I decided to celebrate My Blog Guest re-design and new exciting feature set launch by giving out a cool free minimalistic WordPress theme

It has everything you may need:

cool simplistic look, nicely-done  social media icons, a cute favicon, heading structure and even a matching Twitter background (in PSD).

>>>The preview, download and support information can be found here: GuestBloggers.org <<<

Of course feel free to modify the theme you need: play with various logo designs, widget arrangement and even background colors.

You are welcome to keep our link in the future but that’s totally up to you! I don’t ask anything in return except for a feedback!

Yay! With all the moving servers and redesigning I finally found place for yet another round-up of our most awesome guest posts arranged through MyBlogGuest.

What struck me most when creating this round-up is the huge variety of posts and niches we unite – this is just so exciting!

So here we go:

Guest Posts Arranged Through Our Partnership with Splashpress Media:

1. Why Guest Blogging is Useless for Link Building by yours truly (over at The Blog Herald): You heard it right, now go ahead and read the post and the comments before jumping to any conclusions.

2. Blogging for Profit: 4 Successful Strategies (at BloggingPro): Claudia Gonella shares some practical examples of how to use blogging to increase the profits in your business.some practical examples of how to use blogging to increase the profits in your business.

3. How to Win Friends and Influence People with Blogging (at Performancing): Ken Lyons of Wordstream lists 5 great ways to network with people with help of your blog.

4. Making Sushi and Making a Blog Are Surprisingly Similar: David Fishman is the king of Sushi

5. Three Ways to Write Sales-Driven Blog Content: Our vary beloved moderator Roko Nastic of Webmaster Format shares three tips that are designed to help you boost returns and increase sales without having to write more content or completely change your marketing plan.

Other Guest Posts

1. Children’s View How Can We Achieve Eco Friendly Environment? (over at Allergy Be Gone): a very sweet post by Saurav on what some of the students had to say about how we can improve the World and the School.

2. Best Budget Web Hosting Company (at Best Covery): Roko Nastic shares a list of affordable hosting providers and adds background info on each one (worth a bookmark!)

3. How Running A Contest For Bloggers Can Improve Your Search Rankings (over at Web Traffic ROI): Jonathan Bentz explains how to host a blogging contest to make the most out of it. Really, if contests didn’t benefit websites with more traffic, more RSS subscribers, or better search rankings, then bloggers wouldn’t host contests.

4. Forget Retirement? In Central America You Don’t Have To (at FatWallet blog): Claudia Gonella explains why it is a good idea to retire in Central America to have a comfortable retirement.

5. 10 Ways to Get Rid of Credit Card Debt (at Mommie’s Magazine) Anna Fani provides a very clear list of steps to elliminating your debt. The bad news is doing it is not going to be an easy or comfortable process. To jump-start yourself, you should let the following scary points sink into your subconscious.

6. Become an Expert at “Stating” Your Expertise – Step Up and Claim It! (over at Decisive Minds)Melanie Kisselloffers you a daily dose of inspiration to get things done: as a solo entrepreneur, you need to sizzle like a hot summer night!

7. Don’t Be ‘That Guy’ when Commenting (at Famous Bloggers): Evelester urges us to put thought and creativity into each of the comments we leave.

8. Hi Love Yourself! Five Steps to Strong Self-Esteem (at ColaBears) – what a great reminder! Jacki Dille helps us cultivate love for ourselves to increase our self-esteem, see ourselves more and more clearly and realistically and succeed in life.

9. A Simple Technique to Manage Stress (at Silver and Grace): Mike Reeves-McMillan shares an effective technique that we can pull out of our stress managing toolbox.

10. Should Couples Have Joint Bank Accounts? The Pros and Cons of Sharing Your Money (at Quips and Tips for Money and Love) Louise Tillotson specialising in cash ISA shares advanatges and disadvantages of pooling your money in a joint bank account.

11. Managing a Post-Divorce Budget (at Simple Divorce Advice) Louise of Moneysupermarket.com explains how you can face life after the divorce and adjust to a reduced income.

12. Recognizing the Signs of Alzheimer’s (at Medical Alert Bracelets blog) Sarah Danielson of Online Nursing Programs shares some very clear information on a fatal brain disorder – good info to know!

13. How to Eliminate Allergies in Your Home (at Allergy Be Gone): Vera Mosley outlines the symptoms of the allegies and tips on coping with them.

14. Celtic Themed Weddings (at KC Weddings) Leigh Maher owner of the online Celtic jewelry store shares some inspiring ideas on how to plan your with a little Celtic flair.

15. 3 New Ways to Reuse Old Articles to Triple Your Backlinks (over at Daily SEO Tip): David Fishman offers great ways to make the most of your published content.

