We have had another great chat today! First, two major announcements:

1. We are introducing Guest Post Promotion Thursdays! Each last Thursday of the month we’ll feature best guest posts from MBG during our chats. This means: Next week we’ll discuss our users’ guest posts and help get exposure to them! You can apply for your guest post to be included (written or hosted) in HELP forum.
2. Our spring contest is ON! Create a Video Screencast (Tutorial) – Win $1000!

Now, to the main topic of the chat: self-linking! The full transcript can be found here.

Tips for Blog Owners

Read this post on how to treat self-links in your guest posts (scroll to POLICIES):

Here’s what I see many bloggers do (and try to implement as well) in terms of controlling what their guest bloggers link to:

*** Links to the author’s projects should be in the by-line. [This way it's clear these are author's links]

*** Linking from within the post content: As a rule, I ask my guest bloggers to refrain from linking to their properties in the post body unless:

• The link is tightly relevant (or the author can’t do without it): like links to the mentioned events, conferences, etc;
• The link does NOT point to the home page but to the relevant post or article (which elaborates further on the mentioned phenomenon or tactic). Links from content to content (NOT to landing or home pages), I believe, add quality to the guest post and let readers learn more about what has mentioned.

*** Number of links: the general rule of thumb (I myself try to follow) is to let guest authors limit external link to 2 in the by-line [excluding social media profiles like author's Twitter, G+ page, etc].

*** Anchor text: You may adopt Daniel’s rule and accept non-anchor text links in by-lines only. This way you will save the trouble explaining your guest author why his “loan consolidation” link is not appreciated on your blog. Or you may go less extreme and only remove keyword-based anchors from the non-relevant links (because those can really hurt your blog reputation.)

Tips for Guest Authors

We want our guest authors to be open and polite: because that’s how relations are built!

Also please read this one: focus on long-term assets instead of one quick link!

Those who think guest posting is done for link-building—and measure the guest posting campaign by the number of links—completely don’t get it. There’s so much more to it, which you’ll miss if you focus on links. In fact, I’ve been discouraging guest bloggers from thinking about links overall: just stop building links while guest blogging. Period. Focus on other benefits of guest blogging.

The most important benefit of guest blogging is building influence. It’s a long-term asset which is almost impossible to measure, but is absolutely priceless.

As well as this one:

Think about it: one guest post brings you one or two links (three if you are greedy), while good blogging contacts put your link building on auto-pilot. Bloggers start citing you, including in link round-ups, covering your news, helping you with getting the word out!

The rules:

• No more than 2 self-serving links pls, (again, not to count social media profile links);
• Links should be natural and relevant (if they seem forced, better go with brand name as the anchor text);
• We like BYLINE links because that’s universal (all blogs accept them unlike in-body links). Another reason: BYLINE links are public in the Gallery (so publishers see what they are offering for) #myblogguest
• Byline links should still be natural and useful (show the human being behind your content) #myblogguest

Consider claiming your authorship of the guest articles by linking to your G+ profiles (this will build your brand and secure from Google algorithm updates). Here are a few tips.

Quotes of the Day!

From our members:

• Be honest and courteous, and don’t spam, and you’ll hardly even know MBG rules exist (via @erocketSEO)
• As a blogger, I prefer ongoing relationships with handful of key people rather than shotgun blast. (via @MissionLaunch)
• Making bylines original/humorous/memorable will help readers remember you as an individual writer (via @MalpassSaul)
• MyBlogGuest is the perfect mix of rules, tools, alerts and courtesy IMHO. We get to publish our great content on great sites. (via @erocketSEO)
• Guest blogging should be mutually beneficial so relevant content for the site should come before link stuffing (via @BirdandCo)

Other points we have touched upon:

• Guest blogging outsourcing is fine when done right (the business should be actively involved in the guest blogging process). See who is doing that right
• There’s a rumor that Google starts devaluing byline links -> that’s still a rumor, but you’d better make your bylines unique from article to article to be safe!
• It’s still a reciprocal link when you link back to your guest post but you’d better share your guest posts on your blog to increase the exposure!

Our spring official contest is one with the twist: to participate, you need to make a video screencast of how you are using *any* feature of MyBlogGuest.

Here’s a good example.

You can have a voice explanation or simply screencast what you are doing (with no or any sound). Once you have a video, simply upload it to Youtube and share here.

The one wins who gets most views to his/her video. BUT there will also be editorial picks who will win cash prizes as well! We are going to give away a lot of cash!

