A Note on Guest Posts

A Note on Guest Posts

This is more of a housekeeping post, but it’s actually pretty relevant for any church blogs out there too. 

So, a note on guest posts.

‘Guest post’ is a bit of a buzzword these days. This is because there are potential benefits to the practice:

  • For the host, there’s more fresh content for their blog! More content to share, and to keep readers interested
  • For the guest writer, their efforts are rewarded with a link to their site, which can help with SEO (essentially ranking higher on Google) as well as promoting their personal brand and bringing more readers back to their own site

Unfortunately, guest posting has been given a bad name of late. Many people have abused the practice for its benefits, producing a sea of poor quality content. Even back in 2014, Google’s own Matt Cutts highlighted how not to use guest blogging for SEO.

For me, and therefore for ChurchTrain, I’m more than happy to include content on here that someone else has written.

In fact, the first post on this blog was written by Peter Baker! I’ve found having different authors adds to the voice and experience that this blog represents.

Does this mean I’m a sell out? Well, I hope not, particularly given my previous writing about what I hope this blog does not become!

Would I like to increase the readership of the blog? Sure. Would I like to see more readers coming through Google? Of course!

Guest posting might help with these things, it might not. It will certainly increase the amount of content on the site. I suppose my point is this – I don’t want traffic, or indeed content, just for the sake of it.

The ChurchTrain blog has a purpose, a vision: to help UK churches to communicate well.

Therefore, if guest posting, or anything else for that matter, helps to achieve this vision, I’m all in! With that said, I’m quite picky! I won’t let just anyone write here.

Here are some guides I try to follow:

  • Do I know the writer personally, so that I can approach them, or am I aware of them (if they get in touch with me)? This is a good starting point!
  • Do I respect their experience and the knowledge they can add to the blog, to help ChurchTrain’s readers?
  • Are they sympathetic with ChurchTrain’s aims, or are they just in it for the ancillary benefits of guest blogging?

Critically,

  • Can they create engaging, interesting content that can teach and equip those who visit ChurchTrain?

It’s always a judgement call. To be honest, I politely decline most of the guest blogger outreach emails that I receive. Of course, even when I think there’s a suitable match, I’ll only hit the ‘Publish’ button after having carefully reviewed (and sometimes tweaked) the content.

But I will continue to allow guest posts here on the church communications blog, providing there are direct benefits to you, the reader!

You can see an updated list of posts from guest writers in the ChurchTrain guest posts category. And if you’d like to contribute to the blog, I’d be more than happy to hear from you – get in touch here.

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