16. Babysitter Interview-What Questions Should You Ask? (at SitterCompare.com) Olivia shares the tips on how to make sure that you and your potential baby sitter share the same childcare philosophy.

17. Six Ways Men can Deal with their Partner’s Pregnancy (at Preemie Twins): Modi has been blessed to have experienced that phase of life a few times already and now offers his advice to all males who are struggling.

18. Recreate Lady Gaga Fashion Affordably (at Steal the Style): this post is an interesting review of Lady Gaga’s style, its influence on the world and fashion as well as some practical advice on recreating it.

19. Droid vs iPhone (over at Idaconcpts): Kate shares a fun way to compare the two smart phones.

20. Creative Business Success: How to Synchronize the Right and Left Brains (at Big Girl Branding): Viral Mom shares insight and tips into being a successful (primarily) right-brained entrepreneur.  AKA the “creative type” that loves the “idea phase” but struggles a bit with “the biz” side of things.  Now who does that sound like… you perhaps?

Post image by aWee

Inside MyBlogGuest.com there are quite a few pretty much unique (dare I say “revolutionary”) features that help users to more effectively share their quality content on other blogs. One of such features is Articles Gallery.

You will never find a similar functionality: basically it allows members to expose their content to the gallery for blog owners to come to offer their blogs to publish the posts.

What are the benefits for guest authors?

It often happens that you get inspired, write a post and have no good blog to publish your post. Or you have a project you want to promote, you write several related articles a week and you regularly need new blogs to publish these articles.

Articles Gallery helps in both the cases. It gives authors one place to publish the articles for blog owners to come and apply. This way, all you need is to spend time on writing a good post and then choose the best blog from the offers you receive.

>>> No time wasted on contacting the blog owners, pitching guest article offers, discussing the topics and reminding of the due publication date!

Guest authors are protected from content theft and unpublished content:

• Only 1/3 of the article is visible to the Gallery Viewers;
• If the blog owner fails to publish the post within a week, an email (and PM) reminder is sent to both the author and blogger. The author is thus enabled to revert the post back to the gallery (if the blogger doesn’t stick to the previously made agreement).

What are the benefits for blog owners?

Don’t feel like writing a good post today (or maybe you are just too busy to) but need to update your blog with fresh content? – Visit Articles Gallery and choose one, completely unique article on the topic you need.

More benefits:

• Filter articles by category and tags (to find the best fit for your blog)
• Subscribe to email alerts of new articles on your topic (to quickly apply or just get updated without even logging in to the forum);
• See the article info: title, short description, preview, number of words, tags, etc.

How is the feature unique?

We are very proud of the feature for the few reasons:

• It promotes distribution of free unique content;
• It makes guest posting easier to scale;
• It is based on the win-win situation (you don’t like the post?- You are free not to apply. Don’t like the blog? – You are free to reject the offer).

How Can I See the Feature in Action?

We have created a nice video for you to see Article Gallery in action – enjoy!

Post image by Bert K

Remember the lessons you learned as a child about being a good guest? Mind your manners. Respect your host’s rules. Perhaps most importantly, don’t make life more difficult for the people who’ve offered you their hospitality.

These rules also apply to guest blogging. While we tend to focus on the ethical side of being a good guest in our discussions (link stuffing and other forms of blatant self-promotion), there are also a number of practical considerations that will make the experience much more pleasant for your publisher/host… and increase the likelihood that an editor will want to feature your content on his/her site again.

As someone who’s spent hours at times cleaning up otherwise well-written posts for publication, I can say with certainty that following the suggestions below will keep you in you host editors’ good graces… rather than making them grimace when they see your next post submission in their inbox.

Send clean code: While I’ve never actually measured it, I’m almost certain my blood pressure rises when I see code stuffed with <div>, <font>, and <span> tags. Perhaps I’m just not as tech savvy as others, but, so far, the way I’ve found to clean up these tags (which will otherwise destroy the format of the published post in my WordPress blog) is to edit them out of the code manually… which leads to the occasional hours of clean-up I mentioned earlier.