***Get Traffic and Links! Win Cash!

• Traffic! Each and every video will be promoted on our official blog as well as from our various social media profiles. You know I quite good at promoting, right?
• Links! You’ll get full credit (with the link to your preferred home page)
• Cash! We’ll make sure to appreciate your efforts!

*** How to Participate:

• Create the video screencast (make it as attractive as you want / can)
• Upload to Youtube (feel free to link to MyBlogGuest in the description as well as your own website). Preferably include “MyBlogGuest” or “My Blog Guest” or MyBlogGuest.com” in the title
• Post the link to the video + the link to your home page (feel free to include the preferred anchor text for me to link to)

Note: We might edit your video a bit (like we did here), e.g. to make it shorter. In this case we’ll count views to our video as well as your video together (you’ll win in any case!)

*** Here are a few tutorials on making a screencast: you’ll see it is quite easy!

• How to Create a Screencast Like a Pro with These 6 Online Tools;
• Any Tips for Creating Video Tutorials?

Tip: If you are the only one to participate in the contest, YOU’ll win all the prizes.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by jonsson

Considering that our past three #myblogguest Twitter chats were about content ideas and strategy brainstorming (where we tried to show all our followers that you *can* provide great content in *any* niche, I thought this guest article by Kate, while not necessarly about *guest* blogging could be a good follow up. Enjoy!

When launching a content-focused website in today’s virtual landscape of millions of sites and billions of pages on the internet, many developers are turning to the niches that, because of their oddness, rarity or simple lack of information, have proven to be underserved.

While this provides an upper hand when it comes to search engine optimization and keyword focus, difficult niches often prove equally difficult to create content for.

If your chosen niche gives you instant writer’s block when you sit down with the intention of creating content for it, utilize these general content framework rules in order to better visualize the many types of less obvious but equally appealing content that you can develop for your website.

Go Broader and More Popular

It’s a common mistake: trying to stay within the limited boundaries of your narrow topic. You can always look outside the box and provide “trendy” content – something that is almost sure to entertain and go hot.

And you can still remain very relevant!

Examples:

• If you sell Lego park tickets, you can write about Star Wars Scenes Re-created Using Lego;
• If you promote insurance (i.e. security), promote gadgets that will secure your life during Zombie Apocalypse.

Your imagination is your only limit!

Use Big Data to Create Interest

No matter your content topic, you can be sure that potentially interesting data exists to showcase to your website’s visitors. We say potentially here because the amount of interest you’ll be able to draw will depend not just on the numbers you’re able to produce but, even more importantly, on how to you present it. Utilizing media such as graphics, pictures and videos and allowing your titles and headings to focus on interesting, click-worthy keywords are simple ways to enhance the presentation of your content.

Example: A website focused on on the history of Ancient Greece may present as dry and boring but utilizing statistics such as war casualties or showcasing data about sexual habits of the time are sure ways to pique the interest of otherwise non-history buffs.

Tackle the Tough Issues

Given the wildly varying views and opinions of the public at large, polarizing issues are many, as are the people willing to take up arms in their name. With this in mind, make an effort to analyze the facets of your topic to identify areas that you know will inspire verve in people and then produce content to achieve the same. While people are easily bored, they’re also easily impassioned, and content that aims to leverage that passion is content that people will take the time to read and respond to.

Example: A website concerning the welfare of animals and their treatment in the food industry would do well to focus on infractions on a case-by-case basis, capturing the emotion of their audience in an effort to create interest and change minds.

Interactivity Draws Interest

No matter what your particular niche is, you can bet that there are ways to make its online presentation interactive and this interactivity will go a long way towards keeping your visitors interested and engaged. Making interesting information available to your visitors is the first step; how to help people to find that information is the next.

Interactivity also refers to search and, while Google and friends do much of the legwork for you in guiding people to the pages within your website that best apply to what they’re looking for, your own site’s ability to guide people from page to page in an intuitive and interactive way will prove to be the difference between a lasting visitor and a quick addition to your bounce rate.

Example: A website offering a look at the particulars of completing your own tax return will strike visitors as both boring and one-in-a-million; adding interactive content such as completable forms for printing or a well-stocked question and answer knowledge base gives visitors both the content and the engaging interface they need. The addition of a search feature that allows users to quickly and easily find the specific information helps to be sure that they don’t revert to Google for their next query.

Explore, Identify, Improve

The most important key in creating interest in content that covers a niche that people aren’t likely to go crazy over is to continually innovate, allowing your tactics to evolve alongside the demands of your visitors; while this applies to any content website, it takes on special meaning in a case where the topic itself often works against you.

