This is a paid review sponsored by Ann Smarty of MyBlogGuest.com
Just in case you‘re living inside a hollow cave, you probably aren‘t aware yet that guest posting is the most powerful FREE way to get a blog known. By far, it’s a very powerful tactic that can get your blog brand across a wide range of audience. In my free eBook called Blog Marketing for Fame (get your copy now!) I stressed so much how it made my blog grew that quick.
For today, Ann Smarty pinged me last week to do this review of her site called as MyBlogGuest. I‘ll drive straight into the site and will now discuss what it is all about and its functionalities. So basically MyBlogGuest is a forum where you can find guest posters and fellow bloggers. The idea behind it is to build a community of guest posters that will collaborate with each other. In the end, it should be a win-win situation for everyone.
Site‘s Design & Aesthetics
At first look, you actually wouldn‘t think it‘s a forum and for me the only time I realized it was a forum was when I already completed filling out my profile. The site‘s layout is very simple yet it doesn‘t look like an ancient website. The forum itself is small yet is very targeted to guest bloggers. I personally like it because being targeted, you get to squeeze every benefit from it and will no longer need to avoid forum lurkers who just annoy members.
Another unique part is the categories and tags page. While you can browse each thread to find out your interest, you can also benefit a lot by sorting the blogs by categories. For example, MelvinBlog Dot Com is inside the internet marketing category so all you have to do is to pick your niche/category and you would immediately see blogs which are talking on the same stuffs. It also works the same with tags where you can specify the tags that your blog uses.
Functionality and Benefits
As I’ve said I’m a fan of small yet tight communities. MyBlogGuest isn’t like other forums which are mostly cluttered. As I was browsing different topics (there are just mainly 5 topics), I noticed that the members are supportive of each other. Ann was also out there responding and collaborating with the members. There was even a “Help Needed” topic there where you can go out and request for social media votes.
Another thing Ann mentioned is that they would try to keep the quality as high as possible. The forum has made it easy to report people who violate the rules, or those who don’t follow the guidelines of guest posting. So if you go out there and try to game the system, then more likely you are gonna get banned.
Lastly there’s also another part w/c is called Blog Round Ups where Ann would feature the best guest posts arranged through the forum in her blog. Although I don’t think it’s a huge feature, it can still help you get traffic especially if your blog is just getting started.
The Bad & Ugly, Some Suggestions
Well not really bad and ugly, I just can’t figure out a good title, lols. The one thing I don’t like is the quality of blogs in there. In fact I’ve seen people requesting for guest posts on a blog with an Alexa 1 million rank but it’s understandable and it’s the inevitable part of this feature. But I would definitely love to have a sort kind of a filtering system where you can filter good blogs from average ones.
Actually there is, the Blog Power. By specifying your blog and some of your social media accounts, you are getting a certain rating for your blog. The higher, the better obviously. But I find it glitchy since Google PR and other stuffs don’t really determine the audience behind the blog. Another is the part where you link your social media account to the forum. Actually it’s not linking, it’s just inputting (w/c is obviously a flaw).
Since I’m not a social junkie, all of my social accounts power just combined for a mere 7 points. So what I basically did was just borrow the user name of the top users in those social networks. Look:
Obviously the built-in Blog Power isn’t really a reliable metric and even if they fix it, it is still not (metrics aren’t that precise in determining)
It’s also the anti-thesis for direct communication types of guest posting for bloggers. Since most bloggers do have a contact form, then why go through a third party in a forum? Besides, bloggers check their email more often than forums right? Anyways I don’t really see it changing the current procedures in guest posting. People will still contact other bloggers directly and stuffs like that.
Final Words
MyBlogGuest is a decent site and the fact that it’s not a make money program is one thing that I liked so much about it. Ann Smarty is a pretty reputable person in this industry and I know her intention is honest. As the forum grows bigger and bigger and more tweaks are implemented, I think the site can become a key player in the rapidly-growing guest blogging community. Of course it still depends on a lot of factors, mostly the users (both quantity and quality). If she can get large bloggers to thumbs it up then it’s going to get huge in no time.
Sign up now with MyBlogGuest and tell me your experience about them.