AP 1110: How Do I Invite Guest Writers to Contribute to My Blog Without Diluting My Own Voice?

AP 1110: How Do I Invite Guest Writers To Contribute to My Blog Without Diluting My Own Voice

Announcer:
AskPat. Askpat.com. .com. AskPat. .com.

Pat Flynn:
Hey, real quick. In business, you need to send invoices, right? These are records that keep track of payments owed to you for services and products that you share and offer, right? If you're consulting coach, you do any billing of any kind, you need to send invoices. Unfortunately, not all invoices are created equal. Now as a business owner, one of the most important things you can do is to get paid and of course, get paid on time. This is important for both life and businesses. It's not all about the money of course, but you know, that's what allows us to keep doing more work to serve more people and do what we love. This is why I absolutely am in love with FreshBooks because they recognize this. They design their invoices, their programming, their accounting software to help us get paid and get paid as easy as possible.

Pat:
With FreshBooks, you can create customized and send branded professional looking invoices in literally less than thirty seconds. They allow for online payments directly through invoices, which is really handy. You won't have to worry about awkward conversations. You can let FreshBooks' automatic late payment emails do all the chasing for you in case you don't get paid on time. Best of all, if you're in the U.S., you can take advantage of their new ACH payment option, which allows for fast secure payments. On top of all that, they have affordable plans starting at just $15 per month. That's literally a headache reliever right there for accounting stuff, a small price for what you'll get back in return. For a limited time offer, only for this show, 50 percent off your first three months when you upgrade to get a paid plan. Go to freshbooks.com/askpat and enter AskPat in the how did you hear about us section. That's freshbooks.com/askpat for 50 percent off your first three months. Go, you're not going to be disappointed. Promise.

Pat:
What's up everybody. Pat Flynn here and welcome to episode 1110, that's a lot of numbers, of AskPat 2.0. This is a coaching call between myself and an entrepreneur just like you. Today we are speaking with Betty from mombrite.com
M-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.com. That's B-R-I-T-E. She is a mom blogger who has done a great job over the years of building an audience there, getting really good Google keyword research and keyword rankings for certain terms. She's building her business and she wants to scale up, and knows that she need some support in which she's looking for advice on about today is related to getting guest writers to come in. The worry is, well, how do I get them to make sure that they uphold the standard that I want? They're experts in their own right, but I also know that there's certain things related to Google, and plus, just tone that matter.

Pat:
All things related to having other people come into your brand to start filling it out, scaling it up, and how do we do it gracefully, how do we do it with sensitivity to the audience that we've built just ourselves at first and all that sort of stuff. A lot of stuff going on today, but let's dive right in. Here is Betty from mombrite.com
M-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.com. Hey Betty. Welcome to AskPat 2.0. Thanks for being here today.

Betty Boiron:
Thank you for having me.

Pat:
Yeah, this would be a lot of fun. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do?

Betty:
Sure. My name is Betty Boiron. I'm a mom of two, ages three and five. I live in sunny SoCal. I'm a mom blogger. I actually started blogging in 2017 under a different name but I recently rebranded May of this year to mombrite.comM-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.com. That's M-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.comM-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.com. I think pretty typical mom blogger, I write about any topic that fell under motherhood. From pregnancy to breastfeeding, to parenting and kids activities.

Pat:
That's awesome. How long have you been doing that for?

Betty:
2017.

Pat:
That's so cool. Awesome. Along those lines, what's on your mind? How can I help you?

Betty:
The reason that I rebranded, is because I want to take the blog a slightly different direction. Instead of writing about what I know, I want to cover a broad range, like a really broad range of motherhood topics and make Mombrite like a one-stop shop for moms. Especially with the new Google update, the emphasis they place on the authority part of it. I want to now get sub guest posts onto my site because I don't have the authority. I'm a mama, I'm not a medical professional. I feel like there's topics that I need professionals to write about. Opening guest posts, I just feel like what happen if the guest posts are not consistent with my voice. People come to my site and get confused like why is this writing so different than how Betty usually writes, how do I deal with that in coherence?

