A few thoughts on the first round of guest blog posts

17 Aug

Posted by Scott as general

If you’ve been visiting this space for the last 10 or 12 weeks, you’ve probably read the first set of guest blog posts that Aaron and I announced. Just to refresh your memory, the posts are:

Craig Haiss on why FAQs are a tech writer’s secret weapon
Sarah Maddox on what makes a tech writer tick
Gordon McLean on how technical communicators can adapt to new ways of doing things
Tom Johnson on unstoppability
Anne Gentle on taking a vacation from blogging

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this little experiment. Aaron and I appreciate the time and effort that you put into your posts. Your posts were great, and a great addition to our blog.

Reasons and results

A few people have asked me why I put out a call for guest posts. I wrote about that elsewhere. Suffice it to say that one of teh main motivations was to bring a number of different voices and perspectives into this space. As far as that went, I think this experiment was very successful.

What Craig, Sarah, Gordon, Tom, and Anne wrote isn’t quite like what normally appears on this blog. The subject matter was slightly different, and the tone of the writing was different too. Strangely enough, though, those posts fit in seamlessly with the rest of the content on this blog.

And what’s to come will continue in that vein.

What’s next?

The next round of guest posts will begin on September 2. This time around, you’re going to hear (or, at least, read) a few voices that you might not have heard (or read) before. They’ll be offering some interesting insights and information. This time around, though, we’ll be publishing the guest posts every three weeks instead of every two.

Aaron and I are hoping that we can make guest posts a regular part of this space. At what frequency, we’re not sure yet. We’ve been mulling publishing a block of posts, then taking a break for a month or two, then publishing another block of posts. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

Speaking of comments, how useful and/or interesting have you found the guest posts in this space to be? Do you think it’s worthwhile continuing with them?