Featured Guests Made Easy for WordPress

A Guest post by Bren:

Featured Guest, Brenda

One thing that I find to be popular amongst bloggers is, Guest Posts or Featured Guests.

I have been a Featured Guest on a few blogs as well as had a few bloggers feature on my own blog. For me, it has been challenging. Most of the blogs I Subscribe to tend to be “technical”. Blog tips, Social Networking, non-pit bull type blogs . So I try and follow their niche by submitting a “technical” type post. Again, this is a challenge for me. My blog is mainly about my own pit bull Titan, pit bulls in general, hormonal rants women posts, and/or general lifestyle posts.

The challenge of writing a Guest Post is something I embrace, although while writing it, I do get frustrated and kick myself in the keister for accepting such a challenge.

So, the topic at hand is Guest Posts or Featured Guests.

There are many ways to submit a Guest Post. Since I use a WordPress.org platform, I’m going to focus on it.

In the past, I had the Featured Guest submit their post to me via email (usually a MSWord doc), an Author Bio, and any pictures that go along with the post. A few months ago, I stumbled upon two (2) very cool WordPress Plugins!

• Peter’s Collaboration Emails (WP plugin page) and the Creator’s website Peter’s Collaboration Emails for WordPress.
• Peter’s Post Notes (WP plugin page) and the Creator’s Peter’s Post Notes for WordPress.

Installing the plugin’s is very easy.

You can do this via the above links provided or you can install via your WordPress Control Panel and search the two (2) plugin’s above under your Plugin’s option.
Next, in your WordPress Control Panel, go to Settings, General. Here you can either leave the New User Default Role to Subscriber or you can change it to Contributor. I choose to keep mine on Subscriber and when I get a User who is going to Feature, I simply change it under their User Profile.
Once you set the User to Contributor, it opens up a WordPress Dashboard for them. Similar to what you see, minus all the Administrator features.
The User/Contributor will then go through the normal procedures for adding a New Post. Being familiar with a WordPress Dashboard comes in very useful here, however, you can walk a beginner through usually with no issues.
So the User/Contributor composes their Guest Post. Uploading pics they need, adding any hyperlinks, grammatical, bla bla blah stuff. When ready, they Submit for Review.

Submit for Review

6. What happens next is pretty cool! Peter’s Collaboration Emails sends and email to the Administrator (in this case ME) or whomever else you set it up to notify, that a post has been Submitted for your Review.

7. Log In to your WordPress Control Panel, Review the Post, and either Publish or notify the Contributor of any changes you would like to see made. This is where the 2nd plugin comes in handy, Peter’s Post Notes.

Publish

8. See that “Add note”? That was my note to the Contributor. Once I hit Publish, the Contributor will now receive an email notifying them that a Note was left for them.
9. They will Log In to their WordPress Control Panel and visit the submitted post and either see that their post will be Published or make any necessary changes that may have been left in the “Add note” section.

Note

10. Whoa! See that? Very cool, eh?
11.If there are changes to be made, the Contributor will make the corrections and Submit for Review again. This hopefully won’t continue any longer than maybe one (1) correction. If it does, you may want to rethink contributing again to this blog. Just kidding!
12. In the event there are not changes, the Administrator and schedule the post as usual and all is done! Easy?

So that’s pretty much the gist of it. To me, it’s a lot easier for a Contributor to write his/her own Guest Post, add links and/or pics and such, Submit for Review, and then for the Admin’s approval.

Or you can simply continue the old way, have the Contributor email you the post with pics and then you upload yourself.

The other cool thing about these plugin’s is, the Contributor will get their own Author Bio under their blog post all based on what they add into their Contributor profile. Very cool?

The Final Result

This was the first Featured Guest Post I had using Peter’s plugin’s. You can see the entire post here, just to see the full affect, What Dogs Can Teach Us About Life.

So, what do you think? Did I leave anything out? What are the chances you might try Peter’s plugin’s for your next Feature Guest?

I definitely will!!

There are several ways to contact me:

19 comments on “Featured Guests Made Easy for WordPress”

Jan on October 21, 2012 at 9:07 PM said:

I’m proud to have Brenda on here with this fabulous guest post. Thanks for that, Brenda. I greatly appreciate that!
Jan recently posted: Foreigners Should Blog In English

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Brenda on October 21, 2012 at 10:34 PM said:

Thanks for having me Jan! I had to push myself with this one. I wanted it to be detailed enough for bloggers to understand. I hope I didn’t let you down. Thanks again for having me. BTW, did you install the plugins yet?
Brenda recently posted: Life in Social Networking

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- Jan on October 22, 2012 at 5:33 AM said:
  
  Not yet, Bren,
  But I’m planning on that. It could make things easier when doing guest posts. No more emailing out of WordPress and sending Word documents. Good job!
  
