For me its the topic of this blog that keeps me entertained. “Helping Bloggers Earn Money” and I think with a number of bloggers what lost it for me was a lack of real direction there.

I’d personally prefer to see the old ProBlogger with occasional guest bloggers and possibly a seperate a fork blog for all the rest who wish to share in a ProBlogger community project. Something along the lines of Urban Vancouver multi blog/portal style.

I think it’s a combination of your voice or style, and the fact that you are always really on top of things in the blogging world. I know I’m going to find the latest news going on in the problogging world here, and I guess I’ve missed that a lot.

From a guest blogger’s perspective, I’ve really enjoyed my time as a guest blogger. The SEO Blog was a nice challenge because it kept me on my toes keeping an eye out for the latest SEO news, which was a bit harder than I thought it would be. So it was a good thing you had so many other guest bloggers there!

I have also really benefited from my time as a guest blogger on the Camera Reviews site. I found I was far more disciplined as a guest blogger on that site than I tended to be for most of my own blogs, and as a result, I’ve been far more productive on my own niche blogs. And it was a good experience searching for the latest information and news and writing them up on a timely basis. I also got to meet Chrispian, my fellow Camera Review blogger, and that was another benefit.

Re: Click through rate to ProBlogger
I honestly didn’t click through as much and I checked the feed a lot less often because it wasn’t you. I did find a few shining star posts which I commented on. All in all, I believe having the guest bloggers was a nice touch – but I’m in accordance that the number of guest bloggers to ProBlogger should have been less (maybe one or two). Once I got used to your writing style, coming back and seeing so many different “voices” seemed a little daunting to me.

Re: On being a guest blogger
Blogging is hard work :). With that said, I enjoyed the moments I spent researching and coming up with content, however, I noticed you didn’t have a way to “future date” posts on the blogs I was guest blogging for and that dampened my spirits a bit because I had planned a few articles that I wanted to have released over a period of days instead of all at that moment.

I also learned that I am a lot more cautious with someone else’s blog than I am with my own. I received a comment on one of my blog posts (which was unexpected). That got me thinking of the potentially spammy (but not overtly so) comments and I didn’t know whether I should edit them, delete them, or what I could do with them.

My final thoughts – guest blogging has been fun, lessons have been learned and ideas have been conceived :D.

As for the closed group feeling, sorry you felt that way. I have to say that most of the times I’m commenting here, I don’t know the people who have commented already so I just dive head first.

Blogging does require a lot of putting yourself out there in terms of your writing, personal info and etc. But I find that bloggers are very open to discussion and different views because it helps hone their skills.

Was a good experiment, and the final decision will be up to you. I think that your idea of having one or two guest bloggers by month could be a good choice.

All in all it was an excellent experience, and I would love to discuss my continued stay on Laptop Blog…whenever you have time.

Sad that Chris Pirillo never came and said hello, I was hoping to read his point of view on the whole thing.

I like the idea of having a guest blogger(s) on a regular basis. If it’s done right it would bring new voices in without losing your own…

However, the idea of inviting a guest blogger to “join you” for periods of time might be another interesting experiment. Perhaps even to see an active dialogue – of which PB founder was a part – would be intriguing.

Thanks to all for the thought-provoking posts. And good to have you back…almost. Enjoy the last leg of your trip, and the concert!

Think about it, would any of us have gotten to know one another or found each other’s blogs without Darren in a place of influence?

I’m glad this happend because I also got to see what Darren considered a good blog too and I believe it was a great thank you to those who have remained faithful to the craft of blogging or else Darren would never have asked/accepted you as a guest blogger.

All in all, maybe a mix is better?

I think this topic is just going to get bigger. I don’t know about letting us “temps” stay on here. I think most people are coming to hear your voice. But perhaps there is a another blog in the idea ;)

Whilst I’ve had a break from blogging this past few weeks I have done some serious thinking about my blogging business and have begun to map out some new directions and projects that I hope to start up in the upcoming months.

Your comments so far have been very helpful in considering a few of the ideas.

Keep them coming in.

If you have any suggestions on what you’d find helpful from ProBlogger I’d love to hear them also.

For an experiment, it was fine, but next time, I’d probably (as a reader) just prefer to see fewer posts, or nothing. Though I guess that wouldn’t be so good for the income stream…