Kate is the content writer and social media blogger for VIP Reality Info, the local Dallas real estate company.

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Moderating our Articles Gallery to make sure all the content there meets our requirements is not easy. We have to explain what the “quality” is again and again.

At home I have the quality assurance flowchart created on my white board – you can see the screenshot here. Now I have created a prettier version of it which you can download and give to your content writers or use yourself. It helps to better understand what we are up for:

• Original ideas and styles (“unique” is not enough!)
• Content “written for the web” – meaning it has subheadings and images;
• Content not stuffed with self-serving links (we allow no more than 2 links per article);
• Content which is easy to copy paste and which does not require long editing and re-formatting work.

Feel free to download it here (click the image for larger version):

This week during our weekly #myblogguest Twitter chat we have had a  fun experiment: real-time group content ideas brainstorming in various niches! That was a fun play with some interesting ideas we have come up with:

Psychology -> “XX Twitter Tricks To Help You Recover From A Bad Day”

African Вrum (retailer) -> “XX Youtube Videos that Teach You Play African Drums”

Photocopier Rental -> “XX Funny Copyright Lawsuits”

The Conclusions?

Let’s try to sum up how we can come up with some killer, interesting and *popular* guest ideas to write a killer guest post (See the full Twitter chat storified here!)!

• Know what’s hot now: at least for a year or two the following topics have never stopped working: Twitter, iPhone (apps), Facebook, Google, Infographics, Cool Lists, etc. So to brainstorm, just combine your niche word with any / all of this: Search google: [KEYWORD iphone apps] [KEYWORD youtube] [KEYWORD infographics] => lots of inspiration
• Combine what you like with what readers seem to love (simply-put, refocus your content to your target audience!). You still want to be on-topic and relevant to what you are good at: so learn to combine your expertise with what you are good and knowledgeable at!
• Use any opportunity to brainstorm! => Example from our most awesome moderator: “Some of my best ideas come when laughing with my family. A quip & then, “I should tweet that..” Turns into an article.”
• Get creative and broaden your scope outside your niche while still being relevant (see the copyrights idea above).

As soon as you have an idea, turn it into a great article: show the effort behind the guest post by including images, great and relevant external links as well as links to previous articles on a target blog.

Great idea + Publisher’s appreciation => Guest post almost always goes live!

Next Week!

Content marketing and re-focusing can be discussed for ages. No wonder we didn’t manage to do it within one hour. So next week we decided to invite some of our MyBlogGuest best authors to ask them how they do it! Nothing works better than real-life examples and lessons.

So stay tuned for the next week! The guests will be announced later!

Early this year we announced our fun and very easy contest: publish guest posts and get cash for publishing the most popular ones!

The contest had its ups and downs as the constant server issues (which are now solved) prevented us from properly promoting it. All in all, that was a fun experiment (we are planning to continue in March!) and we got quite some traction as well! Thanks to all who participated and helped to spread the word!

I spent the larger part of my weekend counting votes, discussing the nominees and comparing the stats. It’s not the numbers games! We evaluated the bloggers’ activity, the post look and feel, the blogger’s rating within the system, the blogger’s activity within the forums as well as the social media interaction at the guest article itself.

So here are the winners!

Grand Winner: Kiesha Easley of WeBlogBetter!

The winning article: Getting More Likes on Your Facebook Page

Kiesha may have not the hugest social button counts among all the nominees, but here’s what defines her win:

• Kiesha eagerly participates in the comments, answers all of them and encourages more discussion;
• Kiesha promotes her articles at the number of social sharing sites as well as huge sites (like SocialMediaToday);
• Kiesha clearly makes the most of each of her articles and handles each guest author very seriously.

Congrats, Kiesha! You get the main prize: $1000

Thanks for being part of our community!

Follow Kiesha on Twitter

Other Winners:

Most votes articles:

• What’s Hot in Design for 2012?
• How to Give Your Business a Facelift

Naeem Noor (@naeemnur) and John Komatsoulis (@JohnKomatsoulis) both get $100 each + a 6-month free PREMIUM membership at MyBlogGuest!

Most active guest article publishers (honorable mentions!):

We love of you guys for spending so much time at MyBlogGuest!