Pat:
Yeah, I mean we've struggled with that a little bit on our end as well. We have had guest posts in the past and it is something to worry about. Number one, just great job just being aware of that because sometimes we see on a lot of blogs, people just accept everything and then put it on there and it just dilutes the power of the brand. I think keeping it to your level of standard, to your voice is really important. Also, understanding that this, even though it's on your website, if you are opening it up for guest posts, you do have a little bit of wiggle room in terms of your voice and how that shows up. I think the most important thing is it fills your values and it also serves your audience in the way that you want them to be served. Tailoring them to your voice doesn't have to happen because you'll be very open with the fact that it's somebody else. Right? That's what you mean about guest posts, right? You're not hiring writers and then putting your name on it.

Betty:
No. So far I have been reaching out to, for example, sleep consultants who could write about how to get baby to sleep better or breastfeeding consultants to write about breastfeeding.

Pat:
Okay. There, you're hoping that they will provide the article for your website?

Betty:
Correct.

Pat:
Okay, good. Like I said, that way you don't necessarily need to have it, "in your voice." I think if you have specific rules or specific values that you could share with a guest post writer before they even begin to write, just so that they know the level of care that you have and the ultimate goals that you would want to come out of that guest post, then I think that'd be very helpful. One thing that we've done is we've developed a page in our website, or I think it might even be a PDF at this point, but something that when we reach out to somebody who's interested in doing a guest post or we ask somebody to do a guest post, we give them those guidelines to say, hey, this is how we would love for you to, not just structure the post.

Pat:
Usually it's structured with making sure that the opening is very clear. There's a hook, there's a reason to keep reading. There's very clear stories being told, things like that. More than that, it's just, here's who we serve, here's what they need help with, here's how we love to help them, and here's how we think you can add to that. Does that make sense in terms of guidelines for people?

Betty:
Yes. I understand.

Pat:
That's really key. The struggle is even though you might give that to somebody, you're going to get back something that's probably not going to be perfect right from the start. There is a lot of back and forth required, especially if you have those guidelines to get to that point because people write in their own style and it's not always going to fit. Allowing yourself time to offer feedback to whether it's you or somebody else have an editor or a copy editor to go, hey, this is what we like, this is what we don't like. Can you change it? The struggle is sometimes people don't have time to make those changes and the timing of the post. Scheduling it way ahead of time is going to be really important as well. I would give it at least a month in advance to make a room for any changes that are made. That's the hard thing.

Pat:
I think you could potentially help yourself by finding people who are writing in a style that you like on another website already. You can cut a lot of, well, I don't know if this person is a good writer or not out of it. That's one thing. The other solution that I've heard done before in this, I'm just sharing this as an idea, it doesn't have to be this way, is that you could potentially hire. If you have an editor of your own or you want to edit on your own, you could potentially have an expert, a sleep expert for example. You could basically interview them and you could take those answers and structure that into a blog post that is your style, that is your voice, but it actually comes from there, the interview that you did. It's almost like you're ghost writing for them, and that way you have a little bit more control. That takes the most time because taking somebody's audio.

Pat:
The benefit to them is they just have to speak it. They don't have to sit down and write it. You get those changes a little faster, you get the deliverable much faster, but then it's on you to make those changes and that's a lot of time. I don't know if you'd want to do that.

Betty:
Well, if we go that route as far as in Google's eyes, would that be the same as somebody writing it who's a medical professional?

Pat:
In Google's eyes, it would be the same because it would ultimately end up as text on your blog. In Google's eyes, it would remain the same, but again, it would require you to take their words that were transcribed and then put them in a nice flowing blog post, which is often pretty challenging because sometimes we speak differently than we write and consume and read. That's the big challenge there. How many guest post submissions are you looking to do? It sounds like with where you wanted to go, you want it to be quite a bit if you're going to be the all-in-one location.

Betty:
Yeah. I'm struggling with that honestly. I don't know if I want it because I'm going up against really big blogs now like parenting or parents.com. Right now it's just me. I don't have a team, so I don't know if I want to go that far. At the same time, I feel like what's the point of me writing something about breastfeeding when my readers probably rather hear it from a professional?

Pat:
Well, I mean, I can push back on that a little bit. I mean, I think that people, Betty, would want to just get to know you because they have followed you for something and they like you and they've gotten to know you. They're feeling like there's a relationship being built there online. The funny thing is not everybody needs or wants to hear from the ultimate experts. Sometimes they want to hear from somebody that's more relatable. I think that there's benefit of you speaking about topics coming from your point of view even though you may not be the expert. You can even cite experts. You can have quotes from experts in your article to support it a little bit more scientifically if that's what maybe you're afraid of, but you being the voice I think is important.

