The most-successful blogs on the internet have multiple contributors. After all, how can you truly be the master site in your field with only the limited perspective of one person. The value added to your blog by empowering multiple contributors is well worth the trouble—but where do you start and how do you run it successfully?
Well, there are 3 main things you need to consider: your plan for hiring and managing contributors, your editorial guidelines, and the editorial flow that ties it all together. If you have a solid plan in place to manage the aforementioned details of your multi-author blog then your new stellar content will appear seamlessly across your entire site.
Finding and Managing your Contributors
If you already have your contributors in place, then half the battle is already done. If you don’t, then consider where you will find your new writers and editors. If you have a payment plan in place for contributors then find quality writers and editors on writer job boards like http://online-writing-jobs.com/ and http://jobs.problogger.net/ . If you are looking for volunteer writers and industry experts then you will have the best luck searching for people who participate in forums in your vertical—because these people are knowledgeable in your site’s field and they have a desire to contribute and show their expertise. Social networking sites—especially vertical-specific ones—are great places to find knowledgeable contributors. LinkedIn Answers works especially well in this respect. Keep in mind though that the better the writers you find the less effort you will need in the editing stage—so if you have amateur writers (which most volunteer writers are) then you will need talented editing staff on the back end.
Set your Editorial Guidelines
Setting up solid editorial guidelines will help your writes and editors get started on the ‘write’ foot. The better your guidelines, the more likely you are to receive the content you are looking for. Guidelines can be stricter for paid contributors, after all you want your money’s worth, but be more relaxed with volunteer writers and keep the overall tone friendly and uplifting.
Your editorial guidelines will include things like:
- Platform: where will your users be submitting their articles? The most common for blogs is WordPress, but Google Docs is another simple way to allow multiple-user access to texts.
- Writing Style: while every writing style is different you likely have an idea in mind about the overall tone of the site, this could be insightful, informative, comical, friendly, etc. Ensure that you convey this clearly to your writers in your guidelines.
- Formatting: EVERY writer formats things differently. Many format them poorly, especially amateur writers. In the formatting section include what font and colours you prefer. If you want a photo included in every article, include that in your guidelines (if you have specifics in mind about photos, ex. stock photos, personal photos, comics, etc—let your writers know this too).
- Payment: if you have paid contributors then you need to establish a regular payment cycle. Establish the details, like if they need to invoice you on the 15th and 30th of every month.
If you plan on having numerous editors in addition to many writers you will likely need to develop separate writers guidelines and editorial guidelines. If you create two, ensure that the content doesn’t overlap so you have two people trying to do the same task.
Editorial Flow
The more writers and editors you have the more complex your editorial flow will be. You will want to establish editorial flow early on. This will include how writers are assigned topics, how editors are assigned editing assignments, how re-writes are sent back to the writers, etc. These guidelines need to be clearly defined as early as possible, and they must be strictly adhered to in order to avoid confusion.
You must also clearly define your hierarchy. If a writer has a question do they ask the editors, you or someone else? You may want to install an internal messaging system within the blogging platform that allows for notifications and allows users to check the status of their assignments. With this tool you can also assign users into groups, have an editorial calendar, a place for editorial comments and feedback (remember: giving positive feedback is especially important for volunteer writers),
Tying It All Together
If you can implement the above three elements then creating and managing your multi-user blog will be significantly easier. Setting the standards and tone for your blog right from the beginning is essential to building a coherent blog that gains momentum and popularity.
For more tips on managing blogs, blogging platforms, and exceptional plugins, click here.
Robin Wilding is a professionally trained Canadian journalist striving to bring journalistic-era intergity to online media. She has a second degree in Political Science--with a focus on International Relations and the developing world. Currently Robin is a contributor to several technology publications, including Brajeshwar.com, SocialTechnologyReview.com, HostingIndustryWatch.com, AnimationCareerReview.com and CompareBusinessProducts.com. She also works for several web developers; and does ghost writing for several high level executives within the technology sector. Robin's work is showcased in her portfolio: http://shownd.com/robinwilding
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