On Guest Blogging

Is it me, or is the trend toward “Guest Blogging” about the most obnoxious thing to emerge from the blogosphere yet?

If you’ve got something to say, say it. If you don’t have anything to say, say nothing for awhile. It’s okay, your Constant Readers probably won’t unsubscribe unless you go completely silent for a couple of months. We all have busy times, or periods where we just need to take a break from blogging.

To those who think Guest Blogging is a great idea, please consider just posting some links to the potential guest’s blog. If I think what he or she has to say there is worthwhile, I’ll subscribe to it. Just don’t assume that because I subscribed to your blog that I want to get posts from someone else.

To those who have been Guest Bloggers — what benefit did you see from doing it? Any increase in readership? Any backlash?

I just don’t see the point. More specifically, I don’t see the benefit to the readers. The Guest Blogger concept seems invasive to the reader, as if the “opt-in” inherent in subscribing to a particular feed populated by one author has been violated by inviting another author to post without the reader’s consent.

Is this trend just a result of boredom by bloggers who’ve been at it for a long time? Or is there something else I’m missing?

Updated: I’m not the only one getting annoyed by this.