Want to make sure you’re sending “plug and play” code to your editors? Follow these tips:

1. Write the post in WordPress: From my experience, nothing produces cleaner code than WordPress. So, when I write a guest post for submission (and I’m doing this right now), I write it in the interface for my own WP blog, switch to the HTML view when I’m finished, and then copy and paste that code into a text document. An editor should be able to copy and paste that code into any blogging platform and get a clean post.
2. Avoid Google tools: I love Google applications, and use them for many things… but not for writing guest posts. Think you can use the HTML view in Google docs or Blogger instead of WP? Guess again… in most cases, it’s going to require heavy code-level editing.
3. If not WP, than Word: Most blogging platforms can convert Word documents to usable code with relative ease these days. Check with the editor first to make sure s/he can use it, and then only include your text in the Word document… not images (more on that in a second).
4. Avoid colored or unusual fonts: You may think that section in purple looks really cool… there’s a good chance your editor won’t, and will grumble about one more little thing to fix…

Send images as separate files: It’s so easy to just link to an image… but what if the host of that image takes it down, or puts something else in its place? Your host is left with either an ugly missing image space, or something inappropriate for the post. I’m always much happier when I see images attached to the email with the text. Sure, I have to download them and then upload them to my blog host, but that’s much easier than dealing with missing images later… or then copying them out of a Word doc into an image file, and then editing them, etc., etc.

Link to your sources: Remember how your English teacher taught you to cite your sources? This still matters in the blogosphere, and you definitely don’t want to give your host editor headaches by leaving it to him/her to find these sources, or to deal with complaints about unsubstantiated or uncredited information. You only need to link to your source… and no editor’s going to mind these links (unless, of course, you’re just citing information from your own sites).

Use (and credit) images and multimedia under alternative copyrights or public domain: Like the last point, your editor shouldn’t have to deal with intellectual property complaints about images and multimedia. Videos are usually simple: if it’s embeddable, it’s fair game. For images and other forms of media, stick to the following:

• material under Creative Commons or other forms of alternative copyright.
• material under public domain.
• material from company press pages and packets.

With alternative copyrights, make sure you’re following the specific license requirements for each piece of media, and make sure to attribute it to its creator (with appropriate links). Keep in mind that even with some media from government and other largely public domain sites, or from company media pages, you may still need to include some form of attribution. Remember that between Flickr’s Creative Commons collection (even just the “Attribution Only” section), and Wikimedia Commons, you’re likely to numerous high-quality images for your post.

Any guest poster who uses these suggestions when sending a post to me makes me a happy, happy editor… who’s probably going to want to feature more posts from that writer. If you’ve got other suggestions on making life easier for guest post editors, please share them…

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainability blog and green product comparison engine sustainablog, which features a wide range of eco-friendly products such as Citizen Eco Drive watches.

Image credit: Happy Bushra at Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license

I have just recently announced MyBlogGuest exclusive partnership with Splashpress Media (if you haven’t landed it yet, do it now!) and today I am pleased to announce that we have a new blog entering the deal:

Freelance Writing Gigs, a popular blog for freelancers, has joined MyBlogGuest to offer our members the killer guest posting  opportunity!

You can only apply if you are member of My Blog Guest!

Freelance Writing Gigs is run by the experienced pro blogger Susan Gunelius who blogs at About.com. Last month Susan interviewed me and featured MyBlogGuest on About.com!

So, don’t miss the opportunity. Try it now! Here’s FWJ Guest Post Submission page for you to learn the details and submit the post.

Ok, I am gone writing my guest post for that great blog!

The post image by Jason Tester

This is a guest post by Warner Carter who wrote a book Guest Blogging for

Profits that advocates our “quality” approach to guest blogging.

People are the way they are and in society sometimes certain conventions are agreed upon by the participants. So it is in our world, the so called blogesphere, regarding Guest Blogging.

Feel free to rebel, experiment, and try new things but if nobody wants your posts, after reading this, it won’t be because you were ignorant about what is expected for your behavior and manors. Just that you choose to ignore them, and, for whatever reason, that is a choice you are free to make.

You’ll probably win the lottery before you ever see me in a suit, but if some situation really made it important, like I would get something I wanted, I do have one and probably can find it.

Guest blogging is one of the best ways to have fun, get noticed, bring traffic, and build some dang nice links. I am pretty sure this blog here gets more traffic than mine and there is one good reason to guest post.

Frame of Mind

To get yourself in the right frame of mind consider the blog is someone else’s. The blog you will be posting to is as important to someone else as yours is to you.  It is generally understood you will provide only 100% original content and you will not re-post or spin it all over the net afterwards either.

The first thing to do after you have been invited is ask them if they want you to provide the post in a particular format or style. They may like every post to have an image or expect sub headers for each main section. They may let you have anchor links in the body or only in your author bio box. It is generally accepted that you will get a link back to your blog.

You will want to write in to their audience and the best way to get that picture is reading comments as well as posts on the blog you will be writing for. Is the blog serious and technical or light and humorous? Every blog and writer has a style and a mood and you will want to try to get a sense of it. Is the writer a smart aleck?  Provocative, or introspective? It can be fun to phrase your writing in the context of a different state of mind.

Be there to reply to any comments that are made from your post. Don’t get into a flame war with a knuckleheaded nincompoop even if they deserve it.

