A lot of writers come into the blogging world, ready to move mountains with their written words. A lot of writers come into this ruthless environment, hoping to make an impact. An impact in their readers’ lives, on society and its norms, to bring a piece of relevance to the already saturated web… But the biggest problem with these dreams is that not all of them will be met from the get-go. When I started blogging, I was sure that my writing alone was enough to reach all corners of the world. But it wasn’t. I soon learned that I needed to collaborate with my peers and optimize my posts for that dream to come true.
Rajat, a lifestyle and technology blogger, reached out to me one day and asked the million-dollar question; how do you choose which bloggers to collaborate with? What I love about this question is that it forced me to think a little harder about what seems to be a simple thing, but really isn’t. Just what is it that you need to look out for?
Here is the checklist I use before I collaborate:

Is their niche similar to yours?
When it boils down to it, bloggers will not get too far without the community. We need to build relationships with our peers to learn and grow together. I learned quite early in the game that because you come in with a clean slate, it is your peers’ audience that will eventually be yours. It is also the blogging community that will support you most. For this very reason, I hopped right onto the collaboration train with very little thought.
It didn’t take long to realize that this wasn’t the best approach. While blogging should definitely be fun, there needs to be a little bit of logic to the madness for both sides to benefit. By this I mean, does it fit into the host’s niche, or is it relatively close? Will their readers receive the post well? Just to illustrate this a little further, let’s use a finance blog and a makeup blogger. Would it make any sense for a blogger that covers finance to feature a post about makeup? Of course, there may be a handful of readers that wouldn’t mind reading this information, but it would be confusing for most. Before you agree to collaborate, please compare your niches.
What is the quality of their blog like?
One thing I always do before saying yes to a collaboration request is to check out the blogger’s site. Most times, their content is very interesting and in line with the standards of my blog. Other times though, I struggle to understand the point of their articles. When we refer to the quality of the blog, of course we mean the grammar, profanity, religious slandering, etc. But above and beyond this is the way they are able to convey their message.
Even if you work diligently with a guest blogger, you need to think about the aim of hosting them. Is this to drive more traffic to their site? If the answer to that is yes, would your readers still trust you if you sent them to a blog that they couldn’t read or relate to? I am all for bloggers supporting bloggers, but at the end of the day, you need to consider what type of support you can offer without misleading your readers.
Will your SEO ranking tank if you collaborate?
This isn’t a problem for everyone, but I would urge you to consider it. After finally understanding just what SEO is and how it impacts the ranking of a blog, I think twice before proceeding with a collaboration. You would need to ensure that the guest post that you feature does not take away from what took you months to build. However, before you start turning people down, you need to figure out just what it is that you want for your blog.
When I started looking for sponsored opportunities, I came across one big problem; domain authority. If you are registered to Get Blogged, you probably know just what I am referring to. For everyone else, this is basically a score that search engines use to determine the ranking of a site. I would be lying if I said I knew what went into it, I just know it is important for sponsors. Most would prefer blogs with a Domain Authority of 10+ but you can be lucky to find other paid sponsors with a lower score. After all the research I did, one main thing stood out; if you want to improve your domain authority, improve your SEO.
Do they research their posts or just provide opinions
So this one isn’t really big on my list, but it is still on there. Most of the information I provide on my blog has a basis, either personal experiences or research. If I were to host a guest blogger, I would need to know if the main message they are trying to convey also has solid grounding. Now I know many writers just like to share creative content, and that’s okay. Personally, I wouldn’t have a poem posted on my blog because that is just not my style. I also wouldn’t have someone post a research paper on GWS.
Using the makeup blog as reference once again, you wouldn’t want someone writing a post about how great glue is for your eyebrows. What is the basis behind this? Have they looked into the ingredients and given good references? At the end of the day, your readers are your clients and they trust you. Do not just host a post if you do not agree with the details.
Is their blog following the correct guidelines?
Another thing that may not be as relevant to most bloggers, but really should is the use of Copywrite data. This could be as simple as using a picture that was downloaded from a random site and does not have the proper licensing! I got two great tips from collaborating with two of my blogging friends Jan and Olivia. Jan makes sure to give her references and provides pictures that she has the right to use. I loved this, it made me feel comfortable to host her post. As for Olivia, she mentioned that she does a quick Google search to make sure that the text is not plagiarised. Another golden buzzer if you ask me!
