Guest Blogging is Dead and I Killed It

Guest post by Dino Dogan, Founder of blogging platform Triberr.

That’s right. It’s dead. Like road kill. Put out to pasture. Extinct. Turned into nothingness. But why?

One of the things we do at Triberr is look at successful blogs to figure out what is it that makes them successful? What is it that they have that small(er) blogs do not? What leverage are they using to get the eyeballs?

And then we build tools to make that same leverage available to the rest of us.

Posting Frequency

The obvious thing that big blogs have is the frequency of publication. Popular blogs publish at least once a day, and very popular blogs publish 10-20 times a day. Coincidence? Hardly.

While the advantage of posting frequently is obvious, it’s been VERY difficult to replicate for a small blogger pressed for time and resources.

And since publishing frequently is key to popularity, it’s no wonder that the myth of guest blogging as some viable method of gaining Attention has been popularized by those “in the know”. It serves their purpose.

Big blogs need new content. They need new blood to keep pumping that content, otherwise their big blogs will go extinct. In return, they promise traffic back to your blog and few backlinks.

Baby in Bath Water

But let’s not throw baby out with bath water. Guest blogging can work for some people some of the time. For example.

• If you are writing about a topic that doesn’t fit your blog. Might as well publish it someplace else.
• If you’re doing it just for the fun of it.
• If you turn yourself into a human article spinner and publish essentially the same article on bunch of blogs and change the wording slightly, or approach the same topic from a slightly different angle.

The last bullet is the best way to get traffic and backlinks, but it’s the least interesting.

Even then, it’s still slave labor to churn out guest post after guest post in hopes that you will:

• Get the Attention you truly deserve
• That your guest post will generate interest which will -fingers crossed- generate traffic for your blog
• That your guest post (which includes few backlinks) will somehow -by osmosis- improve your standing with Google.

What Guest Blogging is NOT

Let me be clear. If you can post on a HUGE blog and reuse the same post for your own blog, then there really is no downside.

I was talking to a friend -and mentor- Mitch Joel, and he told me he “guest posts” on Huffington Post. Then he publishes that same “guest post” on his blog almost immediately. Well, no shit, Sherlock. That’s a no brainer.

HuffPost is a huge blog. It gives you huge exposure. It gives you huge bragging rights. And since Mitch is publishing the same post on his blog immediately thereafter, there’s no loss of effort. So…there really is no downside for Mitch.

Sidenote: Of course, in this scenario Mitch has 2 sets of comments for the same post, and he’s expected to engage on both HuffPost and on his own blog. That’s a bit of a pain. If only there was a way of “joining” the two comment systems. Read on.

But Mitch is Mr. Six Pixels. Huffington Post is not available to the rest of us mere mortals. Our options for getting out guest post out there are A LOT slimmer. And largely not worth the effort.

Besides, what Mitch is doing is not really guest posting anyways. He publishes that same “guest post” on his blog. So, it’s syndication. And THAT is what the rest of us should be doing.

Elephunk 

D’you now what the really big, stinky elephant in the room is?

If you get yourself published on a big blog, most readers will assume that’s your best work -and it should be- so why should they go to your blog to read your “worst” work?

Very small % of readers, and after a sustained effort, over many posts, will actually become disloyal to the big blog and move over to yours. “Leaving” the big blog to go read guest author’s blog feels like a small act of betrayal to most casual readers.

The Rise of the Syndicated Blogger

Traffic is NOT the holy grail of blogging.

That’s right. I said it. Traffic is not only the wrong thing to focus on, but it’s a BAD thing to focus on.

Traffic is only important because it brings Attention to your content. If you could have Attention without traffic, would you take it? I know I would.

Not only is traffic irrelevant, but it’s detrimental. Do you know what would happen if all of a sudden your content went viral?

1. Your blog would crash.
2. You’d upgrade your servers to accomodate newly found traffic, only to find yourself overpaying when the viral-effect wears off.
3. And the new influx of users probably wouldn’t convert into “regulars” either.

So spare me.

What you want is to have your content appear EVERYWHERE. That’s what Oprah does, and it works pretty well for her.

Oprah doesn’t care what local TV station her show appears on. She cares that you see her content. By the same token, I don’t care what blog my content appears on. So long more eyeballs get to SEE my content.

Unifying Comment System

The problem with having your post appear on, say 10 different blogs, is the engagement piece.

