It is no small task to establish and operate an effective website for your business. There is no end to the information you want to provide your current and prospective customers and then, after you share an idea, you may feel that it is in need of expansion. Many small business owners find that blogging is a way to continue providing fresh ideas and information. In order to keep your content fresh, you struggle to find fresh material that will convey pertinent material in a manner that will keep those customers coming back to see what you have to offer. That’s where guest blogging can prove invaluable for your small business.

What to do if you are the blog host

bloggerPart of the effort you have put into building your business has involved building a network of other small businesses you serve, whose offerings differ from yours yet with whom you share some common ground in terms of services you provide. If you think about it you will find a number of symbiotic, or cooperative relationships among your contacts. Think of your business as the center point in a flow chart in which you offer branches of information that are both outgoing and incoming. You have established and continue to grow your company by welcoming ideas and methods from similar-but-different businesses and integrating them into your own substance and style, while you share your methods, ideas, and contacts with them. Together with your business contacts, you offer a wide net of information and new ideas to clients that may be new to all of you.

The ideas you invite from your existing contacts may take the form of “guest blogs,” wherein your associates share their wisdom with your now-and-future followers with offerings and insights that will enrich the opportunities you already provide. Inviting such ideas and offering them up on your own website shows those seeking to do business with you the confidence you have that your company can serve as a clearinghouse of information and services that can be both trusted and embraced.

By inviting related businesses to use your site to reach a new throng of customers, you are offering your contacts a vehicle to build their businesses by reaching out to your existing clients. By inviting your associates and clients to contribute to your website, you create a community of sharing and mutual trust. You are promoting the notion that you may not know every bit of information or have every service that may ever be needed, you know where to find it and offer it up freely. It might seem risky to offer your followers alternate sources of information and inspiration. However, by creating a cooperative center for the sharing of resources, you will expand on the belief that you are a trusted associate and a generous provider.

What to do if you are the guest blogger

guest bloggerYou have been invited to share your ideas and experience with an associate, who will feature your blog on their business website. If you are confident that you have something to offer and, as a bonus, wish to generate backlinks to your own site, you should accept the host’s invitation. Your subscribers will follow you to the host website, where they may be able to broaden their horizons with regard to subject matter that is supplementary to the wisdom they already glean from you. In this way, you invite your associates to join you in a larger network than you alone can offer. You are, at the same time, adding to your network individuals and other small businesses who will see your blog at a site they already trust.

Why guest blogging is a win-win

Guest blogging is a win-win-win opportunity for the host, the guest blogger, and the readers. It is an adventure in network expansion and interagency cooperation. It is a sharing of knowledge, clientele, and overall trust. Participants in guest blogging will leave whatever knowledge they can, take what they don’t already have, and build an ever-increasing network of associates.

Patty Hughes
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