“We have yet to find guest collaborators. How do you find those?”

This question came up on one of my IG posts that I shared and I thought that it would make the perfect blog post. A perfect example of listening to your followers to give them the content that they want. I want to talk about what guest collaborators are, why you should use them and how to find them plus everything in between.

I haven’t opened up my website often for others to collaborate on but this makes me want to do a deep dive into it and start growing this piece of my blog even more. I have had a couple of contributors to my website and every time they have written content that my ideal clients are looking for but I do not specifically write about.

There have been things that I have learned through this process of both being a guest contributor as well as having someone contribute to my blog.

As a head’s up, you will notice that I use the words collaborator and contributor. They go hand in hand and I will be using them interchangeably throughout this blog post. Let’s dive in!

THE WHAT OF GUEST COLLABORATORS

You have heard me talk about guest blogging before and this is the same thing EXCEPT it means that you are allowing those guest bloggers onto your own website. Guest collaborators are other bloggers or experts that submit their written work or videos for your blog. You can even allow for contributions of infographics.

Depending on how you decide that you want to set it up, will depend on how you run your program. A few questions that you will want to ask yourself before accepting guest collaborators are…

1. What is the minimum word count that you want them to submit?
2. Does the blog post have to be new content and not already published or are you okay with content that they have previously published?
3. Do you want them to do one-off pieces or do you want them to be a regular content creator on your site?
4. If they will be a regular content creator on your site, will they have their own login?
5. If they are a regular content creator on your site, how are you going to communicate with each other?
6. Will you be creating the graphics to go in the blog post and for them to use to advertise, or will they be in charge of that?
7. Are you going to allow them to promote themselves inside the blog post?

These questions are going to help you figure out what information you need and the guest needs to ensure success for both parties. You want guest collaborations to be beneficial to everyone and easy to participate in.

THE WHY OF GUEST COLLABORATORS

Why would you want to invite guest collaborators to your website?

We have talked about the benefits of guest blogging before. Here are a few of the reasons that you should be looking into creating a guest collaborator program for your blog.

1| A great way to expand your content topics. Even in your niche, you will not be an expert in everything. By inviting and opening up to guest collaborators, you allow your content topics to help your readers (and possibly you) on content that you rarely or never cover. You want to make sure that it is relevant to your niche. This is a great way to give your readers content they want but that you can’t directly give to them.

2| The guest collaborators will promote your blog. You want to make sure that your guest collaborators are sharing their posts. This means that they are sharing your website with a new audience and potential new clients. A great way to help with this is to make sure that they tag you when they share it on their social media.

3| You are building relationships with other bloggers in your niche. You can both collaborate together over future products and services. Relationship building is so critical when it comes to blogging. When they share on your blog, you may just be able to share on theirs as well.

4| Increase your blog traffic. With the contributors promoting their blog posts on your blog, you will start to see an increase in blog traffic. Who doesn’t want to see their blog numbers increase?!

5| Less content for you to create. If you have regular contributors to your blog, you will be able to cut back on the fresh content that you are creating. This gives you a bit more freedom of time.

Those are a few of the benefits that having guest collaborators on your blog. Now let’s dig into the how.

THE HOW OF GUEST COLLABORATORS

Now that you have answered some of the questions above, what is the next step? Where do you go when you are ready to start accepting guest collaborators on your blog.

1| I would recommend setting up a page on your website that gives the details of your program. This means that you would be inundated with questions (hopefully) about how someone can contribute. Everything that you wrote out and brainstormed from the above questions, will be going on that page.

2| Brainstorm all of the ideas on who you would like to come onto your website and serve your audience. Dream big and don’t let anything stop you. It doesn’t mean that you need to reach out today but it gives you a working playlist and one that you can continually add to.

3| On the guest collaboration page on your website, have a contact form so that they can directly reach out to you. Start the conversation first before you ask them what their topic ideas are.

4| Start reaching out to those bloggers that you have written for in the past. You can now ask if they want to be a guest blogger on your site.

5| Reach out to social media followers who are in your shoulder niches to see if they would be interested in being a contributor to your blog. You will hear no and you will hear yes. Don’t get frustrated when someone turns you down. It is great to put yourself out there.

6| If someone says that they are interested in being a collaborator, send them to your website. Here they will be able to look at all the requirements and be able to contact you directly through there. Plus, everything will be in one place and you don’t have to worry about losing contact information or details about the collaboration.

Are you excited to set up a guest collaboration page on your website and begin accepting guest posts? I know that I will be doing this. I even have a few ideas to take it one step further.

Grab the Guest Collaboration Doc that gives you a template to use for your guest collaboration page on your website. You can add or take out things that you don’t need or want but it is a great place to start.