Conclusion:
Whether you choose to collaborate with another blogger, that decision will have a weighting on you. What you want is for the outcome to be positive for both you and the guest writer. Use your sound judgment and trust your gut. It isn’t rude to say no because support can come in different ways.
These are brilliant tips. Thank you!
Didn’t know before now that collaborations with “wrong” bloggers could tank Domain Authority and SEO. Thanks for the helpful info Shelly. I’ll consider this from now on.
It’s not so much the blogger but the content. So if you care about SEO you may need to spend some time editing the post to fit, in which case it is no longer the original. So if both of you don’t mind, go ahead! If SEO is important to you, you wouldn’t exactly want someone to write an essay with long winded sentences, no subheadings, no keyword usage, etc.
Hmm. Yeah, that’s purely true. You should advise us on blogging more often.
Lol I’m glad you found the tips useful. I’ll try and advise as much as possible but that’s not really the point of GWS 😅
This is very useful, thanks for this
Yay 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Great tips Shelly. Very timely as one of my 2021 goals is to do more collaborations. Thanks.
Ooooh sounds like you’ve got some interesting things up your sleeve! Good luck!
And thanks for reading 😉
Very useful and this post has come at the right time for me. 😀
Yay! I’m glad this post was useful to you 🙂
Good luck with your upcoming collabs!
Awesome tips. I love learning more.about blogging. There is so much I need to learn.
I didn’t even know about Get Blogged. Do you use them and what do you think?
Thanks for reading!
I have signed up with Get Blogged because I saw quite a lot of positive reviews on it. Many bloggers that post their income reports also have some income from Get Blogged. Most weeks I take a look to see what offers they have but I have never actually applied to any because there was Blogmas, then I moved to a new house and the full time job uffff! But long story short, I’ve heard very good things about them
Cool. It looks like a good opportunity.
That’s a lot at the same time. Atleast now you are settled and Blogmas is over. Then working a full time job and blogging is a lot still. Good luck with everything.
I will definitely try out Get Blogged.
Awesome tips! I usually only collaborate with bloggers I’ve known for a while.
You blog has taught me so much about blogging. I’m not ready to collaborate yet, but I’ll keep these in mind in the future 🙂
This post is good food for thought. I’ve done a few collabs here and there over the years but never really given much thought to it. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
You’re good 😉 Thanks for reading!
First of all, thanks to you for answering my request with such a generous gesture. Bless you. Your checklist has really made the gears in my brain turning now. I really feel that collaboration is actually a tricky part. Jumping the bandwagon can be a good option in an early stage (as I am a little liberal person, I would like to give a long rope to a new blogger). But I strongly feel that from the budding days, the bloggers must build trust and an ecosystem. This will help them grow and have a much needed support. For e.g. if I know a blogger from my early days of blogging, then I can trust him/her for feedback, guidance, sharing experience. When it’ll come to collaboration, my long standing trust will provide my with a quick list on my allies in the world. Plus, you need to grow and scale up as a blogger, collaboration is not just a views getting tool, it is also about being making your own blog to have perspectives on the ‘same’ subject making it richer for your audience.
Your article have also helped me in getting in focus two things….. First is that the style of writing, it should be relatable if not similar (I’ll keep that in mind). Second, is ‘Well researched, rather than opinion’, that does matter. It shows the professionalism and seriousness.
Additionally, a blog in normal progression graduates to a website….I guess, then you need to scale up on many things.
Thanks a lot once again.
Will surely love to get guidance from you in future.
Rajat Jhingan
These are really good tips! Thanks for this.
Hope it helps! Thanks for reading 💖
I haven’t given a thought to blog collaboration. But I have reblogged a couple or so other posts that I liked. Thanks for the invaluable tips – will be handy when the time to collaborate happens. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This is great!! I’ve had a few guest bloggers on my site. What I most look for is original, authentic content that is related to the overall message of my brand. Basically I want the guest post to be good — if it’s bad or poorly written then that can tank my blog’s reputation 🙁
I am wondering about the blog ranking score. Does everyone have access to that for free? Or would I have to pay to obtain one?
Thanks Helen 🙂 that’s a great thing to stick to. Authentic and relative to your blog. The domain authority thing is actually free to check. You just run a Google search for domain authority checker, pick a site, insert your URL and it checks it for you! you can check any site’s DA actually
Thank you for the information!! I just checked and mine is pretty low. I just read that a good site should be at 50-60 and it depends on the quantity and quality of backlinks to your site.