Thursday, April 20th, 2006
at 12:13am
Om, this sentiment is going around. I posted on it yesterday, but seems to be worth mentioning again.
As Boris suggests, *link* to the different voices. Having someone else write on your blog really violates the premise that your subscribers subscribed under.
Subscribers generally subscribe to read *your* voice. They did not subscribe to read the voices of others ... perhaps your opinion on the voices of others, but once the line is crossed into an actual full guest post, you're now sending subscribers something they didn't sign up for.
I'll stick my neck out here a bit: Guest blogging is a new form of spam.
Crazy, you say?
Not really. A base definition of spam is "unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic messages," after all. A full discourse on what spam is covers a lot of ground (and I realize that the definition of spam is a hotly debated topic) ... but the general gist is that spam is something I don't want that I'm getting anyway. Doesn't have to be commercial -- it just has to be an unsolicited message distributed in a bulk fashion.
In other words: a guest blog post.
Sorry guys, it is what it is.
Monday, April 17th, 2006
at 9:36am
Is it me, or is the trend toward "Guest Blogging" about the most obnoxious thing to emerge from the blogosphere yet?
If you've got something to say, say it. If you don't have anything to say, say nothing for awhile. It's okay, your Constant Readers probably won't unsubscribe unless you go completely silent for a couple of months. We all have busy times, or periods where we just need to take a break from blogging.
To those who think Guest Blogging is a great idea, please consider just posting some links to the potential guest's blog. If I think what he or she has to say there is worthwhile, I'll subscribe to it. Just don't assume that because I subscribed to your blog that I want to get posts from someone else.
To those who have been Guest Bloggers -- what benefit did you see from doing it? Any increase in readership? Any backlash?
I just don't see the point. More specifically, I don't see the benefit to the readers. The Guest Blogger concept seems invasive to the reader, as if the "opt-in" inherent in subscribing to a particular feed populated by one author has been violated by inviting another author to post without the reader's consent.
Is this trend just a result of boredom by bloggers who've been at it for a long time? Or is there something else I'm missing?
Updated: I'm not the only one getting annoyed by this.