I know what you’re thinking. “Ya, ok, Dino. Like I’m gonna keep track of comments across 10 blogs”. 

Well, that USED to be the case, but not any more.

With Triberr Unifying Comment System, every single comment will be replicated to every instance of your post.

Yes, you’ve read that correctly. This is entirely new, different, and unique. And no. No other comment system does this. I know, I know. Magic.

Here, see for yourself.

I have a post about How To Build a Community of Fanatics. Leave a comment on that post, then go to a ReBlogged version of that same post on Dan’s blog.

What you will see is the exact, mirrored, identical comments section, with your latest comment included.

Dan ReBlogged it to his blog with a single click using Triberr WordPress plugin. Learn more about ReBlog and Triberr Unifying Comment System here.

I Got ReBlogged

For all I know, you might be reading this post on someone else’s blog right now. In fact, I hope you are.

If you’re reading this post somewhere other than DIYBloggerNET, I sincerely hope you’ll let me know in the comments section.

• Do I care that another blog gots the traffic? Nope. My author box is underneath this post, so if you want to know who wrote this, the info is right there.
• What about the loss of engagement? Well, comments will be mirrored on both blogs, so there will be ZERO loss of engagement.
• Do I lose RSS/Email subscribers? Not really.

On one hand, you probably never would have seen this content if it wasn’t ReBlogged, and if you liked it, it’s easy enough to make your way over to author’s blog and sign up for future deliveries.

Besides. Could these be some future updates I’m talking about here? I think so, I think so

Imagine having your one post ReBlogged 10 times and having your Email/RSS subscriber box available in ALL 10 instances of your post? How much more milage would you get out of each post?  The answer is, a lot.

What Does It All Mean?

For a Syndicated Blogger, it means that you get to publish your content on your own blog, not somebody else’s. That post then gets ReBlogged on other “channels”. All the while, Triberr is mirroring all the comments between all instances of the ReBlogged post.

• Having your post on other blogs means increased exposure + Attention for you.
• If your content is enchanting enough it may actually lead to visits to your blog.
• The important piece is ZERO loss of engagement. All comments are visible everywhere. And you can respond to all comments from anywhere.
• Your content will not be dwarfed by the overbearing power of a well branded big blog.
• You can even manage all your comments from within your Tribal Stream.

You no longer have to write guest posts. You simply focus on writing quality content that people in your Tribal Network will be happy to ReBlog.

And if you include 2-3 links to your older content, and your post is ReBlogged say 10 times, that’s 20-30 backlinks. Now, that’s how you improve your standing with Google.

ReBloggers Tribe

I’m building my ReBloggers tribe right now. If you write quality content about Social Media, blogging, marketing, or similar, apply here.

Q & A

Q. Is duplicate content an issue?

A. No. Duped content WAS an issue many years ago. But google has since figured out to add a freshness stamp to their crawled content. Older version get higher ranking (all things being equal).

Duplicate content IS still an issue when it’s found on the same blog. Which is why many confuse the two.

We also plan on adding Point of Origin tag to each post, thereby boosting the google juice for the author.

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Q. Can I opt out of ReBlog?

A. Yes. Whenever you publish a new post you will be asked if you’d like to make it available for ReBlog.

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Q. Can I have multiple comment systems on my blog?

A. Yes. You can see what that looks like here.

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Q. Where are the comments stored?

A. On Triberr. We wanted to integrate Triberr comments into WordPress comment system but encountered two issues with it:

1. Replication infrastructure necessary is more than we can afford at the moment;
2. And, people like using different comment systems.

Some bloggers use LiveFyre, some use DisqUs, some use Intense Debate. Creating a mirrored comment system that works with all of those would be impossible for us at this time.

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Q. Will I forfeit the comments if I decide to not use the plugin anymore?

A. We are building a feature that allows you to export/import your comments into a XML file. It’s not ready yet.

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Q. Will I lose google juice?

A. No. in fact you’ll make out like a bandit by getting a ton of backlinks to your blog due to ReBlog.

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Q. How will a ReBlog give me backlinks?

A. It is common practice to link a new post to your 2 or 3 older posts. This helps your readers find older content, AND if someone ReBlogs your post, you get a backlink for those older posts.

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Q. What about spam comments?

A. All commenters must authenticate, and all hyperlinks inside the comment system are inactive.

Having to authenticate fosters community participation and inactive hyperlinks make Triberr comment system useless to spammers.

Final Word

Is yours.