out there trying to make a name for themselves who are quite happy to offer their services for free. Should you depend on them for your content? No. Should you outsource the job of content creation wholesale (whether to a freelance writer or your own readers)? No. And should you compromise your editorial standards just to save time or money? Emphatically no!

But in my book that doesn’t rule out employing any or all of the above strategies. In fact I’d go further than that and assert that increasing the depth of expertise you can offer and adding greater variety and interest through the introduction of other voices and community content is a very effective strategy for enhancing the quality and reputation of your blog.

Anyone else here tried it and got some useful tips to share?

There are a couple of ways to find people who would be willing to write guest posts. The first is to have an open invitation on your blog. Make sure you are clear about the type of content you want and set out your editorial guidelines (e.g. length of article, must be original content etc.)

The second way is to keep a look out for people who leaving thoughtful comments on other people’s posts or are guest blogging for other sites on topics that are likely to be of interest to your readers. If you come across someone who fits the profile of your ideal guest blogger just contact them and issue a personal invitation. Lots of people would love to guest blog but have never been asked so I’m sure you will get a positive response.

I haven’t really had a guest post nor have I written one myself. I wonder how one gets a candidate for guest posts.

I very much like the idea of crowdsourcing. Readers can really provide some good and engaging content.