Pat:
I think that if that's the brand and community you want to build, I would encourage you to perhaps even try maybe as an experiment writing about a couple of other topics that you don't normally write about in your voice, but citing other people and just seeing how everybody responds. I think you'd actually be very surprised, especially if you were very open and open for feedback as well. Just, hey, this is a new kind of article. I felt it was important to write about this and I'm not the expert on this, but I wanted to have you tell me if you feel like I should be writing more about articles or creating more articles like this about topics or if you would rather have somebody else come on to talk about it. Have your audience tell you what you should do versus guessing. Right?

Betty:
Okay. Maybe do a survey or just send out emails asking my audience.

Pat:
Yeah. I mean, honestly I would take a stab at writing one article, just one, in your voice about a topic that you know that you're not the expert on but you have something to say about it and you can teach still. Then follow up with people maybe on your email list or on social and go, hey, this article was a little challenging for me because it's outside of my normal scope. I would love to get your feedback on it. Do you like the style? You know, I felt afraid because I'm not the expert but was it still valuable for you? I think your audience will tell you one way or another. That way you know, okay, I'm never doing that again or "whoa, they actually responded positively. Maybe I can do it with another topic," and you can go from there. Because what you told me in the beginning seem to be very big, right?

Pat:
You're going to have a big blog, which is cool, but I mean, that's a whole new set of people, work, team, and it's going to take some time and steps to get there. If you did want to introduce other writers, perhaps it might mean, and this is the other option, finding one other person to partner with to start who has a second expertise outside of yours who becomes the Betty but about something else. Now she or he shows up as the writer about that topic all the time. They own that topic on your website while you own those other things. They're not a guest post writer. They're actually a part of the brand now in a way. That can look like different things. That could look like a partnership in terms of literal partnership, like part owner of the brand, I mean that's like a marriage. That's a big thing.

Pat:
It could be, hey, for a certain dollar amount every month or maybe it's just quid pro quo where they're doing it for you and then you offer something on their website too. You could do that in many different ways. Having somebody come on, not as a guest post writer but as a writer writer for your brand showing up as that personality alongside you could be an option too. If you wanted to go and expand bigger and you know it's just beyond your scope to be Betty for a hundred different topics.

Betty:
Right. That's a good idea. I haven't thought about that.

Pat:
There are options. Where are you leaning toward for just getting started do you think?

Betty:
I would like to explore what you just said because I feel like if I find somebody who writes, have the similar voice to I am, because I write typically a little more humorous. I don't want the article to be bland.

Pat:
Cool. I like that.

Betty:
That's where I struggle with guest posts, sometimes they come in as very just factual, boring compared to what I usually write, I feel like. Maybe if I can find someone who writes similarly, then we can partner up. This way, we don't lose that humorous tone in our articles.

Pat:
Yeah. I like that. The positive of that is once you find that person, it's like, okay, this is my guy or my gal, right. We're going to tag team on this brand now versus a guest post, you might get one guest post that's great and it's awesome, but it's just a guest post. They're not going to commit to however many per year for you on that topic and you'd have to find another expert on that topic too, or the guest poster is just not very good, you know?

Betty:
Yeah. My struggle with the guest post so far, because I have been asking them to do it, I feel almost feel bad. I don't want to offend them but push back too much. Then at the same time some parts of it I almost want to rewrite a little bit and then I end up putting something on my blog that I'm not completely happy with. At the same time, I don't want to offend the guest poster.

Pat:
You feel obliged to do it, because they put in the effort for you. Yeah, that's the big challenge. I think it could be fun to find that one person who could become the next topic authority on your brand. That way, it just becomes consistent with every article, however many articles there are and your audience can get to know them too. You can together help people in a much bigger way. Then maybe down the road you find that just one is enough, or maybe you don't like it at all and then you go back to just you, or maybe you love it so much and then you add a third person later, and then you add a fourth person later. It becomes this conglomerate and giant team if you want it to go that way. My biggest encouragement for you would be to test and try and really pay attention to how you feel and what works for you. If it doesn't work for you, good, you know that now. Move away from it. If it does feel good, then awesome. You can lean into that a little bit more.