For Greater Success

Write the best post you ever wrote, or at least try to. This post represents you and the blog you are writing on, forever. The timeworn phrase “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” is worth dragging out an dusting off for this occasion. The better your writing the more likely it is you will be invited back, and the more likely it is other blogs will welcome you in the future.  Heck, some people may even hunt you down to come write for them.

Show gratitude, before and after you make the post. Anywhere you go and in anything you ever do people will be much happier to help you when you show them you appreciate any effort they make on your behalf.

Promoting your post is also promoting your host’s blog. When you can bookmark, make a note about, talk about on Facebook and Twitter you will be doing yourself and your host a nice added benefit for you having been there. Maybe you can even ask some Digg or Sphinn buddies to give it a shout. Stumble it. All these little mentions and links add up over time like cumulous clouds accumulating raindrops.

Get There Ready

Have your post with any anchor links all set up in HTML code. Have your bio in hand, all formatted to be placed where your Host wants it. Have any images you want to use in your flickr account or somewhere you can just provide a link (and not a hot link to someone else’s account or site) If you want to be extra nice make up 2 or 3 headlines in advance and let your Host or Hostess select the one they feel would be best.

You are ready, and if you want to leverage for maximum results get Guest Blogging for Profits to position yourself with the resources that will give you unprecedented insight. I’m giving up every tricky trick and secret I could dig up in this.

Warner Carter writes the Page One Business SEO Consultation blog and the occasional book.

Post image by margaretshear

We have had some time to take some rest from our contests to be back with the hottest one! Gerald Weber, the social media guru and one of my best friends, hosts this month’s guest blogging contest supported by MyBlogGuest:

The Bad Ass Guest Blogging Contest

Why give it a try?

I won’t tell you about close to $2K cash prizes (like I said multiple times, the prize is not the only reason to participate) or about how strong the host site is – I’ll tell you to participate to master social media!

Gerald is an awesome enthusiast, he will share your post throughout his social media channels and bring you LOTS of exposure. So wait no more: sit down and brainstorm an AWESOME post idea – let’s have the party started!

Oh and in an effort to support our cool contest sponsors, here are a few of them:

• Daniel McGonagle of Link Building blog
• Talented Alisa Bowman of Marriage Advice blog
• Internet Marketing Services
• SEO Software from SheerSEO
• Hesham Zebida Thesis Skins
• Gerald Weber Houston SEO
• Raxa Design Houston web design
• Eric Brantner Freelance Copywriter
• The Servant Media Houston Business Development
• Ana Hoffman, Traffic Generation Cafe Increasing Targeted Website Traffic
• Hostgator.com providing Business Web Hosting
• David Harry managing most excellent SEO Training Dojo

While the practice of guest posting is getting more and more popular, many people still wonder how it is different from just plain blogging.

This post represents a guest infographic which clearly outlines the difference.

While we do not mean to say you should stop blogging and start to only guest posting (the two should definitely co-exist), this infographic will outlay the hugest benefits of the latter):

(Please click the image to enlarge)

(Please click to enlarge)

This infographic is by Brandon Rhodes who works for Response Mine, an interactive marketing agency offering customer acquisition and lead generation services.

At MyBlogGuest I am always looking for various partnerships and creative ways to cooperate with bloggers and businesses. This keeps me inspired and the service varied and more fun.

The most recent deal I managed to get was one with Splashpress Media – and that was a great success!

From now on MyBlogGuest members have an exclusive opportunity to guest post at one of the three most powerful high-traffic and high-authority blogs weekly:

• Blog Herald: on Tuesdays
• BloggingPro: on Fridays
• Performancing: on Thursdays

An exclusive opportunity means that the author will have to become our member to be able to guest post.

So here you go: now we are all lucky enough to be able to contribute to top blogs in the world!

I have introduced the feature by guest blogging myself at each of the blogs (as you may have guessed those were posts on guest blogging:)

• Why you shouldn’t use guest blogging for link building;
• How to reward your guest contributors and build a strong community;
• How to help your guest contributors in their SEO efforts.

Andrew G. Rosen has been promoted to Guest Post Manager and will accept all guest post submissions and schedule the entries. He is also moderator at the My Blog Guest forums.

To apply to any of the blogs or get updated on this opportunity, login to the forum and find a separate subforum dedicated to the feature.

I haven’t done a video overview of our community as I’ve been long waiting for the redesign, however it makes me happy if someone does that for me.

New Biz Blogger Michele Welch did a great video guide throughout MyBlogGuest and I am sharing it here:

• If you haven’t joined yet, get a sneak-peek of th features;
• If you are a member, why not create your own video guide showing your take?

Thank you, Michele!