Guest Blogging Blues
Maintaining a blog can be hard work. You have to stay current; you have to be original; you have to "participate in the conversation." Still, you're in control. You know who your audience is (or is supposed to be), you know what you've written, and you know what's worked and what hasn't.
Even though guest blogging might seem somewhat easier, I think it's actually harder, especially when you are writing for a blog that has a lot of other contributors. In a way, such a blog is like a microcosm of the blogosphere. While, in the grand scheme of all things "blog," you might be writing the exact same thing as some other blogger, chances are, no one will notice. More importantly, YOU won't even notice, because you can't possibly be reading all blogs all the time.
Not so when guest blogging with a bunch of others. Case in point: As I've mentioned, I'm a "guest" on the "Notes on Design" blog over at sessions.edu. Well, the other day I wrote a post strongly stating that designers should create blogs as an alternative to creating a portfolio. Then I read through some previous posts from my co-guests and discovered that Ilise Benun had written a similar post just the day before. To make matters worse, her post was more reasonable and, frankly, better than my own!
I decide I'm going to go in a different direction and talk about the state of branding today. As an example, I'm going to write about my experience shopping for a guitar and trying to shake the spell cast on me by the Gibson brand when I was a teenage Jimmy Page worshipper.
Before I start, like a good guest, I head over to sessions.edu to find out what others are writing about. Sure enough, the first post I read, by John Kuraoka, is about branding! I then write a post about my total lack of original thought-content but it is, quite appropriately, rejected by the editor. "Woe," as they say, "is me."
If there is any lesson to be learned here it is this: Whatever you want to blog about has already been blogged about somewhere else.
If there is another lesson it is this: Never read any blog but your own. You'll always be the first to post on something there!
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