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  - Brenda on October 22, 2012 at 8:48 PM said:
    
    Exactly right! I found it to flow a lot smoother by using the plugins.
    
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Lisa on October 21, 2012 at 10:43 PM said:

Another post with perfecting timing. I just submitted a guest post and it was a little different over on their wordpress. It did have a log-in for me but this plug in would have been cool. Thanks Brenda for sharing this informative piece on this new plug-in. (new to me) I love how the author bio comes out too!
Lisa recently posted: My Pet Peeve On Using Share Buttons On Your Blog

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Brenda on October 21, 2012 at 10:49 PM said:

Thanks Lisa. One of the blogs I frequent, had links to these plugins. I thought it was pretty cool. I tested it with my other user account and was pleased. When Dave Farmer agreed to Feature, I was anxious to put it to the test. A far as I know, it worked well. (our at least Dave didnt complain). Thanks for the comment and I look forward to reading your guest post!

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- Jan on October 22, 2012 at 8:39 PM said:
  
  It sure did. He made a fabulous pust too!
  
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Jan on October 22, 2012 at 8:38 PM said:

Indeed there’s an advantage over the ‘contribotor’ option, due to the things you describe. Plus it takes away the back and forth sending of edited documents.
BUT… There’s an alternative to. you could make a shared document on google drive and your and review at the same time…

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The Redneck Princess on October 22, 2012 at 2:56 AM said:

Nice work guys!!!!
The Redneck Princess recently posted: 30 Day Photo Challenge~Day Twenty-one…Pattern

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Brenda on October 22, 2012 at 2:58 PM said:

Thanks Donna. Have you used these plugins yet?
Brenda recently posted: Life in Social Networking

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Jan on October 22, 2012 at 8:45 PM said:

Hi Donna,
Thanks & working on it. A team effort counts double! lol. Well actually it’s Brenda’s work!

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Mayura on October 22, 2012 at 1:47 PM said:

See who’s here for a guest post Nicey tutorial with screenshots Brenda.

Now, it has lot of advantages for guest posting. It’s so much easier for author and blogger too. Save a BIG time. I really like the adding note for guest author and automatic generation of author bio feature.

Well, I’m not much familiar with WordPress. Absolutely have no idea about guest posting there through dashboard. Anyway except for extra features, is there any advantages between adding user as an author and let him/her write guest post, and this way Bren?

Have a GREAT week for you both, Brenda and Jan

Cheers…
Mayura recently posted: How to Get Your Comments Approved

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Brenda on October 22, 2012 at 3:02 PM said:

Thank you Mayura! From the Blogspot standpoint, yes, you add them as an Author (as you did me) and they simple write the post into Blogpost. These WordPress plugins are as simple as that. The Author/Contributor registers a WP account (simple login name and password); they are assigned as a Contributor. From there, they would write their post into WordPress as a Blogspot person would do. Very similiar imo.

For me, it’s easier for the Author/Contributor to input their post because the pics would already be embedded, it automatically writes the Bio based on the profile information entered by the Contributor, all formatting is there (bold, italic, quotations). IMO, makes the process easier on both parties.

I’ll have you Feature on my blog again and we can try it

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Jan on October 22, 2012 at 8:46 PM said:

Thanks,Mayura!
There’s always more than one road that leads to the same town..

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Kita on October 22, 2012 at 8:20 PM said:

Now this is nice I miss out on so many cool plugins I must try this one.
Kita recently posted: Dear 21 year old self

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Brenda on October 22, 2012 at 8:48 PM said:

Thanks Kita! Oh yea, this may be a nice feature for KoKoa! Let me know how you like it, if you try it out.
Brenda recently posted: Featured Guests Made Easy!

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Jeevan Jacob John on October 24, 2012 at 2:30 PM said:

I haven’t tried Peter’s collaboration plugin (although I have tried something similar). Usually for my blog, I just keep it in all emails (I like emails better than my guest authors registering and submitting posts for review – but, both works).

As a guest author, I see that most people prefer emails over WP submission (although more people are jumping on board with plugins like these so guest authors can write and submit their posts for review directly).

Anyways, thank you for the post, Brenda (and for the plugin – I might give it a try in the future ).

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Brenda on October 24, 2012 at 2:36 PM said:

Thanks Jeevan. Personally, I’d rather have the person submit it all themselves but that’s just me. Imo, it’s more error proof. The guest gets to put all the formatting and pics where they want plus if they decide to guest again, they are all ready to go! I can see benefits on both ways, however I prefer this one. Wasn’t sure how many new about this one so decided to share.
Brenda recently posted: Take the Easy Way Out? Nah, Make it Work!

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