There seems to be a rule in blogging that on January 1st, any self-respecting blogger will take a few minutes to wax poetic on one of two topics – a recap of their year previous, or an outlook on their goals of the new year ahead.  All the cool kids are doing it, so I’ve decided to jump into the mix.  I’m not doing anything better today, so why not? :p

I’m going to opt for the latter, and set forth some goals for my 2009.  Some more important than others, but listed in no particular order.

1. Work out the technical kinks on my blog.  I’ve got some issues with the CSS on this theme regarding spacing in lists, so Id like to either learn enough about CSS to fix this or find a new theme that I like as much as this one.  I also had a problem upgrading to Wordpress 2.7 and had to revert back, so I’ll figure out what the heck was causing that & upgrade.
2. Post every day.  Even if it’s just a quick note about how work is going or something interesting I saw online that day.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to post crap, but just a bit more current things than necessarily waiting until the end of the week to mention some things in my Cribbed Content post.
3. Get back to doing the Free Toolsday and Saturday Shopper features.  I enjoy doing them, I’ve just been slacking.
4. Write more guest posts & accept more guest posts.  I’ve been given the opportunity, so I should collaborate with fellow bloggers more than I do.

That’s really it.  If I set a lot of lofty goals, I’ll never finish them all.  So these few are here.  Keep me honest on this and we’ll friends.  Check back here in a year to see if I suceeded!

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I’ve decided after some thought to open my blog up for some limited guest posts.  Topics to consider are Performance Marketing, Online Marketing, Working at Home, Telecommuting, Offline Marketing, and Social Media.

The first guest post this this afternoon by Twitter buddy Joe Magennis.  Stay tuned.

If you’re interested, email our great Roman leader Guesticles@trishalyn.com for more information and with an idea of what you might like to write about.

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I’ve had the opportunity to blog as a guest for a few blogs now, and I’ve been approached by other bloggers interested in guest posting on this here blog.  It’s a weird subject for me.  While it might be nice to put the reigns down every once in awhile and get a fresh take on some content, I also feel like people come here for my opinion.  Perhaps that’s self centered of me.  But allowing a rival gang member onto my turf makes me uncomfortable.

Perhaps it’s not about rivalry.  Perhaps it’s about cooperation towards a shared goal.

When thinking about what to write for a blog that I could guest post on, for some reason I get nervous about that too.  My education in writing started out from a very journalistic place, so I feel the need to really write a professional, newspaper quality article when writing for someone else.  I don’t feel nearly that amount of pressure when writing for my own blog since this is my publication – I’m solely responsible for it and have no one else but myself to blame for it’s success or failures.  So while the exposure of guest blogging for someone else would be a definite pro, the pressure I’d put on myself in crafting the “perfect” article might overwhelm that.

To return to cooperation, it’s always a shared goal when guest blogging.  The blog owner gets the benefit of a fresh outlook and a lighter work load while the guest gets the benefit of more exposure of their name and style which might drive some readers to check out their blog as well.  There’s always more room for another feed in your feed reader of choice.  And as the blog owner, you have complete discretion over what gets posted on your blog – very much like the managing editor of a newspaper or magazine.  If the article isn’t up to your own standards, you have the freedom to ask for changes or just reject it outright.

As someone who works full time and then blogs, it’s a bit difficult to consider guest blogging just from a work load standpoint.  Working all day, then coming home to develop content for my own blogs AND guest articles is a lot of work.  I guess my biggest question is, is it worth the amount of work put in?

So speak up… have you written guest posts for blogs?  Do you accept guest articles for your own blog?  What have your results been?

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