While most blogs are written and mananged by a single person, more and more blogs, such as the Team Timex blog and The Huffington Post have multiple authors and contributors.

This poses some challenges for the blog (mostly in terms of the blog’s design and the way the posts display) because of the many cooks tending the soup. If you are publishing a blog with more than one author, you might need to be aware of these issues:

Work Balance
Some bloggers will be prolific with many stories, while others will not add more than one or two entries. This is probably OK, but you need to be aware that others’interest and writing abilities will effect how much production you’ll get from them. Reward your busy posters and prod your less ambitious ones.

Training
Let’s face it, most bloggers have another day job. This means that they need to be trained on how to use the blogging software or an external editor. While it may seem to you that writing posts are the same as writing a Word document, it often requires some technical training. Thankfully, becuase the WYSIWG editors are similar to Word, most training can be done with some simple documentation rather than costly in-person training.

Quality
Some bloggers are not writers. You’ll find that you might need to go back and edit what’s been written. Soon, you’ll be able to let them go by following your blog’s style guidelines. But before that, you might be challenged with managing these issues:

  • Images. Images are great to include with posts, but you need to be aware of copyright issues. Also, some images may be too big or placed strangely with the post, causing the design look less than professional.
  • Content. Encourage your bloggers to stick the niche they’ve been asked to write. You don’t want to read about their kittens if they were supposed to write about the moon.
  • Readability. Minimally, ask your bloggers to check their spelling and grammar. Even better is to have them make sure their posts are formatted with good paragraph breaks, proper HTML code, and that they are filed under the appropriate categories.

    • In Sum
    Team blogging is possible if you discuss expectations. When the team gels, the site will grow exponentially and – hopefully – your blog’s readership as well.