Aside from money, what you can offer writers is exposure to your audience. If your blog has impressive amounts of traffic, social shares, or comments from readers, share that information with the outside writers you are courting. You will find that the more exposure you have to offer writers, the less you will have to pay for their content. In fact, after your blog reaches a critical mass, you won’ t need to pay a dime for content— writers will come to you for the exposure.
Keep in mind that the reach the writer brings to the table will affect how much you have to pay him or her. The more influence and followers your guest writer has, the more money and exposure that author will require from you.
Ensuring success with content creators
The best way to ensure success from an outside writer is to be prepared with guidelines for your blog. These guidelines, like those on the Write for Us page, communicate what types of content perform best on your blog, what audience you gear your articles toward, and other standards for an outside writer’ s work to meet. For instance, if your blog doesn’ t accept certain kinds of images( stock or personal photography, for example) indicate those restrictions in your guidelines. If you require your images to be a certain size, with a certain resolution and with a specific border, list those requirements. Your guidelines are the information your writers need to shape the content you want them to provide you, and having guidelines will save you a mess of editing, formatting, and image polishing when you receive their final work. After connecting with outside writers who have indicated interest in writing for you, send them your guidelines so that they know what to expect. You can send the guidelines in a separate document or paste them directly into your correspondence.
Next, lead with examples by showing writers articles on your own blog that you want their article to model. Also, provide links to content that has done well in the past to help the writers get a sense of what direction to take the article.
After writers know what you expect based on your guidelines and the examples you’ ve provided, ask the writers for information about the post they intend to write for you. Have them give you the following information:
The working title: The title of a blog post, also called a headline, is a promise to the reader. The working title isn’ t necessarily the headline that will be published on your blog, but it is a guiding statement for the writer as he produces the post.
The outline: You want to know how the post will lay out, details for each section, and what images the writer expects to use. The more detail you receive from the writer upfront, the greater the chance for the article’ s success.
When writers send back the working title and outline, approve or make suggestions and