In one scenario, you write a great blog post and post it on your own website.
In a second scenario, you submit that post to someone else’s site as a guest post.
Which is the better approach?
In the first case you build your own site and in the second you help build someone else’s.
Should You Guest Blog at All?
Keeping your posts on your own site builds your brand as your blog receives traffic, leads and sales.
In this post, AJ Kohn suggests brand building is better than guest blogging. He says he doesn’t guest blog because there’s too much friction getting traffic and subscribers from the host blog back to you.
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He also says it’s basically like giving away a gift of your time, effort and intellectual property. Readers will associate your post with the host blog and link and subscribe to the host blog rather than yours.
Should Guest Blogging be a Temporary Strategy?
In this post on SEOmoz, it’s suggested that guest posts have become the industry approach for getting links post-Penguin. Although guest posts may supplement a fully-formed strategy, the article’s author expects “diminishing returns at best”.
The Merits of Guest Blogging
To be fair, even if guest blogs offer diminishing returns in the long run they can offer increased rankings now. In addition, guest blogs offer:
- An new audience of readers
- New Comments
- Blog growth
- Career growth
- Name recognition
- Connection with the host blogger
- A link back to your site in the copy or bio section
Perhaps small business owners should guest blog on high quality sites about once a month and blog at least weekly on their own sites. What do you think?
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