Betty:
Okay. Yeah, I'm also very encouraged by what you said about testing out articles that I write even on topics that I might not be expert at, but I can do a lot of research and see how my audience responds to that. Because you know, as I'm not an expert in any mom thing in particular, I was an engineer, you know? But if I can put in the effort in doing my voice and have my audience respond positively to that, then I can write a lot more myself than I thought.

Pat:
Yeah, I think so. I think the other part is that you don't have to know everything about a topic either. You could use this opportunity to engage your audience and even just start a conversation, and perhaps even highlight some of your audience members who may be even more knowledgeable. I think that they might feel a sense of community if they were to even contribute every once in a while as well. That way you don't ever feel like you have to create the ultimate guide for everything. You can just start a conversation sometimes and it's still valuable. Maybe that's less SEO worthy, but not every article also has to be for Google. Sometimes it's for your community.

Betty:
Yeah, I agree.

Pat:
Yeah, I love that. I think that's cool. One more time before you go, where might people go to find more information about you and what you have going on?

Betty:
My blog is mombrite.com, that's M-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.comM-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.com.

Pat:
Mombrite, great domain name. That's awesome.

Betty:
Thank you.

Pat:
Any other questions or hesitations, objections that I can help you with before you head out and get stuff going?

Betty:
Quick thought on getting someone who's just a freelance writer to guest posts.

Pat:
Okay.

Betty:
I have a lot of inquiries on that and I am hesitant about it.

Pat:
Yeah. Freelancers, great opportunity, but also not 100 percent always on par with the topic that you have. When you can find a freelancer that is in the space that you're in, that's always a plus. They do exist for all different niches, but at the same time it's contract work and so you'll have a little bit more understanding of how much it costs. Again, pros and cons to each side. You might find somebody who then finds work elsewhere and then they leave. It's like, okay, well I thought you were going to be the longterm person who wrote for me on this topic, and then now you're out because you got some other better contract somewhere else, or you decided to start your own entrepreneurial endeavor, which a lot of freelancers do. Then they're not working for you anymore. That's the big challenge with that too.

Pat:
Again, the best thing to do would be to just, okay, maybe you find one who can write a couple articles. You see how that goes, see how the audience responds. Again, the big challenge is similar to what the guest post is. Maybe they're better at writing and styling because that's what they do, but nailing your voice and adding that comedic element can be a little bit more difficult.

Betty:
Okay. I see. That's probably my third option or fourth down the road.

Pat:
You have options, which is great.

Betty:
Yeah. I know, you gave me a lot to think about. Thank you.

Pat:
Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you again so much, Betty, for coming on. Best of luck to you, Mombrite, B-R-I-T-E.com for everybody. We'll check in on you later on and see how things are going.

Betty:
Great. Thank you.

Pat:
All right. I hope you enjoyed that episode with Betty. Again, you can find her on her website at mombrite.com
M-O-M-B-R-I-T-E.com. Her website even since listening to this interview and doing it is continuing to rock it, and so make sure you check it out. Thank you all for listening in. If you have the urge to come on the show and want to get coached by me just like Betty did today and the thousands of others that have come on the show before too, just head on over to askpat.com; click the button on that page. You'll find all the other episodes there as well plus some other stuff that's there for you. You'll be able to fill out an application and put your name in the bucket, if you will. We get them all, we receive them. Over time we reach out and we may or may not reach out to you because we just get so many. The truth is we won't unless you do it. Make sure to go to askpat.com and leave your application there to get on the show.

Pat:
Of course, the show is going nowhere. I can't wait till we get to 2,000 and 3,000. It's just so great because we get to help directly people who are entrepreneurs just like you. I know you need some help too, so askpat.com. If you've listened all the way through already, just thank you so much. Make sure you go to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have the capability to leave a review, that'd be super fantastic. It means so much to me. I read them and they mean the world. I'm just here to serve, so thank you so much. Make sure you hit subscribe so you can get next week's episode when we talk with another entrepreneur who is growing and needs some help and I'm there for her and for you as well. Subscribe. You're the best. Cheers. As always, #TeamFlynnfortheWin. Peace.