• Tom Bukacek (@Tom_Bukacek) of Black Box Social Media
• Nicko Gibson (@tubeblogr) of Tube Blogger
• Susanp (@spetracco) of Travel Guideline
• Alison Wright (@BeingAlison) of   Being Alison
• Sharon Williams (@hobbiesbudget) of Hobbies on a Budget
• Chiprang (@chiprang) of Mothers Forum
• Mr. Bli (@blitalk) of Bli Talk!
• Nadeem Khan (@chillopedia) of  >Chillopedia
• Daniel (@M_oa_SD) of Memoirs of a Single Dad
• Vishalgaikar (@vishalgaikar) of Tricks Machine,technology,web 2.0
• Craig Charley (@SBTTraining) of Silicon Beach Training (PRO user! Craig does an outstanding job as both the publisher and the author!)
• Bellaisa (@healthy_start_) of Relationship Circle (another PRO user! Great writer and publisher!)

You all get a 6-month free PREMIUM membership at MyBlogGuest!

Most commented guest articles:

• Newlywed Survival (@NewlywedSurvive) has hosted a few of our guest articles and have made a tremendous job fostering interaction in the comments.
• Allie of Ramblings of a WAHM (@allierambles) makes her best to encourage a great discussion at the guest articles hosted on her blog!

Both of you get a 6-month free PREMIUM membership at MyBlogGuest!

Most beautiful articles: Brendon (@inMotionGaming) of inMotion Gaming does the most awesome job on his guest article formatting: all of them are rich in screenshots and look totally great! Brendon gets a 6-month free PREMIUM membership at MyBlogGuest!

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by timothygareth

We value our members’ suggestions (and always make our best to implement them all) – so our new feature is %100 user-suggested!

Love them or hate them, infographics are everywhere and they are generally very well received by the readers, so we have realized that making it easier for our users to exchange infographics should be a cool idea!

So here you go: the Gallery of Infographics!

♥ For publishers guest infographics are a great way to diversify blog content and entertain as well as engage their users;

♥ For guest authors that’s a great way to help infographics go viral!

So how will it work?

• The author (PRO member) uploads the infographic to our gallery;
• The author provides as many *unique* descriptions as he/she wants;
• The bloggers (publishers) come daily to offer their blogs for cool relevant infographics which come with unique mini-post.
• The publisher chooses one offer per description (Obviously, the more descriptions, the more offers can be accepted).
• The blogger publishes the infographics and the author helps spread the word.

Everyone is happy!

Now, what are YOUR thoughts?

P.S. If you are willing to give it a chance, please watch this video to find out how the main gallery works!

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Leah Gregg

If you’ve been a member of our guest posting community or if you have been following me for some time, you are likely to know how much information I am sharing in an effort to show what our platform is up for.

To somehow aggregate the most useful advice we’ve given (while avoiding information overload), I have decided to create a Guest Blogging Course. It contains the most essential resources we’ve created including our guest blogging infographic, free blogging eBook and case studies. It also has our guest blogging quiz (to make sure you are getting an idea) as well as MyBlogGuest feature overview inside.

>>> Please take the course here (note that it might take you quite a while to go through all the steps properly)<<<

Note: the course is run by ProProfs training which is by far the most advanced and feature-rich training software I am aware of!

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Pulpolux !!!

Update: our winter contest is closed, the winners have been announced. Congrats!

2012 is the special year because that’s when we are starting our official guest blogging contest!

That’s the easiest contest you’ve ever seen: you get great content, extra traffic and engagement to your blog and free money!

No strings attached: you don’t need to do anything special to participate: no extra links or responsibilities.

All you need to do is to use the Articles Gallery to offer your blog for relevant articles, then (once your offer is approved) publish your guest post on your blog and share the link here.

(Here’s a quick video intro into how the gallery works)

>>> Grand Prize: $1000 to the winner. We’ll also have a few other prizes for most active participants which will come as sweet surprises

>>> All the articles should be from the Articles Gallery: please share the username of the author each time you link to the guest post (you can find all guest posts which were approved for your blogs here).

>>> The contest will end on February, 20 – the earlier you nominate your post, the better!

>>> The guest post must be published between January,1 and Feb,15 to qualify!

>>> You can nominate as many guest posts as you want (provided they qualify to enter)!

How will the winner be chosen?

• We’ll use social media activity (Tweets and Likes) and comments at your guest post as the major factor

• We’ll get help from our moderators to judge the contest (your own engagement will be evaluated: your ratings and activity in our community as well as your active participation in the discussion at the post at your own blog)

Are there any requirements to join?

