May 21 is Blogathon Guest Post Day

We’re a dozen days into the communal blogging experiment known as the 2nd Annual WordCount Blogathon and so far the reactions of the participating writers are all over the place.

Some are enjoying it, and others finding it harder than they thought it would be. Some are getting creative – Sue Dickman devoted last Saturday’s blog post to making Wordle images from keywords on her blog, A Life Divided. Others have come up with clever ideas for standing features, like the Molecule of the Week feature Sarah Webb started for her blog, Webb of Science.

Since this is a self-directed experiment, all experiences are OK since they lead to better blogging skills and insights, which is the point of blogging on a regular basis anyway.

To keep things interesting, I’m declaring May 21 to be the official Blogathon Guest Post Day. Blogathon writers are invited to ask another freelancer to write that day’s blog post. Likewise, blogathoners should write a guest post on someone else’s blog. Depending on how you want to work it, you could swap posts with the same person, or trade posts within a larger group. I’ll also leave it up to you whether you trade guest posts with blogathon writers. Just have fun.

If you’re up for the challenge, make sure to extend an invitation to a prospective guest blogger early enough to give yourselves time to discuss what they’re going to write.

A few guest post housekeeping things to think about:

• If your guest blogger has a head shot or other picture of themselves in digital form, ask for a copy so you can run it with their guest post.
• Ask your guest blogger to write a short bio, or write one for them, to run with the post. Include links they might want  to their own website, blog or Twitter ID.
• If you’re writing a guest post somewhere else, write a short post on your own blog so your regular readers know where to find you. Blogs like WordPress let you create a sticky post to put at the top of your regular blog posts. Or you can create a small text box and run the information at the top of your blog’s left- or right-hand sidebar.
• As an example of what a guest post looks like, here’s a post I did earlier this week on the American Society of Business Publication Editors national blog.

Mark your calendars for May 21, and happy blogging.