In the past, I love to read other blogs for inspiration. However, today I seldom go to those blogs which I had previously found inspiration in. Why?
Because most of the once famous blogs are now full of guest posts. The original bloggers had not been able to find much time to write on their blogs anymore. Reason why most of us visit a certain blog is because we like the author or blogger’s way of writing. The message and the ‘essence’ of the blog.
Blogs are not Wikipedia. Wikipedia draws strength from inputs from people around the world. Because Wikipedia is an online encylopedia- so obviously we are not going to find one single person who is good in everything.
Neither are blogs same with the concept of Youtube, Quora or About.com.
But the moment the blog start to allow guest posting, there is no fixed essence of style anymore. In fact, some of the guest writers sometimes post stuff that are so outragous that it makes me feel that I am wasting my time on the blog. I would be going to the blog and reading a post which I had thought was written by the blogger himself – and then while reading I would wonder why this blogger, whom I had been reading the blog for quite sometime write something so out? Then I would scroll to the end of the page to check out whose the author…. and the name that I’ve never seen before would be there.
So in the end, my visits to these blogs dropped dramatically….to like once in a blue moon- because the original style of the blogger in which I had admired, is gone from the blog- I had to search through the archives and select the post that had the original blogger’s name on it.
Perhaps the blogger had to move on to something bigger and had to outsource the work elsewhere. It’s call progress and moving forward. It’s an acceptable norm. But, the blog would surely lose some loyal readers- but I am sure it would continue to gain organic traffic from Google… perhaps it was what mattered the most if you need to make a full living out of blogging.
For me, I don’t really feature guest posting on my blogs. I’ve received emails by those who had offered to write some guest posts in exchange for links (I really appreciate that you have like my blog enough to offer)- but each time I had to respectfully decline the offer because I must confess… I have problem reviewing other people’s work.
There were instances when I have no time or not available to write- such as when I was out of the country or too tied up with work….and I’ll rather let the blog go without any postings. And there had been no signifant drop in organic traffic in this instances.
Like at work, before a presentation my colleague who is nervous would forward the materials for me to check- and I could not go through coz I have problem ‘catching and understanding another person’s flow’. If I had done the thing myself, it would be faster. So I would rather do the stuff myself.
Accepting some guest posts on rare basis may be okay and good as a fresh breath of air. But to do it each time would make the blog lose its identity….seriously. And once that identity or differentiation is lost, the only thing that the old readers would like to read was the archives of the blog. There is nothing more that would set the blog apart from the rest.
