Guest Authors at The Grateful Golfer

/ The Grateful Golfer

Spring is just around the corner!

Hey Grateful Golfers, how is your day going? I hope your Thursday is going very well and that you are creating the day you want.

Today’s post is a bit different from others because I need help trying to make a decision. Over the past year, I was asked if I allowed guest authors at The Grateful Golfer. I tabled all the requests because I was not sure if I wanted to open up my blog to others.

When I started writing, my topics and thoughts were very raw and over the past 5 years, 1,117 posts and over 150,000 views, the opinions expressed here are entirely my own. This is one of the aspects I like best about my blog and I think you do to. However, I am not sure if we are missing something by not sharing the views of other authors in order to expand our daily golf discussion. It is a tough topic because there is a fair bit of emotion attached to the decision. But, like on the golf course, I do not want my ego to limit the evolution of this golf blog.

So that is may question for you: Would you be interested in reading articles by different authors at the grateful golfer?

Of course, I am still sitting on the fence and I am still not convinced, but I am open to the discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

16 thoughts on “Guest Authors at The Grateful Golfer”

  1. Hi Jim.
    I’m not sure there’s a wrong decision to be made here but I know you’re under no rush. Reflection helps. I’ve considered the same but know that my writing is so closely linked to my golfing experience and travels. The blog has provided me a great space to engage and so far that’s been sufficient for me. Wish you well with the decision you come up with.

    Cheers, Mike.

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  2. Jim,

    Obviously a big decision, I think it’s a good idea to highlight great ideas you’ve seen from other people but at the same time the community obviously enjoys your writing quite a bit. Might be a cool way to grow your site but I wouldn’t blame you if you kept it a solo show. Either way, best of luck with your decisions!

    -Sully

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  4. I certainly have no problem with you allowing others to post. Actually you already give us a forum with the comment section. So we already get the benefit of others opinions and ideas and its a valuable addition though I’m sure it means extra work to read and approve them all.

    But this goes to another level. My first though is if you don’t mind the idea of allowing others to post a story on your site, does this tool give you enough levels of security to allow others access to a limited area of your backend so they can post themselves and have the new story await your approval before going live but can’t make changes to the sites functions, or would you have to post them yourself which would work well only for one offs.

    Another thought is how big do you want your blog to get? The bigger one gets, the more work you have to do to keep it going. The more writers you add, the more comments that will have to be moderated. Doing it on a one off basis doesn’t hurt, but allowing even just 4 or 5 others writers to submit at their whim can make things grow exponentially. And too much traffic might increase your costs which might cause you to need to look for advertisers.

    It’s a bigger decision than it looks on the surface. Good luck either way.

    On another note, I thought it might be nice to set up a site where anyone can come post their own golf stories and track their game/handicap if they want. Years ago I started work on the idea of a players blog with a compute my handicap site before getting distracted. I only barely created the beginnings of the framework back then and haven’t touched it since. http://www.kevshouse.us is where it sits at the moment. That’s a server in my house so it won’t take a million hits, but you can see who it is that’s posting because my pic is on the front page. As I said I never got past the very beginnings so nothing there works at present and even the look is something i would change for today. That work must be 15 years old and even if I liked the design it would have to change because it’s not cell phone ready. But the idea is even more valid today than it was then. We are all on the internet today. What do you think? Is that a build it and they will come idea?

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    • Kevin

      Your idea sounds solid. There are many more viewers today than ever. Having a forum for people to tell their stories has merit, but like you said, control of content is important. There are clowns out there that enjoy trying to ruin a good thing. Thanks for your thoughts, I will definitely give it some thought.

      Cheers
      Jim

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  6. Jim,

    I also get regular requests from people wanting to write something for my blog, or publish something they’ve already written. Some even offer money. I’ve turned down all outside requests to date. As you know, I have had some guest authors though, but only from my wife and brother-in-law. This was carefully considered and I believed those opportunities provided value to my readers. I think some guest-posting in general is fine as long as you are stringent with your selection of who you allow to do it and it helps with your content goals to provide value to the reader. Just my personal opinion, but hope it helps.

    Cheers
    Josh

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  7. Jim, I can’t tell you how to run your blog, but would suggest that if you think the blog and your readers would benefit from adding different author’s content, then open it up. I know it’s difficult thinking of fresh content to publish as often as you post. My 2cents.

    Thanks,

    Brian

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