Yes:

• Your blog home page must have Google PR of 2 (at least)
• You must be a registered user of MyBlogGuest with the verified blog
• You need Twitter and Facebook count buttons installed at the post level
• You need to have comment option available (with no registration required)

What you are allowed to do:

• Feel free to use our Help Needed forum to promote your guest post (and help promote other guest posts as well of course: don’t expect to get without giving!)

• Feel free to let the author of the guest post know that you are participating in the contest and ask to help

What you are NOT allowed to do:

• Buy social media votes (trust me, this is very easy to tell when the Tweets, Likes or Comments are paid for. Your money will be wasted: we’ll exclude you from the contest if you try to fake it)

• Promise anyone to share the prize in case you win (Trust me, we’ll find out!)

• Change the publication date of your current post for it to qualify (we have plenty of tools to tell when the post was actually published for the first time)

Featured on Sweepstakesmania.com

There was once a time when getting your writing published was a difficult affair. While you could always hand it out on the streets, to actually be published in a real book, magazine, or newspaper required a submission process, approval, editing, and eventual publication.

In the 21st century, anyone can publish anything relatively easily. Self-publishing, especially online, is quite popular. Millions of people publish their writing on blogs, social networking sites, and other websites, and a good number of them never receive a penny for their work.

Plenty of people write for free because they love writing. They may not have ever even imagined making money from their work. Web writing for them may be a hobby, a canvas for self expression, or an outlet for their anger, grief, joy, or other emotion. For others, however, writing may be enjoyable, but they have taken their writing to the web with the hopes of making money, reaching a wider audience, or building a writing portfolio.

The question in the title of this article is geared toward the second category of writers, those I call the hopefuls. If you are one of them, or rather one of us, you have around four options to start your writing career:

• Start your own blog, build an audience base from scratch, and then monetize it.
• Find companies and individuals willing to pay you to write on other blogs and sites.
• Write for a content farm such as Demand Media or Associated Content.
• Guest post for a major blog or company website for free.

Far be it for me to limit you, of course. You can do all four, and some people do so very successfully. But ultimately, one must be more important to you that the others. If writing is to be your source of income or the platform for your future career, the choice is very important.

Why Write for Free?

Number four on the list works like this. Numerous media websites offer free content creation for their members. Unlike blogging platforms like WordPress or Google Blogs, these websites promote the work of their writers and often include it among the regular news and editorial content of their sites.

There is no agreement for compensation and no promise of any permanent position. The writers are under no obligation to keep writing. What the sites offer is only the potential for recognition, the glimmer of hope that writing for a major online news source might jump-start a budding journalism career.

As someone who has never done this and never known anyone who has, I can only speculate if anyone has or has not achieved success using this method. But the amount of time and effort many people put into this type of free journalism is often astounding.

The perfect example of this is The Huffington Post. At one point, this news site counted over 9,000 bloggers in its volunteer army. These people wrote for a cause and a purpose. Its founder, Arianna Huffington, however, also wrote for money. In February 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million, making her a very rich woman. To my knowledge, none of those 9,000 bloggers received a penny.

Shortly after the acquisition, some organized unions began to boycott the site, and one former blogger, Jonathan Tasini, filed a class-action lawsuit, demanding a cut of the sales revenue. These writers felt like they had put their long hours into The Huffington Post only to make other people rich. Unfortunately for them, they agreed to work for free, under no compulsion, and that means they will most likely not see any of that money.

Money and Respect

Whenever you provide a service for someone, you expect compensation and respect. A waiter expects a tip, and he also expects you to show him a degree of respect. When you write for someone else, for their website, you should at least aim for the former, the latter, or both.

Content farms pay because they make a lot of money from their writers, and they know the writers have no other incentive to write for them. You will not get much respect writing for them. You are expendable, and those who pay you probably do not even know your name.

Writing for major media sites for free may get you some respect, but that is doubtful. If you are one of 9,000, you are not much different than the content farm writer, except at least he got paid. You may write fantastic content that is worthy of respect, but that does not mean the site owners will value your contribution as much as they should.

If you write for third parties on their websites, you can negotiate your fee and get the amount you feel you deserve for your writing. Moreover, if they are willing to hire you over the many others they could have chosen, they obviously respect you and your work.

Finally, you can always write for your own blog. Actually, as a web writer myself, I strongly recommend you do this no matter what other kind of writing you also do. Do not neglect your own blog. If nothing else, it is the one outlet where you can be yourself. There, you always get the respect you deserve, and if you work at it, you might even make some money.

Tavis J. Hampton is a librarian and writer for WordPress web hosting company 34SP.com. You can read his blog at TavisOnline.com.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Search Engine People Blog