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jamesray50
05-12-2012, 06:48 PM
Hi everyone,

I am not much of a writer and spend a lot of time researching and testing whatever I am writing about. So, I don't write a blog very often. I want to use some guest bloggers but am unsure how to do this with WordPress. Do I have them send me a word document and then copy and paste it into a post? How will they reply to comments? How will they get access to reply to comments? How will they know they have a comment?

Thanks in advance.

vangogh
05-14-2012, 10:49 AM
You can have people send you documents that you copy and paste. You can also set people up to be able to login and post on their own. When you create a new user you can set that person to have different roles and privileges on your site. Some of the roles are contributor, author, and editor. Here's something from WordPress that shows the default user roles (http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities) and what each is capable of doing. You could set someone as an author and they'd be allowed to publish their own posts, though they wouldn't be able to do anything to another person's posts.

Whether the person has an account or not they can still reply to comments. They usually know about them by checking the post. I find some guest authors will be very good about replying to comments and others never do. It depends on the person more than anything else.

KristineS
05-14-2012, 01:00 PM
You can do anything from having them send you a Word doc to setting up user privileges as Vangogh suggests. I've guest blogged before and used both those methods. It's really up to the comfort level of whomever owns the blog. Some people aren't comfortable allowing others to have access to the backend of their blogs, so it's really up to you.

As for replying to comments, Vangogh is right. Some guest bloggers will be diligent and others won't. That's just kind of how it works. You can always send an e-mail when a new comment comes in on a guest post, but some authors just don't reply to comments.

The main thing to be sure about is that you're getting good, knowledgeable writers to guest post. Make sure their content and reputation make it worth giving them space on your blog.

vangogh
05-14-2012, 10:56 PM
The main thing to be sure about is that you're getting good, knowledgeable writers to guest post.

Yep. That's really the most important thing. I've had people write some great guest posts for me and I've had people write some really awful content too. I don't publish the latter.

AccountantSalary
05-26-2012, 08:39 AM
I'm with VanGogh: until you get familiar with the writers and trust them, have them send you the copy first, so you can make sure it meets your standards. You can then decide whether to publish the good or reject the bad.

vangogh
05-29-2012, 12:26 AM
Yep. When people ask if they can send me a guest post I always say they can, but that I won't guarantee publishing anything until I've seen the post. I then provide some general requirements for what I will and won't approve.

ReganP
05-29-2012, 12:24 PM
Generally bloggers want either a completed article or at least a topic proposal when you contact them about a post. It might help to make a page on your blog with guest post guidelines. You can put instructions for how to contact you and how to format the article as well as topics you will accept posts on, commenting requirements, word limits, etc. Plus if you call the page or post "submit a guest post" or "write for us" or something like that, guest bloggers will find you on their own because they will search your niche and one of those phrases, ex: home renovations "submit a guest post"

vangogh
05-29-2012, 04:54 PM
It might help to make a page on your blog with guest post guidelines.

As someone who has also written guest posts for others I do find this helpful. Some sites will even offer a few potential topics you can write about. Many will also include some kind of submission form to fill out. None of it is meant as a guarantee you'll get published, but it does make the process of writing and submitting easier.


guest bloggers will find you on their own because they will search your niche

Even if you don't call the page "write for us" or "submit a guest post" or similar, they'll find you once you start publishing guest posts. I started getting contacted more once I published a few posts. Some people will search for an author's name they know write a lot of guest posts and others will look for the typical bio information author's use.